bats in african mythology
We may never know how these early humans viewed their small flying co-habiters. Zteve has two websites dedicated to myths, legends and folklore from around the world. Public domain. The bat said, Well look at me. Bats also have wings. And because of this, many myths, superstitions, and folklore have been created about them. It is a carnivore, eating birds and other vertebrates, occasionally taking even other species of bats. Because of the mouses pious respect for the holy wafer, God gave it wings so that it would be able to find plenty of food in the future. Archaeological evidence suggests that before the coming of Europeans, flying foxes were not often used as food by the Australian Aborigines. bat, (order Chiroptera), any member of the only group of mammals capable of flight. Therefore, let us give them the recognition they deserve because if bats were to disappear tomorrow, that would give us something to genuinely fear. Spirits are less grand, less powerful, and less like humans than the gods, who often have weaknesses and emotions. See my wings. The weasel replied, Well, so you are! and let the bat go. Because they were four-footed, the mouse-like creatures first asked if they could play with the animals, which included a bear, a deer, and a terrapin. In northern Guiana, Bat Mountain is the home of killer bats, and there is also a killer bat in folklore from Venezuela. There are several instances where bats were killed in large numbers. These animals are nocturnal creatures that sleep during the day and come out at night to hunt for food. The Moche people in Peru were aware of the connection between bats and plants. The Symbolism of a Bat. Bats tend to get off on the wrong wing with us humans. So, using positive symbolism alone to promote bat conservation might be insufficient without accounting for day-to-day relationships of local communities with bats. Further films and novels continued associating vampires with bats and this is still perpetuated in western literature, films, television, theatre, art and most forms of media. Here are just a few: If a bat flies into your house, look out for bedbugs. The bat flew to a nearby cave, but each evening it emerged at sunset, telling Jesus that it was time to take food [see Bats and the Netherworld, BATS, Summer 1993; also, see this same article for the converse notion that the devil created bats.). In northern Thailand, harming bats incurs a curse because bats are sacred for Buddhists [36]. Sociocultural definitions of animals as good or evil have persisted throughout the history of human beings. The origin of bats is prominent in the folklore of several North American Indian tribes. It was from these traditions that the vampire bats were named rather than them giving their name to the supernatural, blood-sucking creature. They are unquestionably weird beings, appearing as half birds and half rodents, as if they came from a nightmare realm. But now, increased access to habitats supplied by roads created by logging companies and modern equipment such as shotguns and fishing nets, has resulted in far larger numbers being killed. A noctule bat Nyctalus noctula, a long-eared bat Plecotus auritus, a Natters bat Myotis nattereri and a Daubentons bat Myotis daubentonii. WebAfrican mythology has common threads that run through the various tribe's cultures and stories because rapid migration of people allowed for the spread of language as well as beliefs. These creatures have had a long and varied history with humans, and it is hoped that this article has helped to increase your understanding of these creatures. Of course, in languages other than English, a bat is not called a bat. First he filled a large pot with warm water which he told his friend was boiling. In 2005, the privately owned Montfort Bat Cave Sanctuary on Mindanao Island, south of the Philippines, opened for tourism. 2. When Oyot went home his wife had to go out on an errand. In some versions of the myth, the old mice would climb to the top of a tall tree, and when they reached the highest branches, their tails would detach and grow into wings. Adjule. We still are. Especially Western cultural associations of bats with evil spirits, which have been recorded in Christian tradition as early as the fourteenth century [68] along with current media sensationalizing bats and the COVID-19 pandemic, are major hindrances toward bat conservation [69], although there is no reason why public health messages cannot be consistent with bat conservation. In all four cases, the bats each walked about the volunteers hair without becoming entangled in any way and finally took flight without any difficulty. It is greedy for fragile human living creatures and sings a resonating tune to itself as it feasts. While the English term batty denotes mad in a reasonably innocuous sense. Also known as Hunbatz, One Monkey A Monkey, not a Bat One of the Monkey Twins, hes the son of Hun Hunahpu and Xbaquiyalo. In the sandstone caves of Northern Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland, there are numerous depictions of flying foxes, some dating back tens of thousands of years. Usually, it is regarded as a bad omen even if seen in a dream. Throughout Southeast Asia, bats are associated with luck and good fortune and used as spiritual totems [6, 27]. Out of over 13,000 species, there are only three that feed on blood. Bats are largely considered to be tricksters in African folklore and mythology. Thus, more famine relief food aid is desperately needed to reduce the bush meat use during the food crises, which are nearly annual in the region [22]. In India, a total of 3059 high school students from 36 schools were questioned on their bat perceptions. Pre-Islamic magical belief in Hunza said that if the lady would once offer the cooked meat of bat to her guests, hiding it behind her back while serving her family would never be without meat for their whole life [25]. Finally, his wife realized what he was doing and set fire to the tree and killed her husband and the bats [54]. From Sierra Leone comes an account of the gruesome habits of the Hammer-headed Fruit Bat Hypsignathus monstrosus. In another tale from Aesop, a bat borrows money for a business venture that fails. Because not enough leather remained to fashion another bat, the birds then stretched the skin between the fore and hind limbs of the other creature, making the first flying squirrel. We love to hear from our readers. On all occasions, the bats were able to escape without becoming entangled. Thanks Sir for this website. BUSTED! #FolkloreThursday 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, United Kingdom, WC1N 3AX. Fruit-eating bats such as Jamaican fruit bat Artibeus jamaicensis loves feeding on guavas, which is also the favorite food of the Taino spirits of the dead. The bat is a devil who flies only in the night because it would die if flying in the daytime [25]. Sometimes bats are husbands as in a Mataco lore from Argentina. When a truce is declared, the bat is rejected by both sides because of this deceitful behavior. That is why Emionog the bat is hardly ever seen out during the day anymore. The novel, Dracula, by Bram Stoker encouraged the vampire association which was expanded and embellished later by other writers. Although the bats roost in the sacred forest in Ghana, they are not regarded as sacred animals. Fruit growers may view fruit bats as crop pests [71]. The lack of feathers, presence of teeth, and activity at night are rooted in basic biology and natural history. The duality of bats is mentioned in one of Aesops Fables, which tells how a bat fell to the ground and was pounced on by a weasel. But it became obvious that the public attitude toward bats has still not been investigated extensively enough throughout the world, namely in contemporary Africa, America, Australia, and Europe. Fruitbats are not the only bats to be eaten in the Indo-Pacific region. The animals then give teeth to the bat to make it more animal-like. The police arrested 200 vigilante youth suspected of involvement in gangs that attacked persons allegedly engaged in vampirism. The bat husband then cut off her head and those of other Indians and put all heads in the tree hole where he was living [55]. In some places bats were seen more positively. Below, we will be taking a look at some of the most popular bat myths from around the globe. Thereafter, humans and animals may have lived different lives; but like people, the animals still had tribes, councils, and ethics, and they played ball games. Montfort bat cave entrance in the Philippines with the numerous Geoffroys Rousette fruit bats Rousettes amplexicaudatus. That makes them the second most common group of mammals, after rodents. For example, a number of these countries are investing in the burgeoning industry of ecotourism by promoting organized visits to bat caves and bat watching [74, 75]. In the Bible, the bat is seen to be unclean [8], while its nocturnal activities ally it to malevolent spirits that roam the land when darkness has fallen. Halloween. A variety of methods have been used to harass and kill these harmless and beneficial creatures, and some people have even gone so far as to dynamite caves and abandoned mines where bats roost or hibernate [64]. Cultural traditions and beliefs influence the future of the bats, which is threatened by human exploitation, both directly on bats and indirectly on the environment. In Malawi, negative bat superstitions caused recently quite disproportionate behavior when rural people in southern parts of the country killed nine people accusing them to be vampire bats [23]. To date our community has made over 100 million downloads. As such, they would place a bat on the ground, point its head towards the sky, and wait for raindrops to fall on its back. Should the bat stay and eat the fruit in the house, bad luck will befall the owner [27]. Creative commonsWikimedia. In medieval Europe, dragons were usually depicted with wings and a barbed tail and as breathing fire. The weasel replied, No, I never let mice go! The bat said, Well, look closely at me. An irrational fear of batsChiroptophobiaencompasses negative perceptions of bats as disease vectors, pests, or harmful creatures associated with devils and witchcraft, which represents an important barrier to bat conservation globally [27]. In many places, blood sacrifice was believed to benefit agriculture, and therefore, bats had agricultural, as well as death, connections for Pre-Columbian peoples and in Oaxaca, Mexico, a bat deity was associated with maize [51]. considers bat as harm meaning that it is forbidden as food. While some cultures see bats as a harbinger of death, others believe that the creature holds the key to eternal life. Bats are associated, in many cultures, with death and dying, which makes them a perfect representative of Samhain, the time when the veil is thin. The bat told him that whenever he made soup he always boiled himself in the water because his flesh was so sweet. If a man whose wife is nearing childbirth unthinkingly does so, some harm may befall the unborn baby [34]. 7. Traditional Navajo folklore places the origin of bats in the earliest world, when all was dark: twelve insects and the bat revolved in darkness. Decapitating bat demons appears in various myths in Amazonia and to the south in northern Argentina. The remaining cultures had combinations of positive, neutral, and negative values. Both to such an extent that hunting them has become a major concern to environmentalists. Especially when the bats preferred natural resources have been logged out of existence and replanted as a monoculture. People can further move the fungus on their clothing and caving gear and spread the disease into an area that does not currently. A woman noted that her husband had a round tail and dropped the vessel of water she was bringing to him. In Nagaland between 7000 and 25,000 cave-dwelling bats (Cave Nectar Bat Eonycteris spelaea, Great Roundleaf Bat Hipposideros armiger, and Leschenaults Rousette Rousettus leschenaultii) have been annually harvested until recently [73]. There is also, of course, the European connection with bats to vampirism. Both these references are the same; they list the birds that the people of God are not allowed to eat the list ends with the bat. The myth states that a mouse came into a church and stole one of the wafers of the eucharistand then decided to keep it rather than eat it. author. dragon, in the mythologies, legends, and folktales of various cultures, a large lizard- or serpent-like creature, conceived in some traditions as evil and in others as beneficent. Africa. A long time ago, on the opposite side of the earth, the Aztec term for a bat was apparently quimichpapalotl, which means butterfly mouse. Large, often man-eating, bats are found in Hawaiian traditions, and there is even a legend of an eight-eyed bat in Hawaii. Interestingly, Islamic taboo. To a shaman the appearance of a bat does not signify actual or physical death, but more the death of old fears or the old ways of doing things that no longer serve you. So in honor of National Bat Week, we're clearing up some myths about the world's only flying mammal. The bat begged to be spared but the weasel insisted that he could not do that because he was an enemy of all birds. These Goddesses of beauty reflect peace for a lot of people. WebSpirits African mythology is filled with spirits, invisible beings with powers for good or evil. In a Cherokee fable, an eagle, a hawk, and other birds fashioned the first bat and the first flying squirrel from two mouse-like creatures. Their well-known agility in flight would make a bat formidable in a ball game against a bear and turtle. The fictional DC Comic Super-hero, Batman relied on the sinister aspect of bats to strike fear into criminals, yet despite the scary myths, bats are an important part of the ecosystems and economies of many parts of the world. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. In Irian Jaya of Indonesia, former head-hunters considered flying foxes to be head-hunters too, as they took the head of the tree by consuming its fruit [37]. These birds went to temples and prayed to be turned into humans. The Serer Creation Myth Like in every creation myth in Africa, the Serer of Senegal, Mauritania and the Gambia have theirs. However, the path to protection has been a rocky one for the Flying Foxes. Tjinimin wanted to have sex with the Green Parrot-Girls (who were the consorts of the Great Rainbow-Snake) and, of course, the Great Rainbow-Snake objected to this. But the larger animals made fun of how small the creatures were and drove them away. It is no real surprise that in a Christian Europe throughout history, the bat has been associated with the Devil, evil spirits, and witches [9]. While Aesops fables involving bats may have envisioned them as duplicitous and dishonest, other folklore has ascribed a lot worse to bats, as we have seen in this series of articles. Strangely perhaps, given its poor press in Europe, carrying the dried and powdered heart of a bat in your front pocket was supposed to protect you from bleeding to death and later to stop bullets. The apparent liminality of bats is also reflected in a legend from the Kanarese of India in which bats were originally a type of unhappy bird. 3. They live in unusual places. Myth 2: MicroBats are Small, and Megabats are big Bats are broadly divided into two categories, Megachiropetra which are Old World fruit bats, and Michrochiropetra that are echolocating bats. I am a mouse, not a bird! The weasel looked at the bat and agreed it was a mouse and released it. Kill the bat before it escapes, and everyone will be safe. Do they really deserve this sinister reputation, or do they play a more important role in the world than feeding the dark human fascination for the spooky and the supernatural? Nearly another third reported actively killing bats or destroying bat roosts, and most respondents associated bats with the destruction of farmers fruits, especially mangoes. People sometimes think of them as blind, bloodthirsty flying mice. All rights reserved. The myths grew with the 1927 stage production which further associated Dracula with bats. Zteve believes that people have far more in common with each other than is often shown on the surface and this can often be seen in the folktales from other parts of the world. In fact, around a fifth of all mammals on Earth are bats! Tertullian, an early Christian author from Carthage (155220), claimed that the Devil and his angels had wings [10], and around 1314, Dante wrote that the Devils wings had no feathers, but was in form and texture like a bats [11]. People in Vanuatu consider Pacific Flying Fox Pteropus tonganus as their ancestor and claim to be able to communicate with them [46]. In 1959, this superstition was still so believed that the Earl of Cranbrook took it upon himself to test the superstitions veracity. Photo credit: Stan Delone creative commonWikimedia. The account is linked to the first trees created by roog. The Adjule is also called a Bush Dog. But it should come as no surprise that bats figure in most ancient mythologies. They have fur and teeth and nurse their young like other mammals, but they dont walk on four legs. Licensee IntechOpen. Since the fourteenth century, Chinese culture has associated bats with good luck and blessings [33]. This category has the following 7 subcategories, out of 7 total. Subcategories. Most respondents were less likely to value the importance of bats in the ecosystem, so creating a conservation education to connect people with nature is not easy. In this article, we will be taking a deep dive into the world of bats in mythology, folklore, and superstition. Company registered in England & Wales, no. Why is it then that while in some parts of the world this beneficial creature is seen as a symbol of good luck and good fortune, in many societies it is viewed with fear and loathing? Presented here are different viewpoints from around the world, followed by a short look at the real significance of bats to humankind. Many paintings from western Europe in the middle ages depict the devil with bat wings. In Malaysia, older generations prevented thievery by mixing flying fox blood with milky mangrove Excoecaria agallocha tree sap to cause violent intestinal inflammation [40]. Here are some of the other names that people have given bats. Bats for eating in the Laos marketplace. They are hugely beneficial to man and play a major role in the well-being of the worlds ecosystems. Contemporarily the bats were divided based upon morphology and behavior into two suborders, Microchiroptera (Microbats) and Megachiroptera (Flying Foxes and Old World Fruit Bats) [4]. Most often, they are seen only at night. Between 1981 and 1989, approximately 13,000 fruit bat bodies were imported into Guam for human consumption every year. The Global Owl Project Carriage Drive, USA. In Vietnam, many mounted bat species are sold in souvenir shops, and in Laos, bats are traded in several markets (Figure 3) [41, 42]. In Jamaican folklore, bats are also perceived as death images [59]. Working together, we have the power to end bat extinctions worldwide. They often live and breed in dark and unusual places such as caves, tunnels and lofts, leaving these at twilight the time between light and darkness in search of food. The bat must then hide during the day to avoid creditors. Among the rambling stories and folklore that make up the tales of the Australian Aboriginal Dream-time, there is one of a confrontation between Tjinimin the Bat God and the Great Rainbow-Snake. Their prayers were answered, but only in part; they were given teeth, hair, and human faces, but otherwise remained bird-like. There exists a widespread belief in Southeast Asia that eating bat meat cures asthma [27]. WebThen there was the Olitiau, a giant demon bat that had been seen in these parts, and lived for hundreds of years. Bat Mythology There is a strong association between bats and death. Besides the above, hunting of fruit bats in the Indo-Pacific area is also supported by a market in Guamartificially maintained by the higher per capita income on Guam than on the source islands. As with that other iconic nocturnal creature, the owl, the bat has a myriad of very strange old wives tales and superstitions surrounding it [15]. GET INVOLVED! Similarly, the Ge tribe in Brazil moved through the night following a bat that looked for light toward which to guide the people (Figure 4) [51, 52]. In Malaysia, ethnic Han Chinese, non-Muslim indigenous groups, and ethnic Malays hunt flying foxes and trade them to the Chinese [27]. Bastet/Sekhmet, Bastet and Sekhmet were described as two parts of a similar Goddess, with Sekhmet representing the ground-breaking fighter and defender figure and Bastet, who was often portrayed as a feline, speaking to a gentler viewpoint.
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