Crows, Porcupines and Myths

     Have you ever seen something slightly out of the ordinary, that you don't know how to explain, leading you to make up an entire story in your head to explain it? It's quite interesting how humans do that. In fact it's part of how myths are made. But of course this is simply a day dream I'd like to regale you with. 

    It was a scorching day, I walked into my college campus, admiring the lush green of the trees canopying above the path as I usually do. The sunlight falling through the leaves is a mesmerizing sight and I can never get enough. So, I usually have my eyes floating to the branches whenever I walk through that path. This is when something strange happened. A cacophony broke out among the branches.

    There was a murder of crows, and they seemed to be having a fight from the look of things. I cannot recall how many I saw; I could not stay back to count since I was rushing to class. But from what I remember there must have been at least 10 of them. I remember looking up, feeling my eyes widen. Now you'd say, that's not strange, what are you going on about? And yes it is normal enough which is why I ignored it, carrying on, on my way.

    Yet, my mind started to wander, why is a group of crows called a murder of crows? That was the first question I had. I ended up searching it up and found Mike Toms in a BBC article state that it has to do with their association with the gallows and slaughtered victims of the battlefield. I understand crows feed on carrion. It's nothing new, they are opportunistic feeders after all. It made perfect sense. Before searching it up I humoured other thoughts. Maybe there are a group of tiny assassins riding crows out there. Or perhaps their Parliament is in session, but then again that's more to do with owls. Well, while I was hypothesizing I happened upon something that immediately made me stop in my tracks.

    I spotted a line of porcupine quills scattered on the ground. Now I was excited. I've heard of their presence in the campus but I've only seen one with my own eyes. Even then, the little guy was waddling across the path in a hurry. Relatable, to be honest, could have been running late for tea and who'd want to be held up during tea time. But sometimes I feel like I imagined it. So holding those quills in my hand made me happy because that's the closest I have gotten to being this near any part of those fascinating creatures.

    It had pushed out my curiosity over the crows and brought the attention to porcupines. I started wondering if there were crazy mythical creature lookalikes for them. I mean there are unicorns and manticores, what if there's something out there about porcupines with wings. My question did provide answers with a quick Google search. Perhaps it was my wording, but the first result was how the biggest myth about them was that they can shoot their quills. I did not know that  it was not true until that moment. I realised the power that myths hold even in this age of technology. 

     Now, onto what I was actually looking for! I found the Irish Brucha bearing iron quills. They were blamed for destroying food sources. In one account, it stated that they visited the orchards of the ones who didn't attend Sunday mass and rolled around in their fruits. Another one I found was the Chinese Menghuai. They sported red quills and could repel evil forces. Which honestly sounds really cool. Imagine coming up with that. I went on pondering about my newly acquired information.

    While I was giggling to myself over the threat of the Brucha destroying my basket of bananas because I didn't attend the Sunday service, the thought of the crows started wriggling their way back into my mind. And for a second the Sherlock in me decided to connect the dots and propose a suggestion as to what might have happened, in my head. 

    Perhaps there was a battle between the crows and the porcupines. Perhaps the Parliament in session was to discuss war tactics... Perhaps the porcupines have regrouped and are discussing their own tactics deeper in the woods. All of it made sense. We all know how wars can stretch on for years. It would make sense why that one porcupine crossing the road was in such a rush. He had to get to his strategy meeting! Of course there would be tea there, so it does not entirely disregard my first hypothesis either. Finally, I had all the pieces of the puzzle. Do you think they fit? 

    Well then dear reader, this shall remain a mystery until it can be proved. It shall probably remain one for a very long time... But what is a lesson that can be learned from this. We humans never really stopped making myths, it is not a thing of the past. What breathes life into the myths we know and enjoy of the past is a sort of collective experience superimposed on what they could not understand at the time with limited scientific advancement. Myths might satiate curiosity at a time it cannot be answered but someday, someone might get curious about the myth, at a time where advancements have reached the level to answer them and they try finding the reality of it and how and why the myth itself came to be. The idea lives on however through the myths until then. It's a testament to how much we yearn to know. How beautiful is that?

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