From: G.R.
Message: 25489
Date: 2003-09-03
Question: is there in any other IE language the story about the babies
which are beared to the parents by a certain stork and if yes, where /
when was attested first time this story?
Alex
Certainly in Italy (the stork brings the babies, "la cicogna porta i bambini", except when they are not found under a cabbage, "trovati sotto un cavolo").
I have no idea how old the saying is - older than me for sure (I'm 69, and my mother most convincingly informed me very early in my life that I had been brought by the stork).
For some reason, the cabbage idea sounds "imported", or maybe just "more imported" than the stork tradition, anyhow.
Storks fly over Italy during their migrations, and it so happens than a nice flock of them - a hundred of them at least - stopped in a village in Central Italy a couple of weeks ago, where thay had never stopped to rest before. It was quite an event, and there was a lot of excitement, locally and nationally (press, tv).
There have been recent sightings elsewhere in Italy also in recent years, most probably because of more stringent laws against shooting migratory birds (it used to represent a demonstration of macho prowess, particularly on the Strait of Messina, between Calabria and Sicily).
But please allow me to add that, rather recently, I have heard untested rumours that babies are actually produced in a different way - worth checking, maybe.
Ciao,
Guido Ruzzier