He told her he would make some tasty soup like Emiong had taught him for when she returned. 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. For example, a bat entering a household was a forewarning of a death in the house. Aboriginal peoples, however, were describing them long before this. One reason not to kill bats is that female bats have breasts and are mothers like human females [25]. The felling of roosting trees was mentioned as bat death reason by 29% and hunting by 18%. UNITED KINGDOM. Just over one-third of the respondents (36%) did not see any benefits of bats to humans. Having multifaceted anatomy of a lion, hippopotamus, and crocodile, she waited for the opportunity to devour the hearts of 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.. However, in post-Christian Europe, the bats propensity of flying at night led to its association with the devil. Flying foxesalong with all other native batsare now protected in Australia. They were believed to destroy trees and damage fruits in gardens. Bats flying vertically upwards and then dropping back to earth means that the Witches Hour has come. Then he jumped into it and sat in it for a while and then climbed out. 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. BATS IN FOLKLOREpart six, the conclusion to a series on bats in North American and European folklore. From this duality and strangeness evolved a reputation of duplicity and threat, appearing as neither one thing nor the other. In the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, spirits, devils, and witches had their general name Bitaboh, wood-goblins being specially called Ronga. All the bats were comprehended under the same name, especially the Yellow-winged Bat Lavia frons, formerly Megaderma frons, which flutters about from tree to tree in broad daylight [18]. Sometimes bats are husbands as in a Mataco lore from Argentina. As you can see, bats have been both persecuted and protected through the ages. Some bats also pollinate flowers and help disperse seeds. No content from this site may be used elsewhere without the permission of either #FolkloreThursday or the article Bat Conservation International 500 N Capital of TXHwy. One of the most enduring old wives tales from Europe is that bats will get tangled in womens hair and would have to be removed with a pair of scissors. The experiment was repeated several times with the same results [16]. Much of the folklore about bats relates to their way of life. WebBat facts! The basic scenario is that, in a battle between the beasts and birds, the bat repeatedly changes allegiance so as to be on the side that appears to be winning. Most respondents were less likely to value the importance of bats in the ecosystem, so creating a conservation education to connect people with nature is not easy. People can further move the fungus on their clothing and caving gear and spread the disease into an area that does not currently. 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 Vietnam, many mounted bat species are sold in souvenir shops, and in Laos, bats are traded in several markets (Figure 3) [41, 42]. A modern variation of the myth that bats arose from rodents comes from an Ohio woman of Polish ancestry who attested that the bat was from a mouse that had eaten blessed Easter food. (In Polish tradition, a representative food from the Easter dinner is taken to church to be blessed.) The Symbolism of a Bat. 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. Bats are largely considered to be tricksters in African folklore and mythology. 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]. It is a canine creature supposedly living close to the Sahara Desert in North Africa. 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]. So, using positive symbolism alone to promote bat conservation might be insufficient without accounting for day-to-day relationships of local communities with bats. 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. Many spirits are associated with geographical features, such as mountains, rivers, wells, trees, and springs. 15 Interesting Myths And Legends In African Mythology 1. Sometimes a Mochica bat carries a warclub and a small human captive. 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. WebThen there was the Olitiau, a giant demon bat that had been seen in these parts, and lived for hundreds of years. In Pakistan, one belief is that if a bat enters ones ear, it can never be removed and contact with bat urine is thought to cause eczema. Working together, we have the power to end bat extinctions worldwide. This association between giant bats and vampires continues to the present day through popular fiction and cinema (Figure 1). Between 1981 and 1989, approximately 13,000 fruit bat bodies were imported into Guam for human consumption every year. Photo credit: Stan Delone creative commonWikimedia. 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. WebFar Eastern Bat Symbolic Meanings. 2022 The Author(s). Vampires. Since the fourteenth century, Chinese culture has associated bats with good luck and blessings [33]. ), the ambiguous nature of bats is transformed into duplicity in their character. 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. Other than the polar regions, extreme deserts, and a few isolated islands, bats live in every habitat on Earth. 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. 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. The bat said, Well look at me. 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. Megabatslarger bats that include fruit batssearch for food using sight and smell. 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. It is at this time when the veil between this world and the otherworld was believed to thin and a state of liminality existed. It is estimated that the current population of most Australian species of Pteropidae is less than 20% of what it was 100 years ago. Throughout Southeast Asia, bats are associated with luck and good fortune and used as spiritual totems [6, 27]. 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! 5 Princes Gate Court, In Isaiah 2:19-21, bats are connected with wilderness and heathenism: People will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. 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? Indigenous Ainu people in Japan worshipped the crafty and wise bat god Kappa kamui, who kept away demons and diseases [44]. The widespread sacrificial association derives largely from the habits of the Common Vampire Bat that feeds exclusively on the blood of vertebrates (Figure 5). The Pomo Indians of California had a superstition that bats could devour volcanic rock and then spew out ready-made arrowheads. 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. In Thailand, bat meat or blood is eaten for muscle pain, increasing virility and longevity [36]. They eat insects performing pest control while also pollinating species of plants and spreading seeds. Bats have been present in folklore and myth for quite some time. 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. Which is why bats have such short faces, apparently. Bldg. 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. Bats, being seen as liminal creatures, were believed to be able to cross this barrier. But where theyre used as an ingredient in a witchs brew, theyre no different to frogs or snails (also common ingredients). There are more than 1000 different species of bats in the world, making them the second-largest order of mammals. If a bat flies into a house and then escapes, there will be a death in the family. In Western Europe, there existed an unfounded superstition that if a bat fell on a woman (who mostly had long hair back then), the bat would become so entangled in her hair that the hair would have to be cut off just to pull it out. The bat serves as mentor of the night and is identified with Talking God, one of the foremost deities. In Cameroon, the superstition of the vampire is attached to bats. Here are just a few: If a bat flies into your house, look out for bedbugs. Stay up to date with the latest news and information about BCI and bats. The Navajo people thought that bats were able to fly between different worlds and act as a bridge between the supernatural and the natural. 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]. Men hunt and consume bats more often than women who have fears that consuming bat meat would give them strange or deformed children. In his book Bats (1939), G. M. Allen speculates that this association of bats with arrowheads refers to the California leaf-nosed bat (Macrotus californicus). 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]. He has studied bats for many years and is author of the entry on bats in The Encyclopedia of American Folklore and Superstition. Myth or Fact: Bats are Just Mice with Wings (slide to the left for answer) Text Description for Image Slider Also known as Hunbatz, One Monkey A Monkey, not a Bat One of the Monkey Twins, hes the son of Hun Hunahpu and Xbaquiyalo. We will be exploring how different cultures view these creatures and what stories have been told about them throughout the years. From Sierra Leone comes an account of the gruesome habits of the Hammer-headed Fruit Bat Hypsignathus monstrosus. In Africa, house bats occur in distinct colors and sizes, but they are usually hard to The native-American tribes, like the Thuni Indians, believed that a bat predicted rain. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/de/legalcode. Why is it then that while in some parts of the world this beneficial creature is seen as a symbol of good luck and good fortune, in many societies it is viewed with fear and loathing? Micro-batswhich include the smaller, familiar snub-nosed batsmainly hunt by echolocation. #FolkloreThursday 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, United Kingdom, WC1N 3AX. American Indian legends and the fables of Aesop were more than just stories recited around the campfire or bathhouse: they were teaching devices. 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. The third reference is in Isaiah 2:20. Finally, we discuss shortly the need of education to change attitudes toward bats. Adjule. Photo credit: Masteraah. A witch shape is believed to be capable to suck out the life of a sleeping man or woman [18]. *Address all correspondence to: heimomikkola@yahoo.co.uk. Now that we have looked at some of the most popular bat myths from around the globe, lets take a look at some of the superstitions that people have about these creatures. They are hugely beneficial to man and play a major role in the well-being of the worlds ecosystems. Between the years 1950 and 2007, only 56 cases of bat-borne rabies transmission to humans occurred in the United States and Canada, which translates to 3.9 cases per billion person-years [65]. This allowed the borders to be crossed and the dead and the spirits of the underworld return to visit earth. Christianity and the origin of bats are also intertwined in the Mohammedan legend that Christ created a bat while keeping the fast of Ramadan. Bats are also considered as wild exotic meat, which is widely consumed in urban areas. 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]. Liminality aside, many of these myths have obvious roots in the real features of bats. They live in unusual places. 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. These gods and goddesses are some of the more well-known in Africa yet some of the lesser known by people of the the rest of the world. In Malaysia, older generations prevented thievery by mixing flying fox blood with milky mangrove Excoecaria agallocha tree sap to cause violent intestinal inflammation [40]. Since the fourteenth century, Chinese culture has regarded bats as lucky animals, and these blessing bat symbols have been prevalent in Chinese arts over the centuries [33]. Especially Western cultural associations of bats with evil spirits, which have been recorded in Christian tradition as early as the fourteenth century [68] along with current media sensationalizing bats and the COVID-19 pandemic, are major hindrances toward bat conservation [69], although there is no reason why public health messages cannot be consistent with bat conservation. 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. Photo credit: Public domain creative commonsWikimedia. Bat Conservation International 2023. In India, a total of 3059 high school students from 36 schools were questioned on their bat perceptions. In shamanism, the bat as well as being a symbol of death and rebirth is able This Order name means hand-wing as the bats can hold food between their forearms. While some cultures see bats as a harbinger of death, others believe that the creature holds the key to eternal life. In China, the bat is a symbol of happiness and good luck and its image is found in art and crafts expressing this. Large, often man-eating, bats are found in Hawaiian traditions, and there is even a legend of an eight-eyed bat in Hawaii. The higher level of education was not always reflected in the positive attitudes toward environment and wildlife issues. 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]. All day people searched for him and he realised that sooner or later they would catch him unless he changed his ways. Many mythological stories from different cultures have been passed down throughout the years about bats. The complete extinction of Pteropus tokudae and the extinction of Pteropus mariannus on most inhabited islands is a direct result of hunting and habitat destruction. more information Accept. This pollination syndrome is called chiropterophily. 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. The study concluded that conservation-related education should be included in the school curriculum to ensure that students would appreciate not only the importance of bats but of all wildlife [26]. In Malawi, negative bat superstitions caused recently quite disproportionate behavior when rural people in southern parts of the country killed nine people accusing them to be vampire bats [23]. 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. We love to hear from our readers. 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]. Montfort bat cave entrance in the Philippines with the numerous Geoffroys Rousette fruit bats Rousettes amplexicaudatus. A world without bats would look very different than the one you know and not for the better. When his wife returned she saw the pot was still boiling and no sign of her husband. Today, we know that this is not the case, but the association of bats with longevity persists in some parts of the world. The Adze is a vampire in the legends of the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo. Bats are shot for sport or to eradicate them from fruit plantations. Bat Conservation International is a 501(c)(3) organization. Company registered in England & Wales, no. In many cultures, they are seen as symbols of good luck, while in others they are seen as omens of bad news. In Nagaland between 7000 and 25,000 cave-dwelling bats (Cave Nectar Bat Eonycteris spelaea, Great Roundleaf Bat Hipposideros armiger, and Leschenaults Rousette Rousettus leschenaultii) have been annually harvested until recently [73]. His name means literally One Monkey, which is more than fitting as he turned into one. Contact our London head office or media team here. Licensee IntechOpen. It is not just their physical form that makes bats a curiosity. The bat flew to a nearby cave, but each evening it emerged at sunset, telling Jesus that it was time to take food [see Bats and the Netherworld, BATS, Summer 1993; also, see this same article for the converse notion that the devil created bats.). 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]. A long time ago, on the opposite side of the earth, the Aztec term for a bat was apparently quimichpapalotl, which means butterfly mouse. New molecular biology findings indicate that there are two new Suborders, Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera, not coinciding with the earlier subordinate classification [5]. Although they live near humans and are common, it appears that some of the species have not been described and given scientific names [17]. These arrowheads were used to kill deer and were considered very powerful. Test your knowledge with the "Myth or Fact" image sliders below. People often perceive bats as anomalous or ambiguous creatures, different from more normal animals. 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. Orchard owners in Myanmar believe that allowing bats to roost and feed in the garden ensures prosperity and well-being. Bats in the house mean a death in the house or is a sign that the occupants will soon be leaving. 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]. 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. In South America, the vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) is persecuted because it transmits the rabies virus to the livestock it feeds off. The Adjule is also called a Bush Dog. Ammit (from Egyptian Mythology) Ominously translating to devourer or soul eater, the Ammit (also known as Ammut) was an underworld-dwelling ancient Egyptian goddess/demon who personified divine retribution. A little later the same bat was caught by another weasel and begged for mercy. Prior to 1985, flying foxes were not protected in New South Walesin fact, they were regarded as vermin. During the early days of the world, a bat and twelve insects revolved in the darkness. They belong to the Order Chiroptera. In shamanism, the bat as well as being a symbol of death and rebirth is able to guide people through the dark times of their lives. In Hunza, Pakistan, a witch appears in the shape of a bat, and it plays a role in magical practice in southwest Asia. However, the path to protection has been a rocky one for the Flying Foxes. Flying foxs emergence time is believed in Myanmar to indicate the weather: an early or no emergence foretells a coming storm. - In Malaysia, a face-to-face survey was conducted in Penang Island to assess knowledge and awareness level toward bat conservation efforts. Theyre passive components, not active agents of change. The tour includes a brief 20-minute conservation education lecture about bats, caves, and the history of the Montford Bat Cave Sanctuary. In many places, blood sacrifice was believed to benefit agriculture, and therefore, bats had agricultural, as well as death, connections for Pre-Columbian peoples and in Oaxaca, Mexico, a bat deity was associated with maize [51]. Archaeological evidence suggests that before the coming of Europeans, flying foxes were not often used as food by the Australian Aborigines.
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