Page 5 - Animals of the Sakhalin Region in myths and legends

Introduction

There are many animals on earth, birds in the sky, fish in rivers

and lakes, and so there are many legends about them. From time
immemorial, people have admired their beauty and mystery.

Amazing creatures live next to us, they are crucial for our well-being
and pleasing to the eye. People considered them to be intermediaries

with deities, often attributed magical powers to them. For example,
if you are lucky enough to see a kingfisher, let it remind you of the

devotion of Alcyone, the wife of the Thessalian king Keik, and if you
see the owl soaring in the sky — remember how love turned a bird

into a man.
Science, of course, can explain why the wood grouse has red

eyebrows, and the musk deer have white spots on the skin. But it
will leave some questions unanswered, as which bird is called a

heavenly deer, how the burbot turned out to have a taimen liver,
why the bear and the sea lion are not friends, or how the owl saved

domestic chickens from the forest cat. And here magic stories
«encrypted» in the folklore of the peoples of the world will help us.

Many representatives of the fauna live only on the territory of
the only island region in Russia and nowhere else. Under the cover

of the book accurate scientific data on rare species of animal life on
the islands and poetic versions of peoples — Ainu, Russian, Nivkh,

Dolgan, Even, Japanese, Chinese, Greek are collected. This book
will be of interest to everyone who wants to know more about the

unique nature of Sakhalin and the Kuriles — to love, cherish and
preserve it for future generations.

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