Bat myths African The Serer Creation Myth Like in every creation myth in Africa, the Serer of Senegal, Mauritania and the Gambia have theirs. Becoming neither one thing nor the other made them ashamed. Samoan people prize flying fox meat as a delicacy and as a gift to elders, but commercial hunting and export of the meat are culturally frowned. 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]. Bat Myths and Folktales from Around the World Should a bat or an owl come near the house, or a bush-cat defecate in the compound, the owner must go at once to diviner to discover what remedies must be taken to ward off the evil. This North American bat-like depiction should come as no surprise; it is merely another manifestation of the fear, horror, and superstition with which bats have been regarded down through ages [64]. 15 Strangest 'Hybrid' Mythical Creatures From Around Montfort bat cave entrance in the Philippines with the numerous Geoffroys Rousette fruit bats Rousettes amplexicaudatus. 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]. However, more recently, the habit has become much more common. Hopefully, now that we know more about these amazing creatures, we can protect them better in the future. African Mythology - 15 Myths And Legends That Will Micro-batswhich include the smaller, familiar snub-nosed batsmainly hunt by echolocation. There are more than 1,300 bat species! According to the Serer myth, the creation of the earth began from a swamp. In South America, the vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) is persecuted because it transmits the rabies virus to the livestock it feeds off. 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. Consult our entry on the Monkey Twins for the full story. The Tongan kings Samoan wife was rescued by flying foxes, and she honored her rescuers later by naming her son Tonumaipea (= rescued by flying foxes) [45]. In the West, bats are often perceived as evil spirits, Vampires, and harbingers of death, while some cultures across the Asia-Pacific region associate bats with good fortune. is eaten in Laos. He always finds it a source of fascination discovering and learning how our ancestors perceived the times they lived in and how they have influenced us today. While some cultures see bats as a harbinger of death, others believe that the creature holds the key to eternal life. Licensee IntechOpen. This apparent ambiguity in the nature of bats is seen in many folktales about how they came to be in the first place and how they acquired their various features. Some of their ceramic vessels have an anthropomorphic bat that is an agent of human sacrifice, with a knife in one hand and a human head in the other. The number of Bats seen also has meaning. Among the Ibibio people of southern Nigeria, bats are associated with witchcraft, and for any bat to fly into a house and touch a person is a sure sign that this person is thereafter bewitched and will soon perish because his or her heart is eaten at night while he or she sleeps. 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]. Unquestionably, they are strange creatures, appearing as half animal and half bird, like something from a nightmare world. They live in unusual places. Vampires. Throughout Southeast Asia, bats are associated with luck and good fortune and used as spiritual totems [6, 27]. In Malaysia, ethnic Han Chinese, non-Muslim indigenous groups, and ethnic Malays hunt flying foxes and trade them to the Chinese [27]. In medieval Europe, dragons were usually depicted with wings and a barbed tail and as breathing fire. In fact, around a fifth of all mammals on Earth are bats! There is also, of course, the European connection with bats to vampirism. The king ordered that Emiong be arrested and thrown into prison. Sometimes, as with the myth, it leaves a trademark two-pronged bite on the victim. The bat told him that whenever he made soup he always boiled himself in the water because his flesh was so sweet. Frustrated, Jonayaiyin eventually told the bat You cannot take care of your feathers, so you shall never have any. Very well, said the bat, I deserve to lose them, for I could never take care of those feathers.. BATS and the Netherworld The artificial bat became a shorthand for horror in 1931, jiggled on a fishing line behind a Hungarian-American actor Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask, known professionally as Bela Lugosi in the genre-defining movie Dracula. In North America, education has had some effect as more people have started to understand how useful bats truly are and how few cases of bat-born rabies transmission to humans there have been in the United States and Canada. In Malaysia, older generations prevented thievery by mixing flying fox blood with milky mangrove Excoecaria agallocha tree sap to cause violent intestinal inflammation [40]. They belong to the Order Chiroptera. Bats in a church during a wedding ceremony is a bad omen. In ancient Egypt it was believed bats could alleviate or cure many ailments including baldness, fever toothache and poor eyesight. Therefore, instead of coming out and feeding in daylight he began to feed at night. This is because people thought that bats were associated with witches and black magic. This liminality gives bats a supernatural air that further heightens mystery and distrust as they cross the borders between birds and mammals, day and night. 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. A bat was once known as a flittermouse or fluttermouse, which translates to flying mouse. This phrase is derived from the German word for a bat, Fledermaus. The English term bat is taken from the Old English word bakke, which means to flutter.. Although bats already had long had a sinister reputation their addition to European vampire folklore came after that. Bats also have wings. 7 Myths About Bats 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. Muslims and Seventh Day Adventists did not consume bat meat. 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. Zteve enjoys researching deep into the folklore, myths and legends that run through society and are part of our everyday lives. At the end of the story, Tjinimin hangs upside-down in a tree to admire the stars and decides never to try having sex with anyone againwhereupon his nose falls off. He has studied bats for many years and is author of the entry on bats in The Encyclopedia of American Folklore and Superstition. Especially when the bats preferred natural resources have been logged out of existence and replanted as a monoculture. 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. Similarly, fishermen in the Philippines consider mangrove roosting flying foxes to be guardians of their fishing grounds and to increase fish and shellfish catch [27]. It was called Boman, and it was able to turn into a stone or a snake at will. Even cultures that value bats positively may have values conflicting with bat conservation. These intensely emotional visuals have most likely led to the sinister image of bats that many people still hold, even though we now know they are valuable members of the environment! Half of the students knew that bats are mammals, but 26% believed them to be birds, some thought of them being amphibians (12%) or reptiles (11%); 37% disliked the bats, and 27% liked them remaining seeing them as indifferent. It is the largest New World bat with a yard wingspan. While others say bats resemble an unhappy bird who got lost on its way to find the sun, in Greece during the middle ages, there was a myth that bats arose from mice. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode. The remaining cultures had combinations of positive, neutral, and negative values. There exists a widespread belief in Southeast Asia that eating bat meat cures asthma [27]. An artist's depiction of the Adjule or Bush Dog. Also, a Tacana woman in Bolivia was killing a bat while not realizing that it was her husband [34]. Bat Conservation International 500 N Capital of TXHwy. In another tale from Aesop, a bat borrows money for a business venture that fails. These animals are nocturnal creatures that sleep during the day and come out at night to hunt for food. While the English term batty denotes mad in a reasonably innocuous sense. Bats appear in numerous myths throughout the world and are frequently connected with death, darkness, and the supernatural. Bat Conservation International is a 501(c)(3) organization. The felling of roosting trees was mentioned as bat death reason by 29% and hunting by 18%.