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)
A bird or birds attack or shade the Sun or the Moon during an eclipse or at the sunrise and sunset
When people see light of day for the first time, they are prohibited to look at it immediately. Those who break this taboo are ruined
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
Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance
There is enormous amount of water inside a trunk of a tree or a tree turns into water
A stream of water (with a monster in it) pursues person who tries to escape from it
People regularly ascend to the sky for hunting, fishing or gathering; do not give honey, fish or proper meat to the old person remained below; she or he makes their return impossible, they remain in the sky
People ascend the tree to hunt, fish, or gather food in the sky. The tree is destroyed, people fall to earth or remain in the upper world
People who have climbed up a tree do not share food with a person who remained below. He or she revenges on them destroying the tree. The events have cosmic dimensions
Birds, fish, reptiles, mammals intentionally or by chance are smeared with colorful substances or divide among themselves parts of somebody's body thus acquiring their present characteristics
Certain stars or constellations are interpreted as hunters, their dogs and game that the hunters pursue
In the cosmic hunt tale the game pursued by the hunters is a rhea bird (Rhea americana)
Thanks to intentional misinformation, Thunder did not get know that
bloodsucking insect has sucked human blood
Person plays imitating other animal person. His belly is cut open as a result and intestines turn into vines
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
The fire is personified as an elder man (alone or with his wife, mistress of fire)
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
Fire owner, stealer, or stealer's companion is a rabbit, a hare or (among the Ofaie) a guinea pig
To steal fire from its owner, person pretends to be wet or cold and is granted permission to sit near the fireplace. In a proper moment the stealer carries the fire away and brings it to people
Frog or toad possesses the fire, steals it from original owner, tries to extinguish or to save it
Fire or summer is stolen from a big predator: a lion (in Africa), a tiger (in Asia), a bear (in Siberia and North America) or a jaguar (in South America)
Raven or other big dark-feathered bird scavenger is the owner, personification, spouse, obtainer or stealer of fire, daylight, or the Sun
Laughter triggers emergence or spread of fire. Usually fire is obtained from a creature when it bursts out laughing
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
When a woman of the child-bearing age tries to come from one world to another (e.g. from sky to earth), the communication between the worlds is blocked or broken forever
To descend from the sky, ascend from the underworld or come out of the cave, people must pass through narrow hole. A person is stuck in the hole blocking forever communication between different parts of the universe
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
Initially women and men live apart from each other. Later they meet each other and become to live together
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)
Woman has another toothed mouth (usually in vagina) or biting animals in vagina. Man inserts there a stone, bone, stick, etc. breaking or knocking out the teeth or extracting from there dangerous animals
Women menstruate because they bled in primeval time after the first defloration
For girls and young women it is dangerous to come near water. Water creatures swallow them or drag away; a girl can die or become pregnant from a spirit; she can trigger a flood (rare: other cataclysm). Water spirits can come themselves to a girl who has her periods
A living creature or a lump of alive flesh is cut into pieces which are diepersed around. After some time every piece turns into human being
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 man pretends to be weak, ill or injured, asks a woman to carry him on her back. When she agrees, he makes attempt to copulate with her
A male person turns into woman and marries a man. He is either unmasked or abandons his "husband" by his own will
A male person is tricked into being used sexually by another man
A girl (wife) rejects an ugly youth (her husband). He becomes handsom (usually thanks to the help of a supernatural person). Those who were evil to him are punished
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)
Star-person is a giver 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)
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
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
All the fish or (rare) shellfish) was concentrated in one place. Certain person lets it lose or puts it into the rivers or sea
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
The sky (or the earth) is offended by people’s behavior in respect to it and reacts accordingly (e.g. rises higher than it was before)
Lightning emerges from eyes or mouth of the being who is thought to produce thunderstorms
The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
Thunder falls to earth, cannot return to the sky. Usually a human person helps him to do it
Thunder looks like a quadruped mammal (pig, buffalo, camel, anteater, tapir, dog, cat, leopard, monkey, etc.)
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)
Game animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underworld where they often look like humans and have a master
The ultimate aim of the afterlife journey is to reach certain tree
Mushrooms are excrements of mythological person
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
Rainbow is a flatulence of a demon, a spray of a skunk, is associated with spit, urine, feces, genitals, etc., causes skin diseases, is associated with death
Milky Way is a sky river, water body, chain of beings that swim
A giant figure of an emu (in Australia) or rhea (in South America) is seen in the Milky Way
Trees or reeds grow on the back of a monstrous reptile
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
The Pleiades are a group of boys or men, or a group of different people but predominantly males
The Pleiades are any people (of any ages and sex, combined data of i99-i100a)
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 girl (or two sisters) travel, usually in search of a proper marriage partner who lives far away or who has gone away. On her way or after reaching the place of destination the girl gets to some unpleasant suitors
A suitor or husband who is a honey person or skillful honey-gatherer is attractive for a girl
Before the hero destroys the antagonists or escapes from them, he finds or receives the remains or possessions that belonged to the antagonists' victim
Person ascends to the sky (rare: descends from the sky; ascends the cliff) by a rope, a ladder, etc. Another person tries to follow him or her but the rope (the ladder) is broken or severed
Person or animal is eaten up or destroyed otherwise. His bones are put together and he or it is revived. Because one bone was broken, swallowed or lost (or a drop of blood, a small piece of flesh lost), the person or animal cannot be revived or being revived misses some part of his or its body
A person (usually zoomorphic and female) treacherously kills her (his) companion. The victim's children revenge on the murderer killing her own children
Children of the ungulate animal person (deer, doe, antelope) become the enemies of a predator or bigger ungulate animal person. They kill her (him) and (or) successively escape from her (him)
Two co-wives of female companions live together, both have children. Once when they go to work outdoors (usually to gather wild plants), one of them kills and devours another. The victim's children escape
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
Not being burned in a fire, person ascends to the sky or gets across a river on clouds of smoke
A group of boys gets to the sky. The leg of the last one is cut or torn off
Disguised as a bird, small animal or insect, a man penetrates into the place of a girl (into her father’s house)
An ornitomorphic hero impregnates a girl magically or imperceptibly for her
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)
When a small boy has to recognize his father among many men, he comes to him and takes father's bow and arrows
When a man who has married a star gets to the sky, he suffers severe cold and dies either of cold or after touching a forbidden fire
A human person admires a star or (rare) the Moon in the sky, expresses desire to marry it or (rare) to get a star-object. Star descends to him or to her or takes him or her to the sky
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
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.
A woman marries a dog, gives birth to the ancestors of present dogs who are people's helpers and friends
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
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
The only vulnerable spot is near the surface of person’s or creature’s body and not in his inner organs
Person or creature has another pair of eyes (or one eye) on the back of his head or (rare) on his back
Two persons hunt or fish. One of them is or becomes a cannibal. He or she reveals his or her nature eating the quarry raw
A man climbs a tree, throws down bird nestlings to a woman. She eats them raw and then kills or tries to kill the man
When a man climbs a tree (escaping from persecutor; to get bird nestlings, honey, fruits, etc.), his wife (rare: her brother) kills, injures him or turns into demonic creature who pursues him
Person eats food with her toothed vagina or with her or his anus
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
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
Birds peck through a layer of clay, wax, pitch etc. with which person’s eyes or anus are stuck up
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 turns into a fish or game and exposes himself as a target. A lot of arrows, darts or harpoons stick in his body making him no harm, he carries them away
Acquiring possibility to fly, person ultimately falls to the ground or remains in a faraway place being unable to fly any more
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)
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
Food or liquid that person swallows are immediately pouring out from his bottom part
Person himself or somebody else stitches up or firmly stops his anus (with wax, clay, grass, etc.)
Person enters a seemingly empty house and attempts to take certain things. Invisible beings prevent him from doing it or objects themselves hurt him
Person dies or is humiliated after some object that he or she made of wax, resin, excrements and/or took for something worthy are melted down
A bird stands with one leg tucked under it, putting its head under its wing; turtle draws its head and limbs under its shell. Person decides that the bird has one leg, no head, turtle has neither head nor limbs, asks to cut him his head and limbs off
People do not come back to life after somebody buries the dead in the grave or stamps down the earth on the grave
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
The art of weaving people get from a spider or from a person who turns into spider afterwards; a spider is weaving for people
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different plants, mostly edible or cultivated
A girl or young woman sets off to find or return her fience or her husband or she escapes from a fanger and ultimately marries happily
First seeds (sprouts, tubors) of cultivated plants or of important edible wild plants are brought from the sky (received from the sky-dwellers)
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
The victim’s children kill the murderer’s children luring them in a place where the die of smoke or heath
Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon
Two brothers (companions) live In the epoch of the creation. One of them is smart and selfconfident, another is weak and makes mistakes. They are not enemies and demonstrate their qualities in two or more episodes
Person must go beyond relatively small objects (trees, logs, blades) which are incessantly clashing and parting, rising and falling
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
Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they
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