| 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 |
| a12d | Eclipses: birds | A bird or birds attack or shade the Sun or the Moon during an eclipse or at the sunrise and sunset |
| a17 | The Sun’s relax at the midday | After passing half of the its way across the sky (in the day time) or in the underworld (in the night time), the Sun stops to have a rest |
| a22c | Person sacrificed to the Sun | To make the Sun rise above the horizon, to send him to the right distance from the earth, to make him move across the sky, etc. a person has to be sacrificed |
| a3 | Male sun and female moon | The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male |
| a42 | Phaethon: false Sun fails to fulfill his duty | Person comes to the sun, attempts to fulfill the sun's duty but intentionally or because of a lack of skill does it wrong and the earth suffers from heat etc.
(Cf. Earth burned because the bearer of the sun came too low, Boas 2002: 664)
|
| a42a | The Sun’s imitator falls to earth (Phaethon) | When a person arrives to the sky his attempt to fulfill the sun's duty fails and he falls to earth (is thrown down to earth) |
| a7a | Torches in hands of celestial bodies | Light of the Sun (Moon, Venus) is a torch in hands of the celestial body |
| b13a | Stream follows person | A stream of water (with a monster in it) pursues person who tries to escape from it |
| b2a | The female earth | The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman |
| b46c | Big Dipper is seven persons or animals | Every main star of the Big Dipper is interpreted as a particular person or animal |
| b46d | Extraordinary companions turn into stars | Several men each of whom is an expert in a particular sphere turn into stars |
| 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) |
| e29 | Lizard gives proper hands | Two persons (usually Coyote and Lizard) argue if people's hand has to be like a paw or people should have fingers |
| f10 | Vaginal teeth knocked out | Woman has another toothed mouth (usually in vagina) or biting animals in vagina. Man inserts there a stone, bone, stick, etc. breaking or knocking out the teeth or extracting from there dangerous animals |
| f45 | The Amazons | There are (or were) women who live apart from men in their own village or villages |
| f63 | Trickster poses as woman and marries man | A male person turns into woman and marries a man. He is either unmasked or abandons his "husband" by his own will |
| 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 |
| h24 | Container opened too early | Container with valuables or with dangerous creatures is opened (before time). Its content goes out of control or disappear |
| h27 | Mosquitoes let lose | Stinging insects (rare diseases) had been inside a container or some enclosure. They escaped to the world when the container or enclosure was foolishly opened |
| 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 |
| 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) |
| i22e | Objects in permanent move on the way of the dead | On their way to the Beyond, souls of the dead must get between clashing rocks or other moving obstacles |
| i22g | Clapping rocks | There are mountains or rocks which permanently collide and separate again from each other or a crack (jaws) in a vertical cliff which is opening and closing |
| i25 | The bribed guards | Way to the place of a certain person is guided by dangerous creatures (which often stand on the both sides of the pathway). Person placates them by gifts or nice talk, and they let him or her go the both ways, sometimes being punished for this by their master |
| i3 | Weapon of Thunder | The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being |
| i44 | Chthonic serpent | Giant serpent lies on the perimeter of the earth or supports the earth |
| 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 |
| i82b | Venus is female | Morning and/or Evening Star is a female personage |
| i93 | Milky Way is the backbone | Milky Way is the backbone of the sky or of all the world |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| j34 | Frightened grandmother | After killing their enemy, heroes have fun frightening their (grand)mother or father with its dummy |
| j4a | Revenge for the death of the mother | A woman is murdered. Her son or children (rare: grandchildren, nephews) revenge for her death |
| j51 | One piece is missing | Person or animal is eaten up or destroyed otherwise. His bones are put together and he or it is revived. Because one bone was broken, swallowed or lost (or a drop of blood, a small piece of flesh lost), the person or animal cannot be revived or being revived misses some part of his or its body |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| k27s | Contest: a race | Contest: a race |
| k29a | Surviving in a fire | Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation |
| k3 | Tree or rock grows taller | 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 |
| k35 | False husband | An imposter pretends to be the hero to take his position and/or to marry or to violate his woman |
| k51 | The deceived wife | A Man disappears or goes away for long time. His wife sets off, comes to a house where her husband lives now or first sends her son there. She gets to know that he has married another woman |
| k52 | Rescue from the sea bottom | When a woman or a lad comes to the sea bank, she or he is carried away by sea predators (killer-whales, sharks, swordfish). Man descends to the bottom and rescues the woman or lad using his shaman's power |
| k66 | Extraordinary companions | Several companions have extraordinary abilities (one who runs fast, one who eats great quantities, one who produces or can withstand severe frost, etc.); a hero comes across and takes for companions several men, each of them being involved into a special and unusual activity |
| l10 | Sharp tail | A monster kills victims with his or her sharp or stinging tail or protrusion on his or her back |
| l15b | To kill with a reed | Person can be killed only with a particular plant that normally is not used as a weapon |
| l34 | The burning hair | Person kills or injures his enemy putting fire on his or her straw costume, mask, headgear, hair or object on his or her back |
| 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 |
| l41b | Pitch basket | An ogress puts her victims into a basket which is filled or smeared with pitch |
| l58 | Avaricious man | A man does not share food with his wife or kinsfolk. He or his food is transformed (turns into a bird, into worms, etc.) in punishment |
| l9 | Sharp body members | Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon |
| l9b | Elbow-knives | Person's sharp elbows or (rare) knees are like awls or knives |
| 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 |
| m11c | Person gets lard from his body | A male person cuts or roasts his own body to extract meat, lard or blood, cooks it and serves to his guest without injuring himself. Such a food is not considered to be unclean |
| m121 | Louse as a spy | Louse or other tiny creature (flee, tuck) is sent to spy on a person |
| m151a | Holding up the rock | (Animal) person pretends to hold up a rock, tree etc. and explains that otherwise it will fall |
| 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 |
| m38 | Stupid imitation (all versions) | Person sees how others act using magic or according to their animal nature. He or she imitates their actions and gets into trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and refer to everyday activity, mostly to providing and cooking food |
| m38a | The bungling host | Being on a visit to other people or (more often) animals, an (animal)-person sees them act using magic or according to their animal nature. Back at home, he imitates their actions and gets in trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and mostly refer to providing and cooking food |
| m45 | A predator tricks animals to gather around him | An ogre or a stronger animal catches a man or a weaker animal or drives him into a small enclosure. He goes away for a while leaving a watchman. The watchman is unable to fulfill his duty and the man (the weak animal) escapes (usually he dupes the watchman). Most, though hardly all American cases can have post-Columbian African origin |
| 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 |
| m65b | The lost quarry | Person kills game (usually by deception), gets to see how thieves carry it away but is unable to intervene |
| m84 | Revived from bones | Person, animal, fish or (rare) a fruit is eaten up and then revived, usually after all bones (all seeds) being put together |
| m84b | Bones thrown into the water | Butchered and eaten animal, bird or fish revives after its bones are thrown into the water |