Читать книгу The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic - John Matthews - Страница 179

Among the Navajo people of south-west North America, Badger was one of the first inhabitants who travelled down through the worlds with Coyote. While Coyote remained with the Navajo, Badger continued down into the yellow world of the Grasshopper people. It was Badger who enabled the Navajo people to escape from the reed in which they were trapped by enlarging a hole that Locust had made in the sky, enabling them to arrive upon the Earth in a little island in the middle of a lake. Badger was also one of the foremost medicine spirits in the south-west, for he is always digging in the ground for roots and plants. A badger paw is worn by women in childbirth for a swift delivery, in imitation of the badger who comes out of his hole quickly. The sexual organs of the male badger are believed to enhance the virility of impotent men. Among the Zuni, Badger is the younger brother of Bear, though he is not so brave nor as strong-willed as his older brother.

In China, the badger is considered to be a yin animal, because it retires to its den and comes out at night. In Japan, the wind badger is Tanuki, who looks after the rice crop. He is depicted as carrying a great bell. In some stories, the badger appears as a trickster. Sometimes taking the form of a venerable sage, he tries to make people revere him more.

In Celtic myth, the game of ‘badger-in-the-bag’ is played at the order of the horse goddess, Rhiannon. She helps her intended husband Pwyll defeat one of her former suitors, Gwawl, by tricking him into entering a bottomless bag. Once inside it, Gwawl is beaten with sticks by Pwyll’s men. He begs to be let out and Rhiannon lets him go only after he has promised to bother her no more. This ancient game refers back to the understanding of the badger as the creature of great resource.

Kenneth Grahame’s children’s book, The Wind in the Willows, has given many their lasting love of the badger from the depiction of wise old Badger who lives like a hermit in the Wild Wood but who is implacable against the foes of Toad.