| Motif | Name | Description |
| a12 | Eclipses: monster’s attack | 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 |
| a12a | Eclipses: a predator animal | During an eclipse or at other circumstances the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a predator animal (a bear, a feline, a canine, a racoon) |
| a46 | The Sun and Moon emerge from the eyes of a being | The Sun and Moon (Rig-Veda: the Sun only) appear from eyes of an anthropomorphic being |
| a46a | The Sun and Moon are eyes of a deity | The Sun and Moon (Rig-Veda: the Sun only) are associated with eyes of an anthropomorphic being (the motif of their emergence, creation from his eyes is not obligatory) |
| b11a | Mammoth creates the landscape | Mammoth described as an underground fish-related creature moves across the earth while it is still wet creating the present landscape |
| b12 | Rivers and snakes | 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 |
| b2e | The male earth | The earth or the world as a whole is a male person (alone or together with a female person) |
| b36a | Two creatures decorate each other | Two zoomorphic personages decorates each other or somebody decorates each of them |
| b3a | Primeval waters | Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later |
| c27 | A horn in the ice | A horned monster breaks ice on river or lake. Usually people walk across frozen body of water, get to see a horn protruding from the ice and try to cut it off. The monster breaks the ice, many people drown |
| c39 | The repaired sky | When part of the sky was broken, the hole was filled up with stones or pieces of ice |
| c40 | Rocks fall from the sky | In the beginning rocks were falling from the sky killing people |
| c7 | The flood: breaking the dam | In the beginning of times or after the flood a dam of earth, person or creature does not let water to recede. The dam is broken or opened, waters withdraw |
| c8 | The couple of close relations originates the mankind | In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister, mother and son, or father and daughters are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents |
| c8a | Grinding stones match | Being alone and having no other marriage partners, brother and sister agree to marry each other if a highly improbable event or a series of events will take place. Among the events that take place (alternatively or one after the other) are 1) the siblings let two grinding stones roll from two mountains, the brother's stone falls on the sister's one; 2) brother and sister throw two swords from two mountains, both swords get into one sheath; 3) they throw some objects up, the objects get together; 4) they kindle two fires, columns of smoke get together; 5) they put to grow two stems of bamboo, tops of the stems get together |
| c8a1 | Thread should enter the needle’s eye | Being alone and having no other marriage partners, brother and sister agree to marry each other if a highly improbable event will take place: a thread that is far from a needle has to enter the needle’s eye. |
| c8a2 | The stone lion | The lion (often the stone lion) helps to suvive the flood |
| c8aa | Brother and sister beget the people | In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents |
| c9 | Warning about the coming flood | God, animal, some person warns one of the people about the catastrophy (usuallly the flood) that will become soon and in which most of the people must perish |
| d4a | Theft of fire | Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before |
| d4l | Fire from the sky | First fire is sent to earth from the sky or the ancestors ascend to the sky and bring from there fire or warmth |
| e1a1 | Becoming sodden under the rain (origin of cripples) | Deity or ancestor makes people from mud. Some figures become sodden under the rain and this is the reason why some people have physical defects |
| e4 | Creation from dirt of the skin | Supernatural person creates the entire earth, human or other beings of dirt taken from his or her skin, from under the nails, etc. |
| e9 | The mysterious housekeeper | Person observes traces of some activity that takes place in his (rare: her) house in his (her) absence and then takes by surprise the responsible one |
| f31 | The snake egg | Girl or woman is imperceptibly impregnated by snake when the content of a broken egg of a snake flows into her vagina or when she touches a dead snake |
| f51b | Following the thread | To get know the nature or locality of a person, another fastens a thread to his body and follows it |
| f51d | The ginseng-child | The ginseng roots are boys or girls who help the hero |
| f86a | An eaten up pet | Person take care for a fish, crab or other small creature. Another person spies on him or her, kills the pet and eats it up or try to do it |
| g24 | Food from the sky | First seeds (sprouts, tubors) of cultivated plants or of important edible wild plants are brought from the sky (received from the sky-dwellers) |
| h34e | The edible snow | Snow was edible or something edible was falling from the sky instead of the snow |
| h45 | The abused bread | A woman or child demonstrate no respect for bread soiling it with excrements. For this God punishes all the humanity |
| h46 | The dog’s part | 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) |
| h54b | The glance of death | Person’s glance brings death (and destruction) |
| h55 | Sinners in other world | Person who visits the other world gets to see different people punished or rewarded according to their behavior when they were alive on earth |
| i100 | The Pleiades are girls | The Pleiades are a group of girls or women (with children) |
| i100b | The Pleiades are a group of people | The Pleiades are any people (of any ages and sex, combined data of i99-i100a) |
| i133 | Whole-sky constellation | Sideral objects in different parts of the sky are identified with one and the same humanoid figure (parts of its body, decoratioons, etc.). |
| i133a | The big bird constellation | There is a constellation identified with a bird that corresponds to several big constellations in European traditions (mostly Ecuatorial and not Circum-Popar). |
| i27c | The four-eyed dog | Dogs having spots over the eyes are called the four-eyed and believed to have special properties (e.g. to see ghosts) |
| i50 | Ungulate animal with more than four legs | An ungulate animal (a horse, an elk, a moose) with six or more legs is described or represented in art |
| i55 | Stars are openings | Stars are openings in the firmament; holes in dwelling's covering are thought to be stars |
| i62 | Milky Way is a river | Milky Way is a sky river, water body, chain of beings that swim |
| i74 | Stars are stones | Stars are shining stones, spangles, beads |
| i85 | Polaris is a pole, a nail | Polaris is a (tethering) pole or a nail |
| i85b | Polaris is a person | Polaris is a person |
| j26 | Babies come out of the water | Baby heroes, embryos or objects from which they emerge are found in a river or lake or come to people out of the water |
| k151 | The fisherman and his wife | Supernatural creature fulfills a poor man’s moderate request. After this he or his wife asks for ever bigger gifts till the angry helper punishes them (usually takes all his gifts away) |
| k17 | The ornitomorphic suitor | An ornitomorphic hero impregnates a girl magically or imperceptibly for her |
| k25 | Magic wife | A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world |
| k25e | Magic wife is an ancestor | All humans, members of a particular ethnic or social group or a ruling dynasty are believed to descend from a mortal man and a woman of supernatural origin |
| k29a | Surviving in a fire | Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation |
| k38f4 | Fire-breathing monster | From the mouth of a monstrous creature or person who is the enemy of the hero fire is coming out; its breath is fire |
| k56b | The worthy man is rewarded, the unworthy punished | First one, then another man meets a powerful person or persons. The first man is worthy and rewarded with treasure, prestige or the like. The second man (or two men) follows him, behaves in a wrong way and is punished |
| k83 | The sons on a quest for a wonderful remedy for their father | To cure a sick person or to make him (rare: her) young again it is necessary to bring a remedy from a distant country. The medicine is brought and the sick person is cured (becomes young) |
| l100d | The entrapped suitors | A pretty, faithful wife is courted by one or several men, one of them usually a clergyman. With her husband’s consent, she invites the suitor(s) to a private rendezvous. Before the first man’s wishes are gratified, the next one arrives and then the husband himself. The suitor or suitors are caught in an uncomfortable position and then killed, punished in some other manner, ridiculed, made to pay ransom, to work, etc. |
| l125 | Demonic wife recognized | A man marries a beauty but catches her in a situation when her not human nature is revealed. After this their marriage breaks down |
| l19b | Beings with odd number of heads | Being (any besides birds) with more than ten heads or with odd (but more than one) number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. If beings with ever more number of heads are named, the row ends with a being that has odd (or more than ten) number of heads |
| m116 | Wisdom of hidden old man saves kingdom | People are ordered to kill their fathers or (rare) mothers (the Nyoro: to deprive them of power and property; the Baluch: not to take them setting off for the journey). An old man concealed by his son helps to resolve difficult problem |
| m202 | Thorn removed from lion’s paw | Person removes a thorn from the paw (bone from the throat) of a strong and dangerous animal or a demon, the animal (demon) is grateful |