The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female
The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
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)
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 flows from a broken bone (of a bird) producing a flood
Darkness is a particular object that can be carried (usually brought from its original owner in a container)
Day light (also warmth, the sun, the moon) is kept as a particular object in a container, under a cover, etc.
People had trouble making love before night came into being
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
Person decorates different birds (rare: fish), share fat between anomals. Since then, the corresponding species acquire present characteristics
Supernaturally big genitals are cut off and turn into snakes or other creatures and objects
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
During the flood birds or animals escape to some place (mountain, tree, boat, sky). Tips of their tails or other body parts get covered with water or foam and acquire their present color and form
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
The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again)
A tree or pillar supports the sky or the earth. If it collapses, people perish
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)
Female person is the owner or inventor (but not the personification) of the fire
Raven or other big dark-feathered bird scavenger is the owner, personification, spouse, obtainer or stealer of fire, daylight, or the Sun
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
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
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)
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)
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 menstruate because they bled in primeval time after the first defloration
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
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
Person feeds another with the meat of his or her sexual partner who cooks or eats it without knowing whose meat it is
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
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)
A man cohabits with a group of women (or with several women in succession) concealing his identity and/or intentions. He is either eventually exposed and punished by women or escapes to continue his tricks
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
People learn to copulate after they see birds, fish or animals doing it
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)
Initially women's genitals were fragrant or had no smell. Because of a bad chance they acquire unpleasant odor or do not acquire fragrant odor
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
To save the world (gods, king, etc.) certain persons or creatures try to cut or gnaw a tree (post, mountain) or do not permit the others to do. The notch disappears and the tree (post, etc.) becomes intact
Before acquisition of cultivated plants (fire, hunting skills) people ate dirt, mud or stones
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
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
Mortal humans are contrasted with (almost) immortal trees that shed their bark, become green again after winter sleep or propagate by sprouts
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
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
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
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
Creatures that produce rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or anthropomorphic beings with wings; or (rare) some or all birds are connected with thunder, lightning or rain though Thunder is not a bird
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
First human beings have no mouth, anus or genitals, their women do not know how to give birth
Person follows an animala through its hole or digs a hole himself and gets into the lower world where the animals who dig holes live
It to point at the rainbow, pointing finger or entire arm will rot, wither or become crooked
Anaconda or a water monster has live fish or animals inside; is father of the fish; all fish emerge from its body
Stars are fragments of a bigger luminary (usually the Moon); or stars, the sun and the moon are formed from one and the same primeval person or creature
A woman who is pregnant or has a small child falls from the sky. She or a daughter born by her dies but her (grand)son is grown up
Baby heroes, embryos or objects from which they emerge are found in a river or lake or come to people out of the water
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
A man maroons another because of jealousy or because he plans to take hold of his wife
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)
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
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 caiman ferries a man across water body, bites his leg off. The maimed man is transformed into a constellation or into an animal
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
Person kills others inviting them to sit on a swing and launching them into water, on rocks, etc.
Because a small child is ignored or punished by its parents (usually it cries late in the evening), bush spirit or animal carries it away
Rolling head is a dangerous mobster (pursues celestial bodies, people etc.)
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
Person gets hold of another. Trying to free himself, the latter turns into different materials, elements, animals or (Urarina and Setebo) orders different dangerous creature to attack the person
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
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
An ogre's child or (rare) wife believes in what hero tells him (or her) and releases him. Usually the hero kills the child and puts its meat to cook in the very pot where the ogre planned to cook the hero
Person ascends, descends, walks head downward or sees the world upside down
Hero's enemy ascends a tree or rock head downward or walks backward letting the hero better possibility to kill him or to escape
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
Man's wife, sister or mother eats all the nest food alone, she is transformed in punishment
Person devours his or her own flesh or disembowels himself or herself
Person eats food with her toothed vagina or with her or his anus
Bush spirits and the like try to cut down a tree. The attempt fails because their axes are good for nothing being made of turtle shells, clay, etc.
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
Person who puts her or his head or hand into a tree hollow or (rare) other hole is stuck fast in it or falls into the hollow and dies or undergoes a metamorphosis
Person pursued by an enemy asks somebody whom he meets to help him. The helper hides him
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit
Person (who is usually in search of the godgather for the newborn child) rejects God (saints) and devil but accepts Death who is more fair (or rich)
To kill or catch a monster, human figure of wood or clay or alive woman is exposed as a bait. Usually monster's claws or sharp leg get stuck in the wood
Punishing a person or animal or restoring his or its body after its disintegration, a powerful being intentionally or by chance puts head to bottoms
Before finding a part of the body that is the best for some particular function, other parts are proven or enumerated
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
Old man or old woman turns into anteater (origin of anteaters)
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
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
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
Two (animal) persons compare their feces (with different purpose). One of them gets to exchange them
The Sun and/or the Moon are cut off heads of anthropomorphic beings
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
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)
Person removes a thorn from the paw (bone from the throat) of a strong and dangerous animal or a demon, the animal (demon) is grateful
Being seized by a person, a female person turns into different materials, elements or animals (Urarina and Setebo: sends different dangerous creature to attack the one who caught her)
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.
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
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
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