Kaipis, the Fire-Bringing Bird

Kaipis (Isbukun haipis), the black bulbul, is the celebrated fire-bringer of Bunun myth. When the primeval flood drove the ancestors to the mountain peaks without tinder, the people first sent a toad to fetch fire, but its ember was quenched in the water; the kaipis then flew to a distant fire-bearing summit and carried burning tinder back in its bill and claws. The embers scorched the once all-black bird, which is why the black bulbul has a red bill and red feet to this day. In memory of this service the Bunun traditionally forbid killing the kaipis, and the bird retains a sacred status in Bunun communities. The episode is recorded in the Japanese-era Bunun text collection of Ogawa and Asai (1935) and in Ho Ting-jui's comparative study of Formosan myths (1971).

Domains

• fire

Powers

• to carry burning tinder in its bill and claws across the floodwaters

Sources

• The heroic bird of the Bunun deluge myth that succeeded in carrying fire to the flood-stranded ancestors, its bill and feet turned red by the embers, and which is therefore protected by taboo.: Ho, Ting-jui. A Comparative Study of Myths and Legends of Formosan Aborigines. Taipei: Orient Cultural Service, 1971. (secondary); Ogawa, Naoyoshi, and Erin Asai. 原語による台湾高砂族伝説集 [The Myths and Traditions of the Formosan Native Tribes]. Tokyo: Tōkō Shoin, 1935. (secondary)