| Motif | Name | Description |
| a22 | To the sky from a bonfire | After getting into the fire or boiling water, one or two persons ascend to the sky and turn into the Sun and/or Moon |
| a22a | The hot Sun and its cold companion | After two persons burn up, one turns into the present Sun and another into a less important sky object |
| a22b | Hot fire and cold ashes | Person who becomes the Sun burned up in a hot fire while his companion burned up in the less hot fire or threw himself into the ashes. He (she) turns into the Moon or a star which gives no warmth |
| a23 | Elections of the Sun to be | 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 |
| a27 | Crowns of the Sun and Moon | Light and/or heat of the Sun and/or Moon originate from their crowns, necklaces or clothes (of feathers, of animal teeth) |
| a31 | The incestuous Moon | 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 |
| a35 | Spots on the lunar disc | 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 |
| a5 | The Sun and the Moon are males | The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual |
| b28d | Unrecognized Transformer | 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 |
| b29 | Eschatological feast | People turn into animals, birds or stones at a feast, after the feast, after performing a ritual or after a victory over dangerous enemy |
| b49 | Muddled request | Animals of particular species do not hear well the instructions concerning their way of life or the ask God for some benefit but muddle their request. Thanks to this they acquire their present habits. (In the Toraja tale the motif is used to explain the mortal nature of human beings) |
| b54 | Chips turn into fish | Chips of wood, branches or pieces of bark thrown or fallen into the water turn into fish and/or aquatic animals |
| b55 | Leaves are fish | Fish grows on branches of a tree or leaves of a tree turn into fish |
| b9 | Water in the tree trunk | There is enormous amount of water inside a trunk of a tree or a tree turns into water |
| b99 | Person turned into the nest of insects | Person (his/her head) who was abandoned in a tree or falls on a tree turns into a nest of insects |
| c37 | World catastrophe and the sloth | A sloth produces the world catastrophe or saves people from it |
| c4 | The flood: fruits fall from a tree | 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 |
| c4a | The flood: survival in a tree | During the flood some persons survive in a tree |
| 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 |
| e5c | People from the sky | The first people or first anthropomorphic divine beings descend to earth from the sky. |
| f2 | Pregnant limb | 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 |
| f38 | Women and sacred knowledge | 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 |
| f39 | The time of women | The women dominated over the men in the past or in a far away land, were the active part in marriage relations, practiced activities which now are reserved of the men only. Or the women could obtained supremacy but failed to do it for some reason |
| f51 | The clandestine lover | 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) |
| f7 | The underwater-maiden | Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like) |
| f75 | A siren and a tapir | A hunter watches tapir who calls a water woman from the river or lake and copulates with her. Hunter does the same, becomes the woman's lover |
| f86 | Conditional signal | 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) |
| f9 | A dangerous woman | For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man |
| f9a | Vagina dentata | 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) |
| g10 | The hanging tree | A tree which trunk is cut through do not fall because it is hold from above |
| g6 | Primeval tree | 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) |
| g8 | Restored tree | 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 |
| g8c | Cutting tree to get valuables | (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 |
| h11 | The call of God | 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 |
| 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 |
| h35 | Fragile teeth | Human teeth are made of material subject to easy damage (etiology of tooth ache in most cases) |
| h37 | Magic device lost by a failure | 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 |
| h39 | Snakes become dangerous (the spilled poison) | 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 |
| h4 | The shed skin | Those who change their skin become young again |
| h5 | People and snakes | 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 |
| h6a | People and plants | Mortal humans are contrasted with (almost) immortal trees that shed their bark, become green again after winter sleep or propagate by sprouts |
| h8 | The failed test | People lose immortality because they do not dare to touch or drink something loathsome, poisonous, hot or otherwise dangerous |
| i14 | No-anus people | Person or creature has no anus opening |
| i17 | Body anomalies of inhabitants of a distant land | 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 |
| i18 | A spouse or husband without anus or mouth | Person visits people who have no anus or mouth. He or his sister marries or tries to marry a local dweller |
| i24 | A snake bridge | Snake, lizard or worm is a bridge or a rope over the river |
| i3 | Weapon of Thunder | The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being |
| i41 | Rainbow serpent | 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 |
| i65 | Milky Way of the dead | Milky Way is the path over which souls travel to the beyond or a path of the funeral procession |
| i82a | Venus is male | Morning and/or Evening Star is a male personage |
| i83 | The sky of birds | Birds, first of all vultures and eagles, live in the sky, usually at one or more layers of the upper world |
| i85b | Polaris is a person | Polaris is a person |
| j1 | The vengeful heroes | Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they |
| j10 | Insect’s bite | 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 |
| j15 | Woman gets to dangerous creatures | 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 |
| j15a | Woman gets to jaguars | Setting off (usually in search of her husband, boyfriend or kinsmen), woman gets to the place of dangerous felines |
| j22d | Two animals from one cut in two | Two halves of one animal or person which was cut in two turn into two animals of different species or into foreigners |
| j22e | Placenta person | A second person evolves from the placenta of the first one |
| j26 | Babies come out of the water | Baby heroes, embryos or objects from which they emerge are found in a river or lake or come to people out of the water |
| j28a | Truth about father | Hero asks how one of his parents died and receives a series of false answers. Usually he successively exposes himself to the same dangers, survives and thus demonstrates that truth is still concealed from him |
| j29 | Shadow of the father | A murdered parent of the hero comes to him as a ghost and informs about the circumstances of his or her death |
| j30 | Parents’ remains | Before the hero destroys the antagonists or escapes from them, he finds or receives the remains or possessions that belonged to the antagonists' victim |
| j31 | Father’s weapon | A young hero obtains and uses weapons or other powerful objects which belonged to his murdered father |
| j4 | Revenge for the death of the male relatives | 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 |
| j4b | Revenge inside the family | 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 |
| j54 | The last female survives | Animals of particular species that were enemies of the heroes are exterminated besides the only pregnant female (rare a female and a male). Thanks to this, these animals still exist |
| j55 | Unrecognized hero comes across enemies | 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 |
| j58 | The arrow ladder | 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 |
| j59 | Following arrow to get to the sky | To climb to the sky, person must first to shoot an arrow that reaches the sky and sticks to it |
| j8 | Feathers at the crossroad | 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 |
| k102a2 | Conflict between mother and son | Mother tries to kill her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair
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| k13a | Person with cut off leg ascends to the sky | 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 |
| k183 | In what fish is the swallowed one? | Person cuts open all water creatures (vultures) or looks into their mouths to find the swallowed one or a part of his body |
| k25 | Magic wife | A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world |
| k28 | Father or uncle is rival and enemy | 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 |
| k32 | The false wife | 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. |
| 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) |
| k8f | Deer in monster’s belly | A swallowed up person finds alive deer in the belly of the monster |
| l11 | Turtle-bench | In a non-human world objects of everyday life have appearance of animals and monsters, mainly fish, amphibians and reptiles |
| l135 | The Traveller | Male person leaves his home and gets to unfamiliar places. On his way, he comes across different strange creatures. After all, he returns home or leaves the earth for the other world. (Rather often a long string of episodes breaks off or the story lacks the beginning and does not explain why the hero is travelling) |
| l22a | People become blind | After breaking some taboo, coming across a strange object or person, people fall asleep and awake blind |
| l55 | Monster killed with hot liquid | To kill a dangerous animal or monster, acrid or hot liquid (boiling water, resin, soup, etc.) is poured into one of his body orifices |
| l61 | Endocannibal | Person devours his or her own flesh or disembowels himself or herself |
| l68 | Two companions in the night | Person turns into monster at night when he remains alone with his companion in the wilderness |
| 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 |
| l7b | Chasing a gourd-vessel by mistake | Instead of chasing a person, a bush spirit, a monster or a dangerous animal follows by mistake a gourd vessel that floats downriver |
| l88 | Ogre returns to life | A man kills an ogre. When he later comes and touches the ogre's remains, the latter revives |
| l9 | Sharp body members | Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon |
| l9a | Sharp leg | Person's leg is injured intentionally or by chance. The loss of one leg does not bother him. He uses the sharpened bone as a thrust weapon |
| m23 | Mock plea | Person or creature pretends to be afraid of a particular sort of treatment that really cannot do him any harm |
| 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 |
| m5 | Provoked insult | 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 |
| m6 | Night with a partridge | A young man or girl spends night in the forest. The forest partridge (Tinamus sp.) provides him or her a fire, a shelter and/or a hammock but takes them away and flies away itself when the person does something wrong |
| m6a | Overnight with the fire in the forest | A person spends a night in the forest. One of the forest dwellers has fire. After the person does something wrong, this fire is lost |
| m6b | Coming across aguti before reaching home | Person who lost his or her way comes across different creatures. When he or she comes to aguti (Dasyprocta), it becomes clear that the home is nearby |
| m8 | Breaking the obstacle | Non-human persons work hard to destroy a strong and durable obstacle that blocks access to some place or object |