Re: Annedoti, Anon (Re: A China-Sumer connection)

a.manansala_at_attbi.com
Date: 03/03/05 

Date: 3 Mar 2005 06:16:07 -0800

Dylan Sung wrote:
> "Comm" <tjsrno@spampost.com> wrote in message
> news:cgzVd.18$oO4.6@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> > I think they were seafaring Asians in costumes.
>
> By the nature of sea faring in the past, it is usual just to pack
essentials
> and not overload the boat with useless stuff. Why would seafarers
want to
> encumber themselves with such costumes?
>

Medieval Europeans often mistook Inuit and other kayak paddlers in seal
skins for seal-men. Or at least that's how they appear in myth and
folklore.

I think it was Ibn Fadlan who wrote about the Rus and Wendol in
northern Europe. The Rus were terrified of the Wendol who they mistook
for some kind of supernatural hairy creature.

Eventually Fadlan, a visiting Muslim, discovered by closely examining a
dead Wendol, that it was a human wearing a full bear skin including
head-part.

There were definitely practical reasons for wearing the seal skins, I'm
not so sure about the bear-skins. Unless we know exactly what these
"costumes" were its hard to say much about them.

Some references describe it as the skin of a 'sea creature' and not
necessarily a fish. They also realized it was something that was worn.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
http://sambali.blogspot.com/

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