The Parrot Who Spoke a Lost Language
In 1800, an explorer on the Orinoco was told of a parrot that still spoke words of a people who had vanished. No one living could understand it.
What was reported
Travelling up the Orinoco river in 1800, the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt heard a story at the Atures rapids. The Atures people, he was told, had died out after attacks by a neighbouring people, and the last of them had taken refuge among the rocks of the rapids.
Humboldt wrote that an old parrot in the village of Maypures still spoke words in the Atures language, and that no one could understand it. Some accounts say he wrote down some of its words.
Explanations offered
Parrots can live for decades and mimic speech, so the story is possible, but it rests on Humboldt's brief account, which has been retold and embroidered. In 1997, the artist Rachel Berwick taught two parrots a few reconstructed words for an installation remembering the story.
- When
- 1800
- Where
- Atures rapids, Amazonas, Venezuela
- Witnesses
- The explorer Alexander von Humboldt
- Status
- Unconfirmed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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