With their nocturnal habits, silent flight and their large, hypnotic eyes, owls are the perfect candidates for all sorts of weird and wonderful folklore, and owl mythologies are found in most cultures. There are Icelandic and Native American beliefs that owls offer wisdom and spiritual guidance. In parts of
India there is the superstition that the number of hoots an owl emits conveys very different and often very dire messages. Eight hoots foretell impending death, while nine celebrate imminent good fortune. One can only imagine how many frantic conversations this must have started. ‘Was that eight or nine hoots, dear…? Dear?’
Loss of life during the night is frequently associated with owls, and in the Middle East owls are synonymous with infant mortality and cot death. In South
Africa too, as in most parts of Africa, the owl is symbol of misfortune, indicating the presence of evil and the approaching death of a loved one.
In some southern African cultures it is believed that powdered owl liver prepared in a broth will cure insomnia, while in other parts of Africa a daily dose of owl eggnog can cure maladies ranging from baldness to drunkenness.
The list of owl-related superstitions is long and it ranges from the bizarre to the, well, really bizarre. The one thing that is clear is that man’s relationship
with owls has always been an emotive one, and any communion with an owl never fails to elicit a feeling of deep significance.
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