Person prepares a snare, loop, noose, etc. to catch the Sun and/or the Sun is caught in a snare, tied by a rope, etc.
After the Sun is caught into snare only mouse, shrew or other small animal is able to cut it open
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 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
Person who follows the wild animals turns into one of them or into their master
Raven or other carrion-eating bird of dark color and a similar size was originally white
During the creation of the world or after the world cataclysm animals run around making the earth big, reporting about its condition or they are sent to report the size of the growing earth
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)
A muskrat (more rare beaver or otter) brings the desired object from under the water
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)
For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man
There are small mammals with sharp teeth in woman's genitals.
Woman makes vain overtures to young man and/or falsely accuses him of sexual abuse. Her husband believes that the young man is guilty, kills or tries to kill him
To accuse a man or boy of (sexual) abbuse, a woman tears her clothes, smears or scratches her body pretending to be attacked
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world
Raven hides or scares game animals preventing hunters to kill them. People outwit him
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
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 man meets a giant bird that brings with it clouds, rain, hail, thunderstorm, etc.
The male and the female birds bring with them different kinds of precipitations (e.g. the male comes with a hail, the female with a rain). Or (Buryats of Mongolia) one and the same bird brings different kinds of precipitations depending on is it angry or not.
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)
Game animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underworld where they often look like humans and have a master
Shooting and an arrow (rare: throwing a ball), person flies on it, after it or ahead of it or sends on the arrow another person
A man is marooned on an islet, a rock but survives thanks to helpful birds and animals. The next time the hero and the antagonist exchange roles. Usually the antagonist comes to the islet to see the bones of the abandoned man but the man takes the canoe of the antagonist and paddles away. The antagonist dies
Person is marooned on an islet or on another side of a sea or wide river
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)
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)
Hero transforms nestlings or monster bird into common eagles or owls
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
A boy is born whose father or (rare) mother is unknown. He himself points at his parent who as a rule occupies the lowest social position. Usually many men (women) come together and everyone hopes that the boy points at him (her)
A baby boy has to recognize his father among many men. When his father takes him, the boy urinates at his arms
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
The antagonist sends the hero to the place where he is attacked by dangerous creatures. The hero kills them and brings to the antagonist. The creatures are the antagonist's relatives, pets, or helpers, therefore he or she mourns their death or revives them
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 kills others inviting them to sit on a swing and launching them into water, on rocks, etc.
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 demonic or animal person steals a boy and pretends to be his real mother or father. The boy gets to know the truth, leaves the false parent
Two men spend a night in a forest, take their moccasins or clothes off usually to dry them near the fire. One plans to burn the moccasins or the clothes of another at night. The latter imperceptible interchange their things and the first man burns his own property
A man kills (usually in a tree, on a rock, at the edge of a well, of a precipice) and/or throws down one of his enemies. The other enemies do not recognize their comrade and think that their prey is falling down
A person kills those who are passing by him. Usually he does not attack them all of a sudden but first distracts their attention. Usually he throws down his victims into a precipice, lake, etc.
Acquiring possibility to fly, person ultimately falls to the ground or remains in a faraway place being unable to fly any more
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
Trickster who flies over a village falls to the ground. They bind him and defecate on him
Person invites birds or animals (usually geese and ducks) to dance or stand around him and concentrate their attention on some activity (usually to dance with their eyes shut), kills them, usually one by one. Or (rare) he dances himself with his eyes shut and then kills water fowl who gather around him
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
A reptile monster demands humans (usually virgins) as a sacrifice or abducts a girl or closes sources of water. Hero kills him. Monster’s victims do not play an active part in the plot
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
Hero brings a feather (feathers) of a dangerous bird
Person must go beyond relatively small objects (trees, logs, blades) which are incessantly clashing and parting, rising and falling
Woman is dangerous because biting or stinging animal or animals is (are) inside her genitals (and not only the head of such an animal)
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)
A girl becomes pregnant without her knowledge thanks to the contact with body liquids of a male person or with objects touched by him (not because of the normal sexual contact, or a wish expressed by the father of her future child, or her mistical contact with a deity). The happy marriage of the girl with her child’s father follows