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 the flights of the deities in the South Asian accounts. Other stories recount the riding of a