129Goravã endale todavã enta ... Golla, gollarakki adu. Dana, emme, adella idu buḍtade
no:ḍi. Beḷagu aidu gaṇṭeka soĩ: enta, si:ḷ-enta buḍta:de. Ba:gilu tegedu ... doḍḍi.
(ka:nagoravã)
We call the Whistling Thrush a stutterer... It’s the cowherd, a cowherding bird. Cows, buf-
falos, it leads them all, see? It calls out “ soĩ: ” at fi ve in the morning, it leads them out with
a “ si:ḷ ”. It opens the door ... of the cowshed.
Finally, the highly variable calls of the Hill Myna se:nanakki have led the Solega
to conclude that English speakers must have learnt their language from this bird.
The myna ’s song was characterised by one speaker as “ hĩ: huĩ kĩ: sĩ: poĩ sĩ: poĩ ”, a
rendition full of falling pitches and alien-sounding diphthongs.
English -inavariga ma:tu barade, adu tante ma:ta kalisiradu. Korama ja:ti hakki adu.
(se:nanakki)
When the English couldn’t speak, it was that bird that taught them language. That bird is a
show-off.
Solega people have traditionally eaten both the eggs and the fl esh of many spe-
cies of birds, although such practices have declined sharply since the setting up of a
wildlife sanctuary on their lands. Some birds are never eaten, however, and these
include the crow, the pheasant coucal and woodpeckers. This taboo is very likely a
direct consequence of the powers, both noxious and benign, that the latter two
groups are supposed to possess. In the case of the crow and the coucal, the taboo
may also be due to their unusual calls, their scavenging habits (at least for the for-
mer) and the unpleasant smell and/or taste of their fl esh. Much like the coucal, the
crow is regarded as an ill-omened bird, as it is the vehicle of shani , the personifi ca-
tion of Saturn. As a result, children are warned to not even throw stones at crows.
One fi nal culinary taboo among the Solega concerns the head and legs of chickens—
these should not be eaten by men, as this will cause their bodies to tremble when
they attempt to climb trees.
The bird-related Solega folklore described above can be divided into seven broad
categories, namely ‘interactions of birds with other creatures’, ‘useful signs and
signals’, ‘ill omens’, ‘ religious connections’, ‘moral tales’, ‘secular songs’ and ‘pest
species’. Table 4.8 shows that Solega bird folklore is dominated by two categories,
namely the ‘useful signs and signals’ and the ‘religious’, which together comprise
just over half the items. Half of Solega bird folklore, then, is devoted to items of
strong utilitarian or cultural value. One could easily imagine any language having
Table 4.8 The relative
proportions of different types
of Solega bird folklore
Folklore category Count %
Interaction with other
creatures3 7.7Useful signals 11 28.2
Ill omens 6 15.4
Religious 11 28.2
Moral 3 7.7
Secular song 3 7.7
Pest 2 5.14.7 Birds in Solega Life, Myth and Ritual