The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
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.
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
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)
Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon
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
Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later
Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance
In the beginning there are only air and water. 1) Person descends from the sky, creates the dry land or a hard support created for her or him grows into the earth. 2) The earth is sent or dropped from the sky, put on the surface of the water. 3) The earth is brought from somewhere (not from the underworld) and put on the water
Different game animals emerge from remains of a murdered person
A woman (usually after a conflict with a man or remaining alone) or a man and a woman (married couple, lovers, brother and sister) turn into water mammals
Birds, fish, reptiles, mammals intentionally or by chance are smeared with colorful substances or divide among themselves parts of somebody's body thus acquiring their present characteristics
Two zoomorphic personages decorates each other or somebody decorates each of them
Person paints birds or animals or they paint each other. Some of them are not satisfied with the result
A group of people (usually children, brothers or sisters) play, dance, ascend to the sky and turn into Pleiades or other compact constellation
Catastropic displacement of layers of the univers in the past or in the future is mentioned. Among variants (sometimes combined):
the sky fell on the earth; the earth (the underworld) and the sky interchanged their positions; the earth turned upside down; the layers of the universe collapsed in one after another; they will change their place during the future cataclysm
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
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
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
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
First fire is sent to earth from the sky or the ancestors ascend to the sky and bring from there fire or warmth
Female person is the owner or inventor (but not the personification) of the fire
First fire was hidden in genitals or anus of a woman
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
After destruction of previous world, new people (rare: new earth) are made from the bones of the perished race
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
Man marries monkey-woman; supernatural woman takes form of a monkey or the man pretends that the house-keeper is a monkey
Magic person reveals his true nature and/or remains with the real people after the object responsible for preserving the non-human appearance (usually an animal skin) is destroyed (usually burned)
People learn how to decorate ceramics or baskets (usually learn decorated patterns) thanks to a water creature
Entering water, certain person makes fish die. From parts of his body or from his grave grows plant used to prepare fish poison (timbo)
Child is born from a tumor or swelling on person's body (on thigh, knee, finger, etc.) or is temporarily placed there or child grows from blood that flew out from a cut
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
Person suffests another a woman but does not have any or does not want to give her. He makes artificial girl (of wood, snow, etc.), sends servant girl instead of his daughter, turns into a woman himself, or recognizes his fault when he feels that it is save to do so
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
Small creatures in female or male genitals are dangerous for the partner
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.
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)
Man and woman embrace each other forever or for a long time
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
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
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
Women were possessors of the sacred knowledge, sanctuaries or ritual objects which are now taboo for them or they made attempts to acquire such a knowledge or objects
An anthropomorphic male or an androgyne is the only possessor or leader of women
The women of the ancestral community kill or abandon the men
When women of the ancestral community abandon the men, they disappear in the opening that leads underground
The women and the men of the primeval community quarrel and abandon each other
There are (or were) women who live apart from men in their own village or villages
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)
An (ostensibly) sick (ugly, weak, poorly clad) person remains at home when others go to the feast. The person comes by himself or herself looking like a handsome man or beautiful girl. The man (woman) does not recognize him (her) and feels against her (him) sexual interestю (All texts with motif k57, Chinderella, are also included into f62)
The Moon (female or male) is the leader of women in their struggle against the men or leads the women away from the men
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 are found above or inside a mountain
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
A person asks people to abandon him or her in the forest, to burn or drag him or her around the future garden plot, to burn her in her house, etc. People fulfill the person's wish and find cultivated plants growing on the place
Food crops emerge from remains of a woman or girl
Frog or toad is related to acquisition of cultivated plants
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
People do not come back to life after somebody buries the dead in the grave or stamps down the earth on the grave
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
Container with valuables or with dangerous creatures is opened (before time). Its content goes out of control or disappear
Person can magically put a lot of meat or fish into a small package or vessel which is easy to carry
A woman is impregnated by an animal, usually by a snake. People of hostile nation originate or receive their culture from her progeny or from her paramour's relatives
Human teeth are made of material subject to easy damage (etiology of tooth ache in most cases)
Magic object, device that makes hunting or fishing easy gets into possession of a person who is unable to operate it or abuses it. The device kills or injures the failure himself, other people and/or disappears
The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
Game animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underworld where they often look like humans and have a master
The ultimate aim of the afterlife journey is to reach certain tree
Birds, first of all vultures and eagles, live in the sky, usually at one or more layers of the upper world
The Pleiades are only one anthropomorphic being, not several persons
A woman is in search of her husband or other person or object. Her unborn children speak from her stomach and shows her the correct way
A woman loses her way after being bitter by insect (wasp, bee, ant). She accuses her unborn sons of being the cause of the bite and/or slaps herself on her abdomen to punish the sons or to kill the insect. As a consequence her sons are offended and do not show her the correct way anymore
A quarrel between a mother and her sons in her womb flares up after they ask her to pick up flowers or fruits (usually the insect bites her when she picks flowers up)
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
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
Setting off (usually in search of her husband, boyfriend or kinsmen), woman gets to the place of dangerous felines
Setting off (usually in search of her husband, boyfriend or kinsmen), woman gets to the place of female toad or frog
Person is marooned on an islet or on another side of a sea or wide river
A vine grows from person's or animal's tears, mucus, urine, etc.
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
Rolling head is a dangerous mobster (pursues celestial bodies, people etc.)
A demonic being demands that a person would carry it permanently, clings to his shoulder or back
Instead of chasing a person, a bush spirit, a monster or a dangerous animal follows by mistake an object or animal that moves nearby
In a non-human world objects of everyday life have appearance of animals and monsters, mainly fish, amphibians and reptiles
Vultures bring to the sky a being who has lost part of its body members or is reduced to the head or skull
The only vulnerable spot is near the surface of person’s or creature’s body and not in his inner organs
Two girls or young women meet a demon. One or both are not aware of danger. One is eaten up, another escapes
A man hides in a shelter. An ogre wants him to give certain parts of his body. The man gives the ogre instead parts of the body of a killed animal. The ogre does not understand the deceit, gives in response parts of his own body and dies
A baby or small child proves to be a demon, devours or injures people
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
Mixed traits of toad and jaguar in iconography; a toad or frog transforms into a jaguar; a toad or frog is a jaguar's mother or wife
A man kills an ogre. When he later comes and touches the ogre's remains, the latter revives
Person transforms humans into monsters or animals secretly putting prohibited meat, grease or eggs into their food or provoking them to use a particular object
Non-human persons work hard to destroy a strong and durable obstacle that blocks access to some place or object
Person serves people fish extracted from her or his own body
To revenge on his wife and her kinsfolk, a man roasts her alive
A kinfolk (often his mother) or wife (bride) of a sick (ugly, old) man or boy do not care for him. He becomes healthy (and handsome), punishes and/or abandons those who were evil with him
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
A boy or young man comes to steal food of a person who is elder than he. Usually he is caught but not punished and invited to live with the elder person
Old person tricks a young man into smelling her or his intestinal gas
An old woman defecates or breaks wind over a man. He kills her inserting a cutting object into her anus or vagina
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 demon who sticks to other creatures and refuses to get down sticks first to a person and then to an animal or first to an animal and then to a bird
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
Pregnant woman is killed (and eaten up). Twins are cut off from her womb. They should be eaten too but survive, live (unrecognized) in the house of the antagonists and revenge on them
The art of weaving people get from a spider or from a person who turns into spider afterwards; a spider is weaving for people
Being smart and persistent, the turtle (toad, frog) overcomes strong adversaries
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the jaguar (ocelote, puma) suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Gods, first people or founders of the royal lineages are born from eggs
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
First seeds (sprouts, tubors) of cultivated plants or of important edible wild plants are brought from the sky (received from the sky-dwellers)
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
Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon
After the first death the road to the realm of death remains open; certain person makes a road to the realm of death; the first person who had died becomes the ruler of the guard of the realm of death
Two (animal) persons compare their feces (with different purpose). One of them gets to exchange them
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
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)
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
Sacred knowledge, objects and rituals are initially obtained from the denizens of the underwater world
A woman is murdered. Her son or children (rare: grandchildren, nephews) revenge for her death
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
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
During the flood some persons survive in a tree