Dukúr Bulú, the first great bat
Bribri Cabécar · numen · Bribri Cabécar traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Dukúr Bulú, also called Dukúr Këklä or Dukúr Këglö, is the first and greatest bat of Bribri and Cabécar mythology. He lived in the house of the creator Sibö, and each evening flew over concealed hills to the underworld where the earth-girl slept, drinking her blood. When plants with a sweet smell sprang up from his droppings inside Sibö's house, the astonished creator questioned him and learned that the blood came from the daughter of Sulá and Nãmãitãmĩ. Though an enemy of that underworld family for preying on the child, the bat, after much insistence, revealed to Sibö the way down to her chamber, and so became an unwitting instrument in the transformation of the earth-girl into the living world.
Domains
- bats and night flight
Powers
- to drink the blood of the sleeping earth-girl
- to reveal the hidden path to the earth-girl's chamber
Epithets
- Dukúr KëkläJara Murillo, Carla Victoria & Alí García Segura, 'Diccionario de mitología bribri', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2003. (secondary)
Relations
- enemy: Nãmãitãmĩ, the Tapir-woman, mother of the earth-girlHe is counted an enemy of the Tapir-woman's underworld household because he feeds on the blood of her sleeping daughter.Jara Murillo, Carla Victoria & Alí García Segura, 'Diccionario de mitología bribri', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2003. (secondary)
Sources
- Dukúr Bulú is the first great bat of Talamancan myth who drank the earth-girl's blood and revealed to Sibö the path to her underworld chamber.: Jara Murillo, Carla Victoria & Alí García Segura, 'Diccionario de mitología bribri', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2003. (secondary); Bozzoli de Wille, María Eugenia, 'El nacimiento y la muerte entre los bribris', San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 1979. (secondary)