Bats are the only group of mammals so shrouded in mystery, mythical folklore, and misinformation. We can understand that when we look at these western expressions like `batty` or having `bats in one`s belfry` for a crazy irrational person. `Old bat ‘for an ugly or unpleasant person [usually female]; `blind as a bat` for a person with defective eyesight; someone in hasty retreat is described as `took off like a bat out of hell. `

                                                                    In Fijian expressions, you find more negative human behavior is linked with bats [flying fox]. Flying fox is called `beka` in the Fijian language. A person who does not shower regularly is called as `boiboi Vaka beka` or smell like a bat. A lazy person is described as loafing about like a bat. Someone with bad table manners may be referred to as `Kanakana Vaka beka` or eat like a flying fox.

                                                                  Folklore, superstitions, and legends are woven around bats. Bats are unjustly associated with evil, night/death or dark side of the human experience. The most common association of bats is with witches and vampires that drink or suck blood. Bats are a common element in the folklore of many cultures from Japan, the Philippines, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East and the Americas. Bhutas, rakshasas are vampires like creatures that wander about in the midnight and early hours of the morning. There is an Indian superstition that bats flying around a house supposedly foretell death. Gypsies look at-bats with reverence. In the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia, bats were considered to be the luckiest of all animals, especially when you keep a bat`s bone. Gypsy children wore a black bag containing the dried fragments of a bat around their necks as a talisman of good fortune. Bohemians believed that the right eye of a bat carried in the waistcoat pocket was supposed to make the person invisible. In Gypsy folklore, a gambler in Southern Germany, to win, used to tie a bat`s heart to the arm with which he dealt cards.

                                                                       We can find several associations of bats with witches in African folklore. Among the Nupe of West Central Nigeria, witches, though not directly identified with bats, are said to meet and talk in baobao and iroko trees. Both these trees are pollinated by fruit bats that clatter like `witches` talking. According to Azande of Central Africa, bats can be vehicles of the souls of witches.

                                                                                 In the New World, bats were associated with death and darkness by the ancient Maya. The bat deity [`Zotz` is the Mayan word for bat], bear a striking resemblance to leaf-nosed bats of the family Phyllostomidae.  There is the worship of bats or bat Gods in certain parts of Mexico. For example, there is a large cave in Veracruz where pregnant women go to give offerings to the vampire bats and pray for successful deliveries of their babies. The people of the village may also offer food, flowers, and sometimes money to bats to protect them from enemies, bad luck, and also to ensure a rich harvest. Bats were associated with the underworld and were considered sacred by Persephone, the daughter of Zeus, wife of Hades, and ruler of the subterranean world of the dead. 

 Man-eating or blood-sucking bats occupy a major part in the folk tales of the Arawak Indians of Northern Guyana in South America. In the case of vampires and witches, they are often portrayed as an agent of death. Bram stroker’s Dracula was influenced by tales of vampire bats brought back to Europe by travelers. In the magic and religion of gypsies, there is a strong vampire tradition.  

                                                                         Another story told by the Makusi tribe of the Arawak concerns an immense monster bat that lived on bat mountain in the Pakaraima range. As the story goes the bat would stoop down on the village at night and carry off anyone, who is found outside. Later a village woman was supposed to have volunteered to be its victim and killed the bat using a smoldering stick that lighted the bat`s nest. 

                                                                      In yet another Arawak tale the owl [Boku-boku] married the sister of two bats and thereafter he took his two brothers- in -law for hunting and taught them how to steal cooked fish from village folk. There was no apparent direct association of bats with vampires and witches in the writings of ancient Greeks. And there is an Australian aboriginal legend that parallels the story of Adam and Eve. When the first man and woman were put on earth, they were told to stay away from a large bat as it was venerated by the spirits and was not to be disturbed. Just as Eve became curious about the apple, this woman also became curious about the large bat and approached it for a closer look. The bat was frightened and flew away from its perch. It had been guarding a cave in which death dwelled. When the sentry abandoned its guardian vigil, death crawled from its dark prison into the world and since then, men have died.

References;

1] Bats  

Hill  J.E. & Smith J. D.(1984), Bats: A Natural History.

2] Images Retrieved from:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g96tAjRgbu8
• https://shirleytwofeathers.com/The_Blog/sigils-symbols-signs/bat-symbolism-mythology-and-^lore/
• https://tobymartins.weebly.com/camazotz_mayanassassin.html
• https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2018/10/wild-vampires-the-bloodthirsty-animals-which-give-dracula-a-run-for-his-money-th-545419
• https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bats/where-bats-live.htm