The storyteller, a dignified-looking man in his 50’s, did not appear to heed the question. He continued. “No one is quite sure as to its origins, but one thing is certain. The eirfin is an appealing beast, but a regular rapscallion. Much like a weasel in appearance, but with a longer neck, the creature has the strange ability to stand on its hind legs and walk about like a man. It likes to steal food, like the animal it most resembles, but an erifin is more choosy, and particularly delights in making off with a pie left to cool on a windowsill or fresh-squeezed milk from a pail.

“The eirfin is also a master of mimicry. Like the mocking bird, it can reproduce any sound it has ever heard. So, when you encounter an eirfin, it may stand on its hind legs and address you in perfectly intelligible English (or Spanish, or any language it has encountered in its life). You may answer, and it may answer in turn, but the truth is, the creature doesn’t understand a word it is saying, though the more intelligent ones can recognize patterns in speech, and so mimic not only the words, but the structure of a conversation. A typical dialogue with an eirfin might go like this:

You: ‘Why hello there, little creature.’
It: ‘Hello.’
You: ‘How are you today?’
It: ‘Can you believe this rain?’
You: ‘What rain? There isn’t a cloud in sight.’
It: ‘And how is your mother doing?’
You: ‘Getting along well enough, I suppose.’
It: ‘From the west, wouldn’t you say?’
You: ‘What about the west?’
It: ‘I best be going now.’
You: ‘Alright then, pleasure chatting.’
It: ‘Good evening.’
You: ‘It’s nine o’clock in the morning, you little fool.’

“The thing would not take insult, but merely disappear into the bushes. You’d be left staring after it feeling inexplicably uneasy.”

“Other animals don’t have the voice-box to speak like humans,” the well-educated listener informed the story-teller.

“I told you, this is a mythological creature. It doesn’t follow the normal rules. It started out just as a story, but as more and more people heard, and started looking for the eirfin, some groups became determined not to give it up. They wanted so badly to find one of these creatures, that finally somebody did. And once one person had done it, more and more people had success in their searches too. This made the stories spread more rapidly, and people began to sight the creature over a much larger radius.”

“That’s impossible,” the listener scoffed, shaking his young head. “You can’t invent something just by telling a bunch of silly stories.”

“On the contrary,” the storyteller countered. “That’s the only way anything is ever created.”