| Motif | Name | Description |
| a1 | The old sun | Another sun, usually less benevolent and/or powerful, existed before the present one |
| a11a | Eyes of the Sun and the Moon: coolness and night | Visible sun and/or moon are the Sun's and/or the Moon's eyes. If these eyes were not injured, light and heat would be more intense |
| a14 | Eclipses: relations between the Sun and the Moon | Coming together of the Sun and the Moon is the reason of their eclipses |
| a14a | The conflict between the Sun and the Moon | The Sun and the Moon are or were enemies, either permanently or in particular situations |
| a24 | The first sunrise | 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 |
| 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) |
| a32a | The Moon rabbit | Rabbit or hare are seen in the moon |
| a8b | The Sun in the land of the dead | When the Sun descends below the horizon, it shines to the anthropomorphic denizens of the netherworld (the dead, dwarfs, etc.) |
| a9 | The moon defends people | Female moon does not permit her husband or son to destroy people |
| b22 | Offended person destroys the tree | People who have climbed up a tree do not share food with a person who remained below. He or she revenges on them destroying the tree. The events have cosmic dimensions |
| b23 | Prohibited fire and smoke | God prohibits making fire for cooking and punishes breakers of this taboo |
| b25 | Pigs fall from a tree | Persons climb a tree or liana and fall turning into wild pigs and other game animals |
| b30b | Murdered person turns into game animals | Different game animals emerge from remains of a murdered person |
| b39 | Narrow waist of an insect | 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) |
| b41 | The talking dog | Because the dog was spreading some information, altercated with its masters, was talking in a wrong time, etc. it lost the ability to speak |
| b41a | Animal reveals master’s secrets | The dog or other domestic animal speaks aloud about those details of its masters' life that they would prefer to conceal. He is punished by depriving his ability to speak |
| b62 | Buzzard husband | 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 |
| c19 | Acquisition of the sun | The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again) |
| c2 | Deluge and conflagration combined | Inhabitans of the Middle World are (partly) destroyed (or will be destoyed) once by fire or draught, another time by a flood or the world is destroyed with a flood of fire or boiling water |
| c5a | Bird-scouts | 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 |
| 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 |
| c9 | Warning about the coming flood | 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 |
| f35 | Feeding with the paramour’s meat | Person feeds another with the meat of his or her sexual partner who cooks or eats it without knowing whose meat it is |
| 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 |
| g16 | Ants find cultivated plants | Ants are the first who find cultivated plants (corn or manioc) which are concealed from the others in particular place |
| g3 | A rock of crops | Cultivated plants or fertile soil to plant them are hidden inside a rock. Birds or Thunders get them destroying the rock |
| g4 | A food mountain | Cultivated plants are found above or inside a mountain |
| g9 | Restored forest | People fell trees to make a garden. In the morning, the forest is intact again |
| 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 |
| h18 | Hoarded game released | Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world |
| i20 | The undeground dwarfs | 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 |
| i20c | Dwarfs live in the underworld | Dwarfs live in the underworld that somewhat reminds the world of humans. If the dwarfs and the humans meet, it is deep under the earther |
| i20c2 | Dwarfs live at the horizon | The denizens of the country at the horizon (where the sky and the earth meet) are dwarfs |
| i37f | Fungi are ears | Fungi or mushrooms are named “ears” |
| i45c | Not to count stars | Person who counts stars will suffer diseases and misfortunes |
| i48 | Confined to the underworld | Certain person loses his or her freedom, is confined to a far away place (often, to the underworld) and acquires cosmic dimensions: supports the earth or the sky and/or his or her movements produce earthquakes or (rare) storms |
| i4b | Thunder in trouble: fights with his enemy | A man helps Thunder who fights with his enemy |
| i59b4 | Milky Way is snow or rime | Milky Way is associated with a snow, hoarfrost, cold |
| i78 | The square earth | The earth is square, the sky is usually round |
| i80 | Thunder’s apprentice | 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 |
| i80a | The youngest Thunder | Man meets Thunders and becomes one of them |
| k41 | Thunder against a serpent | Thunder or giant bird fights against a reptile, big water animal or other big and strong creature who lives in water or under the earth |
| 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) |
| l17b | Two faces | Person or creature has another face (another mouth) on the back of his (her, its) head |
| l21 | Cannibal’s attention diverted | A cannibal under a tree plans to eat up a man who has climbed the tree. The man throws down and afar his pray or some object and escapes while the cannibal rushes to this object or is eating the pray |
| l40 | Reflection and shadow | Person discovers (rare:still fails to discover) another getting to see his or her shadow or reflection in water |
| l5c | Rolling head is a dangerous monster | Rolling head is a dangerous mobster (pursues celestial bodies, people etc.) |
| l7 | Chasing an animal by mistake | Instead of chasing a person, a bush spirit, a monster or a dangerous animal follows by mistake an object or animal that moves nearby |
| 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 |
| m115 | The eaten up wolf | Using a trick, (animal)-person kills a dangerous animal. Kinsmen and friends of the killed animal get to know about it and come to avenge its death. The person has narrow escape |
| m151a | Holding up the rock | (Animal) person pretends to hold up a rock, tree etc. and explains that otherwise it will fall |
| m29g | Trickster-hare or rabbit | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit |
| m29k1 Not used in statistics | The turtle (toad, frog) is a tricky failure | A turtle (tortoise, toad, frog) behaves foolishly creating serious problems for himself |
| m29w | Jaguar (ocelote, puma) is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the jaguar (ocelote, puma) suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| 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 |
| m47 | Head put to bottoms | Punishing a person or animal or restoring his or its body after its disintegration, a powerful being intentionally or by chance puts head to bottoms |
| m56a | Alligator’s secret | A man or an animal beats alligator but it remains unharmed and says that he would be killed if stricken in one special place on his body. The next time the same person strikes alligator this way and kills it |
| 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 |