Owls in Lore and Culture
Appendix 1
Owl Tales from Northern India (source: Marcot 1993; stories as told to
Bruce Marcot by Baban, an elder Nepali, and by V.B. Sawarkar of the Wildlife Institute of
India, in Dehra Dun, Uttar Pradesh, India)
According to Baban, in northern India and Nepal, small owls, coscoot, are very good.
They come to the house and take mice and bad insects. But large owls, ulu, are very bad.
They will come and perch on the house at night, and that is bad, because if someone comes
to the house and then says your name, ulu will catch it and have it. It will then wait
until all is dark and quiet, and call you with your name, "come out!" and you
will come out to see, and there will be no one there. It will call you out again by name,
"come out!" Then in 10 days, 20 days, by repeating your name over and over, your
life will ebb and death will surely follow.
This is remarkably similar to an owl myth told to V.B. Sawarkar as a boy while growing
up in Pune, India. In that version, the culprit is the Spotted Owlet (Athene brama), a
common resident of city and garden throughout greater India. Instead of catching your
name, it will catch a stone you throw at it and slowly grind down the stone. As the stone
decays, so does your life.
Baban continued that, if you should find the owl, it will appear to befriend you, to
tell you things. It will be obliged to tell you how to prepare itself for cooking. Little
by little, over the nights it will appear on the roof and will teach you how to prepare
its claws, its feet, its legs, its back, its wings, its neck. In its instructions, when it
finally reaches its neck, on the 39th day, you must grab it and slice its head off, or you
will be dead the next morning. (From Baban's descriptions, I surmised that ulu is indeed
the Devil Bird [see text for description].)
Further, Baban says that the tiger, the ulu, and other animals of the jungle that
themselves prey on animals are very bad, but the ones that eat only vegetation are very
good. This distinction may have arisen in India and Nepal from the undesirable habit of
carnivory and that herbivory or insectivory better fit the Hindu vegetarian philosophy.
Owl Tales from South India (source: Marcot 2005; stories as told to Bruce Marcot by Sajeev, a young researcher from Kerela , India , 10 September 2001)
According to Sajeev, some owl stories from south India include the following.
- If a Barred Owlet or Spotted Owlet is heard, then soon a child will fall ill. Such small owls – those with similar tooting calls – are all referred to as Nattu collectively.
- The Mottled Wood Owl is called Kalam Kozhi . Kalam means god of death, and Kozhi means chicken or fowl, so the overall name means fowl of death. If heard when you are ill or diseased, it means you will die.
- Horned owls (Bubo) can land on the head of hunters and the hunter will die of fright.
More Owl Tales from North India (source: stories as told to Bruce Marcot by Kewal Singh, Mornochni Village, Tharu Tribe, Uttar Pradesh, northern India, 6 December 2005)
The Tharu Tribe inhabits riverine grassland environments in northern Uttar Pradesh along the border with Nepal . There, one of the members of the Mornochni Village , Kewal Singh, related to me the following stories he has been told:
- Owls are associated with bad fortune, but it is only the larger owls that bear this stigma. [Marcot note: this is very consistent with the story told to me by Baban, the Nepali, mentioned above.]
- (Large) owls are often associated with the devil, and are not auspicious.
- The female Eagle Owl, Bubo bubo, can get very annoyed (if harassed) and then she feigns death. You can approach the owls, even turn it over and it will not move. The male owl will keep giving calls and the female will finally respond with a quiet call.
- Local shamans can kill an owl and take its soul, its power, and put its power into a tabich (a talisman worn around the neck). Then the owl power will guide you to find wealth or to find people of wealth (it does not give you wealth; it only guides you). I asked if any part of the owl is taken for its power, such as its talons or feathers, and he did not know; this is known only to the shamans.
Owl Tales from Northeast India (source: stories as told to Bruce Marcot by a member of the Garo Hills Tribe, western Meghalaya, northeast India, 14 December 2005)
There is a Garo tribe story of an owl: An owl was with a Hill Myna and said “I shall lay eggs as beautiful as yours.” The owl said this same thing day after day but never laid the eggs. So this led to the (Garo) phrase and concept of saying one thing and doing another.  Prev | Next
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