A figure or an imprint of some being or object are seen in the Moon. (For statistical analysis motifs A32A – A32J are also included into A32)
Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon
Person who carries a bundle of brushwood or firewood is seen in the moon.
Magic person reveals his true nature and/or remains with the real people after the object responsible for preserving the non-human appearance (usually an animal skin) is destroyed (usually burned)
Death (also Old Age, Disease, etc.) is a particular person not identical with the Master of the Dead. He kills people usually carrying away their souls
A man lures Death (Devil) to climb a tree or sit on a bench to which they are stuck and can free themselves not before the man gives them such a permission
A young woman is transformed into an animal, pushed into the water, into the underworld or she herself has to plunge into water (acquire animal form). Her connection with the human world is not completely lost, however, and usually she is helped to return to the people
Siblings (most often younger brother and elder sister) leave their home. One of them (most often the brother, most rare several brothers) turn into animal (usually an ungulate) or (rare) a bird but (in the most cases) ultimately acquires his or her human form again
Young man gets a girl who is inside of a fruit or (rare) a flower or an egg
Several companions have extraordinary abilities (one who runs fast, one who eats great quantities, one who produces or can withstand severe frost, etc.); a hero comes across and takes for companions several men, each of them being involved into a special and unusual activity
A girl (usually the youngest of several sisters) does not reject but marries a poor, sick, dirty, old, too young, non-human, etc. man who later demonstrates his supernatural qualities
A boy born into a family or found by his adoptive parents has a strange guise (ball of meat, nut, bag, half of a man, an animal). He possesses magic power, becomes a handsome man and usually marries a girl of high social status. The magic spouse of a princess originally has a non-human or monstrous appearance
Domestic animals abandon their masters. They find an empty house or build a house. Robbers or the predator animals come there. The domestic animals attack (or just frighten) them. The robbers (predators) do not understand who are their enemies, are scared and run away
Person is bewitched (transformed into a bird, faints) when a pin or other sharp object is stuck into her (rare his) body
A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again
Master of the house allows person to feel himself (herself) free bit not to look into particular place. The person breaks prohibition
A man is going to marry his daughter (rare: his stepdaughter; sometimes certain conditions are put on his future marriage and only his daughter complies with them). The girl gets to escape
Person kills girls (rare: his nephews or younger brothers of his wife) in succession (usually the male person kills his wives). The last of potential victims escapes, usually after finding remains of those who had been killed or imprisoned earlier
A small creature is reared up by people. When it is grown up, it becomes harmful and dangerous
Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed
An (animal) person gives a signal (special song, etc.) to his relative or friend who lets him or her in. Antagonist imitates the person's voice or guise and the relative lets him in
A predator animal (ogre, ogress) swallows people or animals. The goat (rare: the sheep) punishes him or her and usually saves the victims (most often opens the ogre’s belly open and the swallowed ones come out alive)
A cannibal (old man, Gipsy, etc.) carries away a girl. He walks from village to village forcing her sing or dance. People recognize her (or her voice) and release her
To take part in a feast or to visit God or celestial object, person ascends to the sky. To return, he either uses a rope but falls before reaching ground or jumps (falls) down from the sky and is badly hurt, dead, and/or transformed
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
Person or creature who has no wings or is unable to fly on a long distance attempts to ascend to the sky or to fly far away but falls down or, deprived of his wings, remains in a place from which he is unable to return
To demonstrate that the thief who had eaten food supplies is somebody else or to declare somebody else as a victim to be eaten up, animal person smears his sleeping companion with remains of the food or body excretions (exchanges the excretions)
An animal person (usually a fox or a jackal) threatens to cut down a tree on which mother bird (squirrel) made its nest unless she will throw down one of her nestlings (squirrel children) or eggs. Another bird lets the mother bird know that the predator is unable to realize his threat
It should be guessed the nature of a big animal or its skin, the content of a box. The correct answer is that the animal is a louse (or a flea), a louse is in the box
God originally gives 20 or 30 years to everybody. Some animals refuse some of their years because of their sufferings. Man wants to have more years and takes them from the animals
Trickster pretends to be dead, sick or weak and is picked up by those who carry something edible in a cart (sledge, boat, bag, etc.). The trickster secretly eats the food, often after throwing it out of the cart (sledge, etc.)
The wolf (lion, etc.) is going to eat a horse (mule, etc.). The horse asks him to look at his hoof (for different reasons) or eat him from his hindquarters forward; then he kicks him
Two animals (an animal and a person, an ogre and a person, etc.) agree to divide a crop in such a way that one would take what is above the ground and another what is beneath ground. One of them (several times makes a wrong choice (takes turnip tops and wheat roots)
Person or animal stays for a night and the next morning declares that his possessions (which value is none or negligible) are lost. Or other persons whom the trickster meets really use or spoil objects that the trickster gives them. Every time he receives in compensation objects or animals with ever bigger value, the last acquisition usually being a costly animal or a girl. (All texts with motifs M171A and M171C contain also the motif M171)
An animal person invites another and serves his food in such a way that he is unable to taste it. Then the other invites the first animal and puts him in similar situation
A slow and a fast animals (or not flying bird) agree to race. The slow one imperceptibly sticks to the fast one’s body (or to a vehicle) and getting to the finish pretends to come there simultaneously with the fast one or before him
Birds, animals or fish compete as about who is the fastest or can fly higher than others. A weak one imperceptible sticks to the body of the fastest or strongest and wins
Person or animal gets to exchange less valuable goods for ever more valuable. The last or the next to last one is a girl
A pretty, faithful wife is courted by one or several men, one of them usually a clergyman. With her husband’s consent, she invites the suitor(s) to a private rendezvous. Before the first man’s wishes are gratified, the next one arrives and then the husband himself. The suitor or suitors are caught in an uncomfortable position and then killed, punished in some other manner, ridiculed, made to pay ransom, to work, etc.
Fool follows instructions that were reasonable in every previous episode but become absurd in every next one
Because telling the truth a stupid son (wife, husband)) can bring misfortune upon the family, his mother (wife; her husband) mystifies him (her) making him or her describe events that are definitely impossible. People take him (her) for a fool and let alone.
Milky Way is the way of St. Jacob (the way to Santiago de Compostela, etc.)
Supernatural creature fulfills a poor man’s moderate request. After this he or his wife asks for ever bigger gifts till the angry helper punishes them (usually takes all his gifts away)
The servant is asked to prepare a goose (chicken, etc.), eats one leg and maintains that the goose had only one leg enforcing his point by showing geese who stand on one leg. The master shoots away the geese so that they use both legs. Usually the servant replies that if he had frightened the roasted goose, it would have showed its second leg as well
Two ungulate animals (rams, bull, etc.) run from the opposite directions and butt the wolf killing or injuring him
A man gives his last money for simple advices. Each of them saves his life or helps to achieve success or he does not follow the advices and gets into trouble
When a person is suggested to make something and simultaneously not to make it or to make it differently than it could be made at all (to come clothed and naked, with and without a gift, etc.), he or she finds the solution
Life of a man depends on an object that can be burned. He dies as soon as the object is burned
The riddle refers to extraordinary or accidental events that happened to the person setting the riddle, and thus is unsolvable to outsiders
Two men have a similar defect (a hump, a lump). One spends a night in a place where spirits free him from his defect. Another comes to the same place but spirits double his defect giving him what they had taken off from the first man
First one, then another man meets a powerful person or persons. The first man is worthy and rewarded with treasure, prestige or the like. The second man (or two men) follows him, behaves in a wrong way and is punished
Person eats a meal of eggs and leaves without paying. Some years later when he returns to pay his debt, the innkeeper claims the value of all chickens that would have hatched from the eggs in the meantime. On the day of the trial another person pretends to have cooked seeds for planting and the judge agrees that chicken could not be hatched from the boiled eggs
A man goes to sell a skin of domestic animal and on his way, by trick or thanks to chance, gets a big sum of money. Usually coming back he explains that this was the price of the skin but when other people kill their animals they cannot sell skins for such a sum. (In India the hero sometimes pretends to sold cow meat to brahmins for whom it is forbidden)
Person gets other person’s possessions by trick (or pretends to get it; usually another person is drowned instead of him) and then demonstrates his possessions (usually a herd) and explains that he had received everything at the river bottom. His enemies believe him
Person is put into a bag (a cage, tied up, etc.) to be drowned, burned, etc. He pretends to be in this situation by his own will or because he refuses to marry a princess, to become a chief and the like. Another person is willing to take his place and is killed
A woman should marry a man who would be able to make her laugh; a man promises a reward to the person who make laugh his wife or mother
Person or animal gets access to values that are inside an animal, a tree, a rock or other enclosure. Later he himself or more often somebody else tries to do the same but destroys source of values, blocks access to it or makes it too dangerous
Chief of thieves (demonic person) brings his men (other demons) into some people’s yard hiding them in empty jars, casks, etc. The plan to kill members of the household at night. A girl (a young woman; rare: somebody else from the family) gets to know about the danger and kills the thieves one by one (usually pouring boiling water into the jars)
Animal person covers his head with a milky substance or dough and convinces another that he has been so badly injured that his brains are coming out
After eating a fish, the sterile woman gives birth to a son or twins
To have children, a woman eats a fish, apple or something else. A mare, a bitch or other domestic animals eat part of this food (often skin, broth, etc.). The woman gives birth to a boy (twins) a mare to colts, a bitch to puppies
Killing a monster or an animal, the hero cuts of and hides a piece of its body, usually a tongue. (In most of the cases, the imposter claims the deed to himself and when he cannot demonstrate the cut off piece, the hero unmasks him)
After a series of adventures and victories, the hero gets into trouble. His twin brother or the best friend follows his traces, gets across the same persons but overcomes the last enemy and revives (liberates) the hero
When a person is suggested to make something and simultaneously not to make it or to make it differently than it could be made at all (to come clothed and naked, with and without a gift, etc.), he or she finds the solution
Using a magic object or spell, hero makes people (and animals) attached to the object or to each other
A demonic being swallows a multitude of people and animals. When it is killed and cut open, the swallowed ones come out alive or are revived
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
A big predator is eager to see a man. He comes across a boy but gets to know that he will be a man later, then an old person who is not a man anymore. The encounter with the real man (hunter, soldier) has for the animal the unpleasant consequences
Hair of the head of a person turns into grass (thorns, bamboo, shrub)
An object or a creature that emerged from remains, decorations, etc. of a killed person tells about his or her fate. Usually a reed grows from the person's grave and a pipe made from the reed tells the story
A demonic woman or (rare) her paramour or a monster is going to kill a man usually after driving him up a tree. At the last moment the man's dogs or other animals or birds who are the man's pets come and kill the demon
Grain is harvested with inappropriate tools. Seeing sickle for the first time, people take it for a dangerous animal
Person gets to a country where rats or mice are a plague and receives a fortune selling a cat
A weak and timid man or boy overcomes accidentally powerful enemies and gets high esteem
To lure his potential victim down from a tree, a predator pretends not to be dangerous (usually announces that it has been decreed that all animals are united in piece). The victim is dubious and usually asks the predator to announce the same news to the dogs. The predator runs away
When an aged father is banned from the table and served his meals in a wooden cup by his son and his daughter-in-law, the little grandson starts to build a similar cup for his parents to use when they grow old. Thereupon the couple starts to reflect on their undignified behavior. Thinking of their own old age, they bring the old father back to the family table (previously type 980B). A son gives his father half a blanket (carpet, cape, cloth) to keep warm. Thereupon the little grandson keeps the other half of the blanket and explains that he will save it for his parents for when they are old (previously type 980A.). An aged father is abandoned by his son in the wilderness (abyss) in a cart (sledge, basket). The grandson keeps it in order to use it in the same way for his parents when they have grown old. They reflect on their behavior. (previously type 980C). The ungrateful son drags his old father out of the house. At the threshold the father says, "Do not drag me further; I dragged my own father only this far!". The son reflects on his bad behavior
Person of a low social position (a man) makes an agreement with a person of high social position (an ogre) that the master must never become angry with the servant. The servant abuses the master until the latter erupts in anger and has to be severely punished or to pay a great fee
Person agrees that under certain conditions another may rip off some skin from his back or cut off his ears, nose, etc.
Person buries a tail or head of a bull or other domestic animal with a tail or horns outside. He explains that the animal sank into the ground and usually asks the others to pull the tail (horns). When they are “torn off”, he tells that people are guilty of the animal being lost
Person accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes
Two men travel or argue about whether truth or falsehood (justice or injustice, etc.) is more powerful. The evil one abandons the good one robbing or blinding (maiming) him but the good one gets back his sight and becomes rich. The evil one usually perishes
To cure a sick person or to save a household from misfortunes a toad or frog hidden in the house should be killed or removed
A cow (donkey, ox, etc.) is taken to the roof to graze grass that was grown there. Or the wife is raised with a rope on her neck
A small bird or animal (chicken, cat, mouse, etc.) takes a trivial event (a leaf or an acorn falls, etc.) for a catastrophe (a war, the end of the world, the fall of the sky, etc.) and flees. Other animals share its fear and go along with it.
Fools carry sunlight (darkness, smoke) in bags, sieves, etc. and carry it into the room or out of it
Antagonist names numbers from one to seven or nine, every time asking what it is. The hero gives answers that the antagonist accepts as correct ones.
A man (a boy) drives his cow (or any other domestic animal of a big size) to market. A trickster who would like to buy the animal cheaply tries to convince him that it is a sheep (or any other smaller and cheaper animal). Trickster’s accomplices confirm his opinion and the man sells his cow for the price of a sheep
As soon as a person plays his flute (fiddle, horn, etc.), people and animals become to dance and cannot stop without the person’s permission
A liquid which usually should not be used for drinking or cooking once is used for these purposes. A person who is told that this liquid is neither from the earth must guess what is the source of this liquid
The thief drops first one, then the other, of a pair of matched objects (shoes, boots, sword and sheath, knife and folk) in the road. A person passes by the first object but, when he sees the second, he goes back for the first, leaving the animal (or other possessions) behind. The thief takes the animal
A reptile monster demands humans (usually virgins) as a sacrifice or abducts a girl or closes sources of water. Hero kills him. Monster’s victims do not play an active part in the plot
A youth who does not know what fear is tries various frightful experiences without becoming afraid
A young woman promises to bear a wonderful children (wonderful son). In her husband's absence other people (co-wives, mother-in-law, etc.) try to kill the mother and/or the child, usually slandering the young woman
Person is eager to get a child (spouse) who would be likened to blood and snow (milk)
To get rid of a young man, his female antagonist uses a stratagem. She tells his sister (rare: tells directly him) about some wonderful objects and the girl is overcome with the desire to have them. An attempt to obtain these objects entails a risk for one’s life. The youth sets off to obtain the objects
Powerful person listens in conversation of three (rare: two or four) women. Each of them tells what she would do if the person marries her. One promises to bear his son (children) who would have wonderful qualities, two others promise to practice some kind of work or (more rare) marry people of lower status
A man is not wise enough to answer questions put by a king (prince, etc.). His servant or friend takes his place and guise and gives clever answers. Usually one of the questions is like “What I think now?” and the answer, “You think that you speak with the abbot (minister, etc.) but I am a shepherd (a miller, etc.)
In order to delay a wedding with an undesirable suitor (her own brother or father, a monster), a girl asks him to give her a dress (often three dresses in succession) of unusual material (like gold, of fly wings, etc.). He does it but the girl runs away
A man discovers that a beautiful girl hides herself under a guise of an ugly and dirty servant, under a skin of an animal or in an object that is brought into his house
An elder man and a boy travel with one donkey (horse). They try all possible ways but are always blamed (a man rides on the donkey and the boy walks; the boy on the donkey and the man walks; both on the donkey; both walk or they carry the donkey).
Person who gets to walk under, over or through the rainbow changes his or her sex
A fool does not know how to pull on his breeches (boots) and jumps down into them from a high place
A weaker person asks the stronger one to take present to his or her kin and hides himself or herself in a bag. The stronger one brings the bag to the weaker one's relatives thinking that there are but some objects inside. Usually a girl deceives the ogre into carrying her sisters and then herself in a sack (chest) back to their home
Person who holds some object in his or her hands is seen in the moon (rare: in the sun)
Person gets to see a lot of burning candles or lamps. As soon as one of them goes out, somebody dies
The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman
A girl or young woman sets off to find or return her fience or her husband or she escapes from a fanger and ultimately marries happily
A fool or a buffoon takes the door of the house and carries it on his back
Описывается или изображается чудовище (обычно змей) о семи головах. При перечисления существ по мере возрастания у них числа голов ряд заканчивается на семи
Being (any besides birds) with more than ten heads or with odd (but more than one) number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. If beings with ever more number of heads are named, the row ends with a being that has odd (or more than ten) number of heads
Being smart and persistent, the turtle (toad, frog) overcomes strong adversaries
Persons who are dangerous for the hero (demons, robbers, merchants) take for something pleasant and edible those objects, creatures or matters (excrements, snakes, insects, etc.) that are disgusting (not edible)
To make himself unrecognizable by the victim, a predator or ogre demonstrates clothes, limb, etc. that look like clothes or limb of his victim's mother, etc.
Hostile women substitute baby of the newly made mother with an animal or an object (inform the baby’s father that his wife has given birth to an animal or an object)
The (step)mother kills or orders to kill her small (step)son, eats him or feeds his flesh to her husband. The son revives, usually in the form of a bird who tells about the crime.
For minor offence or because of false accusation a young girl or woman is maimed and expelled from home (rare: killed or she kills herself). The maimed person magically obtains her body integrity (the dead revives)
When the head of the household goes for a journey his daughter, those who remain at home ask to bring them presents. The elder ones want something practical (usually clothes or decorations) while the younger one asks for something unusual (a flower, a bird, etc.). Thanks to this object, the younger one attains great success though after overcoming great difficulties
Person of a small size (often a chicken) overcomes powerful adversary despite all attempts to destroy him thanks to objects and animals met on the way and preserved in his bag or inside his body
One-sided people have one leg and/or also one arm, one half of a head, etc. The second leg is not cut or burned off, preserved as a stump but is absent completely
Person with half of a body is a chicken (sometimes only by name)
Person who swallowed his prey alive falls asleep and does not feel anything when his belly is cut and the prey is replaced with stones
One of (step)sisters, co-spouses or young female neighbors meets a being that is able to reward and to punish. She behaves herself properly and is rewarded. Another (other) girl comes to the same being but behaves in a wrong way and is punished (not rewarded).
Wolf (more rare other predator animal) comes to different (more than two species) domestic animals (animals and people) to eat them but agrees to fulfill their requests and remains without his meal and usually becomes beaten (killed)
An (ostensibly) sick (ugly, weak, poorly clad) person remains at home when others go to the feast. The person comes by himself or herself looking like a handsome man or beautiful girl. The man (woman) does not recognize him (her) and feels against her (him) sexual interestю (All texts with motif k57, Chinderella, are also included into f62)
A girl who conceals her beauty and/or is poor and oppressed by her stepmother puts on a splendid attire and comes incognito to a feast where a man of high status falls in love with her. He marries her after identifying her by an object given to her or lost by her or (rare) seeing how she changes her clothes
The bear (lion) takes a woman for sexual partner or the she-bear takes a man. They have children who look like humans or bear cubs. More rare the woman gives birth to her son in the bear den because being abducted by the bear she was pregnant
A person (often a fool or buffoon) drops a (heavy) object from a tree. Those who are under the tree (usually robbers or demons) are frightened and run away abandoning their goods and valuables
The bargain between two persons is to end when a bird whose call is related to particular time of a temporal cycle will be heard. In order to hasten the contract’s end, another person imitates the bird. The first one recognizes the trick
Person gets to know that the heroine has broken his or her prohibition to enter a certain room because the corresponding evidence is preserved on her body or on an object given to her (e.g. the blood on the key)
The (adopted) human child of a bear has superhuman strength
A man gets to see dwarfs (ghosts, witches) who dance and sing. They mention some days of the week in their song. The man joins the singing and mentions other days of the week which the dwarfs like. He receives a reward. (Usually another man tries to receive the same reward but mentions days of the week which the dwarfs do not like and is punished
Some person makes a wish not taking in mind that his words can have other meaning or accidentally replacing one word with another. As a result, something quite undesirable takes place
A guard (courtier) agrees to open a man an access to a powerful person after a promise to share with him the expected reward. The man asks to be bitten (from the very beginning expected the punishment)
Each of three brothers carry to the princess some fruits (rare: fish, etc.).
She will marry a man whose fruits are better (more numerous) or can cure her. On their way two brothers treat roughly a person who possesses supernatural power and are punished while the youngest brother is polite and rewarded. He (after additional tests) marries the princess
Two animal persons work their land together and agree to share the profits. While one is working hard, another only pretends to be useful but claims for himself (greater) part of the harvest
Hero climbs up (e.g. to a tree) or down (e.g. into a deep cave) by ladder, rope, from branch to branch, etc. The rope etc. breaks or is intentionally destroyed and the hero cannot return to the ground. (All cases of motif K2A, besides the Koreans, also contain motif K2)
Hero is sent to the lower world though a well, precipice, etc. After he obtains valuables (young women), his envious companions cut the rope to get rid of him but he succeeds in returning back
Person called Poverty makes Death to promise him/her that he, the Death, will never come to him. Because of this poverty cannot be eradicated
An object possessed by a girl (woman) is nice (useful) for her but getting to somebody’s hands it becomes harmful (dangerous)
The heroine’s rival transforms her into a dove. The dove makes attempts to contact her children or husband
When a man is dying, he leaves his son (each of his sons) something that does not have any significant value. The son comes to a country where the corresponding object or animal is unknown and sells it for great money
When a man sets off for the journey, his daughter asks him to bring her a certain flower (leave, etc.). The man picks it up in a garden of the enchanted prince who has monstrous appearance. The monster claims from the man his daughter and thanks to her acquires his real guise
Young man gets a girl who is inside a fruit the citrus tree, usually an orange
Young man obtains several (usually three) fruits (eggs, pieces of reed). When he opens the first one, a girl who comes out from it immediately disappears because something was wrong (usually the drinking water for her is not available). Only the girl who has come out of the last fruit remains with the man. Cf. motif k33c7
A man travels with his wife or daughter. Another woman or a demonic person replaces her when the man goes away for a short time or (rare) falls asleep