The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
During the day and/or the night (in the underworld, beyond the horizon etc.) the Sun and/or the Moon regularly travel in a boat.
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
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
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
The earth devours bodies of the people when they die and are buried
Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance
Darkness is a particular object that can be carried (usually brought from its original owner in a container)
Person who follows the wild animals turns into one of them or into their master
Persons ponders over what object, feature, or creature it would be appropriate for him or her to turn into. When the choice is made, the persons transforms himself or herself
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
Fish emerges from remains of a killed person or creature
Person paints birds or animals or they paint each other. Some of them are not satisfied with the result
Because the dog was spreading some information, altercated with its masters, was talking in a wrong time, etc. it lost the ability to speak
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
Constellation of Orion or the Belt of Orion is identified with only one male person, usually with a warrior or hunter
Chips of wood, branches or pieces of bark thrown or fallen into the water turn into fish and/or aquatic animals
A group of people (usually children, brothers or sisters) play, dance, ascend to the sky and turn into Pleiades or other compact constellation
People fell giant tree. The fallen tree and/or its stump turns into mountain(s) or rocks
Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up
Person (his/her head) who was abandoned in a tree or falls on a tree turns into a nest of insects
During the flood or in the beginning of times fruits, seeds or other objects are dropped into water one by one, usually by a person who has climbed a tree. As far as the objects fall, water recedes and the dry land appears
During or before the world catastrophe (deluge, darkness) wild beasts and monsters attack and destroy people
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
Parrot or parakeet steals fire for people. (Australian data not computed because historically definitely unrelated to the Tropical American data)
Crocodile or cayman is an original or temporary owner of fire or lighting
Frog or toad possesses the fire, steals it from original owner, tries to extinguish or to save it
First people or inhabitants of a distant country cook food in the sun; or fire owner lies that he or she cooks food in the sun
Certain person is made of improper material and proves to be short-lived or unfit for fulfilling his functions
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 (the first) woman (wife of a primeval ancestor) are made of wood
People learn from aquatic birds how to make canoes or how to paddle; or the first canoe is a transformed bird or is made of bird bones
People or only women disappear under the water and turn into fish. They are caught using fishing tools and become humans (women) again. (Narratives that tell about a man who caught only one fish who because his wife are not included; see motig F7)
In the beginning of times, a particular person or children in general was or were conceived and grown up in pots, heaps of mud, etc. and not in a womb
Woman has no vagina and it is later made by bird or animal
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man
There are teeth, blades or sharp stones in woman’s genitals, vagina is the biting mouth. (Only texts that are believed to correspond to reality are considered but not anecdotes and jokes)
Small creatures in female or male genitals are dangerous for the partner
Human or monkey's genitals becomes red after being injured during copulation with the girl who had toothed vagina or had not any vagina
After contact with a non-human or prohibited partner (close kin, animal, spirit) man's penis becomes so long that he had to carry it in a basket, etc.
Person asks another person of the opposite sex about destination or place of her or his genitals. Usually it is made after putting questions about function of other body parts; or person tries to use for sex different parts of the partner's body or tests them before reaching the best place where the genitals should be put
Women bleed because fish or snake bites them. Usually it is invisible fish inside their body
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
To kill snake or worm paramour of a woman or girl, person pours on it boiling water, resin or spills live coals
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
Baby child or children who come out of mother's womb and turn themselves into adult men or a snake who lives in her womb climb up a tree and help the woman to gather fruits, bark, edible fungi, etc. Usually the child who is a snake returns to his mother's womb and adult man turns back into a baby; or the girl's love affair with a snake is discovered when her father climbs a tree to gather fruits for her
Certain woman or a group of women take for paramour a big water animal (caiman, otter, sea-lion, whale, anaconda; rare: water bird, crab), water spirit or monster. Husbands, brothers or (adoptive) children kill or maim paramour and/or (sometimes) the woman
The (adoptive) children or grandchildren and not person's spouse or brother kill the paramour of their (step)mother or father
Person knocks the gourd vessel that floats above the water to call water monster or serpent. Usually a woman calls this way her monstrous paramour
An anthropomorphic male or an androgyne is the only possessor or leader of women
A man gets into the village of women. Usually he has to satisfy every woman against his will or every woman claims him for herself
A powerful man kills every baby boy born by his wives or by his sister
There are (or were) women who live apart from men in their own village or villages
Cesarean operation upon a woman at childbirth as a custom
A small animal (mouse, rat, rabbit, opossum, a bird) explains a woman how she can deliver her child in a natural way
Child or children come out of mother's womb and return back
Person who conceals his or her identity comes to his or her lover (at night). Next time, the lover puts a mark on the stranger's face, body or clothes doing this intentionally (to recognize him or her) or by chance (that leads to the identification)
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)
A man gets to the sky where he has a choice to marry one of two women, one of them being connected with life and another with death
Fruits and shoots of different cultivated plants grow on the branches of one tree (on one vine) or certain plant has a tree form that is alien to it in nature
One of the trees is the principal, original one (emerged before all the other; ancestor of wild or cultivated plants; ocean or rivers inside it; world axis; higher than all the others; overshadows sky)
Ancestors try to fell a tree (more rare a high rock) that has different useful fruits on its branchs (on its top) or contains water and fish in its tunck. The notch disappears as soon as the woodcutters abandon their work for a while or periodically
A deep notch in the tree (or in the sky support) is magically restored as soon as persons or creatures who cut or gnaw it stop working
(Animal-)people try to fell a tree that contains water and fish or has cultivated plants on its branches. The notch disappears and the tree becomes intact
A deep notch in the tree is magically restored when persons or creatures who cut it go away to take a rest. They get to fell the tree after they begin to burn the cut off chips or to carry them far way
A tree which trunk is cut through do not fall because it is hold from above
A squirrel plays crucial role in felling the gigantic tree
Before acquisition of cultivated plants people ate fungi. Fingi is a food of non-human beings. Fungi is a false food of inferior quality
Serpent (snake-eel in Oceania) or alligator is the original possessor or the source of cultivated plants or wild staples
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
All the fish or (rare) shellfish) was concentrated in one place. Certain person lets it lose or puts it into the rivers or sea
Person possesses game animals or fish. A boy or a girl knows this secret or is used as a luring device. Another person asks or forces the boy or girl to serve him the same way or the boy himself makes an attempt to hunt or fish. As a result, the boy or girl is killed or carried away by animals or fish
Container with valuables or with dangerous creatures is opened (before time). Its content goes out of control or disappear
People open container with death or disease inside and become mortal
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 lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
Only one pole or mountain supports the earth or the sky
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)
Giant reptilian monster (serpent, more rare fish, chain of fish) extends in the sky and/or supports the sky being associated with Milky Way or the rainbow
Milky Way is a reptile, fish, or chain of fish
Anaconda or a water monster has live fish or animals inside; is father of the fish; all fish emerge from its body
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
A woman or a girl is in search of her husband (lover) or kinsmen or a man sets out on a journey to his bride. She (he) loses her (his) way because signs that should direct her or him to the right place had been changed
A woman or a girl is in search of her husband or other person. Bird feathers at the cross-road or near the person's dwelling mark the correct or the wrong way
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
Two sisters (if more, only two play a significant role in the plot) travel and meet an unpleasant suitor or get to an ogre
Walking in search of her husband, boyfriend, kinsmen, shelter woman or girl gets to the house of dangerous creatures where she is injured or killed
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 man turns into powerful bird or creates it. The bird carries away his enemy
To kill his antagonists, hero lures them with an attractive object which is delicious to eat and is usually on the other side of a body of water or a canyon
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
Hero comes across different creatures or persons who do not recognize him. Everyone tells that he is waiting for the Hero to kill him. The hero easily kills or transforms them himself
Persons shoot arrows (darts) which hit each other’s end forming a chain (rope, ladder). Persons climb by this chain to the sky or (rare) across an obstacle
To climb to the sky, person must first to shoot an arrow that reaches the sky and sticks to it
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
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)
Person (often an animal-person) gets into the belly of anthropomorphic being. He kills it from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)
Person or animal gets into another being through its anus
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
Person's leg (rare: both legs) is cut, torn, bitten off, injured. He (rare: she) ascends to the sky: to the Moon; turns into the Moon, Sun, star, constellation; blood from the injured leg makes the sky red
A man marries an ogress' daughter, kills her mother. The wife revenges on him, gets to cut off his leg
A group of boys gets to the sky. The leg of the last one is cut or torn off
Hero substitutes powerful person's weapon or amulet with a fake
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
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
Flying person or creature abducts a woman but is ultimately killed or the woman escapes from him
Wife of a chief abandons him with vultures (usually by her own will being untrue to her husband). The chief (Witoto: her own brother) brings her back
An ugly, old, lazy, etc. woman or (in Chaco) a male trickster comes to man under disguise of his wife or bride who is driven out, confined to the underworld, killed, etc.
A girl (usually the youngest of several sisters) does not reject but marries a poor, sick, dirty, old, too young, non-human, etc. man who later demonstrates his supernatural qualities
A monstrous bird is created from small amount of the flesh of a human being or animal (usually a heart) or from manioc starch
A demon takes appearance of a man and comes to his wife or (rare) to other woman. The woman (alone or with her child) runs away and/or kills the monster (herself or with somebody's help)
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)
The only vulnerable spot is near the surface of person’s or creature’s body and not in his inner organs
After breaking some taboo, coming across a strange object or person, people fall asleep. They do not feel when at night spirits come and injure or kill them
After breaking some taboo, coming across a strange object or person, people fall asleep and awake blind
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
Two girls or young women meet a demon. One or both are not aware of danger. One is eaten up, another escapes
Person kills or injures his enemy putting fire on his or her straw costume, mask, headgear, hair or object on his or her back
When a person climbs a tree, a demon comes to it and carries the person away, or the person follows the demon to his world by his own will
Person discovers (rare:still fails to discover) another getting to see his or her shadow or reflection in water
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
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
To kill a dangerous animal or monster, acrid or hot liquid (boiling water, resin, soup, etc.) is poured into one of his body orifices
Person eats food with her toothed vagina or with her or his anus
A rolling head or a man who has burned off his foot turns into or produces thunder or lightning
Dangerous cannibal or bush spirit who abducts children, attacks people, etc. is associated with an owl
Being in a situation when his life depends on a good will of a demon or animal, person either resists or does not resist the temptation to insult or to beat, bite, etc. the latter
Getting into the lower or upper world, to an island, a country at the horizon, etc. a man is unable to move further and waits for somebody who could bring him to his destination. Some animals, birds or celestial bodies pass by, the last one (often the Sun or the Moon) picks him up and brings to the place he is eager to go
Birds or an animals takes (animal) person into their boat but acquire their animal guise and leave him in water (when he breaks a taboo)
Non-human persons work hard to destroy a strong and durable obstacle that blocks access to some place or object
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is an opossum
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is an anteater
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
Before finding a part of the body that is the best for some particular function, other parts are proven or enumerated
Person puts (for different reasons) his or her hand into the anus of a tapir or other herbivorous animals and is unable to extract it back. Animal starts to run and drags the person behind him for a long time
Two (animal) persons compare their feces or vomits to know about the diet and habits of each other (who is the strongest). The weaker one gets to exchange the feces (vomits)
A smaller animal kills or maims a big mammal (jaguar, tapir) biting his penis
A man marries a woman who initially has guise of an ungulate animal (buffalo, elk, derr, etc.)
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
Person creates river rapids
Persons do not understand with whom they are talking and tell the Transformer that they are making weapons to kill such and such a person or thinking about how to hide from him. The Transformer kills them of transforms them into animals
Being smart and persistent, the turtle (toad, frog) overcomes strong adversaries
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
Stars are children of the Moon and/or the Sun
A girl (wife) rejects an ugly youth (her husband). He becomes handsom (usually thanks to the help of a supernatural person). Those who were evil to him are punished
Finding a hole in the ground or making it, person gets to see below another world. Usually the earth is seen from the sky
A wife from the non-human world agrees to live with the mortal man but abandons him when he becomes unfaithful to her (when he visits his mortal wife)
Twin heroes (or one boy) come to their divine father. He puts them under trials to get know if they are really his children and possess supernatural power
The river bed follows the way of a snake, fish, dragon or crab; pieces of the snake’s body turn into rivers; a river is a snake
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
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
Beings (any besides birds) with even but not more than ten number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. Beings that with even number of heads named in a row with other multi-headed beings and the highest number is even or bigger than ten are not considered
Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it
Person attracts and catches the carrion-eaters (usually some birds) and thanks to this obtains valuables retrieves valuables (fire, woman, animals, etc.)
It to point at the rainbow, pointing finger or entire arm will rot, wither or become crooked
First seeds (sprouts, tubors) of cultivated plants or of important edible wild plants are brought from the sky (received from the sky-dwellers)
Two (animal) persons compare their feces (with different purpose). One of them gets to exchange them
Person cuts open all water creatures (vultures) or looks into their mouths to find the swallowed one or a part of his body
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
Person must go beyond relatively small objects (trees, logs, blades) which are incessantly clashing and parting, rising and falling
A woman becomes the wife of an animal (rare: other non-human being). Her husband cares for her but ultimately the animal, the woman, her children or her relations are killed, she turns into an animal herself, animals and humans become enemies, etc.
The penis is a particular monstrous being with whom copulate the primeval women, the amazons, or a certain woman
Women of the primeval community or amazons have one non-human paramour for all or simultaneously copulate with animals of particular specie whom they summon using special sygnal
Woman is dangerous because biting or stinging animal or animals is (are) inside her genitals (and not only the head of such an animal)
Penis is so long that he can turn it round his waist or send into a woman who is at a long distance from him. (Only texts considered to describe real events and beings and not anecdotes are included)
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
Before the cultivated plants or edible wild plants become known, people ate (decomposed) wood, bark, mud, stones, fungi
A woman is murdered. Her son or children (rare: grandchildren, nephews) revenge for her death
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
Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they
Two mammals or reptiles (or a mammal or raptile and other creature) decorate each other or somebody decorates each of them
Two zoomorphic personages decorates each other or somebody decorates each of them
To cut a tree, an ogre coughs up an axe (anze)
A tree which has gems or adornments instead of fruits is described; particular parts of the tree are made of different metals or precious stones
During the flood some persons survive in a tree