According to literature studies, several motifs are frequently found in literary works all over the world (Frenzel 2008). For instance, “Amazons” appear in Herodot’s Historiae and other works as a group of warlike women living without men; “inhabitants on an island” is ambivalent in that they are longed for on the one hand while feared on the other; “visit to the underworld” has also been depicted in famous pieces like Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Japan’s classical mythology Kojiki and so on. Although there are other classifications of motifs as that of Stith Thompson, the present paper seeks to find correspondences of motifs of Taiwan indigenous literature and world literature, hence the author prefers Frenzel’s classification.　　In mythologies the structure that “the hero/heroin goes somewhere and comes back” is said to be the basic “narrative grammar” (Otsuka 2008). This view developed out of previous efforts of many scholars engaged in so-called hero myths, such as J. G. von Hahn, O. Rank, Lord Raglan, J. de Vries, and J. Campbell, and Otsuka’s synthesis seems to be most comprehensive to this day.　　From this point of view, traditional stories of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan contain also common motifs and grammars (such as Amazons, visit to the underworld, shooting the sun etc). If in the future traditional narratives of Taiwan are to be employed as inspirational sources for creative activities, the above mentioned stories might offer welcome starting points.

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