The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female
The Sun and the Moon (rare: the Sun and a star, the Moon and a star) are two siblings who live on earth and then ascend to the sky being still young persons
As a result of some intimate contacts and/or love affair, the Moon acquires its present appearance (often, the stains on his face) and/or ascends to the sky
Dark spots on the lunar disc are dirt, blood, paint, traces of beating, burning, scratching, etc. on the Moon person's body or face (Kiliwa: spots on the Sun) and do not form any particular figure
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.
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
Persons ponders over what object, feature, or creature it would be appropriate for him or her to turn into. When the choice is made, the persons transforms himself or herself
A woman (usually after a conflict with a man or remaining alone) or a man and a woman (married couple, lovers, brother and sister) turn into water mammals
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
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.)
In the cosmic hunt tale either hunters or game is identified with the Pleiades
Seven main stars of Ursa major are interpreted as a figure of a mammal: bear, deer, mountain sheep, camel, dog
It is discussed if darkness or light, cold or warm periods should exist
The primeval ancestors (usually birds and animals) participate in discussion concerning the desired predominance or wamth/light or cold/darkness, number of the units of time in a tempoi cycle, etc.
Weak or herbivorous animals were dangerous predators but have been transformed
Chips of wood, branches or pieces of bark thrown or fallen into the water turn into fish and/or aquatic animals
Raven or other carrion-eating bird of dark color and a similar size was originally white
Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object
Person should not laugh in the world of the dead
Certain person is made of improper material and proves to be short-lived or unfit for fulfilling his functions
Certain person is made of human excrement or carrion
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
In search of his lost fox-wife man comes to a den. Different animal- or bird-women come out and ask him if he would mary them. He refuses and they let him in
Woman, female supernatural or animal females are created by changing the sex of a man (or male animals)
Person asks another person of the opposite sex about destination or place of her or his genitals. Usually it is made after putting questions about function of other body parts; or person tries to use for sex different parts of the partner's body or tests them before reaching the best place where the genitals should be put
There is only one monstrous penis, a husband of primeval women or the amazons, which grows out of the ground or out of the water in a lake
Woman is nursing a worm (caterpillar, reptile, fish) as her baby. People kill the monster
Certain woman or a group of women take for paramour a big water animal (caiman, otter, sea-lion, whale, anaconda; rare: water bird, crab), water spirit or monster. Husbands, brothers or (adoptive) children kill or maim paramour and/or (sometimes) the woman
Person feeds another with the meat of his or her sexual partner who cooks or eats it without knowing whose meat it is
There are (or were) women who live apart from men in their own village or villages
Cesarean operation upon a woman at childbirth as a custom
Person who conceals his or her identity comes to his or her lover (at night). Next time, the lover puts a mark on the stranger's face, body or clothes doing this intentionally (to recognize him or her) or by chance (that leads to the identification)
An ugly man marries a girl but conceals his face. Marriage is ruined after his face is seen
An old woman makes herself false penis and testicles, marries or attempts to marry her (step)daughter
Person summons with a certain signal a non-human being (usually his or her sexual partner or his or her protégé). Another person spies, uses the same signal or pronounces the same words and kills the being who comes to him (or uses this being sexually himself)
A man lets his wife to be eaten up by worms. She either dies or has a narrow escape
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)
Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world
Big game animals were concentrated in one place, had no fear of people. They escape and disperse after somebody slightly strikes or stains them
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
A burned person or creature immediately turns into a multitude of mosquitoes or biting flies
A woman is impregnated by an animal, usually by a snake. People of hostile nation originate or receive their culture from her progeny or from her paramour's relatives
Beings without mouth, anus, genitals, whose women do not know how to give birth live in the underworld, in the sky, or in a far-away land
Person visits people who have no anus or mouth. He or his sister marries or tries to marry a local dweller
Stars are openings in the firmament; holes in dwelling's covering are thought to be stars
Milky Way is a longitudinal streak, associated with a white line, stripe along the middle of a belly of an animal
Shining sky objects or atmospheric phenomena are excrements of sky dwellers
Altair or Vega with a weak nearby star are believed to appear on the sky immediately after winter solstice though really it is not so
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 man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
A man marries a non-human woman. In her world, she has another husband or suitor. She returns to her world, human husband follows her. He stands tests and/or fights with local inhabitants, gets his wife back
A man rides away from a woman or girl in a boat (on raft, sledge). When she tries to snatch a border of the boat (raft, sledge), he cuts her fingers off
After having sexual contact with a dog, a woman gives birth to his children. The puppies turn into humans and usually become ancestors of particular groups of people
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
Person has sharp nails or knife-like hands to kill people
The only vulnerable spot is near the surface of person’s or creature’s body and not in his inner organs
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
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
Person ascends, descends, walks head downward or sees the world upside down
Man's wife, sister or mother eats all the nest food alone, she is transformed in punishment
People who treated badly the hero or his son are pulled into the sea and turn into sea animal or into parts of its body or into parasites on its hide
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
Before finding a part of the body that is the best for some particular function, other parts are proven or enumerated
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
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
Magic wife abandons her mortal husband when she finds her clothes (often, her feathers if she is a bird-woman), makes herself the new clothes, receives them from her kin or her husband gives her her clothing believing that she will not abandon him. (Versions with magic wife abandoning her husband because she feels herself offended is not alternative to the “found clothes but in most of the texts these motifs are not combined)
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
Ursus major (seven stars or only four stars of a dipper) is identified with the game animal or anmials (usually pursued by the hunter)
Person who gives difficult tasks to the hero is associated with an animal, a bird or a fish
Magic bird-wife flies away after she had picked up many feathers and made of them her new bird-clothes
When a girl gets to know that her night visitor was her own brother, she demonstrates him her genitals or her nake breasts and suggests to take what he had been desired so much. After this she runs away and he pursues her
Light of the Sun (Moon, Venus) is a torch in hands of the celestial body
A giant bird carries a woman or a boy to its nest. It supplies them with food but does not release. The prisoner escapes
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the fox, jackal or coyote suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
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
Vulnerable place on the body of a person or creature is on his or her foot (toe, heel, sole, ankle)
Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon
Man marries a polar bear or grizzly who becomes a woman or a woman who becomes a bear
Persons ponders over what object, feature, or creature it would be appropriate for them to turn. When the choice is made, persons turn into thunder and/or lightning
Inhabitants of the village of the polar bears who are relations of the hero’s wife give him difficult tasks and tests
(Grand-)mother of a blind man or boy secretly eats meat or fish (usually acquired by her son or grandson) but tells him that there is no food in their house
The bear (lion) takes a woman for sexual partner or the she-bear takes a man. They have children who look like humans or bear cubs. More rare the woman gives birth to her son in the bear den because being abducted by the bear she was pregnant
Severed human heads are compared with balls or used as balls
A woman becomes the wife of an animal (rare: other non-human being). Her husband cares for her but ultimately the animal, the woman, her children or her relations are killed, she turns into an animal herself, animals and humans become enemies, etc.
When a woman gets know that her husband or lover did something against accepted rules of behavior, she cuts off her breast and shows it to him
A man rides away from a woman or girl in a boat (on raft). When she tries to snatch a border of the boat (raft), he cuts her fingers off. The fingers turn into water animals
A man and a woman of different generations (the father and the daughter, the son and the mother) get into conflict which results in the woman's transformation into the sea mammal. the sovereign of the sea mammals or into the frog (toad)
The penis is a particular monstrous being with whom copulate the primeval women, the amazons, or a certain woman
The Sun and the Moon are two persons one of which is pursuing another in the sky or pursued him or her when they were rising to the sky from the earth
The Sun and the Moon are or were enemies, either permanently or in particular situations
A girl (a woman, a group of women) intentionally takes a penis-being, a snake, an eel, a lizard, a worm, a big water animal or water monster or a big terrestrial mammal for paramour. People kill or maim the paramour, the woman and/or her progeny or she is transformed herself into an animal. She is blamed for her behavior
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)
There are mountains or rocks which permanently collide and separate again from each other or a crack (jaws) in a vertical cliff which is opening and closing
Person does not have a spouse, uses wooden fakes for his wife or her husband
Hero or his helpers cut or gnaw through bow- and other strings of the enemies, make holes in their canoes in order to forestall pursuit
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.
Mother-in-law of a man takes the appearance of her daughter to replace her
Male person leaves his home and gets to unfamiliar places. On his way, he comes across different strange creatures. After all, he returns home or leaves the earth for the other world. (Rather often a long string of episodes breaks off or the story lacks the beginning and does not explain why the hero is travelling)
Before acquisition of cultivated plants (fire, hunting skills) people ate dirt, mud or stones
Flying person or creature abducts a woman but is ultimately killed or the woman escapes from him
Pursued by demonic creature (usually a whale or walrus), people throw behind piece by piece children’s or woman’s clothes. These attract the pursuer’s attention, he loses time, the runaways escape
Seriously of for fun, a girl or a woman names an animal or remains of an animal as her husband or steps on the animal’s bones. The animal (revives and) carries her away. Her human husband or brother comes after her and they run away. The animal husband pursues them but abandons the chase or dies
Treasure, or the like, is thrown back to tempt pursuer to delay
Snow was edible or something edible was falling from the sky instead of the snow
In three or more different episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven (crow)
The sea-gull abducts a girl or a woman but she gets to return to the people
Thunder is produced by dragging behind a dry animal skin or (rare) a person (rare) or by shaking clothes
Thunder and lightning (two thunders, two lightings) are close relatives, spouses or in-laws
Two zoomorphic personages decorates each other or somebody decorates each of them