The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female
The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
A figure or an imprint of some being or object are seen in the Moon. (For statistical analysis motifs A32A – A32J are also included into A32)
Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon
Person who went to fetch water and/or holds in hands a container for liquid is seen in the moon
A person pursued by an enemy or tyrannized by others asks the Moon to take her or him to the sky. The request is granted and the person is now seen in the Moon
Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later
Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance
Mammoth described as an underground fish-related creature moves across the earth while it is still wet creating the present landscape
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.)
Ursa major (seven stars or only four stars of a dipper) is identified with an ungulate (elk, deer, mountain sheep, etc.)
Stars of the handle of the Big Dipper are identified with the hunters, the dipper itself with the game (bear or elk) or a neat-barn ravaged by bear
Stars of the handle of the Big Dipper are three hunters who pursue an animal and demonstrate particular psychological characteristics (one is a boaster, another is a hurried one, etc.). In Siberia the hunters belong to different ethnic groups and in the North American Northeast they are different species of birds
Particular pieces of flesh or inner organs in the bodies of animals, birds, or fish originally belonged to other creatures
Bones of fresh-water fish are result of a fighting or military expedition. The bones are arrows that have pierced the fish bodies (gill openings are pierced by arrows) or the small bones are fragments of originally big ones
Fish and birds shoot arrows into each other. Since then there are many small bones inside the fish
Hazel-grouse was big and dangerous. He is torn to pieces which are shared between other birds and animals. What remains is the present grouse
To thank or to punish a small mammal like chipmunk or (ground) squirrel, animal or person scratches or paints it producing stripes on its back
Person beats hares, foxes or other medium size animals who became helpless (usually closed in his house). Tale explains why tips of the animals' ears or tails have a particular color
Eyes of wood-grouse became red because it shed tears
Creator and his opponent ponder upon should the dog be able to use a bow or fire-arms
Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object
Grateful person decorates (rare: punishes) a bird who lives near water (kingfisher, loon, goose), thence its appearance (crest, beak, feathers)
Inhabitans of the Middle World are (partly) destroyed (or will be destoyed) once by fire or draught, another time by a flood or the world is destroyed with a flood of fire or boiling water
Persons or animals dive or otherwise decend to the lower world to get a desired object and to bring it to earth (besides episodes in the fairytales, cf. motif k27x9)
An aquatic bird dives and brings the desired object from the bottom
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)
Monsters or ghosts try to invade our world. Powerful person or creature is on guard and prevents the invasion
The fire is personified as an elder man (alone or with his wife, mistress of fire)
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
Person knows that the deceiver and trickster has one of his teeth broken. To identify him, person makes others laugh and thus open their mouths
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)
Human body was or could be protected with a hard layer (rare: with hair) but it has been preserved only on fingers and toes (on the head)
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)
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
Demonic person turns into or consists of different household objects or tools (and into elements of a landscape)
Animals ask God to make people mortal because people would be too numerous and step on the animals, deprive them of their food and habitat, or because the animals want to feast on the human corpses
People are mortal because they have been likened to something subject to decay and easy destruction (e.g. to the soft wood and not to the stone)
Dog guards (successfully or unsuccessfully) the (still unfinished) physical body of man or the entrance to paradise
Dog is responsible for people being mortal or imperfect. Usually the antagonist bribes dog with a warm fur and the dog lets him spoil the half-ready human figures
After creating the bodies of the first people or after getting a conception how to do it the Creator goes away for a while. During his absence another person, because of his or her ignorance or intentionally, spoils the creation or makes himself or herself what the Creator would make in a better way. Usually because of this people are mortal and subject to diseases
After making human body, creator goes away for a time. In his absence another person spits on the human figure that was not yet alive, smears it with filth, etc.
A woman or child demonstrate no respect for bread soiling it with excrements. For this God punishes all the humanity
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)
Creatures that produce rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or anthropomorphic beings with wings; or (rare) some or all birds are connected with thunder, lightning or rain though Thunder is not a bird
A tree or post pierces and unites different layers of the universe
Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head
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)
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
There is (or was) a tree on which souls of still unborn babies grow, which leaves transform into people, or which trunk is covered with female breasts or flowers that innumerable babies are sucking
Rainbow is the ornamented part of the clothes, its decoration, a belt
World is supported by fish or fish-like monster or the earth itself is such a monster
Stars are openings in the firmament; holes in dwelling's covering are thought to be stars
The alive person who is travelling between the worlds is visible for inhabitants of one world and invisible for inhabitants of another
Waters of all rivers on earth run to the precipice where they rush down into the underworld
Milky Way is a path of a person who was walking on snow-shoes
Master of living beings sends down, hairs, scales, etc. which turn into birds, animals, fish
Two constellations (usually Ursa major and Ursa minor) are interpreted as twin objects of the same type (two animals, two carts, etc.)
Two sisters (if more, only two play a significant role in the plot) travel and meet an unpleasant suitor or get to an ogre
Walking in search of her husband, boyfriend, kinsmen, shelter woman or girl gets to the house of dangerous creatures where she is injured or killed
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 or twins. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared
After the hero comes back after a long absence and finds his parents enslaved, he tells them to demonstrate openly a lack of respect to their masters and punishes those who were cruel with them
Person stretches his or her leg or neck as a bridge across water body. The fugitives or those who walk ahead cross the bridge; the persecutor or those who are behind usually fall because the person takes his bridge off
Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body
Hero and his adversary play hide-and-seek. The hero finds his adversary but the adversary cannot find him
Flying person or creature abducts a woman but is ultimately killed or the woman escapes from 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.
Negative person, object or place is contrasted with one or two positive ones as wood with silver and gold
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 man meets a dangerous giant (or serpent) who proves to be friendly to him. When another giant fights with the first one, the man helps his friend
Person lets be firmly tied up when another one say that it's only a joke (e.g. a test to see can the first one break bonds)
A man gets to a country which inhabitants hunts of fish people whom they consider wild and equivalent to the real game or fish
An animal or (rare) a person that gave birth to the hero or supported him for a long time asks his master or son to kill him or her. Its (her) remains turn into a house with a household where the hero can live
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.
Person sticks to an object, usually touching it one by one with his body members. The object is a trap of demonic creature or is a non human creature itself
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'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
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
Two or more sisters pick up a baby boy. In their absence he turns into adult man but when they come back they find him again in guise of a baby lying in its cradle
A baby or small child proves to be a demon, devours or injures people
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
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)
Running away from a dangerous being, person throws objects that turn into mighty obstacles on the way of the pursuer. One of the thrown objects is a whetstone which turns into a mountain
One-sided people have one leg and/or also one arm, one half of a head, etc. The second leg is not cut or burned off, preserved as a stump but is absent completely
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
A man, stooping down to water, is caught and held by his beard, and has to give the promise in order to be relieved
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
Person crosses a water or air space along the chain of many animals, birds or fish
Animal who does not swim well suggests animals who live in water to count their number. For this, they should make a chain and he would run along it. It is but a trick to cross a body of water
Person pursued by an enemy asks somebody whom he meets to help him. The helper hides him
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
Two or three brothers live together (with their mother). One of them makes stupid actions like (all or some of them): lets free animals that got into a snare but kills his mother; cuts off the legs of domestic animals or flays them; thinks that a certain place on a head of a baby is a tumor, sucks baby's brains out; cuts a cloth into pieces and ties them to reeds of to branches of a tree; hearing a murmur of water throws food into the water; tries to build a hut not on a river bank but in the river
The deceiver who promised to cure a sick or wounded person or animal devours him or suggests a remedy that makes the sick one to feel ever worse
Travelling in a boat or on a sledge, animal person (always the fox) steals food supplies or ruins objects and accordingly to his deeds, names different places. These names seem strange to the person’s companions (“River of broken arrows” and the like)
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
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
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
The bear answers the fox (rare sable or wolf) that he is not afraid of the men (often says that he is afraid of the partridges when they fly up suddenly). When the bear attacks a man, he is wounded or killed. Cf. motif M101A
Person suggests to do some work (usually to ferry people's property across river) but carries away the property that he was entrusted to control
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
A healthy animal tricks an injured one (a wolf, a bear) into carrying him on his back by pretending to be injured himself
A bird-person who usually does not fly away in the autumn makes attempt to fly with migratory birds but is unable to reach destination
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.)
A bird with two or more heads on top of one body is described in tales or represented in art
Person pretends to eat his own genitals. Another one believes him and cuts off his genitals
Two or more different birds (often a loon and a duck) dive one after another to get earth from under the ocean. Only one of them is successful
Three main stars of the Big Dipper’s handle are associated with three men of different ethnic afiliation
Both the Sun and the Moon are considered to be females (incl. cases when the gender is not directly specified but both emerge from parts of the body of a female person)
Ursus major (seven stars or only four stars of a dipper) is identified with the game animal or anmials (usually pursued by the hunter)
In the cosmic hunt tale only one hunter (not many) pursues an animal (elk or bear) associated with a circumpolar constellation but not with Orion or the Pleiades. (In Kalevalaic tradition the association with particular sideral objects is absent
The name of the Venus is like Čolpan, Čolbon, Tsulmon, etc.
The fox lives with an old man or the wolf, ties him by deception and runs away
The fox by deception ties the wolf. Released by a bird, the wolf decorates its plumage
Person (usually a girl) gets to the powerful person (usually an old woman) who asks her to act in a strange and harsh way (to put room in disorder, to bring unclean water, and the like). The person does not according to order but in a rationale and polite way and is recompensed. Another person acts according to the direct sense of the words and is punished
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
Cunning fox, jackal or coyote saves particular person or many people, helps them
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
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
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
Many animals of one species that all look identical together fulfill the task that would be impossible for any of them if he were alone; the competitors believe that the task was fulfilled by only one animal. Usually a slow and a fast animals agree to race. The slow one puts other animals of his species at the finish or along the distance, each one answering the fast one that he is ahead of him. The fast one accepts his loss
An animal (fox, wolf, leopard) runs along the shore while a fish (burbot, goby) swims in the water. The animal calls him and every time hears his voice from ahead. (Usually the fish puts other fish along the distance but in the Negidal version the competition motif is absent)
An ogre (devil, etc.) challenges a man to a wrestling and/or running contest. The man sends his “relative” – a bear to wrestle and a hare to run
Person suggests to do some work (usually to ferry people's property across river) but carries away the property that he was entrusted to control, A woodpecker or tit helps to return the property. The owner decorates the bird, thence the color of its plumage
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)
Fire is personified as an (elder) woman, alone or with her husband, master of fire
A girl asks a man who arrived by horse to tether it to the summer or to the winter, i.e. to a sleigh or to a cart
Person’s (demonic) nature becomes clear when he or she laughs and shows his or her teeth
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
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 wolverine suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Person who remained alone in a house or got into the house of dangerous creatures hides turning into a needle or other weaving or spinning tool
One person or animal suggests another to slide downhill to kill or harm him or her
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
God gives instructions according to which particular categories of people must die or suffer. Person who receives these instructions distors them out of sympathy for the people
Certain bones in the body of living creatures (usually birds and fish) are arrows that were shot into them
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)
Ursa major or other circumpolar constellation is a stretcher on which a dead or sick person is carried, a dead body ready for the burial, a tomb
Being irresponsible and light-minded, animal person slides downhill and dies or gets into trouble (falls on sharp pole, into the water, etc.)
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the fox, jackal or coyote suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
There are creatures who hibernate having frozen snot under their noses
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
The river bed follows the way of a snake, fish, dragon or crab; pieces of the snake’s body turn into rivers; a river is a snake
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it
Death eats the dead and thus assuages his hunger
Person follows an animala through its hole or digs a hole himself and gets into the lower world where the animals who dig holes live
When a man who had got to the land of spirits touches a local dweller the latter dies or becomes sick
The figure of a person or creature is visible in the Sun or it is told that a person got to the Sun and remained there
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
To reach his or her destination, person follows a ball of threads (rare: some ball, apple) which is rolling in front of him or her
(Animal) person who tried to scare the God (people) with his/its, behavior, strange look or sudden appearance is punished being transformed into an animal (of different characteristics than it was before)
A bird gives a man several magic objects in succession (or one object which helps to get others) or fulfills in succession a series of his wishes
A deceiver carries away (in a boat) some person’s possessions. A small bird (usually a woodpecker) cheats the deceiver in his own turn and brings the possessions back to the owner
Game animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underworld where they often look like humans and have a master
World is supported by fish or fish-like monster or the earth itself is such a monster
Master of living beings sends down, hairs, scales, etc. which turn into birds, animals, fish
Life of every man is related to certain thread. When the thread is cut, the man dies
Man is mortal because somebody spit on him when his figure was still in process of creation
Birds must dive to get mud from the bottom of the waterbody, this mud will turn into the dry land. The loon is unable to reach the bottom, refuses to dive or attempts to hide the mud that brought by him (usually he is punished for this)
The duck (or an aquatic bird similar to the duck) dives and brings a piece of earth that is transformed into the dry land (it is the only or the only successful diver)
Lightning emerges from eyes or mouth of the being who is thought to produce thunderstorms
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
Three stars of Big Dipper’s handle are three persons. Four stars of the Dipper itself are objects of animals (one or several)