[Glorantha] Obscure Soul Bird Question

I am trying to provide full animist keywords for the Soul Birds to my players in my Right-Arm Island campaign.

In Tradetalk 4 Pepyna the Pelican is listed as follows:

Pepyna the Pelican is the TANIST, through self sacrifice and wisdom he provided food and showed how our people could survive bad times. (Written by Simon Bray & Martin Hawley)

So what exactly does this mean?

Does Pepyna have a sacrificial ritual associated with him, i.e. is the term tanist used here in the sense that Sir James Frazer would use it in The Golden Bough?

Another possibility is that the word Tanist should be Tanner and implying preservation of leather and so is related to the food preservation aspect. Is there a tradition of Pelican skin curing in the Rightarm Islands?

I could just be barking up two wrong trees.

Are either Simon or Marin available for comment?

Jamie Received on Fri 25 Aug 2006 - 12:20:05 EEST