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 at other circumstances the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a predator animal (a bear, a feline, a canine, a racoon)
Coming together of the Sun and the Moon is the reason of their eclipses
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 is the original element, the dry earth appears later
People turn into animals, birds or stones at a feast, after the feast, after performing a ritual or after a victory over dangerous enemy
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
Constellation of Orion or the Belt of Orion is identified with only one male person, usually with a warrior or hunter
A group of people (usually children, brothers or sisters) play, dance, ascend to the sky and turn into Pleiades or other compact constellation
Children conflict with their parents who do not pay them enough attention, condemn their sexual behavior, do not give them enough food, clothes, etc.; the children abandon their parents and become birds, bats, atmospheric phenomena, or stars (usually the Pleiades)
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
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
During a flood or when crossing a river those people who drowned (or those who survived) turn into water animals
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)
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
Badly burned person turns into caiman or crocodile
Frog or toad possesses the fire, steals it from original owner, tries to extinguish or to save it
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
Person should not laugh in the world of the dead
Certain person is made of improper material and proves to be short-lived or unfit for fulfilling his functions
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)
After copulation with a frog, man's penis is injured
Women bleed because fish or snake bites them. Usually it is invisible fish inside their body
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
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)
To make believe that he is a female, a trickster transforms particular objects or creatures into female body parts or into a baby child
A male person turns into woman and marries a man. He is either unmasked or abandons his "husband" by his own will
People learn to copulate after they see birds, fish or animals doing it
The first men and/or women have no genitals
Genitals exist by themselves as separate beings, they can be stuck to the human body, remove, etc.
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 male person is tricked into being used sexually by another man
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)
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
A dead woman returns to earth but flies back as a bird or a fly
Person possesses game animals or fish. A boy or a girl knows this secret or is used as a luring device. Another person asks or forces the boy or girl to serve him the same way or the boy himself makes an attempt to hunt or fish. As a result, the boy or girl is killed or carried away by animals or fish
The right way to dispose of container with stinging insects would be to throw it into the river or sea or bury in a far away place, but it was not done
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
Human teeth are made of material subject to easy damage (etiology of tooth ache in most cases)
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
A tree or post pierces and unites different layers of the universe
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
There are objects which remaining on the same place are moving permanently or periodically (meet and part. rise and fall down, shut and open, rotate)
Master or mistress of the realm of the dead copulates with every new human soul of the opposite sex who arrives to his or her realm
In the Beyond, two mythological personages, one male and another female, meet the newcomers, or the same person meet the women in the female and the men in the male guise
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
Shining sky objects or atmospheric phenomena are excrements of sky dwellers
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
A woman gives birth to a boy or twin boys after being impregnated without her knowledge when one of the animal persons crawls under the earth to the place where she sits on a ground
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 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 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 walk in search of the man whose beautiful voice or whose flute-play they listen
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
A murdered parent of the hero comes to him as a ghost and informs about the circumstances of his or her death
Before the hero destroys the antagonists or escapes from them, he finds or receives the remains or possessions that belonged to the antagonists' victim
To kill his antagonists, hero lures them with an attractive object which is delicious to eat and is usually on the other side of a body of water or a canyon
Person or his helper draws his enemies on the unstable bridge and destroys it. The enemies fall into water, into a precipice
Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body
Twin heroes' parent dies or is killed, an attempt to revive him or her fails
Mother dies when her sons embrace or push her
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
Hero turns into stag or creates a stag to charge his kinsman who sent hi into a trap
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 ground animal or bird. He kills it from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)
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 group of boys gets to the sky. The leg of the last one is cut or torn off
An ornitomorphic hero impregnates a girl magically or imperceptibly for her
A baby boy has to recognize his father or mother among many people. When his parent takes him, the boy ceases crying
The hero must kill and bring an animal of special (often unusual) color or form
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
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
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.
An imposter pretends to be the hero to take his position and/or to marry or to violate his woman
First one, then another man meets a powerful person or persons. The first man is worthy and rewarded with treasure, prestige or the like. The second man (or two men) follows him, behaves in a wrong way and is punished
A girl (usually the youngest of several sisters) does not reject but marries a poor, sick, dirty, old, too young, non-human, etc. man who later demonstrates his supernatural qualities
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)
In a non-human world objects of everyday life have appearance of animals and monsters, mainly fish, amphibians and reptiles
Person kills or injures his enemy putting fire on his or her straw costume, mask, headgear, hair or object on his or her back
A monstrous being is killed or neutralized by (burning hot) stones (pieces of metal, heavy fruits, etc.) thrown into its maw or anus or the being retreats when they menace to throw a stone into its maw
Caiman/crokodile ferries a monkey across a river. Reaching the opposite bank, the monkey escapes before the caiman gets to catch it
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
To revenge on his wife and her kinsfolk, a man roasts her alive
Person pursued by an enemy asks somebody whom he meets to help him. The helper hides him
A long-necked bird living near water (stork, heron, bittern, swan) saves person from dangerous pursuer
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the jaguar (ocelote, puma) suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
An object thrown into person becomes his tail and the person himself an animal
Person plays throwing his eyes or (Alaska Athabascans) his tooth up or away. Eyes or tooth first come back to eye sockets or mouth but eventually are lost
Person loses his eyes because of his playfulness or negligence. He makes new eyes of some substance or/and takes eyes of another 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
Person puts (for different reasons) his or her hand into the anus of a tapir or other herbivorous animals and is unable to extract it back. Animal starts to run and drags the person behind him for a long time
A predator animal (fox, wolf, dog, coyote, jaguar, lion) or its imprint is seen in the Moon
Milky Way is a trace of big animals who were walking or running along it
Stars are children of the Moon and/or the Sun
Killing (injuring, offending) of some cruature (usually related to water) triggers deluge
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
Beings (any besides birds) with even but not more than ten number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. Beings that with even number of heads named in a row with other multi-headed beings and the highest number is even or bigger than ten are not considered
Person attracts and catches the carrion-eaters (usually some birds) and thanks to this obtains valuables retrieves valuables (fire, woman, animals, etc.)
Husband follows his dead wife to the other world but is unable to bring her back or succeeds to do it but loses her once again
Mother tries to kill her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair
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
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
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
Person who is the incarnation of fertility and life first disappears and then (reriodically) returns
On their way to the Beyond, souls of the dead must get between clashing rocks or other moving obstacles
Person must go beyond relatively small objects (trees, logs, blades) which are incessantly clashing and parting, rising and falling
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
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 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
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
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
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
During the flood some persons survive in a tree