Then he jumped into it and sat in it for a while and then climbed out. Using two willing female teenagers, one with relatively short curly hair and one with longer wavy hair was done up behind in a bun, Cranbrook took turns in placing four different species of bat on their heads. 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]. Monstrous beyond imagining, all-consuming, blacker than blackest night, the hideous Satan in the Night on Bald Mountain section of Walt Disneys animated film Fantasia (1940) spreads gigantic bat wings as it turns fiery eyes toward the lost souls about to be engulfed in wrath and flames [64]. One of these fables also exists, with slight variation, among tribes in southern Nigeria, among Australian aboriginals, and ancient Romans. Presented here are different viewpoints from around the world, followed by a short look at the real significance of bats to humankind. An artist's depiction of the Adjule or Bush Dog. Sometimes, as with the myth, it leaves a trademark two-pronged bite on the victim. They were then ashamed to meet the other birds and are now active only at night, returning to the temples in the daytime and praying to be turned back into birds. When capturing its prey, it grabs the neck, sometimes killing the prey with a single powerful bite [51, 52]. 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? Later bats received even more bad publicity when they became linked to Count Dracula and vampires. 1. In Makira, Solomon Islands, local people value traditional currency for transactions, such as bride price, and use the canine teeth of flying foxes as a traditional currency [47]. Their well-known agility in flight would make a bat formidable in a ball game against a bear and turtle. 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. The remaining cultures had combinations of positive, neutral, and negative values. Large flying fox Pteropus vampyrus suffers from its misleading scientific name as it is not blood-eating species but feeds only fruits and flowers. Therefore, instead of coming out and feeding in daylight he began to feed at night. 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]. It tells how a bushrat named Oyot was friends with Emiong the bat and they would often eat together, taking it in turns to cook. This ability, coupled with the ability to navigate at night by using a system of acoustic orientation (echolocation), has made the bats a highly diverse and populous order. Peasant farmers in Mexico used to call bats ratones viejos, which translates to old mice. They thought that when mice grew older, they would develop wings and transform into bats. Many mythological stories from different cultures have been passed down throughout the years about bats. The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. In shamanism, the bat as well as being a symbol of death and rebirth is able A substantial proportion (53%) thought that bats have medicinal value, but 35% saw them only as harmful creatures. These myths associate killer bats with fire as the bat burns its victims and is, in turn, thrown into the fire [60, 61, 62]. more information Accept. Between 1981 and 1989, approximately 13,000 fruit bat bodies were imported into Guam for human consumption every year. Another belief about bats comes from the Navajo, a Native American tribe from the southwestern United States. Until we provoked the animals hostility because of our aggressiveness and disregard for their rights, humans and all creatures lived together in harmony, mutual respect, and helpfulness. If a bat flies into a house and then escapes, there will be a death in the family. 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. Bats are not associated with any diseases, and it was felt to be safe to eat bat meat, but both studies were conducted before the 2013 Ebola outbreak (Figure 2) [19, 20]. Since the fourteenth century, Chinese culture has associated bats with good luck and blessings [33]. If a bat flies into a kitchen and at once hangs on to the ceiling, it is a lucky omen, but if it circles the room twice before alighting, it is a bad omen. In this article, we will be taking a deep dive into the world of bats in mythology, folklore, and superstition. Working together, we have the power to end bat extinctions worldwide. In other parts of the world, fruit bats are occasionally hunted in small numbers. It was called Boman, and it was able to turn into a stone or a snake at will. It is at this time when the veil between this world and the otherworld was believed to thin and a state of liminality existed. American Indian legends and the fables of Aesop were more than just stories recited around the campfire or bathhouse: they were teaching devices. The official Islamic view is exempting bats from being killed because it would carry bad luck to kill a bat [32]. For example, a bat entering a household was a forewarning of a death in the house. Bats are also seen as useful in Iran, India, and Pakistan because people are collecting bat guano as a natural fertilizer. Bat Myths The underworld is often associated with the dead but it is perhaps the association with vampires that is the most sinister aspect of bats. When soup was placed before Oyot it was as good and tasty as ever but it was from a different batch the bat had prepared early. Whereas in China, it was a sign of good fortune. In some places bats were seen more positively. He then pretended to demonstrate exactly how he did this. It is greedy for fragile human living creatures and sings a resonating tune to itself as it feasts. Female respondents in this study showed more negative attitudes and a stronger belief in myths about bats than males. People can further move the fungus on their clothing and caving gear and spread the disease into an area that does not currently. Publishing on IntechOpen allows authors to earn citations and find new collaborators, meaning more people see your work not only from your own field of study, but from other related fields too. Vampires had been part of Slavic folklore in Eastern Europe since the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but it was not until the nineteenth century that popular fictional literature, predominantly through Bram Stokers Dracula in 1897, would forever tie bats and vampires together, with the protagonist, Count Dracula, being able to transform himself into a huge bat [13]. Aboriginal peoples, however, were describing them long before this. In Africa, bats were credited with high intelligence. In northern Argentina, a Toba story tells of the leader of the very first peoplea hero bat or batman who was teaching people all they needed to know as human beings. My Amazon Author Page can found here for the UK and for the USA, here. In Caribbean South America and the Antilles, bat images are associated with death rites and burials in archeological context [57], and in Cuba, a Taino ball court was bat-shaped, the ballgame being a sacrificial ritual [58]. In Cameroon, the superstition of the vampire is attached to bats. 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. Bats for eating in the Laos marketplace. Samoans said that flying foxes were cheeky and courageous, making it a popular tattoo motif [48]. Bats feature in many myths, legends and folklore from diverse cultures around the world, and are often associated with darkness, death and the supernatural. Sunset is just the beginning. Theyre passive components, not active agents of change. The first two references are Leviticus 11:19 and Deuteronomy 14:18. Emiong knew he was in trouble and flew off into the bush. Bats in a church during a wedding ceremony is a bad omen. Bat Myths and Folktales from Around the World These birds went to temples and prayed to be turned into humans. This article has covered some of the main points about bat mythology, superstition, folklore, and persecution. The widespread sacrificial association derives largely from the habits of the Common Vampire Bat that feeds exclusively on the blood of vertebrates (Figure 5). In ancient Egypt it was believed bats could alleviate or cure many ailments including baldness, fever toothache and poor eyesight. Much of the folklore about bats relates to their way of life. Bat Unquestionably, they are strange creatures, appearing as half animal and half bird, like something from a nightmare world. 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]. The bat must then hide during the day to avoid creditors. In Hunza, Pakistan, a witch appears in the shape of a bat, and it plays a role in magical practice in southwest Asia. 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. In many human cultures, caves were seen as gateways to the underworld and bats often emerge from caves at twilight when day merges into night. They belong to the Order Chiroptera. It is not just their physical form that makes bats a curiosity. Finally, we discuss shortly the need of education to change attitudes toward bats. It could swoop up a whole dugout and everything in it, she told him, with a face of deliberate seriousness. Traditional Navajo folklore places the origin of bats in the earliest world, when all was dark: twelve insects and the bat revolved in darkness. 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]. Bat myths Licensee IntechOpen. 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. Saharan African mythology have legendary 7 Myths About Bats Bats play an important role in the ecosystem by eating large quantities of insects. When Oyot went home his wife had to go out on an errand. Out of over 13,000 species, there are only three that feed on blood. But the larger animals made fun of how small the creatures were and drove them away. Bats flying vertically upwards and then dropping back to earth means that the Witches Hour has come. Bats are mentioned three times in the Old Testament. WebBats typically live in deep underground caves, which symbolically is the belly of the Mother (Earth), and from these womb-like caves they emerge each evening at dusk - reborn. UNITED KINGDOM. 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. Bat Conservation International 2023. The Navajo people thought that bats were able to fly between different worlds and act as a bridge between the supernatural and the natural. All rights reserved. Bats lead us to the best opportunities to protect nature anywhere in the world. WebMYTH: Bats are blind. We explore the role that bats play in traditional narratives and the likely reasons for their salience, including their connections with the extraordinary and supernatural. Bats in the house mean a death in the house or is a sign that the occupants will soon be leaving. Using four species of bats and three brave female volunteers he deliberately attempted to entangle the bats by thrusting them into the womans hair. WebWhen seen as human souls, bats are often imagined as souls of the dead, particularly souls of the damned, or those that are not yet at peace. Bat Conservation International 500 N Capital of TXHwy. 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. 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 the terminology of folklorists, bats are liminal; they dont fit into the normal order of things and are somehow apart or in-between. They were believed to destroy trees and damage fruits in gardens. Hun Batz Facts and Figures Name: Hun Batz Pronunciation: The diversity of South American bats is impressive as there are more bats, and more bat species, than in any other part of the world [51, 52]. In Africa, bats were credited with high intelligence. The felling of roosting trees was mentioned as bat death reason by 29% and hunting by 18%. Only older and somewhat educated people reported more positive attitudes toward bats than others [21]. Bat Over half of the students (57%) did not know anybody in their neighborhood who would hunt bats. Montfort bat cave entrance in the Philippines with the numerous Geoffroys Rousette fruit bats Rousettes amplexicaudatus. 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. A world without bats would look very different than the one you know and not for the better. Category:African legendary creatures On the other hand, the body fat of Indian Flying Fox is used to make massage oil to cure rheumatic pains, while drinking water from a bats wing is said to sharpen ones memory [30]. By making research easy to access, and puts the academic needs of the researchers before the business interests of publishers. In Indonesia, Iban people in Kalimantan also hunt fruit bats for consumption, and mainly Christian people in North Sulawesi regularly eat flying foxes (Black Flying Fox Pteropus alecto and Sulawesi Fruit Bat Acerodon celebensis) especially during the Christmas season [38, 39]. Appearing as half bird, half mammal at the edge of day and night they are seen as liminal beings and not part of the natural order. It takes the form of a firefly, but if you capture one, it will revert to human appearance. Bats are truly remarkable creatures, and fossil records indicate that they first appeared in the Eocene, some 5055 million years ago [1]. Bats, at least the ones that originate from North-western Europe, look a bit like mice with wings. In fact they are mammals of the scientific order Chiroptera, meaning hand wing in ancient Greek, because their forelimbs have become adapted to be wings. Many spirits are associated with geographical features, such as mountains, rivers, wells, trees, and springs. #FolkloreThursday 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, United Kingdom, WC1N 3AX. First he filled a large pot with warm water which he told his friend was boiling. Among the Ndop people, bats, owls, and bush-cats are said to be witch shapes. Medics said there is no truth or clinical evidence that blood suckers or vampires exist in Malawi, and the United Nations mission withdrew its personnel from the riots-affected areas [24]. More than 1,200 species are currently recognized, and many are enormously abundant. Indigenous Ainu people in Japan worshipped the crafty and wise bat god Kappa kamui, who kept away demons and diseases [44]. Vampires. Kill the bat before it escapes, and everyone will be safe. This suggests that the Asia-Pacific region and its cultures contain far more positive associations with bats than most European or American societies and, as such, offer promising examples and opportunities to promote human-bat coexistence. In England, they also say that when someone is a little insane, they have bats in the belfry. Belief systems of people have always been closely related to animals, which are symbolized in traditional narratives. He's also a teacher, a poet and the owner of 1,152 books. The account is linked to the first trees created by roog. Interestingly, Islamic taboo. Contact our London head office or media team here. 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. They eat insects performing pest control while also pollinating species of plants and spreading seeds. The birds took pity on the creatures and fashioned wings for one of them out of the head of a drum made from a groundhog skin, thus creating the first bat. The animals then give teeth to the bat to make it more animal-like. It remains to be seen, however, if this could halt or even reverse the decline of the North American bats [64]. Ancient Celtic Cauldrons: The Magical, the Mythical, the Real, Top 5 Trees in Celtic Mythology, Legend and Folklore, Celtic Warrior Women: Queen Boudica of the Iceni, Animism and the Living World of the Ancient Celts, Mixing Animals, Birds, Humans and Gods in Celtic Mythology, Unicorn Lore: Interpreting the Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries, The Legendary Puss in Boots and the Marquis of Carabas, Top Five Mythical Birds in Legend and Folklore, Aesops Fables; a new translation by Aesop, BATS Magazine Article: Folklore and the Origin of Bats, Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa by Elphinstone Dayrell. Repeatedly, the bats feathers were stolen by small birds, and repeatedly the bat returned to Jonayaiyin to ask for more. Other strange beliefs in European folklore include: In Shakespeares Macbeth (written 800 years ago), the witches brew a potion with: Eye of newt and toe of frog,Wool of bat and tongue of dog.. In Vietnam, many mounted bat species are sold in souvenir shops, and in Laos, bats are traded in several markets (Figure 3) [41, 42]. The general attitude is that the flying fox is part of the forest, and the vast majority support the protection of Pteropus samoensis and P. tonganus [45]. Bat On the other hand, the Tupinamba people believed that the planet would be eaten by a bat at the end of time. In many cultures, they are seen as symbols of good luck, while in others they are seen as omens of bad news. IntechOpen Limited However, after offering prayers, dead bats found on the ground can be eaten. Although the exact source of the fungal pathogen, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, and its mode of introduction into North America remain unknown, the introduction was most likely mediated by humans, either through direct or indirect transfer of infectious propagules [66]. As messengers for the forces of darkness, they become evil omens. In fact, around a fifth of all mammals on Earth are bats! Most students (56%) reported seeing bats in their locality. Bat Conservation International is a 501(c)(3) organization. A woman noted that her husband had a round tail and dropped the vessel of water she was bringing to him. Lately, education seems to have some effect, and more and more people have started to appreciate how useful and amazing bats truly are. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode. If you have any questions or if you want to get in touch with us, you can find our contact details on our About Us page. Should the bat stay and eat the fruit in the house, bad luck will befall the owner [27]. This was before people knew about germs and how diseases are spread. Photo credit: [7] Roy Kabanlit creative commonsWikimedia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode. The origin of bats is prominent in the folklore of several North American Indian tribes. When you stand with us, your donation will support critical bat conservation initiatives. Between Iran and Rajasthan, north-western India, there is the widespread public belief that if a bat lives somewhere in the house or hangs on the roof, this would mean bad luck for the owner [25]. Even cultures that value bats positively may have values conflicting with bat conservation. In Indonesia, farmers in South Sulawesi believe that flying foxes roosting near their rice fields guarantee a good harvest [27]. Home > In northern Thailand, harming bats incurs a curse because bats are sacred for Buddhists [36]. Participation by local people is vital to achieving successful conservation programs [35]. Bldg. Bats in Myth and Legend 945ontwerp / Getty Images Its unlucky to see a bat in the daytime. Our habit of sharing their ancestral living quarters would inevitably have brought bats to our attention from before the dawn of history. Between 1985 and 1994, they were removed from the protected fauna list in Queensland. 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]. Large, often man-eating, bats are found in Hawaiian traditions, and there is even a legend of an eight-eyed bat in Hawaii. The Adze is a vampire in the legends of the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo. 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. Throughout Southeast Asia, bats are associated with luck and good fortune and used as spiritual totems [6, 27]. While the three species of true vampire bats (common vampire bat Desmodus rotundus, hairy-legged vampire bat Diphylla ecaudata, and white-winged vampire bat Diaemus youngi) are microbats, measuring just a few centimeters in length, it was the exaggerated reports from early explorers and adventurers that gave the public the image of these huge bloodsucking creatures. It is the largest New World bat with a yard wingspan. To summarize shortly the various findings: In the West, bats have been seen as animals of ill omen, alongside other nocturnal hunters such as owls and black cats. 2. Oh - and he wrote this website. This Order name means hand-wing as the bats can hold food between their forearms. From a magical standpoint, bats are associated with workings related to death and dying, communication, and the spirit world. Although vampire bats have been known to attack humans and large animals it is usually not fatal, though it has been known to transmit rabies. 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. Bats are symbolic of bad luck, especially when they call while flying early in the evening. An old engraving of vampire bats described by early explorers such as John Stedman. Shockingly, US news media recently reported shortages of Halloween decorationsplastic bats among them, doubtlessdue to the world supply crunch [63]. Bats are largely considered to be tricksters in African folklore and mythology. The first sighting was reported in 1928 by Thodore Monod. Courtesy of creative commonsWikimedia. However, modern science, and hence western Europe, really only learned about them as we traveled out to the tropical world. African Folklore from Fiji, in the South Pacific, tells us that flying foxes originated when a rat stole the wings of a heron, while another Fijian tale relates that it was the rat that first had wings while flying foxes walked on four legs. Bats But where theyre used as an ingredient in a witchs brew, theyre no different to frogs or snails (also common ingredients). They believed bats to be able to cross into and out of the unseen realms at will, making them spiritual guides. The bat said, Well look at me. GET INVOLVED! Around 62% of the Asia-Pacific people had only positive cultural values of bats, 8% had only neutral values, while 10% had only negative values [27]. 5 Princes Gate Court, To date our community has made over 100 million downloads. In the old days, people used to think that bats were evil, and they would often try to kill them. On all occasions, the bats were able to escape without becoming entangled. An idea that reflected their ability to fly around so quickly in the dark without hitting anything. 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. In Africa, house bats occur in distinct colors and sizes, but they are usually hard to identify. That nailing a dead bat to your door will protect you from demons, That putting a drop of bats blood under a womans pillow will help her be fruitful. To date, ethnobiological information regarding bats in Africa has mainly focused on utilitarian aspects of bats as food and medicine, whereas knowledge concerning symbolism and beliefs surrounding bats in that continent has not been assembled, apart from ancient Africa [18], Ghana [19, 20], Kenya [21], and Madagascar [22]. Also, a Tacana woman in Bolivia was killing a bat while not realizing that it was her husband [34]. 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]. Interestingly, blood sucking has been attributed to bats both in Cameroon and Sierra Leone despite the countries being widely separated and when no such type of bat is found in Africa [19]. The prominent leaf nose on the snout of this bat strongly suggests an arrowhead. Bat in the Cultures of the World | Gotham in . The Adjule is also called a Bush Dog. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Most often, they are seen only at night. They called themselves Zotzil uinic (batmen), claiming that their ancestors discovered a stone bat, which they took as their god, and their chief town was named Zinacantlan (=place of the bats) by Nahuatl merchants from Mexico [53]. 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]. There are several instances where bats were killed in large numbers. Interestingly, giant bat stories have persisted in these flying-fox-less societies, which evolved from western Polynesians cultures where flying foxes have been prevalent [45]. The Tzotzil Maya lived, and continue to live to this day, on the plateau of Chiapas in southern Mexico. Photo credit: Uwe Schmidt. Bats Because of the resemblance in dentition and such external phenomena as the thoracic position of the mammae, etc., the great Linnaeus himself ended to place the bat along with man in the order Primates [3]. In Malaysia, ethnic Han Chinese, non-Muslim indigenous groups, and ethnic Malays hunt flying foxes and trade them to the Chinese [27]. It is also noted that bat tourism has a potential to conserve bat populations while providing social and economic benefits to local people in host communities. Both African-Americans and those of European descent from around the United States frequently maintain that However, the association of bats with evil still persists in some parts of the world. The Global Owl Project Carriage Drive, USA. 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. There are also numerous stories and legends associated with the bat. We still are. The third reference is in Isaiah 2:20. In Thailand, bat meat or blood is eaten for muscle pain, increasing virility and longevity [36]. Sociocultural definitions of animals as good or evil have persisted throughout the history of human beings. Zteve has two websites dedicated to myths, legends and folklore from around the world. A folktale from Kanara, India tells how bats were once unhappy birds that prayed to become human. 15 Strangest 'Hybrid' Mythical Creatures From Around And because of this, many myths, superstitions, and folklore have been created about them. Photo credit: Stan Delone creative commonWikimedia. Sometimes bats are husbands as in a Mataco lore from Argentina. In southwest Asia, bat folklore has been documented between Iran, India, and Myanmar [25, 26, 27].
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