Person drinks a lake or all the water in the world or all the water is originally inside person's belly. When a hole is made in it, the water pours out
Day light (also warmth, the sun, the moon) is kept as a particular object in a container, under a cover, etc.
Person paints birds or animals or they paint each other. Some of them are not satisfied with the result
Two birds decorate each other, one becomes worse than it was before
Raven or other carrion-eating bird of dark color and a similar size was originally white
The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again)
Raven or other big dark-feathered bird scavenger is the owner, personification, spouse, obtainer or stealer of fire, daylight, or the Sun
Making people, creator does not reach perfection immediately. First variants of creation are rejected, then proper form and material found
The first people or (the first) woman (wife of a primeval ancestor) are made of wood
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)
Spider person raises the hero to the sky, helps him or her to return back to earth or otherwise helps to overcome the borderlines between worlds
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
Person gets into the belly of water being or into the belly of giant creature which appearance and living place remain vague. He kills the monster from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)
Hero transforms nestlings or monster bird into common eagles or owls
Hero substitutes powerful person's weapon or amulet with a fake
Digging roots or gathering sea food on a beach, a woman finds baby-boy. Usually her mother warns her not to dig a certain bulb or not to do it in a certain way. Breaking taboo, the woman finds or conceives baby-boy
Finding a hole in the ground or making it, person gets to see below another world. Usually the earth is seen from the sky
Opening in the firmament is covered with a flat stone. When person puts the stone aside, he or she gets to see the earth
An ordeal: to survive cold (frosty night outdoors, chamber with ice, cold water and snow)
An ordeal: to remain alive after contact with sharp points or blades
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
When father-in-law (rare: mother-in-law) asks the hero to killl or to tame a dangerous animal or not to kill certain animal during a hunt, he (she) turns into this animal himself or transforms into it his daughter(s) or wife (husband)
Hero is sent or sets off by his own will to get two or more different materials needed for making bow and arrows (wood or reed for shafts, feathers, tendons for string, flint for points, paint to paint the shafts, gum to stick points to the shafts)
Person becomes a master of another after winning a game (game of chance or Intellectual game but not a sport tournament)
Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation
People abandon a boy, a girl, brother and sister, a group of children, or a young family without fire and food. A compassionate person conceals hot coals for the outlaws in the abandoned camp
A man disguised as a woman comes to his enemy and kills him at night (usually cuts off and carries away his head)
A Man disappears or goes away for long time. His wife sets off, comes to a house where her husband lives now or first sends her son there. She gets to know that he has married another woman
A woman comes to her rival and kills her pushing her head into boiling liquid or pouring it into her ear
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
A man and a friendly giant live together. The friendly giant fights with another one and asks the man for help. This help proves to be crucial because the man badly injures a foot of another giant
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
Because a small child is ignored or punished by its parents (usually it cries late in the evening), bush spirit or animal carries it away
A monster kills victims with his or her sharp or stinging tail or protrusion on his or her back
After breaking some taboo, coming across a strange object or person, people fall asleep. They do not feel when at night spirits come and injure or kill them
Demons (or one of them) attack people and return to their den (usually a cave or tree hollow). People make suffocating fire around the den killing most or all of the demons
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
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 monster or a big animal dies when fire is kindled in its belly
A small animal digs an underground hole to the place where the monstrous stag, elk, antelope, or buffalo lies. Hero climbs along the tunnel and kills the monster
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)
Dangerous cannibal or bush spirit who abducts children, attacks people, etc. is associated with an owl
A kinfolk (often his mother) or wife (bride) of a sick (ugly, old) man or boy do not care for him. He becomes healthy (and handsome), punishes and/or abandons those who were evil with him
A supernatural helper (usually a loon) makes a blind man to regain his eyesight diving with him into water
A blind man or lad kills an animal. His wife or (grand)mother lies that he has missed, cooks and eats all the meat alone
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven
Person or creature who has no wings or is unable to fly on a long distance attempts to ascend to the sky or to fly far away but falls down or, deprived of his wings, remains in a place from which he is unable to return
Person turns into tiny object or creature. Touching or swallowing it, the woman conceives and gives birth to a baby-boy. The boy steals valuables or make love to the woman
Person turns into conifer-needle, a tiny particle, a small insect. Swallowing it by chance, the woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy
Person enters a seemingly empty house and attempts to take certain things. Invisible beings prevent him from doing it or objects themselves hurt him
A bird of prey or a carrion-eater (raven, owl, hawk; coyote) marries or tries to marry goose-person or other water bird. This marriage is not realized or is a short one
Raven (crow) gets the hidden or stolen Sun (daylight)
Person is able to move or to hover in the air like a feather or a bit of fluff
Person temporarily turns into bird or animal putting on corresponding skin or animal skins are amulets that become alive and help the person
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
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
Person who gives difficult tasks to the hero is associated with an animal, a bird or a fish
Sideral objects in different parts of the sky are identified with one and the same humanoid figure (parts of its body, decoratioons, etc.).
Person believes or pretends that the arrow points should be of coal, bark, grass and the like.
A strip of light or dark feathers or hair on the neck of a bird or animal is its necklace
The Pleiades are any people (of any ages and sex, combined data of i99-i100a)
Woman gets to the sky and marries a sky-dweller
Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it
Bodies of the killed ones are put in such a position as if they are in a good mood (smile, laugh, dance)
Hero brings a feather (feathers) of a dangerous bird
Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
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)
Person must go beyond relatively small objects (trees, logs, blades) which are incessantly clashing and parting, rising and falling
Man marries a polar bear or grizzly who becomes a woman or a woman who becomes a bear
The task-giver is the bear who is the hero’s father-in-law
Wife of a blind man helps him to shoot a game but lies that he missed and secretly eats meat alone
In three or more different episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven (crow)
Planning to get or to return valuables, person turns into baby or in a small objects that has power to impregnate a woman. The picked up or the born baby steals the valuables and acquires his real guise (including cases according to which the girl herself is the desired valuable)
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
Weak or herbivorous animals were dangerous predators but have been transformed
Spider-woman (rare: spider-man) is a patron of the hero who lives in her house and marries her daughter
A girl (or two sisters) travel, usually in search of a proper marriage partner who lives far away or who has gone away. On her way or after reaching the place of destination the girl gets to some unpleasant suitors
Two sisters (if more, only two play a significant role in the plot) travel and meet an unpleasant suitor or get to an ogre
Treasure, or the like, is thrown back to tempt pursuer to delay
Person pursued by an enemy asks somebody whom he meets to help him. The helper hides him
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different plants, mostly edible or cultivated
When father-in-law (rare: mother-in-law) asks the hero to kill a bear, he (she) turns into the bear himsel or tranfforms into the bear his daughter or wife (husband)
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
The sun and/or the moon are inanimate objects thrown up to the sky or fixed in the sky
After passing half of the its way across the sky (in the day time) or in the underworld (in the night time), the Sun stops to have a rest
A muskrat (more rare beaver or otter) brings the desired object from under the water
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)
Women who possess supernatural power and usually come from a non-human world (from sky, from under the water, they are winged beings, bird- or animal-persons) take off their clothes (feather skins and the like) or part of it. Because a man hides the clothes (of one of them), their owner(s) have (has) to marry him or help him
A small child cries and becomes satisfied only when he gets a particular object to play with. This object is of high value and is hidden in the house. As soon as the object is given to him, the child or a person related to him carry it away
They (promise to) give a child the Sun (and or the Moon) to play with
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
Animals of particular species that were enemies of the heroes are exterminated besides the only pregnant female (rare a female and a male). Thanks to this, these animals still exist
A demonic person provokes his victims to slide downhill and kills them
Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up
Two zoomorphic personages decorates each other or somebody decorates each of them