Other suns or moons besides present ones had been in the sky and were later annihilated
The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
Some creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, summer and winter, lunar phases) or irregularly (solar and lunar eclipses, eschatological events) attack the luminaries or shade their light
During an eclipse or at other circumstances the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a predator animal (a bear, a feline, a canine, a racoon)
During an eclipse or at the sunset the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a frog or toad
During an eclipse or at the sunset the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a reptile (a snake, a lizard, a dragon, a crocodile) or a fish
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)
Person intentionally and with special equipment (usually shooting arrows) attacks the Sun (or several suns if they were many)
Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later
Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance
In the beginning there are only air and water. 1) Person descends from the sky, creates the dry land or a hard support created for her or him grows into the earth. 2) The earth is sent or dropped from the sky, put on the surface of the water. 3) The earth is brought from somewhere (not from the underworld) and put on the water
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.
Hero comes to a country where inhabitants are afraid of objects or plants who attack them. He easily overcomes these objects and transforms them in what they are now
People turn into animals, birds or stones at a feast, after the feast, after performing a ritual or after a victory over dangerous enemy
Female person is incarnation of wind, mother of winds, etc.
During the flood or in the beginning of times fruits, seeds or other objects are dropped into water one by one, usually by a person who has climbed a tree. As far as the objects fall, water recedes and the dry land appears
During or before the world cataclysm (deluge, darkness) or (Suruí) in particular place at night, household objects and/or stones, trees, domestic animals turn into wild beasts and monsters
Against person's will, butchered, dried or cooked meat, tanned hides, etc. turn back into animals or fish and escape.
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
Coyote or fox bring people the fire, the daylight or the Sun
First fire is sent to earth from the sky or the ancestors ascend to the sky and bring from there fire or warmth
For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man
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)
Seeing a girl on the opposite bank of a river, person uses tricks to have sex with her: sends his long penis, transforms his penis into a bridge or a dam, dives and copulates with a girl from under the water
Person 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
Woman masturbates with penis of a big animal killed by a man of her household
A man or boy thinks about incest when he gets to see his daughter(-in-law)'s, sister's, or mother(in-law)'s vagina
To create opportunity to see female genitals, a man throws something combustible into the fire which makes the woman fall on her back and expose her vagina
A man cohabits with a group of women (or with several women in succession) concealing his identity and/or intentions. He is either eventually exposed and punished by women or escapes to continue his tricks
A girl gets sick. A man comes to cure her but only copulates with her or makes an attempt to do so
Person changes his or (rare) her guise to marry his or her close relative in descending or (rare) ascending line
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
A woman pretends to be a stranger to have sexual relations with her (grand)son, daughter or brother
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
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
One of the trees is the principal, original one (emerged before all the other; ancestor of wild or cultivated plants; ocean or rivers inside it; world axis; higher than all the others; overshadows sky)
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
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
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
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)
Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world
Coyote is responsible for introduction of permanent death
Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head
Giant serpent lies on the perimeter of the earth or supports the earth
It to point at the rainbow, pointing finger or entire arm will rot, wither or become crooked
Birds, first of all vultures and eagles, live in the sky, usually at one or more layers of the upper world
Ursa major is only one anthropomorphic being, not several persons
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
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
Person stretches his or her leg or neck as a bridge across water body. The fugitives or those who walk ahead cross the bridge; the persecutor or those who are behind usually fall because the person takes his bridge off
Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body
Two co-wives of female companions live together, both have children. Once when they go to work outdoors (usually to gather wild plants), one of them kills and devours another. The victim's children escape
Person is imprisoned in a tree-hollow or inside a rock and is released by somebody who makes a hole from outside
Hero climbs up a tree or rock to get eggs, nestlings, fruits, honey, etc. Another person makes the tree (rock) grow higher or thicker and the hero is unable to descend back
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
Person gets into the belly of water being or into the belly of giant creature which appearance and living place remain vague. He kills the monster from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)
Person gets into the belly of ground animal or bird. He kills it from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)
Person or animal gets into another being through its anus
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
Digging roots or gathering sea food on a beach, a woman finds baby-boy. Usually her mother warns her not to dig a certain bulb or not to do it in a certain way. Breaking taboo, the woman finds or conceives baby-boy
When hero dives, the antagonist covers the water surface with ice or net
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation
A forest woman receives or steals a small boy and brings him up to make him her paramour
A demonic being demands that a person would carry it permanently, clings to his shoulder or back
Person that looks weak and feeble asks a man to carry him or her on his back and refuses to leave him
A small creature is reared up by people. When it is grown up, it becomes harmful and dangerous
A small creature (often a worm or a reptile) is brought home and reared up or it becomes to live by itself in an artificial body of water. When big, it goes out of human control or becomes something huge and/or dangerous. Cf. motif L13A (The reared up monster attacks people)
After breaking some taboo, coming across a strange object or person, people fall asleep. They do not feel when at night spirits come and injure or kill them
Person kills or injures his enemy putting fire on his or her straw costume, mask, headgear, hair or object on his or her back
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
To kill a dangerous animal or monster, acrid or hot liquid (boiling water, resin, soup, etc.) is poured into one of his body orifices
Person loses his organ or body part, it is carried away. He finds its new owner, gets his property back
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)
Person devours his or her own flesh or disembowels himself or herself
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
Unintentionally, person gets to taste his or her own blood or flesh, likes the taste, turns into a cannibal
Person transforms himself into an object of hunting or fishing, provokes hunters of fishermen to catch or shoot him and carries way the tools that they use (arrows, darts, harpoons, hooks, baits). Or he fishes by turning himself into a hook. Or he is caught but escapes turning back into a person
Person turns into a fish to steal fishing hook or harpoon or he turns into fishing hook to catch a fish
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
Food or liquid that person swallows are immediately pouring out from his bottom part
Person himself or somebody else stitches up or firmly stops his anus (with wax, clay, grass, etc.)
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
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
Before finding a part of the body that is the best for some particular function, other parts are proven or enumerated
A man travels and comes to two or several blind (usually old) persons
A man meets two blind women, makes them see, they are or become birds (geese, ducks, grouses or the like)
Person enters a seemingly empty house and attempts to take certain things. Invisible beings prevent him from doing it or objects themselves hurt him
A man joins a group of dancing women and is killed or injured as a result
Raven is going to marry a girl but is rejected after they see that he eats filth
A man comes across (often in the sky) one or two blind persons and cures their eyes
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
One (animal) person refuses to use different body parts of another besides the only one the use of which causes another’s death
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
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
In a difficult situation animal person asks for advice his tail, anus or some beings that are inside him (excrements, parasites, his "sisters", etc.)
Because of its stupidity or unsocial behavior, the bear suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Each of calender units (usually the months) that make the year is a separate object or person
A mouse, a small bird, a porcupine or other animal (rare: person) of a small size gets inside a big ungulate (elk, deer, buffalo, tapir) to kill (and then usually to eat) him
Animal person (mammal, bird, fish) of a small size (less than a fox) gets inside the bear and kills him from the inside (usually eat his meat)
Frog or toad are seen in the moon or the Moon is associated with them