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. On all occasions, the bats were able to escape without becoming entangled. 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. 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. That is why Emionog the bat is hardly ever seen out during the day anymore. Upset at his death, and possibly the ruining of the soup, she went straight to the king. Zteve has two websites dedicated to myths, legends and folklore from around the world. In India, bats are revered in many areas, but still large bat-harvesting festivals take place. 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. 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. and Folkrealm Studies. more information Accept. In Jamaican folklore, bats are also perceived as death images [59]. People would sometimes even burn down whole colonies of bats because they thought that this would stop the spread of disease. It is a carnivore, eating birds and other vertebrates, occasionally taking even other species of bats. In Jamaica, the bat and the owl were very important symbols in Taino mythology and death. 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. Nearly another third reported actively killing bats or destroying bat roosts, and most respondents associated bats with the destruction of farmers fruits, especially mangoes. Muslims and Seventh Day Adventists did not consume bat meat. The rat now tries to retaliate by climbing tees and eating the flying foxes young, and this is why flying foxes carry their pups with them. 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. Two Bats are greater luck, and five represents the five blessings IntechOpen Limited Obviously, these bats were not the only animalsor even the only batsto use these now destroyed habitats. 7. Interestingly, Islamic taboo. These animals are nocturnal creatures that sleep during the day and come out at night to hunt for food. One bat, whose habits may have fostered these tales of decapitating bats, is the false vampire Vampyrum spectrum. Its unlucky to see a bat in the daytime. Males are called Kelb-el-khela, and females are called Tarhst. A woman noted that her husband had a round tail and dropped the vessel of water she was bringing to him. By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. 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. 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]. If a bat flies into a house and then escapes, there will be a death in the family. 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. 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.. Bat Mythology There is a strong association between bats and death. Lately, education seems to have some effect, and more and more people have started to appreciate how useful and amazing bats truly are. 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. By making research easy to access, and puts the academic needs of the researchers before the business interests of publishers. In northern Guiana, Bat Mountain is the home of killer bats, and there is also a killer bat in folklore from Venezuela. Creative commonsWikimedia. For example, a bat entering a household was a forewarning of a death in the house. So, using positive symbolism alone to promote bat conservation might be insufficient without accounting for day-to-day relationships of local communities with bats. One reason not to kill bats is that female bats have breasts and are mothers like human females [25]. What are they? The Greek philosopher Chaerephon was called the bat, because he, like the animal, did not appear by day but instead hid and philosophized. WebAfrican bats fall into two major categories: large fruit bats and smaller, insect-eating bats, neither of which attacks people. The oldest age group (5170years old) of 150 respondents were mostly aware of the bat conservation efforts. There is a Japanese word for bat, komori, which is said to mean mosquito slaughterer. In Japanese mythology, very old bats can transform into nobusuma, spirit animals resembling flying squirrels that land on their victims faces at night to feed off blood [43]. Most students wanted to participate in bat conservation activities, including some students who disliked bats. People can further move the fungus on their clothing and caving gear and spread the disease into an area that does not currently. 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. The prominent leaf nose on the snout of this bat strongly suggests an arrowhead. In Madurai, worshippers of the Muni god regard Indian Flying Fox Pteropus medius, formerly Pteropus giganteus, as sacred and protect colonies for fear of heavy punishment. It remains to be seen, however, how effectively the further education efforts could halt or even reverse the decline of the bats around the world. Recommended for you. Iban people in Sarawak, Borneo, believe that a bat flying into the house indicates a shaman bringing good vibes, conferring protection against any harm, while in Thailand, if a bat enters a house but immediately flies away, it is believed to change bad luck to good. 11022198. There are more than 1000 different species of bats in the world, making them the second-largest order of mammals. 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. Perhaps now youd like to learn a bit about the bat skeleton. Over five hundred species of plants rely on bats for pollination including durian, banana, mango, guava, cocoa and agave. Unquestionably, they are strange creatures, appearing as half animal and half bird, like something from a nightmare world. Warner Shedd (2000) felt strongly that the level of fear about rabid bats sometimes rises almost paranoid concern in the United States, citing the State of New York as an example [63]. 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 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]. Between 1981 and 1989, approximately 13,000 fruit bat bodies were imported into Guam for human consumption every year. 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. is eaten in Laos. The bat was central to Maya religion and social structure. *Address all correspondence to: heimomikkola@yahoo.co.uk. There exists a widespread belief in Southeast Asia that eating bat meat cures asthma [27]. So in honor of National Bat Week, we're clearing up some myths about the world's only flying mammal. Decapitating bat demons appears in various myths in Amazonia and to the south in northern Argentina. Bats can be found practically everywhere on the planet, including most parts of the United States. 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. 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. It is estimated that the current population of most Australian species of Pteropidae is less than 20% of what it was 100 years ago. This is bound to threaten the continued existence of local bat populations. The third reference is in Isaiah 2:20. Han Chinese people attach positive esthetic values to bats but may still hunt bats at unsustainable levels [72]. 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]. Besides hunting, the primary threats to bat species include habitat loss and degradation through logging. WebTraditional Navajo folklore places the origin of bats in the earliest world, when all was dark: twelve insects and the bat revolved in darkness. A bat-headed figure from Costa Rica made by pre-Colombian Diquis people sometimes between 700 and 1530AD. London, SW7 2QJ, Not only do they prey upon insects that are harmful to agriculture, but they also prey upon mosquitoes and other virus-carrying insects and play a major role in pollinating and spreading the seeds of many of the fruits we enjoy. 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]. Vampire bats were not discovered until the 16th century in Central and South America. WebFar Eastern Bat Symbolic Meanings. Sometimes a Mochica bat carries a warclub and a small human captive. In the old days, people used to think that bats were evil, and they would often try to kill them. In some parts of the world, they are a valuable food source, and their body parts are used in traditional medicine, while their guano is collected and used as agricultural fertilizer [7]. Bat hunting is illegal, but hunters readily admitted to having hunted bats and even directed the research people to other hunters. They are hugely beneficial to man and play a major role in the well-being of the worlds ecosystems. In medieval Europe, dragons were usually depicted with wings and a barbed tail and as breathing fire. Bats are very social animals and often live in colonies of hundreds or even thousands of individuals. Sunset is just the beginning. WebIn the Popol Vuh, Camazotz are the bat-like spirits encountered by the Maya Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque during their trials in the underworld of Xibalba. Nandi Bear. Having multifaceted anatomy of a lion, hippopotamus, and crocodile, she waited for the opportunity to devour the hearts of 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]. On Mochica pottery, a bat is depicted with the Sweetsop Annona squamosa, a common fruit also known as Sugar Apple or Pinha, the seeds of which are dispersed by bats [51, 52]. Here are some of them: Flying foxes eat fruit, and this has inevitably brought them into conflict with humans, who grow fruit. Bats are symbolic of bad luck, especially when they call while flying early in the evening. In some folklore, bats often have sexual connotations, which may relate to fertility and agriculture as bats are important seed dispersers and pollinators of many fruit trees. Bats lead us to the best opportunities to protect nature anywhere in the world. The account is linked to the first trees created by roog. 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. 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. 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! As PhD students, we found it difficult to access the research we needed, so we decided to create a new Open Access publisher that levels the playing field for scientists across the world. 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]. Even worse have been the vandalism and wanton destruction of bats and their habitat in North America. 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]. 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. Their prayers were partially granted and they were given grotesquely humanoid faces, hair and teeth but still had their wings and could fly. 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. 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. 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]. These birds went to temples and prayed to be turned into humans. A folktale from Southern Nigeria gives a novel explanation of why the bat flies at night while highlighting its supposedly untrustworthy nature. Flying foxs emergence time is believed in Myanmar to indicate the weather: an early or no emergence foretells a coming storm. They are unquestionably weird beings, appearing as half birds and half rodents, as if they came from a nightmare realm. 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 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]. In 1332, a French noblewoman, Lady Jacaume of Bayonne [12], was publicly burned to death as a witch because crowds of bats were seen about her house and garden., William Shakespeare (15641616) also equated bats with witches, spells, and curses. 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]. We still are. A substantial proportion (53%) thought that bats have medicinal value, but 35% saw them only as harmful creatures. In 2005, the privately owned Montfort Bat Cave Sanctuary on Mindanao Island, south of the Philippines, opened for tourism. That makes them the second most common group of mammals, after rodents. Aesops Fables: The Bat and the Weasel. The tour includes a brief 20-minute conservation education lecture about bats, caves, and the history of the Montford Bat Cave Sanctuary. In many parts of Indonesia, people specifically consume bats livers and hearts as medicine [39]. 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. The king ordered that Emiong be arrested and thrown into prison. One clan of the Cakchiquel Maya, of the highlands of Guatemala, was named the Zotzil (=belonging to the bat), whose deity was a bat. 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. 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. The recent introduction of a fungal disease (WNS=White-nose Syndrome) from Eurasia to North America has killed millions of bats in North America in the past decade. This Order name means hand-wing as the bats can hold food between their forearms. It is imperative to obtain more current ethnobiological data to further our understanding of contemporary attitudes and relationships with batsand to document other cultural traditions not covered in this review. We are a community of more than 103,000 authors and editors from 3,291 institutions spanning 160 countries, including Nobel Prize winners and some of the worlds most-cited researchers. In Kenya, a bat attitude questionnaire was presented to 394 people living around the Arabuko-Sokoke forest. An artist's depiction of the Adjule or Bush Dog. Large-bodied old-world fruit bats, like this Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus aegyptiacus, are disproportionally targeted to be hunted for bushmeat. There are more than 1400 bat species worldwide, and they make up roughly 20% of the worlds extant mammals [6]. This is because people thought that bats were associated with witches and black magic. Our team is growing all the time, so were always on the lookout for smart people who want to help us reshape the world of scientific publishing. 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.. 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. Megabatslarger bats that include fruit batssearch for food using sight and smell. In New Zealand, Mori people associate bats, pekapeka, with the mythical nocturnal bird hokioi that foretells death [49]. He has studied bats for many years and is author of the entry on bats in The Encyclopedia of American Folklore and Superstition. Bat meat is widely consumed because it is considered more delicious than other types of meat. 1. 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. 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. 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. Another piece of bat folklore from the Americas includes the Maya believing that the House of the Bat was one of the areas that the soul had to pass through on its way to the land of Death. His name means literally One Monkey, which is more than fitting as he turned into one. In the third book of Moses in the Old Testament, bats were identified as birds, while the world-famous Swedish taxonomist, Carl von Linn (or Linnaeus), only reclassified bats as mammals and not birds as late as 1758 in the 10th Edition of his Systema Naturae [2]. Throughout Southeast Asia, bats are associated with luck and good fortune and used as spiritual totems [6, 27]. These are Under the influence! Bat in the Cultures of the World | Gotham in . Bats have also been associated with blood-sucking vampires and other dark creatures in stories and movies. The bat is the nights mentor and is associated with Talking God, one of the most powerful deities. They then appealed to the eagle, the captain of the bird team. With the help of the bat and the flying squirrel, the birds won the ball game, with the agile bat scoring the winning goal. 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]. 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]. Flying foxesalong with all other native batsare now protected in Australia. Why 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. Although they live near humans and are common, it appears that some of the species have not been described and given scientific names [17]. However, modern science, and hence western Europe, really only learned about them as we traveled out to the tropical world. Africa. 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.. #FolkloreThursday 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, United Kingdom, WC1N 3AX. The Global Owl Project Carriage Drive, USA. An idea that reflected their ability to fly around so quickly in the dark without hitting anything. Micro-batswhich include the smaller, familiar snub-nosed batsmainly hunt by echolocation. Between 1958 and 1961, Gathorne-Hardy, Fifth Earl of Cranbrook, a renowned conservationist and a founding member and former President of the Mammal Society, decided to put this old superstition to the test [16]. It is merely a passing reference, along with moles, to represent animals that live with things that have been discarded.
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