| The Snow Leopard (panthera uncia): In Central Asia there arose a belief that the snow leopard does not eat the flesh of its victims, but sucks their blood. This belief probably stemmed from the puncture marks left when the snow leopard suffocates its prey. Another story is that of Milarepa, Tibet's poet-saint, who was stranded for six months in the Great Cave of Conquering Demons. When his followers went to find him, they found he had been transformed into a snow leopard. "I long to see the the snow leopard, yet to glimpse it by camera flash, at night, crouched on a bait, is not to see it. If the snow leopard should manifest itself, then I am ready to see the snow leopard. If not, then somehow (and I don't understand this instinct, even now) I am not ready to perceive it, in the same way that I am not ready to resolve my koan; and in the not-seeing, I am content. I think I must be disappointed, having come so far, and yet I do not feel that way. I am disappointed, and also, I am not disappointed. That the snow leopard is, that it is here, that its frosty eyes watch us from the mountain -- that is enough." ~ Peter Mattheissen, The Snow Leopard A short piece taken from National Geographic, written by George Schaller, about the snow leopard: "...her eyes were the most extraordinary feature. Pale, with a frosty glitter softened only by a tinge of amber, they were the eyes of a creature used to immense solitudes and snowy wastes." The African Leopard (Panthera pardus): "A blood bond between human and lower animals occurs in both Naga and West African territories. In the West African form the Leopard involved is trapped alive and uninjured. Once bound, the Leopard is treated with religious respect. Penultimately the worshipper or worshippers make a small incision in the lashed up Leopard and use the resulting blood. Some versions tell of drinking the warm blood from the living beast, others speak of a cut being made in the skin of the worshipper and a mingling of the blood of man and bound beast. One account tells of the doubtless frightened and furious Leopard being seated upright, and even of its being capped or crowned for the ceremony. Finally the probably infuriated but certainly entirely unimpressed Leopard is unreleased. It would be interesting to learn how this release is engineered, for the human blood-brother certainly believes implicitly in the close, friendly, or even sacred relationship and might be expected to expose himself to a mildly injured and certainly greatly aggravated Leopard. For what it is worth, and on the most slender rumor, I consider that the beast wisely is drugged with smoke from burning herbs offered for its direction; but this is simply a personal opinion of the obscure and highly secret West African ceremony." -- Peter Turnbull-Kemp, from The Leopard In Egyptian rituals, a panther tail was worn about the waist or knotted about the neck to help protect and strengthen. It was used in a process called passage through the skin - their own version of shape-shifting to engender themselves with the panther's power. The panther has also been associated with Jesus. In the Abodazara (early Jewish commentaries on the scriptures), it is listed as a surname for the family of Joseph. It tells how a man was healed "in the name of Jesus ben Panther". The famous Leopard of Rudaprayag terrorized the Garhwal region of India for nine years, killing at least 125 people until it was shot in 1926. Its uncanny ability to avoid its hunters for so long led the local inhabitants to brand it a were-leopard a half-human, half-animal being. One of the clearest examples of the relationship between felines, royalty, and politics was found among the Banyang peoples of southeastern Nigeria and western Camaroun. According to the anthropologist Malcolm Ruel, order and stability in this society could be described as the politics of leopard-giving, for when a leopard was killed it was given by the hunter to the superior, who in turn passed it up the hierarchy until it reached the village leader. The chief then appeased the dead animal and, after having skinned it, divided the meat for consumption by the village's group of leading men, who were often referred to as leopard people or the leopard association. The ritual of giving a leopard was where the animal itself symbolized male power a focal point of the display of constitutional politics. In West Africa, the leopard was employed as a symbol of fear by Leopard Men Societies who terrorized rural villages well into the present century. Dressed in leopard skins, often wearing wooden sandals which left paw prints, and wielding iron prongs, they disfigured their victims to imitate an attack by a big cat. One of the earliest examples of ancient architecture was the Neolithic village of Catal Huyuk in southern Turkey, which flourished around 6,000 BC. Here, preserved in a small shrine, a beautifully modeled and painted relief showed two colorful leopards confronting each other. Figurines discovered at the site portrayed what have been called supernatural beings riding leopards, holding leopard cubs, or sitting on leopard-shaped thrones. Whether these leopards were deities in their own right or the spirit-helpers of a female fertility Goddess remains a mystery, but the modeled leopards found in the shrine had a parallel some 3,000 years later in Mesopotamia. A unique mural shows two large leopards, painted in red and black, as guardian figures on the altar decoration of a sanctuary. The protective aspect of the leopard is apparent here. Dionysus, the God of wine, revelry, and nature's darker side, was associated with the leopard. Dionysus was believed to have worn the leopard's skin during his sojourn in Asia, and, in a pebble mosaic from the Macedonian capital of Pella, the God was shown riding a leopard. This theme was repeated many times in antiquity, but perhaps most dramatically in a mosaic on the floor of the House of Masks on the Cycladic island of Delos, around 100 BC. How the Leopard Got It's Spots, an African folk tale retold by Forbes Stuart: In this African tale, a tortoise appeals to a hyena for help shaking fruit from a tree, but the mean hyena sticks the tortoise high in the tree instead. Help comes unexpectedly from a leopard... Afraid to move, clinging to the branch, the tortoise stayed up there for hours, while the sun slowly dipped over to the west, lengthening the shadow of the tree. Every time he looked down at the ground far below, he felt dizzy and terrified, but he had to keep his eyes open for he knew that help wouldn't come from the skies. At last, with darkness falling and despair growing, the tortoise saw a leopard padding past the tree and cried for help. The leopard leaped gracefully into the tree and brought the frightened tortoise back to the ground. At his request the leopard shook the branches so that the fruit fell to the ground for the tortoise to eat. The leopard didn't wait to be thanked and was gliding into the gathering darkness when the tortoise called him back. "Leopard, listen to me before you go. You have been very good to me, and I would like to do something for you in return. If you let me paint black spots all over your tawny coat, you will be admired through out the jungle. Come in the morning when the sun gives us light." The leopard's dull coat was completely transformed by the black spots that the tortoise painted in with care and artistic skill. And just as the artist had predicted, when the leopard swaggered through the jungle he was followed by the admiring glances of other animals. Why the Leopard Hides His Food Up a Tree, a Ndebele story from South Africa: The Ndebele tell their children that long ago, there were three friends: the beautiful leopard, the jackal and the hyena. They went everywhere together. Whenever Leopard killed an animal, he would always leave part of it for his friends so that they could have a good feed too. One day it happened that Leopard was ill, and so he could not hunt. "Jackal," he said, "Please catch some food for us, for I am not well." But lazy Jackal said, "No, I am too weary. Ask Hyena." So Leopard said, "Hyena, please hunt for us today, for I am not well enough to do so." But Hyena, too, made an excuse: "No, I have a sore foot." At this Leopard roared in anger, "I thought you were my friends, but are a no-good, lazy pair. Never again will I leave you meat when I make my kills. From this day on, I will make sure of it. I shall take what is left and hang it in a tree, when I have eaten all I want. Then neither of you will be able to get at it." Leopard was true to his word - for since that day he has never left any meat for his selfish friends. Up into a tree it goes, high out of reach of jackals and hyenas. They have become scavengers now instead, and they eat the scraps that other animals leave behind. It was a sad day for them when they lost Leopard's friendship. A black panther poem (to clarify, black panthers are either black-phase leopards or black-phase jaguars) : The Panther ~ Rainer Maria Rilke From seeing and seeing the seeing has become so exhausted it no longer sees anything anymore. The world is made of bars, a hundred thousand bars, and behind the bars, nothing. The lithe swinging of that rhythmical easy stride that slowly circles down to a single point is like a dance of energy around a hub, in which a great will stands stunned and numbed. At times the curtains of the eye lift without a sound - then a shape enters, slips through the tightened silence of the shoulders, reaches the heart and dies. |
