Conversing cows and eloquent elephants
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Talking Animals
At the end of last year,72 year old Vincent Owando Liech from
the Nyando district of Kenya was herding his cows when a dark cloud descended
and the waters of a nearby pond divided like the biblical Red Sea. A voice
told the pious farmer to follow his animals across the pond,which he did.All
the cows resumed grazing on the far side,except one,upon which an angel appeared
carrying a book. When the book was opened,the cow spoke, saying ;" You must
construct a new church which should be dedicated to prayer for peace.Do not
say you were not warned." The message was made public in Kisumu on December
30,and garnered widespread support. In many parts of Africa,portentous messages
are often delivered by animals. According to Ugandan state radio in June
1992,a goat proclaimed that the AIDS epidemic was a divine punishment for
disobeying the Ten Commandments.The goat spoke in a "loud,terrifying voice"
to the villagers of Kyabagala,in Mukono district,but died a few hours later.
Back in August 1978,thousands of Ugandans believed that a tortoise was
prophesying trouble for President Amin. The story worried the government
so much that officials,police and loyal chiefs held several crisis meetings
and denounced the entire population "always drunk with rumours".Amin himself
held a press conference in which he threatened to put anyone trading in such
stories before a firing squad. According to the Ugandan government's own
report,the mysterious enfundu (tortoise) waddled into a local village police
station and demanded to be taken to the town of Jinja just outside Kampala.Once
there,it asked for a private audience with the provincial governor and police
commissioner,having a message for their ears only. Whether or not there was
any truth in the rumour of the magical oracle,the two officials wished to
avoid the wrath of Amin,and hastily denounced and denied the story. The last
report of the tortoise was that it was "under arrest" in Kampala jail.....but
the jailers too,were quick to deny that. Batyr,the talking elephant of
Kazakhstan,passed away in Karaganda Zoo in September 1993.Batyr first became
famous in 1977 when a nightwatchman reported hearing the eight year old Indian
elephant talking to himself.Boris Kosinsky,the deputy director of the zoo,was
sceptical,but paid the prattling pachyderm a visit. "Batyr good boy.Go away,"
said Batyr.The news spread throughout the Soviet Union and the zoo's attendances
shot up. A recording of Batyr saying "Batyr is good","Batyr is hungry" and
using words such as "drink" and "give" was played on Kazakh state radio in
1980;and by 1983,Batyr's vocabulary
[Incidentally,I recently heard that a UK government literary education
poster had to be scrapped because they'd spelled "vocabulary" incorrectly!
-LB]
had risen to 20 phrases,including the local equivalent of "Have you watered
the elephant?" Sandy Friedman,the chairman of the mammal department of Brookfield
Zoo outside Chicago ,said "Given the way an elephant's mouth and tongue are
arranged,I don't see how it can make words." Maybe Batyr's words were a kind
of auditory simulacrum. The lead story on Turkish television news on March
20 1993 was of a talking cat called Cingene (Gypsy) belonging to Ayfer Celik
of Izmir. The two year old black cat managed to say at least seven words
on television including ver (give),Nalan ( a girl's name),Derya (another
girl's name),Demem (I don't say),naynay(baby talk for music),nine( a colloquial
word for grandmother) and babaaane (the formal word for grandmother).According
to my Turkish correspondent,Izzet Goksu,these words were clearly audible.
Pala,another talking cat in Turkey,was reported in the press in 1968.Perhaps
Turkish is the most suitable language for cats.
I sent this mail:- Subj: Talking Animals Date: 12-May-00 To:
sieveking@forteantimes.com Dear Mr Sieveking, I have just read your article
in the Sunday Telegraph (May7 2000) and found myself wondering why such rubbish
gets printed in a reasonable newspaper.I don't know what the point of printing
such stories is apart from "taking with a pinch of salt". As Sandy Friedman
explains in the case of an elephant its vocal apparatus are not given to
human speech,and with few exceptions (such as
parrots and
macaws and mynah birds) the vast majorital part of the animal world is not
in the habit of speaking verbally. It maybe that in the case of the Turkish
cat that some of the vocalisations of an animal bear a passing resemblance
to human words merely on the strength of statistics.There are after all so
many human vocal sounds that it is not surprising that some animal sounds
will sound like one or two of them (perhaps more). But the animal does not
understand that it is making a sound that we might make sense of.It maybe
that some chimps and apes
(Kansi) or perhaps African grey parrots and perhaps some species of
dolphin and whale can be communicated with via
symbols and signs in context,but the idea of a tortoise speaking English
is just so totally stupid that I really wonder why this type of story makes
it into a mainstream paper. I have watched Lionel Fanthorpe on TV so I have
some idea of where Fortean is coming from [Paul tells me that
Fanthorpe's programme is unrelated to FT],but it seems to
me that in general it does no service to mankind to proffer obvious
misunderstandings of simple people as perhaps having some credibility.In
this sense Fortean Times is helping to undermine our society being as it
is based on knowledge derived from evidence and study and not belief in silly
inane stories related by people with limited brain matter. It seems that
in such articles,it is ironic that the writers are talking apparent English
words through the wrong orifice which being so constructed should not be
capable of true speech,but only "verbal diorrhea". The eminent
writer Isaac Asimov riled
against such nonsense and some of his arguments are reproduced at
index6.html. One might be able to see that as with
the dog on "That's Life" which apparently said "sausages"
when its jowls were manipulated,that any animal could seem to be saying words.Our
cat seems to answer "No" to most any question asked of it! Those of belief
might ask themselves why they think there is nothing to these stories and
why they are clearly the absurd misunderstandings of tribal people's, after
all those people believe that the animals are talking and are bringing angels
messages. This is not so different from belief in God.Obviously in Africa,animals
are much more potent symbols than they are here,and are much more likely
to be given credibility as the messengers of God. There is too perhaps a
lesson in how pompous Western believers are in elevating themselves close
to the divine.It seems that in other countries (more superstitious and religious)
animals get treated with a great deal more deference. If believers find
themselves saying "But it's obvious,no animal can talk" and think Dr Doolittle
was merely a fantasy story,they might well ask themselves upon what basis
they conclude this. If other cultures are prepared to believe that animals
are the messengers of angels,then presumably ridicule of this belief is based
upon knowledge of animals as creatures with no propensity to speak.Knowledge
that is provided by evolutionary theory. If one accepts God as an omnipotent
being then you cannot outlaw any miracle,including animals speaking English
or Turkish.And as is shown such belief abets the growth of new churches,ignorant
beliefs that AIDS is a divine punishment,and moves ignorant politicians to
start punishment regimes against its own populace.
Belief in God is no different to these tribal
people's belief that animals are talking to them,and if you take exception
to the responses and silly acceptance of Ugandans and Turks of this nonsense,then
so too you should see that belief in God is just as absurd. Other than that,if
one is so quick to arrive at man's superiority,then
perhaps its a bit wiser to treat animals with some
respect,after all it might be an angel in
disguise!