| Motif | Name | Description |
| a3 | Male sun and female moon | The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| a7 | The sun pursues the moon | 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 |
| b101 | Slashes on birch bark | Angry against the birch, person beats or cuts it, whence scratches and slashes on its bark |
| b27 | Variants of transformations | 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 |
| b27b | Transformation into stars | Persons ponders over what object, feature, or creature it would be appropriate for them to turn. When the choice is made, persons turn into stars |
| b37 | Creatures are made appear as they are now | Person decorates different birds (rare: fish), share fat between anomals. Since then, the corresponding species acquire present characteristics |
| b38e | Tail base of the loon | Person kicks loon or other water bird. Since then this bird has flat tail base and it walks on dry land with difficulty |
| b3a | Primeval waters | Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later |
| 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 |
| b41 | The talking dog | Because the dog was spreading some information, altercated with its masters, was talking in a wrong time, etc. it lost the ability to speak |
| b41a | Animal reveals master’s secrets | The dog or other domestic animal speaks aloud about those details of its masters' life that they would prefer to conceal. He is punished by depriving his ability to speak |
| b46 | Big Dipper is seven men | Every one of the seven main stars of the Ursa mayor is a an adult man |
| b46c | Big Dipper is seven persons or animals | Every main star of the Big Dipper is interpreted as a particular person or animal |
| b48 | Predators become herbivorous | Weak or herbivorous animals were dangerous predators but have been transformed |
| b60 | Offended children abandon parents | Children conflict with their parents who do not pay them enough attention, condemn their sexual behavior, do not give them enough food, clothes, etc.; the children abandon their parents and become birds, bats, atmospheric phenomena, or stars (usually the Pleiades) |
| b69 | Chipmunk's back scratched: hence his stripes | To thank or to punish a small mammal like chipmunk or (ground) squirrel, animal or person scratches or paints it producing stripes on its back |
| b87 | Alcor | Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object |
| b97 | Grateful person makes the bird pretty | Grateful person decorates (rare: punishes) a bird who lives near water (kingfisher, loon, goose), thence its appearance (crest, beak, feathers) |
| c11 | Divine father avenges his son | Person uses his supernatural powers to destroy a large group of people who have offended or insulted his son |
| c27 | A horn in the ice | A horned monster breaks ice on river or lake. Usually people walk across frozen body of water, get to see a horn protruding from the ice and try to cut it off. The monster breaks the ice, many people drown |
| c34 | The deluge because of a wounded creature | Killing (injuring, offending) of some cruature (usually related to water) triggers deluge |
| c5b | Animal-scouts | 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 |
| 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) |
| c6a | The diver is turtle or frog | A turtle or a frog (toad) brings the desired object from the bottom of the water body or from the lower world |
| c6b | The diver is muskrat (otter, beaver) | A muskrat (more rare beaver or otter) brings the desired object from under the water |
| c6c | The diver is a bird | An aquatic bird dives and brings the desired object from the bottom |
| c6c4 | The duck is successful diver | The duck (or an aquatic bird similar to the duck) dives and brings a piece of earth that is transformed into the dry land (it is the only or the only successful diver) |
| 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) |
| c9 | Warning about the coming flood | God, animal, some person warns one of the people about the catastrophy (usuallly the flood) that will become soon and in which most of the people must perish |
| d4c | Acquisition of summer | Warm season is obtained from its original owners |
| e13a | Sacred knowledge from under the water | Sacred knowledge, objects and rituals are initially obtained from the denizens of the underwater world |
| 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 |
| e6 | Because of a woman worlds become isolated | When a woman of the child-bearing age tries to come from one world to another (e.g. from sky to earth), the communication between the worlds is blocked or broken forever |
| e6a | Way across waters | To reach their present country, people had to pass (frozen) water body. Part of the migrants remain on the opposite side or is drowned |
| e9c | Ungulate animal-wife | A man marries a woman who initially has guise of an ungulate animal (buffalo, elk, derr, etc.) |
| f12 | Man kills his wife with her lover’s penis | Man kills his wive inserting into her body the cut off penis of her lover |
| f15 | Person’s penis sticks out of the ground | Person sticks out of the ground his penis that looks like a plant (provoking a woman to sit on it) |
| f18a | The long penis | Penis is so long that he can turn it round his waist or send into a woman who is at a long distance from him. (Only texts considered to describe real events and beings and not anecdotes are included) |
| f18c | Girls at the opposite bank | 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 |
| f20 | A strong embrace | Man and woman embrace each other forever or for a long time |
| 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 |
| f34 | Land animal paramour | Certain woman or a group of women takes for a paramour a big land animal. Husbands, brothers or (adoptive) children kill or maim paramour and (sometimes) the woman |
| f34b | The paramour is not a human being | 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 |
| 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 |
| f35a | Feeding with the kin’s meat | Person does not know that he or she eats or cooks the meat of the member of his or her household (blood relation, more rare a spouse or servant) or serves it to his or her friends, or uses her or his bones for everyday needs, or slowly kills him ort her |
| f38 | Women and sacred knowledge | Women were possessors of the sacred knowledge, sanctuaries or ritual objects which are now taboo for them or they made attempts to acquire such a knowledge or objects |
| f45 | The Amazons | There are (or were) women who live apart from men in their own village or villages |
| f51 | The clandestine lover | 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) |
| f55 | What do you want? | A woman cannot understand what does her partner want. She points at, names or suggests different things. At last she points at, names or exposes her genitals. This is the right answer |
| f55a | To put an object on her naked body (the demon and the woman) | A demon forces a woman to show him a particular part of her body because certain object should be put only there. He kills the woman pulling this part of her body out. Usually the woman serves or names different places and the demon rejects each one before the the place he wants is opened |
| f64 | The lecherous parent | Person changes his or (rare) her guise to marry his or her close relative in descending or (rare) ascending line |
| f64a | Describes future husband | Going away or pretending to die, a person bids his or her relative to marry another person who resembles him (her) or has some special traits; or he describes a man who should be met as a dear guest; person comes himself unrecognized and is taken for one whom he had described |
| f65 | The false burial | To realize his or her secret desire (illicit sex, refusal to share food with relations), person pretends to die and is abandoned at a burial place |
| f68 | Death feigned: woman dresses up as a man | A woman pretends to die or really dies. Her (former) paramour comes to her grave. She revives and goes with him. Not to be recognized, she dresses up as a man |
| 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 |
| f8 | Women and men come together | Initially women and men live apart from each other. Later they meet each other and become to live together |
| f82 | Incest with mother-in-law | A man uses a trick to have opportunity to make love to his mother-in-law or woman uses a trick to make love to her son-in-law. Usually a man takes with him on a hunt not his wife but her mother |
| 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 |
| f96 | Ugly man becomes handsome | A girl (wife) rejects an ugly youth (her husband). He becomes handsom (usually thanks to the help of a supernatural person). Those who were evil to him are punished |
| 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) |
| g2 | The return of Persephone | Person who is the incarnation of fertility and life first disappears and then (reriodically) returns |
| h10 | Stone sinks, stick floats | People are mortal because stone thrown into the water sank. They have missed a chance to be like wood or other organic matter that floated |
| h12 | The alive person comes to the land of the dead after somebody’s death | 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 |
| h12c | Orpheus: to return the dead wife | Husband follows his dead wife to the other world but is unable to bring her back or succeeds to do it but loses her once again |
| h18 | Hoarded game released | Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world |
| h18a | Pup lets animals lose | The owner of game animals conceals them underground. One of the ancestors turns into pup, is adopted by owners' children, lets the animals lose |
| h19 | Raven tries to starve people | Raven hides or scares game animals preventing hunters to kill them. People outwit him |
| h1a | The originator of death the first sufferer | One person wants man to live forever, another wants man to be mortal. When somebody dear to the latter one dies, he or she is eager to accept the suggestion of his or her opponent but the original decision cannot be changed |
| h1b | Death of a neighbor’s child | Person does something that makes death inevitable because the death of a child or a woman beloved by another person is indifferent or desirable for him or her |
| h34a | Controversy over conditions of life | Person has a series of suggestions how to make the world easy for living and free of hard work and death. His companion successively rejects them. Their dialogue forever defines conditions of human life |
| 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 |
| i100b | The Pleiades are a group of people | The Pleiades are any people (of any ages and sex, combined data of i99-i100a) |
| i105 | The celestial hand | One of constellations represents a hand with fingers |
| i13a | The horned serpent | Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head |
| i15 | No-mouth people | Anthropomorphic beings have no mouths |
| i15a | A vertical cut | Mouth of human being was first cut vertically |
| i16 | Body anomalies of the first people | First human beings have no mouth, anus or genitals, their women do not know how to give birth |
| i21 | Red-haired people scorched by the sun | People who live in the underworld, at the sunrise or sunset (often dwarfs) are scorched by the Sun which moves by at a short distance from them. They are red-haired, dark-skinned, etc. |
| 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 |
| i28a | Animals produce earthquakes | Big game animals disappear under the earth and produce earthquakes |
| i47 | Rainbow is filth | Rainbow is a flatulence of a demon, a spray of a skunk, is associated with spit, urine, feces, genitals, etc., causes skin diseases, is associated with death |
| i4b | Thunder in trouble: fights with his enemy | A man helps Thunder who fights with his enemy |
| i62 | Milky Way is a river | Milky Way is a sky river, water body, chain of beings that swim |
| i64 | Milky Way is a trace of animals | Milky Way is a trace of big animals who were walking or running along it |
| i72 | Stars are people | Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered) |
| i72a | Stars are children of the Sun and the Moon | Stars are children of the Moon and/or the Sun |
| i85a1 | Polaris is the hole in the sky | Polaris is the opening though which one can get into the upper world |
| i85b | Polaris is a person | Polaris is a person |
| i99 | The Pleiades are boys or men | The Pleiades are a group of boys or men, or a group of different people but predominantly males |
| j1 | The vengeful heroes | Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they |
| j16 | Rejects to eat insects | Person perishes because being forced to clean ogre's or animal’s head infected with insects, refuses to bite the insects, spits in disgust or is suspected to do it |
| j17 | Frogs in hair | 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 |
| j19 | Wicked guest murders woman | When husband o brother leaves home to hunt, an evil spirit comes to his wife or sister. The spirit kills her or carries her away. Her baby boys extracted from her womb or born at this time survive |
| j19a | To serve food on the abdomen | A demonic person visits a woman when she remains alone. He or she claims that needs a particular part of her body to complete a particular act that is against logic and custom. After this the demon kills the woman (extracts a child from her abdomen, pulls out her tongue) |
| j20 | Wicked guest: woman breaks taboo | When husband o brother leaves home to hunt, an evil spirit comes to his wife or sister and kills or injures her being able to do it because she has broken taboo to open the door, to look at the guest or to answer him or her |
| j25 | Babies escape and return | Heroes (usually one or two), being still babies or embryos, escape or are thrown away, often into the water. To bring them back into the human world, they are lured (persuaded) to come out or caught with difficulty |
| j26 | Babies come out of the water | Baby heroes, embryos or objects from which they emerge are found in a river or lake or come to people out of the water |
| j27 | Lodge-boy and Thrown-away | A small boy (several babies) was thrown away, born by the dead woman, lives in the water (in forest, etc.). Another boy lives with his father or mother. Ultimately the first boy comes to live in the locus of the second one. Often (see motif j25, Babies escape and return) during some time the boy who lives in the wilderness meets secretly with his brother (with other children, with pups that had been fed up by his mother) who lives with the people |
| j39 | Who killed a rabbit? | 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 |
| j40 | Enemy from the sky | Beings who live in the sky descend to kill people. Usually such a being carries away to its world a person or many people (or person's cut off head or limb). The hero (usually a relation of the perished one) revenges on the dangerous being and/or brings back the victim or victims (his or her head, etc.) |
| j46 | Enemy drowns | Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body |
| j4a | Revenge for the death of the mother | A woman is murdered. Her son or children (rare: grandchildren, nephews) revenge for her death |
| j59a | Flight after the arrow | 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 |
| j59b | An arrow falls down, a dead one revives | To revive the dead, person shoots an arrow into the sky (it is suggested that the dead would be afraid of the arrow falling, jump aside and become alive) |
| j61 | As light as a feather | Person is able to move or to hover in the air like a feather or a bit of fluff |
| k102a2 | Conflict between mother and son | Mother tries to kill her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair
|
| k12 | Woman is lost and returned | By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back |
| k13a | Person with cut off leg ascends to the sky | Person's leg (rare: both legs) is cut, torn, bitten off, injured. He (rare: she) ascends to the sky: to the Moon; turns into the Moon, Sun, star, constellation; blood from the injured leg makes the sky red |
| k176 | A man in search of the woman | A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife |
| k19b | Star-husband | A woman maries a star-man |
| k19g | Two stars of different color and brightness | Two stars are men, an old and a young ones. They look different as about their color or brightness but these characteristics do not correlate (the bright star can prove to be an old man and vice versa. Usually two girls wish these stars for husbands and express different preferences (one prefers bright blue star, another wants small and red one, etc.) |
| k1c | One who comes to look at adversary’s bones dies himself | 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 |
| 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 |
| k2 | The destroyed ladder | 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) |
| k20 | Wish for star-husband or wife realized | A human person admires a star or (rare) the Moon in the sky, expresses desire to marry it or (rare) to get a star-object. Star descends to him or to her or takes him or her to the sky |
| k22 | Dwarfs and cranes | Different from (common) people inhabitants of a distant land fight from time to time with non-human enemies who periodically attack them |
| k22b | Man helps inhabitants of other 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 |
| k23 | Battle with birds | Birds attack the inhabitants of a distant land or a man who had got to this land |
| k25 | Magic wife | A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world |
| k25d | Prohibited bulb in the sky | Person gets to the sky, makes hole through the firmament digging out a root. Usually woman's husband or his kinsmen warn her against digging out a special bulb or tuber; breaking taboo, she gets to see the earth, decides to descend |
| k26 | A hole in the firmament | Finding a hole in the ground or making it, person gets to see below another world. Usually the earth is seen from the sky |
| 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 |
| k27m | To get an animal of unusual color | The hero must kill and bring an animal of special (often unusual) color or form |
| k27n | Difficult tasks of the in-laws | A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage |
| k27n1 | Task-giver is a king or a chief | 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 |
| 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 |
| k27v | To hit a bird with an arrow (stone) | Person must kill a bird with an arrow or a stone |
| k30 | Flying enemy abducts woman | Flying person or creature abducts a woman but is ultimately killed or the woman escapes from him |
| k34 | Fatal swing | Person kills others inviting them to sit on a swing and launching them into water, on rocks, etc. |
| k37 | Recognition-test | To return or to get his or her son, wife, husband, domestic animal or (rare) object, person must recognize her, him or it among several identical persons, animals or objects |
| k37a | To recognize a man | Person must recognize her (or his) son or husband among several identical persons or animals |
| k4 | The bird nester | Person climbs up a tree or rock or descends to a cave to get eggs or nestlings from the bird's nest. Another person remains on the ground. They get into conflict and/or the first person is unable to get back to the ground |
| k43c | Dog unfastens children | Abandoned children are tied to a tree. Helpful dog or other animal unfastens them |
| k47a | A woman and a dog | 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 |
| k49 | Dead mother returns to nurse her baby | A woman who is transformed into animal or driven out of the human world returns to her baby to feed and to care for him |
| k50 | False wife beheads enemy | A man disguised as a woman comes to his enemy and kills him at night (usually cuts off and carries away his head) |
| k64 | Escape from Polyphemos’ cave | Person gets into dwelling of master of animals or monstrous shepherd. The host can kill him. The hero escapes sticking to hair of one of the animals who are going out |
| k68 | Blood-clot defends his stepfather | An old man abused by another (often his son-in-law) brings home a clot of blood, from which a child is born. The blood-clot boy avenges the old man |
| k8a | Jonah: swallowed by monster | 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) |
| k93b5 | A stratagem: hero turns into pup or kitten | Person gets into the place of his antagonists acquiring guise of a pup or a kitten. Usually one of his adversaries suspects the deception but other think that the animal is nice and harmless |
| l101 | Pieces of clothes thrown to pursuer | 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 |
| l102 | Escape from animal husband | 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 |
| l103 | Obstacle flight (Atalanta type) | Treasure, or the like, is thrown back to tempt pursuer to delay |
| l135 | The Traveller | 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) |
| 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 |
| l1a | Woman turns into the bear | A young woman turns into the bear (in Asia, into the tiger) and attacks her husband or close relatives |
| l1b | Bear-woman and her sister | 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 |
| l1b1 | Demonic woman and her brothers | A woman gets into conflict with her brothers and turns into dangerous demon |
| l1c | Fugitives turn into stars | 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 |
| l1c1 | An escape to the sky | To escape from a demonic person, a group of men who are relations of a girl ascend to the sky and remain there |
| l31 | People stick to monster | 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 |
| l31b | Reptile carries people into the water | People find a snake or a turtle on a dry ground. They touch it or sit on it, stick to it, it carries them into the water |
| l33 | Rolling stone | Stone chases people to crash them |
| l33a | Rock pursues stealer | Trickster takes off an object (often a blanket) that lies on or near a rock or other seemingly inanimate object and that has been presented to it. The object pursues or otherwise punishes the stealer |
| l33e | Presented blanket | Trickster takes a blanket or decorations which are a property of Rock or other seemingly inanimate object (usually the same trickster presented this blanket to Rock before) |
| l33f | Goatsucker breaks Rock | Rolling rock pursues person. The person cries for help, and goatsucker breaks Rock to pieces |
| l48 | Demons devour their comrades | 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 |
| l53 | Stones into the maw | A monstrous being is killed or neutralized by (burning hot) stones (pieces of metal, heavy fruits, etc.) thrown into its maw or anus or the being retreats when they menace to throw a stone into its maw |
| l5c | Rolling head is a dangerous monster | Rolling head is a dangerous mobster (pursues celestial bodies, people etc.) |
| l5e | Wife’s headless body pursues her husband | The beheaded woman pursues her husband while her head pursues her children |
| l5e1 | The demonic woman pursues her children | A woman who had changed into demon pursues her own children |
| l65d | Younger sister of cannibal woman | When the elder sister becomes a cannibal, the younger one (temporarily) escapes. Cf. motifs L1B, L65C |
| l72 | The obstacle flight | 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 |
| l72a | Comb becomes a thicket | 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) |
| l80 | A drop of blood | A demonic person or animal is killed but revives or can revive if a small piece of its flesh or blood goes out of control |
| l86 | Demonic mother pursues her children | A woman turns into demon and pursues her children |
| l9 | Sharp body members | Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon |
| l91 | Long serpent | Two or four boys go to war or are on their way home. A long serpent-like creature blocks the passage, they cannot find a path around it and burn it through. One eats its roasted meat and turns into serpent himself or dies |
| l9a | Sharp leg | Person's leg is injured intentionally or by chance. The loss of one leg does not bother him. He uses the sharpened bone as a thrust weapon |
| m120 | Cannibal baby-sitter | Animal person promises to take care of another animal's children but do not fulfill obligations and usually eats the young ones |
| m16 | Ugly or sick one becomes healthy and handsome | 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 |
| m176 | A test: to jump across an obstacle | (Animal) persons agree to jump across a brook, hole, fire or other obstacle or to walk upon a log, a rope and the like. One or all of them fall down |
| m21 | A protector hides fugitives | The protagonist pursued by an enemy comes across a person, an animal or an object to help him and receives help |
| m23 | Mock plea | Person or creature pretends to be afraid of a particular sort of treatment that really cannot do him any harm |
| m24 | Turtle’s war party | Turtle goes to war and/or is captured by enemies |
| m24a | Turtle kills a woman | Turtle goes to war, kills people (usually a woman), is caught and killed but continues to live in its animal guise |
| m29a | Trickster-raven | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven |
| m29b2 | The bear is a failure/enemy | Because of its stupidity or unsocial behavior, the bear suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m41 | The eye-juggler | Person plays throwing his eyes or (Alaska Athabascans) his tooth up or away. Eyes or tooth first come back to eye sockets or mouth but eventually are lost |
| m42 | Eyes: taken out of orbits and lost | Person loses his eyes because of his playfulness or negligence. He makes new eyes of some substance or/and takes eyes of another person |
| m42a | Eyes of berries | Person (usually after losing his own eyes), makes new eyes of berries and is able to see again |
| m48 | Trickster turns into buffalo | Trickster asks an animal to transform him but breaks condition of transformation and acquires his original guise. Usually he asks a big horned animal (buffalo, elk) to turn him into buffalo (elk) too. Animal charges, trickster is scared. Next time he remains on the place, turns into buffalo but trying to transform the same way another person, turns back into his own self |
| m5 | Provoked insult | Being in a situation when his life depends on a good will of a demon or animal, person either resists or does not resist the temptation to insult or to beat, bite, etc. the latter |
| 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 |
| m54 | Runway awakes in the same house | A man runs away from the house of powerful person but in the morning awakens in the same house again |
| m57a | Beads discharged from the body | Instead of common body discharges a man or a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular person |
| m57a2 | Male person is the producer of valuables | Instead of common body discharges a a man urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular male person. See motif m57a |
| m65b | The lost quarry | Person kills game (usually by deception), gets to see how thieves carry it away but is unable to intervene |
| m67 | Trickster gone with a wind | Imprudent trickster produces wind that carries him away |
| 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 |
| m75 | Valuables taken off the vultures | Person attracts and catches the carrion-eaters (usually some birds) and thanks to this obtains valuables retrieves valuables (fire, woman, animals, etc.) |
| m77 | A soiled bed | While person is asleep, another smears with excrements or something that reminds excrements his or her bed or clothes. The ashamed person runs away or agrees to make what the trickster wants in exchange of his silence |
| m8 | Breaking the obstacle | Non-human persons work hard to destroy a strong and durable obstacle that blocks access to some place or object |
| m81b | Not to climb after an arrow stuck in a tree | 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)
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| 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) |
| m89 | Melted wax | Person dies or is humiliated after some object that he or she made of wax, resin, excrements and/or took for something worthy are melted down |
| 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) |