The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
The Sun or the Moon is one-eyed (usually another eye was knocked or sucked out but sometimes this defect is not explained
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
A bird or birds attack or shade the Sun or the Moon during an eclipse or at the sunrise and sunset
The Sun and the Moon (rare: the Sun and a star, the Moon and a star) are two siblings who live on earth and then ascend to the sky being still young persons
After getting into the fire or boiling water, one or two persons ascend to the sky and turn into the Sun and/or Moon
After two persons burn up, one turns into the present Sun and another into a less important sky object
Person who becomes the Sun burned up in a hot fire while his companion burned up in the less hot fire or threw himself into the ashes. He (she) turns into the Moon or a star which gives no warmth
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
The primeval ancestors come together to choose the best candidate to become the Sun and/or to send the Sun to the sky or to see how the Sun rises to the sky for the first time
In the beginning it is dark. When the Sun first appears on the sky, primeval beings or part of them perish or turn into animals, spirits, stones
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)
The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman
The earth devours bodies of the people when they die and are buried
The earth or the world as a whole is a male person (alone or together with a female person)
God prohibits making fire for cooking and punishes breakers of this taboo
Insect-person knows the source of food (cultivated plants) and water but does not share his knowledge. To make him speak, ancestors tie a rope around his waist and pull it till the waist becomes narrow (origin of narrow place between breast and belly of insects)
Because the dog was spreading some information, altercated with its masters, was talking in a wrong time, etc. it lost the ability to speak
Man thinks that buzzard or hawk has better life than he. They exchange clothes. The bird lives with the man's wife as her husband, the man usually does not enjoy his bird life
Birds or humans later changed to birds are sent to explore the earth (is it dry, are any survivals, to investigate why smoke rises to the sky, etc.) or to bring some soil to make the land that would be good for living
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
During or before the world catastrophe (deluge, darkness) wild beasts and monsters attack and destroy people
Person who incarnates or owns the sun 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
The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again)
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
Female person is the owner or inventor (but not the personification) of the fire
Person summons with a certain signal a non-human being (usually his or her sexual partner or his or her protégé). Another person spies, uses the same signal or pronounces the same words and kills the being who comes to him (or uses this being sexually himself)
Cultivated plants or fertile soil to plant them are hidden inside a rock. Birds or Thunders get them destroying the rock
Cultivated plants are found above or inside a mountain
People fell trees to make a garden. In the morning, the forest is intact again
A man fells trees to clear ground for a garden or breaks ground. Certain person or animal revives vegetation, makes the soil virgin again. He or she explains that the flood is coming, there is no sense to work and advices to prepare a floating device
Ants are the first who find cultivated plants (corn or manioc) which are concealed from the others in particular place
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different plants, mostly edible or cultivated
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
Container with valuables or with dangerous creatures is opened (before time). Its content goes out of control or disappear
The right way to dispose of container with stinging insects would be to throw it into the river or sea or bury in a far away place, but it was not done
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
Killed and destroyed (often burned) person or creature (usually ogre, fierce animal, powerful shaman) turns into a multitude of biting insects or into other small molesting creatures
The sky (or the earth) is offended by people’s behavior in respect to it and reacts accordingly (e.g. rises higher than it was before)
First human beings have no mouth, anus or genitals, their women do not know how to give birth
Anthropomorphic beings satisfy their hunger cooking food and inhaling the odor
Race of dwarfs lives under the ground (deep under the earth or in hills and rocks) or at the horizon where the earth and the sky meet
A dog is the lord, guard or guide of/to the land of the dead; or dogs live on the way to the land of the dead
A dog ferries person across a river that forms a border between the worlds
Game animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underworld where they often look like humans and have a master
There is (or was) a tree on which souls of still unborn babies grow, which leaves transform into people, or which trunk is covered with female breasts or flowers that innumerable babies are sucking
Rainbow is a flatulence of a demon, a spray of a skunk, is associated with spit, urine, feces, genitals, etc., causes skin diseases, is associated with death
Person who got into the place of a deity responsible for atmospheric phenomena breaks certain taboo or instructions producing excessive thunderstorm, rain, snowfall or wind
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
Baby heroes, embryos or objects from which they emerge are found in a river or lake or come to people out of the water
A youth or two siblings live in a house of an old man or woman. To produce a reaction from this older person, they kill a person or animal and stuff its skin with insects, worms, ashes, grass or blow it up
A youth or two siblings live in a house of an old woman. they kill her a person or animal who is her husband and make a dummy of him. The old woman is angry that her husband does not answer her, beats him and understands that it is a dummy
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
In a non-human world objects of everyday life have appearance of animals and monsters, mainly fish, amphibians and reptiles
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)
To kill a dangerous animal or monster, acrid or hot liquid (boiling water, resin, soup, etc.) is poured into one of his body orifices
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
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
Non-human persons work hard to destroy a strong and durable obstacle that blocks access to some place or object
Person pursued by an enemy asks somebody whom he meets to help him. The helper hides him
Person discovers that somebody steals game or fish from his trap or devastates his garden. He or his guards catch the thieves who prove to be (the first) women or the thief is the water being whom the hero lets go after receiving a woman for ransom
Beads or metals are discharged by bodies of deities
To steal fire from its owner, person pretends to be wet or cold and is granted permission to sit near the fireplace. In a proper moment the stealer carries the fire away and brings it to people
A person rises to the sky and finds there containers with different (two or more) types of precipitations, atmospheric phenomena, seasons and/or celestial bodies
Killing (injuring, offending) of some cruature (usually related to water) triggers deluge
Gods, first people or founders of the royal lineages are born from eggs
Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it
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
In the sky there is a special container (vessel, skin, box, etc.) for storing the rain
A girl (a woman, a group of women) intentionally takes a penis-being, a snake, an eel, a lizard, a worm, a big water animal or water monster or a big terrestrial mammal for paramour. People kill or maim the paramour, the woman and/or her progeny or she is transformed herself into an animal. She is blamed for her behavior
Certain woman or a group of women takes for a paramour a big land animal. Husbands, brothers or (adoptive) children kill or maim paramour and (sometimes) the woman
God, animal, some person warns one of the people about the catastrophy (usuallly the flood) that will become soon and in which most of the people must perish