Q! Where have you been?
RL interfered! A move to the coast and a new job, things have been somewhat busy as of late.
How the devil are folks on here? Hoping you're all well
I've never heard this about weasels/stoats but it sounds really interesting, reminds me of the idea of 'crow courts' - woodland animals engaging in secret anthropomorphic ritual behaviour, which only a few of us are lucky enough to see...
I *think* Merrily Harpur may have mentioned it in FT but I can't recall which issue (or - again - whether it was weasels and stoats).
I've had a quick google and struck sort-of lucky (I now know it
is weasels):
He is the only person I know who has witnessed a weasel's funeral - he was on a track in a wood when two weasels walked past on their hind legs bearing the stiff corpse of another with other family members following on behind.
linkFebruary 2nd, 1972
A WEASEL FUNERAL
I believe that naturalists scorn the story, but the legend of the weasel’s funeral is very persistent throughout the country, and I have heard recently, through an unimpeachable clerical source, of a professional man in Co Mayo who actually witnessed this strange ceremony. The observer was driving from Balla to Claremorris when he noticed what he thought was a monster snake crossing the road. He slowed speed, and, on approaching the “object” found that it was a procession of weasels. In front were four, carrying the body, and behind them came nearly 100 other weasels, two by two. When the “mourners” had crossed the road, climbed a fence, and entered a field, the car-driver followed them, but left when some of them turned and began to spit at him. This story is quite well authenticated.
Can anybody else tell me why the story is associated only with weasels, and never with squirrels, or hedgehogs, or any other specimens of ingenious wildlife – QUIDNUNC
linkOh and Min, defo start that thread! I'll have to have a dig around to see if I can come up with something for it, too
