Some creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, summer and winter, lunar phases) or irregularly (solar and lunar eclipses, eschatological events) attack the luminaries or shade their light
Two male anthropomorphic creators compete in producing things. One of them is or becomes master of the underworld and/or spirits while another is associated with humans
Weak or herbivorous animals were dangerous predators but have been transformed
Some game animals have a piece of human flesh in their body that remained since the time when these animals were anthropomorphic
The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again)
Demon (snake) regularly kills woman’s husbands during the first night, the woman herself being ignorant about the reason of their death
One of the trees is the principal, original one (emerged before all the other; ancestor of wild or cultivated plants; ocean or rivers inside it; world axis; higher than all the others; overshadows sky)
Killed and destroyed (often burned) person or creature (usually ogre, fierce animal, powerful shaman) turns into a multitude of biting insects or into other small molesting creatures
Person who visits the other world gets to see different people punished or rewarded according to their behavior when they were alive on earth
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)
The sky is constantly moving up and down in respect to earth
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
A dog is the lord, guard or guide of/to the land of the dead; or dogs live on the way to the land of the dead
Heroes avenge the murder or captivity of the male relatives: (grand)father, uncles, or the elder relatives in general, the loss of the males being the most traumatic
Baby heroes, embryos or objects from which they emerge are found in a river or lake or come to people out of the water
A youth gets to know that a woman (usually his mother) conceals from him important information about his father, brothers or bride. He causes her pain (usually putting hot scone, handful of hot grain, etc. into her hand) making her tell him the truth
Person gets into the belly of ground animal or bird. He kills it from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)
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
Hero and his adversary play hide-and-seek. The hero finds his adversary but the adversary cannot find him
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.
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)
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
For helping its children, their powerful mother or father who is a giant bird or (rare) other flying being helps the hero
Every time when a horse gives birth to wonderful colts, they are stolen by a giant bird. A hero goes to get the colts and kills a serpent that regularly devours nestlings of the giant bird
Powerful person listens in conversation of three (rare: two or four) women. Each of them tells what she would do if the person marries her. One promises to bear his son (children) who would have wonderful qualities, two others promise to practice some kind of work or (more rare) marry people of lower status
A 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
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)
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
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
An ogre (an ogress) swallows people, is killed but the people are not found in his or her belly or are found dead. Only when the ogre's finger is cut off, the hero finds a remedy to revive the people or the swallowed up (the swallowed hero himself) come out alive from the finger of the ogre
Hero's dogs or horse or (rare) he himself fight with his adversary in the underworld (under the water). Those who are waiting for the outcome of the combat understand who overcomes whom by the color of water or foam that rises to the surface, or the color animal who comes first to the surface
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
An ogre or ogress catches a person and carries his or her prey home but the person escapes on the way or immediately after reaching the ogre's house
Hero escapes from the demon's basket or bag letting stone (a piece of wood, some sand) instead of him
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
An ogre's child or (rare) wife believes in what hero tells him (or her) and releases him. Usually the hero kills the child and puts its meat to cook in the very pot where the ogre planned to cook the hero
Person hides from the powerful one now in his house, now outdoors, the powerful cannot catch him
An ogre catches a person and carries his or her prey home but the person escapes on the way. The ogre comes back, this time carries the person to his home. Or the ogre catches a group of children, most of them escape on the way, one is brought to the ogre's place
Persons who are dangerous for the hero (demons, robbers, merchants) take for something pleasant and edible those objects, creatures or matters (excrements, snakes, insects, etc.) that are disgusting (not edible)
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
Person escapes to a tree or high rock. An ogre tries to cut it down. Some person or animal suggests the ogre to have a rest, promises to work instead of him but spoils his work or (in Subarctic) kills him when the ogre gives him his axe. (Africa versions have Eurasian origins)
Cunning fox, jackal or coyote saves particular person or many people, helps them
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 (usually a kid or lad) returns to the former place to pick up the forgotten object (often a toy) and is caught there by a demonic being
A lung or a liver lies on a road or floats in a pond etc. As soon as person touches them, a dangerous demon appears in front of him
A man marries a beauty but catches her in a situation when her not human nature is revealed. After this their marriage breaks down
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
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.
Two animals or persons compare their vomits to know about the diet and habits of each other. The weaker one gets to exchange vomits, to swallow the unusual food before, or to swallow his partner's vomits
While person is asleep, another smears with excrements or something that reminds excrements his or her bed or clothes. The ashamed person runs away or agrees to make what the trickster wants in exchange of his silence
Tiny boy as small as a thumb, a pea and the like taunts people, predator animals, ogres
Person pierces a bladder with blood or red juice, simulates murder or suicide
Person gets other person’s possessions by trick (or pretends to get it; usually another person is drowned instead of him) and then demonstrates his possessions (usually a herd) and explains that he had received everything at the river bottom. His enemies believe him
Person is put into a bag (a cage, tied up, etc.) to be drowned, burned, etc. He pretends to be in this situation by his own will or because he refuses to marry a princess, to become a chief and the like. Another person is willing to take his place and is killed
Animal persons lie to sleep at the edge of a bluff or cliff. At night one of them tells another (others) to move a little, the companion (companions) falls down and dies
An old couple live alone and adopt a boy (a trickster-animal) as a son. He steals their property (and runs away)
An animal suggests another to sit on the ice till some food will fall from the sky. Waiting this way for food to fall down the anima is frozen to the ice
Person lies to another that he is eating his eyes. The companion agrees to be blinded. The first person extracts one of companion’s eye but gives him to eat something delicious instead. The companion believes that his eyes are good to eat and agrees to be deprived of another eye too
Cumulative tale: a small bird cuts itself with a sharp blade of grass or a thorn and asks the others to punish the plant. Everyone finds an excuse why they cannot do anything (sheep, wolves, boys, etc.). The last one is the wind, it blows making all other persons act
An animal person becomes a herdsman but eats the entrusted animals up
Roasting meat or baking bread for his master, a servant sees a girl (rare: small boy) and is so impressed with her (or his) beauty, that the meat or bread get burnt
Hero gives his rivals the food provided by him by order of the king but the king finds this food poisonous, useless or tasteless while the food presented by the hero is excellent even if it looks not so good
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
A powerful person coverts a beautiful bride or wife of a man and gives him impossible tasks to get rid of him
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
For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man
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)
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
To get know the precise number of certain units, to select certain object among many others, to get know a name of particular person or a reason of particular phenomenon, person tries to surprise (or unintentionally surprises) the possessor of the knowledge who becomes to speak aloud and so provides the hero with necessary information
Person is suggested to twist (or he really twists) a rope or make other object of sand, ash, smoke, etc.
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
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
Stories act as particular persons: become harmful because they think that a certain person does not treat them in a correct way
Two creators agree that whose object will be found in a certain condition (usually: whose tree or flower will grow or blossom first) should be recognized as a senior one. While one of the creators sleeps or is absent, another replaces the objects and so achieves the priority by deceit
After an extensive search powerful man finds a smart wife for his son. Being caught by his enemies he sends some a message to his daughter-in-law, the messengers being chosen among the enemies. The young woman understands the real meaning of the received text, destroys the enemies and releases her father-in-law. (In Malagasy version the youngest wife is insyead of the daughter-in-law)
Personage of gigantic dimensions in respect to normal humans and animals proves to be tiny dwarf in respect to another personage
Man takes a pot from the fire but it is still boiling or he cooks the food beforehand and tells that his pot cooks it in no time (or that his stick touching ground creates the food). Another man buys the pot (the stick)
A person sends to his or her kinsmen or spouse through other persons a text or an object. Only the receiver understands the real meaning of words or of the object, saves the sender and/or destroys his enemies
When domestic animals meat the predators, they – deliberately or unintentionally – behave in such a way that the predators escape in panic
The name of the Venus is like Čolpan, Čolbon, Tsulmon, etc.
Every night or every year a mare gives birth to a colt but every time it is stolen
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
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
A man buries something half-liquid and soft (animal bowels, eggs, etc.). He stamps (shoots an arrow) at this place and claims that got to extract brains (bowels, etc.) from the earth
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.
Epics and folktales begin with an initial formula in which it is claimed that objects that are huge now were tiny
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.
Persons whose body parts are obviously vulnerable (head like a bladder, neck like a hair, leg like a straw, etc.) attempt to behave normal people and perish one after the other.
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
Strong men have ribs grown together to form a kind of an armor or shell
Person proves the absurdity of the claims of another person saying that his or her father (or other man or a male animal) had given or is giving birth or is menstruating
Person demands from the other to bring him an offspring or milk of a male animal
Person lies that his name is so and so. Others understand it not as a name but as a common word and behave accordingly
A man, stooping down to water, is caught and held by his beard, and has to give the promise in order to be relieved
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Because of its stupidity or unsocial behavior, the bear suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the tiger suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Many brothers marry or have to marry in such a way that all their wives are (were) sisters
An ungulate animal (a horse, an elk, a moose) with six or more legs is described or represented in art
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
Person or animal must eat (drink) enormous quantity of food (beverage) or eat or drink poisonous beverage or food
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation
Several companions have extraordinary abilities (one who runs fast, one who eats great quantities, one who produces or can withstand severe frost, etc.); a hero comes across and takes for companions several men, each of them being involved into a special and unusual activity
A 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)
Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed
An object that contains the life (soul) of a person is inside two or more creatures or other objects (like an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, etc.) or the zoomorphic soul container tries to escape and turns in succession to other animals (three or more transformations)
A task-giver asks the hero to get for him a particular woman
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
A bird or birds attack or shade the Sun or the Moon during an eclipse or at the sunrise and sunset
An unrecognized hero comes to a place where his bride or wife has to marry another man or is tuned into a slave. Despite expectations, he gets to strain a tight bow killing his rivals
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
Hero is sent to bring milk of a wild animal or milk in possession of a dangerous creature or person
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
Person sets off in search of fire and finds it in the house of a demon. The demon makes harm to the person
While the men of the household are not at home, a demonic person comes to drink blood of a girl or young woman. Initially the men do not understand why the girl becomes thin
Hero’s companions cut off his legs and abandon him (usually they put a sword in front of his tent and when the hero runs out in a hurry, he is wounded by the blade)
When two persons are fighting, somebody wants one of them fall (while another be firm on his feet) and for this throws something under his feet
Person must hit a needle with an arrow (to shoot an arrow though the eye of a needle)
A girl, a young woman, or children who are associated with a hare or rabbit are heroines or successful tricksters
When her brother is killed, a girl puts on his clothes and in a guise of a man wins competitions and gets women who are able to revive the dead. She puts the clothes back on her brother and the women come and revive him taking him for their husband. Or a sister is killed and her brother after winning wives tricks them to revive her
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
Something big or huge gets into the man’s eye but he takes it for a speck of dust. Usually a bird picks up and carries away an animal or a fish and drops its bone into an eye of a man. When the bone is found, it is dragged out with difficulty (people ride in a boat inside the eye, drag the bone with a fishnet, with many oxen, etc.)
When a man comes to a beautiful woman she tricks him by asking to finish some trivial task, keeping him by her magic in an awkward or ridiculous position until daylight. Episode is repeated next nights with other or (rare) the same suitor. Usually the first suitor being ashamed tells the other that everything was nice, so all of them are humiliated the same way
The nose of anthropomorphic being is like a beak of copper or iron
The formula that describes the confusion of feelings: when a person looks in one direction, he or she cries, when in another – begins to laugh or smile; or one eye of a person laughs and another laughs; or person laughs looking at one object and weeps looking at another; or one of two persons who share the same fate laughs and another smiles, etc.
A predator animal asks a goat (a ram, etc.) about a purpose of certain parts of his body. The goat describes every part as a weapon able to injure his opponent or the goat really possesses weapons
Mother tries to kill her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair
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)
When an ogre exhales or lets go a bent down tree with a man on its top, the man is flung far away but explains that he jumped by his own will to repair the roof, to catch a bird, etc.
When a man or a woman promises to give his or her child to a demon, he or she does not try to save the child but help the demon to catch him or her. Despite all, the boy or girl escapes from the demon
A man whose feet were cut off lives with two others, one of whom lost his hands and another eyes (or with one of them). Acting in cooperation, they become health again
Persons climbs a tree and thanks to this escapes from a demon (who usually tries to fell the tree)
When a woman falls asleep, the trickster (usually a tiny boy) puts animal embryo or entrails (or something that looks like this) near her to make her or other people believe that she has had a miscarriage or her own entrails have fallen out
A (powerful) man asks a girl (a person of low social position) concerning a number of repetitive and trivial acts made by her or a number of small objects that she has that nobody ever counts. The girl puts a reciprocal question concerning the number of acts of the same routine kind made by the man
The demon swallows and vomits maimed and disfigured persons that makes them healthy and handsome
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
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
Person does not know that he or she eats or cooks the meat of the member of his or her household (blood relation, more rare a spouse or servant) or serves it to his or her friends, or uses her or his bones for everyday needs, or slowly kills him ort her
At the terminal part of the narrative the antagonist of the hero descends into the underworld
A bald person acts in narratives (thence his usual name: Taz, Tazchi, Kal, Keloglan, Kechal etc.)
A young man is killed. His sister puts on his clothes and pretending she is a man gets a wife for him. This woman beliefs that the girl’s brother from the very beginning was a man whom she married
Person must shoot an arrow through a small ring or several rings
Certain stars or constellations are interpreted as hunters, their dogs and game that the hunters pursue
In the cosmic hunt tale the game pursued by the hunters is an ungulate (elk, deer, mountain sheep, etc.)
The Belt of Orion is the animal or three animals, other star (of the Orion or outside of this constellation) is the hunter
People in the upper world are different than on earth and put their belts not on the waist but higher or below it
An object that contains certain person’s soul / death is inside other object, the latter is in the third one (etc.). The last receptacle of the life is a (small) bird (a nestling, several nestlings of birds)
Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they