B98B. The Bat and the Funeral... 11.12.

The Bat comes into conflict with other creatures over someone's death or funeral.

Tanga, Kongo, Sakata, Lulua, Songe, Banen, Beba, Sikon, Dagari, Yoruba.

Bantu-speaking Africa. Tanga [the Bat's mother is dying; Antelope: Only the Sun (Joba) can heal her; the Bat meets the Sun, which tells you to come to his house in the morning; every day the Bat meets The sun, when he is already on his journey and he cannot go back; the mother is dead; the animals refuse to bury her because she has wings and the birds because of her teeth; as a result, ants ate the body; The Bat decides that the Sun is to blame for everything; decides to mourn its mother forever, not be friends with anyone, go out only at night]: Nassau 1912, No. 21:163-165 (=Jablow 196:82-84; resume in Kotlyar 2009, No. 223:143 , briefly in Collén 1979:415); Congo: Anpetkova-Sharova 1975 (Angolan zombo) [The bat died, his wife asked to find his relatives, invite him to a funeral; the birds said he did not have beaks and ears do not look like birds; mice - that they have wings but they don't; the wife buried her husband alone, rootless people are called bats (Ngembo)]: 11-13 (=2010:233-234; retelling in Kotlyar 2009, No. 220:142); Klipple 1992, No. A249.1 (song) [in the afternoon, the bat's father died; she began to dig the grave, but realized that she would not have time before sunset; she asked the sun to stop; this was not it happened and the bat promised never to see the sun again; so it only flies at night]: 346; Sakata: Collén 1979, No. 118 [Moi (Sun, it is clear from the text that a woman) fell ill with her Baby Sanja (Month); The Bat gave her the nkisi fetiche, three days later Sanja recovered; now the Bat baby is ill; she asked for the nkishi back, but the Sun said she couldn't go to the sunset return, give it back in the morning; the Bat's child died; she decided never to see the Sun again, hang upside down, fly out at night]: 281-282, 415-416, note 185 [in 1977 from Sakata who came to Sweden a text similar to a Benga version was recorded]; lulua [the bat's mother died in the evening; the bat asked her friend Sun to stay at the funeral, but he refused and the funeral took place in the dark; the bat quarrels with the Sun and flies only in the dark]: Lambrecht 1963:37; songe [the bat's father died in the afternoon; she begins to dig the grave; seeing that he is not in time before sunset, asks the sun hesitates; the sun refuses; the bat decides not to see it anymore, so it hangs its head to the ground during the day and flies at night]: Frobenius, Atlantis, XII, 374 in Klipple 1992:346.

West Africa. Banen [the bat's child died; she began to dig the grave, but it rained and did not stop; the bat became angry, promised not to look at the sky anymore, but to hang its feet to the sky, look food only at night]: Dugast 1975:376; baba [bat and sun friends; the bat's mother has died; she asks the sun not to go any longer to complete the funeral; the sun answers that she was unable to do it; the bat buried her mother in the dark and decided never to see the sun again]: Macuchi 2008:3-4; Sicon [the bat was a beautiful animal; but deciding that birds they live better, asked God for wings; when animals were starving, she lived with birds, when birds with animals; when she died, both animals and birds refused to bury her, for birds noticed her teeth, and animals wings]: Pinney 1973:273-275; Dagari [the bat's mother died; the son asked God to resurrect her, for he is single and has no one to do women's work, but God has refused; the bat has been hanging ever since upside down so as not to look at God and relieve yourself in his direction, not at the ground where the mother is buried; but the secretions still fall down, so the bat stinks]: Métuolé Somba 1991:171; Yoruba [the flying fox died; they sent for the birds to bury her, but they said that she was not related to them if without feathers; they sent for the rats, they refused - it was without a tail; she remained unburied]: Ellis 1894, No. 3:252-253.