Linked Motifs

Motif	Name	Description
a1	The old sun	Another sun, usually less benevolent and/or powerful, existed before the present one
a11b	One-eyed luminaries	The Sun or the Moon is one-eyed (usually another eye was knocked or sucked out but sometimes this defect is not explained
a14a	The conflict between the Sun and the Moon	The Sun and the Moon are or were enemies, either permanently or in particular situations
a23c	Who will fly higher?	Birds argue who of them will fly higher. One who seemed to have less chances wins (he hides himself in feathers of a strong bird using it as a vehicle)
a3	Male sun and female moon	The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
a32	Figure on lunar disc	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)
a32c1	Predator animal in the Moon	A predator animal (fox, wolf, dog, coyote, jaguar, lion) or its imprint is seen in the Moon
a32d	Man in the Moon	Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon
a32d1	Cain and Abel in the Moon	Cain and Abel are related to the Moon, usually are seen (both or Cain only) in the shadows of the lunar disc
a32dd	Firewood-carrier in the moon	Person who carries a bundle of brushwood or firewood is seen in the moon.
a32e	Person with an object in hands	Person who holds some object in his or her hands is seen in the moon (rare: in the sun)
a32h	The Moon plant	A tree or bush is seen in the moon
a35	Spots on the lunar disc	Dark spots on the lunar disc are dirt, blood, paint, traces of beating, burning, scratching, etc. on the Moon person's body or face (Kiliwa: spots on the Sun) and do not form any particular figure
a35a	Dirty face of the Moon	Spots on the lunar disc are dirt thrown into the Moon's face by his/her sister/brother or mother
a39a	Twelve months	Each of calender units (usually the months) that make the year is a separate object or person
a45	The insulted Moon	Person who teases or insults the Moon is punished
a4a	The Sun dazzles eyes	Modest Sun-woman dazzles (usually pricks with needles, i.e. the sun rays) eyes of those who look at her
a5	The Sun and the Moon are males	The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
b104a	Meat springs as toad on the face of an ungrateful son	A couple (son) intends to eat a roasted chicken (meat). When the man’s old father passes by unexpectedly, they hide the chicken in order not to share it with him. When the old man continues on his way and they replace the chicken on the table, it has turned into a toad (snake) and humps onto the son’s face where it stays until his death
b109	Person turns into bear	Person turns into a bear (origin of bears)
b113	Bottoms of women and knees of men	Because of certain events of the time of creation, the women’s bottom and the men’s knees (or vice versa) are cold
b117	The dogs' certificate	The animals (usually dogs) got a certificate which was lost because of the cat (is swallowed by the cat, burned, eaten by mice). Since them dogs and cats are enemies, usually also cats and mice
b15	River from woman’s body	A river flows from the body of a female person
b16c	Salt-grinding mill	Magic mill is ordered to grind salt but not ordered to stop. It sinks into ocean and continues to work making the water salty
b33a	Person dies of cold in the spring	When it becomes warm, a person or animal (bird) decides that the winter is over (most often an old woman goes to graze her animals) but dies of cold or the animals that had been deiven to the pasture die
b33a1	The offended March	Person or animal, bird teases, offends March or other month and are punished
b33c	The borrowed days	When the winter ends and the spring begins certain month (usually March) borrows (rare buys, steals) several days from a neighbor month
b33d	The old woman of winter	Old woman is incarnation of winter, is associated with snow, or there are several cold days between winter and spring (or fall) associated with a certain old woman
b33f	Night that unwinds her yarn	Thanks to activity of a person (usually the old woman who winds or unwinds yarn, threads, etc.), the night and the day alternate with each other
b33f1	Mistress of night and day	Committing particular acts, an (old) woman defines alternation of night and day
b33f2	In search of the fire, hero ties up an old woman	At night, the fire fades away, and the hero goes in search of it. On his way, he ties up an old woman or an old man (usually, they are responsible for the duration of night and day)
b33h	The mother of the Sun	The Sun has the mother who shares with him (rare: her) his dwelling place
b42p	Ursa major is a bear	Ursa major is identified with a bear
b42q	Ursa major is a carriage	Ursa major is identified with a carriage, a cart
b46	Big Dipper is seven men	Every one of the seven main stars of the Ursa mayor is a an adult man
b46a1	Stars of Big Dipper are robbers	Stars of Big Dipper are thieves robbers
b46b	Seven star sisters	Every one of the seven main stars of the Ursa major is a female person
b46c	Big Dipper is seven persons or animals	Every main star of the Big Dipper is interpreted as a particular person or animal
b50	Whose blood is sweeter?	An insect feeds on human blood (flesh). Dangerous person asks it where it had sucked blood or whose blood (flesh) is the most delicious. Usually the insect lies or cannot answer (its tongue is cut off) and thanks to this dangerous person attacks certain plants or animals and not people
b77	Primeval sky close to earth	Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up
b86	Babylonian tower	To reach the sky (the Sun, Moon, particular star), people build a ladder or tower that consists of separate modules (bricks, logs, sticks, etc.). This construction collapses
b87	Alcor	Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object
b87b	A harnessed wolf	Big Dipper is a cart with a harnessed wolf or bear. Usually it is explained that the handle of the Big Dipper is not straight because a wolf or a bear (identified with Alcor or with the last star of the handle, η) attacked an ox that was dragging a cart and was harnessed instead of it
b87d	Alcor is a baby	Alcor (a weak star near Mizar, the second star of the Big Dipper’s handle) is a baby
b90	Master of wolves	There is an anthropomorphic patron or patroness of wolves. Usually he or she gives instructions to wolves on particular day of the year
c24	The world in danger of falling down	A tree or pillar supports the sky or the earth. If it collapses, people perish
c30a	A pound of flesh	A contract entitles the lender of a sum of money to cut a certain amount of flesh (or eye, head, limb, etc.) from the debtor’s body if the load is not repaid in time. The lender cannot cut out the flesh being unable to fulfill a condition that looks logical but is practically absurd
d4aa	Moth tries to steal fire from people	Moths try to steal fire which the people posess
e11	The burned skin	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)
e31	False Pygmalion	Man makes a wooden doll and pretends that it is alive. Really it is not or it is half-alive. A real woman takes place of a doll, marries the master
e31a	Creators and rescuers of a girl	Several men take part in rescuing, creation or reanimation of a girl (rare: a bird) or several women take part in the reanimation of a dead man or they differetly express their grief. It is asked whose role was crucial (who behavior more noble) and/or who should be the spouse of the reanimated person. Or three men make something valuable and it is asked whose role in the corresponding enterprise was more important
e31a1	Three men construct a woman which becomes alive: to whom does she belong?	Three (rare two or four) men take part in creation of a girl: one cuts her body of wood, another puts clothes on her, the third one makes her alive. To whom does she belong?
e31c	Rescuers of an abducted girl	Every one of several men had learned a unique skill thanks to which they save a girl abducted by demon or animal
e8c	Woman hides in a chip	A woman hides in a chip of wood (in a twig) that was brought to house and comes out when nobody is nearby
e9	The mysterious housekeeper	Person observes traces of some activity that takes place in his (rare: her) house in his (her) absence and then takes by surprise the responsible one
e9o	Frog or toad-wife	Man marries frog- or toad-woman
f101	The rival woman tries to prevent the heroine to give birth	Using magic, the rival woman tries to prevent the heroine to give birth
f2	Pregnant limb	Child is born from a tumor or swelling on person's body (on thigh, knee, finger, etc.) or is temporarily placed there or child grows from blood that flew out from a cut
f3	A man eats woman’s pregnancy medicine	A man gives birth after accidentally eating pregnency medicine. The child appears from a swelling on his leg or otherwise but the man remains alive
f3a	The pregnant man	A man carries a child like a woman
f51	The clandestine lover	Person who conceals his or her identity comes to his or her lover (at night). Next time, the lover puts a mark on the stranger's face, body or clothes doing this intentionally (to recognize him or her) or by chance (that leads to the identification)
f54	Oedipus	A young man and a woman (Konkani: a young girl and a man) marry and later get to know that they commited incest
f54e	Unintentional killing of father	A young man kills somebody and later gets to know that ut was his father
f62	Incognito at the feast	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)
f7	The underwater-maiden	Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
f70e	A girl turns into a man	A girl poses as a man, her sex is magically transformed and the man is happily married
f70e1	A daughter instead of a son	An old man needs a son to accomplish a man’s work or service. (Only the youngest) daughter sets to do it (successfully passing her father’s test and) guised as a man
f71	Susan and the old men (the innocent slandered maiden)	An innocent girl or young woman rejects a man who attempts to seduce her. The man accuses her of loose conduct, ultimately the truth comes to light
f86	Conditional signal	Person summons with a certain signal a non-human being (usually his or her sexual partner or his or her protégé). Another person spies, uses the same signal or pronounces the same words and kills the being who comes to him (or uses this being sexually himself)
f9g	Brunhilde	A strong woman overcomes and kills suitors. Hero or his helper tames her (usually whips in the wedding night). The hero marries her
g8	Restored tree	A deep notch in the tree (or in the sky support) is magically restored as soon as persons or creatures who cut or gnaw it stop working
g8b	Cutting tree to get a person	Person hides in a tree. Somebody tries to fell it but the notch disappears and the tree becomes intact
g8d	Falling or growing up of a tree is dangerous to the world	To save the world (gods, king, etc.) certain persons or creatures try to cut or gnaw a tree (post, mountain) or do not permit the others to do. The notch disappears and the tree (post, etc.) becomes intact
g8e	Cutting the Moon tree	Person tries to cut down the tree in the Moon but the notch disappears and the tree becomes intact
h16a	Rivers of blood	Rivers (lakes) of blood (also of puss, bones, sweat or water used for washing of corpses) are mentioned in narratives (in different context)
h18	Hoarded game released	Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world
h24	Container opened too early	Container with valuables or with dangerous creatures is opened (before time). Its content goes out of control or disappear
h24	Container opened too early	Container with valuables or with dangerous creatures is opened (before time). Its content goes out of control or disappear
h25	To choose life or death	People are suggested to choose one of two objects, associated with life and death. They choose the object with death
h33	Walking babies	Children walked or could walk from the very birth but this ability was lost or never obtained
h4	The shed skin	Those who change their skin become young again
h45	The abused bread	A woman or child demonstrate no respect for bread soiling it with excrements. For this God punishes all the humanity
h54	The eyelids of Viy	Eyelids (eyelashes, eyebrows) of personage hang long down over his eyes. To make the eyes widely opened, the eyelids (eyelashes, eyebrows) should be propped up with poles, folks, sticks, etc. (rare: cut off)
h54a	The old man’s hair-cut	Person comes across an old man (woman) whose face is completely covered with hair or snot. He or she cuts the hair (wipes the snot off) and receives compensation for his or her good deed
h55	Sinners in other world	Person who visits the other world gets to see different people punished or rewarded according to their behavior when they were alive on earth
h55b	The robber who repents his misdeeds	A man who has visited hell (met the God) tells the robber about tortures prepared for him in the future. The robber accepts this news with resignation, does penance and ultimately is saved. Usually a hermit who decides that God is unjust in this case is punished
h6a	People and plants	Mortal humans are contrasted with (almost) immortal trees that shed their bark, become green again after winter sleep or propagate by sprouts
h6b	The life-medicine spilled on plants	The life-medicine is accidentally spilled not on men but on plants which become evergreen, capable for regeneration or producing fruits
h6c	The immortal raven	Raven is associated with death or contrasted with people as an immortal with mortals (is sent to the medicine of immortality; drinks itself water of immortality; gives instructions concerning funeral rites; etc.)
h6d	Stolen immortality	Person brings a remedy that gets immortality. While he is asleep or absent, somebody else steals the remedy
h7	The personified Death	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
h7a	The Death and a doctor	Man receives from Death (Fortune, some spirit) knowledge will the patient recover or die. He becomes a doctor and receives rich rewards. Usually he gets the ability to see Death near the bed of a patient and considering a particular place where Death stands, gets to know perspectives of recovering
h7b	The Death is stuck to a tree or a bench	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
h7c	The unfinished prayer	Death promises to take a man after he has finished a prayer. The man begins to pray but does not finish his prayer and the Death cannot take him
h7g	The life candle	Person gets to see a lot of burning candles or lamps. As soon as one of them goes out, somebody dies
i100	The Pleiades are girls	The Pleiades are a group of girls or women (with children)
i100b	The Pleiades are a group of people	The Pleiades are any people (of any ages and sex, combined data of i99-i100a)
i108	The Pleiades are a person	The Pleiades are only one anthropomorphic being, not several persons
i110	Night sky agriculturalists	Constellation are interpreted as agricultural tools or people occupied with agricultural works (mostly ploughing and haymaking)
i110a	The star plough	Orion (rare: other constellation) is a plough
i110b	Orion is mowers	(Belt of) Orion is (three) mowers or agricultural tools related to mowing and harvesting
i114	The golden fleece	A ram (lamn, sheep) who has golden fleece or the skin of such a ram is described
i124	Ursa major is a boat	Ursa major is a boat
i13a	The horned serpent	Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head
i141	The magic stick	A stick is a tool to initiate processes which results have no rational explanation
i20	The undeground dwarfs	Race of dwarfs lives under the ground (deep under the earth or in hills and rocks) or at the horizon where the earth and the sky meet
i20c	Dwarfs live in the underworld	Dwarfs live in the underworld that somewhat reminds the world of humans. If the dwarfs and the humans meet, it is deep under the earther
i22	Objects in permanent movement	There are objects which remaining on the same place are moving permanently or periodically (meet and part. rise and fall down, shut and open, rotate)
i22c	A plank from the stern of Argo	Person succeeds in getting through the opening which is going to bang shut but the stern of his boat, the tail of an animal or a bird, the body of his horse, or his own heel is flatterned, torn off, etc.
i22d	Water of immortality behind clashing rocks	To get a wonderous medicine that revives (cures) living beings, one must go between clashing rocks
i22f	Clashing trees	Person must go beyond relatively small objects (trees, logs, blades) which are incessantly clashing and parting, rising and falling
i22g	Clapping rocks	There are mountains or rocks which permanently collide and separate again from each other or a crack (jaws) in a vertical cliff which is opening and closing
i25	The bribed guards	Way to the place of a certain person is guided by dangerous creatures (which often stand on the both sides of the pathway). Person placates them by gifts or nice talk, and they let him or her go the both ways, sometimes being punished for this by their master
i25a	Bones to cows	Person sees that food put for certain animals is inedible for them and corrects situation (usually gives to herbivorous animals food that was given before to predators and vice versa)
i25c	To name bloody river the river of vine	On her or his way to the destination, person (on his or her way back) names dangerous or repulsive objects and beings beautiful and nice, thus securing their loyalty
i3	Weapon of Thunder	The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
i38	The dog-heads	Some beings are half-men and half-dogs (usually anthropomorphic with heads of dogs)
i39	Rainbow road or bridge	Rainbow is a road, a bridge or a ladder
i4	Thunder rides in the sky	Thunder is heard when a vehicle moves in the sky
i40	Rainbow bow	Rainbow is a bow
i45b	Not to point at the rainbow	It to point at the rainbow, pointing finger or entire arm will rot, wither or become crooked
i46	Rainbow belt	Rainbow is the ornamented part of the clothes, its decoration, a belt
i46a	Old woman’s rainbow	Rainbow is associated with an old woman
i46b	Rainbow predicts future harvest	Intensity of particular colors of rainbow predicts good or bad harvest of particular crops
i51a	Bull the earth-holder	Big mammal supports the earth
i59	Milky Way is spilled straw	Milky Way is a trace of people who spilled on their way something related to agriculture (straw, chaff, hay, more rare flour, peas)
i59a	Thief in the sky	Astral objects or lunar spots are associated with a story of a stealing and the value of the stolen objects is low (straw, firewoods, cabbage, etc.)
i61a	Milky Way is a belt	Milky Way is the belt of the sky
i62	Milky Way is a river	Milky Way is a sky river, water body, chain of beings that swim
i68	Opening of the sky	On a certain moment, a crack, a window or the like opens in the sky vault (rains flows though it, the upper world is seen, communication with inhabitants of the upper world becomes possible)
i68b	Night of the fulfilled wishes	In a certain night of the year any wish that was thought of or voiced is fulfilled
i72	Stars are people	Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
i82a	Venus is male	Morning and/or Evening Star is a male personage
i82b	Venus is female	Morning and/or Evening Star is a female personage
i82d	Morning and Evening stars are a man and a woman	Morning and Evening stars are opposed as a man and a woman or vice versa
i82g	Venus is the star of the shepard	Venus or other bright star (Arcturus, Sirius, etc.) is the star of the shepard (herdsman, swine-herd, etc.)
i87a2	What is Two?	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.
i87ad	Hidden in a hollow tooth	A giant hides the pursued man in his moith – usually (or always) in a hollow tooth; or a man survives after getting into the giant's mouth hiding himself in a hollow tooth
i89	The lost caravan	There is an evil star or constellation that brings death and misfortune; usually travelers mistake at night some star for Morning Star, set off, take a wrong direction and perish or get into trouble
i8e1	Four supports of the world	The sky or the earth rests upon four or five (cardinal points and the center) supports of any kind (poles, mountains, giants)
i8f	One support of the world	Only one pole or mountain supports the earth or the sky
i92	Rainbow transforms sex	Person who gets to walk under, over or through the rainbow changes his or her sex
i92a	Jump over the rainbow	Anyone who jumps or steps over the rainbow will change his or her sex
i92b	Treasure under the rainbow	There is a treasure under the extremities of the rainbow
i95a	Orion is a balance	Orion is a balance, scales
i95c	Orion is a staff	Orion is a staff, a crook
i98a	The Pleiades are a hen with its chickens	The Pleiades are a brooding hen, hen with its chickens, chickens
j32	To identify the night thief	Some valuables (foals, hay, apples, etc.) are regularly stolen. Nobody (the elder brothers) is able to catch the thief and only the hero (the younger brother) finds who it is
j32a	To guard father’s grave	Before passing away a man asks his sons to guard his grave for a certain time or to bring something to his grave. The youngest son goes and obtains valuables
j32b	Night was made long	To have enough time for realizing his plans, hero makes the night longer changing behavior of the person or creature responsible for the day cycle
j32c	Demon comes to harm to the dead	At night a demonic person comes to the tomb to harm the dead
j32f	The stolen apples	Being on guard, the hero gets to know who steals regularly fruits (usually apples) from the garden
j42	Waters split apart	When person comes to the water body, waters are split apart so the person reaches the other bank walking on the dry ground
j47a	Beanstalk to the sky	A plant (usually not a tree in nature and often a leguminous) grows in no time and person climbs by it to the sky
j62	People turned into stones	Person transforms people who come to him or her into inanimate objects, usually stones
j62c	Sister asks her brother to obtain impossible	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
k100	A faithful servant	A man gets to know about dangers that threaten another man (and often about turning into stone of anybody who would warn about these dangers). He helps the man to escape the dangers though his behavior seems strange or hostile
k100b	A grateful dead	A young man helps to bury a man (pays the debts of the dead man, honors a saint). When the young man sets off for a journey, the grateful dead (the saint) in guise of a stranger becomes his protector
k100f1	The wild man	A man (usually a king) catches a strange (anthropomorphic) creature. His son frees the prisoner, is afraid of his father’s anger and leaves home or is driven away. The released prisoner helps him
k101	Night dances of girls	Every morning girl' or (rare) boy’s clothes are in disorder, the boy looks very tied. People spy on her (or on him) and discover that she or he spends nights in the non-human world
k101a	The princess in the coffin	A man has to send several nights near the girl who died and became a dangerous demonic being. After this the girl is disenchanted
k102	Woman associated with the hero conspires in favor of his enemy	A woman who initially is friendly to the hero (his mother, sister, more rare his wife, sexual partner) begins to cooperate with his enemy. For this she provokes the hero to do something that is mortally dangerous for him
k102a2	Conflict between mother and son	Mother tries to kill her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair
k102a5	To fill a vessel with tears	A woman must fill a vessel or two with her teas (rare: blood). Usually after this the time of her punishment will come to the end or the punishment depends on which of the vessels will contain more tears
k103	Helpful cow	Cow (ox, bull) helps an orphan child or a young woman who got into trouble
k103a	Tree raises its branches	A plant (tree, vine, lotus) that has grown up rapidly does not let anybody besides the hero or the heroine to climb it or to pick its fruits (flowers)
k107	Lost husband found	A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again
k107a	Iron shoes to be worn out	Wandering to the purpose of her or his travel person has to worn out her or his iron shoes or staff
k107a1	Head of the household is asked to bring presents	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
k107a3	The beauty and the beast	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
k107a4	Daughter asks to bring magic bridegroom	When a man sets off for the journey, his daughter asks him to bring her an object or creature which is the incorporation of the magic bridegroom. The man does not understand what does it mean
k107b	Not to light a candle	One of the spouses prohibits another to see him or her. When the other breaks the taboo (intentionally or by chance) the first one disappears (is in trouble)
k107c	Knives on the windowsill (the prince as bird)	Magic bridegroom who comes as bird or other guise and then changes into a man meets regularly with a young woman. Her jealous sisters (stepmother, brother, etc.) wound him (usually putting knives of broken glass around the window). He disappears, the girl goes to find him.
k107d	The girl cannot wake her fiancé	Failed attempts to wake magic husband
k108	A revived wife betrays her husband	Wife dies, husband revives her, she abandons him for another man and is punished
k113	The animal bride	Several young men (usually three brothers) decide to choose wives (usually shooting arrows or throwing objects on the off-chance). The wife of the youngest initially is ugly or non-human (a frog, a snake) but proves to be beautiful enchantress. She and her husband triumph. Or girls choose their husbands and the youngest one gets a youth who has guise of a snake
k113a	To take wife where arrow falls	A young man shoots an arrow or throws an object on the off-chance He finds the girl to be married or something that helps to obtain her at the place where his arrow (other object) falls
k114	Brothers leave home after their sister is born	Several brothers leave home immediately after their mother gives birth to a girl. Usually they do not want to have another brother and hope that this time a girl will be born but chance or by evil intent a signal is given that not a girl but a boy is born again. The brothers are disappointed and leave, the girl grows up and travels in search of them
k115	Person saved thanks to the spider web	A man escapes from his (her, theirs) pursuers and hides in a cave. A spider spins its web over the hiding place. When the pursuers see the spider web they think the cave is unoccupied and do not enter it
k117	Woman who never laughs (a bride)	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
k117a	To make a mute woman speak	A girl who keeps silence is promised to one who would make her speak; a man with much difficulty makes his magic wife speak
k117b	Stuck together	Using a magic object or spell, hero makes people (and animals) attached to the object or to each other
k117c	Magic fiddle makes people dance	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
k117d	Two bridegrooms in one bed with a princess	A princess who lies or stands between two pretenders for her hand must choose one of them without seeing him. The bridegroom of low social position tricks the noble one to be smeared by filth and the princess turns to one who smells aromatically
k118	The prohibited room	Master of the house allows person to feel himself (herself) free bit not to look into particular place. The person breaks prohibition
k118a	A portrait of an unknown beauty	After seeing a portrait of an unknown beauty, a man is eager to meet her
k119	Animal helper marries a poor boy to a princess	To make a poor man rich (usually to marry him to a rich girl or to marry a poor girl to a prince), an animal makes other people believe that the groom is rich already. The man becomes prosperous indeed
k119a	The ungrateful master	An animal saves a man or helps him but the ungrateful man humiliates the animal, kills or tries to kill it
k12	Woman is lost and returned	By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
k120	The averted incest (daughter and father)	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
k120a1	Three dresses	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
k120a3	Jewelry in a nut	Person gets a nut with valuables inside (precious clothes, jewelry, animal helpers, etc.) or he or she himself or herself puts valuable into a nut to use them later
k121	Wanderer at a crossroad	It is written at a crossroad that following one of the paths person will safely return and following another it will not return (there is often a third path following which person either returns or not). Hero follows the dangerous path
k122	Queen of the other world comes to identify the hero	A man gets to the powerful woman who lives in the world unreachable without the supernatural helpers, and then returns back. An imposter claims hero's deeds for himself. The powerful woman comes and finds the real hero, punishes (rejects) the imposter
k123	Old woman’s curse	A youth or (rare) girl offends an elder woman. Her words make him or her to be overcome by desire to undertake something dangerous (usually to get a particular marriage partner)
k123a	A broken vessel	A youth breaks or overthrows a vessel of a woman or girl. This episode is a trigger for the narrative
k125	House utensil betrays its master	An enemy asks house utensils or personal objects where their master hid himself or herself or what direction he or she ran away. One of the objects, not treated by the master in a proper way, betrays him or her
k127	Brothers transformed into animals	A girl has many (more than three) brothers, they turn into birds or animals (rare: into plants; killed by magic), ultimately become human again
k128	Grazing animals to be preserved by a herdsman	A man had to graze animals or birds. If at least one is lost, the master would kill (not reward) him. Cf. K128B (ATU 570)
k128b	The rabbit-herd	King offers his daughter in marriage to whoever can herd (catch, tame, train) a particular number of rabbits (roosters, sheep, goats, geese, partridges) without losing any. A poor boy receives a magic whistle or other device with which he can summon the rabbits. In order to avoid the marriage, members (deputies) of the royal family (in disguise) try to but pne of his rabbits. The young man demands a degrading humiliating act and after the demands are fulfilled, the rabbit comes back to him.
k129	The disenchanted beauty	Because of the female antagonist, a girl faints and is taken for dead but her body is not decomposed. A valuable marriage partner breaks the charms, she revives
k130	Am I the most beautiful?	A woman (rare: a man) asks if she (he) is the most beautiful among female (men) folk and always receives a positive answer. It continues till she or he receives the negative one
k130a	Girl in house of several brothers	A group of young men live apart. A girl comes to them or is born magically. The men keep her as their sister. After some time she is separated from them and is in danger but ultimately she is rescued
k131	Men fight over magic objects	A man on a journey meets tree or two persons who are quarreling over the division of magic objects (a flying carpet, seven mile boots, etc.). The man promises to render a judgment, but he asks first to try our the objects or suggests the owners to run a race and uses opportunity to escape with the objects
k131a	Hero settles argument of animals	Several animals (often a lion, an eagle, an ant) argue because of an animal carcass or a living place. A man settles their argument, they give him capacity to acquire their form (their qualities)
k131b	Magic objects are exchanged and returned	A man loses a magic object that he got before but gets it back thanks to another object (a cudgel, a box with soldiers, etc.) that is exchanged for the first one or obtained by the man’s brother. The episode can be repeated several times
k131d	Seven-league boots	The boots (shoes, sandals) which allow the person wearing them to move with extraordinary speed are mentioned
k132	Invincible chicken	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
k134	The planted treasure	To accuse a guest of theft, a host plants a treasure into his guest’s bag
k135	Seven with one stroke	A weak and timid man or boy overcomes accidentally powerful enemies and gets high esteem
k14	Precious advices	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
k142	Corpse buried many times	Person kills several people. asks somebody to bury only one and then tells that the dead man has returned. The grave-digger buries several people but believes that it was one and the same corpse
k143	Hero is a fowler	Protagonist of the story is a bird-catcher (bird-hunter) or a son of a bird-catcher (bird-hunter)
k146	Life-medicine brought by the hero is used to revive him	The hero is sent to bring a life-medicine. On his way back a friendly woman replaces the real medicine with a useless one or keeps part of it for herself. Using the medicine she revives the hero when he is treacherously killed
k14a	Thrown into the oven himself	An antagonist orders to kill the first one who will come in the morning to a certain place. The hero becomes late by chance, the antagonist or his wife or son come and are thrown into the fire
k14e	The pretended inheritance	Sons of a man neglect their father (daughters-in-law neglect their father-in-law). He pretends to be hiding something (counts money conspicuously, etc.). The sons believe that their father has considerable inheritance and become to look after him carefully. When the father finally dies they find nothing valuable in his chest
k151	The fisherman and his wife	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)
k152	The devil is frightened and runs away	A man saves a devil (snake, dangerous animal) who suffers from proximity of certain object or person. The grateful devil promises to enter a princess and abandon her as soon as the man comes to cure her. The man will get a reward but he should not try such a trick again. The man scares the devil forever telling him that the object or person of which the devil is afraid will be near soon
k152a	The evil woman and the devil in one pit	A man throws his evil wife into the pit or well. The devil (snake, predator animal, etc.) who had been there before is grateful when the man pulls him to the surface or jumps our himself: even he is afraid of the shrewish woman
k154	A skull with an inscription	A man picks up a skull with an enigmatic and ominous inscription on it. Later its meaning becomes clear
k154a	Men in the harem	Solving a riddle, a boy or youth unmasks a daughter (wife, minister) of a powerful person: house-maids (or some of them) are men, the minister plans to kill his master)
k155	Prince grown up in seclusion	A man (usually a king) isolates his son (daughter) in a closed room, Once the boy (girl), usually because of some chance event gets to see the world outside and his (her) isolation comes the end
k155a	Bone in the meat	A man (usually a king) keeps his daughter (rare: his son) in a closed room, servants bring the girl (boy) meat without bones. Once she or he finds a bone in the meat, uses it to make an opening in the wall and gets to see the world outside
k155b	Climbing up to the girl by her hair	A girl lets down her long hair and another person uses it as a rope to climb up to her
k156a	Tests to reveal the sex of a person	People suspect that a young man is a disguised girl and suggest tests to identify the real sex of this person
k157	Robbers killed one by one	Person tricks his enemies to leave their enclosure one by one and cuts off their head as soon as the next one appears before him. In rare cases the multi-headed enemy thrusts his heads on by one and the hero cuts them off
k157a	Vanished husband recognized by keeping inn	For finding the lost husband (wife, benefactor), person regularly assemble together the chance people to hear what they are saying (usually sets up an inn, bakery, bathhouse and the like where guests are stimulated to talk). One of the people proves to be the lost one or his or her story helps to find the lost one
k161	The liberated dragon	Person imprisoned a dragon (demon, Thunder, etc.) and warns the other not to open a certain room (not to give water to the prisoner, etc.). The instruction is broken and the demon liberates himself that has undesirable consequences
k162	The robber gets into the sleeping room	The antagonist (robber, wizard, witch) penetrates into the house of a girl or young woman hiding in a state (in cupboard, etc.) and/or putting her husband (guards) to sleep using a medicine. At the last moment he is destroyed
k163	Aladdin and his lamp	A magician orders a boy to fetch a magic object (often a lamp). The boy finds the object (but refuses to give it to the magician), and the object fulfills the boy’s wishes
k165	The youth who wanted to learn what fear is	A youth who does not know what fear is tries various frightful experiences without becoming afraid
k166	Forty girls	A group of girls forms a community or an armed contingent and acts independently from the men
k167a	The son of the king and the son of the smith	The king’s wife hates her son whom she should give birth and decides to get rid of him. As a result, the baby prince and the son of a commoner are interchanged. The prince is smart and inherits his father throne anyway
k17	The ornitomorphic suitor	An ornitomorphic hero impregnates a girl magically or imperceptibly for her
k173	Placidas	A powerful and rich man loses everything that he has, is separated with his wife and children and they with each other. Later he obtains everything back, his family is united again
k174	Fingering thrown into a pitcher	A person puts (usually inconspicuously) his or her fingering or other small personal object into a pitcher with which a servant (girl) has come to take water. The servant's mistress or master finds the ring and understands that the person is nearby
k176	A man in search of the woman	A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
k177	The travelling heroine	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
k178	The enchanted husband sings lullaby	A young woman follows an enchanted man to his underground place, becomes pregnant but breaks a taboo and is chased away. She finds lodging in a rich house, her husband finds her and is disenchanted
k18	Infant picks out his unknown father	A boy is born whose father or (rare) mother is unknown. He himself points at his parent who as a rule occupies the lowest social position. Usually many men (women) come together and everyone hopes that the boy points at him (her)
k18d	A lazy boy and a fish	A lazy (stupid) boy releases a fish (frog, serpent, supernatural being) which gives him a power of making all his wishes come true; he marries a princess
k1f	Conflict because of a woman	A man maroons another because of jealousy or because he plans to take hold of his wife
k24c	An old man helps to obtain the bird-wife	A youth comes to an old man (rare: old woman) who instructs him how to obtain magic wife hiding her feather-clothing. For the first time, the youth usually gives her her clothes back, the girl disappears and he lives with the old man till the next opportunity
k25	Magic wife	A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
k25a4	Escape from the mermaid	A man (rare: woman) gets into power of a demonic person related to the lower world (usually a siren, fish, sea monster, rarely wizard). The antagonists raises the prisoner above water (or earth) a restricted number of times (usually being provoked or bribed to do so) and thanks to this the prisoner escapes (usually flies away turning into the bird)
k27 (motif is not in the correlation table)	Competitions and difficult tasks	Person is suggested to fulfill tasks that are mortally dangerous or cannot be fulfilled without supernatural helpers or capacities. The person fulfills the tasks and remains alive. A contest between persons has form of a competition or game in which the loser is deprived of his status or life
k27e	Eating or drinking contest	Person or animal must eat (drink) enormous quantity of food (beverage) or eat or drink poisonous beverage or food
k27f	The task: to get a woman	A task-giver asks the hero to get for him a particular woman
k27f1	To build a bridge	Person builds a bridge (usually of gold etc.) during a very short time
k27f3	To prepare a feather-bed	Person must quickly get many feathers, enough to fill a feather-bed or a pillow
k27hh	To sort grain	A task: to sort a large amount or small particles of different kind (usually seeds of different plants) mixed in container or to count such particles or to pick up the spilled grains
k27n	Difficult tasks of the in-laws	A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
k27n1	Task-giver is a king or a chief	Person who gives difficult tasks to the hero and/or person who demands the fulfillment of certain conditions from those who want to marry his daughter is a prominent figure in social hierarchy. He is a head of the socio-political unit of community or super-community level and is neither a member of the hero’s household nor a mythical being
k27nn	Envious minister	Not the powerful person himself but his official or adviser tries to get rid of the hero and suggests that the person should give the hero difficult tasks
k27q	Milk of the wild beast	Hero is sent to bring milk of a wild animal or milk in possession of a dangerous creature or person
k27r2	The dancing apples	A task: to bring objects (usually fruits) that act like people, i.e. dance, sing and the like
k27u	Hide-and-seek	Hero and his adversary play hide-and-seek. The hero finds his adversary but the adversary cannot find him
k27w	Monster brought by the hero kills the task-giver	Task-giver asks to bring him dangerous being or object possessed by a moster or deity. Hero fulfills the task. The beast, monster, deity or the object itself kills the task-giver
k27x3	The man persecuted because of his beautiful bride	A powerful person coverts a beautiful bride or wife of a man and gives him impossible tasks to get rid of him
k27x4	Climb a tree with a full glass in hand	Person must climb a tree (pole, rock) with a full open vessel in hand and not a drop should be spilled
k27x6	The Sun, the Moon and the Wind direct the hero	Travelling in search of the marriage partner, the hero (heroine) comes in succession to several supernatural persons related to luminaries and atmospheric phenomena (the Sun, the Moon, Stars, Wind). The last of them gives him or her necessary information
k27x6a
k27x7	Master of animals calls them together to question them	Person in search of the remote and inaccessible place comes to the master (mistress) of animals (birds, fish) or demons who summon all of them and asks about the way to this place. Only (the last) one knows the way
k27z	Game of chance for life and death	Person becomes a master of another after winning a game (game of chance or Intellectual game but not a sport tournament)
k27z2a2	Unrecognized wife visits her husband	A man marries a woman but abandons her without consummating his marriage. She visits him in disguise and ultimately he gets to know who was his beautiful companion. Usually the wife gives birth to his son (three sons) and upon seeing the boy, the man realizes that it is his own child
k27z3	Cat with a lamp	A man trains a cat (monkey, dog) to hold lighted candle (lamp) on its head or to extinguish the light by a signal. When a mouse (a rat) runs through the room, the cat drops the candle (forgets about the lamp) and chases the mouse
k27z6	The stone of pity	Being a victim of the injustice and after much suffering, a young woman speaks with a certain inanimate objects (often it is “the stone of pity”) telling it her sad story or her husband does it. The woman is rescued and the justice reinstated
k27z8	Insolvable riddles	The riddle refers to extraordinary or accidental events that happened to the person setting the riddle, and thus is unsolvable to outsiders
k27zy	Hero between two ogresses	A youth (a girl) lives in the house of an ogress. To get rid of him (her) the ogress asks him (her) to bring some object from other ogres (often from her mother) who must kill him or her. The hero or heroine escapes and kills all the ogres
k28	Father or uncle is rival and enemy	Maternal uncle or father (or grandfather if he replaces father who is not mentioned) of the young man is his rival or enemy and tries to kill him
k29a	Surviving in a fire	Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation
k29d	The drunk elephants	When water in a spring is replaced with alcohol, honey, etc. or bottles of alcohol seem to be left without supervison, a creature of person becomes drunk and is caught
k2a3	Hero marooned on a mountain	To maroon hero on a mountain, his companions destroy the rope or chain by which he climbed there or which he let down from there
k30	Flying enemy abducts woman	Flying person or creature abducts a woman but is ultimately killed or the woman escapes from him
k30b	Abducted as soon as she went to the courtyard	A girl or a woman is prohibited to go outdoors and is abducted by the flying creature as soon as she does it
k32	The false wife	An ugly, old, lazy, etc. woman or (in Chaco) a male trickster comes to man under disguise of his wife or bride who is driven out, confined to the underworld, killed, etc.
k32a	Travelling man leaves his wife or daughter for a short time	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
k32d	Sister sent to feed geese, servant taken for the sister	A girl (rare: boy) is walking to her or his relations or to her bridegroom. On the way the imposter lures her (him) to exchange clothes and takes her (his) place while the real girl (boy) is sent to look after crops or fee domestic fowl or animals. People hear her (his) song in which all the story is told. The deception is disclosed, the imposter killed
k32g	Punishment: torn apart by horses	To punish an antagonist, he or she is tied to a horse (camel, bull) and dragged or he or she is torn apart (usually by horses)
k32g1	Forty horses or forty knives?	Person is asked to choose between objects that have utilitarian value, often forty (seven, etc.) horses or forty knives. Usually the person does not understand that the question is about different kinds of execution
k32h3	Punishment: burned alive	To punish an antagonist, he or she is burned alive. (Episodes in which the burning of the dangerous being is not a punishment but an effective way to get rid of him or her are not considered)
k32i	Two sitters at the bed of a sleeping prince	A girl finds a body of a sleeping youth who will wake up at a certain time and marry the girl who would sit nearby. Usually at the last moment the girl goes away for a time and the impostor takes her place.
k32j	Sister replaced by an ugly girl, brother accused of deception	A ruler gets to know from a young man that this man’s sister is extraordinary beautiful. On the way to the ruler beautiful girl is replaced by the ugly one. Usually the ruler thinks that the young man is a deceiver and throws him in prison
k32l	Horses handed out among people to feed them	The king hands his horses (cows) among people to feed them. Only the heroine returns her horse well fed
k33	Drowned woman remains alive	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
k33a	Younger brother transformed into animal	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
k33a6	They sharpen knives and boil water already	A kid (lamb, gazelle, etc.) comes to a well (see, etc.) where his mistress was pushed down and says that they sharpen knives and boil water to kill and cook him
k33a7	The widower, his daughter or son and their teacher	After the death of her or his mother, a girl or a boy suggests her or his father to marry another woman who is her or his teacher, neighbor etc. and who usually persuaded the girl (boy) to give such an advice. As soon as she is married, the step-mother becomes to persecute her step-daughter (stem-son)
k33a8	The heroine is transformed into a dove	The heroine’s rival transforms her into a dove. The dove makes attempts to contact her children or husband
k33c	Girl from a fruit	Young man gets a girl who is inside of a fruit or (rare) a flower or an egg
k33c3	Girl from the orange	Young man gets a girl who is inside a fruit the citrus tree, usually an orange
k33c6	Only one girl is preserved	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
k33d	Peau d'asne	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
k33e	Disappeared and returned children	Babies disappear but are ultimately returned to their mother or father grown up and in good health
k33g	Fruits of two kinds	One who eats certain fruit (leave, etc.) gets horns (long nose, etc.) or turns into an animal. After eating another fruit (leave) person recovers his or her normal body
k33h	The cat, the dog and the magic object	A man obtains an object that fulfills his wishes. The object is stolen but brought back by the animals (which had been saved by the man before)
k33h1	To exchange the old ring for the new one	The hero’s wife (mother, servant) does not know about the magic qualities of an object in their house and exchanges it for something that looks likes more expensive but actually has low value
k35	False husband	An imposter pretends to be the hero to take his position and/or to marry or to violate his woman
k35a	Hero brands his rivals	In exchange for temporal advantages, person agrees to be maimed or branded
k35a3	The master becomes the servant	To obtain privileges of his master, his servant creates situation that results in exchange of their social positions
k35c3	The ship suddenly stops	Because of the reason that for some time remains unclear a ship stops in the middle of the sea (rare: a horse stops on the road)
k36	Bewitched into animal	Person is temporary transformed into animal (usually into a dog or coyote or into donkey, ox, etc.). When he acquires his human guise again, the antagonist suffers similar transformation. In some texts only the hero or only the antagonist is transformed
k37	Recognition-test	To return or to get his or her son, wife, husband, domestic animal or (rare) object, person must recognize her, him or it among several identical persons, animals or objects
k38	Hero helps the nestlings	For helping its children, their powerful mother or father who is a giant bird or (rare) other flying being helps the hero
k38a	White and black rams	Getting to the underworld, hero should take a white ram (horse) which would carry him back to earth. By chance, he takes the black one which carries him even deeper to the lower level of the underworld. Or the hero grabs not the right but the left horn of the animal and because of this gets to the wrong place
k38b	The nestlings and the aggressive snake	A serpent or water monster regularly devours or injures children of a bird or other flying creature (almost always nestlings of giant bird). The hero kills the serpent (monster)
k38d	Monster blocks waters	A monster blocks sources of water (or sends floods) and usually gives some (promises not to send floods) in exchange for human victims or valuables. Hero kills the monster
k38d1	A girl sacrificed to a dragon	To appease a water monster (water spirits, gods) or to put an end to the drought or flood, a girl is sacrificed or descends into the water by her own will
k38e	Of copper, of silver, of gold	Loci or objects of three (rare – four) different materials are mentioned in such a way that all of them have positive connotations though unequal value (copper, silver and gold; silver, gold and diamonds, etc.)
k38e2	The packed kingdom	Coming from the underworld to the earth, princess puts objects that she used (clothes, house, “kingdom”) into a small container (an egg, a ball, etc.) and brings them with her
k38e3	The diamond kingdom	In a series of three (rare: four) loci or objects that have high but different value the highest value is related to the precious stone (usually a diamond; crystal, glass)
k38f	The dragon-slayer	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
k38f1	The cut off tongues	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)
k38f2	Stains of the dragon’s blood on the hero’s body	Hero kills the dragon and saves the girl who had to be sacrificed. She smears the youth with the dragon’s blood. The imposter claims the deed to himself but is exposed when the hero demonstrates stains of the dragon’s blood on his body
k38f4	Fire-breathing monster	From the mouth of a monstrous creature or person who is the enemy of the hero fire is coming out; its breath is fire
k38f5	Fire-breathing horse	From the mouth of a horse fire is coming ot the horse itself is of fire
k39	Man feeds his own flesh to a creature who helps him	Person has to feed powerful creature (usually a giant bird) giving it regularly pieces of meat. When meat supply is exhausted, he cuts off a piece of his own flesh
k48	Singing bird of the hero	An antagonist wants that a wonderful bird of the hero sing but it remains mute or cries differently. The bird begins to sing when the hero triumphs over his adversaries
k56	The kind and the unkind girls	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).
k56a2a	To wash herself in the red water	The girl becomes beautiful or ugly after washing herself in the water of particular color
k56a4c	To wash something black making it white	Person must wash something black making it white or vice versa (yarn, clothes, board, etc.)
k56a4f	The unkind girl becomes ugly	The supernatural person does not like the behavior of the unkind girl and punishes her making her ugly (disfigured)
k56a5	Old woman becomes a young beauty	An old or ugly woman is transformed into a young beauty or becomes rich. Usually another old woman tries to imitate her but dies or suffers a reverse
k56a5a	Becomes young after being flayed	Old or ugly woman wants to be flayed alive to become a beauty. Cf. motif H4
k56a5b	Any weather is good	A person speaks friendly with embodiments of the weather peculiar for particular times of the year (praises the corresponding weather) and is rewarded. Another person scolds them and is punished
k56a5c	Conversation with Months	A person speaks friendly with embodiments of the weather peculiar for particular months and is rewarded. Another person scolds them and is punished
k56a7	Strawberries under the snow	In the winter time a girl (rare: a boy) is sent to bring something that is available only in summer. She brings it
k56a9	Helpful mouse rings a bell	Using a bell (drum, etc.) an animal (usually a mouse) produces sounds which the antagonist who is blind or is outdoors takes for the sounds produced by the hero (heroine). Thanks to this the hero escapes
k56b	The worthy man is rewarded, the unworthy punished	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
k56c	Golden axe	A man loses an axe. A spirit or a powerful official suggests him a golden axe but the man does not accept it. The spirit (official) gives him axes of gold and silver as a reward for his honesty. Usually another man intentionally loses his axe, claims the golden one but receives nothing
k56e	Two humpbacks	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
k56e1	Singers mention days of the week	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
k56f	To divide a chicken	A divides the chicken among the members of a household (and guests) considering the symbolic meaning of particular parts (gives the master the head, his daughters the wings, etc.).
k57	Cinderella	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
k57a	Beauty from Soap country	Noble youth falls in love with a beautiful girl but does not recognize her as a kitchen maid whom he gave a harsh treatment. When he asks the beauty where she is from, he does not understand her cryptic answers related to corresponding episodes. Or younger brother gives a cryptic answer when his elder brothers first beat him and then do not recognize in a guise of a handsome hero
k58	Construction of watercause	Person builds a watercourse or digs a well as a condition of marriage. (Usually the woman breaks her promise to marry the winner and she or her bridegroom die)
k60b	Invitation to coffin	Person is lured into a trap being invited to lie in a box or a hole to measure it. Being unable to liberate himself from the box etc., the person remains in power of his enemies
k61c	To name a demon	A demon agrees to help a person (usually to fulfill some difficult work that a girl must do herself) if a person tells him his name. At the last moment the person gets know the name by chance, the demon disappears and the person is rewarded
k61c1	Listen in secret of demon	Person will be ruined if he or she would not find an answer for a riddle of a demon. The answer is found accidentally when the person or somebody else hears how the demon talks by himself or with another demon. See motif C29
k61d	Hard work made her ugly	Young woman’s bridegroom or husband gets to believe that she is extraordinarily industrious. To conceal the deception, she herself or somebody else makes the man believe that because of hard work women become ugly or change into animals. The man prohibits his wife to work anymore
k61e	Reward for making a supernatural laugh	When a powerful (supernatural) person gets to see a ridiculous situation, he or she laughs (and thus is cured from his disease). People involved into the situation are rewarded (saved from a danger)
k64	Escape from Polyphemos’ cave	Person gets into dwelling of master of animals or monstrous shepherd. The host can kill him. The hero escapes sticking to hair of one of the animals who are going out
k64a	Blinded cyclopes	Person blinds sleeping ogre or ogress and escapes from him or her
k66	Extraordinary companions	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
k66a	The land and water ship	The man who is able to build (to get) a ship which can fly (travel on land) marries the princess (inherits property)
k67a	A drowned wife	A man who has a low social position is a nuisance for persons of high position. He gets to know that they plan to drown him or his preperty (rare: to strangle him) and tricks them to drown instead one of them or their own property
k67b	Bargain not to become angry	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
k67c	Skin ribbon ripped off from the back	Person agrees that under certain conditions another may rip off some skin from his back or cut off his ears, nose, etc.
k67d	Flight of the master with his goods in the bag	A master (ogre, devil, wife) tries to get away from his farmhand (her husband). The farmhand hides in the master’s bag (chest) so that the master unwittingly takes him along
k67e	The woman as cuckoo in the tree	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
k72	Three maidens	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
k72a	A ban to kindle any light	A king notices that his ban to kindle any light during the night is broken
k73	Children of the youngest wife	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
k73a	Baby child substituted with object or animal	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)
k73a4	Baby child substituted with a pup	Hostile women substitute baby of the newly made mother with a pup (inform the baby’s father that his wife has given birth to a pup)
k73a5	Baby child substituted with a kitten	Hostile women substitute baby of the newly made mother with a kitten (inform the baby’s father that his wife has given birth to a kitten)
k73a7	The wonderful children: sister and her two brothers	Woman gives birth to three (and not two or more) wonderful children. They survive and triumph over their enemies
k73b	Innocent woman punished	A woman who was falsely accused of killing her new-born child or giving birth to pups and the like is punished in such a way that she must suffer from filth and be taunted by passers by
k73b1	Mother and child in a barrel	A woman with her new-born child (or a woman pregnant with a boy) or a young girl and a young boy is put into a barrel (box, skin bag, boat) and thrown into the sea (river)
k73b4	To fill a bag with truth	Person must fill a bag (bowl) with truth (falsehood, tales). He fulfills the demand telling a denunciating story
k73b5	But the mother also could eat her baby up	A woman is accused of doing something that she could not do by her very nature. To reject accusation, another example of something absurd and impossible is suggested or it is told that the person believes in impossible though rejects possibility of the possible
k73c	A girl in a bird's nest	A girl gets into a bird’s nest (usually the bird carries away a baby-girl). The bird cares for her like her parent, the girl becomes a beauty
k75	The youngest daughter is willing (The loathsome bridegroom)	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
k75a	Thrown apple hits the chosen one	Boy or girl selects one person among many throwing an object (usually an apple) into him or her. This way a girl makes a choice of a husband, a young man of a bride, a boy identifies his father
k75a2	The gardener	The unrecognized hero works as a gardener at the powerful person
k75b	Three melons from the three daughters	To show their father that he must marry them, his daughters of different age send him fruits of the same kind but of different degree of ripeness (or bread that is differently baked)
k75c	Seven years without washing	Devil is ready to make a man rich if he would not wash (and comb) himself for a long time. The man is willing, both fulfill their promise
k76	A strange son	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
k76a	Frog as a marriage partner	Frog or toad marries a girl or a handsome youth marries a frog or road
k76b	Snake son and snake husband	An (adoptive) son is a snake who turns into handsome man. The snake is the magic spouse of princess, lost and returned
k76c	Child the gourd	An (adoptive) son (rare daughter) emerges from a gourd (rare water melon, coco nut) or is found inside it
k76c1	Woman gives birth to a gourd	Woman gives birth to a gourd which turns into person or which contains a person or people inside
k76g	Son the crab	An (adoptive) son is a crab. He marries a princess, turns into handsome man
k77a	Small objects and animals defeat the ogre	Small objects and animals (rare: animals alone but including those who really are harmless) revenge on a powerful enemy making attack on him in succession (usually they hide in his or her house); the enemy is badly injured, runs away or dies
k77b	The animals in night quarters (Bremen town musicians)	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
k77c	Ones who hide in a house frighten dangerous enemy	Objects and/or domestic animals live in a house. When dangerous enemy comes, they attack him, he dies or escapes (all texts with K77A and K77B included)
k79	Snake serves an example of resuscitation	Person in a desperate situation gets to see how a snake or other small animal uses remedy to revive or to cure itself or other animals. The person uses the remedy, succeeds
k80	Repetitive reincarnation	Person (usually a young woman) turns into different objects or creatures which another person destroys one by one. However, the person is reincarnated again and again and ultimately acquires her or his original form
k80a	A bird or an object tell about a murder	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
k80a2	Pipe tells about a murder	Body part of a murdered person or a plant that grew on the place of the crime tells people about the crime
k80b	My mother slew me, my father ate me	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.
k80c1	The tell-tale calf’s head	A person brings to a king or has at his home something edible. At the decisive moment fruits or meat turn into human remains. The person imprisoned (and executed)
k80d	The stuck in pin	Person is bewitched (transformed into a bird, faints) when a pin or other sharp object is stuck into her (rare his) body
k81	The handless girl	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)
k81	The handless girl	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)
k82	Evil sister-in-law	Wife of a man or wives of a group of brothers envy his (their) sister and tries (try) to destroy her
k82a	Pregnancy from the snake eggs	An ill-disposed elder woman makes a young woman or girl to swallow snake eggs (a snake, something else). Her stomach becomes to swell and the man believes that the victim has become pregnant because of her dissoluteness (rare: to make snakes, worms, etc. to kill her from inside)
k83	The sons on a quest for a wonderful remedy for their father	To cure a sick person or to make him (rare: her) young again it is necessary to bring a remedy from a distant country. The medicine is brought and the sick person is cured (becomes young)
k84	Sisters married to animals	Young man gives his sisters to the first bridegrooms who claim them. These are demons or animals who usually later help him
k84a	To give a sister to the first male who comes marry her	On his deathbed, father orders his son to give his sister(s) in marriage to the first male(s) who come(s) to take her (them)
k85	Horses-brothers	An antagonist possesses a horse which can overtake any other. Hero obtains the brother (sister) of this horse who is the only one to win the race with the antagonist's horse
k88	The two travellers (Truth and Falsehood)	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
k88a	The blinded bride	Wicked stepmother (aunt, a rival) blinds a young woman. The heroine returns her eyes (often gets them back in exchange for some values)
k90	The black and the red ones	A man gets to see two fighting monsters or animals (usually of contrasted colors like red and black, black and white). He helps one of them and/or one of them helps him
k90a	Trying to hit the black serpent a man hit the white one	A man gets to see how two serpents of contrast color fight. He tries to hit one f them but injures another by mistake. The injured snake’s kinfolk come to punish the man but they give him presents after getting know that he regrets his mistake
k92	King Lear	A man puts his children questions that seem easy to answer (how they love him, who is the elder in the family, etc.). The elder children flatter, the youngest daughter (rare: son) is reserved and her father drives her away or deprives of inheritance. Later her noble nature becomes evident to him
k92b	Love like salt	A girl answers her father (rare: brother) that she loves him like she loves salt (or that salt is the most valuable, etc.). He becomes angry (usually drives her away) but later satisfies himself that she was right
k92c	Wife is weaving, husband is selling	A princess or a fairy becomes the wife of a poor man. She weaves or embroiders a kerchief (or something else) and sends him to sell it. This is the first step to their ultimate success
k93	Twin brothers and a woman	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
k93a	Sword of chastity	Sleeping in one bed with a woman, man puts a sharp or thorny object between them as a sign of chastity (sometimes the woman herself puts the sword)
k93b1	Conception from eaten fish	After eating a fish, the sterile woman gives birth to a son or twins
k93b2	Conception from eaten fruit	After eating a fruit (usually an apple, in Northern traditions also an egg), the sterile woman gives birth to a son or twins
k93b3	Boys, colts and puppies are born the same day	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
k93b6	The sword that grows in the garden	A woman becomes pregnant eating a fish. The fish bones (entrails, tail, etc.) are buried in a garden, and at this place grows something related to her son: either a weapon (a sword) or an object which appearance depends on her son’s wellbeing (a plant or a spring)
k94	Bird of luck (eaten up head)	Person eats magic bird, fish, small animal, or fruit and becomes prosperous and powerful
k96	Fifty sons	Many brothers marry or have to marry in such a way that all their wives are (were) sisters
k99	Prophecy of future sovereiniy	A young man or (rare) a girl has a (day-)dream that predicts his or her future triumph. The dreamer either conceals or reports its contest to his family and in both cases is punished for too high opinion of himself. In the beginning the dreamer sometimes sells his dream to another young man, who becomes the protagonist of the tale. Adventures that follow explain the contest of the dream. The youth becomes rich and happy (e.g. marries heiresses of two kingdoms, that in the dream were symbolized by two suns or a sun and a moon), the girl marries king's son
k99a	The father will humble himself before the son	A lad or a girl (often after having a prophetic dream) claims that he (she) will achieve extraordinary social position (usually that his or her parents, brothers, sisters will demonstrate signs of high respect to him or her). The lad (girl) is expelled out of the family but the prophecy is fulfilled
k99a3	The happy dream: Sun, Moon and stars	A young man has a dream: he sees the Sun, the Moon and a star (all of them or some of these luminaries). When the narrative come to the end, the man understands the meaning of the dream: these are people who love or adore him
l100	Transformation flight	A youth and a girl who run away from pursuer transform themselves into a pair of persons, creatures or objects (pond and duck, church and priest, etc.) in order to escape detection by the pursuer
l100b	Forgotten fiancée	The hero and his bride get to escape from the pursuer. The youth goes to visit his home, leaving his bride behind for a time and forgets her. When the youth is going to marry another girl, the forgotten fiancée reawakens his memory by performing magic actions. Or the girl herself forgets her magic husband as soon as she gets to her parents’ home
l100b1	Dialogue between the male and the female pigeons	The young man forgets his magic bride and meets another woman. At the last moment a bird tells the story about his real bride and he recalls everything. Usually two birds, a male and a female, have a dialogue in which the female can tell the male that he will be as cruel with her as this youth who has forgotten his bride.
l100d	The entrapped suitors	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.
l100f	Guest runs away from the host	In the absence of the host, the guest is told that the host is going to kill or to maim him. The guest runs away, the host runs after him with good intentions but the guest believes that the received warning had a reason
l100f1	Lover runs away from the husband	A farmhand (a young son of the peasant) arranges a situation a series of tricks to the love affair between the wife of his master and another man. The wife is going to bring food outdoor to her lover but gets to her husband. Seeing the master coming with an axe (stones, etc.), the lover believes, that he is going to attack him and runs away
l103	Obstacle flight (Atalanta type)	Treasure, or the like, is thrown back to tempt pursuer to delay
l104	Fugitive and pursuer change guises	A fugitive turns in succession into different animals or objects. A pursuer does the same, every time becoming an animal or a person who is dangerous for the fugitive in his given guise
l106b	Journey to the other world in search of the lost object	In search of a lost object, usually carried away by water or wind, a girl or (rare) a boy comes to a powerful person, gets the object back and/or is rewarded. The object is related to the everyday life, it has no ritual significance and is not a weapon
l108	The wolf and the kids	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
l108a	Goat kills the antagonist	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)
l108e	Children of the mother-fox	The fox has a child or children (usually she adopts a lamb, foal, etc.), cares for it. The wolf finds and eats it, the fox revenges on him
l110	The devourer	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
l112	Complete body obtained	A boy is born having only half of a body or only a head. Ultimately he obtains normal body
l113	The ogre bridegroom	A girl (rejects suitors for a long time but at last) falls in love with a handsome man who proves to be a demon or animal. Usually she eventually escapes from him
l114	The youngest one saves siblings from demon	A group of young people comes to a demon. The youngest brother of sister or a person whom others take for a sick, unpleasant, invalid one and who often accompanies the others against their wish saves them all
l114a	A child who stays awake	A member (usually the youngest) of a group of boys or girls gets with them to a cannibal. The cannibal plans to kill people when they fall asleep. The youngest boy or girl every time answers the cannibal why he or she is still awake and forces him or her to be engaged into different activities instead of killing the sleeping people. Brothers (sisters) run away and return home
l114b	To bring ogre's property	Getting a task or by his own initiative, a trickster several times comes to a person (usually an ogre) and steals in succession objects in his possession or members of his family
l114b1	A task: to bring the ogre	Person has to bring a certain ogre and does it luring the ogre into a cage, a box, etc.
l114b1	A task: to bring the ogre	Person has to bring a certain ogre and does it luring the ogre into a cage, a box, etc.
l114c	To exchange clothes with ogre's daughters	Children or youths (usually a group of brothers) exchange clothes (headgears, ornaments, blankets, sleeping places) with their enemy’s children. The enemy kills his or her own children by mistake. Usually brothers get to the ogre or ogress and the youngest advices to exchange places (clothes, etc.) with ogre’s daughters). Outside of Europe the actors can be animals
l118	Caught in a split log	(Animal) person provokes another to put a part of his body into a split log (between two planks, etc.) and removes the wedge
l118	Caught in a split log	(Animal) person provokes another to put a part of his body into a split log (between two planks, etc.) and removes the wedge
l122	Riding a cock	A (demonic) person is riding a cock
l15d	The external soul	Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed
l15d1	The feigned location of soul	Being asked where his soul (death) is located, person initially gives a false answer. The inquirer usually becomes to show concern to corresponding object or locus (decorates it, etc.)
l15i	Life in hairs	A man dies or loses his strength (or pretends that it is so) if (some) hair on his head is cut off
l19b	Beings with odd number of heads	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
l19b1	The seven-headed monster	Описывается или изображается чудовище (обычно змей) о семи головах. При перечисления существ по мере возрастания у них числа голов ряд заканчивается на семи
l23	Proteus	Person gets hold of another. Trying to free himself, the latter turns into different materials, elements, animals or (Urarina and Setebo) orders different dangerous creature to attack the person
l23a	Transformation into the fire	Being seized, person changes his or her guise in succession, one of the transformations is into the fire (and also into the water)
l23d	Metamorphosis of the caught female person	Being seized by a person, a female person turns into different materials, elements or animals (Urarina and Setebo: sends different dangerous creature to attack the one who caught her)
l37a	To get know causes of problems
l37b	Secrets accidentally overheard	Person accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes
l37c	Bad and Good Lucks	A man comes across persons who incorporate his own or somebody’s else Bad and Good Lucks. He gets to influence their behavior and change course of events (for himself) for better
l39	Hero is compelled to descend from a tree	When a person climbs a tree, a demon comes to it and carries the person away, or the person follows the demon to his world by his own will
l4	The unmasked murderer (Blue Beard)	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
l40b	Absurd actions to lure person out	Somebody acts in absurd way to lure person out of his or her place. The person does not understand the deception and comes to explain how to act correctly
l42	Hero carried to ogre’s home	An ogre or ogress catches a person and brings him to his or her home where he or she plans to cook and eat him. The hero escapes
l42g	Hansel and Gretel	Step mother or more often father (persuaded by his wife) abandons children in a desolate place. Getting to the ogre or ogress, children (or at least one of them) survive and ultimately achieve success
l4a	The meat answers its master	A demon orders the hero (heroine) to eat some food that is prohibited for him. When the hero answers that he has eaten the food the demons asks it where it is at the present moment and the food answers him
l4b	The stain of blood is impossible to wipe off	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)
l50	Cliff ogre	A person kills those who are passing by him. Usually he does not attack them all of a sudden but first distracts their attention. Usually he throws down his victims into a precipice, lake, etc.
l57a	Hero's body part is returned by his companion	The antagonists acquire person’s organ or body part (his remains) . Another person gets back what has been stolen and the first one revives (becomes strong again)
l5e1	The demonic woman pursues her children	A woman who had changed into demon pursues her own children
l5f	Helpful skull	A bodiless head, face, or skull is a woman's husband, suitor or son. He is not dangerous but a good provider, saves people from hunger, etc.
l65a	The cannibal sister	A girl born to the family or found proves to be a monster, devours people. Her brother escapes, (usually marries and returns home, finds that everybody had been eaten up), runs away, she pursues him but cannot get
l65a2	The shot off finger	Person shoots off (injures) a finger of a demonic person and then sees that his baby-sister’s finger has a similar injury
l65b	Dogs save their master	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
l65b1	To exchange sheep for dogs	A man exchanges his sheep (goats) for dogs. The deal looks like unprofitable but the dogs help him to reach success
l72	The obstacle flight	Running away from a dangerous being, person throws small objects behind him or her which turn into mighty obstacles on the way of the pursuer
l72a	Comb becomes a thicket	Running away from a dangerous being, person throws a comb (a brush) that turns into mighty obstacle (usually a thicket) on the way of the pursuer. (In South America the motif is probably of European origin)
l72g	Obstacle flight: the thrown salt	Running away from a dangerous being, person throws salt creating an obstacle on the way of the pursuer
l72i	Obstacle flight: the thrown soap	Running away from a dangerous being, person throws a piece of soap creating an obstacle on the way of the pursuer (a slippery mountain, a river, etc.)
l73c	A towel opens or blocks the pass	Waving a piece of cloth (throwing it on the ground, putting on water, etc.) person creates obstacles (on the way of the pursuer) or a means to overcome them (bridge, dry path between waters, etc.)
l81	Demon’s fire	Person sets off in search of fire and finds it in the house of a demon. The demon makes harm to the person
l85a	One-sided child	Person is born as half of a child or loses his or her half in an accident. The person does not belong to any category of supernatural beings and usually turns into normal girl or young man
l87	Taste of blood	Unintentionally, person gets to taste his or her own blood or flesh, likes the taste, turns into a cannibal
l94	Child promised to demon	A demon helps a man or a woman or lets him or her free. As a reward, the person is forced to promise to give the demon his child
l96	Sold in animal’s guise and comes back	Person can transform himself or herself into an animal or an object. Being sold in this guise, he or she achieves his or her aims and becomes a human again
l96a	Oh, dear!	When person sighs or utters an interjection, another one (usually a demon) emerges because his name is spelled like Ahh, Ohhoi, etc.
l96c	What did you learn? – Nothing	A youth studies magic but answers his master that he has learned nothing. Thank to this, the master lets him go
m101a	Animals learn to fear men	A big predator (bear, lion, tiger) boasts about being stronger than a man. Being told that it’s not so, he finds a man and suggests to struggle but is killed or badly injured as a result. Cf. motif M101
m106	Meaningful name	Person lies that his name is so and so. Others understand it not as a name but as a common word and behave accordingly
m106a	“Myself” and “Nobody” in demon’s house	After doing damage or inflicting injury, person lies that his name is Nobody, Myself or the like. Usually others believe that the injured one was the trouble-maker himself
m106e	For the long winter	A man has accumulated a store of provisions (saved some money, etc.) and tells his wife that it is for the long winter (Christmas, emergencies, etc.). A trickster (beggar) comes to the woman and tells her that his name is Long Winter, etc. She gives him the provisions
m106f	A guest from the paradise	A stranger tells a woman that he comes from the other world and had seen there her dead relative. The woman gives him money and goods for the latter. Usually when her husband goes after the trickster to retrieve the money, the trickster steals his horse
m106g	The cow is taken to the roof to graze	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
m109	The tail-fisher	Animal person puts his tail (penis) down and waits in hope to get something edible. The tail (penis) is torn or cut off, the person escapes or dies
m109a1	Sham brains	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
m109b	Sick animal carries the healthy one	A healthy animal tricks an injured one (a wolf, a bear) into carrying him on his back by pretending to be injured himself
m113	For certain bird water is taboo	During the hottest month of the summer or permanently birds of certain species are prohibited to drink from the water bodies. Usually they can quench their thirst only from rain drops and dew on leaves and cry calling for rain
m114	Rope of sand	Person is suggested to twist (or he really twists) a rope or make other object of sand, ash, smoke, etc.
m114b	Not clothed and not naked	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
m114d	The boiled eggs: eaten last year	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
m114i	Asked about their relatives, girl or boy answers with wit	When a girl or a boy is asked where are her or his father, mother, brother or other relations or what they are doing she or he answers in such a way that only a smart person is able to understand what it is about (father went to make an enemy from a friend, mother went to make one out of two, etc.); or the girl explains corresponding answers of other person
m114j	All women are similar	When a (married) man cultivate a (married) woman she demonstrates him that all women are alike (like eggs painted in different colors). The man is ashamed and let the woman in piece
m114k	Water which is not from the earth and not from the sky	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
m116	Wisdom of hidden old man saves kingdom	People are ordered to kill their fathers or (rare) mothers (the Nyoro: to deprive them of power and property; the Baluch: not to take them setting off for the journey). An old man concealed by his son helps to resolve difficult problem
m116a	Ungrateful son reproved by naive actions of own son	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
m118	Source of values is destroyed imprudently	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
m118a	Forty thieves and jars with oil	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)
m124	A bull’s tail	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
m127	Lost tail of the fox	After losing his tail (ear) an (animal) person tries to trick other animals of his species or other people of his group to lose their tails (ears) too
m127a	The quail makes the fox laugh	Trickster animal asks a bird to make him laugh. The bird sits on the head of a woman (child, cow, etc.), other person tries to kill the bird, hits the wife (breaks cow's horn, etc.). Or the bird distracts person attention to let the trickster steal the person’s food
m127b	A jug as a trap	Animal person attaches a vessel or its part to his body, puts it into the water, the vessel is heavy and drags him into the water
m127c	Frightened without reason	An animal person mistakes an object abandoned by chance or intentionally for an evidence of a danger and behaves inadequately
m128	Speckled animals	Hero comes to an agreement with antagonist that he can take animals of particular appearance or with particular behavior and takes all or most of them
m13	The short-sighted wish is granted	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
m130c	The mouse and the lion (the help of the weak)	When a lion (tiger, bear, elephant, man) gets into a trap, a mouse (rat) makes him free (usually bites through the ropes)
m131	Biting tree-root	A stronger (animal)-person gets to seize a leg or tail of a weaker one. To get free the weaker one pretends that his pursuer got hold of a tree root, and the pursuer lets his enemy free
m134a	Three piglets	Predator animal/ogre (blows and) destroys a fragile house but cannot destroy a strong one. Usually two or three weak personages build three houses only one of which is strong enough.
m134c	The wolf overeats in the cellar	The wolf or other wild animal gets into the cellar (storehouse, vineyard, etc.) and eats so much that cannot leave
m136a	Sunlight carried in a bag	Fools carry sunlight (darkness, smoke) in bags, sieves, etc. and carry it into the room or out of it
m136b	Cutting off the branch	Man sitting on branch of a tree cuts it off and similar variants (man climbs a rope and cuts it off; men cut a tree and climb on it to fell it; man climbs with difficulty on a dead branch of a tree, which breaks off)
m136c	The man takes seriously the prediction of death	Considering indirect signs or somebody’s word, a numskull thinks that he is dead and lies motionless
m136d	The air castles	A person plans to turn his (future) possessions into a great wealth (milk, eggs, small money, animal to be killed, etc.) but imagining this wealth, he destroys what he already has (eggs are broken, the animal runs away, etc.). Or two persons are involved into quarrel about possessions that they do not yet have
m137	The weak predator imitates the strong one	The weak predator tries to imitate the strong one but is unable to accomplish actions that the strong one does easily
m138	Human and animal life spans are readjusted	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
m140	The theft of fish	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.)
m141b	The animals flee in fear of the end of the world	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.
m143	Fox in a well	Getting into a well or pit and being unable to climb out animal person tricks another to descend and thanks to this gets out while the second person remains below
m146	The fox gets bait from trap by luring wolf into it	An animal knows that food is in a trap or poisoned and tricks another to take it
m152	Why only one wolf?	When a weak animal or a person gets to see a predator animal or an ogre, he says in a loud voice (or asks to say his wife or children) something that frightens the predator (ogre): why the predator (ogre) brought to him is lean (small; only one instead of several), or it is good that more food gets to his house, etc. The predator (ogre) runs away
m152a	Animal tied to another for safety	A stronger and a weaker predator animals (ogre and an animal) tie together for safety. When the stronger one runs away, he drags the weaker one along with him
m153	Letter on the hoof	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
m154	The animal language and the stubborn wife	A man obtains knowledge of animal languages but if he reveals the secret, he must die. Once he hears animals talking and laughs. His wife thinks that he laughs at her or at her mother. The man is ready to open his secret and either does it and dies or hears how animals (usually a cock) blame him for being so foolish. So he keeps his secret.
m154a	A donkey induces overworked ox to feign sickness	One of domestic animals (usually the donkey) induces another who is overworked to feign sickness. When the next day he must do the work of the “sick” one, he tells that the master has decided to slaughter the one who is unable to work and persuades him to stop being ill
m154a1	A pregnant wife on a pregnant mare	A man who understand language of animals hears how a pregnant mare says that she carries four (three) persons because the woman on her back is also pregnant
m154b	The man who does his wife's work	Husband remains home instead of his wife (rare: son instead of his mother) but does everything wrong so as he suffers a series of accidents
m156	The ungrateful one returned to captivity	An (animal) person saves a dangerous animal from a snare or the like. The saved one is going to kill his savior but the third person saves the second (usually tricks the first one to captivity again)
m157	The impossible giving birth	Person claims that a man or a male animal had given birth (or is menstruating) or that a female gave birth to a young of another species or that a woman gave birth to an animal
m157a6	You imagine that you speak with the abbot	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.)
m157b	To take the one thing she holds dearest	Husband casts his wife out but allows her to take the one thing she holds dearest. She takes her sleeping or drunk husband with her and thus moves him to forgive her
m158	Tops or buts	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)
m158a	Dividing the harvest (The unjust partner)	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
m159	The lion’s share	The strongest predator (usually a lion) suggests one of his companions to shares the booty. He is not satisfied by results and beats the companion. When another companion becomes to divide, he gives everything to the strongest one and explains that the injured one taught him the right way of sharing
m160	Unkind words are more painful than wound	A strong predator animal and a man become friends. The animal hears how the man or his wife complains about him (e.g. criticizes the bad smell of his mouth) and asks the man to strike him with an axe, knife and the like. Later he comes to demonstrate his healed wound and explains that the physical wound can be healed unlike the psychological one. Or the animal dies because of his wounded feelings as soon as he understands that the man betrayed him
m161	A dog in the bag	Person gives another (often a fox) a bag putting inside a dog instead of food; or he makes free a girl who was kept in the bag and replaces her with a dog. The dog attacks the one who opened the bag
m163	The precious cat	Person gets to a country where rats or mice are a plague and receives a fortune selling a cat
m164a	Stinking mouth of the lion	The lion asks animals does his mouth stink (or his den dirty) and kills both those who answer, Yes, and flatterers who answer, No. The smart one tells that he has the sniffles and is unable to answer
m166	Piece among animals	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
m168	More cowardly than the hare	The hare is in despair because he is afraid of all creatures but is delighted when he sees other animals (sheep, frogs, dusks) being afraid of him
m169	Medicine for the sick lion	In the presence of powerful person one of his subjects is plotting against the other. The other answers that the problem can be resolved if the first one would be maimed (usually a part of his body used as a medicine). The schemer is killed or injured
m170	Pilgrimage of the animals	An animal person pretends to have no other interests than to fulfill religious rules and prescriptions (to confess his sins, to make a pilgrimage, to become vegetarian, etc.) and kills those who have believed him
m170a	Sinful camel and pure wolf	A predator sais that a herbivorous is a great sinner and must be eaten up
m171	The profitable exchange: from a pea to a horse	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)
m171a	The profitable exchange: getting a girl	Person or animal gets to exchange less valuable goods for ever more valuable. The last or the next to last one is a girl
m171c	In exchange for a thorn	Somebody pulls out a thorn from a person’s body (cuts off the end of the animal’s tail, etc.) and throws it away or slightly injures the person. As a result the person is compensated with something more valuable than the lost object
m178	The lying goat	A man sends others one after the other to pasture the goat. Back home, the goat always complains it did not get anything to eat. The man angrily sends away or kills his shepherds (who usually are his family members). When he himself pastures the goat he realizes that it lies. He is going to kill the goat, usually skins it, but it escapes
m179	A house of bark and a house of ice	Two animal persons live nearby, the house of one of them is destroyed, he asks another to let him in and usually drives the host out of his house. Strong animals are afraid of the intruder but a weak or small one succeeds to return the house to its original owner
m180	Fox and crane invite each other	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
m185	On the tail of the fast one (animals)	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
m185a	On the tail of the winner (all versions)	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
m187b	The swiftest runner must receive the harvest	The swiftest runner must receive the harvest
m187c	A crab is a participant of the race	A crab participates in the race and wins
m191	Cat and wild animals	The fox (dog, squirrel) lives with the cat and poses him as a strong and dangerous animal. The wild predator animals are scared and bring him meat
m191a	Belling the cat	The mice decide to tie a bell on the cat, so they can hear when the cat comes. Usually they cannot find anyone to tie it on her
m191b	Ingratitude and injury are hard to forget	A man feeds a snake (rare: a fish; does not do it any harm) and the snake makes him rich (is friendly). His son (rare: someone else or the man himself) injures the snake (kills its young) and dies (if son; because of the bite). The snake refuses to keep former friendship with the man: both of them remember the inflicted pain
m195c	Smart or lucky one solves problems	Persons of high status cannot reveal the hidden difference between two or more objects or creatures (or two sides of an objects of creature) which look similar. A smart or lucky person of lower status does it
m196	The silence wager	A man and his wife make a wager: Whoever speaks first must do certain trivial work or get a bigger portion of some simple food. They or one of them continue to keep silence even being exposed to violence or taken by others as the dead
m197	The effectiveness of fire	Seriously or demonstrating absurdity of the situation, a person tries to cook something using a fire (a source of light) that is far away from the object to be cooked
m197a	The pot has a child and dies	A borrower returns a cattle (pot) together with a small one, claiming that the cattle gave birth to a child. He borrows the pot again but does not return it, claiming that the pot dies
m197b	The neighing stallions and the mares who foaled	A powerful man claims that after his stallions neighed his neighbor’s mares foaled, that all foals in his land are born by his mare, etc. A youth comes to kill dogs of the man because they did not drive wolves in due time (because they scared game, etc.). The dogs were far away from the place of the event and the man recognizes that his trick failed
m198	Wise brothers (the king is bastard)	When three brothers (rare: a person) are Invited to khan (judge, king, etc.) and served delicious food, they claim that the food and drink have a taste (smell) of a corpse, dog, goat etc. and/or their host is of a low descent or a bastard. Investigation confirms that their deduction was correct
m198a	Wise brothers (the strayed camel)	Three or four brothers (rare: one man) see the track of a domestic animal and are able to deduce how it looked like (lame, had no tale, carried oil and honey, etc.) or they deduce how the man who had stolen the animal looks like
m198a3	Who did steal the ruby?	One of the brothers steals a treasure for which all of them have equal rights or he is a bastard. Brothers come to a powerful person and want him to say who of them is the thief or the bastard. Usually the person tells a story and discovers the guilty one considering his reaction
m198a4	Which was the noblest act?	Listeners of a story must answer whom they liked more: a husband who let his wife go to another man, a robber who did not harm her, or the other man who immediately sent her back to her husband
m199	Squeezing the (supposed) stone	A man or a weak animal and an ogre (giant, devil) have a contest to see which of them can squeeze a stone. The man squeezes a cheese (egg, turnip) and thus intimidates the ogre
m199b	Not a stone but a bird is thrown	An ogre (devil etc.) and a man compete to determine who can throw a stone higher or to a greater distance. The man throws not a stone but a bird.
m199c	Throwing a club	A man pretends that he had thrown or is going to throw a heavy object to the sky (to the clouds). His adversary asks him not to do it.
m199c1	Throwing contest	An ogre (devil etc.) pretends to throw a stone or other heavy object so far that it will destroy people beyond the sea (mountains, etc.) (where ogre’s relatives live)
m199g1	Carrying a tree with an ogre	An ogre (devil, a strong animal, etc.) and a man (a weaker animal) carry a tree. The man tricks the ogre who carries the heavy bottom-end while the man sits on a branch or walks pretending to carry his burden
m199k	A man makes believe that he is going to bring an entire well	An ogre sends a man to bring water giving him an enormous skin. The man is unable to carry such an amount of water but does not reveal his weakness using a ruse (he is digging around the well and explains that he wants to carry all the water at once; or says that he brought the skin with the water but drank it already up, etc.)
m199o	Making a hole in a tree	A man and his adversary have a contest to see who can make a (deeper) hole in a tree (stump) with his finger (fist, penis, head). The man cuts the hole beforehand with an instrument and replaces it with a bark or leaves (makes a cut in a tree)
m200	The miller, his son, and the donkey	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).
m204	Money gets one who is destined to get it	When a deity (powerful person) attempts to pass some money to a certain man, he either gets it or not thanks to his fate while all other factors play no role
m206	One half of the gift	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)
m23	Mock plea	Person or creature pretends to be afraid of a particular sort of treatment that really cannot do him any harm
m27	Coming back from the sky	A tree or a chain of reeds by which people have ascended to the sky is destroyed. On their way back they fall to the ground. Some of them remain in the sky for ever or longer than others
m28	Icarus (failed attempt to fly on artificial wings)	Acquiring possibility to fly, person ultimately falls to the ground or remains in a faraway place being unable to fly any more
m29b	Trickster-fox, jackal or coyote	In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
m29b1	The wolf is a failure	Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
m29b3	The fox (jackal, coyote) is a failure	Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the fox, jackal or coyote suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
m29g2	A crab wins thanks to his smartness	Being smart and witty, the crab overcomes strong adversaries
m29k1 Not used in statistics	The turtle (toad, frog) is a tricky failure	A turtle (tortoise, toad, frog) behaves foolishly creating serious problems for himself
m29w3	The lion is a failure	Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the lion suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
m29z	The Beardless	Person named as the Beardless (Kusa, Kesa, Kose, Kysa, Kusu, etc.) acts in narratives
m29z1	The Bald-headed	A bald person acts in narratives (thence his usual name: Taz, Tazchi, Kal, Keloglan, Kechal etc.)
m29z3	The Gipsy is an enemy or a failure	The Gipsy (more often a female than a male) is an enemy overcome by the hero (heroine) or (rare) a weak failure
m30	Trickster falls down	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
m38	Stupid imitation (all versions)	Person sees how others act using magic or according to their animal nature. He or she imitates their actions and gets into trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and refer to everyday activity, mostly to providing and cooking food
m38b	Stupid wives imitate magic one (the daughter of the Sun)	The first and rejected or taken later wife acts using magic. Other wives try to imitate her but perish are maimed or disgraced
m38c	Superb blacksmith	A blacksmith is (seems to be) able make people young, cure maimed people and animals
m38c1	Old people forged into young ones: unhappy imitation	Person changes (forges, boils, cuts into pieces and joins them back) old (sick, dead) people into the young (healthy, alive) ones or pretends to do so. Another one unsuccessfully tries to imitate him
m38d	Animated objects perish one after another	Two or several animated objects or small animals and live or travel together and perish one after another when they make the most simple acts
m38d2	The bean, the straw and the coal	Several (usually three) small animated objects travel but fail to cross a river (usually perish attempting to cross it)
m38d5	The grains talk with one another	Two or three different grains talk with one another, act together, etc.
m38d6	Bursting from laugh	Several characters who are the embodiments of small objects die one after another. The last of them laughs so much that he bursts (breaks his head, etc.)
m39a1	Misunderstood instructions: a step behind	Fool follows instructions that were reasonable in every previous episode but become absurd in every next one
m39a3	Had your daughter horns?	Fool kills a person, throws the body into a pond or a well. His relation throws there a dead goat. Searching for the corpse in the pond, the fool asks if the killed person had horns, etc. People see that he is really crazy and do not suspect him of a crime
m39a4a	Fool’s customer is an animal or an object	A fool gives meat, a domestic animal, cloth etc. to an animal (plant, inanimate object) and thinks that the latter will pay him later or asks an animal to do some work. Claiming money or products of the work, he finds treasure
m39a5a	The sausage rain	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.
m39a5b	Husband discredited by absurd truth	A woman plants fish in the field where her husband is sure to plow them up. He finds them and believes that the fish got there by itself. People take him for mad.
m39a6	Misunderstood instructions: to cut a road	A wayfarer asks his companion in an allegorical for to tell a story. The companion takes his words in the direct sense and acts stupidly or thinks that his companion is a fool
m39a6g	Four coins (The sharing of bread and money)	Man explains that one part of his incomes he puts out at interest while another part is used to pay debts, i.e. he cares for his children and keeps up his parents
m39a6i	Answer betraying a theft	Person asks a servant to bring another some food or object and to pass certain words which for the servant have no meaning. Hearing these words, the recipient understands that the servant had appropriated part of what he had to bring
m39a6j	This house has no ears	A girl mildly (allegorically) reproaches the person who suddenly entered the house or expresses her regret for having no dog to warn about the coming guest
m39a7	Misunderstood instructions: to wash with the boiling water	A fool is told to wash an old person with a warm water. He uses a boiling water killing the person
m39a8	A fool carries a door on his back	A fool or a buffoon takes the door of the house and carries it on his back
m39a8a	Fool drops an object from a tree	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
m39a8b	The cut off tongue of a robber	Using a stratagem, someone who hides in a tree cuts (bits) off the tongue of a dangerous person and the latter is unable to describe situation to his partners
m39c	Pumpkin sold as a donkey’s egg	A numskull finds or buys an unknown fruit (pumpkin, melon, etc.). He mistakes it for an egg of a donkey (mare. camel, etc.). When he drops it or throws it off he scares a hidden hare (rabbit, fox, mouse, etc.). The fool thinks the fugitive is a young animal hatched from the egg
m39d	Series of clever unjust decisions	In succession and unintentionally a man causes a series of accedents. The injured parties bring him before a judge. In each case the judge makes decisions that are formally logical but patently unacceptable and saves the man
m39e1	The eaten up iron and the kidnapped child	A man steals money or property. The owner gets his property back after he or his helper puts the theft in such a position when the best choice for him becomes to return what he has stolen (usually the first man kidnaps a child of the second one)
m39f	He had a hat, had he a head?	A fool loses his head (usually bitten off by a bear). His wife or companions cannot say had he his head before but remember that he certainly had a hat (beard)
m39g	Girl bewails the loss of her child before she has any (Clever Elsie)	Girl bewails the loss of her future child before she has any; thinking about an event that could have been tragic; is jealous of her sisters before any of them have fiancée; thinks out the name of her child that does not exist instead of coming to meet her fiancée.
m39h	Husband pretends to become blind (The faithless wife)	A married woman is eager to get rid of her husband and usually asks a spirit (God, saint, etc.) to make him blind. The husband hides in a tree, behind the alter, etc. and usually tells her that good food will make her husnad blind, or the husband himself tells his wife that the good food is dangerous for him. He pretends to become blind, kills the love (and his wife)
m40	The distorted instructions	Person is sent to receive something of relatively low value. He asks to give him quite different object (to provide a service) and asks one who had sent him to confirm the demand. Usually a person or animal comes to a wife or a son of a powerful one and tells her or him that her (his) husband or father tells to give him food, to make love to him, to marry him, etc.
m45	A predator tricks animals to gather around him	An ogre or a stronger animal catches a man or a weaker animal or drives him into a small enclosure. He goes away for a while leaving a watchman. The watchman is unable to fulfill his duty and the man (the weak animal) escapes (usually he dupes the watchman). Most, though hardly all American cases can have post-Columbian African origin
m57a	Beads discharged from the body	Instead of common body discharges a man or a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular person
m57a2	Male person is the producer of valuables	Instead of common body discharges a a man urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular male person. See motif m57a
m57a3	Female person is the producer of valuables	Instead of common body discharges a a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular female person. See motif m57a
m57c	Gold producing animal	An animal (ass, cow, horse, goat, bear, leopard) extracts gold or food from its body or person makes others believe that it is so
m57d	Beat, cudgel!	Person gets one by one magic objects that bring food or treasure. Other people replace them with common objects or take them away by force. The person takes his property back (usually beating the thieves with magic cudgel or whip)
m62a	Quarrel provoked by action [not in correlation table]	Hero imperceptibly causes detriment to two persons or creatures. They accuse each other and fight
m74a	Strange names of the babies	An animal person pretends to be invited to be godfather or he gives names to different places along which he travels in a sledge, boat, etc. The names look strange but become understandable when other people or animals get to know that their companion has devoured all the supplies
m74aa	Theft of food by playing godfather	An animal person pretends (several times) that he has to make a visit (that he has been invited to be godfather at a baptism or invited to a funeral or wedding) but instead eats secretly food supplies
m74d	Who ate the lamb’s heart?	While travelling on earth, God (a saint) asks his companion to prepare a slaughtered animal (chicken). The companion secretly eats liver (heart, etc.) and explains that the animal did not have such an organ. He confesses his wrong deed when God (a saint) promises him a treasure
m75b	Hero inside carcass	A man hides in a skin or carcass of a big animal. A bird carries it to its nest without knowing that the man is inside
m75b1	Marco the Rich	A respected man gets to know that a poor boy must inherit all his property or become a king and tries to prevent it, but the fate cannot be changed
m75b1a	The predestined wife	A man (usually of high social position) learns by a prediction that a (newborn) girl will be his future wife or a girl from rich family gets to know that her future husband is a poor man. The man (the girl, something else) attempts to kill the predestined marriage partner but only wounds her or him. After the wedding it becomes clear that the prediction is fulfilled
m75b4	The Trojan Horse: gaining of the woman	To gain a woman, a man hides inside a hollow figure or a carcass of a big animal (horse, bull, etc.). Person who guards the woman brings it to her. The man comes outside and becomes the woman’s lover. Or a woman hides inside the figure of the horse that is brought into the room of a man
m75c	Treasure on mountain top	A man sends another one to top of a mountain or a tree to obtain treasure for him. To go back is impossible but the man survives
m78	A tiny boy (Thumbling)	Tiny boy as small as a thumb, a pea and the like taunts people, predator animals, ogres
m81	Blind persons	A man travels and comes to two or several blind (usually old) persons
m81e	Not to graze animals on the ogre's land	The young man takes the job of grazing animals and is warned not to cross the border of the ogre’s land. The hero ignores the warning and overcomes the ogre
m81e1	The hero brings to the old man his stolen eyes	Young man lives with an old man whose eye(s) were stolen by an ogre. The youth comes to the ogre, kills him, brings the stolen eyes and the old man gets to see again
m81f	Blind robber paid back	A blind trickster steals from (does not return some money to) a harmless man. The injured man follows the blind man and steals his whole hoard of money. Often he robs (tricks) several blind men
m83	Who is older?	Somebody claims that he has been born before present world came into being. His opponent claims the same, and they argue who of them is the older
m83b	Whose dream is better?	Two (or more) (animal)-persons agree that whichever of them has the most wonderful dream may eat all the food. The first one tells about a feast that he participated in his dream. His companion answers that he was sure that after such a feast (after getting into the paradise, etc.) the first one would not need the food, so he has eaten it alone
m85	The fox bluffs	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
m90	Snake gives a correct answer of what material the object is made	Somebody suggests to guess what sort of material a certain object is made of. Another person (usually a monster) gets to know the secret and the hero or the heroin must do what they have promised
m90a1	The louse skin	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
m90a2	From what did the plant grow?	It should be guessed that the plant grew from a part of the body of a man or a snake or from dirt scraped off from the body
m90a3	Tree grows from snake	A plant grows from a killed snake or part of snake’s body
m90a5	The golden apples	Golden fruits (in rare cases only leaves) of a certain tree are mentioned in tail. Usually these are golden apples
m90b	The sunrise in the West	Person was wrong being sure that the Sun cannot rise from the West
m91	The killed corpse	Person pretends that a person (often his or her mother, spouse or lover) who recently died is alive, claims that the death of the false alive resulted from negligence of others and gets a reward
m91a	Simulated killing (a bag with blood)	Person pierces a bladder with blood or red juice, simulates murder or suicide
m91b1	The sold skin	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)
m91c1	Herd from the river bottom	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
m91c2	Put into the bag	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
m91c3	Hare the messenger	After warning his wife about the planned trick, person lets free a wild animal or bird asking it to pass a message to his wife. Seeing the same (actually another) animal or bird in his companion’s house another man buys the animal for a lot of money
m91c5	The wager that sheep are hogs	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
m95	To bring a present for person's kin	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
n27	The milk of birds	Bird’s (hen’s) milk is mentioned in fairy tales, riddles and proverbs as something very rare and difficult to obtain
n27a	You can find even bird’s milk there!	It is said that somewhere there is (or was) even bird’s milk
n33	Pressing adversary into the ground	The hero presses his adversary into the ground or both of them press each other (ankle-, waist-, breast-deep and the like)

Warning! The followed motifs has no type selected:
k27x6a

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