| Motif | Name | Description |
| a1 | The old sun | Another sun, usually less benevolent and/or powerful, existed before the present one |
| 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 |
| a2a | The sun is a source of distructive heat | The world was or will be (almost) burned when several suns had (will) appear(ed) simultaneously; or the only sun was too hot (or bright) |
| a32 | Figure on lunar disc | 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) |
| a32d | Man in the Moon | Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon |
| a38 | The Sun caught in snare | 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. |
| a38a | Snare of pubic hair | The Sun is caught into snare made of the pubic hair of hero's female relative |
| a38b | Mouse gnaws snare open | After the Sun is caught into snare only mouse, shrew or other small animal is able to cut it open |
| a5 | The Sun and the Moon are males | The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual |
| b101 | Slashes on birch bark | Angry against the birch, person beats or cuts it, whence scratches and slashes on its bark |
| b16b | Wolverine makes the sea salty | The sea is alty because the wolverine or the fox bathed in it or urinated into it |
| b26 | Man joins wild animals | Person who follows the wild animals turns into one of them or into their master |
| b3b | Earth grows big | Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance |
| b42g | Ursa major is a game animal(s) | Ursus major (seven stars or only four stars of a dipper) is identified with the game animal or anmials (usually pursued by the hunter) |
| b42o1 | Ursa major is a fisher | Ursa major is identified with a fisher (mustela pennati) |
| b42s | Hit with a projectile | Ursa major or Polaris are identified with a middle size animal (ermine, fisher, woodchuck) or with a basically anthropomorphic person (with some animal characteristics) hit with a dart or an arrow |
| b50 | Whose blood is sweeter? | An insect feeds on human blood (flesh). Dangerous person asks it where it had sucked blood or whose blood (flesh) is the most delicious. Usually the insect lies or cannot answer (its tongue is cut off) and thanks to this dangerous person attacks certain plants or animals and not people |
| b51 | Mosquito and thunder | Thanks to intentional misinformation, Thunder did not get know that
bloodsucking insect has sucked human blood
|
| b71 | Aurora borealis | Aurora borealis is spirits (of the dead) who run holding burning torches, play or fight with each other |
| b82 | The white raven | Raven or other carrion-eating bird of dark color and a similar size was originally white |
| b85 | Wind pacified | Wind is too strong, hero makes it to blow more calmly |
| b87 | Alcor | Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object |
| b92 | Flint person turns into flints | Person whose body is extraordinary hard and invulnerable or (rare) a small object is broken to pieces that turn into flints or other hard stones (the origin of flints) |
| b96 | The antagonist turns into sturgent | The heroe's enemy turns into a big fish (usually a sturgent) or (rare) a water mammal that are fished or hunted by people |
| c19 | Acquisition of the sun | The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again) |
| c6 | Valuables brought from the lower world | 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) |
| c6b | The diver is muskrat (otter, beaver) | A muskrat (more rare beaver or otter) brings the desired object from under the water |
| c6d | The aquisition of the earth from the lower world | 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) |
| d4c | Acquisition of summer | Warm season is obtained from its original owners |
| d4c1 | Swimming elk diverts attention | Animal-people come to steal summer from its owner. One of them in guise of an elk or caribou diverts the owners' attention or puts to float a log that the owner takes for an elk and pursues. The summer is successfully stolen and brought to the people |
| d4n | Person weeps asking for summer | A boy or (among the Kutenai) a woman weeps, asking for an element that is absent, i.e. for summer, fire, or rain |
| d5 | Woman as the owner of the fire | Female person is the owner or inventor (but not the personification) of the fire |
| d5a | Fire in woman’s genitals | First fire was hidden in genitals or anus of a woman |
| e1b | Person of unfit materials | Certain person is made of improper material and proves to be short-lived or unfit for fulfilling his functions |
| e1c | Person of excrements | Certain person is made of human excrement or carrion |
| f10 | Vaginal teeth knocked out | 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 |
| f30 | Snake paramour | A woman or a girl takes a snake, an eel (i.e. Pacific snake-eel), a lizard, or a worm for husband or paramour. People kill or badly injure him, the woman and/or her progeny or the woman herself is transformed into snake. Cf. motif k76b: the snake-husband becomes and remains a handsome man |
| f35 | Feeding with the paramour’s meat | Person feeds another with the meat of his or her sexual partner who cooks or eats it without knowing whose meat it is |
| f7 | The underwater-maiden | Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like) |
| f70 | Potiphar's wife: false accusation of sexual abuse | 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 |
| f70a | Disordered clothes as evidence against innocent man | To accuse a man or boy of (sexual) abbuse, a woman tears her clothes, smears or scratches her body pretending to be attacked |
| f74 | Naked person shams dead | When a person sees a dangerous enemy, he or she shams dead taking his or her clothes off, or the enemy takes off them himself. The enemy believes that it is a corpse, lets it alone |
| f79 | Animal wives | Person marries several non-human wives in succession, every time (besides the last one) is disappointed |
| f86 | Conditional signal | 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) |
| f9 | A dangerous woman | For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man |
| f9a | Vagina dentata | 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) |
| f9d | Scorpions in the genitals | Small creatures in female or male genitals are dangerous for the partner |
| f9e1 | Dangerous animal in vagina | Woman is dangerous because biting or stinging animal or animals is (are) inside her genitals (and not only the head of such an animal) |
| i1 | The thunderbirds | 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 |
| i13a | The horned serpent | Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head |
| i28 | Animals in the underworld | Game animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underworld where they often look like humans and have a master |
| i46 | Rainbow belt | Rainbow is the ornamented part of the clothes, its decoration, a belt |
| i65 | Milky Way of the dead | Milky Way is the path over which souls travel to the beyond or a path of the funeral procession |
| j41a | Son transforms mother into a bird | When hero returns, he finds his mother being tormented during his absence and transforms her (and usually himself) into a certain bird |
| j46 | Enemy drowns | Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body |
| j66 | The gnawed through bow-strings | 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 |
| k10 | Fight with the monstrous bird | Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it |
| k10g | The man uses a fledgeling to descend to the earth | A man gets into the nest of a giant bird on a high rock or tree. He descends to the earth killing the bird and fixing its feathers or wings to his body or (more often) using the bird’s nestling (riding on its back, holding its feet, fixing its feathers or wings) |
| k18 | Infant picks out his unknown father | 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) |
| k18aa | Pregnancy because of the non-sexual contact | 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 |
| k18c | Urinates at his father’s arms | A baby boy has to recognize his father among many men. When his father takes him, the boy urinates at his arms |
| k1e | Marooned on an islet | Person is marooned on an islet or on another side of a sea or wide river |
| k1f | Conflict because of a woman | A man maroons another because of jealousy or because he plans to take hold of his wife |
| k1h | Imprisoned in the tree-hollow | Person is imprisoned in a tree-hollow or inside a rock and is released by somebody who makes a hole from outside |
| k25 | Magic wife | A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world |
| k27 (motif is not in the correlation table) | Competitions and difficult tasks | 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 |
| k27n | Difficult tasks of the in-laws | A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage |
| k27n3c | Task-giver is a zoomorphic being | Person who gives difficult tasks to the hero is associated with an animal, a bird or a fish |
| k28 | Father or uncle is rival and enemy | Maternal uncle or father (or grandfather if he replaces father who is not mentioned) of the young man is his rival or enemy and tries to kill him |
| k41 | Thunder against a serpent | Thunder or giant bird fights against a reptile, big water animal or other big and strong creature who lives in water or under the earth |
| k44 | False mother rejected | 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 |
| k67 | Burned moccasins | 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 |
| l15a | Vulnerable place on the body | The only vulnerable spot is near the surface of person’s or creature’s body and not in his inner organs |
| l15d | The external soul | Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed |
| l33 | Rolling stone | Stone chases people to crash them |
| l33b | Trickster provokes a rock | Person suggests to another who looks like being unable to move (rock, stump, fire) a race competition or provokes this object to roll towards him. The competitor becomes to move, burns or crashes the person or runs away with his clothes |
| l33c | Rock crashes trickster | Trickster and rock agree to race down slope. The rock rolls with ever greater speed and crashes the trickster |
| l4 | The unmasked murderer (Blue Beard) | Person kills girls (rare: his nephews or younger brothers of his wife) in succession (usually the male person kills his wives). The last of potential victims escapes, usually after finding remains of those who had been killed or imprisoned earlier |
| l61 | Endocannibal | Person devours his or her own flesh or disembowels himself or herself |
| l65 | Demonic baby | A baby or small child proves to be a demon, devours or injures people |
| l9 | Sharp body members | Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon |
| l9b | Elbow-knives | Person's sharp elbows or (rare) knees are like awls or knives |
| m19 | The bait-person | Person ties another one (usually a child) to a fishing line to use him as a bait or orders the tied one to catch fish with his hands |
| m23 | Mock plea | Person or creature pretends to be afraid of a particular sort of treatment that really cannot do him any harm |
| m28 | Icarus (failed attempt to fly on artificial wings) | Acquiring possibility to fly, person ultimately falls to the ground or remains in a faraway place being unable to fly any more |
| m29f | Wolverine is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolverine suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m30 | Trickster falls down | 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 |
| m30a | Person defecates on a trickster | Trickster who flies over a village falls to the ground. They bind him and defecate on him |
| m30c | Flying person falls down after breaking taboo | Person flies across the air but falls down when, despite warning, looks down to earth, flies above villages, becomes to talk, etc. |
| m38 | Stupid imitation (all versions) | 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 |
| m38a | The bungling host | 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 |
| m53 | Hoodwinked dancers | 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 |
| m61a3 | Person provokes a quarrel between two fish | To provoke a quarrel between two different fish, person tells each one that the other was insulting him |
| m65b | The lost quarry | Person kills game (usually by deception), gets to see how thieves carry it away but is unable to intervene |
| m66 | Itch after artichoke eating | After eating certain plant, small animal, or rubbing it over his body, person suffers from itch, diarrhea, or from breaking wind |
| m68 | Breaking wind scares game | Because of his own obstinacy, person suffers of breaking wind permanently and starves because a loud noise produced by him scaring game |
| m69 | Getting fast in an animal skull | Small animals or insects dance or feast inside a big animal skull or food is there. Person inserts his head into the skull and cannot take it out for a long time |
| m70a | Old woman is pierced through | An old woman defecates or breaks wind over a man. He kills her inserting a cutting object into her anus or vagina |
| m86 | Rock punishes trickster | Rock chases or otherwise punishes person who has offended it (usually deceived it or has taken objects that belong to Rock) |
| m8a | Birds peck a rock to release prisoners | Birds and sometimes also animals work hard to break from the outside or from the inside a rock, a tree truck, bonds, etc. to release some beings or themselves from confinement in a small enclosure or trap |
| m93 | Body part as a guard | 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 |
| m93a | Guard punished | 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) |