The Buryat people of Siberia say that the gods first brought the vulture to the world for a very specific purpose. After the deities had created the first people, they sent a vulture to protect them from any harm that might befall them at the hands of evil spirits. But the people didn’t know of […]
Category: Folklore
Bird stories, Himalayan Vulture (Gyps himalayensis)
An old and very odd legend of the Kirghiz tells of the treasures that awaited those who plundered a Himalayan Griffon nest. It was said that after an appropriate period of incubation, the Griffon’s egg hatches – and an axe emerges from the shell. Not just any axe; an axe that can cleave anything on […]
Bird stories, Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)
This bird is highly esteemed in Germany for its musical powers, and extravagant prices are given for first-class performers. As an instance may be cited the fact that a workman at Ruhla, in Thuringia, in the excess of his admiration for a good bird, gave a cow in exchange for it, hence the proverb current […]
Bird stories, Carrion Crow (Corvus corone)
In Norway crows are thought to go down to hell once every year, when they must appear before Satan and give him a tribute of feathers. The supreme war-goddess of the Gaels of Scotland, was Morrigu, the Red Woman or war goddess, who figures in the adventures of Cuchulain, and whose favorite disguise was to […]
Bird stories, Cape Vulture (Gyps coprotheres)
To African people the vulture was the symbol of fertility. It was the grandmother who laid many eggs according to one story. Eggs out of which emerge not little vultures, but any kind of animal that there is on earth. Some tribes believe that the vulture was the original great earth mother. And our people […]
Bird stories, Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)
Indians dwelling along the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay say that a small bird, one of the Fringillidae, performs its northward migration in spring on the back of the Canada goose. These geese reach Hudson Bay about the last of April, and the Indians state that when they are fired at little birds are seen […]
Bird stories, Californian Condor (Gymnogyps californianus)
Dances were performed by the Cumash tribe for both religious and secular purposes, and some of them were inspired by animals. The Condor dancer struck two sticks together, enabling him to fly long distances quickly. Wearing their feathered regalia, the dancers were transformed from their human state into spiritual beings. Connections between people and the […]
Bird stories, Cactus Parakeet and Campo Troupial
The Sertanejos think that keeping a Campo Troupial as a pet can attract disagreeable events. Consuming a brew made from the meat of the Cactus Parakeet is believed bythe Sertanejos to facilitate the eruption of new teeth in children. Bird nr 3 in the plate. Bezerra, D. Birds and people in semiarid northeastern Brazil: symbolic […]
Bird stories, Brown-chested Alethe (Alethe poliocephala)
There is a food taboo for this totemic animal of a particular clan of the Mbuti hunter-gatherers of the Congo. 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 […]
Bird stories, the Plain and Black Chachalaca
In Mopan Maya folklore the call of the Black Chachalaca (Penelopina nigra) is said to indicate it will rain soon. In the Mayan writings, there frequently occur representations of a bird that was evidently used for sacrificial purposes. It is shown with erectile head feathers and a ring of circular marks about the eye,it probably […]