Re: Austin, Utopia, Uglossia, and Bats.
| From: | Christophe Grandsire <grandsir@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Thursday, September 23, 1999, 7:23 |
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Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
>
> On Wed, 22 Sep 1999, Sally Caves wrote:
>
> > Thomas R. Wier wrote:
> > >
> > > (For our non-Austinite friends, we're talking about the largest
> > > bat swarm in North America -- several million of them make
> > > their home here. They're rather nice, actually, since the insect
> > > population is kept to a minimum :-) )
> >
> > Ignorance and fear of bats have diminished bat populations by three
> > fourths in the world, and yet they remain one of the most populace
> > of mammals! I'd love to see them.
> >
>
> Not only ignorance and fear - our tom Tiberius once caught a bat
> from the small colony that lives in a large evergreen tree in one
> of the gardens in our block. He was no end surprised, and so was
> I when I came down at four in the night to look at what he was
> meowing about. We still see the bats around when the night is
> clear.
>
We have also bats here in Eindhoven. I saw some in my garden just one
month ago :) . I don't have a word for bats in any of my conlangs
already, but I can tell you some things about the world of the Sky
People. At least in the continent where they live, most animal life is
mammalian, but mammals that we don't find on Earth. We can find there
feathered mammals (generally non-flying), many flying mammals, bat-like
or not, among which there is a special one, so impressive that the Sky
people use its image in their ideogram for nja /nj'Q/: animal spirit
(one of their elements/elementals). It's a manta-like flying mammal that
has the property of never landing (it has no legs anyway) during its
life (the offsprings of this species are born in the back of their
mother, in order not to fall as soon as they are born). I think this is
the best equivalent of bats in their worlds, as it impresses the Sky
People as much as bats impresses us (they even fear them, as they think
they are often inhabitated by animal spirits). Those animal are sacred
in their society, and killing one of them is a crime.
--
Christophe Grandsire
Philips Research Laboratories -- Building WB 145
Prof. Holstlaan 4
5656 AA Eindhoven
The Netherlands
Phone: +31-40-27-45006
E-mail: grandsir@natlab.research.philips.com