There is an interesting bird that lives in the southern part of Africa. It is the Hadeda Ibis, according to my friend David, who lives in Johannesburg. It looks like an Egyptian Ibis but is slightly different. David says they are probably a distant cousin. The Egyptian Ibis inhabits the parts of Africa north of Kenya and the Hadeda Ibis inhabits Southern Africa, in and around Johannesburg. They are a very large bird with a long curving beak, but what makes them interesting is not so much their looks as their habits. Whenever they take to the air, they squawk and raise such a noise that you would think someone was murdering them. They like to roost in tall trees. One particular flock of them liked to roost in the tall pine trees adjacent to our apartment in Johannesburg. They were early risers, often waking us with their loud squawking at first light, long before we wanted to leave our bed.

According to David and Newman's Book of Birds of Southern Africa, the Hadeda's Latin name is Bostrychia  Hagedash. The squawking noise of these birds, that is so familiar where they are found, is, as African legend has it, because the birds are afraid of heights. This is thought to be the reason that they have short legs and such long beaks and are generally observed to be roaming around on the ground. According to the locals, the Ibis squawks only in flight and is rarely seen flying above an altitude of about thirty feet. Therefore, they believe that the bird is afraid of flying. South Africans, who have observed them over time have noticed that they generally roost at the tops of the trees during the night, and if disturbed by any strong winds or other birds, they are quite happy to yell their call out to anyone who cares to listen, at any time of the day or night.

The Hadeda Ibis seems to find it quite impossible to take off in silence or to fly any distance without squawking, so perhaps the legend is true. The legend has it that the Ibis was always a ground feeder and was not able to fly until the legendary Tokoloshe, a very ugly, short, evil creature with a long penis reputed to hang over his shoulder, came on the scene. The natives claim that the Tokoloshe is the reason that all locals tend to place their beds on paint cans to elevate them, because the Tokoloshe is quite short. Apparently, the Hadeda Ibis got such a fright when they first saw the Tokoloshe that they suddenly jumped up and discovered that they could indeed fly, but were unacustomed to it, hence the sqwaking. Since then, they have squawked in flight.

The legend of the Tokoloshe is very deeply ingrained in local African folklore, and nearly all evil is attributed to it. No one has ever actually been able to personally testify as to having seen it, but everyone apparently 'knows'  that it is "real". According to the legend, the Tokoloshe is a black dwarf-like humanoid that only moves around at night. It is said to be able to move about silently and is similar to a shadow in that it can get past any type of alarm system and can enter a room by changing its form and crawling under the door.

They say that the Tokoloshe is very ugly and uses it's long penis to impregnate sleeping people, both male and female. If it gets into your room and you wake up, then you will be dead with fright, or it will kill you before you can testify as to its existence. The locals believe that if you hear the Tokoloshe in your room during the night, then you must, at all costs, pretend to be asleep. They also believe that the Tokoloshe is very short and therefore it cannot get onto your bed if you place your bed on bricks or paint cans. If the Tokoloshe cannot get onto your bed while you are sleeping, then it cannot "mate" with you. It is believed that if the Tokoloshe manages to "mate" with a male during the night, then by morning the male organs will be gone and the man will be changed into a female so that she can bear the Tokoloshe's offspring.