Other suns or moons besides present ones had been in the sky and were later annihilated
The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female
Person intentionally and with special equipment (usually shooting arrows) attacks the Sun (or several suns if they were many)
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
The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman
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
Person kicks loon or other water bird. Since then this bird has flat tail base and it walks on dry land with difficulty
Certain stars or constellations are interpreted as hunters, their dogs and game that the hunters pursue
Ursa major (seven stars or only four stars of a dipper) is identified with an ungulate (elk, deer, mountain sheep, etc.)
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
Eyes of wood-grouse became red because it shed tears
Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object
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)
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
First man (a group of brothers) or first human couple come out from the underworld (a cave) or from a small enclosure on its surface (tussock, reed, tree, rock, gourd)
First people are born by trees or come out of a tree, flower, reed
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
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
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)
An ungulate animal (a horse, an elk, a moose) with six or more legs is described or represented in art
Demon tears off or devours one by one legs of aт animal who helps the hero, usually of his riding horse
The alive person who is travelling between the worlds is visible for inhabitants of one world and invisible for inhabitants of another
Thunder's enemies are evil spirits, reptiles, animals living in burrows. They hide from him in different objects, Thunder destroys these objects
Milky Way is a path of a person who was walking on snow-shoes
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
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
Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body
A girl, a young woman, or children who are associated with a hare or rabbit are heroines or successful tricksters
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 girl and her rival (a witch, a frog) marry two brothers. Both daughters-in-law have to bring presents from their kinsfolk. The girl finds her brother, brothers or sister who were lost or died in the beginning of the tale and they give her valuables. Presents brought by the rival are worthless
A girl with her maimed sister or brother escapes from a danger. The sister (brother) rejects some places where the girl wants to abandon her or him but agrees with her last suggestion
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
Only head remains from a girl. It rolls after her younger sister or sisters or they take it with them. Ultimately the head finds a place to stop
Two sisters or two brothers get into demon's house. One crawls out through a tiny opening, another sticks there. Brother or sister pulls him or her by the head but tears it off
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 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 brings him to his or her home where he or she plans to cook and eat him. The hero escapes
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
Person that has to be eaten up imperceptibly runs away. The master of the house thinks that his wife had eaten the food alone and cuts her belly open
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
Unintentionally, person gets to taste his or her own blood or flesh, likes the taste, turns into a cannibal
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
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 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
A small bird makes a powerful anthropomorphic person lose his temper. The bird cannot be annihilated, cries from inside person's stomach, the person suffers or dies
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
One person or animal suggests another to slide downhill to kill or harm him or her
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
Мать (мачеха, приемный отец) не дает еды девочке или (реже) мальчику. Ребенок просит перелетных птиц взять его с собой, те (Step)parent does not share his or her food with a child. The child (usually a small girl) asks the migrating birds (swans, geese, etc.) to take her or him with them. The birds give the child feathers (wings, etc.) and the girl (boy) flies away with the birds
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
A girl (rare: boy) turns into bird and flies away when her mother (father or other adult person in whose house she lives) does not give her food, water or makes her feel offended in other way
The first men and/or women have no genitals
Genitals exist by themselves as separate beings, they can be stuck to the human body, remove, etc.
When dry land is created, Creator takes a rest and sleeps. His antagonist decides to drown him and drags him to the edge of the earth. The dry land grows in size as long as the antagonist drags the Creator's body, the edge never reached
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
In the cosmic hunt tale the game pursued by the hunters is 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
Three stars of the Dipper’s handle of Ursa Mayor are three men (hunters, thieves) who are eager to get an animal (an elk or a bear) or an object (a cot). Alkor (a weak star near Mizar) is a receptacle in possession of the second man
Three main stars of the Big Dipper’s handle are associated with three men of different ethnic afiliation
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
A girl, a young woman, or children who are associated with a hare or rabbit are heroines or successful tricksters
Two or three sisters are sent in succession to powerful person. The first or the first and the second sister behave in a wrong way, perish or do not succeed. The last one behaves correctly, gets a reward
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
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 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’s (demonic) nature becomes clear when he or she laughs and shows his or her teeth
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
In the pike’s head are (seen) tool used by people
Particular pieces of flesh or inner organs in the bodies of animals, birds, or fish originally belonged to other creatures
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
Stars are openings in the firmament; holes in dwelling's covering are thought to be stars
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
Certain bones in the body of living creatures (usually birds and fish) are arrows that were shot into them
Being irresponsible and light-minded, animal person slides downhill and dies or gets into trouble (falls on sharp pole, into the water, etc.)
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
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 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
Beings (any besides birds) with even but not more than ten number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. Beings that with even number of heads named in a row with other multi-headed beings and the highest number is even or bigger than ten are not considered
Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it
When a man who had got to the land of spirits touches a local dweller the latter dies or becomes sick
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
Person flies (makes attempt to fly) away after sticking feathers to his or her body dropped by migratory birds that fly above in the sky
(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)
Breaking or cutting his leg, animal person becomes to eat his own bone marrow
Setting off for a search of a woman or magic objects, a man comes across several (usually three) supernatural (often demonic) persons who help him. All the persons are similar but usually every next one is older (younger) than another
Person must go beyond relatively small objects (trees, logs, blades) which are incessantly clashing and parting, rising and falling
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)
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
Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they
Three stars of Big Dipper’s handle are three persons. Four stars of the Dipper itself are objects of animals (one or several)