| Motif | Name | Description |
| a12 | Eclipses: monster’s attack | Some creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, summer and winter, lunar phases) or irregularly (solar and lunar eclipses, eschatological events) attack the luminaries or shade their light |
| a12a | Eclipses: a predator animal | 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) |
| 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) |
| a32c1 | Predator animal in the Moon | A predator animal (fox, wolf, dog, coyote, jaguar, lion) or its imprint is seen in the Moon |
| a4 | Female sun | The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female |
| b14 | To regulate the river current, person creates rapids and falls | Person creates river rapids |
| b18 | Light in container | Day light (also warmth, the sun, the moon) is kept as a particular object in a container, under a cover, etc. |
| b61 | The mole’s paw | Mole had to support the sky or the Sun that had fallen down. Usually its paw (hand) remained crooked after this |
| b82 | The white raven | Raven or other carrion-eating bird of dark color and a similar size was originally white |
| c19 | Acquisition of the sun | The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again) |
| c8 | The couple of close relations originates the mankind | In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister, mother and son, or father and daughters are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents |
| c8aa | Brother and sister beget the people | In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents |
| d13f | Laughter and fire | Laughter triggers emergence or spread of fire. Usually fire is obtained from a creature when it bursts out laughing |
| d4a | Theft of fire | Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before |
| d4a1 | Dance fot the hidden fire | Person who incarnates or owns the fire hides himself or herself or is hidden. To return or to get heath and light, his or her interest is attracted or diverted by way of singing, dancing, playing music, provocative behavior, offering of unusual gifts, sex or alcohol |
| d4e | Coyote or fox obtain fire | Coyote or fox bring people the fire, the daylight or the Sun |
| d4g | Hummingbird discovers where the fire is (and brings it to people) | Hummingbird discovers where the fire is (and brings it to people) |
| d7a | Fire and spider | Spider possesses the fire or steals it from original owner (texts in which spider acts together with other animals and does not play the leading role are not included) |
| e37 | Peoples from sticks | Creator takes many small sticks, transforms them into people of both sexes and all ages |
| f27 | Girls and the water spirits | For girls and young women it is dangerous to come near water. Water creatures swallow them or drag away; a girl can die or become pregnant from a spirit; she can trigger a flood (rare: other cataclysm). Water spirits can come themselves to a girl who has her periods |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| f58 | Trickster and women | 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 |
| f61 | Trickster rapes a woman who carries him on her back | A man pretends to be weak, ill or injured, asks a woman to carry him on her back. When she agrees, he makes attempt to copulate with her |
| h18 | Hoarded game released | Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world |
| 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 |
| h22 | Sense of smell | Big game animals obtain sense of smell and/or become to escape from hunters after a person makes them olfactory organs or lets them feel strong odor |
| h36gg | Death and the coyote | Coyote is responsible for introduction of permanent death |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| i45b | Not to point at the rainbow | It to point at the rainbow, pointing finger or entire arm will rot, wither or become crooked |
| i51a | Bull the earth-holder | Big mammal supports the earth |
| i51b | The earth is an animal | The earth or the sky are identified with a big quadruped mammal or are made of parts of its body |
| 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 |
| i82a | Venus is male | Morning and/or Evening Star is a male personage |
| i8c | The suspended earth | The earth does not fall down or swing because it is suspended to ropes |
| i8e1 | Four supports of the world | The sky or the earth rests upon four or five (cardinal points and the center) supports of any kind (poles, mountains, giants) |
| j1 | The vengeful heroes | Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they |
| 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 |
| j31 | Father’s weapon | A young hero obtains and uses weapons or other powerful objects which belonged to his murdered father |
| j44 | The broken bridge | Person or his helper draws his enemies on the unstable bridge and destroys it. The enemies fall into water, into a precipice |
| j45 | The stretched out leg (crane bridge) | 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 |
| j46 | Enemy drowns | Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body |
| j47 | Pursuer falls from height | Person ascends to the sky (rare: descends from the sky; ascends the cliff) by a rope, a ladder, etc. Another person tries to follow him or her but the rope (the ladder) is broken or severed |
| j4a | Revenge for the death of the mother | A woman is murdered. Her son or children (rare: grandchildren, nephews) revenge for her death |
| j4b | Revenge inside the family | Children (son, sons, son and daughter) of the murdered woman or man revenge on persons who have marital or close kin relations with the victom |
| j52 | Two animal persons and their children | A person (usually zoomorphic and female) treacherously kills her (his) companion. The victim's children revenge on the murderer killing her own children |
| j52a | Bear as antagonist | A bear-person (usually Bear-woman) kills her or his female companion who is associated with a weaker animal – not a predator or a weaker predator. The victim's children revenge on the antagonist killing her own children and / or run away and escape |
| j53 | The fawns and the cubs | Children of the ungulate animal person (deer, doe, antelope) become the enemies of a predator or bigger ungulate animal person. They kill her (him) and (or) successively escape from her (him) |
| j53a | To involve in a game and to kill | A child suggests another to play. The one who has been invited follows the rules but the initiator does not do it and kills the other |
| j53a1 | A way of the revenge: to lure into the smoke and fire | The victim’s children kill the murderer’s children luring them in a place where the die of smoke or heath |
| j53b | The killed mother’s breasts | Two women live together, each one has children. When they are outdoors, one of them kills another and brings home her flesh. The victim’s children gets to see their mother’s breasts (in California: eyes or liver) or their mother’s breasts speak with them |
| j53c | One of two female companions kills another | 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 |
| k27n | Difficult tasks of the in-laws | A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage |
| k27n3a | Task-giver is the Sun, Moon, Thunder, or Wind | Person who gives difficult tasks to the hero is associated with the Sun, Moon, Thunder, or Wind (Cloud, Rain) |
| k27o | Ball game | A contest: ball game |
| 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 |
| k58a | Water in exchange for love | Person makes water or fish available only if girl agrees to marry him and does not do it if the girl is unwilling |
| k87a | A stolen boy | A forest woman receives or steals a small boy and brings him up to make him her paramour |
| 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 |
| l15a1 | Achilles' heel | Vulnerable place on the body of a person or creature is on his or her foot (toe, heel, sole, ankle) |
| 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 |
| l49 | Body parts falling down | Body parts of a person or pieces of his flesh are thrown down one by one. (In American Indian versions those who are on the ground usually take them for game, honey, fish) |
| l52 | Hero escapes from top of a tree | Hero hides in a tree from an ogre. Before the ogre gets to fell the tree, the hero flies away or a bird helps him to escape |
| 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 |
| l61 | Endocannibal | Person devours his or her own flesh or disembowels himself or herself |
| l65b3 | The escape on the tree | Persons climbs a tree and thanks to this escapes from a demon (who usually tries to fell the tree) |
| l87 | Taste of blood | Unintentionally, person gets to taste his or her own blood or flesh, likes the taste, turns into a cannibal |
| m22 | Helpful stock | A long-necked bird living near water (stork, heron, bittern, swan) saves person from dangerous pursuer |
| m29b | Trickster-fox, jackal or coyote | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote |
| m30 | Trickster falls down | Person or creature who has no wings or is unable to fly on a long distance attempts to ascend to the sky or to fly far away but falls down or, deprived of his wings, remains in a place from which he is unable to return |
| 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 |
| 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)
|
| 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) |
| m81 | Blind persons | A man travels and comes to two or several blind (usually old) persons |