After a great deal of work by Clive, we are pleased to announce the start-up of the Iberianature Forum bookshop. It’s one of those Amazon associated schemes. We get 5% from Amazon on any book which you click on and then buy. This will go towards the server costs, which in the case of the forum are rather high. So if you fancy buying someone a book about Spain for Christmas, and you like this site, why not do it through us at no extra cost to you. Spanish language books will also be included soon.
Thanks, Nick Iberianature Forum bookshop
Iberianature news, books | |
27/02/2006 I recently bought “Anfibios y Reptiles de la Peninsula Iberica e Islas Baleares†(Guias Verdes) by Toni Aragon Rebollo, 2006. 39 euros or thereabouts. This is a very well organised and clearly written guide. Before the field guide itself, there is an ample introduction on the status of herps in Spain and a fascinating section on their place in Spanish folklore, from which I’ve quickly translated this on lizards.
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“In the north of the Peninsula, it was believed that lizards were friends of men, while snakes were related to women. They told that lizards would leap at women during their period (Translator’s note: My mother-in-law has told me about this). Similarly in Seville , geckos were said to chase after women. There also stories of lizards climbing into women’s vaginas while they slept. In the southeast there is the belief that if you come across a lizard with two tails and you put it in a plate scattered with flour, it will draw the winning numbers in the lottery (two-tailed lizards occasionally occur when a new one is regrown without the old having been totally severed). Another belief related to lizards tails is that they are a cure warts. This belief should be combated as the loss of its tail can cause great harm.
There is also lots information on the folklore around individual species in the field guide part. On the Turkish gecko we have for example:
“In Murcia they are known as “pelás”. This comes from the “powers†they are said to have. It is thought that if you misfortunate enough for a gecko to fall on your head you will go bald as a coot. In some villages just the mere spit from a gecko is enough to leave you hairless”.
All no doubt true, although biologists claim that geckos can’t spit. Thoroughly recommended. Good drawings and photos too.
See Foroum on this Book on Spanish reptiles and amphibians
books, folklore, reptiles & amphibians | |
04/10/2006 I was recently asked by VÃctor Gutiérrez Alba to review his book “El Lobo Ibérico en Andaluciaâ€. This is a comprehensive account of the wolf in Andalusia covering its history, mythology and relations with man, with fascinating chapters such as the “The Wolf as a Transforming Element of the Landscapeâ€, “War and Wolvesâ€, Wolves and Andalusian witchcraft” Wolves and Transhumance”. The book is very well researched and brimming with historical anecdotes. It begins with a perhaps overly exhaustive review of the decline extinction of wolves in Andalusia . For the time being here’s an extract from the start of the book from one Enrique IV Alonso de Palencia who writes in the 1570s of the presence of two wolves in the centre of Seville, at a time when wolves roamed throughout the region:
“….once the sun had risen, two wolves came into Seville and ran across the city. One of them, frightened by the shouts from the people, entered the Church of Santa Catalina, ran up to the high altar and stained the priest’s chasuble with its saliva , before fleeing from the people in pursuit and those attending mass. It doubled back before being slain by arrows in the outskirts by the Church of San Pedro . Its head was cut off and taken to the Duke. The other wolf fled towards the Templo de St Lucia and left the city unharmed.†An excellent read and I’ll be translating more short extracts over the coming months.. You can order a copy here from Oryx. Snip at 30 euros. (I’m not on any commission by the way).
Andalucia, Mammals, Wolves, books | |
