Kappa

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 56958

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Gina R Rosich <grosich at n...> 
wrote:

<< I always thought that Snape knows what it says in the book, but is 
making a point that the book is actually wrong.  Surely, we¹ve all 
found an occasion where a book says something that turns out to be 
incorrect. >>

While I have experienced textbooks (and test answers!) that were 
wrong, I don't think this is one of those cases.

Snape said: "That is incorrect, the kappa is more commonly found in 
Mongolia.... " and I wondered whether kappa had perhaps overrun 
Mongolia like rabbits overrun Australia, thus being more *common* in 
Mongolia than in their native place. 

Their native place, however, IS Japan. I know that because kappa are 
real -- at least, they are real Japanese folklore here in the Muggle 
real world. They're very fond of cucumber,which is why the sushi roll 
with cucumber (and fake crab, right?) in it is called a Kappa maka = 
Kappa roll. They have a depression on top of their head which is 
filled with water (they live in streams and rivers) and lose all 
their strength if the depression empties of water. So if you are 
menaced to a kappa, bow to it. Politeness requires that it then bow 
to you. Then the water falls off their head and they get all weak and 
you can run away while the kappa is refilling the water on its head.