Tigers, Crocodiles, Korans and Superstitions

In the Sundarbans, when a man is killed by a tiger, his wife is believed to have brought bad luck and she and the children are vanquished:

“[T]he tiger widows…viewed as harbingers of bad luck among the superstitious local population…are avoided, expelled and, after the dramatic deaths of their husbands, thrown out by their husband’s families, with which they have often been living since their weddings. Already poor, they have no choice but to provide for their families themselves.”  Spiegel: Bangladesh’s Tiger Widows Fight Exclusion

Man is always looking for ways to make himself right by the Gods.  Today in Afghanistan, over the Koran burnings, that cleansing appeasement takes the form of bullets and car bombs.

In Africa and other places, babies often are sacrificed:

“His top teeth came in before his bottom teeth. That is how elders of the Kara tribe determined that a healthy baby boy needed to be killed.  The child was ‘mingi’—cursed, according to their ancient superstitions. With every breath, they believed, the boy was beckoning an evil spirit into their village.

“…[T]he decision to kill the boy was the easy part. It was the sacrifice of one infant for the good of the entire tribe—a rite that some of the elders had witnessed hundreds of times…the tribe’s leaders were less certain of what they should do about the boy’s twin brother, who had died of sickness shortly after birth. After some debate, including a pensive examination of a goat’s intestines, they decided the dead child must have been mingi…they dug up the corpse, bound it to the living boy, paddled a canoe into the center of the Omo River and threw them both into the murky brown water.” CNN: Is the tide turning against the killing of ‘cursed’ infants in Ethiopia?

Mr. Tiger had a Bengal tiger on his back.  He struggled to survive but the cat was strong and was winning.  He said five or six other men attacked the tiger with sticks, but the cat fought back.

Tiger teeth marks.

One can only imagine the suddenness of a tiger weighing hundreds of pounds sinking its teeth into your neck, pinning your head to the ground.  The sound of its panting in your ears, the smell of its meat-eating breath in your nose and mouth.  Those who have smelled tiger’s breath say it’s horrible.

If the cyclones, serpents, mosquitoes and tigers aren’t enough, there’s the Sundarban crocodiles.  We saw many, and the largest was bigger than most of the fishermen’s boats.  These are Estuarine Crocs and keeping in context with the Sundarbans, they are man-eaters.  They snatch people off the banks and boats.

Crocodile just near Tiger Man’s village.

There are stories around the world about sacrifices to crocodiles.  Along the Ganges, Hindu women of yestertimes were said to hold a baby by the arm until a crocodile came to take it, and then she would toss the baby to the croc and watch it devoured.

Tiger scar.

Tiger Man could try kitty therapy. This cat would be perfect; it sleeps with its claws extended and it can warn of Kraits.

Mankind uses therapy to assuage its fears.  Sometimes the therapy comes in the form of drowning babies, feeding them to the crocodiles, or in casting out the tiger widows.

Laws against human sacrifice are enforced only when those making the laws are more powerful than those who continue with human sacrifice.

There is no significant difference between this and what we see today in Afghanistan with the fanatical reaction to the Koran burnings.  Dozens of people have already died.  There was a large car bomb yesterday morning in Jalalabad, for which the Taliban claimed credit for killing at least nine more people.  Most of the killing is by Afghans of Afghans.

If those committing this human sacrifice were a small tribe in Africa warding off “mingi,” we would instantly recognize that their behavior is unacceptable.  If someone burned some papers, no matter how much offense it caused, and a tribe in Africa started a bonfire for babies, it would not be appropriate to apologize.

There is little difference in blasting off suicide bombs than in feeding babies to crocodiles.  Anthropological details vary but the essentials remain unchanged.

Hindu shrine along a canal near Mr. Tiger’s village and the crocodile.

Those committing the human sacrifices in Afghanistan hold sufficient power that they caused the President of the United States, and our Commanding General in Afghanistan, to buckle and supplicate themselves with apologies for offending the sensibilities of superstition.  Granted, it is unwise to gratuitously offend the beliefs of others, but when murder is being committed the apologies should cease.  We are not responsible for atrocities they commit.

I have repeatedly spoken up against the burning of the Koran, yet there comes a time to acknowledge that something is wrong for which we are mistaken to apologize.