Two persons or animals argue about who of them will be the first to see the rising sun. One who seemed to have less chances wins

Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon

Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance

Ursa major is identified with a carriage, a cart

Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object

There is an anthropomorphic patron or patroness of wolves. Usually he or she gives instructions to wolves on particular day of the year

Person (a devil or a bear) thinks that because the Cornus mas tree (European cornel, male cornel) blossoms before all other fruit trees do, it also brings its fruits early. The cornel fruits become ripe very late, so the person is disappointed and gets no fruits

The dry land (the earth) grows from a small amount of solid substance (sand, clay, dirt and the like) brought from the lower world (usually from the bottom of the ocean)

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

Death (also Old Age, Disease, etc.) is a particular person not identical with the Master of the Dead. He kills people usually carrying away their souls

A woman or child demonstrate no respect for bread soiling it with excrements. For this God punishes all the humanity

Some beings are half-men and half-dogs (usually anthropomorphic with heads of dogs)

Milky Way is a trace of people who spilled on their way something related to agriculture (straw, chaff, hay, more rare flour, peas)

Orion is a staff, a crook

The Pleiades are a group of boys or men, or a group of different people but predominantly males

Two constellations (usually Ursa major and Ursa minor) are interpreted as twin objects of the same type (two animals, two carts, etc.)

A man maroons another because of jealousy or because he plans to take hold of his wife

Hero is sent to the lower world though a well, precipice, etc. After he obtains valuables (young women), his envious companions cut the rope to get rid of him but he succeeds in returning back

Person or animal must eat (drink) enormous quantity of food (beverage) or eat or drink poisonous beverage or food

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

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

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

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

Every time a demon commits an outrage upon one of the men who remains at home. When it is the hero’s turn, he overcomes the demon and follows his track to his world

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

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)

Young man gives his sisters to the first bridegrooms who claim them. These are demons or animals who usually later help him

Many brothers marry or have to marry in such a way that all their wives are (were) sisters

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

Cow (ox, bull) helps an orphan child or a young woman who got into trouble

A girl has many (more than three) brothers, they turn into birds or animals (rare: into plants; killed by magic), ultimately become human again

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

Person sets off in search of fire and finds it in the house of a demon. The demon makes harm to the person

(Animal) person provokes another to put a part of his body into a split log (between two planks, etc.) and removes the wedge

In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote

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

To demonstrate that the thief who had eaten food supplies is somebody else or to declare somebody else as a victim to be eaten up, animal person smears his sleeping companion with remains of the food or body excretions (exchanges the excretions)

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

Person lies that his name is so and so. Others understand it not as a name but as a common word and behave accordingly

An animal person refuses to dig or clean a source of drinking water together with other animals or birds but takes advantage of the results of the work

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

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

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)

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

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

Wild animals ride on a sleigh, which breaks. To repair it the animals bring unsatisfactory material from the forest. When the sleigh owner goes for good material they eat the horse (or the bull) and build a dummy to replace it

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

Big mammal supports the earth

Person blinds sleeping ogre or ogress and escapes from him or her

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

An (adoptive) son or daughter is a pig. He marries a princess, turns into handsome man (she marries a handsome man)

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

Person gets to a country where rats or mice are a plague and receives a fortune selling a cat

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)

A certain animal or (rare) man is predicted to become a cause of death of a certain person. When this animal (man) is already dead himself or itself or is faraway, its (his) remains or image becomes the cause of the person’s death

Somebody (usually God) is going to deprive humans of their staple food (usually cereals) but does not do it thanks to the dog (and/or cat; rare – birds)

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

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

Person eats a meal of eggs and leaves without paying. Some years later when he returns to pay his debt, the innkeeper claims the value of all chickens that would have hatched from the eggs in the meantime. On the day of the trial another person pretends to have cooked seeds for planting and the judge agrees that chicken could not be hatched from the boiled eggs

A man 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

A blacksmith is (seems to be) able make people young, cure maimed people and animals

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)

Fool follows instructions that were reasonable in every previous episode but become absurd in every next one

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

(Evening) Venus is associated with a predator animal, usually with a she-wolf

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

Person who teases or insults the Moon is punished

Rainbow is the ornamented part of the clothes, its decoration, a belt

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.)

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.

One of the fingers says that he is hungry and/or suggests to steal something. Other fingers express their opinion on this behalf.

Person agrees that under certain conditions another may rip off some skin from his back or cut off his ears, nose, etc.

Milky Way is the belt of the sky

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A man has to send several nights near the girl who died and became a dangerous demonic being. After this the girl is disenchanted

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

A man (boy) and an ogre (devil, bear, etc.) have a screaming or whistling context. The man uses a trick (binds ogre’s eyes and strikes him on his head with a heavy object; blows a horn at the ogre’s ear; pretends to bind their heads that they would not break because of his whistling, etc.). The ogre acknowledges the man to be stronger than he

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

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

Using a magic object or spell, hero makes people (and animals) attached to the object or to each other

When a lion (tiger, bear, elephant, man) gets into a trap, a mouse (rat) makes him free (usually bites through the ropes)

Two persons or animals argue who will see the rising sun first. One who got to see not the sun itself but its reflection or the first beams on trees or mountain tops wins

Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies

The wolf or other wild animal gets into the cellar (storehouse, vineyard, etc.) and eats so much that cannot leave

When foxes (wolves) meet and dogs begin to chase them, one of the foxes says that their next meeting will be at the bazaar where pelts are sold

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

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

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

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.

A young man and a woman (Konkani: a young girl and a man) marry and later get to know that they commited incest

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). A helpful genie appears and fulfills the boy’s wishes

Disguised as a bird, small animal or insect, a man penetrates into the place of a girl (into her father’s house)

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

Person or animal puts food into a bag and hides it under his clothes. Cutting the bag open he pretends to disembowel himself. His adversary tries to do the same and kills himself

Wind was or is in a particular enclosure (bag, cave, etc.). It was released from it or comes out from time to time

A hunter spends night in a desolate place. A demon comes to his fire. When the demon falls asleep or goes away for a while, the hunter puts his clothes over a log and hides nearby. When the demon attacks the log taking it for the man, the hunter wounds or kills the demon

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)

Three (two, more) men find (rob) a treasure. One of them goes away for a while. Those who stay kill him when he returns but die later from eating food (drinking wine) which he had poisoned

When God intends to create Eve from Adam’s rib, an animal (dof, cat, monkey, fox, snake) or a devil steals it. God (or his angel) pursues it and catches its tail. The tail tears off, God creates Eve from it. Or God made Eve from edible material and a dog devoured it, so God had to make Eve from Adam’s rib. Or God cut off Adam’s tail and made Eve from it.

After getting domestic animals from supernaturals a person immediately loses the animals or most of them (usually because of a broken taboo like to look, to speak in a loud voice, etc.; the animals disappear in water, remain in the sky, scatter in various directions, etc.)

An animal or a bird who makes use of a peasant’s property (lives in his field) does it till the very moment when the danger becomes critical. Usually a mother fox or bird does not command her children to leave a field (vineyard) until the master himself (and not his sons, farmhands, etc.) comes to cut the vines or to harvest the field

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

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

A youth who does not know what fear is tries various frightful experiences without becoming afraid

Each of calender units (usually the months) that make the year is a separate object or person

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

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.)

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.

The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman

Roots (belt) of rocks (stones, mountains) are mentioned in myths, riddles, proverbs, charms and songs as something that does not exist

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

It is foretold that the person will die because of the animal. The person dies when the animal’s representation becomes alive or a statue representing the animal falls on him

A fool does not know how to pull on his breeches (boots) and jumps down into them from a high place

Initially cow had more teats than now

St. Peter eats bread (cake) secretly. When Chist talks to him he tries to hide what he ei eating and spits it out. Afterwards mushrooms grow from crumbs

The demon has to give the man a hat (boot, bag or other container) full of gold. The man plans his hat (pot etc.) with a hole in it in such a way that the gold falls out of the container as soon as it is put into it. The man gets enormous treasure

A girl or young woman sets off to find or return her fience or her husband or she escapes from a fanger and ultimately marries happily

A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife

God charges a man with the task of magaging the weather. The man sends rain and heat in a due propotion but is unable to consider all relevant factors (usually forgets the wind). As a result, the man gets no harvest at all all the breads has a bad taste

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

Person must wash something black making it white or vice versa (yarn, clothes, board, etc.)

A young man kills somebody and later gets to know that ut was his father

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

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)

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

A big predator is eager to see a man. He comes across a boy but gets to know that he will be a man later, then an old person who is not a man anymore. The encounter with the real man (hunter, soldier) has for the animal the unpleasant consequences

To get rid of the hero and to get his social and family position, the imposter pushes him into the sea or maroons him on a faraway island. The hero survives and comes back
{The circum-Pacific versions which are geographically remote from the Western European ones are excluded. See motif K1E}

The Pleiades are a woman with her children

Колобок

The boots (shoes, sandals) which allow the person wearing them to move with extraordinary speed are mentioned

The pastimes or only names of the hero’s companions are unusual and different but their specific qualities that they must possess considering their names are irrelevant for the plot. Cf. motif K66, “Extraordinary companions”

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

People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared

An ordeal: to remain alive in a closed room full of beasts of prey, poisonous or other dangerous creatures

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)

To detain a beauty who runs away from the palace (church, etc.) the man who is in love with her smears the threshold (steps) with a glue (tar). The girl’s shoe remains stuck in it, all the girls are asked to put it on and it fits only to the heroine

Hero must bring hairs, feathers, scales, etc. of a dangerous person and does it thanks to the helps of a wife or (grand)mother of this person

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

Person comes to God (Fate, Sun, etc.) and puts questions that asked him to put those whom he met on the way. Somebody wanted to know for how long he must fulfill his duties. The answer: he or she must put other person on his or her place

A (demonic) person is riding a cock

A girl is promised to a man who would know her name or whose finger would fit her ring, or who would guess a material from which certain object is made or grown. Person finds a correct answer by deception

When a man gets to see creatures of beings sleeping under the hot sun, he coveres them with a cloth, leaves etc. The beings are grateful and make somethig good for the man

Being smart and witty, the hedgehog overcomes overcomes strong adversaries

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

A fool or a buffoon takes the door of the house and carries it on his back

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

Wolf (more rare other predator animal) comes to different (more than two species) domestic animals (animals and people) to eat them but agrees to fulfill their requests and remains without his meal and usually becomes beaten (killed)

Getting a magic sack into which any being must climb according to the wish of the owner, a man acquires power over the Death (Devil)

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

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)

A girl with the cut off hands comes to the fruit tree (into the vegetable garden) to find food. A princes gets to see her there and marries her

To revive or to cure his friend (rare: himself) or to fulfill a vow person is ready to sacrifice his small (young) son (children). The son revives or the supernatural powers are satisfied with the very willingness of the person to commit sacrifice

After seeing a portrait of an unknown beauty, a man is eager to meet her

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

Body parts of a person or pieces of his flesh are thrown down one by one. (In American Indian versions those who are on the ground usually take them for game, honey, fish)

Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the fox, jackal or coyote suffers a reverse, is injured or dies

Closing formula of the folktale: the teller represents himself as being present at the wedding and/or feast, which were organized by characters of the tale

Mother tries to kill her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair