| 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 |
| a32b1 | Jumps on the face of the Moon | A woman sits (jumps) on the face (back) of the Moon man and now is seen as the shadows on the lunar disc |
| 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 |
| a5a | The Sun created from the Moon’s swaddling clothes | The younger brother (usually the Sun) is created from urine and swaddling clothes of the elder brother (usually the Moon). |
| b125 | Animals exchange their organs | During the time of creation particular species of animals (rare: plants) exchanged certain organs or traits or one animal borrowed an organ from another one but never brought it back. Thence the characteristics of these animals now. In rare cases the back exchange and restoring of the initial situation or the passing of certain organ from one animal to another without compensation are described |
| b28 | Travelling transformer | The transformer walks along coming across different persons and creatures, transforming them into birds, animals, stones, shrines, etc. (or transforming monstrous animals into present day ones) and introducing cultural norms, landscape features, etc. |
| b31 | Women turn into water mammal | A woman (usually after a conflict with a man or remaining alone) or a man and a woman (married couple, lovers, brother and sister) turn into water mammals |
| b44a | Council on seasons: units of time | Animals (Melanesia: persons) discuss the number of discrete units of time that should be in a certain calendar period or in the night |
| b44c | Should warmth and light exist? | It is discussed if darkness or light, cold or warm periods should exist |
| b7b | Waters from broken pot | Sea, river, waters of flood flow out of a small receptacle |
| b8 | Frog hides the water | Frog hides all the water but other person makes it available for everybody |
| b84 | Fungi and excrescences (ogress transformed) | When a demonic person (usually an ogress pursuing a man) dies, her or his flesh turns into objects that are found on trees, like fungi, pitch, fruits or nuts |
| b91 | Sharp-eyed snail | Snail had (the) sharp(est) eyes. Another animal person borrows them and never returns |
| b91a | Eyes borrowed and never returned | (Animal) person who became blind borrows eyes but never returns them to the owner |
| 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) |
| 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 |
| d1 | Female spirit of fire | Fire is personified as an (elder) woman, alone or with her husband, master of fire |
| d1a | Mother-in-law is the Fire | Girl marries man whose mother is Fire |
| e10 | Pets turn into children | 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 |
| e11 | The burned skin | 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) |
| e13a | Sacred knowledge from under the water | Sacred knowledge, objects and rituals are initially obtained from the denizens of the underwater world |
| f16 | Men and women: exchange of anatomical characteristics | Initially men possessed women's biological traits and vice versa (beard, menses, breasts, bearing children) |
| 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 |
| f22 | Study of partner’s body | Person asks another person of the opposite sex about destination or place of her or his genitals. Usually it is made after putting questions about function of other body parts; or person tries to use for sex different parts of the partner's body or tests them before reaching the best place where the genitals should be put |
| f25 | Origin of menses: girl smeared with blood | Woman is smeared with blood or red paint. Since then women menstruate |
| f28c | Bear penis in hands of old woman | Woman masturbates with penis of a big animal killed by a man of her household |
| f3a | The pregnant man | A man carries a child like a woman |
| f40a | Husband of the first women | An anthropomorphic male or an androgyne is the only possessor or leader of women |
| f43 | The women disappear | The women of the ancestral community kill or abandon the men |
| f44 | Women and men separate | The women and the men of the primeval community quarrel and abandon each other |
| 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) |
| f52 | Pubic hair for a bird’s crest | A bird person gets his crest putting on his head a pubic hair of a woman or part of her genitals |
| 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 |
| f60 | Trickster cures maiden | A girl gets sick. A man comes to cure her but only copulates with her or makes an attempt to do so |
| f64 | The lecherous parent | Person changes his or (rare) her guise to marry his or her close relative in descending or (rare) ascending line |
| f64b | Incestuous woman | A woman pretends to be a stranger to have sexual relations with her (grand)son, daughter or brother |
| 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 |
| f69 | Obscene invitation | A woman's husband or male relative asks her (grand)children to invite her to make love with him. The invitation is expressed in an allegoric form. She understands, comes to him |
| f72 | Imitated violence | A woman asks a man to tie her before copulation in such a way that a watcher would think she is raped |
| f83 | News precede man | Person commits something shameful, obscene. Presumably, nobody could see him doing it. When he asks people, "What's the news?", they answer that so-and-so (this person) has done such a thing |
| f90 | A tragic incest | Brother and sister marry each other. When their children get to know about the incest, they kill their parents, or father kills children, or parents suicide, or wife/sister suicides when her husband/brother has died |
| 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 |
| h13 | Dead person is returned and revives | Person comes to the land of the dead and brings back somebody who has recently died or brings his remains. The dead one becomes alive and lives normal life (for some time) |
| h54b | The glance of death | Person’s glance brings death (and destruction) |
| i117 | Spider ferries from one world to another | Spider person raises the hero to the sky, helps him or her to return back to earth or otherwise helps to overcome the borderlines between worlds |
| i15 | No-mouth people | Anthropomorphic beings have no mouths |
| i17 | Body anomalies of inhabitants of a distant land | Beings without mouth, anus, genitals, whose women do not know how to give birth live in the underworld, in the sky, or in a far-away land |
| i18 | A spouse or husband without anus or mouth | Person visits people who have no anus or mouth. He or his sister marries or tries to marry a local dweller |
| i19 | People inhale the odor of food | Anthropomorphic beings satisfy their hunger cooking food and inhaling the odor |
| i22 | Objects in permanent movement | There are objects which remaining on the same place are moving permanently or periodically (meet and part. rise and fall down, shut and open, rotate) |
| i22c | A plank from the stern of Argo | Person succeeds in getting through the opening which is going to bang shut but the stern of his boat, the tail of an animal or a bird, the body of his horse, or his own heel is flatterned, torn off, etc. |
| i23 | Snapping door | The door of a house is opening and closing by itself crashing persons who attempt to come in or out |
| i34 | The dangerous tree | It is necessary to approach a tree which is surrounded with fire, ejects fire, shoots sharp splints, etc. |
| i72 | Stars are people | Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered) |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| j30 | Parents’ remains | Before the hero destroys the antagonists or escapes from them, he finds or receives the remains or possessions that belonged to the antagonists' victim |
| j37 | The antagonist is carried away by bird | A man turns into powerful bird or creates it. The bird carries away his enemy |
| j40b | Avenged prisoners | 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 |
| j46 | Enemy drowns | Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body |
| j58 | The arrow ladder | 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 |
| j59 | Following arrow to get to the sky | To climb to the sky, person must first to shoot an arrow that reaches the sky and sticks to it |
| 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 |
| k176 | A man in search of the woman | A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife |
| 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) |
| k18b | Baby boy does not cry anymore | A baby boy has to recognize his father or mother among many people. When his parent takes him, the boy ceases crying |
| 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.) |
| k1e | Marooned on an islet | Person is marooned on an islet or on another side of a sea or wide river |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| k24a | Supernatural male hides clothes of human girl | Supernatural male person (often a snake, a dragon) hides clothes of a human girl or sits on it. To return her clothes she had to become his wife |
| 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 |
| k27e | Eating or drinking contest | Person or animal must eat (drink) enormous quantity of food (beverage) or eat or drink poisonous beverage or food |
| k27k | Diving contest | A contest: to dive deep or for a long time |
| k27l | Water covered with ice | When hero dives, the antagonist covers the water surface with ice or net |
| k27n | Difficult tasks of the in-laws | A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage |
| k27o3 | Competition between two teams | Two groups of participants compete in fulfilling difficult tasks or are engaged into the game in which one team plays against another (at least two episodes with different participants from both sides). The participants are either anthropomorphic who possess different extraordinary qualities or they are different animals (natural phenomena, elements, etc.). {Texts in which the main participants are anthropomorphic and competitions are win by animals who accompany the hero are not included} |
| k27t | Climbing contest | A contest: to climb a pole or tree |
| k27xy | (Animal-)persons with different qualities in the camp of their adversaries | Each of several men (male animals of different species) surpasses all others in some kind of activity. They get to the place of their adversaries and thanks to their special qualities win different competitions and survive in dangerous situations. The tale is not related to the quest of a marriage partner |
| 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 |
| k29a | Surviving in a fire | Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation |
| k32 | The false wife | 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. |
| 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 |
| k43b | Bird brings some meat | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| k5 | The fake nestlings | To lure the hero into a trap or to send him far away, the antagonist makes a bird or nestlings of excrements or guts |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| l107 | The ear-sleepers | Anthropomorphic beings have huge ears (use them for blankets, umbrellas, etc.) |
| l118 | Caught in a split log | (Animal) person provokes another to put a part of his body into a split log (between two planks, etc.) and removes the wedge |
| 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 |
| l19a | Beings with even number of heads | Beings (any besides birds) with even but not more than ten number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. Beings that with even number of heads named in a row with other multi-headed beings and the highest number is even or bigger than ten are not considered |
| l35 | Demon’s hand broken | At night, a shaman or a bush spirit comes and inserts his hand into the hut to steal food or to make this way love with a sleeping woman. A man who is in the hut cuts the hand off or breaks it |
| l38a | A sticky trap | Person sticks to an object, usually touching it one by one with his body members. The object is a trap of demonic creature or is a non human creature itself |
| l40 | Reflection and shadow | Person discovers (rare:still fails to discover) another getting to see his or her shadow or reflection in water |
| 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 |
| l56 | Fire in monster’s belly | A monster or a big animal dies when fire is kindled in its belly |
| l57a | Hero's body part is returned by his companion | The antagonists acquire person’s organ or body part (his remains) . Another person gets back what has been stolen and the first one revives (becomes strong again) |
| l6 | Demon clings to person | A demonic being demands that a person would carry it permanently, clings to his shoulder or back |
| l62 | The Stone man | Stone man kills people but ultimately is killed himself |
| l70 | Fruit falls and kills | Person or animal is killed or injured with a heavy object dropped from a tree (or rock, etc.). The person or the animal knows that the objects will fall but has falls ideas about its character and weight |
| m11 | The unclean food | 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 |
| m22 | Helpful stock | A long-necked bird living near water (stork, heron, bittern, swan) saves person from dangerous pursuer |
| m29a | Trickster-raven | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven |
| m29y | Trickster is a wren | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is a wren |
| m36 | Dismantles himself to crawl through an opening | Person is imprisoned inside a tree, stone, a ball of ice, etc. He or somebody else makes the opening but it is too narrow. The person puts himself to pieces (or turns into fog), inserts them into the opening, outside puts the pieces together again |
| 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 |
| m46 | The false baby | 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)
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| m46a | A stratagem: the picked up baby | Person turns into baby, is picked up by the owner of valuables, steals the valuables or makes love to a woman. The baby is not a demonic creature and does not plan to kill those who picked him up (cf. motif L60) |
| m49 | Man in a skin of another | 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 |
| m49a | The substituted medicine-woman | 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 |
| m53a | Raven and seals | Raven tricks seals or other water mammals to gather around him and kills them by deception |
| 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 |
| m61a | To obtain valuables, quarrel provoked | To obtain valuables person provokes a quarrel between their owners. When the owners become to fight with each other, the valuables fall out |
| m61a2 | Person provokes a quarrel between two stones | To provoke a quarrel between two different stones, person (always a raven) tells each one that the other was insulting him |
| m63 | Body parts enumerated | Before finding a part of the body that is the best for some particular function, other parts are proven or enumerated |
| m8 | Breaking the obstacle | Non-human persons work hard to destroy a strong and durable obstacle that blocks access to some place or object |
| m87 | Invisible ghosts | Person enters a seemingly empty house and attempts to take certain things. Invisible beings prevent him from doing it or objects themselves hurt him |
| 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 |