A funny story about the hoopoe and the cuckoo is told by the Rumanians at the expense of the Armenians. It is said that in olden times the forefather of the Armenians had to flee for his life. So, taking all his belongings with him, and mounting on a horse, he rode away as fast […]
Category: Cuculiformes
The Story of the two Brothers and King Alexander.
In the time of Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, there lived a very wealthy man who had two sons, each one more beautiful than the other, and both more beautiful than any other living being. When they grew up to be twelve years old, the fame of their beauty had reached the Court of […]
The Story of the Hoopoe and the Cuckoo
The tuft of the hoopoe’s head has given rise to a tale, similar to some extent to the story of the tail of the wagtail, and yet not quite identical. Like the wagtail, which originally had no tail, the hoopoe had originally no tuft on its head. But when the lark had her wedding, she […]
The Story of the Little Boy and the Wicked Step-mother
Once upon a time there was a poor man, who had a wife and two children, a boy and a girl. He was so poor that he possessed nothing in the world but the ashes on his hearth. His wife died, and after a time he married another woman, who was cantankerous and bad-natured, and […]
the story of the crow and the hawk
The crow was in very great distress, for however she tried and whatever she did, she could not rear a family. No sooner were the young hatched, than the hawk would come and pick them up. In vain did she try to hide her nest in the hollows of a tree or in the thickets […]
The Story of the Cuckoo and the Palace of the Goldfinch
After the creation of all the birds, God called them together and told them they should elect a king to rule over them. The birds, like human beings, would chatter and chirrup, and talk and fight, and never come to any decision. When God saw that it was going on without an end, and that […]
Bird stories, the Greater Roadrunner
The excrement of the roadrunner (correcaminos) is used against bad witchery. It should be bolied and drank. The excrement is also used among the Otomies to straighten the legs of children who cannot walk. If someone on his way to hunt runs into a roadrunner (correcaminos), the hunter will not find animals to hunt. To […]
Bird stories, Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus)
Not more than a century ago English farmers thought it necessary to sow barley when the earliest note of the cuckoo was heard in order to insure a full crop. In Russian folklore the Erzians from Mordovia the story is that the cuckoo was destined to become a domestic bird, however, at first it promised […]
Bird stories, Blue-headed Coucal (Centropus monachus)
The Tembo tribe of the Congo use parts of the Blue-headed Coucal as medicine. Its well-dried head serves as medicine for a women who has just given birth so that she can give much milk. For this, its head is suspended over the woman’s chest with a rope called Lubiku. Also, when it sings, people […]
Bird stories, the Great Blue Turaco
There is a food taboo for this totemic animal of a particular clan. The clan members cannot eat this animal called ngini-so (things prohibited), or ngini-so-su (things prohibited to us), which symbolize their membership of a particular clan. Should one eat such a prohibited animal, his teeth would fall out. There are other birds avoided […]