Porcupine, as the sacred animal

Porcupine is also one of the sacred animal of nature. It is directly not associated in religion as the vehicle of any God and Goddess. But still it has some spiritual value.
Porcupine is an animal which belongs to the order rodentia of class mammalia. It comes under phylum chordata. It is in the same group in which the cat belongs.
Habitat: Porcupine lives in the deeply wooded areas of the forest. It is very easy to kill porcupines and its meat is also tasty. Porcupine has the habit of girdling trees. The quill of porcupine is found to be used for different porpuses: For example, In the investiture of the sacred thread ceremony (upanayan) the top knot of the brahmachari (celibate) is separated into three portions with the help of a quil of porcupine. Another use of the quill of porcupine is that a pregnant woman observes a ceremony called simanta ceremony in which the prtings are separated with a quill of porcupine.Among the newar caste, there is the custom of performing the primary marriage ceremony called ihin when young girls of pre puberty age are symbolically married to a bell fruit which is the personification of God Narayan.During this ceremony, a quill of porcupine is inserted in the hair of the girl.