The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
Some creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, summer and winter, lunar phases) or irregularly (solar and lunar eclipses, eschatological events) attack the luminaries or shade their light
During an eclipse or during the first night ants shade or shaded the Sun
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
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 is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman
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
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
Parts of the body of the primeval person or creature are transformed into different elements of the landscape and parts of the universe
Supernaturally big genitals are cut off and turn into snakes or other creatures and objects
Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up
Serpent-like creature pushes the sky far away from the earth
To reach the sky (the Sun, Moon, particular star), people build a ladder or tower that consists of separate modules (bricks, logs, sticks, etc.). This construction collapses
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
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
During or before the world catastrophe (deluge, darkness) wild beasts and monsters attack and destroy people
The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again)
A sloth produces the world catastrophe or saves people from it
Fire is personified as an (elder) woman, alone or with her husband, master of fire
A woman gives birth to a son who is very hot (usually the fire or Sun)
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
Frog or toad possesses the fire, steals it from original owner, tries to extinguish or to save it
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
For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man
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)
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
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
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 men feel themselves offended by the women and abandon them
The women of the ancestral community kill or abandon the men
The women of the ancestral community kill, try to kill or transform 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
When a person sees a dangerous enemy, he or she shams dead taking his or her clothes off, or the enemy takes off them himself. The enemy believes that it is a corpse, lets it alone
Person or creature has toothed anus or second head in place of the anus
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)
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
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
Thunder looks like a quadruped mammal (pig, buffalo, camel, anteater, tapir, dog, cat, leopard, monkey, etc.)
The sky or the earth rests upon four or five (cardinal points and the center) supports of any kind (poles, mountains, giants)
Only one pole or mountain supports the earth or the sky
A turtle, toad, or frog supports the earth (sky) or is its embodiment
First human beings have no mouth, anus or genitals, their women do not know how to give birth
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
Person visits people who have no anus or mouth. He or his sister marries or tries to marry a local dweller
Anthropomorphic beings satisfy their hunger cooking food and inhaling the odor
Race of dwarfs lives under the ground (deep under the earth or in hills and rocks) or at the horizon where the earth and the sky meet
People who live in the underworld, at the sunrise or sunset (often dwarfs) are scorched by the Sun which moves by at a short distance from them. They are red-haired, dark-skinned, etc.
Game animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underworld where they often look like humans and have a master
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
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
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
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
Venus or some other bright star seen near the eastern or western horizon is female and wife of the Moon
Husband or lover is a tree (that temporarily turns into a man)
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
A young hero obtains and uses weapons or other powerful objects which belonged to his murdered father
Person ascends to the sky or descends from the sky to earth by a rope. A parrot cuts the rope, the person falls to earth
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
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'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
An ornitomorphic hero impregnates a girl magically or imperceptibly for her
Birds or other creatures which not dangerous for common people attack dwarfs who live in another world
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
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)
Person kills girls (rare: his nephews or younger brothers of his wife) in succession (usually the male person kills his wives). The last of potential victims escapes, usually after finding remains of those who had been killed or imprisoned earlier
Rolling head is a dangerous mobster (pursues celestial bodies, people etc.)
In a non-human world objects of everyday life have appearance of animals and monsters, mainly fish, amphibians and reptiles
Person or creature has another face (another mouth) on the back of his (her, its) head
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
Person who have eaten a prohibited meat or fish turns into monstrous snake or fish
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
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)
Body parts of a person or pieces of his flesh are thrown down one by one. (In American Indian versions those who are on the ground usually take them for game, honey, fish)
Person devours his or her own flesh or disembowels himself or herself
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
Running away from a dangerous being, person throws small objects behind him or her which turn into mighty obstacles on the way of the pursuer
A rolling head or a man who has burned off his foot turns into or produces thunder or lightning
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
To confuse pursuer, person many times runs away in different directions and comes back
Non-human persons work hard to destroy a strong and durable obstacle that blocks access to some place or object
Birds and sometimes also animals work hard to break from the outside or from the inside a rock, a tree truck, bonds, etc. to release some beings or themselves from confinement in a small enclosure or trap
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
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the jaguar (ocelote, puma) suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
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
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
For its sky voyage, the Sun chooses draught animals according to the season, riding a slow one in the summer time and a quick one in the winter time. Or a young man carries the Sun in the winter time and the old man in the summer time
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
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
Stars are children of the Moon and/or the Sun
Killing (injuring, offending) of some cruature (usually related to water) triggers deluge
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
Four (or eight) anthropomorphic male persons support the earth or the sky or are placed at the four cardinal points
Dwarfs live in the underworld that somewhat reminds the world of humans. If the dwarfs and the humans meet, it is deep under the earther
Hero is sent to bring a nestling of a dangerous bird
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 cuts open all water creatures (vultures) or looks into their mouths to find the swallowed one or a part of his body
There are mountains or rocks which permanently collide and separate again from each other or a crack (jaws) in a vertical cliff which is opening and closing
Beings without anus or mouth are dwarfs
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)
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
The male Sky (the Sun, the Thunder, the creator of the sky) marries the female Earth (or its female creator) or the female Sky marries the male Earth
Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they
A boy is born whose father or (rare) mother is unknown. He himself points at his parent who as a rule occupies the lowest social position. Usually many men (women) come together and everyone hopes that the boy points at him (her)
A girl becomes pregnant without her knowledge thanks to the contact with body liquids of a male person or with objects touched by him (not because of the normal sexual contact, or a wish expressed by the father of her future child, or her mistical contact with a deity). The happy marriage of the girl with her child’s father follows
During the flood some persons survive in a tree