Bird Myths, Pt. 5: Sinbad and the Rukh

       In The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars (see the Prologue and first ten chapters here), I made Capt. Robbin Nikalishin a birder. What better qualification for the man who will head up the mission that encountered the first intelligent lifeform known to humanity -- and who happened to be big birds? During the mission out, there was a lot of boring downtime and one way the crew entertained itself was by telling bird myths, each crewmember telling tales from his or her own culture. Now, this section will be cut or drastically emended if I ever get that monster ready for publication, but I did too much research and had too much fun writing it to let it all disappear, so what better place to display it than on a blog devoted to myth in literature?

 

       The following passage continued Prf. Linna Katsopolos's narration.  She had just asked the crew, "Have any of you people ever heard of Sinbad?"  Some knew the tales, but many had not.  (Parenthetically, I saw a trailer last evening on the SyFy channel advertising an upcoming series called "Sinbad," so this post turns out to be quite pertinent!)

 



The Rukh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Roc8954.jpg
(Public domain in the USA)



 

None of those who knew the tales objected to hearing them again and so Linna launched into her narrative.  “Back in the days of ancient Arbia, there was a young man named Sinbad, who was a merchant by trade and lived in the fabulous city of Bagda.  Bagda was actually a real city that existed for millennia, until it was wiped off the map during the 24th century depredations.  Sinbad is one of those resourceful trickster characters who are so common in folktales; he was always going on trade voyages to distant lands and getting into trouble.  So, during his second voyage it happened the ship put in at a deserted island for a while and Sinbad fell asleep under a palm tree.  When he woke up, there he was, alone!  The ship had sailed off without him!  He fell into despair, for he had no food or other provisions and he felt he would surely die there.

“Presently, however, he began to explore his surroundings and he climbed a tree to get a better look.  And off in the distance he saw a great white dome.  Heartened by what he thought was a human habitation, he made his way toward it, only to be disappointed and perplexed.  It turned out to be a full fifty paces in diameter but completely smooth and lacking any evidence of windows or doors.

“At that moment the sky went dark, even though it was a cloudless day.  Looking up, Sinbad was horrified to see an enormous bird flying down toward him, big enough to block the sun with its wings … yes, sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  Suddenly Sinbad remembered tales he had heard of the rukh and how it kills elephants to feed its young, and it dawned on him that this white dome was actually a rukh’s egg!  And indeed the giant bird settled down upon the dome-egg and began to brood it.  It had not even noticed Sinbad, who must have appeared to it as insignificant as an ant to an eagle.

“Presently night came on and the rukh went to sleep.  Sinbad got an idea, so he took off his turban – that long piece of cloth that people from that part of the world sometimes wind around their heads – and used it to tie himself to the leg of the rukh … right, Avi, just like the hero did in your tale!  In the morning the bird rose up and flew away.  It carried Sinbad to the top of a pinnacle, where he untied himself and dropped off.  The bird then seized a giant snake as prey and flew away.  Shades of Garuda!

“Sinbad immediately began to look around and he discovered that he was boxed in by impassable mountains.  He began to wish he had stayed on the island, where at least a ship might have come by.  A deep valley spread out below him and, when he descended to it, he found the ground paved with diamonds!  And then all of a sudden the skinned carcass of a sheep fell to the ground near him from the heights above, and he recollected a story he had heard – how in the Mountains of the Diamonds, the jewels are inaccessible, and so the people throw down the flesh of slaughtered animals, to which some of the diamonds adhere.  Then they wait for vultures to come and seize the carrion in their talons and carry it back to the heights above, where the people drive off the birds and collect the gems.”

Robbie interrupted.  “Now, no good natural historian came up with this tale, because unlike eagles vultures have very weak feet and couldn’t possibly pick up something as large as a sheep carcass.  They would simply have eaten it on the spot.”

“Now, Robbie,” scolded Linna, “don’t lose the spirit and go all scientific on us!”

“Sorry,” said Robbie cheerfully.  “I’ll just regard the bird as some imaginary raptor!  Please do go on, Professor.”

Linna cleared her throat.  “So Sinbad filled his pockets with diamonds and then bound himself beneath one of the carcasses, and sure enough a … yes, I’m going to say ‘vulture’! … came along and carried the meat and the man up to the top of the cliff!  There, people were waiting to harvest the gems and you can imagine how astonished they were to see a man crawl out from under the carrion!  Of course, Sinbad went on to sell the diamonds and become rich, whereupon he returned to Bagda and lived a comfortable life.

“That wasn’t the last of his voyages, however, or of his encounters with the rukh.  During his fifth voyage, his ship stopped at a different island.  While the crew disembarked to draw water and explore, Sinbad remained on board.  Presently, someone ran to him in great excitement, calling him to come and see what they had found.  ‘We thought it was a dome, but it seems to be an egg!  The men are breaking it even now!  We can have a feast!’ 

The merchants break the egg.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sinbad_the_Sailor_(5th_Voyage).jpg
(Public domain)



“Well, Sinbad knew exactly what they had found and he knew they were making a disastrous mistake.  He rushed out, but he was too late.  The fluid had already poured out, revealing a immature rukh, which the men were about to butcher.  And at that moment the sun was once again darkened as the parent circled above them.  Naturally, it was highly incensed at the destruction of its egg.  It shrieked to call its mate, and soon there were two giant birds bearing down upon the hapless sailors.

“The men rushed madly for the ship and put off from the island while the infuriated birds pursued them.  But then the rukhs disappeared and the ship, beating rapidly out into the open ocean, appeared to be safe.  But not so – the birds had only gone away to pick up big boulders in their claws.  The male rukh’s stone missed the dodging ship, but the female’s stone landed on the stern and broke the rudder, and the ship sank to the depths of the sea.

“However, like all the Sinbad tales, this one has a happy ending – our hero was able to swim to land, and ultimately he garnered even more riches for himself and returned home to live contentedly until his next adventure.  And so comes the end of my narration …   Don’t you all make those disappointed noises – our purpose is to tell bird tales, and there are no more birds in Sinbad’s story.  If we complete every tale no matter what, we’ll be here for the whole thousand and one nights!”

“All right, Professor, I’ll concede that!” said Robbie.  “So – now we know all about the rukh, and it seems to be a lot like Lt. Oman’s Ziz bird.  That just leaves us with Lt. Brokenbow’s story.  Have you got anything that can match all these others, Howie?”

 

Coming next:

Native American Bird Myths 

 

But first we'll learn something about the

Aboriginal Ammeriken Enclave

Bird Myths, Pt. 4: Greece and the Middle East

Added on 5/6/13: I discovered a Young Adult book called Faizah's Destiny by Marva Dasef in which you can read about the Simurgh, which is one of the mythical birds mentioned below.  See it at Amazon.

*     *     *      

       The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars, (see the Prologue and first eight chapters here), I made Capt. Robbin Nikalishin a birder. What better qualification for the man who will head up the mission that encountered the first intelligent lifeform known to humanity -- and who happened to be big birds? During the mission out, there was a lot of boring downtime and one way the crew entertained itself was by telling bird myths, each crewmember telling tales from his or her own culture. Now, this section will be cut or drastically emended if I ever get that monster ready for publication, but I did too much research and had too much fun writing it to let it all disappear, so what better place to display it than on a blog devoted partially to myth in literature?

 

       The following passage is narrated by the very attractive Griek Prf. Linna Katsopolos, a veteran of the original interstellar program who later became a temporal quantum physicist and helped to build the Ariana's engine.  She is taking part in the voyage as a Mission Specialist to run an assessment of the engine's functioning.  She also happens to be the Captain's current love interest.

  



The Bennu Bird
From http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/benu.htm
(source of image not given)

“Robbie, I wish you could have warned us before the voyage that you were planning something like this.  It seems like you take birding stuff with you even when there’s no chance of seeing a bird, but unfortunately I didn’t bring any of my own resources.  I took some classes in myth and ancient culture at university because I’d always been interested in the subject and it was a nice change of pace from physics, but I haven’t thought about it for a while and I had to dredge down pretty deep to come up with something to say.

“I can’t think of any big Garuda-like bird who ranks high among the Griek gods.  There is the tale of Ikarus, but it’s not about a real bird or even gods – it’s about a man who builds wings for himself out of wax and feathers.  He then proceeds to fly too close to the sun so that his wings melt and he falls into the sea and is drowned.  It’s viewed more as a parable of humanity overreaching itself.  It seems that the ancients’ imaginations were better than their technology!

“Griek bird-figures are mostly hybrid monsters.  The harpies, who chase and harass people, have the faces of hideous women and the bodies of birds.  Then the Sirens … they were supposed to live on some of the Griek islands and lure sailors to their deaths with their beautiful songs.  They are often depicted as birds but sometimes as beautiful women in their upper halves with bird bodies below. 

“But there are also the Stimfalian birds, which were probably modeled on real marsh birds.  The Sixth Labor of Herakles… oh, dear, probably some of you don’t know who Herakles was – let’s just say he was the consummate Griek mythical hero.  One of his twelve great feats consisted of confronting these enormous, man-eating birds who lived in the Stimfalian Marshes.  They were pets of the God of War, and they had brass claws and metallic feathers that they would pluck out and hurl like darts, and they would also squirt toxic excrement at their victims.  Obviously, they made pretty formidable adversaries.  Herakles could get no foothold in the marshy ground, so he defeated them by making a racket with bronze clappers and scaring them into flight.  Once they were in the air, he was able to shoot them down with his arrows.

“Then there are other birdlike hybrids that didn’t originate in Griece but came mostly from the Middle East, the area where Avi’s people used to live.  There’s the griffon, which was four-legged, with the body of a lion and head of an eagle; it could kill a cow and carry it away, just like Avi’s Ziz.  They were supposed to have claws the size of an ox’s horns and feathers strong enough to use for lances, like our Stimfalian friends.  You can see how these myths often merge.  There was also the hippogriff, which had the head, wings, and front legs of a griffon and the back parts of a horse.  And then Pegassus, which was a winged horse – more horse than bird – a really beautiful flying horse.

“And all these creatures get called by different names in different places.  In Parsia, the Ziz-like or griffon-like creature was called the Simurg or the Chamrosh; it was as big as thirty normal birds and usually considered benevolent.  It was said to be able to speak; in fact I remember something about how some of holy literature of that region is supposed to be uttered in the language of birds.  Isn’t that a lovely notion?  Really flash!”

“I know about something like that!” piped up Moosie Jaballa.  “There’s a story about God teaching King Solomon the language of birds!  And I remember reading somewhere that ancient Ejipt had a bird-god whose cry created the world.”

“We Jues believe that God created the world out of words – out of Hebru letters, that is,” said Avi, keeping his tone whimsical, “but I’ve never heard a bird speaking Hebru.”

Linna grinned and said, “Maybe they think in Hebru.  The verbs are strange enough to have come from another species.”

Avi made a wry face at her and said, “The Kristen scriptures have a saying, ‘In the beginning was the Word.’  Maybe it should have been ‘In the beginning was the Bird.’”

Amid titters, Linna said, “Anyway, Moosie, now I remember that Ejiptian myth you were talking about.  The bird was called the Bennu.  It’s the Ejiptian version of the Phenix.  As for the Phenix itself, some of you may have already researched it, but I’ll give you a capsule version of its story.  The Phenix was gorgeous, with gold and crimson plumage, and even though it resembled an eagle, it had a beautiful song.  It didn’t eat normal bird food but only aromatic gums like frankincense … ”

“Oh!” exclaimed Robbie.  The word rang a bell, but he couldn’t place it.

Linna cocked a questioning eyebrow at the Captain and he said again, “Oh!”  He had just remembered; frankincense was one of the gifts that the Wise Men of the kraytch brought to the newborn Haysus in Romisher beliefs.  He beamed on an uncomprehending Linna, pleased with himself for making the connection, and added, “Never mind me.  Go on.”

She blinked and continued.  “The Phenix was identified with the sun and with a sun-temple in ancient Egypt – there’s your Bennu-bird connection.  ”Only one of them could be alive at a time and it was extremely long-lived, with various stories giving it a lifespan of 500 all the way up to 13,000 years.  But inevitably the time would come for it to die, and then it would build itself a nest of spices and aromatic gums and set itself ablaze.  In three days a new bird would begin to regenerate from the ashes, destined to begin the cycle all over again.  So you can see that the Phenix is quite an apt metaphor for our interstellar program.” 

Lt.  Du spoke up.  “In Chiness culture we have a big bird called the Fung-Huang.  It’s said to have three legs and live in the sun, and sometimes it’s depicted as beautiful, but at other times it becomes one of those hybrid monsters, with a rooster’s beak, a snake’s neck, the  back end of a stag, and a fishtail.”

“Holy cry!” said Robbie.  “Astonishing what the human imagination can cook up!”

“And then finally there is the Rook, or Rukh, if you prefer,” said Linna, “which is closer to Avi’s Ziz than to the Phenix.  It was supposed to be big enough to carry away and eat elephants.  Some think it was inspired by the three-meter tall elephant bird that was native to the island of Magascar.  It went extinct about the middle of the 2nd millennium.”

“Yeah, Aepyornis,” said Robbie.  “But it was a ratite, like an ostrich.  It didn’t fly.” 

“Well, folk memories don’t exactly reflect scientific facts, you know,” said Linna.  And then she said, “Have any of you people ever heard of Sinbad?”

 

Coming next ...

Sinbad and the Rukh

 

Bird Myths, Pt.3: The Jewish Ziz (continued)

The Ziz
Illustration from "The Princess of the Tower,"
Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends, by Aunt Naomi (Gertrude Landa)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/jftl/index.htm (Public domain )

        When I was writing The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars, (see the Prologue and first six chapters here), I made Capt. Robbin Nikalishin a birder. What better qualification for the man who will head up the mission that encountered the first intelligent lifeform known to humanity -- and who happened to be big birds? During the mission out, there was a lot of boring downtime and one way the crew entertained itself was by telling bird myths, each crewmember telling tales from his or her own culture. Now, this section will be cut or drastically emended if I ever get that monster ready for publication, but I did too much research and had too much fun writing it to let it all disappear, so what better place to display it than on a blog devoted partially to myth in literature?

       This passage is a continuance of the previous post in this series, so to get an explanation of the characters and circumstances, go to that post.  The following is adapted from Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends, by Aunt Naomi (pseud. of Gertrude Landa), New York, Bloch Pub. Co., 1919.  The footnote to this effect is meant to have been supplied in the 28th century by the person who is writing Capt. Nikalishin's fictionalized biography.

THE PRINCESS OF THE TOWER



Avi continued, "But that’s not the whole story of the Ziz.  He appears in several later tales meant especially for children.  I’ll tell just one of them.  And I’ll abbreviate it, because when Uncle Ely would tell tales to Ziv and Daniel and me after school, he would stretch them out so they usually went two or three sessions.  He’d turn them into cliffhangers and use the installments as a reward for buckling down to our lessons.”[1]

 “Once there was a princess who was very beautiful and accomplished and smart and well-educated, but suddenly she got very depressed.  Her father the King sent for all kinds of experts to try to figure out what was wrong with her, and finally one who was a bit more savvy than the others decided that the only thing wrong with her was that she was pining for someone to fall in love with.

“So the King brought all the princes and nobles of his realm to court her, but she rejected every one of them, saying they were all self-centered botbrains … well, I doubt she used that word, but you know what I mean … and she would never marry any prince who thought himself to be the only person in the world who mattered, or who loved himself more than the people that he ruled.  The King could grasp the wisdom of that, but when the wise men told him that it was obvious the princess would never fall in love with anybody but a commoner, he lost patience and imprisoned his daughter in a fortress tower by the sea. 

“The people missed their kind princess, although the King took a funny turn.  It seems that, annoyed as he was with his obstinate daughter, he took what she had said to heart and began to take more of an interest in the welfare of his people.  So it happened that they began to hope for better things and that included a certain young cowherd. 

“One day he was out in the field watching his cattle.  As he was pondering the state of the world, he fell asleep and was awakened by the piteous bellowing of an ox in pain.  He jumped up to see that an enormous bird had seized the ox in its talons and was trying to lift it from the ground!  He realized that it could only be the Ziz, and yet, with no thought for his own safety, the cowherd rushed to seize the ox by the forelegs at it was rising into the air.  He wound his own legs around a tree to try to hold the bird back, but to no avail.  The Ziz, its huge eyes glowing with rage, struck at the cowherd, but fortunately its wicked beak sliced the tree in two instead.  Then, freed from any restraint, it rose up from with ground with the ox dangling beneath him and the young man dangling from the ox!

“He clung on for dear life as the bird rose higher and higher above the trees and then soared away over the ocean.  It soon became night, with a great moon glimmering on the water below, and the cowherd was about to give up in despair and let go and accept his death, when the bird reached a tower on the seacoast and swooped down to drop both the dead ox and the cowherd in a nest at the top.  Above them towered the Ziz, glaring ferociously as it prepared to strike the young man with a death blow.”  Again Avi grinned broadly, surely remembering the antics with which his beloved mentor must have illustrated this tale.

“But the resourceful cowherd pulled out his field knife and struck at the tongue in the gaping beak just as it was darting down.  A pierced tongue can’t feel so good even if you are as big as an elephant, and the Ziz gave a shriek, leaped out of the nest, and flew off.  The exhausted young man soon fell asleep, and when he awakened it was morning and a beautiful young woman was standing before him.  Naturally, she asked him how he had gotten there and he related his astonishing tale.  So the princess – for that was who it was, of course – took him down into her tower and gave him food and clothing and a place to rest and bathe, all the while not telling him her identity.  She found him very attractive and he was likewise smitten, but he felt that only members of royalty could be so beautiful, and here he was nothing but a common peasant.

“The princess told him that every morning she went to the top of the tower and looked forth to see if her future husband might to coming to rescue her, and the cowherd in his naïveté asked her who that might be.  And she said that she didn’t know – in fact, she had often felt moved to make a vow to marry the first man who came to her.

“Emboldened, the cowherd said, ‘I believe I am that man, then, and certainly in my heart I knew it was love at first sight.  I would be honored if you would allow me to marry you.'  And she agreed without the slightest hesitation.

“But she said, ‘I will happily marry you, but first you must think of a way for us to escape from this place.’  And so he devised an ingenious plan.

“In the evening the Ziz returned to feast on the remains of the ox, and while it was thus occupied, the cowherd and his princess attached to its legs ropes and a large basket.  They provisioned the basket with a supply of food and water and then climbed in.  They had no idea where the bird would carry them, but their hope was that it would come to ground in occupied lands and they would be able to escape.

“But what happened was better than that – it flew across the sea to the capital city of the realm!  Then, seeming to notice for the first time the extra weight on its legs, it dashed the basket against a tower of the King’s very palace, and the princess and her lover tumbled out.  Only when guards appeared and recognized the princess did the cowherd discover the true identity of his intended bride.  The King was overjoyed – it was surely fate that this handsome prince among commoners had found his daughter.  He gave his consent to their marriage, and … Captain, you knew how this kind of old tale is supposed to end!  So I’ll say, they all lived happily ever after – even the Ziz, I presume!”  And Avi bobbed a comically childish bow and sat down, suddenly going red in the face.  Vigorous clapping and a spurt of animated conversation followed.

 Robbie stood up, still applauding.  “That was a highly entertaining tale, Lieutenant!  And I would love to hear Rabbi Kohn tell it!  Now, who wants to go next?”

---

[1] Rabbi Kohn appears to have drawn this tale from a 20th-century children’s narrative (Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends, by Aunt Naomi [pseud. of one Gertrude Landa]) that is known to exist in only two copies, one in the Bodley Library in the Historical Preserve of Oxferd and one in the Ostrailien Archives.  One suspects that a third copy might be held somewhere in the IJE.

 

Coming Next ...

Mythical Birds from Greece and the Middle East

 

Bird Myths, Pt.3: The Jewish Ziz

http://www.jacquelinejules.com/noahpressrelease.htm
In searching Google Images for the Ziz I found this modern
children's book making use of this rather minimal myth.
I can't believe the author would mind a little free publicity!
 

       When I was writing The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars, (see the Prologue and first six chapters here), I made Capt. Robbin Nikalishin a birder. What better qualification for the man who will head up the mission that encountered the first intelligent lifeform known to humanity -- and who happened to be big birds? During the mission out, there was a lot of boring downtime and one way the crew entertained itself was by telling bird myths, each crewmember telling tales from his or her own culture.  Now, this section will be cut or drastically emended if I ever get that monster ready for publication, but I did too much research and had too much fun writing it to let it all disappear, so what better place to display it than on a blog devoted partially to myth in literature?

       I did no editing or abridging to the following passage, so some explanation may help.  Lt. Avi Oman is the ship's Communications Officer.  He's Jewish and at one point earlier in The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars, I decided I wanted him to get married.  (You see how far off topic I got in this saga?)  I used that as an excuse to depict one of the self-governing Enclaves for particular ethnic or religious groups that have been set aside in my secular 28th century.  And since I didn't know much about Jewish weddings, I had to research them.  That was the start of my fascination with all things Jewish, which went on for some three months, far beyond the wedding idea, even prompting me to study a little Hebrew.  Rabbi Eliyahu Kohn, who is mentioned in the selection, was a character in that section of the book.  Avi's father is the Minister of Trade for the Enclave and he and Rabbi Kohn and Rabbi Natan Ben-Ari are very close friends.  Similarly, Avi and the sons of the two Rabbis were also close friends.  Daniel was the son of Rabbi Ben-Ari, but Daniel is dead.  So that's a bit of the background. (Parenthetically, I might say that someday I may extract the part with the wedding and the Rabbis and publish it as a novella.  The story of Rabbi Ben-Ari is very moving, while the depiction of the Istrian Judish Enclave and the story of what became of the Jewish people in future times is absorbing in itself.)



       WHAT IS THE ZIZ?

 

       Avi began.  “All of you should know by now that I was brought up in the Istrian Judish Enclave.  My ancestral people had legends about a bird called the Ziz.  Now, the term appears only once in our sacred writings, in a verse in the book called Tehillim, and even there the meaning isn’t very clear.  It just says, ‘I know all the birds of the mountains, and the ziz of the field is mine.’  It’s sometimes just translated as ‘wild beast’ because nobody knows exactly what animal God was referring to there.  Oh, yeah, I forgot to say, the speaker in that passage is God.”  Avi snickered, and Robbie found himself thinking how ill at ease it made people to openly discuss private cultural heritages.       “Later on,” Avi continued, “it was interpreted to be a big bird equivalent to some of the other fabulous giant birds of the Near East, like the Phenix or the rook.”       “Hold on,” said Robbie.  “Last time I looked, the rook was a real bird, and it’s not all that giant."
       “Well, that’s the modern spelling of ‘roc’ or ‘rukh,’” said Linna.  “I’m going to hit a little bit on those stories later, if there’s time.  Go on, Avi.”
       “The ancient Rabbis who wrote the interpretations of Judish scripture called the Talmud named the Judish version of the rook the ‘Bar Yokneh.’  But they also equated it with the Ziz, for no particular reason that I can see, but then I’m no scholar on such matters.  In our times it became a subject for nursery tales.  My father’s old friend, Rabbi Eliyahu Kohn – some of you met him at my wedding … ”  And Avi beamed, but whether at the thought of his wedding or at the recollection of the Rabbi’s funny, wrinkly grin it was hard to say.
       Then Avi cleared his throat.  “It was from Rabbi Kohn, the man I call Uncle Ely, that I first heard about the Ziz.  You see, there are three great Judish beasts.  One of them is the lord of the ocean, the livyatan, or king of the fishes … ”       “In Inge it’s ‘leviathan,’” said Linna.  “It just means a big sea monster.”
       “Oh, it is?” said Avi, looking foolish.  “I’ve never heard the Inge word for it – thanks for enlightening me, Linna!  Anyway, besides this big sea creature, there was a monstrous ox – and I know the Inge for that – it’s ‘behemoth,’ which just means ‘cattle’ or ‘livestock’ in Hebru.  And so I suppose the Talmudists just decided to make this mysterious creature called a ziz into a giant bird to round out a trio of fish, beast, and bird. 
       “On the Fifth Day of Creation God made the fishes out of water, and then he made the birds out of marshy ground, a mixture of water and earth.  On the Sixth Day of Creation, he made the land animals out of dry earth, and then that same day he went on to make human beings, but that gets us into a whole different story.  So while the … lev-AI-a-than? … was made to rule the fishes and the behemoth the beasts, so the Ziz was made to rule the birds – King of the Birds, like Garuda.  And he is every bit as fabulous as Garuda – he’s so big that his head touches the sky."
       And Avi chuckled richly, pinching his whiskered chin.  “I’ll never forget the first time I heard Uncle Ely talk about the Ziz.  I was only five years old, and he and his wife had taken his three children and me down to swim at the beach.  His son Ziv is one of my best friends – some of you may remember he was one of my witnesses at the wedding.  Uncle Ely went in the water, too … ”  He broke off.  “Now, don’t look so skeptical, Captain!  Remember this was almost 25 years ago and Rabbi Kohn was only in his early thirties.  Anyway, he told the tale while he was standing in water up to his calves, and this is it.
       “One time some people were sailing in a boat and they came upon this huge bird standing in the water, so tall that its crest brushed the sky.  And here Uncle Ely sort of pranced around and kicked up spray, and then settled down standing on one leg like a stork.  And he ruffled up his hair with one hand like a bird’s crest – he had more hair then, too.  Ziv and I and Ziv’s two sisters giggled our heads off."
       “What?  The Rabbi wasn’t wearing his kippah?” queried Robbie, who was enjoying himself tremendously.
       Avi regarded his Captain with mock exasperation.  “Well, it’s kind of hard to keep a hat on your head when you’re swimming, so he made an exception.  Uncle Ely went on to say that since most of the bird’s legs were above the water line, the people on the boat thought the sea was shallow at that spot, and they decided to jump in and take a bath.  But then a voice came out of the heavens – and here Uncle Ely made his voice really deep and ominous … “Do not jump in!  Once a carpenter dropped his axe overboard at this spot and it did not reach the bottom for seven years!  This bird is the Ziz, and you will never see its like elsewhere!’”  Avi, too, made his voice unnaturally deep, wagging his head pompously.
       “And then Uncle Ely stretched out his arms and announced that the Ziz had wings so broad that they darken the sun and hold back the winds from the south, which otherwise would have blown the Judish people away long ago.  And Uncle Ely flapped furiously … you remember how scrawny he is – his arms could hardly have darkened or held back anything!  Then he came back onto the beach and hunched down over a large stone as if he was incubating it and said that the Ziz had eggs so big that one time when one fell out of its nest and broke, 300 trees were crushed and the fluid flooded 60 cities.  Humanity is fortunate that normally the Ziz is very careful with its eggs!”
       Avi paused to let everybody laugh and then he said, “I’ll always remember with pleasure what a cutup Uncle Ely could be when we were children.  He was so much fun.”
       “Where was Daniel?” asked Robbie softly.
       Avi glanced at him.  Not many people in the room knew about Daniel.  "Oh ... he was only three at the time, you know -- not old enough for that kind of excursion.  but that's not the whole story of the Ziz.  He appears in several later tales meant especially for children.  I'll tell just one of them ... "

TO BE CONTINUED

Bird Myths, Pt. 2: African Bird Myths

       When I was writing "The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars," (see the Prologue and first four chapters here), I made Capt. Robbin Nikalishin a birder. What better qualification for the man who will head up the mission that encountered the first intelligent lifeform known to humanity -- and who happened to be big birds? During the mission out, there was a lot of boring downtime and one way the crew entertained itself was by telling bird myths, each crewmember telling tales from his or her own culture. Now, this section will be cut or drastically emended if I ever get that monster ready for publication, but I did too much research and had too much fun writing it to let it all disappear, so what better place to display it than on a blog devoted partially to myth in literature?

       I'm sure there are a lot more African bird myths than these that I discovered in the course of my rather hastily done research, but these are a starter.  I'm keeping all the byplay among the crew in this section.  I think it's rather amusing and instructive about what the crew is like and what people understand about their world in the 28th century.  I think you can see, however, why I'm going to have to cut all this part out of the finished novel (supposing I ever finish it).  It simply does nothing to advance the plot.

       Note: Capt. Asante Kibwana (aka Kibby) is Capt. Nikalishin's Second in Command for the mission; he hails from Niroba in East Afrik.

 

Hammerhead Stork, in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamerkop

BIRD MYTHS FROM AFRICA

 

Emmie Bonnet corralled Jon and Mosey and they headed off to the Galley to fetch hot gumby and muffins for the new arrivals, who were soon gorging themselves.  Then Kibby said, “I really should take the Bridge so Wally and Lea can come down.

       “Not until you give us your tales, Captain,” said Robbie.  “You said they were short.”

“They are; in fact, after this fine tale we’ve just heard, they may seem a bit anticlimactical.  The first isn’t really a story – it’s just a bit of Afriken folklore about a creature called the Lightning Bird.  It’s sometimes equated with the hammerhead stork … ”

“Oh, yeah!” exclaimed Robbie.  “There are all kinds of superstitions about that bird – harming one of them is supposed to bring bad luck and it’s considered an ill omen for it to fly over your house.  It builds these gigantic nests, and sometimes people will see a hammerhead fly in and then another animal, often a snake, comes out, so it’s gotten the reputation of being a shape-shifter, like our friend Garuda.  But in this case it’s only because other creatures often share a hammerhead’s nest.”

“Aw, Captain, you’re stealing my thunder!” said Kibby with a grin.

“Well, if it’s real birds we’re going to talk about, I’m likely to know something!  But I don’t know anything about this Lightning Bird business.”

“A folktale says that lightning is a magical bird that strikes down from the sky.  You can see where that comes from, considering how herons and storks strike down lightning-fast into the water with their beaks.  It’s said the bird only manifests its physical form to women; men see nothing but the lightning flash.  It’s been said to run up a woman’s hoe and scratch her body; certainly lightning might produce a phenomenon resembling that.  The bird is said either to enter the ground at the point of its strike or to leave its egg in the ground.  Its fat is the fuel of a lightning strike and was valued in folk medicine if you can dig it up.  Sometimes a shaman might very well have faked what he or she found at the site of the strike.”  Kibby looked apologetic.  “You understand, nobody in Afrik believes this stuff anymore, or at least nobody but the least educated and most superstitious remnant of the population.”

“Well, nobody in Ind really believes Garuda is out there flying around either,” said Nani, “but the tales are a rich part of our culture.”

“And the Mythmakers said, The closest humans can attain to deity is the symbolism of myth and art,” said Robbie.

Avi Oman added rather gravely, “And they also said, To achieve understanding of the unlike is a divine goal.  Isn’t that what we’re doing today?”

A voice came over the intercom.  Lt. Running had arranged things so the Bridge crew could observe the proceedings.  “Cmdr. Smallguard here,” said Wally.  “Captain, what’s this hammerheaded stork look like that would make people think it was the Lightning Bird?”

Robbie explained that the bird’s crest made its head appear in profile to extend on both sides of its neck, like a hammer.  “If I’d known Capt. Kibwana was going to talk about it, I’d have brought a picture.  I have a bunch of birding vids with me on this mission – you see how my tastes in entertainment run!  I’m daresay there’s a hammerhead in there somewhere.”

Ina Malope spoke up suddenly.  “In my part of Afrik we call them ‘hammerchops.’  It’s not because they chop down – it’s from the language that used to be spoken PDA by the Uropian settlers of Southern Afrik.  ‘Chop’ meant ‘head’ or something.  Isn’t that funny?”

“Um,” said Robbie, thinking that what he had read was ‘hammerkop,’ but he wasn’t certain enough of that to correct the Ensign.  “I tell you what – if I find something in my vids, I’ll display it in here for everybody to see.  Maybe I’ll put up the shoebill stork, too.  That one has a real primitive look.  What’s your second tale, Kibby?” 

 “It’s from a Shona myth … ”  Kibby glanced at Ina, who was looking suddenly distracted; Mark’s hand was slyly groping about beneath the table.  “ … about the Sunbirds, which are probably swallows.  Swallows migrate down to that part of Afrik in the spring, so they are linked with the strengthening of the sun.  The tale goes that the Mother-goddess Dzivaguru was challenged by Nosenga, the son of the sky-god, who was jealous of her wealth and wanted it for himself.  To combat him, she darkened her valley with fog and took the light away with her, so that when Nosenga arrived, he found only gloomy darkness.  He knew that she brought the sun out by luring in her pair of Sunbirds, so he devised a magical trap in which to catch them and so was able to bring back the dawn.

“But Dzivaguru wasn’t so easily defeated; she found a way to punish Nosenga and coincidentally all of humankind.  She decreed that the land would become parched; for every bad deed committed by the sons of Nosenga, she would withhold rain and send drought.  And invaders would come who would overthrow the worship of Nosenga.”

 Linna said, “That myth is another in a long string of pre-scientific explanations of natural phenomena, of why we have seasons and drought and day and night.  One greedy, fallible god being punished by another, and humans getting caught in the process.”

“With a moral twist,” added Avi.  “Be good or the goddess will send drought!”  

“Aw, well, I like it anyway,” said Robbie.  “The sun is a pair of golden swallows – who could object to that?  It’s beautiful!  Anything else, Kibby?”

“Well, only that on the continent of Afrik the stars and constellations are viewed a little differently than in Uropian-derived cultures.  The constellations have different names.  One of them is called the Flock of Birds.  It stretches from Capella in our constellation Auriga through Castor and Pollux all the way to Procyon in Canis Minor.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Robbie, “I can visualize the stars as an endless swarm of quelea birds!  Who knew?  I just thought the whole world saw the cosmos the same way!”

“And that’s it for me,” said Kibby.  “Lt. Running and I really had better go take the Bridge now.”

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Bird

For sunbird myth: 

       http://www.a-gallery.de/docs/mythology.htm

       Husain, Sharukh  and Bee Willey, “African Myths.” (I hand-copied notes on this from the Google Books version.) 

 

COMING NEXT:

JEWISH TALES OF THE ZIZ

Bird Myths, Pt. 1: Garuda, King of the Birds

      

When I was writing "The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars," (see the Prologue and first three chapters here), I made Capt. Robbin Nikalishin a birder. What better qualification for the man who will head up the mission that encountered the first intelligent lifeform known to humanity -- and who happened to be big birds? During the mission out, there was a lot of boring downtime and one way the crew entertained itself was by telling bird myths, each crewmember telling tales from his or her own culture. Now, this section will be cut or drastically emended if I ever get that monster ready for publication, but I did too much research and had too much fun writing it to let it all disappear, so what better place to display it than on a blog devoted partially to myth in literature?

The following has been abridged.  I left in the Captain's preamble about Survivor because it ties in with the book’s “Prologue.”

 

GARUDA, KING OF THE BIRDS
 



       Robbie, coffee cup in hand, stood up at a vacant table at the front of the assemblage and banged his spoon for order.  “Your Captain cooked up this get-together today so he could inflict his fascination with birds on all of you.  It’s show-and-tell time, children! – and I’ve got the visual aids to prove it.”  He opened the big port hidden in the bulwark behind him and displayed a short vid of a martial eagle soaring over the savanna and swooping down to land on a branch and mantle fiercely.  “Later we’re going to hear fantastic tales of mythological birds, but I don’t know any of those, so I’m going to tell a tale that really happened – it’s become for me almost mythical in its implications.”

And he proceeded to speak of the martial eagle Survivor and how he was brought to the Islands for breeding purposes, only to escape and be shot in both wings for attacking newborn lambs in Kent.  And he told how a small boy had viewed that crippled but unbowed eagle in the Lunden Zoo and been spiritually drawn to him, and how, when his own wings had been clipped, an older version of that boy had re-experienced that kinship.  “And the odd thing is,” concluded Robbie, “two years ago, while I was visiting the Zoo right before I left Britan for the Phenix Project, I ran into the ornithologist who had rescued Survivor and he introduced me to the vet who had been involved, who now teaches avian surgery at NWQC.  I’ve become fast friends with both of those fine men.  If that’s not a strange coincidence, I don’t know what is!”

And Robbie added, “That’s the end of my own presentation …  please, please – no applause necessary!  But I have another visual aid … ”  And he tapped the remote programmer and displayed a scanned image of his Garuda picture.  Most of the crew stared in befuddlement at the bizarre representation.  “Lt. Cmdr. Das, the floor is yours!”



I have no idea if I'm violating copyright, since
I copied this some years ago from a Japanese website that's
no longer available.  However, since this is the picture
 on which I based the description, I'm presenting it here!
 

       The Captain handed the remote to his Ops Officer and took a seat.  A shyly smiling Nani sat down on the edge of the table.  “All of you know I’m from Ind, and some of you know I was brought up with remnant traditions of the Indu religion.  One time the Captain asked me if the Indus had any bird gods and one thing led to another until he found the picture you’re looking at here ...

“The bird-man on the port there is named Garuda and the blue chap with the four arms who’s riding on his back is Vishnu.  Vishnu is one of the three principal Indu gods and Garuda is his vahanam, or mount.  When I was home over the Midwinter holiday, I talked to my grandmother and one of my uncles, who are both more into Indu culture than the rest of my family.  They helped me work up my tale and they got me into what we call in Ind the Data Basement, certain underground links that EarthGov knows exist but chooses to overlook.  From that I got these additional pictures that I’m going to show you now.  Depictions of Garuda are quite common wherever Induism influenced the culture over millennia.  How do you like this one?”  And Nani flashed up a frontal view of a sculpted figure squatting on clawed feet, with a loincloth, impressive spread wings and man-arms, and a huge head with an intimidating beak.  He also had pointed ears adorned with large, round earrings and he was painted a fiery orange and red.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Garuda02.jpg

This work has been released into the public domain

by its author, GourangaUK at the wikipedia project.

 This applies worldwide.

 

 

 There was astonished laughter and Robbie exclaimed, “Holy cry, Nani!  That’s Garuda?  He doesn’t look a thing like the pleasant little fellow in my icon!”

“Well, Garuda can be benevolent, but he can also be really fierce – in fact, he’s considered the very symbol of fierceness and speed and martial ability.  Here’s another interpretation – a painted miniature from the 18th century.  The female figure there is Lakshmi, Vishnu’s wife, riding on Garuda along with her husband.”

From Wikimedia Commons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Garuda_Vishnu_Laxmi.jpg

 

“Oh, so your gods are like the Griek ones,” said Robbie, “with spouses and families and all that.  In this one, Garuda doesn’t have the claws, but his head is pretty impressive.”

“Not all the iconography depicts exactly the same characteristics,” said Nani.  “I’ll show you one more – it’s a favorite of mine.  It’s from some ancient temple – I’m not sure which … ”
 

I copied this some years ago from

 http://altreligion.about.com/library/graphics/bl_garuda.htm

but the specific link is no longer available. My notes say,

"Picture source not given."  So I have no way of knowing

if it's copyrighted, and I don't know where the sculpture is

located.  But it's too great a depiction to pass up!

 

This image was a relief carving of a husky man-bird, with thighs like barrels, heavily girded loins, clawed feet, and a beaked head that resembled a snapping turtle more than an avian.  The figure’s huge arms were hoisting a giant snake above his head.  The wings and feathered headdress were intricately engraved. 

       "Yeah, that one really projects a sense of power!” said Robbie.  “Why is he shown with a snake in some of these?”

“You’ll find out as I tell my tale.  You understand, the story of Garuda has a lot of variations, so I synthesized my version out of elements my grandmother and uncle provided.  I’ve never really studied any Indu literature.  I can speak and read a little Indi, but Sanskrit is way beyond me.

 “Garuda came from an impressive family.  His father was Kashyapa, who was one of the great Sages and a grandson of the Creator-God Brahma.  Kashyapa had many wives – in fact, he married a set of thirteen sisters – but the two that concern us were named Kadru and Vinata.  Kadru asked the gods to give her many offspring, but Vinata wanted only a few as long as they were more powerful than her sister’s.  Now, it happened that instead of bearing live children, these two females laid eggs … ”

“Really?” interrupted Robbie.  “So they were birds, too?”

“Well, I don’t think so,” said Nani, obviously perplexed, “but as mythical beings, I suppose they wouldn't necessarity have to be like humans … ”

  “Anyway, however it was, Kadru hurried to lay about a thousand eggs, while Vinata laid only two.  Kadru’s soon began to hatch, and what came out of them were snake creatures.  We call them … ”

“The Nagas!” cried Lt. Chay in amazed recognition.  “I’m a Kampucheean – a Kemer – and we believe ourselves to be descended from a Naga king!  The Seven-Headed Naga was the symbol of our nation in the days before Unification!  The seven heads represented the seven races of Kemer.  Did you know that, Lt. Commander?”

“No, I didn’t,” said Nani.  “Like I said, I’ve never studied this very extensively.  And, yes, we call the creatures who emerged the ‘Nagas.’  They are sort of a serpent-human mixture.  They can be good or evil, depending on the story.

“Vinata was jealous of how fast her sister’s eggs were hatching while hers were still incubating, and she thought she would hurry things along by breaking one of them open.  And out came a shining, red-colored bird whom they named ‘Aruna,’ or ‘reddish.’  But there was a problem.  Because his egg had hatched prematurely, his body hadn’t completely developed and he had deformed legs.  Some say he had no feet and others say he had no thighs.  But just the same, he could fly, and in a whole different story he went on to become the Charioteer of Surya, the Sun God.

“When he first hatched, Aruna was very upset at what his mother had done to him and he cursed her, predicting that she was doomed to be enslaved.  But then he relented and said that if she would allow the second egg to develop for the proper length of time, the being who would spring from it would save her.  And Vinata was wise enough to follow his advice.

“Now here is how Vinata came to be enslaved.  Her evil sister Kadru engaged her in an argument over whether the celestial steed that had sprung from the churning of the primeval Ocean of Milk (and that is yet another tale) was completely white or had a black tail.  And Kadru made a bet with her sister – whichever one of them was wrong would be enslaved to the other.  Vinata had seen the horse before and she was positive its tail was pure white, and yet when they went to look, it did indeed have a black tail!  The truth was that Kadru had ordered her black Naga children to intermingle themselves in the tail and make it appear black.  And so Vinata became Kadru’s slave through deceit.

“In the meantime, Vinata’s second egg had hatched into an astonishing creature.  It was, of course, Garuda.  Some say he burst forth as a lightning flash and others say he showed himself as a raging conflagration big enough to consume the world.  It scared even the gods themselves, and so Garuda obligingly made himself smaller and took on a milder form.  Then he was seen to have a golden body, a white face, and red wings.  The beak, wings, and talons were those of an eagle but the body and arms were those of a man.  He was so large that men could hide in his plumage and he blocked out the sun when he flew; his wingspan was measured in kilometers.  He could fly faster than the wind; indeed, when his wings flapped, they made winds of cyclonic force, and his strength was such that he could tear up trees by the roots and carry them off!”

Everybody was hooting at this hyperbole, but Nani shook her finger at them.  “Well, it shouldn’t surprise you that myths tend to exaggerate things!  Besides, it’s said that before the hatching of Garuda Kashyapa was making a sacrificial offering for the purpose of increasing his progeny, and the King of the Gods Indra – another of Kashyapa’s sons – laughed at the assembled Sages, who were having trouble carrying in a log of wood that Indra could throw around like a toothpick.  So the Sages plotted to make a son of Kashyapa stronger and more powerful than Indra himself and, what’s more, to make him able to change his shape.  This scared Indra, who feared losing his kingship, and he begged his father to offer an apology on his behalf.  The Sages were mollified and decreed that the offspring should still be a King, but he would be King of the Birds.  And that is what we call Garuda today and why he is always depicted with a crown; and he was indeed born with a shape-shifter’s abilities.  And he had six sons himself, from whom all birds are descended. 

“Now, here is how Garuda came to be Vishnu’s mount.  Garuda sometimes didn’t have enough to occupy his spare time, so one day he flew up and seized the moon and hid it under his wings.  This act of vandalism annoyed the Gods and especially Indra, who still resented his sibling’s power.  The King of the Gods led an attack on the big bird-man, but Garuda was able to overcome them all except for Vishnu.  Now Vishnu had always admired Garuda’s power and speed in spite of the bird-man’s tendency to wreak mischief, and so after Garuda had agreed to restore the moon to its proper setting, Vishnu made him his steed.  After that, Garuda had no more problems with too much leisure!

 “Now I must return to the part of the tale concerning the curse on Garuda’s mother.  Even fearsome as Garuda was when he was first hatched, he emitted a loud, concerned chirp and ran immediately to his mother to see if there was any way he could help her.  She told him about how her sister Kadru had enslaved her through deceit and she asked him to help appease her.  Garuda agreed, but actually he was furious, and he resolved to do something to end this outrageous situation.

“Now I should make clear that this next adventure took place before the incident of the stolen moon.  It happened that one day Kadru wanted to take her serpent children for a holiday on an island, and she demanded that Garuda and Vinata carry them there.  Vinata carried Kadru while Garuda carried all thousand of the Nagas.  Yes, that does seems to imply that Vinata had wings, so maybe she was something like a bird.  But however that was, Garuda decided this was a good opportunity to kill all the Nagas and he flew up near the sun so that the cold-blooded snakes would be roasted to death.  But they cried out to their mother and she prayed to Indra for help, and the enemy of Garuda sent a torrential rainfall that cooled the Nagas and saved them.  Garuda was forced to set them down on the island.

“But once there, according to a prearranged plan with their mother, the Nagas seized Vinata and whisked her off to a demon-infested region called Patala.  There they imprisoned her and stood guard over her.  Garuda was enraged, but he could see that the curse was too strong for him to overcome the Nagas by physical power alone, so he decided to try negotiation.  He went to his Naga half-brothers and asked them what he had to do to free his mother from Kadru’s curse.  They told him that, if he would bring them a cup of amrita, they would release her in spite of their mother’s wishes.  Amrita is the elixir of immortality – what the Grieks call ‘ambrosia.’

“Garuda knew it would not be an easy ransom, because the gods jealously guarded this source of their own immortality.  But no amount of adversity could ever daunt the King of the Birds and so he set off for the celestial mountain where the amrita was kept.  The gods met him in full battle dress, but he scattered them all and arrived at the mountain’s gate.

“Garuda found this gate to be surrounded by a ring of flames that soared up to the sky.  He overcame this obstacle by taking the water of many rivers into his mouth and spitting it onto the fire to extinguish it. 

“Then at the gate itself, he discovered a great rotating wheel with sharp blades on its spokes that would cut to pieces anyone who tried to pass through.  Garuda solved that problem easily by exercising his shape-shifting abilities and making himself small enough to slip between the blades.

“And finally he reached the amrita only to discover that it was guarded by a pair of monstrous fire-spitting serpents.  These he defeated by fanning his wings and blowing dust into the serpents’ eyes, then attacking them and cutting them to bits with his sharp beak. 

“Quickly, Garuda seized the amrita in his beak, being careful not to swallow any of it, although surely he must have been tempted, for who doesn’t desire immortality and the status of a god?  He then flew as quickly as possible back toward Patala.  On the way he met Vishnu, who didn’t attack him, having been favorably impressed by the bird-man from the moment of his hatching.  Instead, Vishnu made a bargain with him; because Garuda had refrained from consuming any of the amrita, Vishnu would give him immortality as a gift on condition that Garuda should become Vishnu’s mount sometime in the future.  Vishnu also warned Garuda that Indra and the other gods were lying in wait for him on his return path.

“Garuda flew on, prepared for the confrontation.  As soon as he came in sight of the gods’ army, Indra hurled a thunderbolt at him, but Garuda was able to dodge it.  Then he called out to Indra that he would like to negotiate a truce.  If he were allowed to deliver the amrita to the Nagas, he would contrive a way for the gods to get it back.  If the plot that he and Indra would concoct was successful, then in return the gods would have to allow Garuda and his descendents to take snakes as their primary food source

“Indra agreed to this and Garuda continued on his journey.  When he reached Patala and came into the presence of the Nagas, he laid the amrita on the grass in front of the overjoyed serpents, but he continued to hover over it, saying that he would release the amrita to them only after they had set his mother Vinata free.  Quickly the Nagas released their prisoner, who ran to take refuge among her son’s feathers. 

“At that moment, Indra, who had followed Garuda, rushed in with his warriors, seized the amrita, and made off with it.  Garuda flew away with his mother, leaving the Nagas wailing in despair behind him.

“However, a few drops of amrita remained on the grass.  The Nagas licked it up and this was enough to add them to the role of Immortals.  The substance was so potent that it split their tongues, and that is why to this very day all snakes have forked tongues.  And Garuda and his descendants became the implacable enemies of snakes; that is why so many of today’s birds are snake-eaters. 

“This was not the end of Garuda’s adventures, but it’s the last I’ll say about him right now.  I’ll add only that Aruna, the deformed charioteer of Indra, himself had two bird-sons – Garuda’s nephews – who performed great deeds in their own right.

“They were called Sampati and Jatayu.  When they were young, they would compete to see which of them could fly higher, but Jatayu overdid it and flew so near the sun that he seared his wings.  His brother saved his life by spreading his own wings between Jatayu and the sun, but in the process Sampati’s wings were destroyed and he was forced to live flightless for the rest of his life, like the eagle in your tale, Capt. Nikalishin.

“And later in Jatayu’s life, he performed a selfless act of courage that is narrated in my people’s epic the Ramayana.  When Rama’s wife Sita was abducted by the demon lord Ravana, Jatayu engaged the demon in battle in order to save her, but by that time he was old and although he fought with supernatural heroism, he couldn’t win.  Ravana tore off his wings and then escaped with Sita.  Rama soon arrived, but it was too late.  The mortally wounded Jitayu died in the hero’s arms and was deeply mourned.

“And that really is the end of my presentation.”  Nani looked self-conscious.  “I just hope I haven’t bored all of you too much.

 

THE END OF THE GARUDA TALE

NEXT: AFRICAN BIRD MYTHS

You may have noticed that the tale of Garuda employs elements of the heroic epic as well as folklore.  Garuda is both noble hero and trickster, he makes a descent into the Underworld, and he’s a shape-shifter.
Here is one more picture that I didn't use in the text, but it has such a nice look to it that I thought I ought to share it with you, too!
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ornate_Garuda_Thap_Mam.jpg

This work has been released into the public domain by its author,

DoktorMax at the wikipedia project. This applies worldwide.

"I made this picture myself and release it into the public domain.

It is a photo of a 12th century sculpture in the

Thap Mam style of Champa. " 

 

 

I was going to add some bibliographical notes, but I find that a lot of my research notes (made several years ago) may not be accurate as to sources (this piece would never pass muster as a Master's thesis - LOL!)  If you want to learn more, I would suggest googling Garuda and various other names and allusions within the above text.