Different suns illuminate different worlds or will appear successively in the future
The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
After getting into the fire or boiling water, one or two persons ascend to the sky and turn into the Sun and/or Moon
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
Light and/or heat of the Sun and/or Moon originate from their crowns, necklaces or clothes (of feathers, of animal teeth)
As a result of some intimate contacts and/or love affair, the Moon acquires its present appearance (often, the stains on his face) and/or ascends to the sky
Dark spots on the lunar disc are dirt, blood, paint, traces of beating, burning, scratching, etc. on the Moon person's body or face (Kiliwa: spots on the Sun) and do not form any particular figure
Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance
There is enormous amount of water inside a trunk of a tree or a tree turns into water
Person who follows the wild animals turns into one of them or into their master
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.
People turn into animals, birds or stones at a feast, after the feast, after performing a ritual or after a victory over dangerous enemy
Chips of wood, branches or pieces of bark thrown or fallen into the water turn into fish and/or aquatic animals
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
In the beginning of times or after the flood a dam of earth, person or creature does not let water to recede. The dam is broken or opened, waters withdraw
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
Frog or toad possesses the fire, steals it from original owner, tries to extinguish or to save it
Before fire became known, people prepared food using warmth of their bodies (usually putting food in their armpits); or a person keeps fire in his or her armpits
Making people, creator does not reach perfection immediately. First variants of creation are rejected, then proper form and material found
The first people (or only the first men or the first women) are not created but come to earth from the underworld (from a cave) or from a small enclosure under the earth or on its surface (tree trunk, rock, gourd, etc.). Many people of both sexes and of different ages or people and different species of animals come out together
The first people or first anthropomorphic divine beings descend to earth from the sky.
The first people or (the first) woman (wife of a primeval ancestor) are made of wood
Person observes traces of some activity that takes place in his (rare: her) house in his (her) absence and then takes by surprise the responsible one
Woman, female supernatural or animal females are created by changing the sex of a man (or male animals)
Woman has no vagina and it is later made by bird or animal
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
There is only one monstrous penis, a husband of primeval women or the amazons, which grows out of the ground or out of the water in a lake
Woman conceives after masturbating with an artificial penis
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
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
Person feeds another with the meat of his or her sexual partner who cooks or eats it without knowing whose meat it is
The (adoptive) children or grandchildren and not person's spouse or brother kill the paramour of their (step)mother or father
Food crops emerge from remains of a woman or girl
Person urinates producing the first cultivated plants
Reptiles or invertebrates possess the medicine of immortality; are contrasted with men as immortal with mortals and/or are responsible for originating of death; or a snake's bite inflicts the first death
People become mortal because they do not hear or answer a call of a being who promises them immortality (or do not pronounce his name) or answer a call (pronouns the name) of a being who brings 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
Certain creatures (snakes, insects) get access to special substance that proved to be out of control and become poisonous or immortal; creatures obtain their characteristics (usually becomes poisonous) after drinking or licking a particular medicine
The earth does not fall down or swing because it is suspended to ropes
The sky or the earth rests upon four or five (cardinal points and the center) supports of any kind (poles, mountains, giants)
First human beings have no mouth, anus or genitals, their women do not know how to give birth
Beings without mouth, anus, genitals, whose women do not know how to give birth live in the underworld, in the sky, or in a far-away land
Person visits people who have no anus or mouth. He or his sister marries or tries to marry a local dweller
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
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)
Snake, lizard or worm is a bridge or a rope over the river
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
Rainbow is a reptile (usually a snake) or (more rare) a fish, or it is related to snake, to its tongue, breath, or to scorpion's tail
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
Milky Way is the path over which souls travel to the beyond or a path of the funeral procession
Shining sky objects or atmospheric phenomena are excrements of sky dwellers
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
Birds, first of all vultures and eagles, live in the sky, usually at one or more layers of the upper world
Milky Way is the path of the Sun and/or Moon
Person or his helper draws his enemies on the unstable bridge and destroys it. The enemies fall into water, into a precipice
Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
Rolling head is a dangerous mobster (pursues celestial bodies, people etc.)
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)
A bird with two or more heads on top of one body is described in tales or represented in art
Being (any besides birds) with more than ten heads or with odd (but more than one) number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. If beings with ever more number of heads are named, the row ends with a being that has odd (or more than ten) number of heads
Demons (or one of them) attack people and return to their den (usually a cave or tree hollow). People make suffocating fire around the den killing most or all of the demons
A baby or small child proves to be a demon, devours or injures people
Non-human persons work hard to destroy a strong and durable obstacle that blocks access to some place or object
Not to return home empty-handed, a hunter or (rare) a fisherman cuts off a piece of flesh from his body (usually from his calf) or (more rare) extracts his blood or entrails. Usually he brings his flesh or blood to other people pretending that is a good game or fish; or a woman cuts off a piece of flesh from her calf to feed her husband
Person pursued by an enemy asks somebody whom he meets to help him. The helper hides him
Person attracts and catches the carrion-eaters (usually some birds) and thanks to this obtains valuables retrieves valuables (fire, woman, animals, etc.)
First seeds (sprouts, tubors) of cultivated plants or of important edible wild plants are brought from the sky (received from the sky-dwellers)
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
Initially, the Moon was as bright and hot as the Sun
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
On their way to the Beyond, souls of the dead must get between clashing rocks or other moving obstacles
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
All humans, members of a particular ethnic or social group or a ruling dynasty are believed to descend from a mortal man and a woman of supernatural origin
The penis is a particular monstrous being with whom copulate the primeval women, the amazons, or a certain woman
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