Ainu And Hopi Take To The Sky
The Ainu’s Sinta Or Flying Cradle So there are the combined themes — as in the South Asian tales — of romance, rescue, flight, and mechanical devices. Whereas in some of the South Asian tales of flight the vehicle takes the form of an artificial bird, in the Ainu tale the device is called a sinta or shinta, which is usually the term for a baby’s cradle. However, among the Ainu this word is also used to refer to an aerial vehicle — one story even describes a character who "flew around the sky and fought from a sinta (air conveyance) like a goddess", a scene rather reminiscent of ...