| Motif | Name | Description |
| 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) |
| a32b | The Moon toad | Frog or toad are seen in the moon or the Moon is associated with them |
| a32d | Man in the Moon | Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon |
| a40 | The Sun or Moon marry toad | Frog or Toad is a wife of the Sun or Moon |
| a5 | The Sun and the Moon are males | The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual |
| b33h | The mother of the Sun | The Sun has the mother who shares with him (rare: her) his dwelling place |
| 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 |
| b42 | Cosmic hunt | Certain stars or constellations are interpreted as hunters, their dogs and game that the hunters pursue |
| b42b | Sky hunters pursue an ungulate | In the cosmic hunt tale the game pursued by the hunters is an ungulate (elk, deer, mountain sheep, etc.) |
| b42h | The Belt of Orion is the game, other star is the hunter | The Belt of Orion is the animal or three animals, other star (of the Orion or outside of this constellation) is the hunter |
| 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 |
| c2 | Deluge and conflagration combined | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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) |
| d4c | Acquisition of summer | Warm season is obtained from its original owners |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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) |
| 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 |
| i6 | Weather birds | A man meets a giant bird that brings with it clouds, rain, hail, thunderstorm, etc. |
| 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 |
| i6a | Male and female birds: different kinds of precipitation | The male and the female birds bring with them different kinds of precipitations (e.g. the male comes with a hail, the female with a rain). Or (Buryats of Mongolia) one and the same bird brings different kinds of precipitations depending on is it angry or not. |
| i72 | Stars are people | Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered) |
| 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 |
| j12 | Travelling girl walks across suitors | A girl (or two sisters) travel, usually in search of a proper marriage partner who lives far away or who has gone away. On her way or after reaching the place of destination the girl gets to some unpleasant suitors |
| j12d | Imposter kills his rival | After a girl marries a valuable suitor, a rejected imposter or his relations kill him |
| j12j | Imposter is a buffoon | In village where valuable marriage-partner lives an imposter plays the role of a buffoon |
| j13 | Two sisters | Two sisters (if more, only two play a significant role in the plot) travel and meet an unpleasant suitor or get to an ogre |
| 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 |
| j18 | Woman falls from the sky | A woman who is pregnant or has a small child falls from the sky. She or a daughter born by her dies but her (grand)son is grown up |
| 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 |
| j22a | Two men from one | Two men or a man and a woman appear from two halves of the cut in two anthropomorphic body or embryo; or another man appears from part of the body of the first one or from his body discharge |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| j4a | Revenge for the death of the mother | A woman is murdered. Her son or children (rare: grandchildren, nephews) revenge for her death |
| k10 | Fight with the monstrous bird | Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it |
| k177 | The travelling heroine | A girl or young woman sets off to find or return her fience or her husband or she escapes from a fanger and ultimately marries happily |
| 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) |
| 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.) |
| 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 |
| k25b | Woman pursues a porcupine and gets to the sky | Pursuing a porcupine, woman climbs a tree and gets to the upper 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 |
| 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 |
| k27p | Antagonist mourns loss of his helpers | 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 |
| k27y | To get material for making bow and arrows | Hero is sent or sets off by his own will to get two or more different materials needed for making bow and arrows (wood or reed for shafts, feathers, tendons for string, flint for points, paint to paint the shafts, gum to stick points to the shafts) |
| k27yy1 | To get feathers of a dangerous bird | Hero brings a feather (feathers) of a dangerous bird |
| k34 | Fatal swing | Person kills others inviting them to sit on a swing and launching them into water, on rocks, etc. |
| 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 |
| k43a | Compassionate person saves fire | 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 |
| k43c | Dog unfastens children | Abandoned children are tied to a tree. Helpful dog or other animal unfastens them |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| k70 | Two sisters-in-law: the girl and the frog | One brother marries a girl, another a frog or toad, both bring them to their parents, or one man takes two wives, a woman and a frog. Both wives have to pass a test. Values of the girl are highly assessed, the frog’s poor qualities are revealed |
| 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 |
| l110 | The devourer | A demonic being swallows a multitude of people and animals. When it is killed and cut open, the swallowed ones come out alive or are revived |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| l28 | The snake-eater | Person who have eaten a prohibited meat or fish turns into monstrous snake or fish |
| l28a | Eating of snake meat triggers flood | Because people (or certain person) eat the meat of a snake (dragon, strange fish), a flood begins or a landslide occurs, or a river (lake) appears |
| l41 | Hero escapes on the way | 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 |
| l5c | Rolling head is a dangerous monster | Rolling head is a dangerous mobster (pursues celestial bodies, people etc.) |
| l65d | Younger sister of cannibal woman | When the elder sister becomes a cannibal, the younger one (temporarily) escapes. Cf. motifs L1B, L65C |
| l68 | Two companions in the night | Person turns into monster at night when he remains alone with his companion in the wilderness |
| l73a1 | Obstacle flight: fog created | Fugitive throws an object behind himself and thus creates fog or darkness in front of pursuer |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| m29j | Trickster is a water bird | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is a water bird |
| 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 |
| m44c | Thieves of food: a young hero | A boy or young man comes to steal food of a person who is elder than he. Usually he is caught but not punished and invited to live with the elder person |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| m66a | A hill of excrements | After eating certain food, person produces a hill of excrements that is bigger than he himself |
| m67 | Trickster gone with a wind | Imprudent trickster produces wind that carries him away |
| 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 |
| 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) |
| m97 | The blind is directed by trees | Person is lost or becomes blind. He walks asking different trees their names and makes decisions according to their answers reaching ultimately his destination |
| m97a2 | The blind person asks trees their names to find his was to the water | The blind person walks asking different trees their names and thus finds his way to the water |