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
The earth or the world as a whole is a male person (alone or together with a female person)
Water flows from a broken bone (of a bird) producing a flood
There is enormous amount of water inside a trunk of a tree or a tree turns into water
Darkness is a particular object that can be carried (usually brought from its original owner in a container)
When some person or animal is killed, blood paints the sky (origin of the sunrise or sunset, of reddish colors of Aurora borealis) or other natural objects (Moon, autumn vegetation)
Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up
The process of world creation includes the measuring of its size
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
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
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
Narcotic plants emerge from the body parts of a person who was torn to pieces by others
Woman, female supernatural or animal females are created by changing the sex of a man (or male animals)
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 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
A girl or young woman who is usually occupied with domestic work (is cooking, weaving, etc.) sits on the ground and copulates with a penis-like creature that crawls from below into her vagina
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
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
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
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)
Person marries several non-human wives in succession, every time (besides the last one) is disappointed
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)
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
Serpent (snake-eel in Oceania) or alligator is the original possessor or the source of cultivated plants or wild staples
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
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
Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world
All the fish or (rare) shellfish) was concentrated in one place. Certain person lets it lose or puts it into the rivers or sea
A woman (a girl, several women) keeps all the fish for herself. Man comes and lets fish escape into rivers or sea.
Container with valuables or with dangerous creatures is opened (before time). Its content goes out of control or disappear
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
Seeing two women who have come together or in succession, man has to choose one of them. Usually he takes the one who is less pretty and smart or more dangerous inflicting troubles on himself and humanity
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 lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
Tapir is associated with the upper world, usually with the thunder
Game animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underworld where they often look like humans and have a master
The earth or the sky are identified with a big quadruped mammal or are made of parts of its body
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
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
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 man maroons another because of jealousy or because he plans to take hold of his wife
Person is imprisoned in a tree-hollow or inside a rock and is released by somebody who makes a hole from outside
Hero climbs up (e.g. to a tree) or down (e.g. into a deep cave) by ladder, rope, from branch to branch, etc. The rope etc. breaks or is intentionally destroyed and the hero cannot return to the ground. (All cases of motif K2A, besides the Koreans, also contain motif K2)
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 climbs up a tree or rock or descends to a cave to get eggs or nestlings from the bird's nest. Another person remains on the ground. They get into conflict and/or the first person is unable to get back to the ground
Hero compares something with pubis of another man's wife or sister. The insulted man maroons him in a tree or rock.
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)
Hero substitutes powerful person's weapon or amulet with a fake
Disguised as a bird, small animal or insect, a man penetrates into the place of a girl (into her father’s house)
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
In a non-human world objects of everyday life have appearance of animals and monsters, mainly fish, amphibians and reptiles
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
During the (first) initiation supernatural beings teach boys the rituals and kill them for breaking rules related to consumption and distribution of food
An ogre or ogress catches a person and brings him to his or her home where he or she plans to cook and eat him. The hero escapes
Persons who are dangerous for the hero (demons, robbers, merchants) take for something pleasant and edible those objects, creatures or matters (excrements, snakes, insects, etc.) that are disgusting (not edible)
A man kills (usually in a tree, on a rock, at the edge of a well, of a precipice) and/or throws down one of his enemies. The other enemies do not recognize their comrade and think that their prey is falling down
Person eats food with her toothed vagina or with her or his anus
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
Person sees or smells people as delicious objects and devours them
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
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 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
The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
Chips of wood, branches or pieces of bark thrown or fallen into the water turn into fish and/or aquatic animals
Originally, humans had (had to have; can have under some special confition) their genitals not on the place where they are now; the genitals were absent, or people did not know know their function and used for copulation other parts of the body
A tree which trunk is cut through do not fall because it is hold from above
In the other world or in the time of the ancestors food products or materials used by people looked as persons
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
Person receives a container with the soul of a dead person and has to open it not before he gets to particular place or after particular time interval. He opens it too early, the soul fly away
A tree or post pierces and unites different layers of the universe
Birds, first of all vultures and eagles, live in the sky, usually at one or more layers of the upper world
Heroes avenge the murder or captivity of the male relatives: (grand)father, uncles, or the elder relatives in general, the loss of the males being the most traumatic
At night person puts light stones (shells, fruits) on his eyes. The antagonist believes that his eyes are opened and does not dare to attack or takes off the stones and not the eyes
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
Person is temporary transformed into animal (usually into a dog or coyote or into donkey, ox, etc.). When he acquires his human guise again, the antagonist suffers similar transformation. In some texts only the hero or only the antagonist is transformed
A man turns into powerful bird or creates it. The bird carries away his enemy
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
A girl or a woman who was stuck in a tree-hollow when she tried to extract honey or who was greedily sucking honey otherwise, dies or turns into the honey or into the bee
Person transforms himself into an object of hunting or fishing, provokes hunters of fishermen to catch or shoot him and carries way the tools that they use (arrows, darts, harpoons, hooks, baits). Or he fishes by turning himself into a hook. Or he is caught but escapes turning back into a person
Person creates river rapids
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
Person flies across the air but falls down when, despite warning, looks down to earth, flies above villages, becomes to talk, etc.
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it
Mother tries to kill her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair
First seeds (sprouts, tubors) of cultivated plants or of important edible wild plants are brought from the sky (received from the sky-dwellers)
Marriage partners of the primeval women, the amazons or a solitary woman are small animals (usually flying foxes)
Four travelling brothers transform the world, annihilating monsters, changig the habits and appearance of different creatures and acquiring valuables (water, fire, cultivated plants and the like). Usually one of them is the main actor, and they often have one name for all the four
Person flies (makes attempt to fly) away after sticking feathers to his or her body dropped by migratory birds that fly above in the sky
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
A man or a woman is incarnation of the honey or a bee-person
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
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