There's a few points that I have to disagree with...
 
>Folklore is the stories we tell each other and our children, usually for
>entertainment, but also to transmit cultural events, beliefs and
>traditions.  That is why you can sometimes read a folktale from other
>cultures and it makes no sense to you.  Folktales are also conserved in
>cultures.  For example, the children's poem "Ring around the Rosy" (or
>"Ring a ring of rosies") is today a nonsense verse; but 600 years ago, it
>was about the black death (mid-1300s).  Back then, it was thought noxious
 
To start off with, I would suggest not using "Ring Around the Rosie" as any
sort of basis or example of an event or tale "living" through song or
speach.  It is pretty well accepted that the connection between the song
and the Plague is an Urban Legend.  I would highly suggest visiting the
alt.folklore.urban Ring Around the Rosie mini-FAQ at
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~imunro/ring.html .
A search at via DejaNews (http://www.deja.com) of the same newsgroup will
undoubtably list other sources as well.  (The a.f.u FAQ intro can be found
at http://www.panix.com/~sean/afufaq/intro.html
if you have questions about what an Urban Legend is.  BTW, this FAQ intro
is one of the more amusing ones I've seen.  Enjoy!)
 
This illustrates one of the major problems in the study of myth and
folklore - veracity of sources.  With no exaggeration, I have scores of
books on myth, folklore, and ancient history.  While most are very
scholarly, some books have some serious problems.  Those problems include,
but are not limited to information being obsoleted by newer information,
author biases, shoddy scholarship, and just plain old inaccuracies.
Because of this, in our research we really must judge each source or
example, as in the Ring-around... citation, for its veracity and how well
it is supported by other sources.
 
>each other's words, or bull our way through the crowd.  But we never
>giraffe oranges from trees, nor mountain beaver a hillside.  I've never
>heard someone say "she binteronged the tree."  As a general rule, rare
>animals do not enter the vocabulary (except as nouns), so we *know*
 
You went from speaking of animals in the *English* language and native to
*English* speaking countries to talking about the lack of animals from
*Non-English* speaking countries in the *English* language.  This is an
apples and oranges comparison.  To have any validity, you will need to
compare the inclusion or exclusion of animal descriptors with native
animals in the native language.  The only exceptions I can think of is
where the animals have had a long standing in areas outside their normal
range (pet animals like parrots are a prime example) or really exceptional
creatures that capture peoples' imaginations like lions, tigers, and
elephants.
 
I forget where the binterong is from, but is it possible that the native
people(s) use it in their language as we use ferret or bull or any other
animal adjective?
 
>"I hated to badger the ol' polecat, but I needed to ferret out the truth
>and he was weaseling his way out of every inquiry, otter slick and mink
>smooth--I responded with wolverine vigor and skunked him at his own game."
 
And on the topic of these descriptors as being some sort of proof that
folktales once existed on these animals, I disagree.  Words come into and
out of language for a variety of reasons.  A tale isn't behind the origins
of every word so I see no reason why I should believe it is true for these
animals/words without supporting proof.
 
As far as the "rarity" issue, my point was not that people didn't know
about weasels and their kin and couldn't recognize the qualities that these
animals might pocess.  My point was that folktales are generally made up
of common place things, people, and animals with the occasional fantastic
(dragons, unicorns, griffins, wizards, magic harps, etc.) thrown in.  The
fantastic is generally used to create the situation of the story that the
hero must strive against or it is some enabling force for the hero.  (ex.
The story of Jack and the Beanstalk would have been nothing without the
Giant.)
 
Weasels are not commonplace like a cat beside the fire, a baby in a cradle
or old Bessie chewing grass in the pasture.  Nor do they match up with the
unnaturalness of a fire-belching dragon or an unearthly pure unicorn.  Are
they going to be popular figures in folktales?  No.  Will there be a few
folktales featuring them?  Certainly, but they would be no more common then
folktales about hedgehogs, ants, herons, or salamanders.
 
Note: I am commenting mostly on European folktales here since that seems to
be the body of stories we are most discussing.  Other peoples, like various
Native American ones, definately didn't disclude Weasels and their kin from
stories and so should be discussed differently.
 
-kim and her weasel clan: squirt, pippi, atlas, jinx, and rosie
 
Kimberly Burkard     |             _    Everything I needed to know in life,
Eastman Kodak Company|      _____C .._. I learned from my ferret:
Rochester, New York  | ____/     \___/  Frolic and dance for joy often, have
[log in to unmask]    |<____/\_---\_\    no fear or worries, and enjoy life.
[Posted in FML issue 2835]