The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
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
During the day and/or the night (in the underworld, beyond the horizon etc.) the Sun and/or the Moon regularly travel in a boat.
A figure or an imprint of some being or object are seen in the Moon. (For statistical analysis motifs A32A – A32J are also included into A32)
Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon
Person who holds some object in his or her hands is seen in the moon (rare: in the sun)
Person who went to fetch water and/or holds in hands a container for liquid is seen in the moon
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.
The Sun is caught into snare made of the pubic hair of hero's female relative
After the Sun is caught into snare only mouse, shrew or other small animal is able to cut it open
Person comes to the sun, attempts to fulfill the sun's duty but intentionally or because of a lack of skill does it wrong and the earth suffers from heat etc.
(Cf. Earth burned because the bearer of the sun came too low, Boas 2002: 664)
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
The first or the only survived man and woman move in different directions around a post, a hill, etc. When they come together they marry each other
Day light (also warmth, the sun, the moon) is kept as a particular object in a container, under a cover, etc.
Person decorates different birds (rare: fish), share fat between anomals. Since then, the corresponding species acquire present characteristics
Person paints birds or animals or they paint each other. Some of them are not satisfied with the result
Raven or other carrion-eating bird of dark color and a similar size was originally white
Grateful person decorates (rare: punishes) a bird who lives near water (kingfisher, loon, goose), thence its appearance (crest, beak, feathers)
Inhabitans of the Middle World are (partly) destroyed (or will be destoyed) once by fire or draught, another time by a flood or the world is destroyed with a flood of fire or boiling water
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)
Person uses his supernatural powers to destroy a large group of people who have offended or insulted his son
Against person's will, butchered, dried or cooked meat, tanned hides, etc. turn back into animals or fish and escape.
The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again)
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
First fire is sent to earth from the sky or the ancestors ascend to the sky and bring from there fire or warmth
Person comes to the owners of fire or light. They feast and dance. He joins them and in a proper moment carries away the valuables
Raven or other big dark-feathered bird scavenger is the owner, personification, spouse, obtainer or stealer of fire, daylight, or the Sun
Certain person is made of improper material and proves to be short-lived or unfit for fulfilling his functions
The first people or first anthropomorphic divine beings descend to earth from the sky.
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
A lonely woman or married couple surprises childred who live nearby in guise of animals (plants, objects). After this the children preserve their human guise
Magic person reveals his true nature and/or remains with the real people after the object responsible for preserving the non-human appearance (usually an animal skin) is destroyed (usually burned)
Person does not have a spouse, uses wooden fakes for his wife or her husband
Person does not have a spouse, uses wooden fakes for his wife or her husband till alive person comes to replace it
Man makes a wooden doll and pretends that it is alive. Really it is not or it is half-alive. A real woman takes place of a doll, marries the master
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man
There are teeth, blades or sharp stones in woman’s genitals, vagina is the biting mouth. (Only texts that are believed to correspond to reality are considered but not anecdotes and jokes)
Woman has another toothed mouth (usually in vagina) or biting animals in vagina. Man inserts there a stone, bone, stick, etc. breaking or knocking out the teeth or extracting from there dangerous animals
Person sticks out of the ground his penis that looks like a plant (provoking a woman to sit on it)
Originally, humans had (had to have; can have under some special confition) their genitals not on the place where they are now; the genitals were absent, or people did not know know their function and used for copulation other parts of the body
Seeing a girl on the opposite bank of a river, person uses tricks to have sex with her: sends his long penis, transforms his penis into a bridge or a dam, dives and copulates with a girl from under the water
Person feeds another with the meat of his or her sexual partner who cooks or eats it without knowing whose meat it is
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)
A girl gets sick. A man comes to cure her but only copulates with her or makes an attempt to do so
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)
The alive person comes to the land of the dead to bring back somebody who has recently died (besides stories about shamans who journey to the other world to bring back the soul of a sick person) or, having no particular aim, goes there in company of somebody who had recently died or following his or her tracks
If called in a loud voice, ghosts do not hear an alive person but hear whisper, yawning, etc.
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
Supernatural woman comes to live with humans. Thanks to that, food becomes easily available. She is maltreated, goes away, temporal superfertility is lost forever
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
The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
The earth does not fall down or swing because it is suspended to ropes
Only one pole or mountain supports the earth or the sky
The door of a house is opening and closing by itself crashing persons who attempt to come in or out
Way to the place of a certain person is guided by dangerous creatures (which often stand on the both sides of the pathway). Person placates them by gifts or nice talk, and they let him or her go the both ways, sometimes being punished for this by their master
Stars (rare: suns and moons) are sparks or burning coals
A boat is a fish, a living creature with a mouth, it can swallow people
Instead of lice, there are other (bigger or dangerous) creatures in the hair of some persons or he or she pretends that his or her hair is infested with them
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
A woman is crying, mucus from her nose (or her tear) turns into a boy who grows up, overcome powerful adversaries
Antagonist makes a girl or a woman his or her slave. The slave's brothers or sons secretly come to her, kill for her some small game. Woman tries to pursue the antagonist that she herself killed the game
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
Person or his helper draws his enemies on the unstable bridge and destroys it. The enemies fall into water, into a precipice
Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body
Person or animal is eaten up or destroyed otherwise. His bones are put together and he or it is revived. Because one bone was broken, swallowed or lost (or a drop of blood, a small piece of flesh lost), the person or animal cannot be revived or being revived misses some part of his or its body
A virgin girl is impregnated by the Sun and gives birth to a son or twin boys. When her son (or the twins) grows up, he (they) comes to his father
Persons shoot arrows (darts) which hit each other’s end forming a chain (rope, ladder). Persons climb by this chain to the sky or (rare) across an obstacle
To climb to the sky, person must first to shoot an arrow that reaches the sky and sticks to it
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
Brothers of a man's wife hate him and maroon on an islet
Person is marooned on an islet or on another side of a sea or wide river
Hero climbs up (e.g. to a tree) or down (e.g. into a deep cave) by ladder, rope, from branch to branch, etc. The rope etc. breaks or is intentionally destroyed and the hero cannot return to the ground. (All cases of motif K2A, besides the Koreans, also contain motif K2)
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)
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
Different from (common) people inhabitants of a distant land fight from time to time with non-human enemies who periodically attack them
Birds or other creatures which not dangerous for common people attack dwarfs who live in another world
Inhabitants of a distant land who have different nature than (normal) human beings struggle from time to time with some non-human enemies. Man helps local dwellers because their enemies are not dangerous for the human beings
Birds attack the inhabitants of a distant land or a man who had got to this land
When hero dives, the antagonist covers the water surface with ice or net
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
Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation
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.
When the imposter takes place of the real wife, the latter turns into owl
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
People abandon a boy, a girl, brother and sister, a group of children, or a young family without fire and food. The outlaws demonstrate supernatural powers or protectors providing food and lodging. While the abandoned persons have plenty of food other people starve. A person (often a bird like crow, magpie, sea-gull, etc.) visits the abandoned ones and brings from them some food home. This way people get to know that the abandoned ones prosper
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 disguised as a woman comes to his enemy and kills him at night (usually cuts off and carries away his head)
When a woman or a lad comes to the sea bank, she or he is carried away by sea predators (killer-whales, sharks, swordfish). Man descends to the bottom and rescues the woman or lad using his shaman's power
A man descends to the bottom of the sea to rescue his wife. He makes arrangements with a slave who pours water on fireplace producing steam. Hidden behind the steam, the man escapes with his wife
A man comes to the non-human beings to get a woman. He secures the help of a slave repairing his adze or axe
The hero and his companion or companions live together. Every morning one stays at home while another or others go to hunt, etc. A demonic person comes, eats up all the food and beats the cook. Or the man who remained at home comes to the demon himself in search of fire and is maltreated by him. The hero kills or neutralizes the demon
Every time a demon commits an outrage upon one of the men who remains at home. When it is the hero’s turn, he overcomes the demon and follows his track to his world
Small objects and animals (rare: animals alone but including those who really are harmless) revenge on a powerful enemy making attack on him in succession (usually they hide in his or her house); the enemy is badly injured, runs away or dies
Objects and/or domestic animals live in a house. When dangerous enemy comes, they attack him, he dies or escapes (all texts with K77A and K77B included)
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
Gathering berries a woman steps into bear's dung and curses bears. A bear abducts her and marries her. Her human husband, her brothers, or supernatural person kill the bears
A young woman turns into monstrous bear. She kills most of the people besides her younger sister (Ojibwa: younger sister of her former husband). Their brothers return from a hunt, kill the bear or she dies pursuing them
The only vulnerable spot is near the surface of person’s or creature’s body and not in his inner organs
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
Person catches fish in a place where it ought not live, i.e. in a forest pond or in a tree hollow isolated from other water bodies. After eating he dies, is transformed and/or attacked by monsters
People against their will must follow an object, a creature, or a person (usually stick to it) who/which leads or carries them far away, usually into the water or to the sky
An object descends from the sky. Playing children climb on it or stick to it, it carries them away to the sky
When a person climbs a tree, a demon comes to it and carries the person away, or the person follows the demon to his world by his own will
Person discovers (rare:still fails to discover) another getting to see his or her shadow or reflection in water
An ugly woman gets to see in water a reflection of a youth who is up in a tree. She takes it for her own reflection and thinks that she has become beautiful
An ogre or ogress catches a person and carries his or her prey home but the person escapes on the way or immediately after reaching the ogre's house
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 steals fresh corpses from graves and devours them
Body parts of a person or pieces of his flesh are thrown down one by one. (In American Indian versions those who are on the ground usually take them for game, honey, fish)
A monster or a big animal dies when fire is kindled in its belly
Person loses his organ or body part, it is carried away. He finds its new owner, gets his property back
Man's wife, sister or mother eats all the nest food alone, she is transformed in punishment
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)
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
One-sided people have one leg and/or also one arm, one half of a head, etc. The second leg is not cut or burned off, preserved as a stump but is absent completely
The hero gets to see a person who cannot move being nailed to the ground (misses the lower part of the body, etc.) but escapes the same fate
Animal, fish or person wounded by hero runs or swims away, usually with the man's projectile in his or her body. Local doctors are not able to cure the wound (usually because they do not see the projectile). The hero or his companion comes to the place where the wounded one lives and cures him or her (usually extracting his projectile from the wound)
The sky dwellers fish human beings who live on earth with a line and a hook
A male person cuts or roasts his own body to extract meat, lard or blood, cooks it and serves to his guest without injuring himself. Such a food is not considered to be unclean
Not to return home empty-handed, a hunter or (rare) a fisherman cuts off a piece of flesh from his body (usually from his calf) or (more rare) extracts his blood or entrails. Usually he brings his flesh or blood to other people pretending that is a good game or fish; or a woman cuts off a piece of flesh from her calf to feed her husband
A girl or young woman is tied to the top of a tree or impaled on the sharpened top of a tree and abandoned by a man. Somebody (usually her brothers) attempt to save her
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 blind man or lad kills an animal. His wife or (grand)mother lies that he has missed, cooks and eats all the meat alone
Person transforms himself into an object of hunting or fishing, provokes hunters of fishermen to catch or shoot him and carries way the tools that they use (arrows, darts, harpoons, hooks, baits). Or he fishes by turning himself into a hook. Or he is caught but escapes turning back into a person
Person turns into a fish to steal fishing hook or harpoon or he turns into fishing hook to catch a fish
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is Canada jay
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is mink
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolverine suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is a porcupine
Person sees how others act using magic or according to their animal nature. He or she imitates their actions and gets into trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and refer to everyday activity, mostly to providing and cooking food
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
Hero comes across a (animal-)person from an enemy group and takes his or her appearance, usually dressing himself in a skin of his victim; after this he penetrates the enemy camp
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 creates figures that look like enemies or pretends that enemies come. People run away, person gets all valuables for himself
A small animal asks bigger one to bring him across the stream, rejects one by one all possible places to sit; finds the position that lets him kill the big animal after crossing the stream
Porcupine asks other animal to ferry him across river, rejects different places to sit, occupies a place where he can easily kill the animal after crossing the river and really kills him
An animal or a supernatural creature is wounded but escapes. Local doctors are helpless. The hero or his companion, masked as a doctor, comes to the wounded one and either cures or kills him.
Hero imperceptibly causes detriment to two persons or creatures. They accuse each other and fight
When a man climbs a tree, a woman cuts his leg off or when a woman climbs a tree, a man cuts her leg off
A man travels and comes to two or several blind (usually old) persons
Somebody claims that he has been born before present world came into being. His opponent claims the same, and they argue who of them is the older
Person, animal, fish or (rare) a fruit is eaten up and then revived, usually after all bones (all seeds) being put together
Butchered and eaten animal, bird or fish revives after its bones are thrown into the water
Person enters a seemingly empty house and attempts to take certain things. Invisible beings prevent him from doing it or objects themselves hurt him
Before falling asleep, person tells his eyes (which he extracts and puts aside) or his anus to awake him in case of danger. Eyes or anus do not make an alarm or person himself does not react to it. As a result he suffers a damage
Person punishes the part of his body which he selected as his guard for the time of his sleep or absence (he burns his buttocks, breaks eyes)
It is tide when a creature belches out the sea water or ousts it with its body and it is ebb when it swallows the water or lets it go back (or it is simply told that water periodically emerge and disappears into the maelstrom
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
Despite a warning not to do so, person climbs in a tree to get his arrow that was stuck and gets into trouble
(Cf. Tree, from which an arrow is supposed to be fetched, grows up high and thus carries the arrow’s owner into the sky, Boas 2002: 662)
A man comes across (often in the sky) one or two blind persons and cures their eyes
Person is able to move or to hover in the air like a feather or a bit of fluff
When the elder sister becomes a cannibal, the younger one (temporarily) escapes. Cf. motifs L1B, L65C
Mistress of animals or fish revives them after being offended
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 the Sun, Moon, Thunder, or Wind (Cloud, Rain)
Person believes or pretends that the arrow points should be of coal, bark, grass and the like.
Being on a visit to other people or (more often) animals, an (animal)-person sees them act using magic or according to their animal nature. Back at home, he imitates their actions and gets in trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and mostly refer to providing and cooking food
The hero has to come unrecognized to the meeting place of his enemies. He meets an old woman (usually a shaman, a medicine-woman) who goes there, puts on her skin and acquires her appearance
Because of its stupidity or unsocial behavior, the bear suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
A strip of light or dark feathers or hair on the neck of a bird or animal is its necklace
Using a trick, (animal)-person kills a dangerous animal. Kinsmen and friends of the killed animal get to know about it and come to avenge its death. The person has narrow escape
Light of the Sun (Moon, Venus) is a torch in hands of the celestial body
Running away from a dangerous being, person throws an awl or a needle which turn into many awls (needles)
A man visits the place from there the salmons come to the human world
When a person arrives to the sky his attempt to fulfill the sun's duty fails and he falls to earth (is thrown down to earth)
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
Running away from a dangerous being, person throws a small vessel with oil. The oil turns into the lake or river. (Only North American variants are considered. In the Old World the motif is rare and is not restricted to particular region. In North America the oil to anoint the haur is probably meant in all cases).
Person dies and returns soon but people send him or her back, refuse to accept as a member of their community or bury again. Since then death becomes permanent
Animal person (mammal, bird, fish) of a small size (less than a fox) gets inside the bear and kills him from the inside (usually eat his meat)
Person feeds others a food that is extracted from his, hers or somebody else’ body or is polluted by body extractions not informing about the source of the food
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
A wife from the non-human world agrees to live with the mortal man but abandons him when he becomes unfaithful to her (when he visits his mortal wife)
Man marries a polar bear or grizzly who becomes a woman or a woman who becomes a bear
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)
Wife of a blind man helps him to shoot a game but lies that he missed and secretly eats meat alone
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
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.
A young woman turns into the bear (in Asia, into the tiger) and attacks her husband or close relatives
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
The loon dives and brings a piece of earth (a blade of grass etc.) that is transformed into the dry land or it brings other object which everybody is eager to get (the loon is the only or the only successful diver)
Fugitive throws an object behind himself and thus creates fog or darkness in front of pursuer
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
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
Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they
The sun and/or the moon are inanimate objects thrown up to the sky or fixed in the sky
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