{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_59598/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_59598","id":"gutenberg_59598","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59598","summary":null,"tags":["Birds -- Folklore","Birds -- Miscellanea","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore"],"text":"Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                            BIRDS IN LEGEND\n                           FABLE AND FOLKLORE\n\n\n[Illustration:\n\n  ST. FRANCIS PREACHING TO THE BIRDS.\n\n  _Attributed to Giotto_\n]\n\n\n\n\n                            BIRDS IN LEGEND\n                           FABLE AND FOLKLORE\n\n                                   BY\n                            ERNEST INGERSOLL\n AUTHOR OF \u201cTHE LIFE OF MAMMALS,\u201d \u201cNATURE\u2019S CALENDAR,\u201d \u201cTHE WIT OF THE\n        WILD,\u201d ETC.: AND SECRETARY OF THE AUTHORS CLUB, NEW YORK\n\n[Illustration]\n\n                        LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.\n                       55 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK\n                   39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. 4\n                 TORONTO, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS\n                                  1923\n\n\n                          COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY\n                        LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.\n\n\n                       MADE IN THE UNITED STATES\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                CONTENTS\n\n\n         CHAPTER                                           PAGE\n              I. A CHAT WITH THE INTENDING READER             3\n\n             II. BIRDS AS NATIONAL EMBLEMS                   28\n\n            III. AN ORNITHOLOGICAL COMEDY OF ERRORS          51\n\n             IV. THE FOLKLORE OF BIRD MIGRATION              81\n\n              V. NOAH\u2019S MESSENGERS                           98\n\n             VI. BIRDS IN CHRISTIAN TRADITION AND FESTIVAL  109\n\n            VII. BIRDS AS SYMBOLS AND BADGES                127\n\n           VIII. BLACK FEATHERS MAKE BLACK BIRDS            154\n\n             IX. THE FAMILIAR OF WITCHES                    179\n\n              X. A FLOCK OF FABULOUS FOWLS                  191\n\n             XI. FROM ANCIENT AUGURIES TO MODERN RAINBIRDS  212\n\n            XII. A PRIMITIVE VIEW OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES  226\n\n           XIII. BIRDS AND THE LIGHTNING                    242\n\n            XIV. LEGENDS IN AN HISTORICAL SETTING           253\n\n             XV. SOME PRETTY INDIAN STORIES                 270\n\n                 LIST OF BOOKS REFERRED TO                  282\n\n                 INDEX                                      287\n\n\n\n\n                            BIRDS IN LEGEND\n                           FABLE AND FOLKLORE\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER I\n                    A CHAT WITH THE INTENDING READER\n\n  Angus Mac-ind-oc was the Cupid of the Gaels. He was a harper of the\n  sweetest music, and was attended by birds, his own transformed\n  kisses, which hovered, invisible, over young men and maidens of\n  Erin, whispering love into their ears.\n\n\nWhen we say, \u201cA little bird told me,\u201d we are talking legend and folklore\nand superstition all at once. There is an old Basque story of a\nbird\u2014always a small one in these tales\u2014that tells the truth; and our\nBiloxi Indians used to say the same of the hummingbird. Breton peasants\nstill credit all birds with the power of using human language on proper\noccasions, and traditions in all parts of the world agree that every\nbird had this power once on a time if not now. The fireside-tales of the\nnomads of Oriental deserts or of North American plains and forest alike\nattest faith in this power; and conversation by and with birds is almost\nthe main stock of the stories heard on our Southern cotton-plantations.\nYou will perhaps recall the bulbul bazar of the _Arabian Nights_, and,\nif you please, you may read in another chapter of the conversational\npewit and hoopoe of Solomonic fame.\n\nBiblical authority exists in the confidence of the Prophet Elijah that a\n\u201cbird of the air ... shall tell the matter\u201d; and monkish traditions\nabound in revelations whispered in the ear of the faithful by winged\nmessengers from divine sources, as you may read further along if you\nhave patience to turn the leaves. The poets keep alive the pretty\nfiction; and the rest of us resort to the phrase with an arch smile\nwhenever we do not care to quote our authority for repeating some\nhalf-secret bit of gossip. \u201cThis magical power of understanding\nbirdtalk,\u201d says Halliday,[1][A] \u201cis regularly the way in which the seers\nof myths obtain their information.\u201d\n\nFootnote A:\n\n  This and similar \u201csuperior\u201d figures throughout the text refer to the\n  List of Books in the Appendix, where the author and title of the\n  publication alluded to will be found under its number.\n\n  The author takes this opportunity, in place of a perfunctory Preface,\n  to make grateful acknowledgment of assistance to Professor A. V. H.\n  JACKSON, who revised the chapter on fabulous birds; to Mr. STEWART\n  CULIN, helpful in Chinese matters, etc.; to Professor JUSTIN H. SMITH,\n  who scanned the whole manuscript; and to others who furnished valuable\n  facts and suggestions.\n\nPrimitive men\u2014and those we style the Ancients were primitive so far as\nnature is concerned\u2014regarded birds as supernaturally wise. This\ncanniness is implied in many of the narratives and incidents set down in\nthe succeeding pages; and in view of it birds came to be regarded by\nearly man with great respect, yet also with apprehension, for they might\nutilize their knowledge to his harm. For example: The Canada jay is\nbelieved by the Indians along the northern shore of Hudson Bay to give\nwarning whenever they approach an Eskimo camp\u2014usually, of course, with\nhostile intent; and naturally those Indians kill that kind of jay\nwhenever they can.\n\nThe ability in birds to speak implies knowledge, and Martha Young[2]\ngives us a view of this logic prevailing among the old-time southern\ndarkies:\n\n  Sis\u2019 Dove she know mo\u2019n anybody or anything in de worl\u2019. She know\n  pintedly de time anybody gwine die. You\u2019ll hear her moanin\u2019 fer a\n  passin\u2019 soul \u2019fo\u2019 you hear de bell tone. She know \u2019fo\u2019\n  cotton-plantin\u2019 time whe\u2019r de craps dat gatherin\u2019 \u2019ll be good er\n  bad. \u2019Fo\u2019 folks breaks up de new groun\u2019 er bust out middles, Sis\u2019\n  Dove know what de yield \u2019ll be. She know it an\u2019 she\u2019ll tell it, too.\n  \u2019Caze ev\u2019ybody know if Sis\u2019 Dove coo on de right han\u2019 of a man\n  plowin\u2019, dare \u2019ll be a good crap dat year; but ef she coo on de lef\u2019\n  dar \u2019ll be a faillery crap dat year.\n\n  Sis\u2019 Dove she know about all de craps dat grow out er de groun\u2019 but\n  she \u2019special know about corn, fer she plant de fi\u2019st grain er corn\n  dat ever was plant\u2019 in de whole worl\u2019. Whar she git it?... Umm\u2014hum!\n  You tell me dat!\n\nFrom the belief in the intuitive wisdom of birds comes the world-wide\nconfidence in their prophetic power. Hence their actions, often so\nmysterious, have been watched with intense interest, and everything\nunusual in their behavior was noticed in the hope that it might express\na revelation from on high. Advantage was taken of this pathetic hope and\nassurance by the Roman augurs in their legalized ornithomancy, of which\nsome description will be found in another chapter. Nine-tenths of it was\npriestly humbug to keep ordinary folks in mental subjection, as\npriestcraft has ever sought to do. The remaining tenth has become the\nbasis of the present popular faith in birds\u2019 ability to foretell coming\nweather. Let me cite a few aboriginal examples of this faith, more or\nless sincere, in the ability and willingness of birds to warn inquiring\nhumanity.\n\nThe Omahas and other Siouan Indians used to say that when whippoorwills\nsing at night, saying \u201cHoia, hohin?\u201d one replies \u201cNo.\u201d If the birds stop\nat once, it is a sign that the answerer will soon die, but if the birds\nkeep on calling he or she will live a long time. The Utes of Colorado,\nhowever, declare that this bird is the god of the night, and that it\nmade the moon by magic, transforming a frog into it; while the Iroquois\nindulged in the pretty fancy that the moccasin-flowers (cypripediums)\nare whippoorwills\u2019 shoes.\n\nThis is a little astray from my present theme, to which we may return by\nquoting from Waterton[73] that if one of the related goatsuckers of the\nAmazon Valley be heard close to an Indian\u2019s or a negro\u2019s hut, from that\nnight evil fortune sits brooding over it. In Costa Rica bones of\nwhippoorwills are dried and ground to a fine powder by the Indians when\nthey want to concoct a charm against some enemy; mixed with tobacco it\nwill form a cigarette believed to cause certain death to the person\nsmoking it.\n\nTo the mountaineers of the southern Alleghanies the whippoorwill reveals\nhow long it will be before marriage\u2014as many years as its notes are\nrepeated: as I have heard the bird reiterate its cry more than 800 times\nwithout taking breath, this must often be a discouraging report to an\nanxious maid or bachelor. One often hears it said lightly in New England\nthat a whippoorwill calling very near a house portends death, but I can\nget no evidence that this \u201csign\u201d is really attended to anywhere in the\nnorthern United States.\n\nThis, and the equally nocturnal screech-owl (against which the darkies\nhave many \u201cconjurings\u201d) are not the only birds feared by rural folk in\nthe Southern States, especially in the mountains. A child in a family of\nGeorgia \u201ccrackers\u201d fell ill, and his mother gave this account of it to a\nsympathetic friend:\n\n  Mikey is bound to die. I\u2019ve know\u2019d it all along. All las\u2019 week the\n  moanin\u2019 doves was comin\u2019 roun\u2019 the house, and this mornin\u2019 one come\n  in at the window right by Mikey\u2019s head, an\u2019 cooed an\u2019 moaned. I\n  couldn\u2019t scare it away, else a witch would \u2019a\u2019 put a spell on me.\n\nMikey lived to become a drunkard, is the unfeeling comment of the\nreporter of this touching incident in _The Journal of American\nFolklore_.\n\n\u201cOne constantly hears by day the note of the lim\u00f3con, a wood-pigeon\nwhich exercises a most extraordinary interest over the lives of many of\nthe wild people, for they believe that the direction and nature of its\nnotes augur good or ill for the enterprises they have in hand.\u201d This\nmemorandum, in Dean Worcester\u2019s valuable book on the Philippines,[3] is\napt to the purpose of this introductory chapter, leading me to say that\nthe continuing reader will find doves (which are much the same in all\nparts of the world) conspicuous in legend, fable and ceremony; also that\nthe \u201cdirection and nature\u201d of their voices, as heard, is one of the most\nimportant elements in the consideration of birds in general as\nmessengers and prophets\u2014functions to which I shall often have occasion\nto refer, and on which are founded the ancient systems of\nbird-divination.\n\nIn these United States little superstition relating to animals has\nsurvived, partly because the wild creatures here were strange to the\npioneers, who were poorly acquainted with their characteristics, but\nmainly because such fears and fancies were left in the Old World with\nother rubbish not worth the freight-charges; yet a few quaint notions\ncame along, like small heirlooms of no particular value that folks\ndislike to throw away until they must. Almost all such mental keepsakes\nbelong to people in the backward parts of the country, often with an\nill-fitting application to local birds. A conspicuous disappearance is\nthat venerable body of forebodings and fancies attached to the European\ncuckoo, totally unknown or disregarded here, because our American\ncuckoos have no such irregular habits as gave rise to the myths and\nsuperstitions clustering about that bird in Europe.\n\nWe saw a moment ago that the negro farmer estimated what the yield of\nhis field would be by the direction from which the dove\u2019s message came\nto his ears. I have another note that if one hears the first\nmourning-dove of the year above him he will prosper: if from below him\nhis own course henceforth will be down hill.\n\nThis matter of direction whence (and also of number) is of vital\nimportance in interpreting bird-prophecy the world over, as will be\nfully shown in a subsequent chapter. Even in parts of New England it is\ncounted \u201cunlucky\u201d to see two crows together flying toward the left\u2014a\nplain borrowing from the magpie-lore of Old England. In the South it is\nthought that if two quails fly up in front of a man on the way to\nconclude a bargain he will do well to abandon the intended business.\nBreak up a killdeer\u2019s nest and you will soon break a leg or arm\u2014and so\non.\n\nThere always have been persons who were much disturbed when a bird\nfluttered against a closed window. A rooster crowing into an open\nhouse-door foretells a visitor. The plantation darkies of our Southern\nStates believe that when shy forest-birds come close about a dwelling as\nif frightened, or, wandering within it, beat their wings wildly in\nsearch of an exit, so some soul will flutteringly seek escape from that\nhouse\u2014and \u201cright soon.\u201d Similar fears afflict the timid on the other\nside of the globe. On the contrary, and more naturally, it is esteemed\namong us an excellent omen when wild birds nest fearlessly about a\nnegro\u2019s or a mountaineer\u2019s cabin.\n\nWhen a Georgia girl first hears in the spring the plaintive call of\nreturning doves she must immediately attend to it if she is curious as\nto her future partner in life. She must at once take nine steps forward\nand nine backward, then take off her right shoe: in it she will discover\na hair of the man she is to marry\u2014but how to find its owner is not\nexplained! This bit of rustic divination is plainly transferred from the\nold English formula toward the first-heard cuckoo, as may be learned\nfrom Gay\u2019s _The Shepherd\u2019s Week_,[8] which is a treasury of rustic\ncustoms in Britain long ago. Says one of the maids:\n\n             Then doff\u2019d my shoe, and by my troth I swear,\n             Therein I spy\u2019d this yellow, frizzled hair.\n\nThis matter of the hair is pure superstition allied to magic, in\npracticing which, indeed, birds have often been degraded to an evil\nservice very remote from their nature. Thiselton Dyer quotes an Irish\nnotion that \u201cin everyone\u2019s head there is a particular hair which, if the\nswallow can pluck it, dooms the wretched individual to eternal\nperdition.\u201d A Baltimore folklorist warns every lady against letting\nbirds build nests with the combings of her hair, as it will turn the\nunfortunate woman crazy. Any woman afraid of this should beware of that\ndear little sprite of our garden shrubbery, the chipping-sparrow, for it\nalways lines its tiny nest with hair. This notion is another\nimportation, for it has long been a saying in Europe that if a bird uses\nhuman hair in its nest the owner of the hair will have headaches and\nlater baldness. Curiously enough the Seneca Indians, one of the five\nIroquois tribes, are said to have long practised a means, as they\nbelieved it to be, of communicating with a maiden-relative, after her\ndeath, by capturing a fledgling bird with a noose made from her hair.\nThe bird was kept caged until it began to sing, when it was liberated\nand was believed to carry to the knowledge of the departed one a\nwhispered message of love.\n\nNow the idea underlying all this faith in the supernatural wisdom and\nprophetic gift in birds is the general supposition that they are\nspirits, or, at any rate, possessed by spirits, a doctrine that appears\nin various guises but is universal in the world of primitive culture\u2014a\nworld nearer to us sophisticated readers than perhaps we realize: but a\ngood many little children inhabit it, even within our doors.\n\n\u201cThe primitive mind,\u201d as Dr. Brinton asserts, \u201cdid not recognize any\ndeep distinction between the lower animals and man\u201d; and continues:\n\n  The savage knew that the beast was his superior in many points, in\n  craft and in strength, in fleetness and intuition, and he regarded\n  it with respect. To him the brute had a soul not inferior to his\n  own, and a language which the wise among men might on occasion\n  learn.... Therefore with wide unanimity he placed certain species of\n  animals nearer to God than is man himself, or even identified them\n  with the manifestations of the Highest.\n\n  None was in this respect a greater favorite than the bird. Its\n  soaring flight, its strange or sweet notes, the marked hues of its\n  plumage, combined to render it a fit emblem of power and beauty. The\n  Dyaks of Borneo trace their descent to Singalang Burong, the god of\n  birds; and birds as the ancestors of the totemic family are\n  extremely common among the American Indians. The Eskimos say that\n  they have the faculty of soul or life beyond all other creatures,\n  and in most primitive tribes they have been regarded as the\n  messengers of the divine, and the special purveyors of the vital\n  principles ... and everywhere to be able to understand the language\n  of birds was equivalent to being able to converse with the gods.[4]\n\nIf this is true it is not surprising that savages in various parts of\nthe world trace their tribal origin to a supernatural bird of the same\nform and name as some familiar local species, which was inhabited by the\nsoul of their heroic \u201cfirst man.\u201d The Osage Indians of Kansas, for\nexample, say that as far back as they can conceive of time their\nancestors were alive, but had neither bodies nor souls. They existed\nbeneath the lowest of the four \u201cupper worlds,\u201d and at last migrated to\nthe highest, where they obtained souls. Then followed travels in which\nthey searched for some source whence they might get human bodies, and at\nlast asked the question of a redbird sitting on her nest. She replied:\n\u201cI can cause your children to have human bodies from my own.\u201d She\nexplained that her wings would be their arms, her head their head, and\nso on through a long list of parts, external and internal, showing\nherself a good comparative anatomist. Finally she declared: \u201cThe speech\n(or breath) of children will I bestow on your children.\u201d[5]\n\nSuch is the story of how humanity reached the earth, according to one\nbranch of the Osages: other gentes also believe themselves descended\nfrom birds that came down from an upper world. Dozens of similar cases\nmight be quoted, of which I will select one because of its curious\nfeatures. The Seri, an exclusive and backward tribe inhabiting the\ndesert-like island Tiburon, in the Gulf of California, ascribe the\ncreation of the world, and of themselves in particular, to the Ancient\nof Pelicans, a mythical fowl of supernal wisdom and melodious song\u2014an\nunexpected poetic touch!\u2014who first raised the earth above the primeval\nwaters. This last point is in conformity with the general belief that a\nwaste of waters preceded the appearance, by one or another miraculous\nmeans well within the redman\u2019s range of experience, of a bit of land;\nand it is to be observed that this original patch of earth, whether\nfixed or floating, was enlarged to habitable dimensions not by further\nmiracles, nor by natural accretion, but, as a rule, by the labor and\ningenuity of the \u201cfirst men\u201d themselves, usually aided by favorite\nanimals. Thus the Seri Indians naturally held the pelican in especial\nregard, but that did not prevent their utilizing it to the utmost. Dr.\nW. J. McGee[6] found that one of their customs was to tie a\nbroken-winged, living pelican to a stake near the seashore, and then\nappropriate the fishes brought to the captive by its free relatives.\n\nIn fewer cases we find that not only tribal but also individual origin\nis ascribed to a bird, the best illustration of which is the notion of\nthe natives of Perak, in the Malay Peninsula, that a bird brings the\nsoul to every person at birth. A woman who is about to become a mother\nselects as the place where her baby shall be born the foot of a certain\ntree\u2014any one that appeals to her fancy\u2014and this will be the \u201cname-tree\u201d\nof her child. The parents believe that a soul has been waiting for this\nchild in the form of a bird that for some time before the birth\nfrequents all the trees of the chosen kind in that vicinity, searching\nfor the occasion when it may deliver its charge, intrusted to it by\nKari, the tribal god. This bird must be killed and eaten by the\nexpectant mother just before the actual birth or the baby will never\ncome to life, or if it does will speedily die. A poetic feature in this\ntender explanation of the mystery of life among the jungle-dwellers is\nthat the souls of first-born children are brought always by the newly\nhatched offspring of the bird that contained the soul of the mother of\nthe child.[7]\n\nApart from this singular conception of the source of existence, the\ngeneral theory of spirituality in birds is based, as heretofore\nintimated, on the almost universal belief that they are often the\nvisible spirits of the dead. The Powhatans of Virginia, for example,\nheld that the feathered race received the souls of their chiefs at\ndeath; and a California tribe asserted that the small birds whose hard\nluck it was to receive the souls of bad men were chased and destroyed by\nhawks, so that those of good Indians alone reached the happy\nhunting-grounds beyond the sky.\n\nJames G. Swan relates in his interesting old book about early days at\nPuget Sound,[10] that the Indians at Shoalwater Bay, Oregon, were much\ndisturbed one morning because they had heard the whistling of a plover\nin the night. The white men there told them it was only a bird\u2019s crying,\nbut they insisted the noise was that of spirits. Said they: \u201cBirds don\u2019t\ntalk in the night; they talk in the daytime.\u201d \u201cBut,\u201d asked Russell, \u201chow\ncan you tell that it is the _memelose tillicums_, or dead people? They\ncan\u2019t talk.\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d replied the savage, \u201cit is true they can\u2019t talk as we\ndo, but they whistle through their teeth. You are a white man and do not\nunderstand what they say, but Indians know.\u201d\n\nThis bit of untainted savage philosophy recalls the queer British\nsuperstition of the Seven Whistlers. Wordsworth, who was a\nNorth-countryman, records of his ancient Dalesman\u2014\n\n            He the seven birds hath seen that never part,\n            Seen the Seven Whistlers on their nightly rounds\n            And counted them.\n\nThe idea that the wailing of invisible birds is a warning of danger\ndirect from Providence prevails especially in the English colliery\ndistricts, where wildfowl, migrating at night and calling to one another\nas they go, supply exactly the right suggestion to the timid. Sailors\nfear them as \u201cstorm-bringers.\u201d Even more horrifying is the primitive\nWelsh conception (probably capable of a similar explanation) of the\nThree Birds of Rhiannon, wife of Pwyll, ruler of Hades, that could sing\nthe dead to life and the living into the sleep of death. Luckily they\nwere heard only at the death of great heroes in battle.\n\nHow easily such things may beguile the imagination is told in Thomas W.\nHigginson\u2019s book on army life in the black regiment of which he was the\ncolonel during the Civil War. This sane and vigorous young officer\nwrites of an incident on the South Carolina Coast: \u201cI remember that, as\nI stood on deck in the still and misty evening, listening with strained\nsenses for some sound of approach of an expected boat, I heard a low\ncontinuous noise from the distance, more mild and desolate than anything\nmy memory can parallel. It came from within the vast circle of mist, and\nseemed like the cry of a myriad of lost souls upon the horizon\u2019s verge;\nit was Dante become audible: yet it was but the accumulated cries of\ninnumerable seafowl at the entrance of the outer bay.\u201d[9]\n\nBut I have rambled away along an enticing by-path, as will frequently\nhappen in the remainder of this book\u2014to the reader\u2019s interest, I venture\nto believe.\n\nReturning to the theme of a moment ago, I recall that the Rev. H.\nFriend[11] tells us that he has seen Buddhist priests in Canton \u201cbless a\nsmall portion of their rice, and place it at the door of the refectory\nto be eaten by the birds which congregate there.\u201d These offerings are to\nthe \u201chouse spirits,\u201d by which the Chinese mean the spirits of their\nancestors, who are still kindly interested in the welfare of the family.\nThis is real ancestor-worship expressed in birds; and Spence[12] records\nthat \u201cthe shamans of certain tribes of Paraguay act as go-betweens\nbetween the members of their tribes and such birds as they imagine\nenshrine the souls of their departed relatives.\u201d The heathen Lombards\nornamented their grave-posts with the effigy of a dove. This notion of\nbirds as reincarnated human souls is not confined to untutored minds nor\nto an ancient period. Evidences of its hold on the human imagination may\nbe found in Europe down to the present day, and it animates one of the\nmost picturesque superstitions of pious followers of Mahomet, two forms\nof which have come to me. The first is given by Doughty,[13] the second\nby Keane,[14] both excellent authorities.\n\nDoughty says: \u201cIt was an ancient opinion of the idolatrous Arabs that\nthe departing spirit flitted from man\u2019s brainpan as a wandering fowl,\ncomplaining thenceforward in perpetual thirst her unavenged wrong;\nfriends, therefore, to avenge the friend\u2019s soul-bird, poured upon the\ngrave their pious libations of wine. The bird is called a \u2018green fowl.\u2019\u201d\n\nQuoting Keane: \u201cIt is a superstition among the Mohammedans that the\nspirits of martyrs are lodged in the crops of green birds, and partake\nof the fruit and drink of the rivers of paradise; also that the souls of\nthe good dwell in the form of white birds near the throne of God.\u201d\n\nBut the spirits represented in birds are not always ancestral or\nbenevolent: they may be unpleasant, foreboding, demoniac. The Indians\nand negroes along the Amazons will not destroy goatsuckers. Why? Because\nthey are receptacles for departed human souls who have come back to\nearth unable to rest because of crimes done in their former bodies, or\nto haunt cruel and hard-hearted masters. In Venezuela and Trinidad the\ngroan-like cries of the nocturnal, cave-dwelling guacharos are thought\nto be the wailing of ghosts compelled to stay in their caverns in order\nto expiate their sins. Even now, the Turks maintain that the dusky\nshearwaters that daily travel in mysterious flocks up and down the\nBosphorus are animated by condemned human souls.\n\nBy way of the ancestral traditions sketched above, arise those \u201csacred\nanimals\u201d constantly mentioned in accounts of ancient or backward\npeoples. Various birds were assigned to the deities and heroes of\nEgyptian and Pagan mythology\u2014the eagle to Jove, goose and later the\npeacock to Juno, the little owl to Minerva, and so on; but to call these\ncompanions \u201csacred\u201d is a bad use of the term, for there was little or\nnothing consecrate in these ascriptions, and if in any case worship was\naddressed to the deity, its animal companion was hardly included in the\nreverential thought of the celebrant.\n\nIt is conceivable that such ascriptions as these are the refined relics\nof earlier superstitions held by primitive folk everywhere in regard to\nsuch birds of their territory as appealed to their imaginations because\nof one or another notable trait. Ethnological and zo\u00f6logical books\nabound in instances, which it would be tedious to catalog, and several\nexamples appear elsewhere in this book. A single, rather remarkable one,\nthat of the South African ground-hornbill or bromvogel, will suffice to\nillustrate the point here. I choose, among several available, the\naccount given by Layard,[15] one of the early naturalist-explorers in\nsouthern Africa:\n\n  The Fingoes seem to attach some superstitious veneration to the\n  ground-hornbills and object to their being shot in the neighborhood\n  of their dwellings, lest they should lose their cattle by\n  disease.... The Kaffirs have a superstition that if one of these\n  birds is killed it will rain for a long time. I am told that in time\n  of drought it is the custom to take one alive, tie a stone to it,\n  then throw it into a \u201cvley\u201d; after that a rain is supposed to\n  follow. They avoid using the water in which this ceremony has been\n  performed.... Only killed in time of severe drought, when one is\n  killed by order of the rain-doctor and its body is thrown into a\n  pool in a river. The idea is that the bird has so offensive a smell\n  that it will make the water sick, and that the only way of getting\n  rid of this is to wash it away to the sea, which can only be done by\n  a heavy rain.\n\n  The ground where they feed is considered good for cattle, and in\n  settling a new country spots frequented by these birds are chosen by\n  the wealthy people. Should the birds, however, by some chance, fly\n  over a cattle kraal, the kraal is moved to some other place.... It\n  is very weak on the wing, and when required by the \u201cdoctor\u201d the bird\n  is caught by the men of a number of kraals turning out at the same\n  time, and a particular bird is followed from one hill to another by\n  those on the lookout. After three or four flights it can be run down\n  and caught by a good runner.... The Ovampos [of Damara land] seem to\n  have a superstition [that the eggs cannot be procured because so\n  soft that] they would fall to pieces on the least handling.\n\nIt seems to me likely that the sense of service to men in its constant\nkilling of dreaded snakes\u2014birds and serpents are linked together in all\nbarbaric religious and social myths\u2014may be at the core of the veneration\npaid the hornbill, as, apparently, it was in the case of the Egyptian\nibis. This wader was not only a foe to lizards and small snakes, but, as\nit always appeared in the Nile just as the river showed signs of\nbeginning its periodic overflow, a matter of anxious concern to the\npeople, it was regarded as a prescient and benevolent creature\nforetelling the longed-for rise of the water. At Hermopolis, situated at\nthe upper end of the great fertile plain of the lower Nile, the ibis was\nincarnated as Thoth (identified by the Greeks with Hermes), one of the\nhighest gods of the ancient Egyptians. This ibis, and other incarnated\nanimals, originally mere symbols of lofty ideas, came to be reverenced\nas real divinities in the places where their cult flourished (although\nthey might enjoy no such distinction elsewhere), were given divine\nhonors when they died, and were, in short, real gods to their devotees;\nthat is to say, the sophisticated Egyptians of the later dynasties had\nelevated into the logical semblance of divinity this and that\nanimal-fetish of their uncultured ancestors.\n\nAnother singular case of a bird rising to the eminence of tutelary deity\nis that of the ruddy sheldrake (_Casarca rutila_) or Brahminy duck in\nThibet. From it is derived the title of the established church of the\nlamas (practically the government of that Buddhistic country); and their\nabbotts wear robes of the sheldrake colors. In Burmah the Brahminy duck\nis sacred to Buddhists as a symbol of devotion and fidelity, and it was\nfigured on Asoka\u2019s pillars in this emblematic character. This sheldrake\nis usually found in pairs, and when one is shot the other will often\nhover near until it, too, falls a victim to its conjugal love.[16]\n\nA stage in this process of deification is given by Tylor in describing\nthe veneration of a certain bird in Polynesia, as a Tahitian priest\nexplained it to Dr. Ellis, the celebrated missionary-student of the\nSouth Seas. The priest said that his god was not always in the idol\nrepresenting it. \u201cA god,\u201d he declared, \u201coften came to and passed from an\nimage in the body of a bird, and spiritual influence could be\ntransmitted from an idol by imparting it by contact to certain valued\nkinds of feathers.\u201d This bit of doctrine helps us to understand what\nColonel St. Johnston has to tell in his recent thoughtful book[48] on\nthe ethnology of Polynesia, of the special use of the feathers (mainly\nred) of particular birds in the insignia of chiefs, and in religious\nceremonials; and he comments as follows:\n\n  In the Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga groups the very special mats of the\n  chiefs were edged with the much-prized red feathers usually obtained\n  with great difficulty from Taverni Island.... In Tahiti the fan was\n  associated with feathers in a peculiar idea of sacredness, and\n  feathers given out by the priests at the temple at the time of the\n  \u201cPa\u2019e-atua\u201d ceremony were taken home by the worshippers and tied on\n  to special fans. These beautiful feathers of the Pacific were, of\n  course, prized by an artistic people for their colors alone, but\n  there seems to have been something more than that, something\n  particularly connected with a divine royalty. In Hawaii the\n  _kahili_, the sceptre of the king, was surmounted with special\n  feathers. The royal cloaks (as in Peru) and the helmets had feathers\n  thickly sewn on them; the _para-kura_, or sacred coronet of Tangier\n  was made of red feathers; and the Pa\u2019e-atua ceremony that I have\n  just written of consisted of the unwrapping of the images of the\n  gods, exposing them to the sun, oiling them, and then wrapping them\n  once more in feathers\u2014fresh feathers, brought by the worshippers,\n  and given in exchange for the old ones, which were taken away as\n  prized relics to be fastened to the sacred fans.\n\n  Can it be that the feathers represent divine birds, symbolic of the\n  \u201cSky People\u201d? We know that many birds were peculiarly sacred (the\n  tropic bird of Fiji might be mentioned among others), and the\n  messages of the gods were said to have been at first transmitted by\n  the birds, until the priests were taught to do so in the squeaky\n  voices\u2014possibly imitative of bird-cries\u2014they adopted.\n\nSuch deifications of birds took place elsewhere than in Fiji and Egypt.\nCharles de Kay has written a learned yet readable book[18] devoted to\nexpounding the worship of birds in ancient Europe, and their gradual\nmergence into deities of human likeness. He calls attention to remains\nin early European lore indicating a very extensive connection of birds\nwith gods, pointing to a worship of the bird itself as the living\nrepresentative of a god, \u201cor else to such a position of the bird toward\na deity as to fairly permit the inference that at a period still more\nremote the bird itself was worshipped.\u201d The Polynesian practices\ndetailed above certainly are of very ancient origin, probably coming to\nthe islands with the earliest migrants from the East Indian mainlands;\nand the theology involved may be a lingering relic of the times and\nideas described in De Kay\u2019s treatise.\n\nTo carry these matters further is not within my plan, for they would\nlead us into the mazes of comparative mythology, which it is my purpose\nto avoid as far as possible, restricting myself to history, sayings, and\nallusions that pertain to real, not imaginary, birds.[B]\n\nFootnote B:\n\n  Nevertheless, I have made one exception by devoting a chapter to \u201ca\n  fabulous flock\u201d of wholly fictitious birds, namely, the phenix, rukh\n  (roc), simurgh and their fellows\u2014all hatched from the same solar\n  nest\u2014because they have become familiar to us, by name, at least, in\n  literature, symbolism, and proverbial sayings.\n\nThe distinction I try to make between the mythical and the legendary or\nreal, may be illustrated by the kingfisher\u2014in this case, of course, the\ncommon species of southern Europe. Let us consider first the mythical\nside. Alcyone, daughter of \u00c6olus, the wind-god, impelled by love for her\nhusband Ceyx, whom she found dead on the shore after a shipwreck, threw\nherself into the sea. The gods, rewarding their conjugal love, changed\nthe pair into kingfishers. What connection exists between this, which is\nsimply a classic yarn, and the ancient theory of the nidification of\nthis species, I do not know; but the story was\u2014now we are talking of the\nreal bird, which the Greeks and Latins saw daily\u2014that the kingfisher\nhatched its eggs at the time of the winter solstice in a nest shaped\nlike a hollow sponge, and thought to be solidly composed of fish-bones,\nwhich was set afloat, or at any rate floated, on the surface of the\nMediterranean. The natural query how such a structure could survive the\nshock of waves led to the theory that Father \u00c6olus made the winds\n\u201cbehave\u201d during the brooding-time. As Pliny explains: \u201cFor seven days\nbefore the winter solstice, and for the same length of time after it,\nthe sea becomes calm in order that the kingfishers may rear their\nyoung.\u201d Simonides, Plutarch, and many other classic authorities, testify\nto the same tradition, which seems to have belonged particularly to the\nwaters about Sicily. More recent writers kept alive the tender conceit.\n\n              Along the coast the mourning halcyon\u2019s heard\n              Lamenting sore her spouse\u2019s fate,\n\nare lines from Ariosto\u2019s verse almost duplicated by Camoens; and\nSouthey\u2014\n\n             The halcyons brood around the foamless isles,\n             The treacherous ocean has forsworn its wiles.\n\nwhile Dryden speaks of \u201chalcyons brooding on a winter sea,\u201d and Drayton\nmakes use of the legend in five different poems. It is a fact that in\nthe region of southern Italy a period of calm weather ordinarily follows\nthe blustering gales of late autumn, which may have suggested this\npoetic explanation; but one student believes that the story may have\nbeen developed from a far earlier tradition. \u201cThe Rhibus of Aryan\nmythology, storm-demons, slept for twelve nights [and days] about the\nwinter solstice ... in the house of the sun-god Savitar.\u201d\n\nSuch is the history behind our proverbial expression for tranquillity,\nand often it has been used very remotely from its original sense, as\nwhen in _Henry VI_ Shakespeare makes La Pucelle exclaim: \u201cExpect St.\nMartin\u2019s summer, halcyon days,\u201d St. Martin\u2019s summer being the English\nname for that warm spell in November known to us as Indian summer. All\nthis is an extended example of the kind of poetic myth which has been\ntold of many different birds, and which in this book is left to be\nsought out in treatises on mythology.\n\nIn contrast with this sort of tale I find many non-mythical notions,\nhistorical or existing, concerning the actual kingfisher, which properly\nbelong to my scheme. One of the oldest is the custom formerly in vogue\nin England, and more recently in France, of turning this bird into a\nweathercock. The body of a mummified kingfisher with extended wings\nwould be suspended by a thread, nicely balanced, in order to show the\ndirection of the wind, as in that posture it would always turn its beak,\neven when hung inside the house, toward the point of the compass whence\nthe breeze blew. Kent, in _King Lear_, speaks of rogues who\n\n                       Turn their halcyon beaks\n               With every gale and vary of their masters.\n\nAnd after Shakespeare Marlowe, in his _Jew of Malta_, says:\n\n               But how stands the wind?\n               Into what corner peers my halcyon\u2019s bill?\n\nWe are told that the fishermen of the British and French coasts hang\nthese kingfisher weathervanes in the rigging of their boats; and it\nseems likely to me that it was among sailors that the custom began.\n\nAlthough Sir Thomas Browne[33] attributed \u201can occult and secret\nproperty\u201d to this bird as an indicator of wind-drift, it does not\notherwise appear that it had any magical reputation: yet the skin of a\nkingfisher was sure to be found among the stuffed crocodiles, grinning\nskulls and similar decorations of the consulting-room of a medieval\n\u201cdoctor,\u201d who himself rarely realized, perhaps, what a fakir he was.\nMoreover, we read \u201cThat its dried body kept in a house protected against\nlightning and kept moths out of garments.\u201d\n\nOn the American continent, probably the nearest approach to the\n\u201csacredness\u201d discussed in a former paragraph, is the sincere veneration\nof their animal-gods, including a few birds, by the Zu\u00f1is and some other\nVillage Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, which has been studied\nminutely by our ethnologists. Yet we read of many other sacred birds\namong the redmen. The redheaded woodpecker is regarded as the tutelary\ndeity of the Omahas, and as the patron-saint of children, because, they\nsay, its own family is kept in so safe a place. Pawnees have much the\nsame sentiment toward the wren, which they call \u201claughing-bird\u201d because\nit seems always happy. The crow was the sacred bird of the\n\u201cghost-dance\u201d\u2014a religious ceremony of high significance among the tribes\nof the Plains, as is explained in Chapter IX. The Navahos regard the\nmountain bluebird as sacred on account of its azure plumage, which (as\nsomething blue) is representative of the South; and it is deemed the\nherald of the rising sun, which is their supreme image of God. One of\ntheir old men told Stewart Culin that \u201ctwo blue birds stand at the door\nof the house in which [certain] gods dwell.\u201d\n\nIn most cases among our Indians, as elsewhere, it is unlawful to kill or\neat such a bird, which indicates a relation to totemism. Thus, as\nPowers[19] asserts, the Mono Indians of the Sierra Nevada, never kill\ntheir sacred black eagles, but pluck out the feathers of those that die\nand wear them on their heads. \u201cWhen they succeed in capturing a young\none, after a fortnight the village makes a great jubilation.\u201d Some\nEskimos will not eat gulls\u2019 eggs, which make men old and decrepit.\n\nWhatever tradition or superstition or other motive affected the choice\nof any bird as a tribal totem, or endowed it with \u201csacredness,\u201d\npractical considerations were surely influential. It is noticeable that\nthe venerated ibis and hawk in Egypt were useful to the people as\ndevourers of vermin\u2014young crocodiles, poisonous snakes, grain-eating\nmice and so forth. Storks in Europe and India, and the \u201cunclean\u201d birds\nof Palestine forbidden to the Jews, were mostly carrion-eaters, and as\nsuch were desirable street-cleaners in village and camp. A tradition in\nthe \u00c6gean island Tenos is that Poseidon\u2014a Greek St. Patrick\u2014sent storks\nto clear the island of snakes, which originally were numerous there.\nAustralian frontiersmen preserve the big kingfisher, dubbed\n\u201claughing-jackass,\u201d for the same good reason. The wiser men in early\ncommunities appreciated this kind of service by birds, and added a\nreligious sanction to their admonition that such servants of mankind\nshould not be killed. It was the primitive movement toward\nbird-protection, which, by the way, was first applied in this country to\nthe scavenging turkey-buzzards and carrion-crows of the Southern States.\n\nAs for the smaller birds, where special regard was paid them it was\nowing, apart from the natural humane admiration and enjoyment of these\npretty creatures, to the mystery and fiction of their being animated by\nspirits. When they were black, like ravens and cormorants, or were cruel\nnight-prowlers, such as owls, or uttered disconsolate cries, they were\nthought to be inhabited by dread, malignant, spirits \u201cfrom night\u2019s\nPlutonian shore,\u201d as Poe expresses it, but when they had pretty plumage,\npleasing ways and melodious voices, they were deemed the embodiment of\nbeneficent and happy spirits\u2014perhaps even those of departed relatives.\n\nHence we have the notion that some birds are lucky and others unlucky in\ntheir relation to us. Those that bring good luck are mainly those kinds\nthat associate themselves with civilization, such as the various robins,\nwrens and storks, the doves and the swallows. Even so, however, time and\nplace must be considered in every case, for the dearest of little birds\nwhen it pecks at a window-pane, or seems bent on entering a cottage door\nwill arouse tremors of fear in a superstitious heart\u2014much more so a bird\nthat ordinarily keeps aloof from mankind. Frazer records, in his essay\non Scapegoats, that if a wild bird flies into a rural Malay\u2019s house, it\nmust be carefully caught and smeared with oil, and must then be released\ninto the open air with a formula of words adjuring it to take away all\nill-luck. In antiquity Greek women seem to have done the same with any\nswallow they found inside the house, a custom mentioned by both\nPythagoras and Plato\u2014the latter humorously proposing to dismiss poets\nfrom his ideal State in the same manner. Such doings remind one of the\nfunction of the scapegoat; and in fact, according to Frazer, the Hazuls,\nof the Carpathian Mountains, imagine they can transfer their freckles to\nthe first swallow they see in the spring by uttering a certain command\nto the bird. Are these practices distorted reminiscences of the\nconjuring by the Hebrew shaman as described in the Old Testament?\n\n  This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He\n  shall be brought into the priest.... Then shall the priest command\n  to take for him that is to be cleaned two birds alive and clean, and\n  cedar wood and scarlet and hyssop. And the priest shall command that\n  one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water.\n  As for the living bird, he shall take it and the cedar wood, and the\n  scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in\n  the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water; and he\n  shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy\n  seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living\n  bird loose into the open field. (_Lev. xiv, 27._)\n\nThe matter of \u201cluck\u201d in this hocus-pocus seems to lie in the chance as\nto which bird is chosen to be \u201cscapegoat,\u201d and so is allowed to remain\nalive, cleaning its feathers as best it may. Evidently, the bird that\nwishes to do nothing to offend anyone must go warily. A cuckoo, for\nexample, may spoil the day for an English milkmaid by incautiously\nsounding its call before her breakfast.\n\nSuch has been the mental attitude underlying the amazing ideas and\npractices that will be found described in succeeding chapters of this\ncollection of traditional birdlore, much of which is so juvenile and\nabsurd. Until one reviews the groping steps by which mankind advanced\nwith very uneven speed\u2014a large body of it having yet hardly begun the\nprogress, even among the \u201ccivilized\u201d\u2014from the crudest animism to a\nclearer and clearer comprehension of \u201cnatural law in the physical\nworld,\u201d he cannot understand how men gave full credence to fictions that\nthe most superficial examination, or the simplest reasoning, would show\nwere false, and trembled before the most imaginary of alarms. Add to\nthis childish credulity the teachings of religious and political leaders\nwho had much to gain by conserving the ignorance and faith of their\nfollowers; add again the fruitful influence of story-tellers and poets\nwho utilized ancient legends and beliefs for literary advantage, and you\nhave the history and explanation of how so many primitive superstitions\nand errors have survived to our day.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER II\n                       BIRDS AS NATIONAL EMBLEMS\n\n\nSeveral nations and empires of both ancient and modern times have\nadopted birds as emblems of their sovereignty, or at least have placed\nprominently on their coats of arms and great seals the figures of birds.\n\nAmong these the eagle\u2014some species of the genus Aquila\u2014takes precedence\nboth in time and in importance. The most ancient recorded history of the\nhuman race is that engraved on the tablets and seals of chiefs who\norganized a civilization about the head of the Persian Gulf more than\n4000 years before the beginning of the Christian era. These record by\nboth text and pictures that the emblem of the Summerian city of Lagash,\nwhich ruled southern Mesopotamia long previous to its subjugation by\nBabylonia about 3000 B. C., was an eagle \u201cdisplayed,\u201d that is, facing us\nwith wings and legs spread and its head turned in profile. This figure\nwas carried by the army of Lagash as a military standard; but a form of\nit with a lion\u2019s head was reserved as the special emblem of the Lagash\ngods, with which the royal house was identified\u2014the king\u2019s standard.\n\nAfter the conquest of Babylonia by Assyria this eagle of Lagash was\ntaken over by the conquerors, and appears on an Assyrian seal of the\nking of Ur many centuries later. \u201cFrom this eagle,\u201d says Ward,[23] \u201cin\nits heraldic attitude necessitated by its attack on two animals [as\nrepresented on many seals and decorations] was derived the two-headed\neagle, in the effort to complete the bilateral symmetry. This\ndouble-headed eagle appears in Hittite art, and is continued down\nthrough Turkish and modern European symbolism.\u201d\n\nAmong the host of rock-carvings in the Eyuk section of the mountains of\nCappadocia (Pteria of the Greeks) that are attributed to the Hittites,\nPerrot and Chipiez found carvings of a double-headed eagle which they\nillustrate;[112] and they speak of them as often occurring. \u201cIts\nposition is always a conspicuous one\u2014about a great sanctuary, the\nprincipal doorway to a palace, a castle wall, and so forth; rendering\nthe suggestion that the Pterians used the symbol as a coat of arms.\u201d\n\nDr. Ward thought the Assyrian two-headed figure of their national bird\nresulted from an artistic effort at symmetry, balancing the wings and\nfeet outstretched on each side, but I cannot help feeling that here\namong the Hittites it had its origin in a deeper sentiment than that. It\nseems to me that it was a way of expressing the dual sex of their\ngodhead, presupposed, in the crudeness of primitive nature-worship, to\naccount for the condition of earthly things, male and female uniting for\nproductiveness\u2014the old story of sky and earth as co-generators of all\nlife. Many other symbols, particularly those of a phallic character,\nwere used in Asiatic religions to typify the same idea; or perhaps the\nconception was of that divine duality, in the sense of co-equal power of\nGood and Evil, God and Satan, that later became so conspicuous in the\ndoctrine of the ancient Persians. Could it have been a purified\nmodification of this significance that made the eagle during the Mosaic\nperiod\u2014if Bayley[24] is right\u2014an emblem of the Holy Spirit? And Bayley\nadds that \u201cits portrayal with two heads is said to have recorded the\ndouble portion of the spirit bestowed on Elisha.\u201d\n\nOld Mohammedan traditions, according to Dalton, give the name \u201chamca\u201d to\na fabulous creature identical with the bicephalous eagle carved on\nHittite rock-faces. Dalton[25] says also that coins with this emblem\nwere struck and issued by Malek el Sala Mohammed, one of the Sassanids,\nin 1217; and that this figure was engraved in the 13th century by\nTurkoman princes on the walls of their castles, and embroidered on their\nbattle-flags.\n\nTo the early Greeks the eagle was the messenger of Zeus. If, as\nasserted, it was the royal cognizance of the Etruscans, it came\nnaturally to the Romans, by whom it was officially adopted for the\nRepublic in 87 B. C., when a silver eagle, standing upright on a spear,\nits wings half raised, its head in profile to the left, and thunderbolts\nin its claws, was placed on the military standards borne at the head of\nall the legions in the army. This was in the second consulship of Caius\nMarius, who decreed certain other honors to be paid to the bird\u2019s image\nin the Curia.\n\nOne need not accuse the Romans of merely copying the ancient monarchies\nof the East. If they thought of anything beyond the majestic appearance\nof the noble bird, it was to remember its association with their great\ngod Jupiter\u2014the counterpart of Zeus. Nothing is plainer as to the origin\nof the ideas that later took shape in the divinities of celestial\nresidence than that Jupiter was the personification of the heavens; and\nwhat is more natural than that the lightnings should be conceived of as\nhis weapons? Once, early in his history, when Jupiter was equipping\nhimself for a battle with the Titans, an eagle brought him his dart,\nsince which time Jupiter\u2019s eagle has always been represented as holding\nthunderbolts in its talons. The bird thus became a symbol of supreme\npower, and a natural badge for soldiers. The emperors of imperial Rome\nretained it on their standards, Hadrian changing its metal from silver\nto gold; and \u201cthe eagles of Rome\u201d came to be a common figure of speech\nto express her military prowess and imperial sway.\n\nBy such a history, partly mythical, and partly practical and glorious,\nthis bird came to typify imperialism in general. A golden eagle mounted\non a spear, was the royal standard of the elder Cyrus, as it had been of\nhis ancestors.\n\nWhen Napoleon I. dreamed of universal conquest he revived on the\nregimental banners of his troops the insignia of his Roman predecessors\nin banditry\u2014in fact he was entitled to do so, for he had inherited them\nby right of conquest from both Italy and Austria, the residuary legatees\nof Rome. Discontinued in favor of their family bees by the Bourbons,\nduring their brief reign after the fall of Bonaparte, the eagle was\nrestored to France by a decree of Louis Napoleon in 1852. There is a\nlegend that a tame eagle was let loose before him when he landed in\nFrance from England to become President of the first French Republic.\nNow it is the proper finial for flagstaffs all over the world except,\ncuriously, in France itself, where a wreath of laurel legally surmounts\nthe tricolor of the Republic, which has discarded all reminders of\nroyalty. Thus the pride of conquerors has dropped to the commonplace of\nfashion\u2014\n\n               Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay,\n               Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.\n\nThe destruction of the Italian and western half of the old Roman empire\nwas by the hands of northern barbarians who at first were mere\nconquerors and despoilers, but finally, affected by their contact with\ncivilization and law, became residents in and rulers of Italy, and were\nproud to assume the titles and what they could of the dignity of Roman\nemperors. In the eighth century Charlemagne became substantially master\nof the western world, at least, and assumed the legionary eagle as he\ndid the purple robes of an Augustus; and his successors held both with\nvarying success until the tenth century, when German kings became\nsupreme and in 962 founded that very unholy combination styled the Holy\nRoman Empire. For hundreds of years this fiction was maintained. At\ntimes its eagle indicated a real lordship over all Europe; between times\nthe states broke apart, and, as each kept the royal standard, separate\neagles contended for mastery. Thus Prussia and other German kingdoms\nretained on their shields the semblance of a \u201cRoman\u201d eagle; and the\nTeutonic Knights carried it on their savage expeditions of\n\u201cevangelization\u201d to the eastern Baltic lands.\n\nAll these were more or less conventional figures of the Bird of Jove in\nits natural form, but a heraldic figure with two heads turned, Janus\nlike, in opposite directions, was soon to be revived in the region\nwhere, as we have seen, it had been familiar 2000 years before as the\nnational emblem of the Eastern, or Byzantine, Empire, which for hundreds\nof years contested with Rome, both the political and the ecclesiastical\nhegemony of the world. Just when this symbol came into favor at\nConstantinople is unknown, but one authority says it did not appear\nbefore the tenth century. At that time the Eastern emperors were\nrecovering lost provinces and extending their rule until it included all\nthe civilized part of western Asia, Greece, Bulgaria, southern Italy,\nand much of the islands and shores of the Mediterranean; and they\nasserted religious supremacy, at least, over the rival European empire\nerected on Charlemagne\u2019s foundation. It would seem natural that at this\nprosperous period, when Byzantium proudly claimed, if she did not really\npossess all \u201cthe glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome,\u201d\nsuch a double-headed device might be adopted, signifying that she had\nunited the western power with her own. The evidence of this motive is\ndoubtful, however, for it is not until a much later date that the figure\nbegins to be seen on coins and textiles, first at Trebizond,\nparticularly in connection with the emperor Theodore Lascaris, who\nreigned at the beginning of the 13th century. Dalton[25] suggests\nplausibly that this symbol may have become Byzantine through the\ncircumstance that this Lascaris had previously been despot of Nicomedia,\nin which province Bogaz-Keui and other Hittite remains were situated,\nand where the bicephalous carvings heretofore alluded to are still to be\nseen on rockfaces and ruins, always in association with royalty.\n\nIt is very attractive to think that this form of eagle was chosen, as\nhas been suggested, to express the fact that Constantinople was now lord\nover both halves, East and West, into which Diocletian had divided the\noriginal empire of Rome. Whether this idea was behind the choice I do\nnot know, but at any rate the two-faced eagle became latterly the\nacknowledged ensign of imperial Byzantium, and as such was introduced\ninto European royal heraldry, whether or not by means of the returning\nCrusaders, as commonly stated, remains obscure.\n\nIn the 15th century what was left of the Holy Roman Empire became the\nheritage of the Austrian house of Hapsburg which had succeeded the\nGerman Hohenstauffens; and to Sigismund, head of the house in that\ncentury, is ascribed the design in the Austrian arms of the two-headed\neagle, looking right and left, as if to signify boastfully that he ruled\nboth East and West. These were relative and indefinite domains, but as\nhe had, by his crowning at Rome, received at least nominal sovereignty\nover the fragmentary remains in Greece of the ancient Eastern Empire, he\nwas perhaps justified in adopting the Byzantine ensign as \u201ccaptured\ncolors\u201d; but a rival was soon to present a stronger claim to these\nfragments and their badge.\n\nIn this same period, that is in the middle of the 15th century, Ivan the\nGreat of Russia was striving with high purpose and despotic strength to\nbring back under one sway the divided house of Muscovy, together with\nwhatever else he could obtain. To further this purpose he married, in\n1472, Sophia Paleologos, niece of the last Byzantine emperor, getting\nwith her Greece and hence a barren title to the throne of the Eastern\nempire\u2014a barren title because its former domain was now over-run by the\nTurks, but very important in the fact that it included the headship of\nthe Greek, or Orthodox, Church. From this time Russia as well as Austria\nhas borne a two-faced eagle on its escutcheon; and, although both birds\nare from the same political nest, the feeling between them has been far\nfrom brotherly.\n\nIt may be remarked here, parenthetically, that in Egypt the cult of the\nkingly eagle never flourished, for the griffon vulture, \u201cfar-sighted,\nubiquitous, importunate,\u201d became the grim emblem of royal power; and a\nsmaller vulture (_Neophron percnopterus_) is called Pharaoh\u2019s chicken to\nthis day by the fellaheen. By \u201ceagle\u201d in Semitic (Biblical) legends is\nusually meant the lammergeier.\n\nPrussia had kept a single-headed eagle as her cognizance in remembrance\nof her previous \u201cRoman\u201d greatness; and it was retained by the German\nEmpire when that was created by Bismarck half a century and more ago.\nFrom it the Kaiser designated the two German military orders\u2014the Black\nEagle and the superior Red Eagle; and Russia and Serbia have each\ninstituted an order called White Eagle. The traditional eagle of Poland\nis represented as white on a black ground. It was displayed during the\nperiod of subjection following the partition of the country in 1795,\nwith closed wings, but now, since 1919, it spreads its pinions wide in\nthe pride of freedom.\n\n_In the years between 1914 and 1919 an allied party of hunters, enraged\nby their depredations, went gunning for these birds of prey, killed most\nof them and sorely wounded the rest!_\n\nAlthough several species of real eagles inhabit the Mediterranean region\nand those parts of Europe and Asia where these nations lived, and\nwarred, and passed away, and are somewhat confused in the mass of myth\nand tradition relating to them, the one chosen by Rome was the golden\neagle, so called because of the golden gloss that suffuses the feathers\nof the neck in mature birds. Now we have this species of sea-eagle in\nthe United States, and it has been from time immemorial the honored\nWar-eagle of the native redmen. If it was needful at our political birth\nto put any sort of animal on our seal, and the choice was narrowed down\nto an eagle, it would have been far more appropriate to have chosen the\ngolden rather than the white-headed or \u201cbald\u201d species\u2014first because the\ngolden is in habits and appearance far the nobler of the two, and,\nsecond, because of the supreme regard in which it was held by all the\nNorth American aborigines, who paid no respect whatever to the bald\neagle. On the other hand, the white head and neck of our accepted\nspecies gives a distinctive mark to our coat of arms. The history of the\nadoption of this symbol of the United States of America is worth a\nparagraph.\n\nOn July 4, 1776, on the afternoon following the morning hours in which\nthe Congress in Philadelphia had performed the momentous duty of\nproclaiming the independence of the United States, it dropped down to\nthe consideration of its cockade, and appointed a committee to prepare a\ndevice for a Great Seal and coat-of-arms for the new republic.[26]\nDesiring to avoid European models, yet clinging to the traditions of art\nin these matters, the committee devised and offered in succession\nseveral complicated allegorical designs that were promptly and wisely\nrejected by the Congress. Finally, in 1782, the matter was left in the\nhands of Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Congress, and he at once\nconsulted with William Barton of Philadelphia. They abandoned allegory\nand designed an eagle \u201cdisplayed proper,\u201d that is, with a shield on its\nbreast. Mr. Barton, who was learned in heraldry, explained that \u201cthe\nescutcheon being placed on the breast of the eagle _displayed_ is a very\nancient mode of bearing, and is truly imperial.\u201d To avoid an \u201cimperial\u201d\neffect, however, a concession was made to local prejudice by indicating\nplainly that the bird itself was the American bald eagle\u2014unless, indeed,\nthat happened to be the only one Barton knew!\n\nThis design was finally adopted in 1782. Since then the Great Seal has\nbeen re-cut several times, so that the bird in its imprint is now a far\nmore reputable fowl than at first\u2014looks less as if it were nailed on a\nbarn-door _pour encourager les autres_. In its right claw it holds a\nspray of ripe olives as an emblem of a peaceful disposition, and in its\nleft an indication of resolution to enforce peace, in the form of\nAmerican thunderbolts\u2014the redman\u2019s arrows.\n\nThere were men in the Congress in 1782, as well as out of it, who\ndisliked using any eagle whatever as a feature of the arms of the\nRepublic, feeling that it savored of the very spirit and customs against\nwhich the formation of this commonwealth was a protest. Among them stood\nthat clear-headed master of common sense, Benjamin Franklin, who thought\na thoroughly native and useful fowl, like the wild turkey, would make a\nfar truer emblem for the new and busy nation. He added to the turkey\u2019s\nother good qualities that it was a bird of courage, remarking, with his\nown delightful humor, that it would not hesitate to attack any _Red_coat\nthat entered its barnyard!\n\nFranklin was right when he argued against the choice of the bald eagle,\nat any rate, as our national emblem. \u201cHe is,\u201d he said truly, \u201ca bird of\nbad moral character; he does not get his living honestly; you may have\nseen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself,\nhe watches the labor of the fishing-hawk, and when that diligent bird\nhas at length taken a fish and is bearing it to its nest the bald eagle\npursues him and takes it from him. Besides, he is a rank coward; the\nlittle kingbird attacks him boldly. He is therefore by no means a proper\nemblem.\u201d\n\nNone of these depreciatory things could Franklin have truly said of the\nskilful, self-supporting, and handsome golden eagle\u2014a Bird of Freedom\nindeed. (Audubon named a western variety of it after General\nWashington.) This species was regarded with extreme veneration by the\nnative redmen of this country. \u201cIts feathers,\u201d says Dr. Brinton, the\nethnologist, \u201ccomposed the war-flag of the Creeks, and its image, carved\nin wood, or its stuffed skin, surmounted their council-lodges. None but\nan approved warrior dare wear it among the Cherokees, and the Dakotas\nallowed such an honor only to him who first touched the corpse of the\ncommon foe. The Natchez and other tribes regarded it almost as a deity.\nThe Zu\u00f1i of New Mexico employed four of its feathers to represent the\nfour winds when invoking the rain-god.\u201d\n\nHence a war-song of the Ojibways reported by Schoolcraft:\n\n                Hear my voice ye warlike birds!\n                I prepare a feast for you to batten on;\n                I see you cross the enemy\u2019s lines;\n                Like you I shall go.\n                I wish the swiftness of your wings;\n                I wish the vengeance of your claws;\n                I muster my friends;\n                I follow your flight.\n\nDoesn\u2019t this sound like a bit from the _Saga_ of Harold Hadrada?\n\nMexico did better in choosing her crested eagle, the harpy (_Thrasa\u00ebtus\nharpia_),a magnificent representative of its race, renowned from\nParaguay to Mexico for its handsome black-and-white plumage adorned with\na warrior\u2019s crest, and for its grand flight, dauntless courage and\namazing endurance. Quesada tells us that the Aztecs called it the winged\nwolf. The princes of Tlascala wore its image on their breasts and on\ntheir shield as a symbol of royalty; and in both Mexico and Peru, where\nit was trained for sport in falconry, it was preferred to the puma,\nwhich also was taught to capture deer and young peccaries for its\nmaster, as is the cheeta in India. Captive harpies are still set to\nfight dogs and wildcats in village arenas, and rarely are vanquished.\n\nThe tradition is that the Aztecs, a northern Nahuatl tribe, escaping\nfrom the tyranny of the dominant Chichemecas, moved about A. D. 1325\ninto the valley of Mexico (Tenochtitlan), and settled upon certain\nislets in a marshy lake\u2014the site of the subsequent City of Mexico; and\nthis safe site is said to have been pointed out to them by a sign from\ntheir gods\u2014an eagle perched upon a prickly-pear cactus, the nopal, in\nthe act of strangling a serpent. This is the picture Cortez engraved on\nhis Great Seal, and Mexico has kept it to this day.\n\nGuatemala was a part of ancient Mexico; and perched on the shield in\nGuatemala\u2019s coat-of-arms is the green or resplendent trogon\n(_Pharomacrus mocinno_), the native and antique name of which is\nquetzal. This is one of the most magnificent of birds, for its crested\nhead and body (somewhat larger than a sparrow\u2019s) are iridescent green,\nthe breast and under parts crimson, and the wings black overhung by\nlong, plumy coverts. The quetzal\u2019s special ornament, however, is its\nbluish-green tail, eight or ten inches long, whose gleaming feathers\ncurve down in the graceful sweep of a sabre. It has been called the most\nbeautiful of American birds, and it is peculiar to Central America.\n\nHow this trogon came to be Guatemala\u2019s national symbol, made familiar by\nall its older postage-stamps, is a matter of religious history. One of\nthe gods in the ancient Aztec pantheon was Quetzalcoatl, of whom it was\nsaid in their legends \u201cthat he was of majestic presence, chaste in life,\naverse to war, wise and generous in action, and delighting in the\ncultivation of the arts of peace.\u201d He was the ruler of the realm far\nbelow the surface of the earth, where the sun shines at night, the abode\nof abundance where dwell happy souls; and there Quetzalcoatl abides\nuntil the time fixed for his return to men. The first part of the name\nof this beneficent god, associated with sunshine and green, growing\nthings, meant in the Nahuatl language a large, handsome, green feather,\nsuch as were highly prized by the Aztecs and reserved for the decoration\nof their chiefs; and one tradition of the god\u2019s origin and equipment\nrelates that he was furnished with a beard made of these plumes. These\nroyal and venerated feathers were obtained from the trogon, which his\nworshippers called _Quetzal-totl_. The emerald-hued hummingbirds of the\ntropics also belonged to him.\n\nAlthough Mexico and Central America were \u201cconverted\u201d to Christianity by\na gospel of war and slavery, the ancient faith lived on in many simple\nhearts, especially in the remoter districts of the South, and nowhere\nmore persistently than among the Mayas of Guatemala and Yucatan, whose\npyramidal temples are moldering in their uncut forests. When, in 1825,\nGuatemala declared its independence and set up a local government, what\nmore natural than that it should take as a national symbol the glorious\nbird that represented to its people the best influence in their ancient\nhistory and the most hopeful suggestion for the future.\n\nIn the religion of the Mayas of Yucatan the great god of light was\nItsamna, one of whose titles was The Lord, the Eye of the Day\u2014a truly\npicturesque description of the sun. A temple at Itzmal was consecrated\nto him under the double name Eye of Day-Bird of Fire. \u201cIn time of\npestilence,\u201d as Dr. Brinton informs us,[27] \u201cthe people resorted to this\ntemple, and at high noon a sacrifice was spread upon the altar. The\nmoment the sun reached the zenith a bird of brilliant plumage, but which\nin fact was nothing else than a fiery flame shot from the sun, descended\nand consumed the offering in the sight of all.\u201d Another authority says\nthat Midsummer-day was celebrated by similar rites. Hence was held\nsacred the flame-hued ara, or guacamaya, the red macaw.\n\nThe Musicas, natives of the Colombian plateau where Bogot\u00e1 now stands,\nhad a similar half-superstitious regard for this big red macaw, which\nthey called \u201cfire-bird.\u201d The general veneration for redness, prevalent\nthroughout western tropical America, and in Polynesia, is doubtless a\nreflection of sun-worship.\n\nLet us turn to a lighter aspect of our theme.\n\nFrance rejoices, humorously, yet sincerely, in the cock as her\nemblem\u2014the strutting, crowing, combative chanticleer that arouses\nrespect while it tickles the French sense of fun. When curiosity led me\nto inquire how this odd representative for a glorious nation came into\nexistence, I was met by a complete lack of readily accessible\ninformation. The generally accepted theory seemed to be that it was to\nbe explained by the likeness of sound between the Latin word _gallus_, a\ndunghill cock, and _Gallus_, a Gaul\u2014the general appellative by which the\nRomans of mid-Republic days designated the non-Italian, Keltic-speaking\ninhabitants of the country south and west of the Swiss Alps. But whence\ncame the name \u201cgaul\u201d? and why was a pun on it so apt that it has\nsurvived through long centuries? I knew, of course, of the yarn that\nDiodorus Siculus repeats: that in Keltica once ruled a famous man who\nhad a daughter \u201ctall and majestic\u201d but unsatisfactory because she\nrefused all the suitors who presented themselves. Then Hercules came\nalong, and the haughty maiden surrendered at Arras. The result was a son\nnamed Galetes\u2014a lad of extraordinary virtues who became king and\nextended his grandfather\u2019s dominions. He called his subjects after his\nown name Galatians and his country Galatia. This is nonsense. Moreover\n\u201cGalatia\u201d is Greek, and was applied by the Greeks, long before the day\nof Diodorus, to the lands of a colony of Keltic-speaking migrants who\nhad settled on the coast of Asia Minor, and became the Galatians to whom\nPaul wrote one of his _Epistles_. The Greek word _Galatai_ was, however,\na form of the earlier _Keltai_.\n\nAs has been said, what we call Savoy and France were known to the Romans\nas _Gallia_, Gaul; but this term had been familiar in Italy long before\nCaesar had established Roman power over the great region between the\nGerman forests and the sea that he tersely described as _Omnia Gallia_;\nand it seems to have originated in the following way:\n\nAbout 1100 B. C. two wild tribes, the Umbrians and the Oscans, swept\nover the mountains from the northeast, and took possession of northern\nItaly. These invaders were Nordics, and used an antique form of Teutonic\nspeech. They were resisted, attacked, and finally overwhelmed by the\nEtruscans, who about 800 B. C., when Etruria was at the height of its\npower, extended their rule to the Alps and the Umbrian State\ndisappeared. In the sixth century new hordes, calling themselves Kymri,\ncoming from the west, and speaking Keltic dialects, swarmed into\nnorthern Italy from the present France. The harried people north of the\nPo, themselves mostly descendants of the earlier invasion, spoke of\nthese raiders by an old Teutonic epithet which the Romans heard and\nwrote as _Gallus_, the meaning of which was \u201cstranger\u201d\u2014in this case \u201cthe\nenemy.\u201d\n\nThe word _Gallus_, Gaul or a Gaul, then, was an ancient Teutonic epithet\ninherited by the Romans from the Etruscans, and had in its origin no\nrelation to _gallus_, the lord of the poultry-yard. It is most likely,\nindeed, that the term was given in contempt, as the Greeks called\nforeigners \u201cbarbarians\u201d because they spoke some language which the\nGreeks did not understand; for the occupants of the valley of the Po at\nthat time were of truly Germanic descent, and did not regard the\nround-headed, Alpine \u201cKelts\u201d as kin in any sense, but rather as ancient\nfoes. What the word on their lips actually was no one knows; but it\nseems to have had a root _gal_ or _val_, interchangeable in the sound\n(to non-native ears) of its initial letter, whence it appears that\nGalatai, Gael, Valais, Walloon, and similar names connected with Keltic\nhistory are allied in root-derivation. Wales, for example, to the early\nTeutonic immigrants into Britain was the country of the _Wealas_,\n_i.e._, the \u201cforeigners\u201d (who were Gaulish, Keltic-speaking Kymri); and\nthe English are not yet quite free from that view of the Welsh.\n\nThe opportunity to pun with _gallus_, a cock, is evident, just as was a\nbitter pun current in Martial\u2019s time between _Gallia_, a female Gaul and\n_gallia_, a gall-nut; but in all this there is nothing to answer the\nquestion why the pun of which we are in search\u2014if there was such a\npun\u2014has endured so long. I think the answer lies in certain appearances\nand customs of the Keltic warriors.\n\nPlutarch, in his biography of Caius Marius, describes the Kymri fought\nby Marius, years before Caesar\u2019s campaigns, as wearing helmets\nsurmounted by animal effigies of various kinds, and many tall feathers.\nDiodorus says the Gauls had red hair, and made it redder by dyeing it\nwith lime. This fierce and flowing red headdress must have appeared much\nlike a cock\u2019s comb, to which the vainglorious strutting of the\nbarbarians added a most realistic touch in the eyes of the disciplined\nlegionaries. Later, the Roman authorities in Gaul minted a coin or coins\nbearing a curious representation of a Gaulish helmet bearing a cock on\nits crest, illustrations of which are printed by G. R. Rothery in his _A\nB C of Heraldry_. Rothery also states that the bird appears on\nGallo-Roman sculptures. Another writer asserts that Julius Caesar\nrecords that those Gauls that he encountered fought under a\ncock-standard, which he regarded as associated with a religious cult,\nbut I have been unable to verify this interesting reference. Caesar does\nmention in his _Commentaries_ that the Gauls were fierce fighters, and\nthat one of their methods in personal combat was skilful kicking, like a\ngame-cock\u2019s use of its spurs\u2014a trick still employed by French rowdies,\nand known as _la savate_. In the Romance speech of the south of France\nchanticleer is still _gall_.\n\nThe question arises here in the mind of the naturalist: If the\naboriginal Gauls really bore a \u201ccock\u201d on their banners and wore its\nfeathers in their helmets (as the Alpine regiments in Italy now wear\nchanticleer\u2019s tail-plumes), what bird was it? They did not then possess\nthe Oriental domestic fowls to which the name properly belongs, and had\nnothing among their wild birds resembling it except grouse. One of these\nwild grouse is the great black capercaille, a bold, handsome bird of the\nmountain forests, noted for its habit in spring of mounting a prominent\ntree and issuing a loud challenge to all rivals; and one of its gaudy\nfeathers is still the favorite ornament for his hat of the Tyrolean\nmountaineer. By the way, the _cockade_, that figured so extensively as a\nbadge in the period of the French Revolution was so called because of\nits resemblance to a cock\u2019s comb.\n\nNow comes a break of several centuries in the record, illuminated by\nonly a brief note in La Rousse\u2019s _Encyclop\u00e9die_, that in 1214, after the\nDauphin du Viennois had distinguished himself in combat with the\nEnglish, an order of knights was formed styled L\u2019Ordre du Coq; and that\na white cock became an emblem of the dauphins of the Viennois line.\n\nThe cock did not appear as a blazon when, after the Crusades, national\ncoats-of-arms were being devised; nevertheless the _le coq de France_\nwas not forgotten, for it was engraved on a medal struck to celebrate\nthe birth of Louis XIII (1601). Then came the Revolution, when the old\nr\u00e9gime was overthrown; and in 1792 the First Republic put the cock on\nits escutcheon and on its flag in place of the lilies of the fallen\ndynasty. When this uprising of the people had been suppressed, and\nNapoleon I had mounted the throne, in 1804, he substituted for it the\nRoman eagle, which he had inherited from his conquests in Italy and\nAustria, and which was appropriate to his ambitious designs for world\ndomination. This remained until Napoleon went to Elba, and then Louis\nXVIII brought back for a short time the Bourbon lilies; yet medals and\ncartoons of the early Napoleonic era depict the Gallic cock chasing a\nrunaway lion of Castile or a fleeing Austrian eagle, showing plainly\nwhat was the accepted symbol of French power in the eyes of the common\nfolks of France. One medal bore the motto _Je veille pour le nation_.\n\nNapoleon soon returned from Elba only to be extinguished at Waterloo,\nafter which, during the r\u00e9gime of Louis Philippe, the figure of the\nGallic cock was again mounted on the top of the regimental flagstaffs in\nplace of the gilded eagle; an illustration of this finial is given in\n_Armories et Drapeaux Fran\u00e7ais_. Louis Philippe could do this\nlegitimately, according to Rothery and others, because this bird was the\ncrest of his family\u2014the Bourbons\u2014in their early history in the south of\nFrance. The Gallic cock continued to perch on the banner-poles until the\nfoundation of the second Empire under Louis Napoleon in 1852. Since then\nthe \u201ctricolor,\u201d originating in 1789 as the flag of the National Guard,\nand dispensing with all devices, has waved over France. Officially bold\nchanticleer was thus dethroned; but in the late World War, as in all\nprevious periods of public excitement, the ancient image of French\nnationality has been revived, as the illustrated periodicals and books\nof the time show; and, much as they revere the tricolor, the soldiers\nstill feel that it is _le coq Gaulois_ that in 1918 again struck down\nthe black eagles of their ancient foes.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nJuvenal\u2019s sixth _Satire_, in which he castigates the Roman women of his\nday for their sins and follies, contains a line, thrown in as a mere\nside-remark\u2014\n\n             Rara avis in terris, negroque similima cygno\u2014\n\nwhich has become the most memorable line in the whole homily. It has\nbeen variously translated, most literally, perhaps, by Madan: \u201cA rare\nbird in the earth, and very like a black swan.\u201d The comparison was meant\nto indicate something improbable to the point of absurdity; and in that\nsense has _rara avis_ been used ever since.\n\nFor more than fifteen hundred years Juvenal\u2019s expression for extreme\nrarity held good; but on January 6, 1697, Dutch navigator Willem de\nVlaming, visiting the southwestern coast of Australia, sent two boats\nashore to explore the present harbor of Perth. \u201cThere their crews first\nsaw two and then more black swans, of which they caught four, taking two\nof them alive to Batavia; and Valentyne, who several years later\nrecounted this voyage, gives in his work a plate representing the ship,\nboats and birds at the mouth of what is now known from this circumstance\nas Swan River, the most important stream of the thriving colony now\nState of Western Australia, which has adopted this very bird as its\narmorial symbol.\u201d\n\nAnother Australian bird, that, like the black swan, has obtained a\npicturesque immortality in a coat-of-arms; and on postage stamps, is the\nbeautiful lyre-bird, first discovered in New South Wales in 1789, and\nnow a feature in the armorial bearings of that State in the Australian\nCommonwealth. New Zealand\u2019s stamps show the apteryx (kiwi) and emeu.\n\nOne might extend this chapter by remarking on various birds popularly\nidentified with certain countries, as the ibis with Egypt, the\nnightingale with England and Persia, the condor with Peru, the red\ngrouse with Scotland, the ptarmigan with Newfoundland, and so on. Then\nmight be given a list of birds whose feathers belonged exclusively to\nchieftainship, and so had a sort of tribal significance. Thus in Hawaii\na honeysucker, the mamo, furnished for the adornment of chiefs alone the\nrich yellow feathers of which \u201croyal\u201d cloaks were made; the Inca\n\u201cemperors\u201d of Peru, before the Spanish conquest, reserved to themselves\nthe rose-tinted plumage of an Andean water-bird; an African chief\naffected the long tail-plumes of the widowbird\u2014and so forth.\n\nOnly one of these locally revered birds entices me to linger a\nmoment\u2014the nightingale, beloved of English poets, whose oriental\nequivalent is the Persian bulbul. The mingled tragedies of the\nnightingale and the swallow form the theme of one of the most famous as\nwell as sentimental legends of Greek mythology. These myths, strangely\nconfused by different narrators, have been unravelled by the scholarly\nskill of Miss Margaret Verrall in her _Mythology of Ancient\nAthens_;[108] and her analysis throws light on the way the Greek\nimagination, from prehistoric bards down to the vase-decorators of the\nclassic era, and to the dramatists Sophocles, \u00c6schylus, and\nAristophanes, dealt with birds\u2014a very curious study. Miss Verrall\nreminds us that a word is necessary as to the names of the Attic tale.\n\u201cWe are accustomed, burdened as we are with Ovidian association, to\nthink of Philomela as the nightingale. Such was not the version of\nApollodorus, nor, so far as I know, of any earlier Greek writer.\nAccording to Apollodorus, Procne became the nightingale (\u2019\u03b1\u03b7\u03b4\u03ce\u03bd) and\nPhilomela the swallow \u03c7\u03b5\u03bb\u03b9\u03b4\u03ce\u03bd. It was Philomela who had her tongue cut\nout, a tale that would never have been told of the nightingale, but\nwhich fitted well with the short restless chirp of the swallow. To speak\na barbarian tongue was \u2018to mutter like a swallow.\u2019\u201d\n\nBut there has arisen in Persia a literature of the nightingale, or\n\u201cbulbul,\u201d springing from a pathetic legend\u2014if it is not simply poetic\nfancy\u2014that as the bird pours forth its song \u201cin a continuous strain of\nmelody\u201d it is pressing its breast against a rose-thorn to ease its\nheart\u2019s pain. Giles Fletcher, who had been attached to one of Queen\nElizabeth\u2019s missions to Russia, and perhaps in that way picked up the\nsuggestion, used it in one of his love-poems in a stanza that is a very\nqueer mixture of two distinct fancies and a wrong sex, for the thrush\nthat sings is not the one that has any occasion to weep about virginity:\n\n          So Philomel, perched on an aspen sprig,\n              Weeps all the night her lost virginity,\n          And sings her sad tale to the merry twig,\n              That dances at such joyful mystery.\n              Ne ever lets sweet rest invade her eye,\n          But leaning on a thorn her dainty chest\n          For fear soft sleep should steal into her breast\n              Expresses in her song grief not to be expressed.\n\nThe poetic vision over which Hafiz and others have sighed and sung in\nthe fragrant gardens of Shiraz seems to owe nothing to the Greek tale,\nand to them the plaintive note in the bird\u2019s melody is not an expression\nof bitter woe, but only bespeaks regret whenever a rose is plucked. They\nwill tell you tearfully that the bulbul will hover about a rosebush in\nspring, till, overpowered by the sweetness of its blossoms, the\ndistracted bird falls senseless to the ground. The rose is supposed to\nburst into flower at the opening song of its winged lover. You may place\na handful of fragrant herbs and flowers before the nightingale, say the\nPersian poets, yet he wishes not in his constant and faithful heart for\nmore than the sweet breath of his beloved rose\u2014\n\n                          Though rich the spot\n                  With every flower the earth has got,\n                  What is it to the nightingale\n                  If there his darling rose is not.\n\nBut romantic stories of the association of the queen of flowers with the\nprince of birds are many, and the reader may easily find more of them.\nIn a legend told by the Persian poet Attarall the birds once appeared\nbefore King Solomon and complained that they could not sleep because of\nthe nightly wailings of the bulbul, who excused himself on the plea that\nhis love for the rose was the cause of irrepressible grief. This is the\ntradition to which Byron alludes in _The Giaour_:\n\n               The rose o\u2019er crag or vale,\n               Sultana of the nightingale,\n                   The maid for whom his melody,\n                   His thousand songs, are heard on high,\n               Blooms blushing to her lover\u2019s tale\u2014\n               His queen, the garden queen, the rose,\n               Unbent by winds, unchilled by snows.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER III\n                   AN ORNITHOLOGICAL COMEDY OF ERRORS\n\n\nAmong the many proverbial expressions relating to birds, none, perhaps,\nis more often on the tongue than that which implies that the ostrich has\nthe habit of sticking its head in the sand and regarding itself as thus\nmade invisible. The oldest written authority known to me for this notion\nis the _Historical Library_ of Diodorus Siculus. Describing Arabia and\nits products Diodorus writes:\n\n  It produces likewise Beasts of a double nature and mixt Shape;\n  amongst whom are those that are called _Struthocameli_, who have the\n  Shape both of a Camel and an Ostrich ... so that this creature seems\n  both terrestrial and volatile, a Land-Beast and a Bird: But being\n  not able to fly by reason of the Bulk of her body, she runs upon the\n  Ground as Swift as if she flew in the air; and when she is pursued\n  by Horsemen with her Feet she hurls the Stones that are under her,\n  and many times kills the Pursuers with the Blows and Strokes they\n  receive. When she is near being taken, she thrusts her Head under a\n  Shrub or some such like Cover; not (as some suppose) through Folly\n  or Blockishness, as if she would not see or be seen by them, but\n  because her head is the tenderest Part of her Body.[109]\n\nIt would appear from this that Diodorus was anticipating me by quoting\nan ancient legend only to show how erroneous it was; but the notion has\nsurvived his explanation, and supplies a figure of speech most useful to\npolemic editors and orators, nor does anyone seem to care whether or not\nit expresses a truth. The only foundation I can find or imagine for the\norigin of this so persistent and popular error in ornithology is that\nwhen the bird is brooding or resting it usually stretches its head and\nneck along the ground, and is likely to keep this prostrate position in\ncautious stillness as long as it thinks it has not been observed by\nwhatever it fears. The futile trick of hiding its head alone has been\nattributed to various other birds equally innocent.\n\nOstriches in ancient times roamed the deserts of the East from the Atlas\nto the Indus, and they came to hold a very sinister position in the\nestimation of the early inhabitants of Mesopotamia, as we learn from the\nseals and tablets of Babylonia. There the eagle had become the type of\nthe principle of Good in the universe, as is elsewhere described; and a\ncomposite monster, to which the general term \u201cdragon\u201d is applied,\nrepresented the principle of Evil. The earliest rude conception of this\nmonster gave it a beast\u2019s body (sometimes a crocodile\u2019s but usually a\nlion\u2019s), always with a bird\u2019s wings, tail, etc. \u201cFrom conceiving of the\ndragon as a monster having a bird\u2019s head as well as wings and tail, and\nfeathers over the body, the transition,\u201d as Dr. Ward[23] remarks, \u201cwas\nnot difficult to regard it entirely as a bird. But for this the favorite\nform was that of an ostrich ... the largest bird known, a mysterious\ninhabitant of the deserts, swift to escape and dangerous to attack. No\nother bird was so aptly the emblem of power for mischief....\nAccordingly, in the period of about the eighth to the seventh centuries,\nB. C., the contest of Marduk, representing Good in the form of a human\nhero or sometimes as an eagle, with an ostrich, or often a pair of them,\nrepresenting the evil demon Tiamat, was a favorite subject with\nBabylonian artists in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.\u201d\n\nIn view of their inheritance of these ideas it is no wonder that\nOriental writers far more recent told strange tales about this bird,\nespecially as to its domestic habits, as is reflected in the book of\nJob, where a versified rendering of one passage (xxxix, 15, 16) runs\nthus:\n\n            Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks?\n            Or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?\n            Which leaveth her eggs in the earth,\n            And warmeth them in the dust,\n            And forgetteth that the foot may crush them,\n            Or that the wild beast may break them?\n            She is hardened against her young ones\n            As though they were not hers:\n            Because God hath deprived her of wisdom,\n            Neither hath he imparted to her understanding.\n\nThis was more elegant than exact, for ostriches are exceedingly watchful\nand patient parents, as they have need to be, considering the perilous\nexposure of their nests on the ground, and the great number of enemies\nto which both eggs and young are exposed in the wilderness. Major S.\nHamilton,[110] than whom there is no better authority, testifies to\nthis. \u201cThe hen-bird,\u201d he says, \u201csits on the eggs by day and the cock\nrelieves her at night, so that the eggs are never left unguarded during\nincubation.\u201d The chicks are able to take care of themselves after a day\nor two, and there is no more foundation in fact for the Biblical charge\nof cruelty than for that other Oriental fable that this bird hatches its\neggs not by brooding but by the rays of warmth and light from her eyes.\n\u201cBoth birds are employed,\u201d the fable reads, \u201cfor if the gaze is\nsuspended for only one moment the eggs are addled, whereupon these bad\nones are at once broken.\u201d It is to this fiction that Southey refers in\n_Thalaba, the Destroyer_:\n\n                 With such a look as fables say\n                 The mother ostrich fixes on her eggs,\n                 Till that intense affection\n                 Kindle its light of life.\n\nHence, as Burnaby tells us, ostrich eggs were hung in some Mohammedan\nmosques as a reminder that \u201cGod will break evil-doers as the ostrich her\nworthless eggs.\u201d Professor E. A. Grosvenor notes in his elaborate\nvolumes on Constantinople, that in the turbeh of Eyouk, the holiest\nbuilding and shrine in the Ottoman world, are suspended \u201colive lamps and\nostrich eggs, the latter significant of patience and faith.\u201d Their\nmeanings or at any rate the interpretations vary locally, but the shells\nthemselves are favorite mosque ornaments all over Islam, and an\nextensive trans-Saharan caravan-trade in them still exists. Ostrich eggs\nas well as feathers were imported into ancient Egypt and Ph\u0153nicia from\nthe Land of Punt (Somaliland) and their shells have been recovered from\nearly tombs, or sometimes clay models of them, as at Hu, where Petrie\nfound an example decorated with an imitation of the network of cords by\nwhich it could be carried about, just as is done to this day by the\nCentral-African negroes, who utilize these shells as water-bottles, and\ncarry a bundle of them in a netting bag. Other examples were painted;\nand Wilkinson surmises that these were suspended in the temples of the\nancient Egyptians as they now are in those of the Copts. The Punic tombs\nabout Carthage, and those of Mycenae, in Greece, have yielded painted\nshells of these eggs; and five were exhumed from an Etruscan tomb,\nornamented with bands of fantastic figures of animals either engraved or\npainted on the shell, the incised lines filled with gold; what purpose\nthey served, or whether any religious significance was attached to them,\nis not known. Eggs are still to be found in many Spanish churches\nhanging near the Altar: they are usually goose-eggs, but may be a\nreflection of the former Moorish liking for those of the ostrich in\ntheir houses of worship.\n\nTo return for a moment to the notion that the ostrich breaks any eggs\nthat become addled (by the way, how could the bird know which were \u201cgone\nbad\u201d?), let me add a preposterous variation of this, quoted from a\nGerman source by Goldsmith[32] in relation to the rhea, the South\nAmerican cousin of the ostrich\u2014all, of course, arrant nonsense:\n\n  The male compels twenty or more females to lay their eggs in one\n  nest; he then, when they have done laying, chases them away and\n  places himself upon the eggs; however, he takes the singular\n  precaution of laying two of the number aside, which he does not sit\n  upon. When the young one comes forth these two eggs are addled;\n  which the male having foreseen, breaks one and then the other, upon\n  which multitudes of flies are found to settle; and these supply the\n  young brood with a sufficiency of provision till they are able to\n  shift for themselves.\n\nAnother popular saying is: \u201cI have the digestion of an ostrich!\u201d\n\nWhat does this mean? Ancient books went so far as to say that ostriches\nsubsisted on iron alone, although they did not take the trouble to\nexplain where in the desert they could obtain this vigorous diet. A\npicture in one of the Beast Books gives a recognizable sketch of the\nbird with a great key in its bill and near by a horseshoe for a second\ncourse. In heraldry, which is a museum of antique notions, the ostrich,\nwhen used as a bearing, is always depicted as holding in its mouth a\nPassion-nail (emblem of the Church militant), or a horseshoe (reminder\nof knightly Prowess on horseback), or a key (signifying religious and\ntemporal power).\n\nAn amusing passage in Sir Thomas Browne\u2019s famous book, _Common and\nVulgar Errors_[33]\u2014which is a queer combination of sagacity, ignorance,\nsuperstition and credulity\u2014is his solemn argument against the belief\nprevalent in his day (1605\u201382) that ostriches ate iron; but he quotes\nhis predecessors from Aristotle down to show how many philosophers have\ngiven it credence without proof. The great misfortune of medieval\nthinkers appears to have been that they were bound hand and foot to the\ndead knowledge contained in ancient Greek and Latin books\u2014a sort of\nmental mortmain that blocked any progress in science. They made of\nAristotle, especially, a sort of sacred fetish, whose statements and\nconclusions must not be \u201cchecked\u201d by any fresh observation or\nexperiment. Browne was one of the first to exhibit a little independence\nof judgment, and to suspect that possibly, as Lowell puts it, \u201cthey\ndidn\u2019t know everything down in Judee.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs for Pliny,\u201d Sir Thomas informs us, \u201che saith plainly that the\nostrich concocteth whatever it eateth. Now the Doctor acknowledgeth it\neats iron: ergo, according to Pliny it concocts iron. Africandus tells\nus that it devours iron. Farnelius is so far from extenuating the matter\nthat he plainly confirms it, and shows that this concoction is performed\nby the nature of its whole essence. As for Riolanus, his denial without\nground we regard not. Albertus speaks not of iron but of stones which it\nswallows and excludes again without nutriment.\u201d\n\nThis is an excellent example of the way those old fellows considered a\nmatter of fact as if it were one of opinion\u2014as if the belief or\nnon-belief of a bunch of ancients, who knew little or nothing of the\nsubject, made a thing so or not so. Sir Thomas seems to have been\nstruggling out of this fog of metaphysics and shyly squinting at the\nfacts of nature; yet it is hard to follow his logic to the conclusion\nthat the allegation of iron-eating and \u201cconcocting\u201d (by which I suppose\ndigestion is meant) is not true, but he was right. The poets, however,\nclung to the story. John Skelton (1460\u20131529) in his long poem _Phyllip\nSparrow_ writes of\n\n                     The estryge that wyll eate\n                     An horshowe so great\n                     In the stede of meate\n                     Such feruent heat\n                     His stomake doth freat [fret].\n\nBen Johnson makes one of his characters in _Every Man in his Humor_\nassure another, who declares he could eat the very sword-hilts for\nhunger, that this is evidence that he has good digestive power\u2014\u201cYou have\nan ostrich\u2019s stomach.\u201d And in Shakespeare\u2019s _Henry VI_ is the remark:\n\u201cI\u2019ll make thee eat iron like an ostrich, and swallow my sword.\u201d\n\nReaders of Goldsmith\u2019s _Animated Nature_,[32] published more than a\ncentury later (1774) as a popular book of instruction in natural history\n(about which he knew nothing by practical observation outside of an\nIrish county or two), learned that ostriches \u201cwill devour leather, hair,\nglass, stones, anything that is given them, but all metals lose a part\nof their weight and often the extremities of the figure.\u201d That the\npeople remembered this is shown by the fact that zo\u00f6logical gardens have\nlost many specimens of these birds, which seem to have a very weak sense\nof taste, because of their swallowing copper coins and other metallic\nobjects fed to them by experimental visitors, which they could neither\nassimilate nor get rid of. It is quite likely that the bird\u2019s reputation\nfor living on iron was derived from similarly feeding the captive\nspecimens kept for show in Rome and various Eastern cities, the fatal\nresults of which were unnoticed by the populace. The wild ostrich\ncontents itself with taking into its gizzard a few small stones, perhaps\npicked up and swallowed accidentally, which assist it in grinding hard\nfood, as is the habit of many ground-feeding fowls. Much the same\ndelusion exists with regard to the emeu.\n\nIf I were to repeat a tithe of the absurdities and medical superstitions\n(or pure quackery) related of birds in the \u201cbestiaries,\u201d as the books of\nthe later medieval period answering to our natural histories were named,\nthe reader would soon tire of my pages; but partly as a sample, and\npartly because the pelican is not only familiar in America but is\nconstantly met in proverbs, in heraldry, and in ecclesiastical art and\nlegend, I think it worth while to give some early explanations of the\ncurious notion expressed in the heraldic phrase \u201cthe pelican in its\npiety.\u201d It stands for a very ancient misunderstanding of the action of a\nmother-pelican alighting on her nest, and opening her beak so that her\nyoung ones may pick from her pouch the predigested fish she offers them\nwithin it. As the interior of her mouth is reddish, she appeared to some\nimaginative observer long ago to display a bleeding breast at which her\nnestlings were plucking. Now observe how, according to Hazlitt,[84] that\nmedieval nature-fakir, Philip de Thaum, who wrote _The Anglo-Norman\nBestiary_ about 1120, embroiders his ignorance to gratify the appetite\nof his age for marvels\u2014sensations, as we say nowadays\u2014and so sell his\nbook:\n\n  \u201cOf such a nature it is,\u201d he says of the pelican, \u201cwhen it comes to\n  its young birds, and they are great and handsome, and it will fondle\n  them, cover them with its wings; the little birds are fierce, take\n  to pecking it\u2014desire to eat it and pick out its two eyes; then it\n  pecks and takes them, and slays them with torment; and thereupon\n  leaves them\u2014leaves them lying dead\u2014then returns on the third day, is\n  grieved to find them dead, and makes such lamentation, when it sees\n  its little birds dead, that with its beak it strikes its body that\n  the blood issues forth; the blood goes dropping, and falls on its\n  young birds\u2014the blood has such quality that by it they come to\n  life\u2014\u2014\u201d\n\nand so on, all in sober earnest. But he made a botch of it, for earlier\nand better accounts show that the male bird kills the youngsters because\nwhen they begin to grow large they rebel at his control and provoke him;\nwhen the mother returns she brings them to life by pouring over them her\nblood. Moreover, there crept in a further corruption of the legend to\nthe effect that the nestlings were killed by snakes, as Drayton writes\nin his _Noah\u2019s Flood_:\n\n           By them there sat the loving pellican\n           Whose young ones, poison\u2019d by the serpent\u2019s sting,\n           With her own blood again to life doth bring.\n\nSt. Jerome seems to have had this version in mind when he made the\nChristian application, saying that as the pelican\u2019s young, \u201ckilled by\nserpents,\u201d were saved by the mother\u2019s blood, so was the salvation by the\nChrist related to those dead in sin. This point is elaborated somewhat\nin my chapter on _Symbolism_.\n\nBefore I leave this bird I want to quote a lovely paragraph on pelican\nhabits, far more modern than anything \u201cmedieval,\u201d for it is taken from\nthe _Arctic Zo\u00f6logy_ (1784) of Thomas Pennant, who was a good\nnaturalist, but evidently a little credulous, although the first half of\nthe quotation does not overstrain our faith. He is speaking of pelicans\nthat he saw in Australia, and explains:\n\n  They feed upon fish, which they take sometimes by plunging from a\n  great height in the air and seizing like the gannet; at other times\n  they fish in concert, swimming in flocks, and forming a large circle\n  in the great rivers which they gradually contract, beating the water\n  with their wings and feet in order to drive the fish into the\n  centre; which when they approach they open their vast mouths and\n  fill their pouches with their prey, then incline their bills to\n  empty the bag of the waters; after which they swim to shore and eat\n  their booty in quiet.... It is said that when they make their nests\n  in the dry deserts, they carry the water to their young in the vast\n  pouches, and that the lions and beasts of prey come there to quench\n  their thirst, sparing the young, the cause of this salutary\n  provision. Possibly on this account the Egyptians style this bird\n  the _camel of the river_\u2014the Persians tacub, or water-carrier.\n\nNow let us look at the Trochilus legend, and trace how an African plover\nbecame changed into an American hummingbird. The story, first published\nby Herodotus, that some sort of bird enters the mouth of a Nile\ncrocodile dozing on the sand with its jaws open, and picks bits of food\nfrom the palate and teeth, apparently to the reptile\u2019s satisfaction, is\nnot altogether untrue. The bird alluded to is the Egyptian plover, which\nclosely resembles the common British lapwing; and there seems to be no\ndoubt that something of the sort does really take place when crocodiles\nare lying with open mouth on the Nile bank, as they often do. This\nlapwing has a tall, pointed crest standing up like a spur on the top of\nits head, and this fact gives \u201cpoint,\u201d in more senses than one, to the\nextraordinary version of the Herodotus story in one of the old plays,\n_The White Devil_, by John Webster (1612), where an actor says:\n\n  \u201cStay, my lord! I\u2019ll tell you a tale. The crocodile, which lives in\n  the river Nilus, hath a worm breeds i\u2019 the teeth of \u2019t, which puts\n  it to extreme anguish: a little bird, no bigger than a wren, is\n  barber-surgeon to this crocodile; flies into the jaws of \u2019t, picks\n  out the worm, and brings present remedy. The fish, glad of ease, but\n  ingrateful to her that did it, that the bird may not talk largely of\n  her abroad for nonpayment, closeth her chaps, intending to swallow\n  her, and so put her to perpetual silence. But nature, loathing such\n  ingratitude, hath armed this bird with a quill or prick on the head,\n  top o\u2019 the which wounds the crocodile i\u2019 the mouth, forceth her open\n  her bloody prison, and away flies the pretty tooth-picker from her\n  cruel patient.\u201d\n\nA most curious series of mistakes has arisen around this matter.\nLinguists tell us that the common name among the ancient Greeks for a\nplover was _trochilus_ (\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf\u03c7\u03af\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2), and that this is the word used by\nHerodotus for his crocodile-bird. But in certain passages of his\n_History of Animals_ Aristotle uses this word to designate a wren; it\nhas been supposed that this was a copyist\u2019s error, writing carelessly\n\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf\u03c7\u03af\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 for \u2019\u03bf\u03c1\u03c7\u03af\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2, but it was repeated by Pliny in recounting what\nHerodotus had related, and this naturally led to the statement by some\nmedieval compilers that the crocodile\u2019s tooth-cleaner was a wren. This,\nhowever, is not the limit of the confusion, for when American\nhummingbirds became known in Europe, and were placed by some naturalists\nof the 17th century in the Linn\u00e6an genus (Trochilus) with the wrens, one\nwriter at least, Paul Lucas, 1774 (if Brewer\u2019s _Handbook_ may be\ntrusted), asserted that the hummingbird as well as the lapwing entered\nthe jaws of Egyptian crocodiles\u2014and that he had seen them do it!\n\nThis curious tissue of right and wrong was still further embroidered by\nsomebody\u2019s assertion that the diminutive attendant\u2019s kindly purpose was\n\u201cto pick from the teeth a little insect\u201d that greatly annoyed the huge\nreptile. Even Tom Moore knew no better than to write in _Lalla Rookh_ of\n\n             The puny bird that dares with pleasing hum\n             Within the crocodile\u2019s stretched jaws to come.\n\nThe full humor of this will be perceived by those who remember that\nhummingbirds are exclusively American\u2014not Oriental. Finally Linn\u00e6us\nconfirmed all this mixture of mistakes by fastening the name Trochilid\u00e6\non the Hummingbird family.\n\nFinally, John Josselyn, Gent., in his _Rarities of New England_, calls\nour American chimney-swift a \u201ctroculus,\u201d and describes its nesting\nabsurdly thus:\n\n  The troculus\u2014a small bird, black and white, no bigger than a\n  swallow, the points of whose feathers are sharp, which they stick\n  into the sides of the chymney (to rest themselves, their legs being\n  exceedingly short) where they breed in nests made like a swallow\u2019s\n  nest, but of a glewy substance; and which is not fastened to the\n  chymney as a swallow\u2019s nest, but hangs down the chymney by a\n  clew-like string a yard long. They commonly have four or five young\n  ones; and when they go away, which is much about the time that\n  swallows used to depart, they never fail to throw down one of their\n  young birds into the room by way of gratitude. I have more than once\n  observed, that, against the ruin of the family, these birds will\n  suddenly forsake the house, and come no more.\n\nAnother unfortunate but long-accepted designation in systematic\nornithology was attached by Linn\u00e6us to the great bird of paradise in\nnaming this species _Paradisea apoda_ (footless); and it was done\nthrough an even worse misunderstanding than in the case of Trochilus\u2014or\nelse as a careless joke. It is true that at that time no perfect\nspecimen had been seen in Europe; yet it is hard to understand Linn\u00e9\u2019s\nact, for he could not have put more faith in the alleged natural\nfootlessness of this bird than in the many other marvelous qualities\nascribed to it. Wallace has recounted some of these myths in his _Malay\nArchipelago_.[35]\n\n  When the earliest European voyagers reached the Moluccas in search\n  of cloves and nutmegs, they were presented with the dried skins of\n  birds so strange and beautiful as to excite the admiration even of\n  those wealth-seeking rovers. The Malay traders gave them the name of\n  \u201cmanuk dewata,\u201d or God\u2019s birds; and the Portuguese, finding they had\n  no feet or wings, and being unable to learn anything authentic about\n  them, called them \u201cpassares de sol\u201d or birds of the sun; while the\n  learned Dutchmen, who wrote in Latin, called them avis paradeus or\n  paradise-bird. Jan van Linschoten gives these names in 1598, and\n  tells us that no one has seen these birds alive, for they live in\n  the air, always turning toward the sun, and never lighting on the\n  earth till they die; for they have neither feet nor wings, as he\n  adds, may be seen by the birds carried to India, and sometimes to\n  Holland, but being very costly they were rarely seen in Europe. More\n  than a hundred years later Mr. William Fennel, who accompanied\n  Dampier ... saw specimens at Amboyna and was told that they came to\n  Banda to eat nutmegs, which intoxicated them, and made them fall\n  senseless, when they were killed by ants. [Tavernier explains that\n  the ants ate away their legs\u2014thus accounting for the footlessness.]\n\nIt is to this nutmeg dissipation that Tom Moore alludes in _Lalla\nRookh_:\n\n           Those golden birds that in the spice time drop\n           About the gardens, drunk with that sweet fruit\n           Whose scent has lured them o\u2019er the summer flood.\n\nThe unromantic fact was that the natives of the Moluccas then, as now,\nafter skilfully shooting with arrows or blow-guns and skinning the\n(male) birds, cut off the legs and dusky wings and folded the prepared\nskin about a stick run through the body and mouth, in which form\n\u201cparadise-birds\u201d continued to come to millinery markets in New York and\nLondon. A somewhat similar blunder in respect to swallows (or swifts?)\nhas given us in the martlet, as a heraldic figure, a quaint perpetuation\nof an error in natural history. \u201cEven at the present day,\u201d remarks Fox\nDavies,[111] speaking of England, \u201cit is popularly believed that the\nswallow has no feet ... at any rate the heraldic swallow is never\nrepresented with feet, the legs terminating with the feathers that cover\nthe shank.\u201d\n\nI do not know where Dryden got the information suggesting his\ncomparison, in _Threnodia Augustalis_, \u201clike birds of paradise that\nlived on mountain dew\u201d; but the idea is as fanciful as the modern Malay\nfiction that this bird drops its egg, which bursts as it approaches the\nearth, releasing a fully developed young bird. Another account is that\nthe hen lays her eggs on the back of her mate. Both theories are wild\nguesses in satisfaction of ignorance, for no one yet knows precisely the\nbreeding-habits of these shy forest-birds, the females of which are\nrarely seen. Dryden may have read that in Mexico, as a Spanish traveller\nreported, hummingbirds live on dew; or he may have heard of the medieval\nnotion that ravens were left to be nourished by the dews of heaven, and,\nwith poetic license to disregard classification, transferred the feat to\nthe fruit-eating birds of paradise.\n\nNext comes that old yarn about geese that grow on trees. When or where\nit arose nobody knows, but somewhere in the Middle Ages, for Max M\u00fcller\nquotes a cardinal of the 11th century who represented the goslings as\nbursting, fully fledged, from fruit resembling apples. A century later\n(1187) Giraldus Cambrensis, an archdeacon reproving laxity among the\npriests in Ireland, condemns the practice of eating barnacle geese in\nLent on the plea that they are fish; and soon afterward Innocent III\nforbade it by decree. Queer variants soon appeared. A legend relating to\nIreland inscribed on a Genoese world-map, and described by Dr. Edward L.\nStevenson in a publication of The Hispanic Society (New York) reads:\n\u201cCertain of their trees bear fruit which, decaying within, produces a\nworm which, as it subsequently develops, becomes hairy and feathered,\nand, provided wings, flies like a bird.\u201d\n\nAn extensive clerical literature grew up in Europe in discussion of the\nethics of this matter, for the monks liked good eating and their Lenten\nfare was miserably scanty, and a great variety of explanations of the\nalleged marine birth of these birds\u2014ordinary geese (_Branta bernicla_)\nwhen mature\u2014were contrived. That something of the kind was true nobody\nin authority denied down to the middle of the 17th century, when a\nGerman Jesuit, Gaspar Schott, was bold enough to declare that although\nthe birth-place of this uncommon species of goose was unknown (it is now\nbelieved to breed in Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla), undoubtedly it was\nproduced from incubated eggs like any other goose. Nevertheless the\nfable was reaffirmed in the _Philosophical Transactions_ of the Scottish\nRoyal Society for 1677. Henry Lee[36] recalls two versions of the absurd\nbut prevalent theory. One is that certain trees, resembling willows, and\ngrowing always close to the sea, produced at the ends of their branches\nfruits in the shape of apples, each containing the embryo of a goose,\nwhich, when the fruit was ripe, fell into the water and flew away. The\nother is that the geese were bred from a fungus growing on rotten timber\nfloating at sea, and were first developed in the form of worms in the\nsubstance of the wood.\n\nIt is plain that this fable sprang from the similitude to the wings of\ntiny birds of the feathery arms that sessile barnacles reach out from\ntheir shells to clutch from the water their microscopic food, and also\nto the remote likeness the naked heads and necks of young birds bear to\nstalked or \u201cwhale\u201d barnacles (Lepas). Both these cirripeds are found\nattached to floating wood, and sometimes to tree-branches exposed to\nwaves and to high tides. The deception so agreeable to hungry churchmen\nwas abetted by the etymologies in the older dictionaries. Dr. Murray,\neditor of _The New Oxford Dictionary_, asserts, however, that the origin\nof the word \u201cbarnacle\u201d is not known, but that certainly it was applied\nto the mature goose before its was given to the cirriped.\n\nSpeaking of geese, what is the probable source of the warning \u201cDon\u2019t\nkill the goose that lays the golden eggs\u201d beyond or behind the obvious\nmoral of \u00c6sop\u2019s familiar fable? The only light on the subject that has\ncome to me is the following passage in Bayley\u2019s[24] somewhat esoteric\nbook:\n\n  The Hindoos represent Brahma, the Breath of Life, as riding upon a\n  goose, and the Egyptians symbolized Seb, the father of Osiris, as a\n  goose.... According to the Hindoo theory of creation the Supreme\n  Spirit laid a golden egg resplendent as the sun, and from the golden\n  egg was born Brahma, the progenitor of the Universe. The Egyptians\n  had a similar story, and described the sun as an egg laid by the\n  primeval goose, in later times said to be a god. It is probable that\n  our fairy tale of the goose that laid the golden egg is a relic of\n  this very ancient mythology.\n\nThese notions in India probably were the seed of a Buddhist legend that\ncomes a little nearer to our quest. According to this legend the Buddha\n(to be) was born a Brahmin, and after growing up was married and his\nwife bore him three daughters. After his death he was born again as a\ngolden mallard (which is a duck), and determined to give his golden\nfeathers one by one for the support of his former family. This\nbeneficence went on, the mallard-Bodhisat helping at intervals by a gift\nof a feather. Then one day the mother proposed to pluck the bird clean,\nand, despite the protests of the daughters, did so. But at that instant\nthe golden feathers ceased to be golden. His wings grew again, but they\nwere plain white. It may be added that the Pali word for golden goose is\n_hansa_, whence the Latin _anser_, goose, German _gans_, the root, _gan_\nappearing in our words gander and gannet; so that it appears that the\n\u201cmallard\u201d was a goose, after all\u2014and so was the woman!\n\nThis may not explain \u00c6sop, for that fabulist told or wrote his moral\nanecdotes a thousand years before Buddhism was heard of; but it is\npermissible to suppose that so simple a lesson in bad management might\nhave been taught in India ages before \u00c6sop (several of whose fables have\nbeen found in early Egyptian papyri), and was only repeated, in a new\ndressing, by good Buddhists, as often happens with stories having a\nuniversal appeal to our sense of practical philosophy or of humor.\n\nWe have had occasion to speak of the eagle in many different aspects, as\nthe elected king of the birds, as an emblem of empire, and so on, but\nthere remain for use in this chapter some very curious attributes\nassigned to the great bird by ancient wonder-mongers that long ago would\nhave been lost in the discarded rubbish of primitive ideas\u2014mental toys\nof the childhood of the world\u2014had they not been preserved for us in the\nundying pages of literature. Poetry, especially, is a sort of museum of\nantique inventions, preserving for us specimens\u2014often without labels\u2014of\nspeculative stages in the early development of man\u2019s comprehension of\nnature.\n\nIn the case of the eagle (as a genus, in the Old World not always\nclearly distinguished from vultures and the larger hawks) it is\nsometimes difficult to say whether some of its legendary aspects are\ncauses or effects of others. Was its solar quality, for example, a cause\nor a consequence of its supposed royalty in the bird tribe? The\npredatory power, lofty flight, and haughty yet noble mien of the true\neagle, may account for both facts, together or separately. It would be\ndiving too deeply into the murky depths of mythology to show full proof,\nbut it may be accepted that everywhere, at least in the East, the\nfountain of superstitions, the eagle typified the sun in its divine\naspect. This appears as a long-accepted conception at the very dawn of\nhistory among the sun-worshippers of the Euphrates Valley, and it\npersisted in art and theology until Christianity remodelled such\n\u201cheathen\u201d notions to suit the new trend of religious thought, and\ntransformed the \u201cbird of fire\u201d into a symbol of the Omnipotent Spirit\u2014an\nascription which artists interpreted very liberally.\n\nIn Egypt a falcon replaced it in its religious significance, true eagles\nbeing rare along the Nile, and \u201ceagle-hawks\u201d were kept in the sun-gods\u2019\ntemples, sacred to Horus (represented with a hawk-head surmounted by a\nsun-disk), Ra, Osiris, Seku, and other solar divinities. \u201cIt was\nregarded,\u201d as Mr. Cook explains in _Zeus_,[37] \u201cas the only bird that\ncould look with unflinching gaze at the sun, being itself filled with\nsunlight, and eventually akin to fire.\u201d Later, people made it the sacred\nbird of Apollo, and Mithraic worshippers spoke of Helios as a hawk, but\ncrude superstitions among the populace were mixed with this priestly\nreverence.\n\nIt was universally believed of the eagle, that, as an old writer said,\n\u201cshe can see into the great glowing sun\u201d; few if any were aware that she\ncould veil her eyes by drawing across the orbs that third eyelid which\nnaturalists term the nictitating membrane. Hence arose that further\nbelief, lasting well into the Middle Ages, that the mother-bird proved\nher young by forcing them to gaze upon the sun, and discarding those who\nshrank from the fiery test\u2014\u201cLike Eaglets bred to Soar, Gazing on Starrs\nat heaven\u2019s mysterious Pow\u2019r,\u201d wrote an anonymous poet in 1652. \u201cBefore\nthat her little ones be feathered,\u201d in the words of an old compiler of\nmarvels quoted by Hulme,[38] \u201cshe will beat and strike them with her\nwings, and thereby force them to looke full against the sunbeams. Now if\nshe sees any one of them to winke, or their eies to water at the raies\nof the sunne, she turns it with the head foremost out of the nest as a\nbastard.\u201d\n\nHow many who now read the 103d Psalm, or that fine figure of rhetoric in\nMilton\u2019s _Areopagitica_, could explain the full meaning of the\ncomparison used? The passage referred to is that in which Milton\nexclaims: \u201cMethinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing\nherself like a strong man after sleep.... Methinks I see her renewing\nher mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the sun.\u201d Milton\nevidently expected all his readers to appreciate the value of his\nsimile\u2014to know that eagles were credited with just this power of\njuvenescence. \u201cWhen,\u201d in the words of an even older chronicler, \u201can\neagle hathe darkness and dimness in een, and heavinesse in wings,\nagainst this disadvantage she is taught by kinde to seek a well of\nspringing water, and then she flieth up into the aire as far as she may,\ntill she be full hot by heat of the air and by travaille of flight, and\nso then by heat the pores being opened, and the feathers chafed, and she\nfalleth sideingly into the well, and there the feathers be chaunged and\nthe dimness of her een is wiped away and purged, and she taketh again\nher might and strength.\u201d Isn\u2019t that a finely constructed tale? Spencer\nthought so when he wrote:\n\n            As eagle fresh out of the ocean wave,\n            Where he hath left his plumes, all hoary gray,\n            And decks himself with feathers, youthful, gay.\n\nMargaret C. Walker[39] elaborates the legend in her excellent book,\nsuggesting that it may have originated in contemplation of the great age\nto which eagles are supposed to live; but to my mind it grew out of the\nancient symbolism that made the eagle represent the sun, which plunges\ninto the western ocean every night, and rises, its youth renewed every\nmorning.\n\n  \u201cIt is related,\u201d says Miss Walker, \u201cthat when this bird feels the\n  season of youth is passing by, and when his young are still in the\n  nest, he leaves the aging earth and soars toward the sun, the\n  consumer of all that is harmful. Mounting upward to the third region\n  of the air\u2014the region of meteors\u2014he circles and swings about under\n  the great fiery ball in their midst, turning every feather to its\n  scorching rays, then, with wings drawn back, like a meteor himself,\n  he drops into some cold spring or into the ocean wave there to have\n  the heat driven inward by the soul-searching chill of its waters.\n  Then flying to his eyrie he nestles among his warm fledglings, till,\n  starting into perspiration, he throws off his age with his feathers.\n  That his rejuvenescence may be complete, as his sustenance must be\n  of youth, he makes prey of his young, feeding on the nestlings that\n  have warmed him. He is clothed anew and youth is again his.\u201d\n\nCruden\u2019s _Concordance_[51] to the Bible, first published in 1737,\ncontains under \u201cEagle\u201d a fine lot of old Semitic misinformation as to\nthe habits of eagles, which Cruden gives his clerical readers apparently\nin complete faith and as profitable explanations of the biblical\npassages in which that bird is mentioned. Allow me to quote some of\nthese as an addition to our collection, for I find them retained without\ncomment in the latest edition of this otherwise admirable work:\n\n  It is said that when an eagle sees its young ones so well-grown, as\n  to venture upon flying, it hovers over their nest, flutters with its\n  wings, and excites them to imitate it, and take their flight, and\n  when it sees them weary or fearful it takes them upon its back, and\n  carries them so, that the fowlers cannot hurt the young without\n  piercing through the body of the old one.... It is of great courage,\n  so as to set on harts and great beasts. And has no less subtility in\n  taking them; for having filled its wings with sand and dust, it\n  sitteth on their horns, and by its wings shaketh it in their eyes,\n  whereby they become an easy prey.... It goeth forth to prey about\n  noon, when men are gone home from the fields.\n\n  It hath a little eye, but a very quick sight, and discerns its prey\n  afar off, and beholds the sun with open eyes. Such of her young as\n  through weakness of sight cannot behold the sun, it rejects as\n  unnatural. It liveth long, nor dieth of age or sickness, say some,\n  but of hunger, for by age its bill grows so hooked that it cannot\n  feed.... It is said that it preserves its nest from poison, by\n  having therein a precious stone, named Aetites (without which it is\n  thought the eagle cannot lay her eggs ...) and keepeth it clean by\n  the frequent use of the herb maidenhair. Unless it be very hungry it\n  devoureth not whole prey, but leaveth part of it for other birds,\n  which follow. Its feathers, or quills, are said to consume other\n  quills that lie near them. Between the eagle and dragon there is\n  constant enmity, the eagle seeking to kill it, and the dragon breaks\n  all the eagle\u2019s eggs it can find.\n\nIf the Jewish eagles are as smart as that, my sympathies are with the\ndragon!\n\nThe relations between Zeus, or Jupiter, and the eagle, mostly\nreprehensible, belong to classic mythology; and they have left little\ntrace in folklore, which, be it remembered, takes account of living or\nsupposed realities, not of mythical creatures. The most notable bit,\nperhaps, is the widely accepted notion that this bird is never killed by\nlightning; is \u201csecure from thunder and unharmed by Jove,\u201d as Dryden\nphrases it. Certain common poetic allusions explain themselves, for\ninstance, that in _The Myrmidons_ of \u00c6schylus:\n\n              So, in the Libyan fable it is told\n              That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,\n              Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,\n              \u2018With our own feathers, not by others\u2019 hands\n              \u2018Are we now smitten.\u2019\n\nThese little narratives, which are certainly interesting if true\u2014as they\nare not\u2014are good examples of the failure to exercise what may be called\nthe common-sense of science.\n\nExtraordinary indeed are the foolish things that used to be told of\nbirds by men apparently wise and observant in other, even kindred,\nmatters. Isaak Walton,[40] for example, so well informed as to fish,\nseemed to swallow falsities about other animals as readily as did the\ngudgeon Isaak\u2019s bait. He writes in one place, after quoting some very\nmistaken remarks about grasshoppers, that \u201cthis may be believed if we\nconsider that when the raven hath hatched her eggs she takes no further\ncare, but leaves her young ones to the care of the God of Nature, who is\nsaid in the _Psalms_ \u2018to feed the young that call upon him.\u2019 And they be\nkept alive, and fed by a dew, or worms that breed in their nests, or\nsome other ways that we mortals know not.\u201d\n\nThe origin of this is plain. The ancient Jews told one another that\nravens left their fledglings to survive by chance, not feeding them as\nother birds did. This is manifested in several places in the Bible, as\nin the 147th Psalm: \u201cHe giveth to the beast his food _and_ to the young\nravens which cry\u201d; but this absurd notion is far older, no doubt, than\nthe Psalms. Aristotle[41] mentions that in Scythia\u2014a terra incognita\nwhere, in the minds of the Greeks, anything might happen\u2014\u201cthere is a\nkind of bird as big as a bustard, which ... does not sit upon its eggs,\nbut hides them in the skin of a hare or fox,\u201d and then watches them from\na neighboring perch. Readers may guess at the reality, if any, behind\nthis. Aristotle seems to have accepted it as a fact, for he goes on to\ndescribe how certain birds of prey are equally devoid of parental sense\nof duty; but we cannot be sure what species are referred to, despite the\nnames used in Cresswell\u2019s translation of the _History of Animals_, as\nfollows:\n\n  The bird called asprey ... feeds both its young and those of the\n  eagle ... for the eagle turns out its young ... before the proper\n  time, when they still require feeding and are unable to fly. The\n  eagle appears to eject its young from the nest from envy ... and\n  strikes them. When they are turned out they begin to scream, and the\n  phene comes and takes them up.\n\nWhy so strange notions of maternal care in birds should ever have gained\ncredence in the face of daily observation of the solicitude of every\ncreature for its young, is one of the puzzles of history, but that they\nwere widespread is certain, and also that they persisted in folklore\ndown to the time when, at the dawn of the Renaissance, observation and\nresearch began to replace blind confidence in ancient lore. Thus J. E.\nHarting,[42] in his well-known treatise on the natural history in\nShakespeare, quotes from a Latin folio of 1582 in support of his\nstatement that \u201cit was certainly a current belief in olden times that\nwhen the raven saw its young newly hatched, and covered with down, it\nconceived such an aversion that it forsook them, and did not return to\nits nest until a darker plumage showed itself.\u201d\n\nRavens have quite enough sins to answer for and calumnies to live down\nwithout adding to the list this murderous absurdity, contrary to the\nvery first law of bird-nature. Nevertheless the poets, as usual, take\nadvantage of the thought (for its moral picturesqueness, I suppose), as\nwitness Burns\u2019s lines in _The Cotter\u2019s Saturday Night_\u2014\n\n             That he who stills the raven\u2019s clamorous nest\n\n                    \u00b7       \u00b7       \u00b7       \u00b7       \u00b7\n\n             Would in the way his wisdom sees the best,\n             For them and for their little ones provide.\n\nIt is plain that the plowman-poet was too canny to believe it, but\nperhaps it is well to say that there is no foundation in fact for this\nextraordinary charge. Ravens are faithful and careful parents: in fact\nShakespeare makes a character in _Titus Andronicus_ mention that \u201csome\nsay that ravens foster forlorn children,\u201d a view quite the opposite of\nthe other.\n\nAnother calumny is thoughtlessly repeated by Brewer[34] in his widely\nused reference-book _Phrase and Fable_ (which unfortunately is far from\ntrustworthy in the department of natural history) when he records:\n\u201cRavens by their acute sense of smell, discern the savor of dying\nbodies, and under the hope of preying on them, light on chimney-tops or\nflutter about sick-rooms.\u201d\n\nThe correction to be made here is not to the gruesome superstition but\nto the asserted keenness of the bird\u2019s sense of smell. The gathering of\nvultures to a dead animal is not by its odor, but by the sight of the\ncarcass by one, and the noting of signs of that fact by others, who\nhasten to investigate the matter. Oliver Goldsmith[32] fell into the\nsame error when he wrote of the protective value, as he esteemed it, of\nthis sense in birds in general, \u201cagainst their insidious enemies\u201d; and\ncited the practice of decoymen, formerly so numerous as wildfowl\ntrappers in the east of England, \u201cwho burn turf to hide their scent from\nthe ducks.\u201d The precaution was wasted, for none of the senses in birds\nis so little developed or of so small use as the olfactory. Goldsmith\u2019s\n_Animated Nature_ was, a century ago, the fountain of almost all popular\nknowledge of natural history among English-reading people, and was often\nreprinted. As a whole it was a good and useful book, but its\naccomplished author was not a trained naturalist, and absorbed some\nstatements that were far from authentic\u2014perhaps in some cases he was so\npleased with the narrative that he was not sufficiently critical of its\nsubstance, as in the story of the storks in Smyrna:\n\n  The inhabitants amuse themselves by taking away some of the storks\u2019\n  eggs from the nests on their roofs, and replacing them with fowls\u2019\n  eggs. \u201cWhen the young are hatched the sagacious male bird discovers\n  the difference of these from their own brood and sets up a hideous\n  screaming, which excites the attention of the neighboring storks,\n  which fly to his nest. Seeing the cause of their neighbor\u2019s\n  uneasiness, they simultaneously commence pecking the hen, and soon\n  deprive her of life, supposing these spurious young ones to be the\n  produce of her conjugal infidelity. The male bird in the meantime\n  appears melancholy, though he seems to conceive she justly merited\n  her fate.\u201d\n\nIn Goldsmith\u2019s day such contributions to foreign zoology were common.\nEven the so-called scientific men of early Renaissance times indulged in\nthe story-teller\u2019s joy. Albertus Magnus asserted that the sea-eagle and\nthe osprey swam with one foot, which was webbed, and captured prey with\nthe other that was armed with talons. Aldrovandus backed him up, and\neverybody accepted the statement until Linn\u00e6us laughed them out of it by\nthe simple process of examining the birds. These, you may protest, are\nnot mistakes but pure fancies; yet it is only a short step from them to\nthe romance, hardly yet under popular doubt, that the albatross broods\nits eggs in a raftlike, floating nest and sleeps on the wing, as you may\nread in _Lalla Rookh_:\n\n                 While on a peak that braved the sky\n                 A ruined temple tower\u2019d so high\n                 That oft the sleeping albatross\n                 Struck the wild ruins with her wing,\n                 And from her cloud-rocked slumbering\n                 Started, to find man\u2019s dwelling there\n                 In her own fields of silent air.\n\nEven more poetic is the tale of the death-chant of the swan, still more\nthan half-believed by most folks, for we constantly use it as a figure\nof speech, describing in a word, for example, the final protest of a\ndiscarded office-seeker as his \u201cswan-song.\u201d It is useless to hunt for\nthe origin of this notion\u2014it was current at any rate in Aristotle\u2019s\ntime, for he writes: \u201cSwans have the power of song, especially when near\nthe end of their life, and some persons, sailing near the coast of\nLibya, have met many of them in the sea singing a mournful song and have\nafterwards seen some of them die.\u201d Pliny, \u00c6lian (who called Greece\n\u201cmother of lies\u201d), Pausanias and other more recent philosophers, denied\nthat there was any truth in this statement; but the sentimental public,\ncharmed by the pathos of the picture presented to their imaginations,\nand refusing to believe that in reality this bird\u2019s only utterance is a\nwhoop, or a trumpet-like note, have kept it alive aided by the poets who\nhave found it a useful fancy\u2014for example Byron, who moans\n\n               Place me on Sunium\u2019s marbled steep,\n                   Where nothing save the waves and I\n               May hear our mutual murmurs sweep;\n                   There, swan-like, let me sing and die.\n\nThe poets are not to be quarrelled with too severely on this account. It\nmust be conceded that our literature would have been considerably poorer\nhad poets declined to accept all that travellers and country folk told\nthem. Chaucer uses the \u201cswan-song,\u201d and Shakespeare often alludes to it,\nas in _Othello_:\n\n                 I will play the swan and die in music.\n                 A swan-like end, fading in music.\n\nEven Tennyson has a poem on it, picturing a scene of the most charming\nnature, the pensive beauty of which is vastly enhanced by the bold use\nof the fable.\n\nIt has required both the hard scientific scrutiny of the past century\nand a wide scattering of geographical information, to offset in the\nminds of most of us the tendency to imagine that \u201cover the hills and far\naway\u201d things somehow are picturesquely different from those in our own\nhumdrum neighborhood, and that perhaps _yonder_ the laws of nature, so\ninexorable here, may admit now and then of exceptions. Amber came\nfrom\u2014well, few persons knew precisely whence; and wasn\u2019t it possible\nthat it _might_ be a concretion of birds\u2019 tears, as some said?\n\n             Around thee shall glisten the loveliest amber\n             That ever the sorrowing sea-bird hath wept\u2014\n\nsang an enamored poet.\n\n_Facilis descensus Averni_ is a Latin phrase in constant use, with the\nimplication that it is difficult to get back\u2014_sed revocare gradus_,\nthat\u2019s the rub! But how many know that this dark little cliff-ringed\nlake near Cumae, in Italy, was anciently so named in the belief that\nbecause of its noxious vapors no bird could fly across it without being\nsuffocated. Hence a myth placed there an entrance to the nether world,\nand, with keen business instincts, the Cumaean sybil intensified her\nreputation as a seer by taking as her residence a grotto near this\nbaleful bit of water.\n\nWho can forget the monumental mistake of that really great and\nphilosophic naturalist, Buffon, in denying that the voices of American\nbirds were, or could be, melodious. He said of our exquisite songster,\nthe wood-thrush, that it represented the song-thrush of Europe which had\nat sometime rambled around by the Northern Ocean and made its way into\nAmerica; and that it had there, owing to a change of food and climate,\nso degenerated that its cry was now harsh and unpleasant, \u201cas are the\ncries of all birds that live in wild countries inhabited by savages.\u201d\nThe danger of error in drawing inferences as to purpose in nature is\ngreat in any case; but it is doubly so when the philosopher is mistaken\nas to his supposed facts.\n\nBy going back a few decades one might find examples of more or less\namusing errors in natural history to the point of weariness, but with\none or two illustrations from _The Young Ladies\u2019 Book_ (Boston, 1836), I\nwill bring this chapter to its end. This little volume, doubtless\nEnglish in origin, was intended for the entertaining instruction of\nschool-girls, and in many respects was excellent, but when it ventured\non American ornithology it put some amusing misinformation into its\nreaders\u2019 minds. It teaches them that our butcherbirds \u201cbait thorns with\ngrasshoppers to decoy the lesser insectivorous birds into situations\nwhere they may easily be seized\u201d\u2014a beautiful sample of teleological\nassumption of motive based on the fact that the shrike sometimes impales\ndead grasshoppers, mice and so forth on thorns or fence-splinters,\nhaving learned apparently that that is a good way to hold its prey (its\nfeet are weak, and unprovided with talons) while it tears away mouthfuls\nof flesh. Often the victim is left there, only partly eaten, or perhaps\nuntorn; and rarely, if ever, does the shrike return to it, and certainly\nit attracts no \u201clesser insectivorous\u201d birds nor any other kind.\n\nThe author also instructs his young ladies that \u201cthe great American\nbittern has the property of emitting a light from its breast,\u201d and so\nforth. His authority for this long-persistent and picturesque untruth\nwas a review of Wilson\u2019s _American Ornithology_ in Loudon\u2019s _Magazine of\nNatural History_ (London, Vol. vi., 835.) Speaking of this familiar\nmarsh-bird, which, let me repeat, has no such aid in making a living, or\nneed of it, as it is not nocturnal in its habits, the anonymous reviewer\nwrites:\n\n  It is called by Wilson the great American bittern, but, what is very\n  extraordinary, he omits to mention that it has the power of emitting\n  a light from its breast, equal to the light of a common torch, which\n  illuminates the water so as to enable it to discover its prey.... I\n  took some trouble to ascertain the truth of this, which has been\n  confirmed to me by several gentlemen of undoubted veracity, and\n  especially by Mr. Franklin Peale, the proprietor of the Philadelphia\n  Museum.\n\nA similar belief existed in the past in regard to the osprey, which we\nin the United States call the fish-hawk. Loskiel (_Mission to the\nIndians_, 1794) records it thus: \u201cThey say that when it [the fish-hawk]\nhovers over the water, it possesses a power of alluring the fish toward\nthe surface, by means of an oily substance contained in its body. So\nmuch is certain, that, if a bait is touched with this oil, the fish bite\nso greedily, that it appears as if it were impossible for them to\nresist.\u201d How much of this is native American, and how much is imported\nit is hard to determine now.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER IV\n                     THE FOLKLORE OF BIRD MIGRATION\n\n\nI was sitting on a hillside in the Catskill Mountains a few years ago in\nJune, when a hawk came sailing over the field below me. Instantly a\nkingbird sprang from the edge of the woods and rushed, in the cavalier\nmanner of that flycatcher, to drive the hawk away, presumably from its\nnesting neighborhood. The hawk tried to avoid the pecking and\nwing-beating of its furious little foe, but the tormenter kept at it;\nand before long I saw the kingbird deliberately leap upward and alight\non the hawk\u2019s broad back, where it rode comfortably until both birds\nwere out of sight. I have seen a hummingbird indulge in the same piece\nof impudence.\n\nThe Arawak Indians of Venezuela relate that their ancestors obtained\ntheir first tobacco-plants from Trinidad by sending a hummingbird,\nmounted on a crane, to snatch and bring back the jealously guarded\nseeds. The association of these birds in this way seems significant.\n\nIt was doubtless because adventures similar to that of the kingbird were\nnoticed long ago, that there grew up the very ancient fable that on one\noccasion a general assembly of birds resolved to chose for their king\nthat bird which could mount highest into the air. This the eagle\napparently did, and all were ready to accept his rule when a loud burst\nof song was heard, and perched upon the eagle\u2019s back was seen an\nexultant wren that, a stowaway under its wing, had been carried aloft by\nthe kingly candidate. This trickiness angered the eagle so much, says\none tradition, that he struck the wren with his wing, which, since then,\nhas been able to fly no higher than a hawthorn-bush. In a German version\na stork, not an eagle, carries the wren aloft concealed under its wing.\n\nW. H. Hudson, the authority on Argentine zoology, says that the\nboat-tailed grakle, or \u201cchopi,\u201d pursues all sorts of predatory birds,\neven the great caracara eagle, \u201cpouncing down and fastening itself on\nthe victim\u2019s back, where it holds its place till the obnoxious bird has\nleft its territory.\u201d Sir Samuel Baker encountered in Abyssinia bands of\ncranes walking about in search of grasshoppers, every crane carrying on\nits back one or more small flycatchers that from time to time would fly\ndown, seize an insect in the grass, and then return to a crane\u2019s\nshoulders. Precisely the same thing has been recorded of bustards and\nstarlings in South Africa.\n\nBird-students are well aware that certain ducks that nest in trees, and\nsuch marine birds as guillemots breeding on sea-fronting cliffs,\nsometimes carry down their young from these lofty birth-places by\nbalancing them on their backs; also that it is a common thing to see\nwater-fowls, especially grebes and swans, swimming about with a lot of\nlittle ones on deck, that is, on the broad maternal back.\n\nThese facts prepare us somewhat for examining the widely credited\nassertion that various large birds of powerful flight transport small\nbirds on their semiannual migrations\u2014a speculation accepted since\nclassic times, or before them. In _Deuteronomy_, xxxii, II, we read: \u201cAs\nthe eagle fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh\nthem, beareth them on her wings,\u201d etc. Modern ornithologists scout the\nnotion. Thus Alfred Newton[55] refers to it in a scornful way, but\nadmits that it is the conviction not only of Egyptian peasants but of\nSiberian Tartars, who assured the ornithologist Gmelin, in 1740, that in\nautumn storks and cranes carried southward on their backs all the\nSiberian corncrakes. In a Gaelic folk-tale of Cathal O\u2019Couchan a falcon,\nknowing that the wren of the story has a long way to go, says: \u201cSpring\nup between my wings, and no other bird will touch thee till thou reach\nhome.\u201d\n\nIn fact, this popular notion is almost world-wide, and it is useful to\nassemble such evidence as may be had as to the basis of it, for one\ncannot well dismiss with a gesture of disdain a theory that appears to\nhave arisen independently, and from observation, among peoples so widely\nseparated as those of Siberia and Egypt, of Crete and the Hudson Bay\ncountry; and which continues to be held by competent observers. A German\nman of letters, Adolph Ebeling, who published a book of his experiences\nin Egypt in 1878, was surprised to find the wagtail there at that\nseason. This is a small, ground-keeping bird that flits about rather\nthan flies; and he expressed to an old Arab his astonishment that such\nbirds should be able to get across the Mediterranean. \u201cThe Bedouin,\u201d\nEbeling relates, \u201cturned to me with a mixture of French and Arabic as\nfollows: \u2018Do you not know, noble sir, that these small birds are borne\nover the sea by the larger ones?\u2019\u201d\n\nI laughed, but the old man continued quite naturally:\n\n\u201cEvery child among us knows that. Those little birds are much too weak\nto make the long sea-journey with their own strength. This they know\nvery well, and therefore wait for the storks and cranes and other large\nbirds, and settle themselves upon their backs. In this way they allow\nthemselves to be borne over the sea. The large birds submit to it\nwillingly, for they like their little guests who by their merry\ntwitterings help to kill the time on the long voyage.\u201d\n\nEbeling met that evening, he says, in Cairo, the African explorer\nTheodor von Heuglin, who, as all know, was a specialist in African\nornithology, related to him the conversation with the Bedouin, and asked\nhis opinion on it. \u201cLet others laugh,\u201d said von Heuglin. \u201cI do not\nlaugh, for the thing is known to me. I should have recently made mention\nof it in my work if I had had any strong personal proof to justify it.\nWe must be much more careful in such matters than a mere story-teller or\nnovelist.\u201d\n\nA Swedish traveller, Hedenborg, is quoted by August Petermann, the\ngeographer, as stating that in autumn on the Island of Rhodes, in the\n\u00c6gean Sea, when the storks came in flocks across the water he often\nheard birds singing that he was unable to discover. \u201cOnce he followed a\nflock of storks, and as they alighted he saw small birds fly up from\ntheir backs.\u201d\n\nThere was published in London in 1875 a book entitled _Bible Lands and\nBible Customs_, the author of which was the Rev. Henry J. Van Lennep,\nD.D. Dr. Lennep informs his readers that many small birds are unable to\nfly across the Mediterranean, \u201cand to meet such cases the crane has been\nprovided.... In the autumn numerous flocks may be seen coming from the\nnorth ... flying low and circling over the plains. Little birds of\nvarious species may then be seen flying up to them, while the twittering\nsongs of those comfortably settled on their backs may then be distinctly\nheard.\u201d (Quoted in _Nature_, March 24, 1881). We may smile at the good\nman\u2019s faith that God \u201cprovided\u201d big birds as carriers for little\nones\u2014especially as we know that the weakest warblers are able to cross\nfrom Europe to Africa; but other equally modern and more matter-of-fact\ntestimony comes from the same quarter of the world. In _The Evening\nPost_, of New York City, dated November 20, 1880, a long letter appeared\non this topic, written by an anonymous correspondent who gave his own\nsimilar experience in Crete in the autumn of 1878, part of which reads:\n\n  \u201cOn several occasions the village priest\u2014a friendly Greek with whom\n  I spent the greater part of my time\u2014directed my attention to the\n  twittering and singing of small birds which he distinctly heard when\n  a flock of sand-cranes passed by on their southward journey. I told\n  my friend that I could not see any small birds, and suggested that\n  the noise came from the wings of the large ones. This he denied,\n  saying \u2018No, no! I know it is the chirping of small birds. They are\n  on the backs of the cranes. I have seen them frequently fly up and\n  alight again, and they are always with them when they stop to rest\n  and feed.\u2019 I was still sceptical, for with the aid of a field-glass\n  I failed to discover the \u2018small birds\u2019 spoken of. I inquired of\n  several others and found the existence of these little feathered\n  companions to be a matter of general belief. \u2018They come over from\n  Europe with them.\u2019 One day, while fishing about fifteen miles from\n  shore, a flock of cranes passed quite near the yacht. The fishermen,\n  hearing the \u2018small birds,\u2019 drew my attention to their chirping.\n  Presently one cried out, \u2018There\u2019s one!\u2019 but I failed to catch sight\n  of it, whereupon one of the men discharged his flintlock. Three\n  small birds rose up from the flock and soon disappeared among the\n  cranes.\u201d\n\nThis letter, despite its column-length and its anonymity, was copied in\nfull by that highly scientific journal _Nature_, of London, and this\nimmediately brought out a note from John Rae, one of the wisest\nexplorers of northwestern Canada, who related (_Nature_, March 3, 1881)\nthat it was the general belief among the Maskegan (Cree) Indians\ndwelling along the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay that \u201ca small bird,\none of the Fringillidae, performs its northward migration in spring on\nthe back of the Canada goose. These geese reach Hudson Bay about the\nlast of April, and the Indians state that when they are fired at little\nbirds are seen flying away from them.\u201d Mr. Rae adds: \u201cAn intelligent,\ntruthful and educated Indian, named George Rivers ... assured me that he\nhad witnessed this, and I believe I once saw it occur.\u201d\n\nAlmost simultaneously _Forest and Stream_ (New York, March 10, 1881)\nprinted a communication from J. C. Merrill of Fort Custer, Montana,\nalleging \u201ca general belief among the Crow Indians of Montana that the\nsandhill crane performs the same office for a bird they call\n_napite-shu-utl_, or crane\u2019s back.\u201d Mr. Merrill continued:\n\n  \u201cThis bird I have not seen, but from the description it is probably\n  a small grebe. It is \u2018big medicine\u2019 and when obtained is rudely\n  stuffed and carefully preserved.... About ten or fifteen per cent of\n  cranes are accompanied by the \u2018crane-back,\u2019 which, as the crane\n  rises from the ground, flutters up and settles on the back between\n  the wings, remaining there until the crane alights. Such is the\n  Indian account, and many of their hunters and chiefs have assured me\n  that they have frequently seen the birds carried off in this way. At\n  these times the bird is said to keep up a constant chattering\n  whistle, which is the origin of the custom of the Crow warriors\n  going out to battle, each with a small bone whistle in his mouth;\n  this is continually blown, imitating the notes of the\n  \u2018crane\u2019s-back,\u2019 and, as they believe, preserves their ponies and\n  themselves from wounds, so that in case of defeat they may be safely\n  carried away as is the napite-shu-utl.\n\n  \u201cThe Cree Indians are said to observe the same habit in the white\n  crane.\u201d\n\nNow there is no good reason to deny the honesty or sneer at the value of\nthese widely distributed observations so long as they are regarded as\ndescriptive of exceptions and not of a rule of migration. Neither the\nobservers nor the reporters had any motive for deception, and are not\nlikely to deceive themselves in every case\u2014moreover, new witnesses\ncontinually arise. For example: Mr. E. Hagland, of Therien, Alberta,\nwrote to me as follows in a casual way, without any prompting, in April,\n1919:\n\n  \u201cOne fall a flock of cranes passed over me flying very low, and\n  apart from their squawking I could distinctly hear the twittering of\n  small birds, sparrows of some kind. The chirping grew louder as the\n  cranes drew towards me, and grew fainter as they drew away; and as\n  the cranes were the only birds in sight I concluded that little\n  birds were taking a free ride to the south.\u201d\n\nThe manner of flight of sandhill cranes as described by Dr. Elliott\nCoues[50] suggests why they might well be utilized as common carriers by\nsmall birds going their way. \u201cSuch ponderous bodies, moving with slowly\nbeating wings, give a great idea of momentum from mere weight ... for\nthey plod along heavily, seeming to need every inch of their ample wings\nto sustain themselves.\u201d This would make it easy and tempting for a tired\nlittle migrant to rest its feet on the crane\u2019s broad back\u2014and once\nsettled there, why not stay?\n\nThe flaw in this whole matter is the unwarranted inference made by the\nBedouins who talked with Herr Ebling, and by wiser persons, namely, that\n_all_ the wagtails and other little birds annually perform their\noverseas journeys by aid of stronger-winged friends. That is reasoning\nfrom some to all, which is bad logic. It is as if a stranger in town\nnoticed a few schoolboys hopping on the back of a wagon, and immediately\nnoted down that in Pequaket boys in general rode to school on the\ntailboards of farm-wagons. Little birds, like small boys, have sense\nenough in their migrations to utilize a convenience when it is going\ntheir way\u2014in other words a very few lucky ones each year manage to\n\u201csteal a ride.\u201d\n\nThus far we have been dealing with a matter pretty close to actual\nornithology; but it is only within recent years that study has made\nclear to us \u201cthe way of an eagle in the air,\u201d which, as a symbol of the\nsemiannual movement of bird-hosts, was such a mystery to our\nforefathers. They imagined many quaint explanations, often no more\nsensible than the theory of the Ojibway Indians, who say that once\nbird-folk played ball with the North Wind. The latter won the game, and\nthose kinds of birds who were on his side now stay in the North all\nwinter, while those of the defeated side are obliged to flee southward\nevery autumn, as their ancestors did at the end of the great ball-game.\n\nSir Walter Scott recalls in one of his novels the fond conceit of the\nlittle nuns in the abbey of Whitby, on the Northumberland coast, that\nthe wee immigrants arriving there after their flight across the North\nSea fluttered to earth not in weariness of wings but to do homage to\nHilda, their saintly abbess. That was fifteen long centuries ago; but\nthe story is true, for you may still see the ruins, at least, of Hilda\u2019s\nabbey, and still, spring by spring, do tired birds pause beside it as if\nto pay their devotions.\n\nMuch less pleasant is the dread inspired in the hearts of those who\nlisten to the Seven Whistlers. Formerly no Leicestershire miner would go\ndown into a pit, after hearing them, until a little time had elapsed,\ntaking the sounds as a warning that an accident was impending; and\ndoubtless coincident mishaps occurred often enough to confirm faith in\nthe presentiment. Level-headed men knew well enough what the Seven\nWhistlers were\u2014\u201cit\u2019s them long-billed curlews, but I never likes to hear\n\u2019em,\u201d said one. The northern name of these birds is \u201cwhimbrel,\u201d a form\nof the English _whimperer_. As these curlews when migrating often travel\nlow on dark nights, and are unseen, it is not strange that their\nunearthly cries should chill the imagination of the superstitious, and\nthat the Scotch should call them \u201ccorpse-hounds.\u201d \u201cGabble retchet\u201d is\nanother Scotch term; and probably the Irish banshee had a similar\norigin. Still another name is \u201cGabriel hounds,\u201d originating, it is\nthought in Scandinavia, and explained by the fact that there the calling\nto one another of bean-geese in their nocturnal journeys, in spring,\nhave a singular resemblance to the yelping of beagles; and the story is\nthat Gabriel is obliged to follow his spectral pack, said to be\nhuman-headed, high in the dark air, as a punishment for having once\nhunted on Sunday.\n\nWordsworth in one of his sonnets connects this belief with the German\nlegend of the Wild Huntsman, \u201cdoomed the flying hart to chase forever on\na\u00ebrial grounds.\u201d A Lancashire explanation, quoted by Moncure D. Conway\nis that these migrants, there deemed to be plovers, were \u201cWandering\nJews,\u201d so called because they contained the souls of Jews who assisted\nat the Crucifixion, and in consequence were condemned to float in the\nair forever. A curious coincidence, given by Skeat,[7] is that the\nMalays have an elaborate story of a spectral huntsman, and hear him in\nthe nocturnal notes of the birikbirik, a nightjar.\n\nIt is hardly more than a century ago that intelligent men abandoned the\nbelief that certain birds hibernated in hollow trees, caverns, or even\nburied themselves every autumn in the mud at the bottom of ponds, and\nthen recovered in the spring. This theory is of great antiquity, and was\napplied especially to the swallows, swifts, nightingales and corncrakes\nof the Mediterranean region; but even Aristotle doubted whether it was\ntrue of all birds. He discusses at some length in his _Natural\nHistory_[41] the winter retreat of fishes and other creatures that\nhibernate, and continues:\n\n  \u201cMany kinds of birds also conceal themselves, and they do not all,\n  as some suppose, migrate to warmer climes ... and many swallows have\n  been seen in hollow places almost stripped of feathers; and kites,\n  when they first showed themselves, have come from similar\n  situations.... Some of the doves conceal themselves; others do not,\n  but migrate along with the swallows. The thrush and the starling\n  also conceal themselves.\u201d\n\nI have an unverified memorandum from the pen of Antonio Galvano, who\nresided in Mexico, long ago, that in his time hummingbirds \u201clive of the\ndew, and the juyce of flowers and roses. They die or sleepe every yeere\nin the moneth of October, sitting upon a little bough in a warme and\nclose place: they revive or wake againe in the moneth of April after\nthat the flowers be sprung, and therefore they call them the revived\nbirds.\u201d\n\nEven Gilbert White,[45] was inclined to think hibernation might be true,\nat least of British swallows; and Cowper sings\u2014\n\n                   The swallows in their torpid state\n                   Compose their useless wings.\n\nAlexander Wilson[46] thought it necessary to combat vigorously the same\nfiction then persistent among Pennsylvania farmers, and did so at length\nin his _American Ornithology_ published in 1808.\n\nBut the wildest hypothesis was the one prevalent in the Middle Ages and\nalluded to by Dryden in his poem _The Hind and The Panther_, speaking of\nyoung swallows in autumn:\n\n      They try their fluttering wings and trust themselves in air,\n      But whether upward to the moon they go,\n      Or dream the winter out in caves below,\n      Or hawk for flies elsewhere, concerns us not to know.\n      Southwards, you may be sure, they bent their flight,\n      And harbored in a hollow rock by night.\n\nOr as Gay\u2019s shepherd surmises:[8]\n\n            He sung where woodcocks in the summer feed,\n            And in what climates they renew their breed;\n            Some think to northern coasts their flight tend,\n            Or to the moon in midnight hours ascend:\n            When swallows in the winter season keep,\n            And how the drowsy bat and dormouse sleep.\n\nA quaint theological justification of this theory that birds fly to the\nmoon as a winter-resort is to be found in Volume VI of _The Harleian\nMiscellany_. It is entitled \u201cAn Inquiry into the Physical and Literal\nSense of the Scriptures,\u201d and is an exegesis of Jeremiah viii, 7: \u201cThe\nstork in the heaven knoweth her appointed time, and the turtle and the\ncrane and the swallow observe the time of their coming.\u201d The reverend\ncommentator, whose name is lost, begins at once to explain migration\namong birds. He first assures his readers that many birds, including\nstorks, often fly on migration at a height that renders them\nindiscernible. Now, he argues, if the flight of storks had been in a\nhorizontal direction flocks of birds would have been seen frequently by\ntravellers\u2014ignoring the fact that they are and always have been\nobserved. But, he goes on, as the flight is not horizontal it must be\nperpendicular to the surface of the earth, and, therefore, it becomes\nclear that the moon would be the first resting-place the birds would be\nlikely to strike, whereupon he draws this conclusion: \u201cTherefore the\nstork, and the same may be said of other season-observing birds, till\nsome place more fit can be assigned to them, does go unto, and remain in\nsome one of the celestial bodies; and that must be the moon, which is\nmost likely because nearest, and bearing most relation to this our\nearth, as appears in the Copernican scheme; yet is the distance great\nenough to denominate the passage thither an itineration or journey.\u201d\n\nThe author next clinches the matter by taking the time that the stork is\nabsent from its nesting-place, and showing how it is utilized. Two\nmonths are occupied in the upward flight, three for rest and\nrefreshment, and two more for the return passage. Thus this ingenious\nwriter lays what he considers a solid scientific foundation beneath an\nancient and vague theory.\n\nThe sudden vanishing of some migratory birds while others resembling\nthem remained in view gave to ancient ignorance\u2014not yet altogether\ndissipated, even in these United States\u2014the belief that a bird might\nchange into the form of another. The difference noticed in plumage in\nsome species in summer and winter was accounted for in the same way, as\nmany old Greek myths illustrate. Thus Sophocles, trying in one of his\ndramas to explain an inconsistency between two versions of the myth of\nTereus, declares that the hoopoe of the older story is the hawk of the\nnewer one\u2014the birds were altered, not the narrative. He was easily\nbelieved, for to the Greeks of his day it appeared plain that birds\nmight become transformed into others birds. Aristotle took great pains\nto show the absurdity of this notion, yet it has held on. Swann tells of\nan Englishman who declared that it was well-known that sparrow-hawks\nchanged into cuckoos in spring; and another old belief is that the\nEuropean land-rail becomes in winter the water-rail, resuming its own\nform in spring. A French name for the land-rail, by the way, is \u201cking of\nthe quails,\u201d because the quails chose it as leader in their migrations.\n\nOne of the most picturesque incidents in the story of the\nwilderness-roving of the Children of Israel, who were \u201cmurmuring\u201d for\nthe fleshpots of Egypt, is the sudden coming of quails that \u201cfilled the\ncamp.\u201d The interpretation is plain that a migratory host of these birds\nhad settled for the night where the Hebrews, or some of them, were; and\nthe notable point is their abundance, and that they had disappeared when\nmorning came, which is characteristic. These quails visit Europe in\nsummer in prodigious numbers from south of the Mediterranean, and are\nnetted for market by tens of thousands. It is said that in old times the\nbishops of Capri\u2014Italy receives the greatest flight\u2014derived a large part\nof their wealth from a tax on the catching of quails. Pliny alleges, as\nan example of the immense migrations of these quails in his time, that\noften, always at night, they settled on the sails of ships and so sank\nthem. This really seems possible when one thinks of the small size of\nthe \u201cships\u201d of that period, and recalls that flights of our own\nmigrating pigeons (now extinct) used to smash down stout branches of\ntrees by the weight of the crowds of birds that settled on them.\n\nCranes are birds of striking characteristics, as we have seen, and seem\nto have impressed very forcibly the ancient Greeks as well as recent\nOrientals, the latter finding in them an extraordinary symbolism. The\nGreeks believed that during their winter absence the cranes were in\nconstant battle with the Pygmies\u2014\u201cThat small infantry warred on by\ncranes,\u201d as Milton characterized those diminutive, but pugnacious folks\nwho lived no one knew exactly where, but certainly at the ends of the\nearth. \u201cThe cranes travel,\u201d Aristotle records, \u201cfrom Scythia to the\nmarshes in the higher parts of Egypt from which the Nile originates.\nThis is the place where the Pygmies dwell; and this is no fable, for\nthere is really, it is said, a race of dwarfs, both men and horses,\nwhich lead the life of troglodytes.\u201d\n\n        When the shrill clouds of Cranes do give alarmes,\n        The valiant _Pigmy_ stands unto his armes:\n        Straight, too weak for the _Thracian_ bird, he\u2019s swept,\n        And through the eye in crooked tallons rapt.[48]\n\nBut this is only one item in the crane\u2019s list of wonders. When this bird\nmigrates it always flies against the wind, according to ancient\nbird-minders, and carries a swallowed stone as ballast so that it may\nnot be swept out of its course by a change of wind; and this stone when\nit is vomited up is useful as a touchstone for gold. Aristotle had heard\nof this ballasting precaution, and expressly denies it, but he says\nnothing about other stones associated with the history of the bird,\nperhaps because they had not been discovered in his day. The sagacious\ncranes were also said to post sentinels, while halting at night, and to\ninsure their necessary vigilance these sentinels were required to stand\non one foot, and to hold in the other, uplifted one a large stone.\nShould one of these sentinel-birds drowse the stone would drop and by\nits noise awaken the sleepy sentry. This explains the fact that in\nBritish heraldry the crane is always represented with a bit of rock in\nits fist, the pose signifying \u201cvigilance.\u201d\n\nLyly,[49] in that queer old book _Euphues_, confesses: \u201cWhat I have done\nwas only to keep myselfe from sleepe, as the Crane doth the Stone in her\nfoote; and I would also, with the same Crane, that I had been silent,\nholding a Stone in my mouth.\u201d His 16th-century readers understood this\nsecond simile, for they remembered that cranes were said to be thus\ngagged when migrating, so as not to utter any cries that would bring\neagles or other birds of prey to attack them.\n\nThis, perhaps, will be the most appropriate place to mention some other\nquaint but widely credited stories of birds possessed of stones,\nalthough they are not usually connected with migratory habits.\n\nThe people of Rome in the old days were told of a crystalline stone\ncalled _alectorius_, as large as a bean, to be found in the gizzard of\nthe barnyard cock. It was held to have wonderful properties, endowing\nits possessor with strength, courage, and success with women and money,\nand to this apparently complete list of virtues is added by one\nhistorian the quality of invisibility. This last virtue also pertained\nto the stone placed by the raven in the throat of its fledgling, but the\nformalities described as necessary for anyone who sought to obtain it\nwere quite impossible to fulfil. \u201cIt may, indeed,\u201d as Hulme[38] remarks,\n\u201chave had the same effect on the original owner, as there could scarcely\nbe an authentic instance of such peculiar property being found.\u201d On the\nother hand we are told that a stone from the hoopoe, when laid upon the\nbreast of a sleeping man, forced him to reveal any rogueries he might\nhave committed.\n\nIt is stated in Cassell\u2019s _Natural History_ (Vol. IV), that in India\nexists a popular superstition that if you will split the head of an\nadjutant stork before death you may extract from the skull \u201cthe\ncelebrated stone called _zahir mora_, or \u2018poison-killer,\u2019 of great\nvirtue and repute as an antidote to all kinds of poison.\u201d One would\nsuppose that all the adjutants in India would long ago have been\nexterminated, but in fact this is one of the most numerous of birds\nthere\u2014the scavenger of every village.\n\nThe common swallow was once believed to have two of these miraculous\nstones stowed away somewhere in its interior. One was red, and cured an\ninvalid instantly: the other, a black one, brought good fortune. Also,\nit was reported, swallows found on a seabeach, by some sort of\ninspiration, a particular kind of stone which would restore sight to the\nblind; and it was to this legend that Longfellow alluded in\n_Evangeline_\u2014\n\n Seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone which the swallow\n Brings from the shore of the sea to restore the sight of her fledglings.\n\nVarious birds also gave, or strengthened, sight to their young by means\nof certain plants mentioned by old herbalists. Finally, it should not be\noverlooked that on page 152 of the most recent edition of Cruden\u2019s\ncelebrated _Concordance_[51] to the Bible, among the generally\nastonishing notes beneath the word \u201ceagle\u201d is printed the following: \u201cIt\nis said that it preserves its nest from poison, by having therein a\nprecious stone, named Aetites (without which it is thought the eagle\ncannot lay her eggs, and which some use to prevent abortion and help\ndelivery in women, by tying it above or below the navel) and keepeth it\nclean by the frequent use of the herb maiden-hair.\u201d\n\nNow it is all well enough to find this information in the writings of\nPliny senior, who alleges that these \u201ceagle-stones\u201d (in fact natural\nhollow nodules of iron-impregnated clay) were transported by nesting\neagles to their domiciles to assist them in ovulation, whence by\nanalogy\u2014recognizing unwittingly the kinship of men and animals\u2014they\nwould aid women in travail, and to smile over it with the shrewd editor\nof _Vulgar Errors_,[33] but it is odd to find such an absurdity\nrecommended by a modern clergyman as \u201cprofitable\u201d material for sermons.\n\nLet me round out this chapter with that recognition of bird-migration in\nthe custom among the Vikings of the 8th and 9th centuries of saying as\nthey embarked upon some raid upon the coasts south of them that they\nwere \u201cfollowing the swan\u2019s path.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER V\n                           NOAH\u2019S MESSENGERS\n\n\nOur first thought when we hear the word \u201cdeluge\u201d is of Noah and his Ark,\nand the funny toy of our childhood rises to the mind\u2019s eye. In that\nchildhood we had no doubt that the flood described in the first book of\nthe Old Testament covered the whole globe. Now we know that the story is\na Semitic tradition, perhaps nothing more than a sun-myth in origin,\nalthough the actual occurrence of some extraordinary inundation may have\ngot mixed with it and localized it. In fact, the belief in an\nall-submerging deluge, or, in what is its equivalent\u2014namely, a time when\nthe world was a plain of water with no land above its quiet surface\u2014is a\npart of the mythology or theology, or both, of many diverse peoples in\nboth hemispheres; and almost always birds are prominently associated\nwith its incidents and the ensuing separation of land from water.\n\nA surprising number of persons of ordinary intelligence even now, and in\nthis enlightened country, continue to regard beds of water-worn gravels,\nand the fossil shells, etc., seen in the rocks, as relics of the\nNoachian deluge, and \u201cdiluvian\u201d and \u201cantediluvian\u201d are terms that hardly\nyet have disappeared from popular geology.\n\nThe earliest available accounts of such a deluge as the Noachian are\nengraved on clay tablets recovered from the ruins of Babylonia, and\nwritten 2000 or more years before the beginning of the Christian era.\nSeveral narratives have been deciphered, agreeing in the facts of a vast\ndestruction by water in Mesopotamia, and of a relatively huge house-boat\nbuilt by a chosen family for the preservation of themselves and an\nextensive collection of livestock. After floating about for seven days\nthis Babylonian ship grounded on a submerged hill-top, and seven days\nlater the patriarchal shipmaster sent out as explorers a dove, a\nswallow, and a raven. The dove and the swallow returned, the raven did\nnot.\n\nThe close similarity between this and the Biblical account of Noah\u2019s\nvoyage on a world of waters (which account appears to be a combination\nof two separate legends) leads to the opinion that the whole narrative\nis derived from some more ancient and widespread Oriental tradition; and\nthere seems fair evidence that it does not describe any physical\nhappening at all, but is a symbolical sun-myth, a hint of which is\ngiven, even in the Bible, by the incident of the rainbow. Let me quote\nthe history in Genesis so far as it relates to our purpose:\n\n  \u201cAnd it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the\n  window of the ark which he had made: and he sent forth a raven which\n  went forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the\n  earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were\n  abated from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest\n  for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark;\n  for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put\n  forth his hand and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the\n  ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the\n  dove out of the ark. And the dove came in unto him in the evening,\n  and, lo, in her mouth was an olive-leaf plucked off: so Noah knew\n  that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet\n  other seven days, and sent forth the dove, which returned not again\n  unto him any more.\u201d\n\nAs to the choice of these particular birds out of Noah\u2019s great aviary,\nit is well to remember that doves were sacred in ancient Babylonia to\nIshtar, who, as the deified (female) personification of productiveness,\nco-existent with the (male) Sun-god, was sometimes designated as\nMother-goddess, or even as \u201cMother Earth\u201d: so that it would be highly\nappropriate to send first a dove as a messenger to this incarnation of\nfruitful land. This falls in with Moncure D. Conway\u2019s suggestion[56]\nthat the dove and raven were tribally \u201csacred\u201d animals among the people\naffected by this Babylonian deluge. The choice of the swallow was\nnatural, when one remembers its habit of flying long and far over bodies\nof water; and that the raven should not come back is in keeping with its\ncharacter as much as is the quick return of the semidomestic dove and\nswallow. Dr. Laufer[52] notes that St. Ambrose, in his treatise _De Noe\net Area_, devotes a whole chapter to the \u201ccrow\u2019s\u201d impiety in not\nreturning to the Ark. The Arabs, according to Keane,[14] even yet call\nthis bird \u201craven of separation,\u201d meaning the separation of the water\nfrom the land at the close of the Flood. Another Arabic source, quoted\nby Baring-Gould from the medieval _Chronicle_ of Abou-djafer T\u00e1bari,\ntransmits traditional particulars that considerably extend the\ntoo-laconic Biblical log of the Ark. \u201cWhen Noah had left the Ark,\u201d it\nrelates, \u201che passed forty days on the mountain, till all the water had\nsubsided into the sea.... Noah said to the raven, \u2018Go and place your\nfoot on the earth, and see what is the depth of the water.\u2019 The raven\ndeparted, but having found a carcass it remained to devour it and did\nnot return. Noah was provoked, and he cursed the raven, saying, \u2018May God\nmake thee contemptible among men, and let carrion be thy food.\u2019\u201d\n\nJohann von Herder, the poet and friend of Goethe, either found or\ninvented another story to account for the curse resting on the raven,\nwhich runs thus in the words of an old translator:\n\n  Anxiously did Noah look forth from his swimming ark, waiting to see\n  the waters of the flood abate. Scarcely had the peaks of the highest\n  mountains emerged from the waves, when he called all the fowls\n  around him. \u201cWho among you,\u201d said he, \u201cwill be the messenger to go\n  forth and see whether the time of our deliverance is nigh?\u201d The\n  raven with much noise crowded hastily in before all the rest: he\n  longed ardently for his favorite food. Scarcely was the window open,\n  when he flew away and returned no more. The ungrateful bird forgot\n  his errand and the interests of his benefactor\u2014he hung at his\n  carcass! But punishment did not delay. The air was yet filled with\n  poisonous fog, and heavy vapors hung over the putrid corpses; these\n  blinded his eyes and darkened his feathers. As a punishment for his\n  forgetfulness, his memory as well as his sight became dim; even his\n  own young he did not recognize; and he experienced towards them no\n  feelings of parental joy.\n\nQuoting again the Arab chronicler Abou-djafer T\u00e1bari: \u201cAfter that Noah\nsent forth the dove. The dove departed, and without tarrying put her\nfoot in the water. The water of the Flood scalded and pricked the legs\nof the dove. It was hot and briny and feathers would not grow on her\nlegs any more, and the skin scaled off. Now, doves which have red and\nfeatherless legs are of the sort that Noah sent forth. The dove\nreturning showed her legs to Noah, who said: \u2018May God render thee well\npleasing to men.\u2019 For that reason the dove is dear to men\u2019s hearts.\u201d\n\nStill another Arabic version, given by Gustav Weil, is that Noah blessed\nthe dove, and since then she has borne a necklace of green feathers; but\nthe raven he cursed, that its flight should be crooked\u2014never direct like\nthat of other birds. This is also a Jewish legend. A more modern\naddendum is that the magpie, one of the same group of birds, was not\npermitted to enter the ark, but was compelled to perch on the roof\nbecause it gabbled so incessantly. A quaint 14th-century manuscript\nquoted by Hulme[38] says of the raven\u2019s exit from the ark:\n\n                   Then opin Noe his window\n                   Let ut a rauen and forth he flew\n                   Dune and vp sought heare and thare\n                   A stede to sett upon somequar.\n                   Vpon the water sone he fand\n                   A drinkled best ther flotand\n                       Of that flees was he so fain\n                       To ship came he never again.\n\nTo this list of messengers medieval tradition added a fourth\u2014the\nkingfisher, which in Europe is blue-green above and rich chestnut on the\nbreast. At that time, however, it was a plain gray bird. This scout flew\nstraight up to heaven, in order to get a wide survey of the waters, and\nwent so near the sun that its breast was scorched to its present tint\nand its back assumed the color of the sky overhead. (This recalls\nThoreau\u2019s saying that our bluebird carries the sky on its back and the\nearth on its breast.)\n\nFaith in a general flood long ago is shown by primitive documents to\nhave prevailed not only in Asia Minor and eastward, but in Persia, India\nand Greece. It did not prevail in Europe generally, nor in Africa. On\nthe other hand missionaries report traditions of it in Polynesia\u2014where,\ncuriously, geographers find evidence of great subsidences since the\narchipelagoes affected have been inhabited; and certainly it was a part\nof the mythical prehistory of many tribes among the aborigines of North\nAmerica, where birds were often connected with the adventures of the few\nor solitary survivors by means of whom the world was repeopled. Thus\nscores, perhaps hundreds, of varying traditions and fables exist of the\ncreation of the earth out of a chaos of water, or of its restoration\nafter having been drowned in a universal flood; and often it is hard to\ndistinguish the creation-myth from the deluge-tale.\n\nThe American story-material of this nature may be divided into groups\nthat would correspond roughly to the various aboriginal language-stocks,\nbetraying a family likeness in each group, but showing tribal variations\nas a rule connected with each particular tribal or mythical \u201cfirst man,\u201d\nor with the totemic ancestor.\n\nThe creation-legends, as such, do not concern us much. They are of\npurely mythical, supernatural beings of various sorts, descending from\nthe sky or coming up out of the underworld, and either finding a\nreadymade earth to dwell upon or else creating one by magic. Some\nSouthern darkies will tell you that the bluejay made the earth. \u201cWhen\nall de worl\u2019 was water he brung de fust grit er dirt.\u201d The strangest\nconception of this kind is not American but that of the Ainus of\nnorthern Japan, who say that the earth originally was a sterile, cold,\nuninhabitable and dreadful quagmire. The creator existed aloft, however,\nand finally made and despatched a water-wagtail to construct a place\nhabitable for men. The bird fluttered over the water-spaces, trampled\nthe thin mud and beat it down with its feet. Thus ground was gradually\nhardened and elevated in spots, the water steadily drained away and good\nsoil was left. Hence the Ainus hold the little wagtail in almost\nworshipful esteem.\n\nLet us, however, restrict the inquiry to North America, and to the\ndeluge-story proper\u2014that is, the destruction of human life by water\noverwhelming a flourishing world, and the subsequent restoration.\n\nThe widely spread Algonkin stock has many such legends, in which one or\nseveral persons and animals survive by floating in a canoe or raft, and\nat their behest a beaver or a muskrat\u2014the most natural agents\u2014bring up\nfrom the bottom a little mud, which is expanded by magic into a new\ncontinent; but frequently birds do this service or otherwise help to\nform livable conditions. The Lenni Lenape (Delawares) had a tradition of\na universal deluge in the far distant past, which Dr. Brinton[27]\nrecounted as follows, assuring us that it is unmixed with any teaching\nby white missionaries: \u201cThe few people that survived had taken refuge on\nthe back of a turtle who had reached so great an age that his shell was\nmossy, like the bank of a runlet. In this forlorn condition a loon flew\nthat way, which they asked to dive and bring up land. He complied but\nfound no bottom. Then he flew away and returned with a small quantity of\nearth in his bill. Guided by him, the turtle swam to a place where a\nspot of dry land was found. There the survivors settled and re-peopled\nthe land.\u201d\n\nFew legends explain how or why the flood occurred. The Ojibways,\nhowever, say that it was the result of the malice of an underground\nmonster visualized as a huge serpent (recalling the earth-dragon of the\nChinese), which throughout all their mythology is the antagonist of the\ngood, constructive genius represented by their tribal hero Manabozho.\n\nThe Beaver Indians of the Mackenzie Valley offer a more materialistic\nand more picturesque explanation. They told George Keith, one of the\nfur-traders there a century ago, whose Letters are printed in Masson\u2019s\ncollection of northern archives,[99] that the deluge resulted from the\nsudden melting of a snowfall so deep that tall trees were buried. This\ndisastrous melting was produced by the release of the sun from a bug in\nwhich it had been hidden by sorcery. Then the sun flew away and began to\nshed its heat. There\u2019s a sun-myth for you!\n\nIn the resulting freshet so philosophically accounted for the few\npersons who had been left unburied in the world of snow fled toward a\nhigh mountain, but only a man and a woman reached it. On this mountain\nwere gathered pairs of all the kinds of animals in the country. The\nflood persisted, and there was nothing to eat. Then the mallard, the\nlittle grebe, or hell-diver, and the buzzard (?) were sent to dive into\nthe sea and try to find its bottom. All failed repeatedly, but the\nbuzzard dived again a few days later, and came up with his bill full of\nearth, which showed that the flood was subsiding. Finally the waters\ndrained away or dried up, but the soil had been so ruined by submergence\nthat not even roots could be found to serve as food. When everybody was\nnearly starved, however, the human pair and the animals succeeded in\nfinding the home of Raven, who lived far away, and from his stores they\nobtained food. Then a new world of life began.\n\nThe Cheyennes and the Arikarees say that at the height of the flood \u201ca\nperson\u201d (masculine) was floating in the water with all sorts of aquatic\nbirds swimming about him. He asked that one of them dive and get some\nearth. All tried it and failed until a small duck brought up a little\nmud in its beak and gave it to the man. He kneaded it with his fingers\nuntil it was dry, then made little piles of it on the surface of the\nwater, which enlarged and coalesced into a wide plain.\n\nThe Chitimacha Indians of northern Louisiana used to relate that a great\ndeluge came, whereupon the redheaded woodpecker went up to the sky and\nhung by his claws to escape drowning, but his tail hung down into the\ndirty water and was stained black, as you now see it. The Pimas and\nother tribes of Arizona tell similar stories of certain birds, one clan\nof Pueblo Indians putting it on the turkey. They say that a flood was\nproduced by the god Baholi Konga to punish tribal wickedness. The good\npersons in the community escaped this punishment by means of the fact\nthat Baholi Konga had clothed them in turkey-skins, enabling them to fly\nto the high mountains. They flew too low, however, and the tails of\ntheir dresses dragged in the water, the stain of which is still visible.\n\nWith one more and a rather pretty tale from the traditions of the Paiute\nIndians, whose home is in the region of the Grand Canyon of the\nColorado, I must close this glance at aboriginal legends of a deluge\nhere in America. These Indians relate that formerly the whole world was\nunder water save the summit of Mt. Grant, on which existed a fire. It\nwas the only fire in the universe, and it would have been extinguished\nwhen the wind blew hard and the waves were dashed against the peak had\nnot the sage-hen settled down there and fanned away the water with her\nwings; but while doing this inestimable service to mankind the heat of\nthe precious flame scorched her breast, and that accounts for its\npresent blackness.\n\nA curiously similar story, which illustrates the primitive savage\u2019s\nperception that obtaining fire was the most important, the first, thing\nto do in beginning or reconstituting a habitable world, appears in the\nfolklore of the Arawaks of British Guiana, and may well be told among\ndeluge myths. They assure you that the world was once engulfed in a\nflood that left exposed only a hilltop where grew some tall cocoanut\npalms. The heavenly leader, Sigu, conducted all the animals to this hill\nand made such as could go up the trees, while others were placed in a\ncave sealed water-tight with wax. (It was during that long, distressful\nwaiting in the palm-tops that the howling-monkeys perfected the\nagonizing quality of their terrific voices.) Finally the waters subsided\nand the agami (the trumpeter, _Psophia crepitans_) ventured too soon\nupon the ground in search of food; thereupon hordes of starved ants,\nissuing from their half-drowned nests, swarmed upon its legs, then of\nrespectable size, and so nearly devoured them that only the sticklike\nshanks now characteristic of the bird remained. Sigu rescued the\nunfortunate agami, and then with infinite trouble kindled a fire with a\nspark that the maroodie (or guan, a fellow-bird with the agami of\nSouth-American barnyards) had snapped up in mistake for a shining red\ninsect. The guan tried to shift the blame for this sinful error upon the\nalligator but failed to do so, for his own guilt was betrayed by the\nglowing spark that had stuck in his throat, as one may see by looking at\nany guan to-day.\n\nAnother instance of the misfortunes of the trumpeter is related by Leo\nMiller[53] as he heard it among the Maquritari Indians who live on the\nheadwaters of the Orinoco:\n\n  In the very beginning of things a trumpeter and a curassow [a near\n  cousin of the guan] decided upon a matrimonial alliance, but\n  domestic troubles soon broke out, and there was no possibility of a\n  reconciliation; it was thereupon decided to lay the case before the\n  gods who live on the summit of Mount Duida. The wise gods ordered\n  them to fight it out. In the course of the combat that followed the\n  curassow pushed the trumpeter into the fire, burning off the\n  feathers of the latter\u2019s tail. The trumpeter promptly retaliated by\n  pushing her mate into the fire, singeing his crest. Thereupon the\n  gods decided that they should remain in this humiliating plight for\n  the rest of their days, and so ... the curassow wears a curled crest\n  and the trumpeter has a very short tail.\n\nI am tempted, in spite of my intention to stop here, to annex an\nelaborate and somewhat amusing creation-myth of the Yocut Indians of\nsouthern California, because it is both appropriate and picturesque. It\nis thus set down by Powers:[19]\n\n  Once there was a time when there was nothing in the world but water.\n  About the place where Tulare Lake now is, there was a pole standing\n  far up out of the water, and on this pole, perched a hawk and a crow\n  ... for many ages. At length they wearied of the lonesomeness, and\n  they created the birds which prey on fish, such as the kingfisher,\n  eagle, pelican, and others. Among them was a very small duck, which\n  dived down to the bottom of the water, picked its beak full of mud,\n  came up, died, and lay floating on the water. The hawk and crow then\n  fell to work and gathered from the duck\u2019s beak the earth which it\n  had brought up, and commenced making the mountains. They began at\n  the place now known as Ta-hi-cha-pa Pass, and the hawk made the east\n  range, while the crow made the west one. Little by little, as they\n  dropped in the earth, the great mountains grew athwart the face of\n  the waters pushing north. It was a work of many years, but finally\n  they met at Mt. Shasta, and their labors were ended.\n\n  But behold, when they compared their mountains it was found that the\n  crow\u2019s was a great deal the larger. Then the hawk said to the crow.\n  \u201cHow did this happen, you rascal? I warrant you have been stealing\n  the earth from my bill, and that is why your mountains are the\n  biggest.\u201d It was a fact, and the crow laughed in his claws. Then the\n  hawk went and got some Indian tobacco and chewed it and it made him\n  exceedingly wise. So he took hold of the mountains and turned them\n  around in a circle, putting his range in place of the crow\u2019s; and\n  that is why the Sierra Nevada is larger than the Coast Range.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER VI\n               BIRDS IN CHRISTIAN TRADITION AND FESTIVAL\n\n\nThe crowing of a cock ushered in the momentous tragedy that closed the\nearthly career of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus had told one of his disciples\nin the evening of the Passover, that \u201cthe cock shall not crow this day\nbefore that thou shalt twice deny that thou knowest me\u201d (_Luke_, xxii,\n34). Later that same night Jesus was arrested and taken into the house\nof the Jewish high priest, and when, one after another, three persons\nhad identified Peter as one of the Disciples Peter each time denied it,\n\u201cand immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew.\u201d\n\nAlthough the cock and his brood have had a part in Oriental and\nclassical superstitions, ceremonies, and myths since these things began,\nit is probable that Jesus had in mind nothing more than the time of\n\u201ccock-crowing,\u201d which among the Jews was a recognized name of the third\nwatch of the night, beginning at three o\u2019clock in the morning. Mark\nenumerates the four watch-divisions when he says: \u201cYe know not when the\nmaster of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the\ncock-crowing, or in the morning.\u201d\n\nOut of this simple matter, a natural habit of the bird, the early\nChristians, with the avidity of zealots for inspired pegs on which to\nhang new devotions, set up many theories and customs. For instance, I\nfind in the English periodical _Nature Notes_ (VI, 189) the following,\ntranslated from the _Treasury of Brunetti Latini_, a teacher of Dante in\nthe poet\u2019s youth: \u201cBy the song of the cock we may know the hour of the\nnight, and even as the cock before it singeth beateth its body with its\nwings, so should a man before he prays flagellate himself.\u201d To this\nadded a fourteenth-century chant, as follows:\n\n                    Cock at midnight croweth loud,\n                          And in this delighteth:\n                    But before he crows, his sides\n                        With his wings he smiteth:\n                    So the priest at midnight, when\n                        Him from rest he raiseth,\n                    Firstly doeth penitence,\n                        After that he praiseth.\n\nRatzel mentions that in Abyssinia cocks were often placed in churches as\nliving alarm-clocks. It is a tradition that at the moment of the great\nBirth the cock crowed: _Christus natus est!_ Hence as early as the 4th\ncentury arose the belief in its crowing always on Christmas eve\u2014a legend\nalluded to by Shakespeare:\n\n              Some say that ever \u2019gainst that season comes\n              Whereon our Saviour\u2019s birth is celebrated,\n              The bird of dawning singeth all night long.\n\nBy a similar passage in _Hamlet_, where Bernardo, Heraldo, and Marcellus\nare discussing the apparition of the ghost of Hamlet\u2019s father, the\nreader learns of another ancient superstition:\n\n         _Bern._ It was about to speak when the cock crew.\n\n         _Her._ And then it started like a guilty thing\n                 Upon a fearful summons. I have heard\n                 The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,\n                 Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat\n                 Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,\n                 Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,\n                 The extravagant and erring spirit hies\n                 To his confine: and of the truth herein\n                 This present object made probation.\n\n         _Mar._ It faded on the crowing of the cock.\n\nNot only ghosts, but the Devil and all his powers of darkness,\nespecially warlocks and witches, must disappear at Chanticleer\u2019s\ncheerful warning that daylight is at hand.\n\nDomestic fowls had become common in Palestine at the time of Jesus,\nhaving been received long before from Persia. According to the _Mishna_\nJews were prohibited from selling a white cock to the heathen because it\nwas suitable for sacrifice, but if it were defective it became\nunsuitable. Cyrus Adler tells us that they used to cut off a toe, and so\ncircumvent the prohibition. Says the Talmud: \u201cThere be three that be\nunyielding\u2014Israel among the peoples, the dog among beasts, and the cock\namong birds\u201d (Beca, 56).\n\nNo doubt it is true, as Mr. R. L. Gales pointed out a few years ago in\nthe _National Review_, that the sacred mythology of the Nativity and\nPassion, which is far wider than my immediate use of it, sprang up when\nthe minds of people constantly dwelt on the Faith in a spirit of\ndevotion rather than of controversy. \u201cIt seems, too, that there was in\nthe Christianity of the earlier ages something that we may perhaps call\na pantheistic element, which has since disappeared.\u201d\n\nRussians tell the story that while Christ was hanging on the cross the\nsparrows were maliciously chirping _Jif! jif!_ that is, \u201cHe is living,\nHe is living!\u201d in order to urge the tormenters to fresh cruelties; but\nthe swallows cried, with opposite intent, \u201c_Umer! Umer!_\u201d \u201cDead! Dead!\u201d\nTherefore the swallow is blessed, but the sparrow is under a curse, and\never since that time it hops, because its legs are tied together, for\nits sin, by invisible bonds. Another story is that the sparrow was the\nbird that betrayed the hiding-place of Jesus in the Garden at\nGethsemane, whereas all other birds tried to entice away the officers\nwho were searching for him, especially the swallow, whose erratic flight\nstill shows that it is seeking to find him.\n\nThe oystercatcher is still known among the Gaels of northern Scotland as\nSt. Bride\u2019s lad, says Seton Gordon (_Nineteenth Century_, 1923, p. 420)\nfrom the fact that when that saint first visited Long Island she carried\nan oystercatcher in each hand; also, there is an old Gaelic tradition\nthat this bird covered Jesus with seaweed when his enemies appeared in\nhot pursuit. The oystercatcher was therefore blessed, and still shows,\nas it flies, the form of a cross on its plumage.\n\nA Spanish legend asserts that the owl was once the sweetest of singers;\nbut that, having been present when Jesus died, from that moment it has\nshunned daylight, and now only repeats in a harsh tone _Cruz! Cruz!_\n\nMost of the legends of the Cross, so far as concern birds, at least,\nseem to have arisen in Sweden. The Swedes say, for example, that a\nswallow hovered over the Crucifixion crying _Svale! Svale!_ \u201cCheer up!\nCheer up!\u201d and it is therefore called in their country the bird of\nconsolation. A similar story is current in Scandinavia of the stork,\nwhich is said to have cried to the Redeemer, as it flew about the Cross,\n_Styrket! Styrket!_ \u201cStrengthen ye.\u201d In both cases there is a play on\nthe Swedish names of these birds; but they testify that the stork, now\nvirtually mute, formerly had a voice. In Sweden, where the red crossbill\nis a familiar winter bird, arose the tradition that its peculiarly\ncrossed beak became twisted by its efforts to pull the nails from\nChrist\u2019s hands and feet:\n\n                Stained with blood and never tiring\n                    With its beak it doth not cease,\n                From the Cross \u2019t would free the Saviour\n                    Its creator\u2019s son release.\n\n                And the Saviour speaks in mildness:\n                    Blest be thou of all the good!\n                Bear as token of this moment\n                    Marks of blood and holy rood.\n\nSo Longfellow paraphrases Julius Mosen\u2019s little German hymn.\n\nThe same loving service has been attributed to the red-browed goldfinch\nof Europe in a legend current in Great Britain\u2014a story put into verse in\n_The Spectator_ (London, 1910) by Pamela Tenant, partly thus:\n\n              Held in his slender beak the cruel thing,\n              Still with his gentle might endeavoring\n                  But to release it.\n\n              Then as he strove, spake One\u2014a dying space\u2014\n              \u2018Take, for thy pity, as a sign of grace,\n              \u2018Semblance of this, my blood, upon thy face\n                  \u2018A living glory.\u2019\n\nThe complaining love-note of the wood-pigeon has, in the northwestern\npart of Europe, become the subject of a well-adapted and pathetic myth,\nas Watters[57] denominates it in his entertaining _Birds of Ireland_.\n\u201cIt is said that a dove perched in the neighborhood of the holy cross\nwhen the Redeemer was expiring, and, wailing its notes of sorrow, kept\nrepeating the words \u2018Kyrie! Kyrie!\u2019 [Kyrie eleison\u2014Lord have mercy!] to\nalleviate the agony of his dying moments.\u201d\n\nOf all the legends connecting birds with this awful scene those relating\nto the little robin-redbreast of Europe are most familiar, for they have\nbeen celebrated in poems that everyone reads. The story is that the\nrobin, pitying the pain of the cruel crown pressed on the Saviour\u2019s\nbrow, plucked away the sharpest of the thorns; and some say that before\nthat moment the bird was all gray, and was bound to remain so until it\nhad done something worthy of its having a red breast. A forgotten\nwriter, whose lines have been preserved in an old volume of _Notes and\nQueries_, tells the story thus:\n\n          Bearing his cross, while Christ passed by forlorn,\n          His Godlike forehead by the mock crown torn,\n          A little bird took from that crown one thorn,\n          To soothe the dear Redeemer\u2019s throbbing head.\n          That bird did what she could; His blood, \u2019t is said,\n          Down-dropping dyed her tender bosom red.\n          Since then no wanton boy disturbs her nest;\n          Weasel nor wildcat will her young molest\u2014\n          All sacred deem that bird of ruddy breast.\n\nThe Spaniards, however, believe swallows\u2014also \u201credbreasts\u201d in their\nway\u2014to be the birds that pulled the thorns from Christ\u2019s crown\u2014two\nthousand of them!\n\nAnother northern tradition is that the robin carries in its beak daily a\ndrop of water to those shut up in the \u201cburning lake,\u201d and that its\nbreast is red because scorched by the flames of Gehenna. This old\nSwedish legend gave Whittier the inspiration for an exquisite poem:\n\n              He brings cool dew in his little bill,\n                  And lets it fall on the souls of sin;\n              You can see the mark on his red breast still\n                  Of fires that scorch as he drops it in.\n\nStill another theory explains that its reddish front remains tinctured\nby the stain it received in trying to staunch the blood that flowed from\nthe Redeemer\u2019s pierced side.\n\nAlmost all boys in Great Britain are, or used to be, collectors of\nbirds\u2019 eggs, before bird-protecting societies and public enlightenment\nrestricted their destructive enthusiasm; but the nest of the \u201cruddock\u201d\n(robin) was rarely disturbed by the most careless of them, who, if\nundeterred by any soft sentiment, were frightened by the superstition\nthat bad luck followed any such vandalism. Many maxims to this effect\nmight be quoted, one of which, a proverb in Cornwall, runs:\n\n                    He that hurts robin or wren\n                    Will never prosper, boy or men.\n\nIn Essex they repeat to children a little ballad like this:\n\n                    The robin and the redbreast,\n                        The robin and the wren;\n                    If ye take out o\u2019 their nest\n                        Ye\u2019ll never thrive again.\n\n                    The robin and the redbreast,\n                        The martin and the swallow;\n                    If ye touch one o\u2019 their eggs\n                        Bad luck will follow.\n\nThe Scotch say it a little differently:\n\n                     The laverock and the lintie,\n                         The robin and the wren;\n                     If ye harry their nests\n                         Ye\u2019ll never thrive again.\n\nLet me digress here for a moment. \u201cLaverock\u201d is Scottish for lark,\nmeaning the skylark. De Gubernatis,[54] who discourses learnedly on the\nmythical connotations of the name in India and ancient Greece, finds\nthat the significance of this bird in popular tales is due to its crest,\nwhich he shows to be an indication that it was among the birds of the\nsun. \u201cThe crested lark,\u201d he says, \u201cis the same as the crested sun, the\nsun with its rays,\u201d and he continues: \u201cIn the legend of St. Christopher\nI see an equivoque between the word _Christos_ and the word _cresta_,\ncrest, and either way I see the sun personified.\u201d\n\nWhatever these speculations may be worth the old stories attribute to\nthe lark that funereal charity which belongs to several birds, among\nthem the European robin; and this brings us back to the main track and\nto the pretty story of the Babes in the Woods. Away back in bad old\ntimes a Norfolk gentleman left legacies to two infant children, which\nwere to pass to their uncle if the babies died. After a year this uncle\nhired ruffians to take the children into a forest and kill them, but\ninstead the men left them there to starve. For a time they ate\nblackberries, but soon became exhausted, lay down, and went to sleep,\nand expired.\n\n           Their little corpse the robin-redbreast found,\n           And strew\u2019d with pious bill the leaves around.[8]\n\nMore modern poets have made many allusions to this touching tale, which\nShakespeare knew, for in _Cymbeline_ he makes Arviragus say over Imogen\u2014\n\n                  Thou shalt not lack\n          The flowers that\u2019s like thy face, pale primrose; nor\n          The azured harebell.... The ruddock would\n          With charitable bill bring thee all these.\n\nAnd in William Collins\u2019s _Dirge to Cymbeline_ are the lines:\n\n                The redbreast oft at evening hours\n                Shall kindly lend his little aid,\n                With heavy moss, and gathered flowers,\n                To deck the ground where thou art laid.\n\nThe conceit is far more ancient than Shakespeare or Gay or even than\nRobert Yarrington\u2014who, in 1601, wrote a ballad on it concluding,\n\n        No buriall this pretty pair of any man receives\n        Till Robin Redbreast piously did cover them with leaves\u2014\n\nfor Horace relates in one of his poems how he as a child wandering one\nday on Mount Vultur fell wearily asleep, and was covered by protecting\ndoves with laurel and myrtle leaves.\n\nThe robin is always remembered at Christmas in the rural villages and\nfarms of northern Europe, for it is not migratory. In South Germany the\ncustom is to put grain on a roof for the redbreasts, who come trustfully\nabout houses at that season, and find welcome shelter in barns and\nstraw-stacks: and in Sweden and elsewhere an unthreshed sheaf of wheat\nis set up on a pole for their winter fare.\n\nIt will have been noticed that in the ballads quoted, the wren is\nassociated with the robin in a protective way. A whole book might be\nwritten about this least of birds, which, although the least, is called\n\u201cking\u201d in every European language. We are told that a wren was in the\nstable at Bethlehem when Christ was born; and an Irish proverb runs:\n\u201cThe robin and the wren are God\u2019s two holy men.\u201d How surprising, then,\nto read of a custom called Hunting (or in some places Burying) the Wren,\nwhich once prevailed in southern France, in Keltic parts of England, in\nWales, and also in Ireland, where it persisted until abolished by the\nBritish Government about the middle of the 19th century. Accounts of the\npractices, songs, etc., connected with it may be found in antiquarian\nhistories, for example the following from Miles\u2019s book of Christmas\ncustoms:\n\n  In the Isle of Man very early on Christmas morning, when the\n  church-bells had rung out midnight, servants went out to hunt the\n  wren. They killed the bird, fastened it to the top of a long pole;\n  and carried it in procession to every house, chanting these words:\n\n              We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin,\n                  We hunted the wren for Jack of the Can,\n              We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin,\n                  We hunted the wren for everyone.\n\n  At each house they sought to collect money. At last, when all had\n  been visited, they laid the wren on a bier, carried it to the\n  church-yard, and buried it with the utmost solemnity, singing Manx\n  dirges.\n\nIt is evident that this is a very ancient practice, and embodies in its\nutterly degenerate state a religious idea or symbolism, the meaning of\nwhich has been forgotten. Why, for example, should the feathers of the\nmurdered Manx wrens be preserved, one by one, among the coast families,\nas a talisman preserving the possessor from shipwreck, unless some\nreligious sanction was involved, and this may be connected with St.\nStephen, the first Christian martyr, who was stoned to death; for this\nsavage custom belonged to St. Stephen\u2019s Day, December 26, as well as to\nChristmas, or locally in place of Christmas. But why the wren, rather\nthan some other bird? The matter is interesting enough to justify\nquoting the broad account of the matter furnished by Swann:[47]\n\n  An old Irish custom on St. Stephen\u2019s Day, and one that has not quite\n  died out, was the \u201chunting of the wren\u201d by boys. When captured it\n  was tied, alive but maimed, to a pole (or, according to Vallancey\u2014De\n  Reb. Hib., IV, 13\u2014tied by the leg in the center of two hoops placed\n  at right angles with one another) and paraded around the\n  neighborhood, a few doggerel verses being repeated at each house,\n  while a donation was requested, one version being;\n\n               The wran, the wran, the king of all birds,\n               St. Stephen\u2019s Day was caught in the furze,\n               Come, give us a bumper, or give us a cake,\n               Or give us a copper, for Charity\u2019s sake.\n\n  Yarrell records a similar practice in Kerry, where the peasantry on\n  Christmas Day used to hunt the bird with two sticks, \u201cone to beat\n  the bushes the other to fling at the bird.\u201d Bullock also mentions it\n  as prevalent in the Isle of Man, both on Christmas Eve and St.\n  Stephen\u2019s Day, and tells us it was founded on a tradition of a\n  beautiful fairy who lured the male inhabitants to a watery grave in\n  the sea, and who to escape subsequent destruction took the form of a\n  wren, which form she was supposed to be doomed by a spell to\n  reassume each succeeding New Year\u2019s Day, ultimately perishing by\n  human hands.... To my own knowledge this custom of a \u201cwren hunt\u201d\n  existed in Nottinghamshire also within recent times, the bird being\n  hunted along the hedgerows by boys armed with stones, but I do not\n  recollect that anything was done with the bird when killed or\n  maimed....\n\n  In connection with this belief [alluded to above] in the kingship\n  over other birds, a Twelfth Day custom of parading a caged wren in\n  Pembrokeshire, with the lines recited, is described in Swainson\u2019s\n  _Folklore of British Birds_, O\u2019Curry has recorded that the wren,\n  like the raven, was kept domesticated on account of the auguries\n  derived from it, which were employed by the Druids. An Irish proverb\n  asserts that \u201cThe fox is the cunningest beast in the world barring\n  the wren.\u201d According to Dalyell the wren is considered an unlucky\n  token in Scotland, but the robin a lucky one.\n\nExplanations of this revolting yet long persistent custom have been many\nand various. A totemic sort of theory is that the bird \u201cwas once\nregarded as sacred, and the Christmas hunting is the survival of an\nannual custom of slaying the divine animal, such as is found among\nprimitive peoples. The carrying of its body from door to door is\napparently intended to convey to each house a portion of its virtues.\u201d I\nknow of no facts in history to support this theory as applied to the\nKeltic race. One authority tells us that the \u201ccrime\u201d for which the bird\nmust be punished so ferociously is that it has \u201ca drop o\u2019 the de\u2019il\u2019s\nblood in its veins,\u201d but so has the magpie, which is not persecuted.\n\nLady Wilde[60] assures us that \u201cthe wren is mortally hated by the Irish\nfor on one occasion, when the Irish troops were approaching to attack a\nportion of Thomas Cromwell\u2019s army the wrens came and perched on the\nIrish drums, and by their tapping and noise aroused the English\nsoldiers, who fell on the Irish troops and killed them all.\u201d For this\ntragic incident we are given no time or place; and it happens that the\nsame report was made respecting a battle between Irish and Danish\ninvaders some 800 years before Cromwell\u2019s campaigns in the Emerald Isle\nor anywhere else.\n\nThe real clue to the puzzle is contained in the fact that in their\nbarbarous hunt for wrens the men and boys kept yelling words that in\nCormac\u2019s _Glossary_ (10th century) are explained as \u201cdraoi-en,\u201d\nDruid-bird. We know that the Druid priests were accustomed to draw\nauguries from the chirpings of the wren\u2014a divination to which the early\nChristian missionaries objected strenuously. It is probable that they\ncondemned the little songster as a symbol of heathen rites, and\nencouraged their converts to kill it at the time of the annual Christian\nfeast as a sign of abnegation of Druidical connections. The stoning of\nthe birds on St. Stephen\u2019s Day might be regarded as a vengeful reminder\nof the manner of that martyr\u2019s murder by a mob.\n\nOne more bird-story is connected with Christianity in general\u2014that\nalluded to in _Hamlet_, where Ophelia says: \u201cWell, God \u2019ield you! They\nsay the owl was a baker\u2019s daughter!\u201d This enigmatical remark probably\nhad reference to the story formerly, and perhaps still, common among the\npeasantry in the English Midlands, of a baker\u2019s daughter that was\ntransformed into an owl by Jesus as a punishment for reducing to a very\nsmall size the large piece of dough which her mother had agreed to bake\nfor him. The dough, however, swelled in the oven to enormous\nproportions, to the girl\u2019s great astonishment, and she gasped out \u201cHeu,\nheu, heu!\u201d This owl-like noise suggested her transformation into that\nbird. The story is told to children as a warning lesson against\nilliberal treatment of the poor. It is evidently alluded to, also, in\nBeaumont and Fletcher\u2019s play _The Nice Valour_, where the Passionate\nLord says, after speaking of a nest of owls, \u201cHappy is he whose window\nopens to a brown baker\u2019s chimney! he shall be sure there to hear the\nbird sometimes after twilight.\u201d In northern Germany they say a baker\u2019s\nman was the offender; and that he was changed by Jesus into a cuckoo,\nthe white spots in whose wings show where the flour was sprinkled on the\nman\u2019s dun coat. The Norse people apply the same moral by means of their\ncommon woodpecker, whose pattern of dress is indicated in the legend\nknown to Norse children as the Gertrud story, which is prettily related\nby Miss Walker.[39] Brewer\u2019s _Handbook_ notes that a maid-servant of the\nVirgin Mary, who had purloined one of her mistress\u2019s dresses, was\nconverted into a lapwing and condemned forever to cry \u201cTyvit, tyvit!\u201d (I\nstole it). The source of the anecdote is not given, nor the language of\nthe one who interprets it, but it reminds one of Tennyson\u2019s.\n\n                  With a lengthened loud halloo,\n                  Tuwhoo, tuwhit, tuwhit, tuwhoo-o-o.\n\nThe Greeks, according to Andrew Lang, had a similar legend of feminine\nimpiety, by which they mystically explained the origin of owls and bats.\n\nThe prevalence of a belief in such transformations as these by Jesus is\nvery widespread; the traditions vary somewhat, as we have seen, in\ndifferent countries, but it is evident that the root is in the primitive\nnotion that such miracles were not only possible, but natural. Rather\nmore remote and obscure is the connection of birds with certain other\nreligious feasts, such as the substitution of turkey for boar\u2019s-head as\nthe central dish for the Christmas dinner among the English Dissenters,\nattributed to the fact that turkeys became common about the time of the\nReformation, and acquired a meritorious character on that account among\nthose who wanted to continue the Christmas feast without the taint of a\ndish partaking of the customs of the hated Papists. Is our New England\ncustom of a turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day traceable to this,\nremembering that the Puritans paid little or no heed to Christmas?\n\nFor centuries, and until comparatively recent times, among the sports\nand jollifications recalling the Roman carnival (at the same date) that\nmarked Shrove Tuesday, the last day before Lent, both in Britain and in\nFrance, along with the eating of unlimited pancakes, cock-fighting and\n\u201cthrowing at cocks\u201d had the most prominent place. The last-mentioned\nsport consisted in fastening live cocks in a certain position, and\nletting men compete in throwing clubs at them, the man who killed the\nbird winning it. This atrocious form of amusement did not shock the\npopulace of a time when bear-baiting, bull-baiting, and the pitting of\ndogs against each other or against badgers and rats were popular; yet a\nfew protested, and even in the 17th century antiquaries were searching\nfor the origin of the custom. Hearne asserted that it was in memory of\nEnglish victories over the French (symbolized by the Gallic _coq_) in\nthe time of Henry V; but the sport was customary in France itself long\nbefore that time. A writer quoted by Smith[61] records that \u201cthe common\naccount of it is that the crowing of a cock prevented our Saxon\nancestors from massacring their conquerors, the Danes, on the morning of\na Shrove Tuesday while asleep in their beds,\u201d which recalls one of the\nexplanations of the Irish wren-hunting. My own opinion is that the\ncustom had no particular significance, but was just a sportive way of\ngetting without much cost the material for a good dinner, as were the\n\u201cturkey shoots\u201d of our western frontier; and that Erasmus was fairly\nright when he remarked that \u201cthe English eat a certain cake on Shrove\nTuesday, on which they immediately run mad and kill the poor cocks.\u201d\n\nLent closes with the joyful celebration of Easter, an occasion in which\nthe eggs of birds, at least, have a persistent and prominent part, and\ndoves find a place in several Old World ceremonies of the Church.\n\nIn the matter of the almost universal and everywhere popular custom of\nplaying with colored eggs at Easter, I can do no better than quote _The\nCatholic Encyclopedia_, article \u201cEaster\u201d:\n\n  Because the use of eggs was forbidden during Lent they were brought\n  to the table on Easter Day, colored red to symbolize the Easter joy.\n  This custom is found not only in the Latin but also in the Oriental\n  Churches. The symbolic meaning of a new creation of mankind by Jesus\n  risen from the dead was probably an invention of later times. The\n  custom may have its origin in Paganism, for a great many pagan\n  customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The\n  egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. Easter\n  eggs, the children are told, come from Rome with the bells which on\n  Thursday go to Rome and return Saturday morning. The sponsors in\n  some countries give Easter eggs to their god-children. Colored eggs\n  are used by children at Easter in a sort of game which consists in\n  testing the strength of the shells. Both colored and uncolored eggs\n  are used in some parts of the United States in this game, known as\n  \u201cegg-picking.\u201d Another practice is the \u201cegg-rolling\u201d by children on\n  Easter Monday on the lawn of the White House in Washington.\n\nA quaint feature in this pagan survival in a Christian celebration of a\nmomentous incident and idea is the connection with it of the rabbit.\nWherever colored Easter eggs are displayed, images of a rabbit are\nlikely to accompany them. Children are told that the Easter Rabbit lays\nthe eggs, for which reason they are, in some countries, hidden in a nest\nin the garden. The strangeness of the association disappears when we\nremember that the date of the feast is determined by the time when the\nmoon first becomes full after the spring equinox, and that the rabbit,\nwhich has from time immemorial been a symbol of fertility, is\nrepresentative of the moon-goddess, Luna, which was worshipped annually\nat a date coinciding with the Easter festival. Thus, like many other\npagan rites and symbols significant of reviving nature, it became\nconfused with the Christian celebration of the Resurrection.\n\nAt the feast of the Pentecost, on Whitsunday, commemorating the descent\nof the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, doves were formerly always employed\nin Europe in staging the solemnities.\n\n     On Whitsuntide, white pigeons tame in strings from heaven fly,\n     And one that framed is of wood still hangeth in the skie,\n\nas we are told by Neogeorgus (1511\u201363), speaking of the custom in\nGermany; and elsewhere we learn that in Spain pigeons with cakes tied to\ntheir legs were let loose in churches, where representations of the Holy\nGhost were a part of the celebration. This last fact accounts for the\nuse of the dove\u2014an emblem of the third element of the God head, as we\nshall see.\n\nTo a similar old custom, if Marion Crawford, the learned author of\n_Salve Venetia_, is not mistaken, we owe the picturesque fact that\npigeons are a feature of the plaza of St. Mark in Venice\u2014one of the\n\u201csights\u201d of that wonderful city:\n\n  The Venetians always loved processions, and it is to one of these\n  pageants that the pigeons of St. Mark\u2019s owe their immunity. As early\n  as the end of the fourteenth century it was the custom to make a\n  great procession on Palm Sunday, in the neighborhood of St. Mark\u2019s.\n  A canon of the Cathedral deposited great baskets on the high altar\n  containing the artificial palms prepared for the Doge, the chief\n  magistrates, and the most important members of the clergy....\n  According to the appointed service the procession began immediately\n  after the distribution of the palms; and while the choir chanted the\n  words \u201c_Gloria, laus et honor_\u201d of the sacred hymn, a great number\n  of pigeons were sent flying from different parts of the fa\u00e7ade down\n  into the square, having little screws of paper fastened to their\n  claws to prevent them from flying too high. The people instantly\n  began to catch the birds, and a great many were actually taken; but\n  now and then one, stronger than the rest, succeeded in gaining the\n  higher parts of the surrounding buildings, enthusiastically cheered\n  by the crowd.\n\n  Those who had once succeeded in making their escape were regarded as\n  sacred forever with all their descendants. The state provided them\n  with food from its granaries, and before long, lest by mistake any\n  free pigeons should be caught on the next Palm Sunday the Signory\n  next decreed that other birds must be used on the occasion.\n\nF. Hopkinson Smith, in his _Gondola Days_, gives a more secular account\nof the origin of the regard felt by the Venetians for these \u201cpets of the\nState,\u201d whose ancestor, the genial artist writes, brought the good news\nto Venice of the capture (in 1205) of Candia by Admiral Enrico Dandolo.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER VII\n                      BIRDS AS SYMBOLS AND BADGES\n\n\nCertain kinds of birds have become symbols of popular ideas, or even\nsignificant badges of persons and events, and are thus more or less\nconventionalized accessories in art, by reason of their appearance\n(form, color), or their habits, or their connection with some historic\nincident or fabulous tale. In many cases this symbolism is of very\nancient origin, as is most particularly true of the eagle and the dove.\nThe eagle is accounted for elsewhere in its various aspects and\nrelations: but the dove, by which is meant the prehistorically\ndomesticated blue rock-pigeon, almost deserves a chapter to itself.\n\nTo trace the career of the dove in religion, customs, and art is,\nindeed, one of the most engaging of my tasks, and the quest discloses a\ncuriously double and diverse symbolism running almost simultaneously\nfrom the beginning of history to the present, for this bird serves as an\nemblem of purity and conjugal affection in one association, and in\nanother suggests the familiar epithet \u201csoiled.\u201d\n\nThe story of this bird goes back to the misty dawn of civilization and\nreligion in Mesopotamia, the Garden-of-Eden land, where arose the dual\n\u201cnature-worship\u201d of the combining elements heaven and earth, male and\nfemale. The fecund soil, yielding its fruits to the fertilizing sunshine\nand rain, sent by the sky-god, became personified as Ishtar (Ashtaroth),\nand to her was assigned the amorous and prolific dove as a type of the\nfamily concord and productiveness she represented; and white doves were\nsold to worshippers at Babylon to be offered as sacrifices in her\ntemple. Her worship was spread to Asia Minor and the shore of the \u00c6gean\nby Babylonian and Assyrian conquests, and she became known to the\nPhrygians as Cybele, to the Syrians as Darketo, and to the Phoenicians\nas Atagartis, whom the Ionian Greeks called Astarte.\n\nIn these transformations the primitive Ishtar gradually fell from her\noriginal state as a type of motherhood to the baser one of physical\nlove-indulgence, and among her votaries were troops of maidens who\npublicly offered their virginity at her shrine, as a form of sacrifice\nand service.\n\nSome of the Syrians are said to have thought of their goddess Darketo as\n\u201cSemiramis,\u201d but this was by confusion with her fabled daughter. Whether\nor not a real woman and queen of that name ever existed, I leave to the\nhistorians, but a mythical Semiramis belongs to my story, and her\nhistory was first written by Ctesias, an Asiatic-Greek historian of the\nfourth century B.C. Ctesias says that near Askalon was a large lake\nbeside which Darketo (otherwise Atagartis) had a habitation; she is\nrepresented with the face of a woman and the body of a fish\u2014perhaps the\nmost antique conception of a mermaid. She fell in love with a fair youth\nand a girl-baby resulted. Then, in shame, Darketo destroyed her lover,\nexposed the child in a rocky desert, and flung herself into the lake.\nThe babe, nurtured by doves on milk and cheese, was discovered and\nreared by a herdsman, who called the child Semiramis\u2014a Syrian word for\n\u201cdoves.\u201d At the close of her life this mythical Semiramis changed\nherself into a dove and flew away with certain other birds. Hence, in\nCtesias\u2019s time, divine honors were paid in the East to doves; and a dove\nis the badge of Semiramis in Syrian monumental art. Diodorus Siculus\nrepeats this account with additional details.\n\nThe sceptre in the hand of the revered image of Atagartis in her great\ntemple at Hierapolis bore the golden figure of a dove on its summit; and\nin Phoenicia, Cyprus, Sardinia, and wherever the Phocians and other\nLevantine traders of that day traded and colonized, have been found\nsmall terra-cotta figures of this goddess, or of one of her priestesses,\nalways with a dove.\n\nTo the devotees of this cult, which was confined to the coastal region,\nand in which the Hebrews and other Semites of the interior desert-plains\ntook no part, a dove was so sacred that if a person even accidentally\ntouched one he was \u201cunclean\u201d throughout the day. Hence the birds\nthronged in the villages and houses and swarmed about the temple yards,\nwhere they were fed by visitors, as still is the custom in the\nMohammedan mosques that have taken their place. This was noted\nespecially at Hierapolis, where, according to Lucian, one of the\nvenerated images had a pigeon\u2019s head.\n\nThis religious doctrine, and more particularly the Phrygian cult of\nCybele, was undoubtedly carried to the \u00c6gean islands and to Greece,\nwhile civilization was still in its infancy there, for the \u201csea-born\u201d\nAphrodite\u2014an epithet indicative of her arrival from across the waters\u2014is\nonly Astarte transformed in Greek thought, which seems to explain the\nclassic story that Aphrodite was born from an egg, with a dove brooding\nupon it, rolled ashore by a fish.\n\nThe focus of religious emotion in those early centuries of Greece, at\nleast in Attica, was probably in the most ancient of oracles, that at\nDodona. Tradition ascribed its origin to a dove that spoke with a human\nvoice; and among those who served the shrine were three priestesses\npopularly called \u201cDoves,\u201d whose duty it was to announce oracles\nrequested as if real birds uttered them from the foliage of the\nsurrounding oaks\u2014divine trees. Connected with the cult of Zeus at Dodona\nwas that of Aphrodite, then regarded as the goddess of exalted love, not\nof the sensual passion by which in later times her cult in Rome, as\nVenus, became degraded. It was natural, as we have seen, that the dove\nshould be associated with this pristine Aphrodite, and equally suitable\nthat it should be adopted subsequently as the attendant of lascive\nVenus, for as De Kay[18] observes, doves are forever making love and\ncaressing each other. \u201cChaucer speaks of \u2018the wedded turtil with her\nherte trewe\u2019.... So the bird is by its nature and habits fitted to be\nthe attendant and symbol of the goddess of love\u2014the bird that draws her\nflower-studded chariot through the air.\u201d A Persian poet asks:\n\n            Knowest thou why round his neck the dove\n                A collar wears?\u2014it is to tell\n            He is the faithful slave of love,\n                And serves all those who serve him well.[88]\n\nAn interesting memorandum here is the observation by A. B. Cook,[37] the\nerudite author of _Zeus_, that the oracle in the oasis Ammon (Siwah),\nwhich Alexander the Great took such prodigious trouble to visit and\nconsult, was, like that at Dodona, founded by a dove. \u201cMoreover,\u201d Mr.\nCook remarks, \u201cSemiramis is said to have learned her destiny from Ammon,\nand to have fulfilled it by becoming a dove.... In short, it appears\nthat the whole apparatus of the oracle at Dodona ... was to be matched\nin the oasis of Ammon. Strabo adds that both oracles gave their\nresponses in the selfsame manner, not by words but by certain tokens,\nsuch as the flight of doves.\u201d\n\nThe conception of Aphrodite also included that of spring, ushered in by\nthe early return of this migrant from its winter resort in Africa and\nthe time when it cooed for a mate\u2014the season when \u201ca livelier iris\nchanges on the burnished dove\u201d; while the revival of nature in spring\nhas always to imaginative souls typified the Resurrection as taught in\nChristian doctrine and exemplified in some of the customs of Easter,\nwhich, of course, is only an adaptation of the far more ancient festival\nof rejoicing at the return of the sun\u2014the rebirth of the year.\n\nAnother line of thought apparently of Oriental origin, but prevalent in\nnorthern Europe, connected this dove with the Fates and with death,\nespecially death by violence\u2014a phase that is traced in wearisome detail\nback to the _Rigvedas_ and other misty sources by the myth-readers, and\nwhich probably comes from its plaintive \u201ccooing.\u201d Sometimes, however,\nthe fateful dove brings good tidings and succor to the distressed, as in\nthe story of Queen Radegund, who in the form of a dove once delivered\nsailors from shipwreck.\n\nThis is an appropriate place, perhaps, to repeat the legend related by\nthe Rhodian Apollonius in his poem _Argonautica_, concerning the\nSymplegades\u2014the two islands that stand on opposite sides of the\nBosphorus \u201cmouth.\u201d It appears that these islands were wont in days\nancient even to Apollonius to swing together and crush any living thing\nthat attempted to pass between them and enter the Black Sea. Phineas,\nwho lived on the shore near by told Jason, who had arrived there on his\njourney in search of the Golden Fleece, and who wanted to go on into the\nEuxine, how to escape the fatal grasp of the island-gates. He was to\nsail or row the _Argo_ as near as he dared to the entrance, then let\nloose a dove. The bird would fly onward, the islands would rush together\nto crush it; and the instant they had swung back Jason must drive his\nship on between them before they could close again. This plan, so clever\nexcept for the poor bird, succeeded, and broke the magic spell. Living\nheroes had passed safely between them, and ever since then the malicious\nSymplegades have remained stable. This story has been scientifically\nanalyzed by the mythologists in various ways, but none has deigned to\nconsider why a dove was chosen, rather than some other bird, as the\nmartyr of the occasion. I am inclined to think it was because among\nsailors of those days the dove was believed to help them; and that, in\nturn, was owing to its association with the \u201cfoam-born\u201d Aphrodite, who\nwas worshipped by mariners, especially about Cyprus, as goddess of the\nsea.\n\nI have dwelt somewhat at length on these antique fables, not only to\ngive a glimpse of the nativity of certain far more modern, or even\nexisting, ideas and customs connected with the dove, but more especially\nto display the background of tradition and feeling that affected the\nminds of people toward this familiar bird at the time when Christianity\nbegan to manifest itself in Italy, and began to replace by a Christian\nsymbolism the previous figurative significance of the dove. The highest\nplace given it in early Christian thought and art was as a\nrepresentative of the third member of the godhead\u2014the Holy Ghost, and it\nstill holds this significance, as every one may realize who recalls the\nhymn beginning \u201cCome Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,\u201d which will be sung in\nperhaps hundreds of churches next Sunday. An old and natural inference\nfollowed, that the devil cannot ever take (by magic) the form of this\ncelestial messenger.\n\nAccording to an apocryphal gospel the Holy Ghost in the semblance of a\ndove, designated Joseph as the spouse of the Virgin Mary by alighting on\nhis head; and in the same manner, according to Eusebius, Fabian was\nindicated as divinely appointed to be Pope in the third century. It is\nsaid also that at the Council of Nice (A.D. 325) the creed formulated\nthere was signed by the Holy Spirit, appearing as a dove\u2014a legend that\nmagnifies the tremendous importance of that document.\n\nAgain, there is the story of the miraculous dove at the consecration of\nClovis on Christmas Day, 496, at Rheims. When Clovis and St. Remi, the\nbishop, reached the baptistery the priest bearing the holy chrism was\nprevented by the density of the crowd from reaching the font. Then a\ndove, whiter than snow, brought a vial (ampoule) filled with chrism sent\nfrom heaven; and the bishop took it, and with this miraculous chrism\nperfumed the baptismal water for the Frankish chief by whose victories\nover Germanic barbarians France was founded.\n\nThe lives of medieval saints and martyrs\u2014or at any rate, the records of\nthem\u2014abound in such incidents of supernatural recognition. Several\ndevoted women on taking the vow of virginity received their veils from\ndoves hatched in no earthly nest; bishops were more than once given\napproval of public acts, especially when unpopular, by similar\nmanifestations of divine approbation, doves alighting on their heads. \u201cA\ndove is the special emblem of Gregory the Great (A.D. 590\u2013604), and its\nfigure rests on his right shoulder in the magnificent statue of this\npope in Rome.\u201d\n\nThis is in allusion, according to _The Catholic Encyclopedia_, \u201cto the\nwell-known story recorded by Peter the Deacon (_Vita_, xxviii), who\ntells us that when the pope was dictating his homilies in Ezechiel a\nveil was drawn between his secretary and himself. As, however, the pope\nremained silent for long periods of time, the servant made a hole in the\ncurtain and, looking through, beheld a dove seated on Gregory\u2019s head\nwith its beak between his lips. When the dove withdrew its beak the holy\npontiff spoke and the secretary took down his words; but when he became\nsilent the servant again applied his eyes to the hole and saw that the\ndove had again placed its beak between his lips.\u201d Much the same incident\nbelongs to the biography of another early pope; and apropos to the\nsignificance of this bird in the Romanist method of demonstrating that\nfaith to the populace, Mackenzie E. Walcott contributed the following\nbit of history to _Notes and Queries_ in 1873:\n\n  The dove was regarded as the symbol of the holy spirit which came in\n  the eventide of days, bringing safety and peace to the ark of Christ\n  and a world rescued from wreck, and to whom Christians should be\n  conformed in innocency. A dove was suspended over the altar, as\n  Amphilochius says of S. Basil that he broke the Holy Bread and\n  placed one third part in the pendant golden dove over the altar. The\n  Council of Constantinople charged a heretic with robbing the gold\n  and silver doves that hung above the fonts and altars. The dove was\n  also the symbol of our Blessed Lord, as we learn from Prudentius and\n  an expression of Tertullian, \u201cthe Dove\u2019s house,\u201d applied to a\n  church, probably in allusion to Coloss. i, 20.\n\n  The dove for reservation [that is, withholding a part of the\n  eucharist] whether for communion of infants in the baptistery, or of\n  sick under a ciborium, was suspended by a chain. One is preserved in\n  the church of S. Nazarius at Milan, and a solitary mention of\n  another is contained in an inventory of Salisbury. In Italy at an\n  early date, the dove was set upon a tower for reservation.... We\n  also find in early works of devotional art the dove represented as\n  flooding a cross with streams of living water. There is a famous\n  example in the Lateran, symbolical of Holy Baptism. A holy lamb and\n  dove are placed on the canopy of the baptistery at Saragossa.\n\nIt seems unlikely that Mohammed could have heard of these pontifical\nsources or methods of divine inspiration, yet, according to Brewer,[34]\nPrideaux, in his _Life of Mahamet_, relates that he taught a dove to\npick seed placed in his ear as it perched on his shoulder; but the wily\nprophet \u201cgave it out it was the Holy Ghost, in the form of a dove, come\nto impart to him the counsels of God.\u201d This accounts probably (for\nShakespeare may well have heard the tradition) for the doubting query in\n_Henry V_: \u201cWas Mohammed inspired with a dove?\u201d\n\nWhether this legend is credible or not, it is certain that Islam has\npreserved the ancient Oriental reverence for this bird, which now flocks\nin great numbers around all the mosques; and the Moslems have a\nhalf-superstitious feeling that any bird that seeks its rest and makes\nits nest about temples and holy buildings must not be disturbed\u2014a kindly\nregard in which swallows share, at least in the Near East, where the\nMohammedans say that the swallow must be a very holy bird, because it\nmakes an annual pilgrimage to Mecca.\n\nJohn Keane,[14] an Englishman who spent a long time in Arabia about\nforty years ago, records that at Mecca vast flocks of pigeons were to be\nseen in the public space surrounding the kaaba. By repeated observations\nhe estimated that between 5000 and 6000 pigeons assembled there daily,\nall so tame that they would alight on men\u2019s heads and shoulders. They\nare still held as almost sacred, are never killed, and nest in nearly\nevery building in niches left for that purpose in the walls of the\nrooms. Pilgrims purchase baskets of grain to give to the pigeons as a\npious act, and each benefactor \u201cbecomes the vortex of a revolving storm\nof pigeons.\u201d In some remote places, indeed, these temple-pets become\nthemselves almost objects of worship. For example, on the direct road\nbetween Yarkand and Khotan, Chinese Turkestan, stands the locally\ncelebrated pigeon-shrine (Kaptar Mazzar), where all good Moslems must\ndismount and reverently approach the sacred spot. \u201cLegend has it that\nImam Shakir Padshah, trying to convert the Buddhist inhabitants of the\ncountry to Islam by the drastic agency of the sword, fell here in battle\nagainst the army of Khotan, and was buried in the little cemetery. It is\naffirmed that two doves flew forth from the heart of the dead saint, and\nbecame the ancestors of the swarms of pigeons we saw ... sated with the\nofferings of the Faithful, and extremely fat.... We were told that if a\nhawk were to venture to attack them it would fall down dead.\u201d\n\nA pretty story is related by E. Dinet, a French artist, in his book of\nsketches in Algeria. \u201cDoves, which the Arabs name imams, because,\u201d he\nwas told, \u201clike the imam in the mosques, they call the faithful to\nprayer, and because, like him, they do not cease to prostrate themselves\nby inclining their necks in devotions to the Creator.\u201d Newspapers of the\nyear 1921 contained an account of how two European boys ignorantly\nprovoked a riot in Bombay by killing a couple of pigeons in the street.\nThe Mohammedans were horrified and the police had difficulty in\nsuppressing an extensive disturbance; the stock exchange and other\ngeneral markets were closed, and a wide-spread strike of workmen in\nIndia was threatened, as an evidence of the deep feeling aroused by the\nboys\u2019 sacrilegious act. It was evidence also of the panic-force of\nsuperstition under an appropriate stimulus, and a good illustration of\nProfessor George Santayana\u2019s definition of superstition as \u201creverence\nfor what hurts.\u201d In the same year it was reported by telegraph from\nBrownsville, Texas, that a snow-white pigeon flew into Sacred Heart\nChurch there on the morning of November 11, during a service celebrating\nArmistice Day, and perched over a memorial window, where it remained\nthroughout the service. Had it been a sparrow or woodpecker no one would\nhave thought of recording the incident.\n\nMen in the Middle Ages had perfect faith in prodigies such as those\nconnected with the holy ampoule of St. Remi and the subsequent miracles\nin which it was so efficacious; and everyone understood their meaning.\nThis continued as long as the Church held sway over hearts and minds of\nthe populace. Nobody, probably, had the disposition, not to say the\nhardihood, to deny the story\u2014you may read it in Froissart\u2014that at the\nbattle of Roosebeek (or Rosebeque), which put an end to the power of\nPhilip van Artevelde in 1382, a white dove was seen to circle about and\nalight on the French oriflame, which then swept on to victory.\n\nReaders of Malory\u2019s _Morte D\u2019Arthur_ will recall that as on its\nappearance the Holy Grail passes before Lancelot\u2019s eyes in the castle of\nPelleas, a dove, entering at the window and carrying a small golden\ncenser in its beak, impressed the awe-struck knights of the Table Round\nas a lovely token of the purity and worship to which the castle was\ndevoted. Nothing could be more natural in medieval romance than this\nincident\u2014a miracle commemorated in the opera _Parsifal_. The Venetians\nstill assert that the pigeons so familiar and petted in the piazza of\nSt. Mark fly three times daily around the city in honor of the Trinity.\n\nA later example: in the first voyage of Hernando Cortez to America water\nand food were almost exhausted, and everybody in the vessel was\ndiscouraged and mutinous, when \u201ccame a Dove flying to the Shippe, being\nGood Friday at Sunsett; and sat him on the Shippe-top; whereat they were\nall comforted, and tooke it for a miracle and good token ... and all\ngave heartie thanks to God, directing their course the way the Dove\nflew.\u201d Any sort of bird would have been welcome as an indication of\nnearness of land, but a _dove_ meant to them a heavenly pilot. No wonder\nthat they were comforted! And when they had landed they found in\nabundance a flower (the orchid _Peristeria elata_) which they at once\nnamed La Flor del Espiritu Santu\u2014Flower of the Holy Ghost. Why? Because\nin its center the consolidated pistil and stamens form an unmistakable\nimage of a dove.\n\nThe immediate source of this symbolism is evidently the account in the\ngospels of the divine sanction witnessed at the baptism of Jesus.\nMatthew (iii, 16) records: \u201cLo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he\nsaw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him\u201d;\nand St. Luke strengthens the realism by writing that \u201cthe Holy Ghost\ndescended in a bodily shape like a dove.\u201d Hence this bird is constantly\nassociated with Christ and with the Cross by artists and decorative\ndesigners; and it is no wonder that in so strictly Catholic countries as\nItaly it is considered sacrilegious by many of the people to eat the\nflesh of pigeons.\n\n\u201cIn the fifth century,\u201d as Mrs. Jenner tells us in her book on Christian\nsymbolism,[63] the dove is shown descending on the Blessed Virgin at the\nAnnunciation. After this date the Holy Dove is commonly shown in\ndepicting both these subjects, as well as the sacrament of baptism. It\nappears frequently also over the pictures of the Virgin and Child, and\nin pictures of the Creation, where \u201cthe spirit of God moved on the face\nof the waters.... The Holy Spirit as a dove bestowing the Gift of\nTongues is shown with flames proceeding from Him.\u201d\n\nThe prophet Elisha is represented in a window of Lincoln College,\nEngland, with a two-headed dove on his shoulder\u2014evidently an allusion to\nhis petition to Elijah (_II Kings_, ii, 9): \u201cI pray thee, let a double\nportion of thy spirit be upon me.\u201d\n\nBut this venerated bird has many other meanings in Christian art and\nparable, sometimes so comprehensive as to include the Church, or Pope,\nor Christians generally in the sense that they are distinguished from\nPagans by their gentleness and innocence.\n\nReference has been made to the funereal quality of this bird, which\nappears on medieval funerary monuments as testimony of death in\nChristian faith. In the miracle-play depicting the career and martyrdom\nof St. Eulalia of Barcelona, which is still enacted annually in the\nCatalan village-churches of the eastern Pyrenees, it is represented that\nthe tortured soul of the Christian maiden escapes to heaven in the form\nof a dove. Even to-day one sees these birds, or a pair of them, carved\non tombstones, or their stuffed skins employed as a part of funeral\nwreaths and accessories, and certain superstitions have grown out of\nthis practice, as is related elsewhere.\n\nThe white domestic dove has always been a figure of purity by reason, no\ndoubt, of its whiteness, as of unstained snow or light\u2014the same feeling\nthat prescribes white raiment in such church services as the\nconfirmation of girls, and white veils and flowers for brides. This,\nprobably, was the reason, too, why white doves, and even geese, were\nacceptable for sacrifice in the Jewish temple of old from those who\ncould not afford to give a lamb. Mary, mother of Jesus, offered doves at\nher sacrificial purification; and that these birds were commonly used\nfor that purpose is evident from the fact that a great trade in them had\ngrown up in and around the temple in Jerusalem, profaning it, so that\nlater Jesus drove away from its hallowed precincts \u201cthem that sold\ndoves.\u201d A tradition says that Moses, a good economist, decreed as a\nproper sacrifice-offering either a turtle-dove or two young pigeons,\nbecause doves were good to eat at any time, whereas pigeons (the larger\nand wilder stock) were tough and unpalatable except as squabs; and it is\nto be remembered that the edible flesh of sacrificed animals was\nafterward eaten, and for that end was divided equally between the\nofferer and the priests.\n\nA more widespread, popular and persistent notion makes the dove the\nsymbol of peace, usually depicted with a spray of olive in its beak. How\nthe olive came to have this character has been thoroughly discussed by\nthe Rev. H. Friend.[11] It appears to be largely an accidental\nacquisition, even if one believes that the idea is derived from the\nolive-leaf brought back by the dove that Noah sent forth from the ark.\nIn old times a tree-branch of any sort served as does a modern flag of\ntruce between warring factions; or was held aloft as a sign of friendly\nintentions when strangers approached others without hostile purpose. The\ntradition of the Deluge suggested, and usage has strengthened, the\nsupposition that the olive was the proper sort of branch to show\n(without danger of misunderstanding), as was the practice of Roman\nheralds, and the fact that this bird was associated with the olive in\nBiblical legend has made the dove the \u201cbird of peace.\u201d The olive-tree\nwas given to Athens and the world by Pallas Athene, patron of peace and\nplenty.\n\nAs a matter of ornithology the choice of this bird as a representative\nof peace is an unfortunate one, for pigeons are unusually quarrelsome\namong themselves; it is noticeable, however, that in all these relations\nthe symbolic dove is a white one\u2014not the gray ring-dove. In Japan, on\nthe contrary doves are considered messengers of war, which perhaps\noriginated in the legend of an escape from his enemies by the mythical\nhero Yoritomo. He was hiding in a hollow tree, and when his pursuers saw\ntwo doves fly out of the hollow they concluded no one could be there and\npassed on. Yoritomo afterward became shogun, and he erected shrines to\nthe god of war, whose birds are doves, become so, perhaps, by reason of\ntheir pugnacity.\n\nNext to the dove (or perhaps the eagle) the peacock appears to have most\nimportance among birds as a symbol. To us it stands as a vainglorious\nand foppish personality of very little use in a practical world; and\nIndia has a proverb that the crow that puts on peacock\u2019s feathers finds\nthat they fall out and that he has left only the harsh voice. De\nGubernatis[54] quotes another Hindoo saying, that this bird has angel\u2019s\nfeathers, a devil\u2019s voice and a thief\u2019s walk. Other stories tell of the\nproud bird\u2019s chagrin when he looks down and perceives how black and\nglossy are his feet\u2014as old Robert Chester sang it in _Love\u2019s Martyr_:\n\n           The proud sun-loving peacocke with his feathers,\n           Walkes all alone, thinking himself a king,\n           And with his voyce prognosticates all weathers,\n           Although God knows but badly doth he sing;\n           But when he lookes downe to his base blacke feete,\n           He droops, and is asham\u2019d of things unmeete.\n\nA still earlier poet had sung of this secret chagrin attributed to the\nconceited fowl, and had accounted for it by a popular Moslem tradition,\nillustrated to this day by the fact that the Devil-worshipping sect of\nYezd, in northern Mesopotamia, reverence the peacock as the accomplice\nof Eblis, which is Satan; my reference is to the Persian Azz\u2019 Eddin\nElmocadessi,[88] who wrote\u2014\n\n              The peacock wedded to the world,\n                  Of all her gorgeous plumage vain,\n              With glowing banners wide unfurled,\n                  Sweeps slowly by in proud disdain;\n              But in her heart a torment lies,\n              That dims the lustre of those eyes;\n              She turns away her glance\u2014but no,\n              Her hideous feet appear below!\n              And fatal echoes, deep and loud,\n                  Her secret mind\u2019s dark caverns stir;\n              She knows, though beautiful and proud,\n                  That Paradise is not for her.\n              For, when in Eden\u2019s blissful spot\n                  Lost Eblis tempted man, she dared\n              To join the treach\u2019rous angel\u2019s plot\n                  And thus his crime and sentence shared.\n              Her frightful claws remind her well\n              Of how she sinned and how she fell.\n\nThe native home of this resplendent pheasant is India and Malaya, and\nthe brilliance of its plumage (in the male sex, to which all that\nfollows refers), the radiating, rustling quills and prismatic eye-spots\nof the magnificent tail-coverts, together with other features of the\nbird\u2019s life, led to its association in Eastern mythology with the sun\nand sometimes with the rainbow. Taken westward by adventurous traders,\nthe glittering dress of the cock entered into the popular conception of\nthe phenix, and thus the peacock came to be accepted in pagan Greece and\nItaly as a substitute for that gorgeous fiction, as no real phenix was\nobtainable. Naturally the new bird was assigned, superseding her homely\ngoose, to Hera (Juno) the consort of Zeus (Jupiter) whose cognizance was\nthe eagle\u2014the other component of the hybrid phenix; and, as Juno was\nqueen of heaven, the bird was used by pre-christian artists as the\nsymbol of the apotheosis of an empress as was the eagle that of an\nemperor.\n\nThese ideas were of Eastern origin, and came with the bird when it was\nintroduced into the western world from its home in southern Asia, where\nits harsh cry of warning to the jungle whenever it espied a tiger,\nleopard or big snake, was also a welcome signal to the people of the\nwoodland villages to be on their guard. \u201cFor this reason, as well as its\nhabit of foretelling rain by its dancing and cries of delight, it has\nfrom time immemorial been held in the East as a bird of magic, or the\nembodiment of some god of the forest whose beneficence is well worth\nsupplication, and whose resentment might bring disaster. Hence it was\never protected, not by law, but from a feeling of veneration.\u201d\n\nThe words quoted are from one of a series of articles on Oriental Art by\nMrs. Katherine M. Ball,[68] printed in _Japan_ (July, 1922), from which\nthe reader may gather further facts as to the place the bird holds in\nthe religious and artistic thought of the Orient. In China, for example,\nin the time of the Tang dynasty (8th century, A. D.), \u201cmany thousand\ndistricts,\u201d according to the chronicles, \u201cpaid tribute in peacocks,\nbecause their feathers were required by the state, not only as\ndecorations for the imperial processions, but for the designation of\nofficial rank; for the peacock feather was bestowed upon officials, both\nmilitary and civil, as a reward for faithful service.\u201d Such feathers\ndiffered according to the honor to be dispensed, hence there are the\n\u201cflower\u201d feather, the \u201cgreen\u201d feather, and the \u201cone-eyed,\u201d \u201ctwo-eyed\u201d\nand \u201cthree-eyed,\u201d all of which were greatly treasured and worn on\nspecial occasions. This use of the feather is accounted for by Mrs. Ball\nin this way: \u201cIn the Chin dynasty a defeated general took refuge in a\nforest where there were many peacocks. When the pursuing forces arrived,\nand found the fowl so quiet and undisturbed, they concluded that no one\ncould possibly have come that way, and forthwith abandoned the search.\nThe general\u2014who later became known as the ancestor of five kings\u2014was\nthus able to escape, and so grateful was he that later when he came into\npower he instituted the custom of conferring a peacock feather as an\nhonor for the achievement of bravery in battle.\u201d This incident reminds\nus of the escape of Yoritomo of Japan, and of the Tartar general who\navoided capture under the protection of a quiet owl, as related\nelsewhere.\n\nThe Japanese are fond of the peacock as a motive in their exquisite art,\nand frequently combine it with the peony, as do the Chinese, who\nconsider that the only flower worthy of such association. Another\nsubject frequently seen illustrated is a representation of the Buddhist\nhealing deity Kujako Myowo, the Japanese analogue of the Hindoo\ndeification of this fowl.\n\nWhether the peacock was brought to the Mediterranean region from India\nor Persia or from Phoenicia is unknown. It is commonly said that\nAlexander the Great was its introducer; but wherever it went its\nsymbolic significance accompanied it, otherwise the peoples of Greece\nand Italy would hardly have given it the name of their own goddess of\nlight and day, or have held it to be a visible sign of the rainbow\nitself. In combination with the eagle it was originally an attribute of\nPan, who later was obliged to yield it to Juno, the goddess of Heaven,\nthus making it the star-bird, the symbol of the starry firmament, on\naccount of the \u201ceyes\u201d in its tail-feathers, which were regarded as the\nvery stars themselves. Out of this arose many myths, chief among which\nis that of the hundred-eyed Argus\u2014how Argus was set by Juno to watch Io,\nof whom she had been jealous, but was killed by Mercury in the interest\nof the queen\u2019s unrepentant husband; and how Juno makes the best of a bad\nsituation:\n\n           Thus Argus lies in pieces cold and pale;\n           And all his hundred eyes with all their light\n           Are closed at once in one perpetual night.\n           These Juno takes, that they no more shall fail,\n           And spreads them on her peacock\u2019s gaudy tail.[69]\n\nBut the Christians, in their revolt against everything Pagan, regarded\nthis bird, which like so many other facts and fancies of the ancient\nr\u00e9gime they could not destroy, from a new and different angle. They\nobserved that although it lost (by molting) its splendid raiment yet as\noften it was re-acquired\u2014manifestly a similitude of the resurrection of\nthe devoted soul into renewed glories after death. The fact was true, of\ncourse of all birds, but it was most noticeable in this gaudy stranger\nfrom the land of sunrise; and, in addition, a belief was borrowed from\nthe phenix that its flesh was incorruptible. Thus the peacock became in\nearly Christian art a symbol of immortality.\n\nIn the general mental lethargy that marked the Middle Ages this elevated\nidealism was degraded; yet that somewhat of the bird\u2019s traditional\nsacredness remained is shown by the fact that among the customs of\nchivalry, knights and squires took oath on the king\u2019s peacock, which,\nstuffed and brought ceremoniously to the table, was a feature in various\nsolemnities. Critics trace to this the Shakespearian oath \u201cBy cock and\npye!\u201d\u2014to my mind a dubious gloss. \u201cIt is said of Pythagoras,\u201d De\nGubernatis[54] notes, \u201cthat he believed himself to have once been a\npeacock, that the peacock\u2019s soul entered into Euphorbus, a Homeric\nTrojan hero, that of Euphorbus into Homer, and that of Homer into him.\u201d\nThose who are familiar with classic literature may be able to continue\nthe history of this literary metempsychosis down to the present. Hehn\nand Stallybrass elaborate their history of the peacock in custom and\nmyth in exhaustive detail in their _Wanderings of Plants and Animals_.\n\nA quaint relic of ancient ideas survives in the prevalent notion that\nthe beautiful tail-plumes of the peacock are unlucky or worse, for it is\nwidely feared that illness and death speedily follow putting them into a\nhouse, especially as affecting the health of youngsters. It occurred to\nme that this superstition, as foolish as it is baleful, was probably\nconnected with the far-reaching dread of the Evil Eye, having in mind\nthe gleaming ocell\u00e6 that decorate these splendid feathers, but\nElworthy\u2019s exhaustive treatise[66] on that dreaded visitation\n(especially feared among Italians) alludes to the matter only casually,\nand expresses the opinion that the alleged ill-luck is a relic of the\nancient cult of Juno\u2014a lingering fear that in some way her anger may be\nexcited by the plucking of the feathers of her favorite bird; while the\nidea that so long as these plumes are kept in the house no suitors will\ncome for the daughters points to the old attribute of spite or jealousy\nin love or matrimonial matters with which Juno was always accredited in\nPagan times.\n\nIt occurs to me, also, that the fact that the revered peacock throws\naway (moulds) its quills every year suggests to a superstitious\nimagination that they may be distasteful to the bird, and hence\nsomething to be avoided by careful devotees. Nevertheless, on Easter Day\nin Rome, when the pope is borne in magnificent state into St. Peter\u2019s,\nhe waves over the heads of the reverent worshippers assembled there a\nfan (flabellum) of ostrich feathers on which have been sewn the\neye-spots from peacock plumes, the latter, we are told, signifying the\nall-seeing vigilance of the Church\u2014against foolishness as well as\ndownright evil, let us hope!\n\nNo bird is more often employed symbolically in Christian art than the\npelican, which, like the peacock became a representative of salvation\nthrough the self-sacrifice of Christ. How this developed from the\nsupposed habit of resuscitating her nestlings by feeding them blood from\nher bosom, after they had been murdered by the father, is explained in\nanother chapter. It is said that the story originated in Egypt, with\nreference to a vulture. St. Jerome, however, first gave it a theological\napplication, teaching that similarly those dead in sin were made alive\nagain by the blood of the Christ. The form\u2014still familiar in heraldry\u2014is\nthat of a bird sitting by its nest with its beak depressed and tearing\nat its breast, representing \u201cthe pelican in its piety,\u201d the last word\nhere having its original meaning of parental care. It also became a\npictured symbol of the Christ and of the Passion, \u201cand more particularly\nof the Eucharist, wherein Christians are nourished by Christ himself.\u201d\nThomas Aquinas (13th century) is the author of a well-known verse of\nthis import:\n\n         Pelican of Piety, Jesus, Lord and God,\n         Cleanse thou me, unclean, in thy most precious blood,\n         But a single drop of which doth save and free\n         All the universe from its iniquity.\n\nA similar stanza in John Skelton\u2019s _Armoury of Birds_ reads:\n\n                     Then sayd the Pellycane,\n                     When my byrdts be slayne,\n                 With my bloude I them reuyue [revive].\n                     Scrypture doth record\n                     The same dyd our Lord,\n                 And rose from deth to lyue. [life]\n\nThe eagle is to be regarded rather as an emblem than as a symbol yet it\nhas a significance of this sort, for by the early Christians it was\nconsidered a symbol of the Ascension. This may have been a pious\ninversion of the custom in Pagan Rome of setting free an eagle at the\nfuneral pyre of an emperor, in the belief that this messenger of Jove\nwould carry the dead monarch\u2019s soul straight up to Olympus.\n\nThe notion that in death the soul leaves the body in the form of a bird\nis old and very general. Medieval biographies of Christian saints and\nmartyrs abound in instances, as, for example, the story of Saint Devot\u00e9,\nfound in a boat near Monaco at the moment of her expiring, with a dove\nissuing from her lips.[67] The Paris _Figaro_, in October, 1872,\ndescribing the ceremonies at the death of a gipsy in that city,\nmentioned that a bird was held close to the mouth of the dying girl,\nready to receive her expired soul. This is not an illogical idea, if the\nconception of a person\u2019s soul as a distinct entity is conceded; for if\nit is to fly away to Paradise it must have something in the nature of\nwings, and a bird, or the semblance of a real bird, is inevitably\nsuggested, the wings of a bat being too repulsive\u2014reserved, in fact, for\nrepresentations of Satan and his emissaries. Angels and genii have\nalways been provided by prophets, romancers, and artists with swanlike\nwings, springing from behind their shoulders, reckless of comparative\nanatomy\u2014otherwise how could these \u201cheavier-than-air\u201d beings accomplish\ntheir travelling?\n\nI have said that the theory that the disengaged soul departs to heaven\nin the form of or by aid of a bird is historically very old. Probably,\nindeed, it is of prehistoric antiquity, for various savage peoples have\narrived at the same doctrine, based on an obvious philosophy. For\nexample: Powers[19] tells us that the Keltas of southern California\nbelieve that when one of the tribe dies a little bird flies away with\nhis soul. \u201cIf he was a bad Indian a hawk will catch the bird and eat it\nup, body, feathers and all; but if he was a good Indian the soul-bird\nwill reach the spirit-land.\u201d\n\nIn Christian iconography the eagle is the emblem of the evangelist St.\nJohn, an assignment originating, it is said, in Jerome\u2019s interpretation\nof the amazing visions of the four \u201cbeasts\u201d as recorded in _Ezekiel_\ni:5, and somewhat less fantastically in _Revelations_ iv:7. Wherever in\nsculpture, painting, or stained glass St. John appears he may be\nrecognized by his eagle; and sometimes the bird is rather more\nconspicuous than the saint, as when it is bearing him aloft on its back,\nboth gazing, open-eyed and resolute, at the sun, as the eagle is fabled\nto be able to do. This association also accounts for the practice of\ncarving the support of the reading-desk in both Catholic and Anglican\nchurches in the form of an eagle with outstretched wings. At the\nbeginning, we are told, figures of all four evangelists upheld the\nlectern; but one by one the others disappeared before the demands of\nartistic grace until at last John, \u201cthe beloved disciple,\u201d alone\nremained, and presently he came to be represented only by his emblem.\n\u201cMedieval writers,\u201d remarks B. L. Gales, in an article in _The National\nReview_ (1808), \u201cdelight in all sorts of wild and wonderful tales about\nhis,\u201d that is, the eagle\u2019s \u201crenewing his youth by gazing at the sun or\nplunging into a clear stream, and allegorize at length on the Waters of\nBaptism and the true Sun\u2014Jesus Christ.\u201d This, of course, is simply a\ncomparatively modern illustration of the very ancient myth that when the\nsun set in the western ocean, yet arose bright and hot next morning, it\nhad rejuvenated itself by its bath as it passed from west to east\nunderneath the world.\n\nIn the East, where the sport of falconry originated, and where the\nMongols trained and employed, and still do, eagles as well as hawks, the\nfalcon has acquired much interesting symbolism, especially in Japan, as\nappears in many exquisite drawings by early artists; and often these can\nbe fully understood and enjoyed by us of the West only when the subtle\nmeaning involved in the picture is interpreted to us, or we learn the\ntradition to which it refers. For example, in Hokusai\u2019s drawing _San\nPuku_ (The Three Lucky Things) the mountain symbolizes the beauty of\nnature, the falcon the delights of the chase, and the eggplant the\nwisdom of frugality and of the simplicity of life. This undaunted bird\n(_taka_, the heroic one) is to the Japanese the symbol of victory; and\nthe Medal of Victory, which the government confers upon distinguished\nwarriors has emblazoned upon it a golden falcon, in commemoration of the\ncoming to Japan of its mythical ancestor, Jimmu Tenno; for it is related\nthat as he set foot up on the Island\u2019s shore, a falcon flew toward him\nand lit on his bow, an incident which has ever been regarded as\nprophetic of the success of his undertaking.\n\nLittle can be added in this connection concerning the birds of prey. In\nancient Egypt the vulture represented Nekht, the tutelary deity of the\nSouth, who appeared to men in that form; and the protection she accorded\nto the queens of Egypt was indicated by the vulture-headdress worn by\nthese ladies at least during the Empire. The kite, too, is connected\nwith early Egyptian history, according to a tradition, preserved by\nDiodorus Siculus, that the book of religious laws and customs was\noriginally brought to Thebes by a kite; wherefore the sacred scribes\nwore a red cap with a kite\u2019s feather in it.\n\nThe cock in Christian religious art is to be interpreted as an emblem of\nvigilance\u2014also as an image of preachers, in which may be a touch of\nhumor. \u201cWhen introduced near the figure of St. Peter,\u201d says one\nauthority, \u201cit expresses repentance; in this connection it is one of the\nemblems of the Passion.\u201d The placing of the image of a cock on church\ntowers is said to be an allusion to Peter as the head of the Church on\nearth, and as representing the voice of the Church, which by day and in\nthe watches of the night calls on men to repent. Another tradition is\nthat some early pope ordered that the weathervane on churches be in that\nform in order to remind the clergy of the necessity of watchfulness\u2014a\nsecond reference to _Mark_, iii, 35.\n\nRagozin tells us that in the _Vendida_, the \u201cBible\u201d of the ancient\nMedes, great credit is given to the cock as the messenger who calls men\nto the performance of their religious duties: \u201cArise, O men! Whichever\nfirst gets up shall enter paradise!\u201d A Hebrew legendary saying is that\nwhen a cock crows before dawn it warns: \u201cRemember thy Creator, O\nthoughtless man!\u201d Finally Drayton sings of\u2014\n\n               The cock, the country horologe that rings\n               The cheerful warning to the sun\u2019s awake.\n\nNowadays, if chanticleer calls to mind anything in particular, except\nwrath at his too early rising to adore the god of day, it is the spirit\nof boastfulness and \u201ccocksureness\u201d; while his humble mate represents\nmaternal cares carried to the extreme of fussiness.\n\nThe names of a good many birds serve as synonyms of prevailing ideas, or\nbecome figures of speech, without having a special myth or story behind\nthem. Thus the words _eagle_ and _falcon_ convey to the listener the\nnotion of nobility in power, while _hawk_ simply means fierceness, with\nsomewhat of prying, detective skill. _Owl_ provokes in the imagination a\nrather smiling picture of solemn pretence of wisdom\u2014a reputation, by the\nway, almost wholly due to the little European screech-owl\u2019s accidental\nassociation with Pallas Athene. _Swallow_ suggests spring all over the\nworld; _goose_ and _gull_ connote easy credulity and foolishness;\n_vulture_ and _raven_, rapine and cruelty; _parrot_ senseless chatter or\nthe lavish repetition of another\u2019s ideas or sayings; _cuckoo_, poaching\non another man\u2019s domestic preserves; and so on down to the _stork_,\nwhich in Germany symbolizes filial piety because of its fancied\nsolicitude toward aged storks, and which children are taught to believe\nbrings babies from the fountain to their mothers\u2019 laps. The Chinese and\nJapanese peasantry hold the _Mandarin duck_ in high esteem as a model of\nconjugal virtues, because it is said to mate for life, and Hindoos feel\nthe same toward their (sarus) _crane_\u2014a bird that figures extensively in\nthe legendary lore of both China and Japan. Figures of the crane are\nfound decorating bridal attire in Japan, and this bird is commended to\nwomankind generally in Nippon as an example of motherhood to be\nemulated. \u201cIn this respect it is like the _pheasant_, which is said to\nstay by her young during a grass-fire, covering them with her\noutstretched wings until, together, they perish in the flames; for in a\nsimilar way the crane shields her young from the bitter cold of the\nwinter snows.\u201d\n\nIn ancient Egypt the plume of the _ostrich_, \u201con account of the\nmathematical equality of the opposing barbs in point of length\u2014a\npeculiarity not present in the primary feathers of any other bird with\nwhich the Egyptians were acquainted\u2014was regarded as the sacred symbol of\njustice.\u201d Osiris was represented with two ostrich plumes in his crown.\nSays Dr. Cyrus Adler: \u201cThe Egyptian considered the _hoopoe_ as\nsymbolical of gratitude because it repays the early kindness of its\nparents in their old age by trimming their wings and bringing them food\nwhen they are acquiring new plumage. The Arabs call it \u2018doctor,\u2019\nbelieving it to possess marvellous medicinal qualities, and they use its\nhead in charms and incantations.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER VIII\n                    BLACK FEATHERS MAKE BLACK BIRDS\n\n\nNo one bird known to Americans is so entangled with whatever witchcraft\nbelongs to birds as is the raven, yet little of it is American besides\nPoe\u2019s melodramatic mummery, whose raven was a borrowed piece of\ntheatrical property. The shrewd people of this country pay little\nattention to signs and portents, yet some survive among us, for the\nextravagant notions popularly held as to the sagacity of our crow, with\nits \u201ccourts\u201d and \u201cconsultations,\u201d are no doubt traceable in some measure\nto the bird\u2019s history in Old World superstition.\n\nIn Europe no bird, save possibly the cuckoo, is so laden with legends\nand superstitious veneration as the raven, chiefly, however, in the\nNorth, where it is not only most numerous and noticeable but seems to\nfit better than in the gladsome South. To the rough, virile Baltic man,\nor to the Himalayan mountaineer, worshipping force, careless of beauty,\nthis sable bird of hard endurance, challenging cry and powerful wing,\nthe \u201cravener,\u201d tearer, was an admirable creature; while to the more\nesthetic dweller by the Mediterranean or on \u00c6gean shores such qualities\nwere repulsive, and the raven became a reminder of winter, when alone it\nwas seen in the South, and of the savage forests and hated barbarians\nwhence it came. Much the same antithesis belongs to this bird and its\nrelatives in the minds of Orientals. To understand the impression the\nraven made on primitive men, and the symbolism and dread that have grown\nup about it, one must have some knowledge of the real _Corvus corax_.\n\nThe raven is the largest member of the ornithological family Corvid\u00e6,\nmeasuring two feet from beak to tail-tip. It is everywhere black, with\nsteel-blue and purplish reflections, and is distinguished from its\nequally black cousins, the crows, by its stouter beak, somewhat hooked\nat the tip, and especially by the elongated and pointed feathers on the\nthroat. It is powerful in flight, and is noted for performing queer\nantics in the air. Judged by its anatomy it stands high in the scale of\nclassification, so that some ornithologists, considering also its\nintellect, have put it quite at the top of the scale\u2014made it the true\nKing of Birds. In its northern home this species is to be found right\naround the world, inhabiting Asia and Europe as far south as the great\nridge of mountains that extends from Spain to Siberia, and also living\nin Asia Minor and Syria. It is native to all North America, where no\narctic island is too remote to be visited by it in summer. Most of the\nravens fly southward in winter from polar latitudes to kindlier regions,\nbut those that stay in the far north become doubly conspicuous in a\nwilderness of snow, for they do not turn white in winter as do many\narctic residents; therefore Goldsmith wasted much philosophy in\nexplaining in his _Animated Nature_ why they \u201cbecome white.\u201d The raven\u2019s\nordinary call-note is well enough described by the words \u201ccroak\u201d and\n\u201ccaw,\u201d but it has many variations. Nuttall quotes Porphyrius as\ndeclaring that no less than 64 different intonations of the raven\u2019s\ncries were distinguished by the soothsayers of his day, and given\nappropriate significance. Some notes are indescribably queer.\n\nRavens have almost disappeared from thickly settled regions, in striking\ncontrast to their near relatives the crows, rooks, choughs, magpies,\njackdaws, and various related species in the Old World, which thrive and\ngrow tame in the company of civilized humanity. Few pairs of ravens\nremain in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, except on the\nwilder parts of the Maine coast and about Lake Superior.\n\nReaders of Charles Dickens\u2019s novels will recall the impish specimen\n\u201cGrip\u201d that Barnaby Rudge used to carry about with him, and which became\nhis fellow-prisoner in jail\u2014and served him right, for he was always\ndeclaring \u201cI\u2019m a devil!\u201d\n\nThis raven was modelled after an actual pet, named \u201cGrip,\u201d in the family\nof the novelist when he was writing _Barnaby Rudge_ in 1841. It died in\nJuly of that year, and its body passed into the possession of Dr. R. T.\nJudd, an English collector of Dickens\u2019 material. In 1922 this\ncollection, including the stuffed skin of Grip, and its former cage,\nlabelled with its owner\u2019s name, was offered for sale at the Anderson\nGalleries in New York. It appears from accompanying letters that as the\nnovel was originally written it contained no reference to the bird; but\nbefore the manuscript was completed it occurred to Mr. Dickens that he\ncould make good use of the mischievous creature in the story, as is\nrevealed in a letter to George Cattermole, dated January 28, 1841.\n\nThe raven may not only be tamed to the point of domestication, but will\nlearn to speak a few words. Goldsmith asserted, apparently from\nexperience, that it not only would speak but could \u201csing like a man.\u201d\nLike all its thievish tribe it loves to pick up and hide objects that\nattract its quick eye, especially if they are bright, like a silver\nspoon or a bit of jewelry; and this acquisitive disposition has more\nthan once involved in serious misfortune servants accused of purloining\nlost articles, as happened in the case of the Jackdaw of Rheims.\n\n  The tradition on which Barham\u2019s _Ingoldsby Legend_ is embroidered is\n  a very old one, the earliest statement of which, probably, is that\n  in Mignie\u2019s _Patrologia Latinia_, compiled by a monk of Clairvaux.\n  The narrative is that of an incident in the time of Frederick\n  Barbarossa (12th century) when the monastery of Corvey was ruled by\n  a prince-bishop named Conrad. One day he left his episcopal ring\n  lying on the dining-table, and it disappeared. The bishop blamed the\n  servants and suspected his guests, and finally issued a decree of\n  excommunication toward any one who had stolen it. Thereupon the\n  bishop\u2019s pet jackdaw \u201cbegan to sicken little by little, to loathe\n  his food, to cease more and more from his droll croakings and\n  irrational follies whereby he was wont to delight the minds of fools\n  who neglect to fear God.\u201d\n\n  At this dreadful stage it occurred to some bright genius that this\n  portentous change in the bird was the effect of the curse, and that\n  it was the sought-for thief. Its nest was searched, the precious\n  ring was found, the curse was taken off, and the jackdaw recovered\n  its plumage and good spirits.\n\nWhere ravens can get other food plentifully they seldom attack living\nanimals. Bendire frequently saw them feeding among his chickens without\nharming them, yet undoubtedly they are occasionally guilty in our West\nof killing young lambs, game-birds, and poultry, sins of which they are\nmuch accused in Europe. Certainly they rob wild birds of eggs and\nfledglings, but these evil deeds are done mainly in spring, in providing\ntheir own nestlings with soft food. During most of the year the food of\nthe raven consists of carrion, grasshoppers, worms, mussels and other\nshellfish (the larger kinds of which they lift high in the air and then\ndrop to break their shells), and of ground-squirrels and young rabbits\nwhen they can get hold of them.\n\nWhen a raven alights on a dead animal its first act is to pluck out the\neyes. One of the barbarities in the ancient East was to throw the bodies\nof executed criminals out to be devoured by beasts and birds of prey\u2014a\ncustom of which the Parsee Towers of Silence is a modified relic. The\npopular knowledge of this gave great force to Solomon\u2019s warning\n(_Proverbs_ xxx, 17): \u201cThe eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth\nto obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out\u201d\u2014that is,\nso bad a boy would end on the gallows.\n\nAlthough ravens were regarded by the ancient Zoroastrians as \u201cpure,\u201d\nbecause they were considered necessary to remove pollution from the face\nof the earth, the Jews classed this creature as \u201cunclean\u201d for the same\nreason\u2014it ate carrion. In view of this the Biblical legend that the\nProphet Elijah, when he hid by the brook Kerith from the wrath of Ahab,\nwas fed by ravens at command of the Lord, is so unnatural that\ncommentators have done their best to explain it away. To this day the\nMoors regard ravens as belonging to Satan. In Chapter V of the _Koran_,\nwhere the killing of Cain by his brother is described, we read: \u201cAnd God\nsent a raven which scratched the earth to show him how he should hide\nthe shame [that is, the corpse] of his brother, and he said \u2018Woe is me!\nam I to be like this raven?\u2019 ... and he became one of those who repent.\u201d\nThis is from Sale\u2019s edition, Philadelphia, 1868; and the editor adds a\nnote that this legend was derived from the Jews, but that in their\nversion the raven appears not to Cain but to Adam, who thereupon buried\nAbel.\n\nThat a bird black as night and its mysteries, a familiar of the\nlightning-riven pine and the storm-beaten crag, a ghoulish attendant of\nbattling men and feasting on their slain, muttering strange soliloquies,\nand diabolically cunning withal\u2014that such a creature should have\nappealed to the rough mariners of the North is far from surprising. The\nsupreme Norse god was Odin, an impersonation of force and intellect\u2014an\napotheosis, indeed, of the Viking himself; and his ministers were two\nravens, Hugin and Munin, _i.e._, Reflection and Memory. \u201cThey sit upon\nhis shoulders and whisper in his ears,\u201d says history. \u201cHe sends them out\nat daybreak to fly over the world, and they come back at eve, toward\nmeal-time.\u201d Hence it is that Odin knows so much, and is called\n_Rafnagud_, Raven-god. Most solicitously does Odin express himself about\nthese ministers in Grunner\u2019s lay in the _Elder Edda_:\n\n               Hugin and Munin fly each day\n               Over the spacious earth. I fear for Hugin\n               That he come not back,\n               Yet more anxious am I for Munin.\n\nAgain, in Odin\u2019s fierce _Raven Song_, Hugin goes \u201cto explore the\nheavens.\u201d Jupiter\u2019s two eagles, sent east and west, will be recalled by\nreaders of classic tales.\n\nAs the eagle of Jove became the standard of the Roman legions, so Odin\u2019s\nbird was inscribed on the shields and the banners of his warrior sons.\nYou may see such banners illustrated in the Bayeux tapestry. The Dane\ncalled his standard _landeyda_ (land-waster), and had faith in its\nmiraculous virtues. The original ensign, that is, the one brought to\nEngland by the first invaders, is described in St. Neot\u2019s biographical\n_Chronicles_ (9th century). In 878, it records, a wild Danish rover\nnamed Hubba came with twenty-three ships on a raid into Devon: but the\npeople rose and killed or drove away all the vikings.\n\n\u201cAnd there got they [that is, the Devon men] no small spoil, wherein\nthey took, moreover, that banner which men call the Raven. For they say\nthat the three sisters of Ingwar and Hubba, the daughters, sooth to say,\nof Lodbrock, wove that banner, and made it all wholly ready between morn\nand night of a single day. They say, too, that in every fight wherein\nthat flag went before them, if they were to win the raven in the midst\nthereof seemed to flutter, as if it were alive, but were their doom to\nbe worsted, then it would droop, still and lifeless.\u201d\n\nBritain came to know well that portentous flag\u2014\n\n                The Danish raven, lured by annual prey,\n                Hung o\u2019er the land incessant,\n\nas Thomson laments. Finally Harold hurled the power of Canute from\nEngland\u2019s shores forever, and Tennyson sings Harold\u2019s paean:\n\n                     We have shattered back\n             The hugest wave from Norseland ever yet\n             Surged on us, and our battle-axes broken\n             The Raven\u2019s wing, and dumbed the carrion croak\n             From the gray sea forever.\n\n\u201cThe crow and the raven,\u201d MacBain[71] announces, \u201care constantly\nconnected in the Northern mythologies with battle-deities. \u2018How is it\nwith you, Ravens?\u2019 says the Norse _Raven Song_. \u2018Whence are you come\nwith gory beak at the dawning of the day.... You lodged last night, I\nween, where ye knew the corses were lying.\u2019 The ravens also assist and\nprotect heroes both in Irish and Norse myth. It was a lucky sign if a\nraven followed a warrior.\u201d\n\nBut the bold Norse sailors made a more practical use also of this\nknowing bird, for in those days, before the compass, they used to take\nravens with them in their adventurous voyages on the fog-bound northern\nseas, and trust the birds to show them the way back to land. A notable\ninstance was Floki\u2019s voyage to Iceland in 864 A. D., a few years after\nthat island\u2019s discovery; and the French historian Mallet[30] narrates it\nthus:\n\n  We are told that Floki, previous to setting out on his expedition,\n  performed a great sacrifice, and having consecrated three ravens to\n  the gods took them with him to guide him on his voyage. After\n  touching at the Shetland and Faro\u00eb islands he steered northwest, and\n  when he was fairly out at sea, let loose one of his ravens, which,\n  after rising to a considerable elevation, directed its flight to the\n  land they had quitted.... The second bird, after being some time on\n  the wing, returned to the ship, a sign that the land was too far\n  distant to be descried even by a raven hovering in the sky. Floki\n  therefore continued his course, and shortly afterwards let loose his\n  third raven, which he followed in its flight until he reached the\n  eastern coast of Iceland.\n\nThis is a somewhat poetic account, I imagine, of what perhaps was a more\nprosaic custom of seamanship, for doubtless it was usual at that time to\ncarry several birds on such voyages, and to let them fly from time to\ntime that they might learn and indicate to the voyagers whether land was\nnear, and in what direction, as did old Captain Noah, master of the good\nship _Ark_. Berthold Lauffer[52] treats of this point with his customary\nthoroughness in his pamphlet _Bird Divination_:\n\n  Indian Hindoo navigators kept birds on board ship for the purpose of\n  despatching them in search of land. In the _Baveru-Jataka_ it is \u201ca\n  crow serving to direct navigators in the four quarters\u201d.... Pliny\n  relates that the seafarers of Taprobane (Ceylon) did not observe the\n  stars for the purpose of navigation, but carried birds out to sea,\n  which they sent off from time to time and then followed the course\n  of the birds\u2019 flying in the direction of the land. The connection of\n  this practice with that described in the Babylonian and Hebraic\n  traditions of the deluge was long ago recognized.... When the people\n  of Thera, an island in the \u00c6gean Sea emigrated to Libya, ravens flew\n  along with them ahead of the ships to show the way. According to\n  Justin ... it was by the flight of birds that the Gauls who invaded\n  Illyricum were guided. Emperor Jimmu of Japan (7th century) engaged\n  in a war expedition and marched under the guidance of a gold-colored\n  raven.\n\n  Mr. Lauffer might have added that Callisthenes relates that two\n  heaven-sent ravens led the expedition of Alexander across the\n  trackless desert from the Mediterranean coast to the oasis of Ammon\n  (Siwah), recalling stragglers now and then by hoarse croaking.\n\nThe folklore of northern Europe is full of the cunning and exploits of\nthis bird and its congeners, which it would be a weary task to\ndisentangle from pure myth. In Germany there is, or was, a stone gibbet\ncalled, with gruesome memories, Ravenstone, to which Byron alludes in\n_Werner_\u2014\n\n                       Do you think\n               I\u2019ll honor you so much as save your throat\n               From the Ravenstone by choking myself?\n\nWe read that the old Welsh king Owein, son of Urien, had in his army\nthree hundred doughty ravens, constituting an irresistible force;\nperhaps they were only human \u201cshock\u201d troops who bore this device on\ntheir targes. Cuchulain, the savage hero of Irish fables, had, like\nOdin, two magic ravens that advised him of the approach of foes.\nOld-fashioned Germans believe that Frederick I (Barbarossa) is sleeping\nunder Raven\u2019s Hill at Kaiserlauten, ready to come forth in the last\nemergency of his country. There in his grotto-palace a shepherd found\nhim sleeping. Barbarossa awoke and asked: \u201cAre the ravens still flying\naround the hill?\u201d The shepherd answered that they were. \u201cThen,\u201d sighed\nthe king, \u201cI must sleep another hundred years.\u201d\n\nWaterton[73] tells us that a tradition was once current throughout the\nwhole of Great Britain that King Arthur was changed into a raven (some\nsay a chough) by the art of witchcraft; and that in due time he would be\nrestored to human form, and return with crown and sceptre. In Brittany,\nwhere Arthur and his knights are much more real than even in Cornwall,\nthe sailor-peasants will assure you that he was buried on the little\nisle of Avalon, just off the foreshore of Tregastel, but they will add\nvery seriously that he is not dead. If you inquire how that can be, they\nwill explain that the great king was conveyed thither magically by\nMorgan le Fay, and he and she dwell there in an underground palace. They\nare invisible now to all human eyes, and when Arthur wants to go out\ninto the air his companion turns him into a raven; and perchance, in\nproof, your boatman may point your gaze toward a real raven sitting on\nthe rocks of the islet.\n\nRavens figure in many monkish legends, too, usually in a beneficent\nattitude, in remembrance of their friendly offices toward Elijah. Saint\nCuthbert and several lesser saints and hermits were fed by these or\nsimilar birds. One hermit subsisted many years on a daily ration of half\na loaf of bread brought him by a raven, and one time, when another saint\nvisited him, the bird provided a whole loaf! Fish was frequently\nbrought: and once when a certain eremite was ill, the bird furnished the\nfish already cooked, and fed it to the patient bit by bit. Miss\nWalker[39] shows that as a companion of saints this bird has had a wide\nand beneficent experience, which may be set against the more conspicuous\npages of misdeeds in his highly variegated record. Thus we learn that\nSt. Benedict\u2019s raven saved his life by bearing away the poisoned loaf\nsent to this saint by a jealous priest. \u201cAfter his torture and death at\nSaragossa, when the body of St. Vincent was thrown to the wild beasts it\nwas rescued by ravens and borne to his brothers at Valencia, where it\nreposed in a tomb till the Christians of that place were expelled by the\nMoors. The remains of the saint were ... again placed in a tomb [at Cape\nSt. Vincent] to be guarded forever more by the faithful ravens.\u201d Have\nyou doubts about this story? Go to that wild headland, where Portugal\nsets a firm foot against the Atlantic, watch the ravens hovering above\nit, and be convinced! And to many other holy men did these noble birds\nrender substantial service\u2014to St. Meinrad especially, as is affirmed by\nno less an authority than the great Jerome.\n\n\u201cIn some parts of Germany,\u201d Miss Walker records, \u201cthese birds are\nbelieved to hold the souls of the damned, while in other sections wicked\npriests only are supposed to be so re-incarnated. In Sweden the ravens\ncroaking at night in the swamps are said to be the ghosts of murdered\npersons who have been denied Christian burial.\u201d A local and humorous\ntouch is given to this conception by the Irish in Kerry, who allege that\nthe rooks there are the ghosts of bad old landlords, because they steal\nvegetables from the peasants\u2019 gardens\u2014\u201cAlways robbin\u2019 the poor!\u201d\n\nThis eerie feeling is of long descent. The supreme war-goddess of the\nGaels, as Squire[74] explains, was Morrigu, the Red Woman or\nwar-goddess, who figures in the adventures of Cuchulain, and whose\nfavorite disguise was to change herself into a carrion-crow, the\n\u201choodie-crow\u201d of the Scotch. She had assistants who revelled among the\nslain on a battlefield. \u201cThese grim creatures of the savage mind had\nimmense vitality ... indeed, they may be said to survive still in the\nsuperstitious dislike and suspicion shown in all Keltic-speaking\ncountries for their avatar\u2014the hoodie crow.\u201d\n\nIn Pennant\u2019s _Tour in Scotland_ (1771) is described a curious ceremony\nin which offerings were made by Scottish herdsmen to the hooded crow,\neagle and other enemies of sheep to induce them to spare the flocks. A\nMorayshire saying in old times ran thus:\n\n              The guil, the Gordon, and the hoodie crow,\n              Were the three worst things Murray ever saw.\n\n(The guil, Swann explains, is an obnoxious weed, the Gordon refers to\nthe thieving propensities of a neighboring clan, and the crow killed\nlambs and annoyed sickly sheep.) \u201cIt is interesting,\u201d says Wentz,[62]\n\u201cto observe that this Irish war-goddess Morrigu, the _bodb_ or\n_babd_, ... has survived to our own day in the fairy-lore of the chief\nCeltic countries. In Ireland the survival in the popular and still\nalmost general belief among the peasantry that the fairies often\nexercise their magical powers under the form of royston crows; and for\nthis reason these birds are always greatly dreaded and avoided. The\nresting of one of them on a peasant\u2019s cottage may signify many things,\nbut often it means the death of one of the family or some great\nmisfortune, the bird in such case playing the part of a _bean-sidhe_\n(banshee).\u201d In the western Highlands \u201cthe hoody crow plays the same\nr\u00f4le; and in Brittany fairies assume the form of the magpie.\u201d\n\nUnder the influence of Christian teaching Odin gradually became\nidentified throughout northern Europe with Satan: so the raven and all\nthe Corvidae are now \u201cDevil\u2019s birds\u201d in the folklore of the North. Even\nthe magpie is said to have devils\u2019 blood in its tongue, and its\nchattering is ominous of evil, requiring various rustic charms to\ncounteract its harm\u2014in fact, if the farmer-folk are correctly informed,\nvirtually all the birds of this family was naturally tainted with\ndeviltry. It is not surprising then to hear that European crows go down\nto hell once every year, when they must appear before Old Nick and give\nhim a tribute of feathers. The time of this visit coincides with their\nmoulting-season in midsummer, when the crows retire and remain\ninconspicuous and silent for a time\u2014so maybe it\u2019s true!\n\nAn extraordinary survival of this last notion\u2014unless it be original\u2014is\nfound among the negroes of some of our Southern States, who say that the\n\u201cjaybird\u201d (bluejay) is never to be seen on Friday, because on that day\nhe is carrying sticks to the Devil in hell; that in general this bird is\nthe Devil\u2019s messenger and spy; and that the reason he is so gay and\nnoisy on Saturday is that he is so glad to get back to earth. An old\nGeorgia darky explained the matter a follows:\n\n  \u201cSome folks say Br\u2019er Jay takes a piece er wood, des a splinter,\n  down to de bad Place ev\u2019y Friday fer ter help out Mister Devil, so\u2019s\n  to let him \u2019n\u2019 his wife, ole Aunty Squatty, have good kindlin\u2019 wood\n  all de time.... But some folks tell de tale \u2019nother way. Dey say he\n  make dat trip ever\u2019 Friday ter tote down des a grit er dirt. He make\n  de trip sho\u2019. Ever\u2019body knows dat. But for what he goes folks tells\n  diffunt tales. You sho\u2019ly can\u2019t see a jay bird in dis worl\u2019 on\n  Friday fum twelve o\u2019clock twel three\u2014hit takes \u2019em des dat long ter\n  make de trip.... Some folks say Bre\u2019r Jay and all his fambly, his\n  folks, his cousins, and his kin, does go dat way and d\u2019rection, ev\u2019y\n  one totin\u2019 dey grain o\u2019 sand in der bill an\u2019 drappin\u2019 hit in\u2014des one\n  teeny weeny grit\u2014wid de good hopes er fillin\u2019 up dat awful\n  place.\u201d[2]\n\nLouisiana negroes are of the opinion that the jay is condemned to this\nweekly trip as a punishment for misbehavior at Christ\u2019s crucifixion, but\nwhat dreadful deed he did has been forgotten. Every reader of \u201cUncle\nRemus,\u201d or of the stories of Mrs. Ruth McEnery Stuart, Mr. Harry\nStillwell Edwards, and other Southern writers, knows how largely the\n\u201cjaybird\u201d figures in the plantation-tales of the negroes, especially of\nthe coastal districts, where the bluejay is one of the most conspicuous\nand interesting of resident birds.\n\nThe coming of Christianity, as has been said, swept away the images of\nOdin and of his Pagan familiars Hugin and Munin out of both Teutonic and\nKeltic Europe, but it did not sweep away the birds themselves, nor\ndiscolor their sable wings, nor silence the baleful croak; and the\nimpression left by the old tales lingered long in the minds of the\npeople. To the horror of the raven and his kind among the natives of\nBritain, as a symbol of the northern marauders from whom they had so\nlong suffered, was now added the anathema of pious missionaries who\ncondemned everything pagan as diabolic, and all things black\u2014except\ntheir own robes\u2014as typifying the powers of darkness. Truly, remarked St.\nAmbrose, all shamelessness and sin are dark and gloomy, and feed on the\ndead like the crow. A Chinese epithet for the raven is \u201cMongol\u2019s\ncoffin.\u201d\n\nThe people were sincere enough in this, for behind them was not only the\nDevil-fearing superstition of the Middle Ages but a long line of parent\nmyths and folklore that made the bird\u2019s reputation as black as its\nplumage, and added to this was the new and terrifying idea of prophecy.\nYou get a hint of the feeling in Gower\u2019s _Confessio Amantis_:\n\n                    A Raven by whom yet men maie\n                    Take evidence, when he crieth,\n                    That some mishap it signifieth.\n\nIn Greece and Italy ravens were sacred to Apollo, the great patron of\naugurs, who in a pet turned this bird from white to black\u2014and an ill\nturn it was, _for black feathers make black birds_; and in this\nblackness of coat lies, in my opinion, the root of their sinister\nrepute.\n\nThe \u201cjumbie-bird,\u201d or \u201cbig witch,\u201d of the West Indian region, for\nexample, is the dead-black ani, a kind of cuckoo. Spenser speaks of \u201cthe\nhoarse night-raven, trompe of doleful dreer,\u201d but his \u201cnight-raven\u201d was\nnot a raven at all, but the bittern.\n\nIt is only in an earlier day and under a brighter sky that we find these\ncorvine prophets taking a more cheerful view of the future. Of course\nthey are among the \u201crain-birds\u201d:\n\n                    Hark\n              How the curst raven with his harmless voice\n              Invokes the rain.\n\nSo the \u201cforesight of a raven\u201d became proverbial, as Waterton[73]\nillustrates by an anecdote: \u201cGood farmer Muckdrag\u2019s wife, while jogging\non with eggs to market, knew there was mischief brewing as soon as she\nhad heard a raven croak on the unlucky side of the road:\n\n                   \u201cThat raven on the left-hand oak,\n                   Curse on his ill-betiding croak,\n                       Bodes me no good!\u201d\n\n\u201cShe had scarcely uttered this when down came her old stumbling mare to\nthe ground. Her every egg was smashed to atoms; and whilst she lay\nsprawling ... she was perfectly convinced in her own mind that the raven\nhad clearly foreseen her irreparable misadventure.\u201d\n\nIf one alighted on a church-tower the whole parish trembled, and when a\ncottager saw one perched on his roof-tree he made his will; or if it\nhappened that a man or woman was ill in his house the death of that\nperson was regarded as certain. The more learned would quote for you how\nTiberius, Plato, Cicero and other great men of the past had been\nsimilarly warned, and doubtless many a person has died in these\ncircumstances of nervous fright and discouragement. It is to this dread\nthat Marlowe refers in his _Jew of Malta_:\n\n              Like the sad presaging raven that tolls\n              The sick man\u2019s passport in her hollow beak,\n              And, in the shadow of the silent night,\n              Does shake contagion from her sable wing.\n\nThe last line contains a new and heinous calumny widely credited. So\nShakespeare makes Caliban threaten Prospero and Ariel with\n\n               As wicked dew as e\u2019er my mother brushed\n               With raven\u2019s feather from unwholesome fen.\n\nI wonder, by the way, who first spoke\u2014the simile is, at any rate, as old\nas Chaucer\u2019s time\u2014of the wrinkles that gather about the corners of our\neyes when we get on in life, as \u201ccrow\u2019s feet\u201d? Frederick Locker sings of\nhis grandmother:\n\n                     Her locks as white as snow,\n                     Once shamed the swarthy crow;\n                         By-and-by\n                     That fowl\u2019s avenging sprite\n                     Set his cruel foot for spite\n                         Near her eye.\n\nThe expression of course is a suggestion of the radiating form of the\nwrinkles at the outer corner of the eye to a crow\u2019s track; and this\nreminds us of the fact that when soon after the Norman conquest in\nEngland there was a vast popular interest in royal genealogy, people\nspoke of the branching form of a family tree, when drawn on paper, as a\n\u201ccrane\u2019s foot\u201d (_pied de grue_), whence our term _pedigree_.\n\nOmens are deduced from the flight and cries of ravens, crows, magpies,\nand certain other corvine species, especially as regards their direction\nrelative to the inquirer. Horace, for example, in his _Ode to Galatea_\non her undertaking a journey, tells her that he, as a \u201cprovident augur,\u201d\n\n           Ere the weird crow, re-seeking stagnant marshes,\n           Predict the rainstorm, will invoke the raven\n           From the far East, who, as the priestlier croaker,\n               Shall overawe him.\n\nThat is to say, Horace will make the raven, appearing or heard from the\neastward (the lucky direction), over-rule the bad omen of the crow.\n\nThere is also grave meaning in the number visible at one time, as\nMatthew Lewis knew when he wrote the ballad _Bill Jones_:\n\n             \u201cAh, well-a-day,\u201d the sailor said,\n                 \u201cSome danger must impend,\n             Three ravens sit in yonder glade,\n             And evil will happen I\u2019m sore afraid\n                 Ere we reach our journey\u2019s end.\u201d\n\n             \u201cAnd what have the ravens with us to do?\n                 Does their sight betoken us evil?\u201d\n             \u201cTo see one raven is luck, \u2019tis true,\n             But it\u2019s certain misfortune to light upon two,\n                 And meeting with three is the devil.\u201d\n\nQuoting Margaret Walker:[39]\n\n  The belief in his power of divination was so general that knowledge\n  of the whereabouts of the lost has come to be known as \u201craven\u2019s\n  knowledge.\u201d To the Romans he was able to reveal the means of\n  restoring lost eyesight even. In Germany he was able to tell not\n  only where lost articles were, but could also make known to\n  survivors where the souls of their lost friends were to be found. In\n  Bohemia he was assigned the task usually performed by the stork in\n  other lands, while in some parts of Germany witches were credited\n  with riding upon his back instead of on the conventional broomstick.\n\nRegular formulas regarding magpies are repeated in rural Britain, where\nmagpies are numerous\u2014they are common in our American West, also, but\nnobody is superstitious about them there\u2014of which a common example runs:\n\n                 One for sorrow, two for mirth,\n                 Three for a wedding, four for a birth.\n\nMany variations of these formulas are on record, some carrying the rimes\nup to eight or nine pies seen at once; and folklore has many quaint ways\nof dissipating the evil effects feared from their presence.\n\nNow all this is but the ragtag and bobtail, as it were, of the _science_\nof the ancient Oriental world that has come down to us in frayed and\ndisconnected fragments, to be now a matter more of amusing research than\nof belief or practice among most of us. It was old even at the beginning\nof the Christian era, but all the ornithomancy of the Greek and Roman\nsoothsayers was inherited in its principle, if not always in its forms,\nfrom the remotely antique \u201cwisdom\u201d of the East, in which the\nconsultation of birds appears to be the basis of divination.\n\nIn the Far East the raven has been regarded from time immemorial with\ndread interest, and where that species was rare the crow\u2014equally black,\ndestructive, and cunning\u2014took its place. To the primitive philosophers\nof Persia and India the raven was a divine bird, of celestial origin and\nsupernatural abilities, and was the messenger who announced the will of\nthe Deity. A German commentator on the _Vedas_, H. Oldenberg, concludes\nthat the animals sent by the gods, as pictured in the myths, were those\nof a weird, demoniacal nature, and were for this reason themselves\ndeified, but subsequently became mere stewards to divine mandators. \u201cIn\nthe belief of the Persians,\u201d says Lauffer, \u201cthe raven was sacred to the\ngod of light and the sun.\u201d Moncure D. Conway,[56] when discussing the\nBiblical legend of the Deluge, suggests that the raven sent out of the\nArk may typify the \u201cdarkness of the face of the deep,\u201d and the dove the\n\u201cspirit of God\u201d that \u201cmoved upon the face of the waters.\u201d\n\nIn China, Dr. Williams[76] tells us, \u201cthe sun is signalized by the\nfigure of a raven in a circle.\u201d I have seen Chinese drawings of it in\nwhich the raven (or a crow) stood on three legs, as does the toad that\nthe Taoists see in the moon\u2014but why three legs? Mrs. Ball answers this\nquestion thus:\n\n  The crow\u2014known in China as _wuya_, and in Japan as _karasu_\u2014is most\n  intimately related to the sun. Ch\u2019un Ch\u2019iu in an ancient poem says:\n  \u201cThe spirit of the sun is a crow with three legs\u201d; while again Hwai\n  Nan Tse, an ancient philosopher, explains that this crow has three\n  legs because the number three is the emblem of _yang_ [light, good]\n  of which the sun is the supreme essence.... The Chinese, it would\n  appear, actually believed in the existence of a three-legged crow,\n  for in the official history of the Wei dynasty\u20143d century A. D.\u2014it\n  is related that \u201cmore than thirty times, tributes consisting of\n  three-legged crows were brought from the neighboring countries....\n  The principal of sun-worship [in Japan] was Amateresu no Ohokami,\n  from whom the imperial family traces its descent. This divinity ...\n  had as her messenger and attendant ... a red bird having three\n  legs.\u201d\n\nBased on the fears and philosophy indicated above, the soothsayers of\nIndia contrived a most elaborate scheme of judging meanings from the\nactions of ravens and crows, for little attention seems to have been\npaid to ornithological distinctions; and this spread in very early times\nto China and Thibet. It is a wonderful monument of priestcraft, which\nhas been elucidated by several students of early Oriental manuscripts;\nand I am indebted to a profoundly learned discourse on the subject by\nDr. Berthold Lauffer.[52] Briefly the scheme was as follows:\n\nA table or chart was constructed containing ninety squares, each square\nholding an interpretation of one or another sound of a raven\u2019s or crow\u2019s\nvoice; but his utterances were separated into five characters of sound,\nand the day divided into five \u201cwatches,\u201d while the direction from which\nthe bird\u2019s voice came may be from any one of eight points of the\ncompass, or from the zenith, making nine points in all. Multiplying\nthese together gives the ninety squares of the mystic table, and the\nintersection of two conditions gives you the square where the\nappropriate interpretation or prophecy is written.\n\nThus if in the first watch (_i.e._, early in the morning) you hear a\nraven in the east say _ka-ka_, your wish to obtain more property will be\nfulfilled; but if in the fourth watch you hear a bird off in the\nsoutheast say _da-da_ you may be sure that a storm will arise in seven\ndays. Five different tones of the cawing were recognized as significant.\nJust where and what you see a raven do when you are travelling foretells\nsome sort of a fortunate or unfortunate incident of the progress or\noutcome of your journey; yet these omens differ according to whether you\nare moving and the bird is stationary, or you are standing still and the\nbird is flying, or both or neither are motionless!\n\nThere was also a settled rule for taking prognostications from the nests\nof these birds. \u201cWhen a crow has built its nest on a branch on the east\nside of a tree,\u201d according to Donacila\u2019s translation of a Thibetan\nmanuscript, \u201ca good year and rain will be the result of it. When it has\nbuilt its nest on a southern branch the crops will then be bad. When it\nhas built its nest on a branch in the middle of a tree, a great fright\nwill then be the result of it. When it makes its nest below, fear of the\narmy of one\u2019s adversary will be the result of it. When it makes its nest\non a wall, on the ground, or on a river, the [sick] king will be\nhealed.\u201d\n\nWhenever it appears that the omen observed portends harm, offerings of\nfood and so forth must be made to the bird in order to avert the evil,\nand these offerings vary according to prescribed rules. It is no wonder\nthat an extensive priesthood was needed to aid in this intricate\nguarding against danger or the foretelling of benefits to come; and one\nsuspects that the whole thing was a clever invention by the sacerdotal\nclass to provide priests with a good living. Nor have the practices, and\nmuch less the superstitious notions behind them, become wholly obsolete,\nfor not only in India and China are the movements of birds now watched\nwith anxiety, and offerings made to them in the temples and individually\nby the peasantry, but similar ideas and practices prevail in all Malayan\nlands, as readers of such books as Skeat\u2019s _Malay Magic_[7] may learn.\n\nPerhaps learned students of ancient ways of thinking may be able to\nexplain why the _direction_ of a prophetic bird from the listener was an\nessential element in its message: for example, why is the cawing of a\ncrow east of you a more favorable portent than cawing from the west?\nLord Lytton studies this question briefly in the Notes to his\ntranslation of the _Odes_ of Horace, who, in his Ode to Galatea,\nexclaims:\n\n                     May no chough\u2019s dark shadow\n             Lose thee a sunbeam, nor one green woodpecker\n             Dare to tap leftward.\n\nWhy should \u201cleftward\u201d (_l\u00e6vus_) signify ill-luck in this case, when the\nleft was considered lucky by the Romans, although unlucky by the Greeks?\n\u201cIt is suggested,\u201d is Lytton\u2019s comment, \u201cthat the comparison may have\narisen from the different practice of the Greeks and Romans in taking\nnote of birds\u2014the former facing north, the latter south [an attitude\nconnected with migration?] I believe, however, it was the tap of the\nwoodpecker, and not his flight, that was unlucky. It is so considered\nstill in Italy, and corresponds to our superstitious fear of the beetle\ncalled the death-watch. If, therefore, heard on the left, or heart side,\nit directly menaced life.\u201d\n\nI leave the solution of the general problem of the value of direction in\nancient ornithomancy to the Orientalists, advising them that a hint of\nsubtile and half-forgotten reasons for such distinctions may be found in\nthe ideas prevailing among the shamans, or \u201cmedicine men,\u201d of our\nsouthwestern village-Indians; among the Hopi (miscalled Mokis), for\nexample, North is represented in their mystical ceremonies by yellow,\nWest by blue, South by red, and East by white.\n\nReligious interest in black-hued birds is not confined to the Old World,\nas was tragically illustrated in that remarkable excitement among the\nIndians of the Upper Missouri region in 1890, known as the Ghost Dance,\nof which the crow was the honored symbol. James Mooney,[77] of the\nUnited States Bureau of Ethnology, investigated this outburst of\nsentiment very thoroughly, and explained it at length in the 14th Annual\nReport of that Bureau, from which I extract the information as to the\ncrow\u2019s part in the matter. Dr. Mooney reminds us in advance that the\ncrow was probably held sacred by all the tribes of the Algonquian race.\nRoger Williams, speaking of the New England tribes, says that although\nthe crow did damage to the corn, hardly an Indian would kill one,\nbecause it was their tradition that this bird had brought them their\nfirst grain and vegetables, \u201ccarrying a grain of corn in one ear and a\nbean in the other from the field of their great god Cautantouwit in\nSowwaniu, the Southwest, the happy spirit-world where dwelt the gods and\nthe souls of the great and good.\u201d\n\nThe so-called Ghost Dance meant to the Plains Indians generally a\npreparation for the coming of a superhuman Messiah who would restore the\nold order of things when the redman was supreme in the land, and free\nfrom the restraint of an alien and encroaching civilization; and\nprimarily it contained no special hostility toward white neighbors.\n\nAmong the western redmen the eagle for its general superiority, the\nmagpie (particularly by the Paiutes), the sagehen because connected with\nthe country whence the Messiah was to come, and some other birds, were\nrevered in certain subsidiary ceremonies; but the central bird-figure in\nthis excitement was the crow, for it was regarded as the directing\nmessenger from the spirit-world, because its color is a reminder of\ndeath and the shadow-land. I have seen the figures of two upward flying\ncrows and two magpies in a \u201cmedicine shirt\u201d made to be worn in the Ghost\nDance. The raven shared in this devotional respect, but is rare on the\nnorthern plains, where its humbler relative was an abundant substitute.\nSome understanding of this supreme position of the crow in the\nGhost-dancing\u2014the equivalent of our \u201crevival\u201d meetings\u2014may be had by\nexamining the Arapahoe version of the belief on which the anticipated\nadvent of a red Messiah was based. Dr. Mooney expounds it[77] as\nfollows:\n\n  In Arapahoe belief the spirit world is in the west, not on the same\n  level with this earth of ours, but higher up, and separated also\n  from it by a body of water.... The crow, as the messenger and leader\n  of the spirits who had gone before [i.e. the dead] collected their\n  armies on the other side and advanced at their head to the hither\n  limit of the shadow-land. Then, looking over, they saw far below\n  them a sea, and far out beyond it toward the east was the boundary\n  of the earth, where lived the friends they were marching to rejoin.\n  Taking up a pebble in his beak, the crow then dropped it into the\n  water and it became a mountain towering up to the land of the dead.\n  Down its rocky slope he brought his army until they halted at the\n  edge of the water. Then taking some dust in his bill the crow flew\n  out and dropped it into the water as he flew, and it became a solid\n  arm of land stretching from the spirit world to the earth. He\n  returned and flew out again, this time with some blades of grass,\n  which he dropped upon the land thus made and at once it was covered\n  with a green sod. Again he returned and again flew out, this time\n  with some twigs in his bill, and dropping these also upon the new\n  land, at once it was covered with a forest of trees. Again he flew\n  back to the base of the mountain, and is now [that is, at the time\n  of the Ghost dancing] coming on at the head of all the countless\n  spirit-host.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER IX\n                        THE FAMILIAR OF WITCHES\n\n\nI fear no one would admit that a book of this character was anywhere\nnear complete did it not include at least one chapter on the observances\nand superstitions connected with owls. Nevertheless I doubt whether I\nshould not have taken the risk of the reader\u2019s displeasure had I not\nbeen able to avail myself of essays by several men who have handled this\nlarge and intricate phase of bird-lore in a way that discourages any\nrivalry.\n\n_The Atlantic Monthly_ for September, 1874, contained an article by\nAlexander Young on \u201cBirds of Ill omen,\u201d in which one may find treated\nnot only the historic dread of owls, but many similar facts and fears\nconnected with ravens, crows, magpies, and their fellow-craftsmen in\nalleged diabolism. \u201cMost birds,\u201d Mr. Young remarks, \u201cwere considered\nominous of good or evil according to the place and manner of their\nappearance.... It is noticeable that this stigma has been affixed only\nto those birds whose appearance or voice is disagreeable, and whose\nhabits are somewhat peculiar.\u201d The nocturnal owls perhaps fulfil these\nconditions as well as any bird could. \u201cTheir retired habits,\u201d to quote\nBroderip,[78] \u201cthe desolate places that are their favorite haunts, their\nhollow hootings, fearful shrieks, serpent-like hissings and\ncoffin-maker-like snappings, have helped to give them a bad eminence,\nmore than overbalancing all the glory that Minerva and her own Athens\ncould shed around them.\u201d\n\nThe little Grecian owl\u2014it is a foreign replica of our own small screech\nowl, which, as a matter of fact, gurgles rather melodiously instead of\nscreeching\u2014was well thought of in Athens in its prime, and was the\nspecial cognizance of the wise and dignified goddess of her citizens,\nPallas Athene\u2014Minerva of the Romans. De Kay,[18] indeed, reasons her out\nan owl-goddess, and it is said that statues of her have been found with\nan owl\u2019s instead of a human head. If she was a humanized expression for\nthe moon, as some interpret her, this little lover of moonlight is most\nsuitable as her symbol. Therefore one need not speculate on the reputed\n\u201cwisdom\u201d of the owl, any owl\u2014said to be proved wise by its being the\nonly bird that looks straight before it\u2014for that reputation is merely a\nreflection from the attributes of its patron, the stately goddess. Homer\nmakes Athene the special protector of those, chiefly women, engaged in\ntextile crafts; and there is an old saying that the owl was a weaver\u2019s\ndaughter, spinning with silver threads. When, therefore, in the midst of\nthe momentous naval battle of Salamis an owl alighted on the mast of the\nflagship of Admiral Themistocles, as tradition attests, it was received\nas an assurance from Pallas Athene herself that she was fighting with\nand for the harassed Greeks. The bird is displayed as large as space\npermits on Greek coins of the period.\n\nWhen the Romans took over Athene as Minerva her owl came with her, but\nits symbolic importance quickly faded. The Italians cared nothing for\ntheir little \u201cstrix\u201d\u2014had no use for it except to eat it or make it a\nlure for their bird-catching nets, and even charged it with sucking the\nblood of children; and they had no respect at all for the rest of its\ntribe. The language applied to them by the Latin poets reveals the\ndetestation and dread with which owls were held among the Romans.\nDerogatory references abound in books of the classical era, and similar\nsentiments might be quoted from authors down into medieval times. Even\nthe elder Pliny, called a naturalist, but really hardly more than a too\ncredulous compiler, condemns the tribe in very harsh words\u2014especially\nthe big-horned species; yet he only reflected the general belief that\nthey were messengers of death, whence everybody trembled if one was seen\nin the town or alighted on any housetop. One luckless owl that made a\nflying trip to the Capitol was caught and burnt, and its ashes were cast\ninto the Tiber. Twice Rome underwent ceremonial purification on this\naccount, whence Butler\u2019s jibe in _Hudibras_:\n\n                The Roman senate, when within\n                The city walls an owl was seen,\n                Did cause their clergy with lustrations\n                (Our synod calls humiliations)\n                The round-faced prodigy t\u2019 avert\n                From doing town and country hurt.\n\nThe deaths of several Roman emperors, among them Valentinian and\nCommodus Antoninus, were presaged by owls alighting on their residences,\nand it is recorded that before the death of the great Augustus an owl\nsang on the Curia.\n\nIn central India the owl is now generally regarded as a bird of ill\nomen. \u201cIf one happens to perch on the house of a native, it is a sign\nthat one of his household will die, or some other misfortune befall him\nwithin a year. This can only be averted by giving the house or its value\nin money to the Brahmins, or making extraordinary peace-offering to the\ngods.\u201d It is easy to calculate the origin of that particular form of\nsuperstition. In southern India, according to Thurston (quoted by\nLauffer), the same dread prevails; and there the natives interpret the\nbird\u2019s cries by their number, much as they did those of crows. \u201cOne such\nscreech forebodes death; two screeches, success in any approaching\nundertaking; three, the addition by marriage of a girl to the family;\nfour, a disturbance; five, that the hearer will travel. Six screeches\nforetell the coming of guests; seven, mental distress; eight, sudden\ndeath; and nine signify favorable results. The number nine plays a great\nr\u00f4le in systems of divination.\u201d\n\nIn view of this Oriental and Greco-Latin history, which spread with the\nimperial civilization into all western Europe, and in view of the bad\nassociations of these birds in the Old Testament, where they are\npronounced \u201cunclean,\u201d and relegated to the desert as companions of a\ndreadful company (_Isaiah_, xxxiv, II), it was natural that owls should\nbe regarded with almost insane fear and aversion in the Middle Ages, as\nthe record shows they were. In Sweden even yet, the owl is considered a\nbird of sorcery, and great caution is necessary in speaking of any of\nthem to avoid being ensnared; moreover it is dangerous to kill one, as\nits associates might avenge its death. Nuttall,[79] the English-American\nornithologist, notes that he often heard the following couplet when he\nwas a child in the old country:\n\n               Oh!\u2014o-o-o\u2014o-o!\n       I was once a king\u2019s daughter, and sat on my father\u2019s knee,\n       But now I\u2019m a poor hoolet, and hide in a hollow tree.\n\nThis is explained in the northern counties of England by a legend that\nPharaoh\u2019s daughter was transformed into an owl, and when children hear\nat night the screams of one of these nocturnal hunters they are told the\nstory of its strange origin\u2014but why _Pharaoh\u2019s_ daughter? Then there is\nthat cryptic \u201clittle ode\u201d quoted from the memory of his childhood by\nCharles Waterton[73] in reference to the barn-owl, and explained\nelsewhere in this book, which runs thus:\n\n Once I was a monarch\u2019s daughter, and sat on a lady\u2019s knee,\n But now I\u2019m a nightly rover, banished to the ivy-tree,\n Crying hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, for my feet are\n    cold\n Pity me, for here you see me, persecuted, poor and old.\n\nIf the delvers into Indo-European mythology are right, the dread of owls\nexisted long before the Romans colonized among Gauls and Britons, and\nwere in turn overrun by Teutonic hordes. It exists among the wildest\nsavages in every part of the world where owls prowl with ghostly silence\nand stealth and hoot in the darkness, startling men\u2019s nerves, and it\nsurvives in all peasantries. In that delightful Sicilian book by Mrs.\nJohn L. Heaton,[80] we have a narrative of a journey after dark with\nsome village-women. \u201cA screech-owl [_cuca_] hooted. Gra Vainia crossed\nherself, and Donna Ciccia muttered: \u2018Beautiful Mother of the Rock,\ndeliver us!\u2019 Donna Catina touched something [a gold cross] in the bosom\nof her dress.\u201d On another occasion: \u201cThe silence that fell again was\nbroken by the hoot of the cuca. \u2018Some one must die,\u2019 shuddered Donna\nCatina.\u201d\n\nOwls have always been regarded as the familiars of witches, sometimes\nbearing them through the night on noiseless wings to some unholy tryst,\nsometimes contributing materials to their malignant, magic-brewing\nrecipes. It was by meddling in such matters that the hero of that fine\nold romance, _The Golden Ass_ of Apuleius, fell into his ridiculous and\npainful predicament.\n\nBritish poets, and especially the dramatists from Chatterton down, have\ntaken advantage of the black repute of owls to enhance any scene of\nhorror they want to depict, Ben Jonson\u2019s _Masque of Queens_ furnished\nexcellent examples; and my friend J. E. Harting,[42] of London, has\ngathered into his admirable _Ornithology of Shakespeare_ many\nowl-extracts from the great master\u2019s play. \u201cThe owlet\u2019s wing,\u201d Mr.\nHarting finds, \u201cwas an ingredient in the cauldron wherein the witches\nprepared their \u2018charm of powerful trouble\u2019 (_Macbeth_, iv, I); and with\nthe character assigned to it by the ancients, Shakespeare, no doubt,\nfelt that the introduction of an owl in a dreadful scene of tragedy\nwould help to make the scene come home more forcibly to the people who\nhad from early times associated its presence with melancholy, misfortune\nand death.... Its doleful cry pierces the ear of Lady Macbeth while the\nmurder is being done:\n\n                    Hark! Peace!\n            It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman\n            Which gives stern\u2019st good-night.\n\n\u201cAnd when the murderer rushes in immediately afterwards, exclaiming \u2018I\nhave done the deed. Did thou not hear a noise?\u2019 she replies \u2018I have\nheard the owl scream.\u2019 And later on: \u2018The obscure bird clamored the\nlive-long night!\u2019... Should an owl appear at a birth, it is said to\nforebode ill luck to the infant. King Henry VI, addressing Gloster,\nsays: \u2018The owl shrieked at thy birth, an evil sign\u2019; while upon another\noccasion its presence was supposed to predict a death or at least some\ndire mishap.... When Richard III is irritated by the ill news showered\nthick upon him, he interrupts the third messenger with \u2018Out on ye, Owls!\nNothing but songs of death.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt is not surprising on turning to the medieval pharmacop\u0153ia, where\nthere was quite as much magic as medicine, that the owl was of great\npotency in prescriptions. \u201cThus the feet of the bubo, burnt with hard\nplumbago, was held to be a help against serpents. If the heart of the\nbird was placed on the left breast of a sleeping beauty, it made her\ntell all her secrets: but the warrior who carried it was strengthened in\nbattle.\u201d A modern relic of this bit of superstitious therapeutics was\nfound by me in _The Long Hidden Friend_, a little book printed at\nCarlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1863, which was a crude translation by George\nHoman of a German book published at Reading, Penn., in 1819. It consists\nof a long series of remedies and magic arts to be followed, and which\nwere actually in use in that region in cases of disease. Some of them\nintroduced birds, one of which is reminiscent of the \u201csleeping beauty\u201d\nmentioned a moment ago, and reads thus: \u201cIf you lay the heart and right\nfoot of a barn-owl on one who is asleep, he will answer whatever you ask\nhim, and tell what he has done.\u201d This should be known to our chiefs of\npolice, whose detectives appear to be wasting much time in applying the\nextractive process called the Third Degree.\n\nThe owl tribe, among the most innocent and serviceable, in its relation\nto mankind, of avian groups, has been as outrageously slandered south of\nthe Mediterranean as north of it. \u201cThe inhabitants of Tangier,\u201d as\nColonel Irby tells us[81] in his book on the ornithology of Gibraltar,\nconsider the barn-owls, numerous there, \u201cthe clairvoyant friends of the\nDevil.\u201d\n\nThe Jews believe that their cry causes the death of young children; so,\nin order to prevent this, they pour a vessel of water out into the\ncourtyard every time they hear the cry of one of these owls, the idea\nbeing that thus they will distract the bird\u2019s attention, and the infant\nwill escape the intended malice. The Arabs believe these owls can cause\nall kinds of evil to old as well as young, but they content themselves\nwith cursing the bird whenever it is seen or heard. The Mohammedans say:\n\u201cWhen these birds cry they are only cursing in their own language; but\ntheir malediction is harmless unless they know the name of the\nindividual to whom they wish evil, or unless they have the malignity to\npoint out that person when passing him. As the Devil sleeps but little\nwhen there is evil work to be done, he would infallibly execute the\ncommands of his favorite, if one did not, by cursing him, thus guard\nagainst the power of that enemy.\u201d\n\nIt is a pleasure to have this long record of misdemeanors and diabolism\nrelieved by at least one good deed in history. Having read in\nWatters\u2019s[57] curious little volume that the Tartars attribute to the\nbarn-owl the saving of the life of their great commander Genghis Khan, I\nsearched far and wide for the particulars of what seemed likely to be an\nentertaining incident, and at last I came upon the facts in the eleventh\nvolume of _Purchase His Pilgrims_. It appears that Changius Can, as the\nold historian spells it, had his horse shot under him in a certain fight\nthat was going against him, and he ran and hid in a thicket of\nshrubs\u2014which is a novel view of the \u201cTartar Terror.\u201d \u201cWhither, when the\nenemies were returned, with purpose to spoil the dead Carkass, and to\nseek out such as were hidden, it happened that an Owle came and sate\nupon those little trees or shrubs which he had chose for his court,\nwhich when they had perceived they sought no further in that place,\nsupposing that the said bird would not have sat there if any man had\nbeen hidden underneath.\u201d\n\nA very similar legend in China accounts for the use of peacock plumes as\ninsignia of rank and is related as follows by Katherine M. Ball[68]: In\nthe Chin dynasty a defeated general took refuge in a forest where there\nwere many peacocks. When the pursuing forces arrived, and found the fowl\nso quiet and undisturbed, they concluded that no one could possibly have\ncome that way, and forthwith abandoned the search. The general\u2014who later\nbecame the ancestor of five kings\u2014was thus able to escape, and so\ngrateful was he that later, when he came into power, he instituted the\ncustom of conferring a peacock feather as an honor for the achievement\nof bravery in battle.\n\nJapan has a similar mythical legend.\n\nFrenchmen call the common brown owl of Europe _chouette_; and when in\n1793 disgruntled smugglers and Royalist soldiers were carrying on\nguerrilla warfare in Brittany and Poitu against the new order of things,\nthey came to be called Chouans, \u201cowls,\u201d from the signal-cries they made\nto one another in their nocturnal forays as appears so often in Balzac\u2019s\nnovel _The Chouans_.\n\nNot much of this spookish and legendary lore seems to have been imported\ninto the United States, or else it has disappeared, except that which\nstill lingers among the superstitious negroes of the South. A writer in\none of the early issues of _The Cosmopolitan_ (magazine) related that to\nthe black folks of the Cotton Belt forty years or so ago the quavering\n\u201csong\u201d of our small mottled screech-owl spoke of coming death; but the\nbirds were considered sensitive to countercharms put upon them from\nwithin the house over which they crooned their tremulous monologue.\n\u201cJest jam de shevel inter de fire, en time hit git red-hot dee \u2019ll hesh\ndere shiverin\u2019!\u201d If you don\u2019t like that, sprinkle salt on the blaze, or\nturn a pair of shoes up on the floor with the soles against the wall.\n\u201cPerhaps this faint semblance to a laid-out corpse will pacify the\nhungry spirit; the charm certainly, according to negro belief, will\nsilence its harsh-voiced emissary.\u201d\n\nThe darkies warn you that you must turn back on any journey you are\nmaking if a screech-owl cries above you. An old \u201choot-owl,\u201d however, may\nforetell either good or bad fortune according as its three hoots are\ngiven on the right or left hand. This is an unfailing sign, and is\nespecially heeded in \u2019coon or \u2019possum hunting, at night, when three\nhoots from the left will send any hunter home hopeless.\n\nAll these indications and charms bear the familiar marks of the Old\nWorld fears and formulas, but it is surprising to meet them on the\nfields of Dixie-land.\n\nOwls were too well understood by our native redmen to be regarded with\nmuch superstition, and the smaller ones were well liked. Prince\nMaximilian mentions in his _Travels_ (about 1836) that owls were kept in\nthe lodges of the Mandans and Minnitarees, who lived in permanent\nvillages in the upper Missouri Valley, and were regarded as\n\u201csoothsayers,\u201d but I think they were no more than pets, as they are now\nin Zu\u00f1i houses. Yet in the American Museum of Natural History in New\nYork is a stuffed owl mounted on a stick, labeled as an object\n\u201cworshipped\u201d by the sorcerers among the Menominee Indians (eastern\nWisconsin), \u201cwho believe they can assume the shape of an owl, and can in\nthis disguise attack and kill their enemies\u201d\u2014that is, they try to make\nothers believe so. The owl is chosen for their disguise, of course,\nbecause it typifies the sly, unseen method of attack in darkness with\nwhich they sought to terrify the people.\n\nMr. Stuart Culin tells me that in Zu\u00f1i owls, of which four kinds are\nrecognized by names, are not considered sacred, and are killed for their\nfeathers, which are used on ceremonial masks, and, once a year, to\ndecorate long prayer-sticks. The people, he says, think that a certain\nbig gray owl lives in a house like a man, and if any Indian goes to its\nhouse and the owl looks at him he will surely die. When the headmen go\nout at night for some ceremony, and this owl is heard, it is a sign that\nrain will come very soon. This large owl and the small burrowing-owl are\nkept in houses as pets. Children are afraid of them, and they are\nutilized by parents to make the youngsters behave themselves.\n\nThe Ashochimi, a mountain tribe of Californian Indians now extinct, as\ndescribed by Powers,[19] feared certain hawks and owls, regarding them\nas malignant spirits which they must conciliate by offerings, and by\nwearing mantles of feathers, thus:\n\n  When a great white owl alights near a village in the evening, and\n  hoots loudly, the headman at once assembles all his warriors in\n  council to determine whether Mr. Strix demands a life or only\n  money.... If they incline to believe that he demands a life, someone\n  in the village is doomed and will speedily die. But they generally\n  vote that he can be placated by an offering, and immediately set out\n  a quantity of shell-money and pinole, whereupon the valorous\n  trenchermen fall to eat the pinole themselves, and in the morning\n  the headman decorates himself with owl-feathers, carries out the\n  shell-money with solemn formality and flings it into the air under\n  the tree where the owl perched.\n\nA somewhat more spiritual view was taken by the Pimas of old times in\nthe southwestern deserts. Their ideas of the destiny of the human soul\nvaried, but one theory was that at death the soul passed into the body\nof an owl. \u201cShould an owl happen to be hooting at the time of a death,\nit was believed that it was waiting for the soul.... Owl-feathers were\nalways given to a dying person. They were kept in a long, rectangular\nbox or basket of maguey leaf. If the family had no owl-feathers at hand\nthey sent to the medicine-man who always kept them. If possible, the\nfeathers were taken from a living bird when collected; the owl might\nthen be set free or killed.\u201d[83]\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER X\n                       A FLOCK OF FABULOUS FOWLS\n\n\nWe are pretty sure to hear of the phenix every time a tailor or\nsoap-maker announces that he will rebuild his shop after it has been\nburned; and its picture is a favorite with the advertising department of\nfire-insurance companies. The world first learned of this remarkable\nfowl when Herodotus brought back to Greece his wonder-tales from Egypt,\nsome 400 years before Cleopatra made so much trouble by mixing love and\npolitics. It will be well to quote in full the account by the great\nGreek traveller as it is found in the translation by Laurent:\n\n  There is another sacred bird, called the \u201cphenix;\u201d which I myself\n  never saw except in a picture, for it seldom makes its appearance\n  among the Egyptians\u2014only every five-hundred years, according to the\n  people of Heliopolis. They state that he comes on the death of his\n  sire. If at all like his picture, this bird may be thus described in\n  size and shape. Some of his feathers are of the color of gold;\n  others are red. In outline he is exceedingly similar to the eagle,\n  and in size also. This bird is said to display an ingenuity which to\n  me does not appear credible: he is represented as coming out of\n  Arabia, and bringing with him his father to the temple of the Sun,\n  embalmed in myrrh, and there burying him. The manner in which this\n  is done is as follows: In the first place he sticks together an egg\n  of myrrh, as much as he can carry, and then tries if he can bear the\n  burden. This experiment achieved, he accordingly scoops out the egg\n  sufficiently to deposit his sire within. He next fills with fresh\n  myrrh the opening in the egg by which the body was inclosed; thus\n  the whole mass containing the carcase is still of the same weight.\n  Having thus completed the embalming, he transports him into Egypt\n  and to the temple of the Sun. (_Euterpe_, Book II.)\n\nHerodotus seems to have been most interested in the odorous embalming,\nquaintly referred to in a 17th-century song\u2014\n\n                 Have you e\u2019r smelt what Chymick Skill\n                 From Rose or Amber doth distill?\n                 Have you been near that Sacrifice\n                 The Phoenix makes before she dies?\n\nAnd it will be noticed that this observant reporter says nothing of the\nquality that has given the bird its present popularity as a type of\nrecovery from disaster\u2014its ability to \u201crise from its ashes,\u201d which,\nindeed, appears to have been a later conception.\n\nGreeks of that day probably accepted this story from Herodotus without\nmuch demur or criticism, for they had their own traditions of wonderful\nbirds\u2014the Stymphalids, for example. These were gigantic and terrible\nfowls that lived along the river Stymphalus, in northern Arcadia\u2014a\nregion of savage mountains that the Athenians knew little about. They\nwere believed to be man-eating monsters with claws, wings, and beaks of\nbrass, and feathers which they shot out like arrows. \u201cHeracles scared\nthem with a brazen rattle, and succeeded in killing part and in driving\naway the rest, which settled on the island of Artias in the Black Sea,\nto be frightened away after a hard fight by the Argonauts.\u201d So Seyfert\nsummarizes their history; and an illustration on an antique vase in the\nMetropolitan Museum of Art shows a flock of them looking much like\npelicans.\n\nPausanias visited the curious River Stymphalus and found it rising in a\nspring, flowing into a marsh, and then disappearing underground\u2014a good\nsetting for strange happenings, and he refers to the legend in his usual\nbantering way, thus:\n\n  \u201cThere is a tradition that some man-eating birds lived on its banks,\n  whom Hercules is said to have killed with his arrows.... The desert\n  of Arabia has among other monsters some birds called Stymphalides,\n  who are as savage to men as lions or leopards. They attack those who\n  come to capture them, and wound them with their beaks and kill them.\n  They pierce through coats of mail that men wear, and if they put on\n  thick robes of mat the beaks of these birds penetrate them too....\n  Their size is about that of cranes and they are like storks, but\n  their beaks are stronger and not crooked like those of storks. If\n  there have been in all time these stymphalides like hawks and\n  eagles, then they are probably of Arabian origin.\u201d\n\nThe Greeks knew also of half-human Harpies, of web-footed Sirens, of the\nBirds of Seleucia, and of various other ornithological monstrosities, so\nthat the tale of an Egyptian one was easily acceptable to their minds.\nThe ugliest of the ugly flock were the Harpies, bird-women, on whom the\nancients expended the direst pigments of their imagination, and whom\nDante makes inhabitants of the gnarled and gloomy groves wherein\nsuicides are condemned to suffer in the nether world\u2014\n\n          There do the hideous Harpies make their nests\n          Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades\n          With sad announcement of impending doom;\n          Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human,\n          And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged\n          They make lament upon the wondrous trees.\n\nThe Romans liked Herodotus and his story as well as they pleased the\nGreeks, and Pliny heard or invented additional particulars. He insists\nthat only one phenix exists at a time, clothed in gorgeous feathers and\ncarrying a plumed head; and at the close of its long life it builds a\nnest of frankincense and cassia, on which it dies. From the corpse, as\nPliny asserts, is generated a worm that develops into another phenix.\nThis young phenix, when it has grown large enough, makes it its first\nduty to lay its father\u2019s body on the altar in Heliopolis; and Tacitus\nadds that its body is burned there. The implication in most accounts is\nthat the bird is male (the Egyptians are said to have believed all\nvultures female), and doubtless the whole conception is a primitive\nphase of the nature-worship out of which developed the more formal\nOsiris-legend.\n\nBut the picture has many variants. One is that the phenix subsists on\nair for 500 years, at the end of which, lading its wings with perfumed\ngums gathered on Mt. Lebanon (!) it flies to Heliopolis and is\nburned\u2014_itself_ now, not its parent\u2014into fragrant ashes on the altar of\nthe Sun temple. On the next morning appears a young phenix already\nfeathered, and on the third day, its pinions fully grown, it salutes the\npriest and flies away. Here we come to the best remembered feature of\nthe mystery, caught and kept alive for us by the poets, such as John\nLyly,[49] who in 1591 reminded the world that\u2014\n\n          There is a bird that builds its neast with spice,\n              And built, the Sun to ashes doth her burne,\n          Out of whose sinders doth another rise,\n              And she by scorching beames to dust doth turne.\n\nDe Kay[18] discourses on these notions in his _Bird Gods_:\n\n  \u201cIn the oldest tombs, discovered lately on the upper Nile by Jacques\n  de Morgan and others, the phenix is seen rising from a bed of\n  flames, which may well mean the funeral pyre of the defunct. The\n  inscriptions in question are so early that they belong to a period\n  when the ceremonial of the mummy had not become universal in Egypt,\n  and the conquerors of Egypt, probably a swarm of metal-using\n  foreigners from the valley of the Euphrates, who crossed from Arabia\n  and the Red Sea, were still burning the bodies of their chiefs and\n  kings. The phenix of these inscriptions may indicate the soul of the\n  departed rising from its earthly dross as the soul of Herakles,\n  according to the much later legend in its Greek form, rose from his\n  funeral pyre to join the gods of Olympus.\u201d\n\nNow, whether or not the priests of Heliopolis encouraged their\nworshippers to believe that such a creature really existed, they\nthemselves knew well that it was a mere symbol of the sun; and it is\neasy to identify it with the bird \u201cbennu\u201d spoken of in the Book of the\nDead and other Egyptian sacred texts, which unquestionably was a\npicturesque representative of the sun, rising, pursuing its course, and\nat regular intervals expiring in the fires of sunset, then renewing\nitself on the morrow in the flames of sunrise over Arabia. Plentiful\nevidence that this was perfectly understood in Greece and Italy of the\nclassic age may be read in the works of their essayists and poets.\nClaudian (365\u2013408), wrote, and Tickell, a British poet, translated into\nverse, a long poem on the phenix. Petrarch carried their wisdom onward\nwhen he declared there could be only one phenix at a time because there\nwas only one sun.\n\nWhen the Arabs succeeded the Romans in the Nile Provinces they picked up\nfrom the people remnants of the legend, and confused it with their own\nancient belief in a creature that resisted burning, by whose existence\nthey accounted for the incombustible property of asbestos, a mineral\nknown to them, but the origin of which was a mystery. It came from the\nOrient, and some said it was a vegetable product, others the hair of a\nrat-like animal: the western Arabs, however, mostly believed it to be\nthe plumage of a bird, so that naturally they identified it with the\nfire-loving phenix. Arabian authors of the 10th century and onward\ndescribe this bird, under the Greek name \u201csalamandra,\u201d as dwelling in\nIndia, where it lays its eggs and produces young in fire. Sashes, they\nsay, are made of its feathers, and when one of them becomes soiled it is\nthrown on a fire, and comes out whole, but clean.\n\nThis is an excellent example of the mingling of fact and fancy by which\na student of these old matters is constantly perplexed. It is probable\nthat small woven articles had long been known to the Arabs and Moors as\nEastern curiosities, for the people of southern China since very ancient\ntimes had been collecting and preparing fibrous asbestos, and weaving it\ninto fire-proof cloth. Such fabrics had, no doubt, a rough, fuzzy\nsurface, not unlike fur or the down of birds, and might easily be\nsupposed to be the latter. Hence the assertion that asbestos was the\nskin of a bird indestructible by fire, the identification of the phenix\nwith the salamandra (as a bird\u2014it had other legendary forms), and the\ntrade-name \u201csamand\u201d given to asbestos cloth when the Arabs themselves\nbegan to manufacture and sell it. So our proverbial idea of the\nsalamander goes back to a remote antiquity; but how it came to be\nrepresented among us as a newt instead of a bird belongs to another\nbook.\n\nMeanwhile on the northern shore of the Mediterranean, where the legend\nof the phenix was popular, it had been introduced into Christianity as a\nsymbol, as we know from memorial sculpture, and from the writings of St.\nClement, who was the second pope after Peter. Its special meaning was\nimmortality, which in that period meant the physical resurrection of the\ndead; and the peacock came to be used in the same sense, as\nrepresenting, if not virtually merged with, the phenix. The image in\nmen\u2019s minds at that time appears to have been that of an eagle, a bird\nclosely identified with the sun, clothed in the plumage of the peacock,\nanother sun-bird (as representative of the gorgeous clouds at sunset);\nand the very name confirms these solar associations, for our \u201cphenix\u201d is\nthe Greek word _phoinix_, crimson red. How large a place the peacock in\nthis aspect fills in the art and mythology of China and Japan appears in\nChapter VII.\n\nHulme informs us that Philippe de Thaum writes in his _Bestiary_ of the\nmystic bird: \u201cKnow this is its lot; it comes to death of its own will,\nand from death it comes to life: hear what it signifies. Phoenix\nsignifies Jesus, Son of Mary, that he had power to die of his own will,\nand from death come to life. Phoenix signifies that to save his people\nhe chose to suffer upon the cross.\u201d \u201cGod knew men\u2019s unbelief,\u201d St. Cyril\nlaments, \u201cand therefore provided this bird as evidence of the\nResurrection.\u201d St. Ambrose also declares that \u201cthe bird of Arabia\nteaches us, by its example, to believe in the Resurrection.\u201d Passages of\nlike tenor might be quoted from Tertullian and other expositors of the\nearly Christian church, all showing the most unsuspicious faith in the\nreal existence of such a bird.\n\nThe symbolic connection of this fabulous creature with the idea of\nimmortality may have been an inheritance from Jewish traditions.\nAccording to the Talmud Eve, after eating the terrible fruit in the\nGarden of Eden, tried to force it, and its consequences, on all the\nanimals, but the bird \u201cchol\u201d (the phenix) would not eat, but flew away\nfrom temptation, and thus preserved its original gift of perpetual life.\n\u201cAnd now the phenix ... lives a thousand years, then shrivels up till it\nis the size of an egg, and then from himself emerges beautiful again.\u201d\nIn the Middle Ages this deathless bird was supposed to inhabit the\nsacred garden of the Earthly Paradise.\n\nPeacocks carved on early Christian sarcophagi are perched on a palm tree\n(the conventional sign of martyrdom in primitive Christian iconography),\nand hence eloquent of that rapturous belief in immortality\ncharacteristic of the catacombs, as Mrs. Jenner expresses it.\nRepresentations of the bird rising from a flaming nest and ascending\ntoward the sun are less common, but do occur in medieval heraldry, by\nwhich pictorial path, it is probable, the notion has come down to our\nown day and become the cognizance of one of the oldest American\ninsurance companies.\n\nThe association with the palm mentioned above recalls another line of\nlegendary, for some etymologists say that the name \u201cphenix\u201d should be so\nwritten (not _phoenix_), and that it is the older name of the date-palm.\nThis tree was regarded in ancient Egypt as the emblem of triumph,\nwhence, perhaps, our modern symbolic use of its fronds; and Pliny was\ninformed that \u201cin Arabia the phenix nested only on a palm,\u201d and that\n\u201cthe said bird died with the tree and revived of itself as the tree\nsprang again.\u201d\n\nNow, Arabic authors of the Middle Ages had much to say of a mythical\nbird, \u201canka,\u201d that lived 1700 years; and they explained that when a\nyoung anka grows up if it be a female the old female burns herself, and\nif it be a male the old male does so. This is very phenix-like, but the\nanka is distinguished by huge size, the Arabic writer Kazweenee, as\nquoted by Payne,[87] describing the anka as the greatest of birds. \u201cIt\ncarries off the elephant,\u201d he says, \u201cas the cat carries off the mouse\u201d;\nand he relates that in consequence of its kidnapping a bride God, at the\nprayer of the prophet Handhallah, \u201cbanished it to an island in the\ncircumambient ocean unvisited by men under the equinoctial line.\u201d\n\nI find in Miss Costello\u2019s _Rose Garden of Persia_[88] some interesting\nnotes quoted from M. Garcin de Tassy, relative to the anka, which, De\nTassy says, has become a proverbial symbol in Persia for something\nspoken of but not seen\u2014and not likely to be! Here he seems to be using\nthe Arabic name for the bird the Persians call \u201csimurgh,\u201d the\nsignification of which, as Professor A. V. W. Jackson tells me, is \u201cthe\nmythical,\u201d and which is derived from the avestan word for\n\u201ceagle\u201d\u2014another link in our chain. De Tassy explains:\n\n  It [the anka] is known only by name, and is so called from having a\n  white line round the neck like a collar; some say because of the\n  length of the neck.... It is said that the inhabitants of the city\n  of Res ... had in their country a mountain called Demaj, a mile\n  high. There came a very large bird with a very long neck, of\n  beautiful and divers colors. This bird was accustomed to pounce on\n  all the birds of that mountain, and eat them up. One day he was\n  hungry and birds were scarce, so he pounced on a child and carried\n  it off. He is called ankamogreb because he carries off the prey he\n  seizes.... Soon after this he was struck by a thunderbolt.\n\n  Mohammed is reported to have said that at the time of Moses God\n  created a female bird called anka; it had eight wings like the\n  seraphs, and bore the figure of a man. God gave it a portion of\n  every thing, and afterwards created it a male. Then God made a\n  revelation to Moses that he had created two extraordinary birds, and\n  had assigned for their nourishment the wild beasts around Jerusalem.\n  But the species multiplied, and when Moses was dead they went to the\n  land of Nejd and Hijaz, and never ceased to devour the wild beasts\n  and to carry off children till the time when Khaled, son of Senan\n  Abasi, was Prophet, between the time of Christ and Mohammed. It was\n  then that these birds were complained of. Khaled invoked God, and\n  God did not permit them to multiply, and their race became extinct.\n\nThis characteristic Bedouin camp-fire novelette reminds us at once of\nthe famous roc, or \u201crukh,\u201d to adopt the more correct spelling, with\nwhich we are familiar from the story in the _Arabian Nights_ of Sinbad\nthe Sailor. Let me quote it succinctly from Payne\u2019s edition.[87] Sinbad\nhad sailed on a commercial venture from his home in Basra, a port on the\nPersian Gulf, and the ship had stopped at a very pleasant island,\nsituation unrecorded. Sinbad went ashore with others, wandered in the\nlovely woods, fell asleep, and awoke to find the ship gone and himself\nthe only person on the island. As he was exploring the place rather\ntimidly he came to a great shining dome, but could see no doorway. \u201cAs I\nstood,\u201d he relates, \u201ccasting about how to gain an entrance, the sun was\nsuddenly hidden from me and the air became dark....\u201d\n\n  So I marvelled at this, and lifting my head looked steadfastly at\n  the sun, when I saw that what I had taken for a cloud was none other\n  than an enormous bird whose outspread wings, as it flew through the\n  air, obscured the sun and veiled it from the island. At this sight\n  my wonder redoubled, and I bethought me of a story I had heard\n  aforetime of pilgrims and travellers, how in certain islands dwells\n  a huge bird, called the roc, which feeds its young on elephants, and\n  was assured that the dome aforesaid was none other than one of its\n  eggs. As I looked ... the bird alighted on the egg and brooded over\n  it, with its wings covering it and its legs spread out behind it on\n  the ground, and in this posture it fell asleep, glory be to Him who\n  sleepeth not!\n\n  When I saw this I arose, and unwinding the linen of my turban\n  twisted it into a rope with which I girt my middle, and bound myself\n  fast to his feet.\n\nSinbad\u2019s purpose was to get himself carried away to some better place,\nbut when, next morning, the roc did bear him aloft and afar, and finally\nalighted, the sailor found himself in a horrid desert. After many\nfurther adventures and voyages Sinbad revisits his island yet does not\nrecognize it until the men with whom he is strolling bade him look at a\ngreat dome. Not knowing what it was they broke it open with stones,\n\u201cwhereupon much water ran out of it, and the young roc appeared within;\nso they pulled it forth of the shell and killed it, and took of it great\nstore of meat.\u201d Dreadful misfortune followed this inconsiderate act.\n\nThis was a well-known Arabic wonder-tale. The author of one of their\npopular old books of \u201cmarvels,\u201d several of which exist, tells almost\nexactly Sinbad\u2019s story as happening to himself, and at least two other\nArabic works are said to contain the tale with picturesque variations.\nIn later times the home of the monster was placed in Madagascar. Marco\nPolo, the adventurous Italian, who in the 13th century wandered overland\nto China, and whose _Travels_[89] are a fine mixture of fact and fancy,\nhad a fair idea of where Madagascar was, and recorded much that he was\ntold about it\u2014mostly erroneous. He relates that the people of that\nisland report \u201cThat at a certain season of the year ... the rukh makes\nits appearance from the southern region.... Persons who have seen this\nbird assert that when the wings are spread they measure sixteen paces in\nextent.\u201d Marco says that he heard that the agents of the Grand Khan took\nto him a feather ninety spans long. It is explained in Yule\u2019s edition of\nPolo\u2019s _Travels_ that the supposed roc\u2019s feather was one of the gigantic\nfronds of the raphia palm \u201cvery like a quill in form.\u201d\n\nSuch wonder-tales have a truly phenix-like quality of indestructibility.\nAs late as the time of Charles I of England there lived in Lambeth, on\nthe Surrey side of London, John Tradescant, renowned as traveller and\nflorist, who accumulated an extensive \u201cphysic-garden\u201d and museum of\nantiquities and curiosities. He was a man of science, but to satisfy the\npopular taste of the time, as Pennant explains, his museum contained a\nfeather alleged to be of the dragon, and another of the griffin. \u201cYou\nmight have found here two feathers of the tail of the _phoenix_, and the\nclaw of the _rukh_, a bird capable to _trusse_ an elephant.\u201d This\ncollection after the death of Tradescant\u2019s son in 1622, became the\nproperty of Elias Ashmole, and it was the nucleus of the Ashmolean\nMuseum founded at Oxford in 1682.\n\nBut phenix, rukh, anka, simurgh, garuda, feng-huang and others that have\nnot been mentioned, such as Yel, the mythical raven of our Northwest,\nand those of Malaya described by Skeat,[7] are all, apparently, members\nof the brood hatched ages ago in that same sunrise nest and still flying\namid rosy clouds of prehistoric fable.\n\nThe first glimpse of them is on the seals and tablets recovered from\nMesopotamian ruin-mounds. In the mystic antiquity of the Summerian\nkingdom of Ur and its capital-city Lagash, a gigantic eagle, \u201cthe divine\nbird Imgig\u201d was the royal cognizance. In those days, as Dr. Ward[23]\ndiscloses from his study of the oldest Babylonian cylinders, people told\none another tales of monstrous and fantastic birds of prey that could\nfly away with an antelope in each talon, and which fought, usually\nvictoriously, against huge winged and feathered dragons with bodies like\nthose of crocodiles, and sometimes with human heads. Such\nrepresentations of demons were the prototypes of the grotesque\ncombinations of animal features, and of men and animals, more familiar\nto us in the Egyptian Sphinx, the classic centaurs, and medieval angels\nand devils.\n\nWhen the elders in Babylon expounded the reason for faith in these\nantagonistic supernatural creatures, they explained that the \u201cdivine\u201d\neagle symbolized beneficence and protective power in the universe, while\nthe feathered monsters stood for the baffling forces of malignancy and\nharm. In this philosophy, probably, is the underlying relationship that\nconnects all this Oriental flock of fabulous fowls\u2014visionary\nflight-beings in varying forms and phases that seek to portray the\npowers of the air, mysterious, uncontrollable, overwhelming, capable of\nall the mind of primitive man could conceive or his gods perform. All of\nthem became endowed in time with the luxuriant colorings of Eastern\npoetry and fiction, and appear now heroic and picturesque, as one\nexpects of everything in the dreamy Orient of tradition.\n\nIn the cold and stormy North, however, where the sun is a source of\ncomfort rather than of terror, and movements of the atmosphere are more\noften feared than blessed, the similar conception of a gigantic sky-bird\nis far more definite. When the native of the Russian plains, struggling\nhomeward against driving snow, hears the shrilling and howling of the\ntempest he knows Vikhar, the Wind-Demon, is abroad. Norsemen represent\nhim as Hraesvelg, the North Wind, an eagle: he does not \u201cride on the\nwings of the wind,\u201d he _is_ the wind, and the blast from the arctic sea\nthat beats upon your face is the air set in motion by the wings of this\ncolossal, invisible bird flying southward. That it is big enough to stir\nthe atmosphere into a veritable hurricane is plain:\n\n                 From the East came flying hither,\n                 From the East a monstrous eagle,\n                 One wing touched the vault of heaven,\n                 While the other swept the ocean;\n                 With his tail upon the waters,\n                 Reached his beak beyond the cloudlets.\n\nAnd such an eagle as this one, described as a reality in the _Kalevala_,\nthe legendary epic of the Finns, possessing beak and talons of copper,\nonce seized and bore away a maiden to its eyrie, thus showing itself\ntrue to the \u201cform\u201d of the East whence it came.\n\nMost of our North American Indians typified the winds, especially those\nfrom the north, as birds, and many tribes identified the storm-bringing\nones with their thunder-birds, which was very natural. The Algonkins\nbelieved that certain birds produced the phenomena of wind and created\nwaterspouts, and that the clouds were the spreading and agitation of\ntheir gigantic wings. The Navahos thought that a great white swan sat at\neach of the four points of the compass and conjured up the blasts that\ncame therefrom, while the Dakotas believed that in the west is the\nresidence of the Wakinyjan, \u201cthe Flyers,\u201d that is, the breezes that\ndevelop into occasional storms.\n\nIt was in the Orient, however, where, by the way, both simurgh and\ngaruda serve as storm-bringers in several myths, that the conception of\ngigantic bird-beings was expanded and elaborated with the picturesque\ndetails that have been suggested in an earlier paragraph.\n\nA very old Persian tale, with many fanciful embroiderings, runs as\nfollows: There are, or were, two trees\u2014one the Tree of Life, and the\nother the Tree Opposed to All Harm, the tree that bears the seeds of all\nuseful things; which is like the two trees in the Garden of Eden, over\nin Babylon. In the latter tree sits and nests the chief of all the\nmythic birds, the simurgh (called in the _Avesta_ \u201csaena-meregha\u201d),\nwhich is said to suckle its young, and to be three natures \u201clike a bat.\u201d\n\u201cWhenever he arises aloft a thousand twigs will shoot out from that\ntree, and when he alights he breaks off the thousand twigs and bites the\nseeds from them. And the bird cinamros [second only to the simurgh]\nalights likewise in that vicinity; and his work is this, that he\ncollects those seeds that are bitten from the tree of many seeds, which\nis opposed to harm, and he scatters them where Tishtar [angel that\nprovides rain] seizes the water [from the demons of drought]; so that,\nwhile Tishtar shall seize the water, together with those seeds of all\nkinds, he shall rain them on the world with the rain.\u201d Such is the\nlanguage of the sacred books.[26]\n\nThe simurgh figures in Firdausi\u2019s[93] legendary epic as the\nfoster-parent of Zal, father of Rustam, the national hero of Persia.\nWhen Rudabah\u2019s flank was opened to bring forth Rustam her wound was\nhealed by rubbing it with a simurgh\u2019s feather. Rustam himself, once\nwounded unto death, was cured in the same manner, and other cases are\nrecorded in great variety. Firdausi explains that the simurgh had its\nnest on Mt. Elburz, on a peak that touched the sky in a place no man had\never seen; and that it was to that eyrie that it carried the princely\nbaby Zal, whence it was recovered by its parents. In the ancient Avestan\nritual it is stated of the vulture varengana: \u201cIf a man holds a bone of\nthat strong bird ... or a feather, no one can smite or turn to flight\nthat fortunate man. The feather of that bird brings him help ...\nmaintains him in his glory.\u201d According to De Kay[18] the simurgh was a\n\u201cgod-like bird that discussed predestination with Solomon, as the eagle\nof Givernberg held dialogues with King Arthur.... The simurgh was a\nprophet.\u201d\n\nBut of all the fabulous birds that infest ancient Persian mythology none\nis held so important as the falcon-like \u201ckarshipta,\u201d which brought the\nsacred law into the Paradise of Jamshid. \u201cRegarding the karshipta they\nsay that it knew how to speak words, and brought the religion to the\nenclosure which Yim made, and circulated it: there they utter the Avesta\nin the language of birds.\u201d\n\nWe read also of a gigantic bird in Iran, the \u201ckamar,\u201d \u201cwhich\novershadowed the earth and kept off the rain till the rivers dried up.\u201d\n\nIn the Hindu mythology Vishnu is the sun-god, while Indra represents the\nlightning and storm, and the two are in general opposites, rivals,\nenemies. Vishnu rides on an eagle of supernatural size and power called\ngaruda. In the Pahlavi translation of the stories the simurgh takes the\nplace of the eagle, for their characters as well as their names are\ninterchangeable. Garuda was born from an egg laid by Vinata, herself the\ndaughter of a hawk and the mother of the two immense vultures that in\nPersian myths guard the gates of hell, and elsewhere figure boldly in\nOriental fables; it is a mortal enemy, now of the serpent and now of the\nelephant, and now of the tortoise\u2014all three connected with Indra. This\nbird carries into the air an elephant and a tortoise in order to devour\nthem, and in one of the various accounts leaves them on a mountain-top\nas did the simurgh and the rukh their iniquitous \u201cliftings.\u201d\n\nGaruda also appears in Japanese legendary art as gario, or binga, or\nbingacho, or karobinga, half woman, half bird, a sort of winged and\nfeathered angel with a tail like a phenix and legs like a crane. This\nreminds us of the harpies of Greece. The Malays recognize the image, and\nwhen a cloud obscures the sun Perak men will say: \u201cGerda is spreading\nhis wings to dry.\u201d\n\nThe Chinese, and after them the Japanese, had a phenix-like bird in\ntheir mythical aviary, which persists in the faith of the more\nsimple-minded of their peoples, and as a fruitful motive in the\ndecorative art of each. It was one of the four supernatural creatures\nthat in ancient Chinese philosophy symbolized the four quarters of the\nheavens. The Taoists, whose religious ideas are older than Confucianism\nand prevailed especially among the humble and unlearned, called it the\nScarlet Bird, and associated it with the element Fire, and with their\nmystic number 7. Archaic pictures show a crested bird with long\ntail-feathers\u2014a figure that might well be meant for a peacock. The\ncreature itself is said not to have been seen by mortal eyes since the\ntime of Confucius, but it has by no means been forgotten, for it is the\nfung-whang, or feng-huang (which is the names of the male and the female\nof the species conjoined); and it lives even now on embroidered screens\nand painted vases, or proudly distinguishes royal robes, from the\nThibetan mountains to the Yellow Sea.\n\nA recent writer on Eastern art[68] describes the proper fung as a\ngorgeously colored bird with a long tail. Its feathers are red, azure,\nyellow, white, and black, the five colors belonging to the five\nprincipal virtues; and the Chinese ideograms for uprightness, humanity,\nvirtue, honesty, and sincerity, are impressed on various parts of its\nbody. Its cries are symbolic, its appearance precedes the advent of\nvirtuous rulers. As in the other cases this bird carries something\naway\u2014this time an eminent philosopher, Baik-fu, was translated. In Japan\nthe peasantry, at least, still hold to the reality of the same bird\nunder the name ho-ho, and artists and symbolists have beautifully\nutilized the conception.[90] The belief is that the sun descends to\nearth from time to time in the form of the ho-ho, as a messenger of\nlove, peace, and goodwill, and rests on one or another of the torii. It\nappears to have become a badge of imperial rank in China before the time\nof the Ming dynasty, and, in Japan it became the symbol of the empress,\nand in old times, as we are told, only empresses and royal princesses\ncould have its likeness woven into their dress-goods.\n\nIt will be noticed that this last-considered member of our fabulous\nflock, the fung-whang or ho-ho, is the only one not of gigantic size or\ndistorted or terrifying aspect. This indicates to me its comparatively\nrecent origin, and its beneficent disposition shows that it is the\ncreation of men accustomed to peace under kindly skies. It is an\ninteresting fact that when the Mongolian felt called upon to portray\ndemoniac beings he exaggerated to the extent of his ability _human_\nexpressions of rage, villainy and ferocity, instead of using for his\npurpose animals of Titanic size, or in horrifying combinations, as did\nmagicians south of the great mountains.\n\nThe explanation seems not far away. The territory that apparently always\nhas been the home of the homogeneous \u201cyellow\u201d race is essentially a vast\nplain extending from the mountains of central Asia westward to the\nPacific and meridianally from southern China to the border of\nKamptchatka. It includes the spacious valleys of China, proper, the\nplains and deserts of Mongolia, and the broad prairies that stretch\nacross Manchuria, making together the widest area of fairly level and\ntillable land on the globe. Much of it was never forested, and from a\nlarge part of the remainder the scanty growth of woods had been cleared\nbefore written history began. The climate as a whole is temperate and\nequable, and rarely disturbed by startling and destructive\nmeteorological phenomena. Furthermore, except the tigers of the jungly\nsoutheastern border, no dangerous animals are to be feared or to be\nidealized into mythical things of terror. Two evils of nature remain to\ndisturb the inhabitants of this favored region\u2014annual spring-floods,\noften fatally widespread; and, second, frequent earthquakes. The floods\nare perfectly understood in their cause as well as in their effects, and\nafford little material for superstition. As for the earthquakes, the\npeople long ago found a sufficient explanation in the invention of a\nburrowing beast of prodigious size and strength, which they called an\n\u201cearth-dragon,\u201d and whose movements as it stirs about heaves the ground\nbeneath our feet. The wave-like character of the earth-shocks showed\nthat the dragon must be elongated and reptile-like; and now and then a\nlandslide or diggings disclosed long and massive bones that evidently\nwere those of these subterranean monsters, although foreigners said they\nwere fossil remains of Mesozoic reptiles or something else. The whole\nidea, in fact, is so plausible and logical, that it really belongs to\nscientific hypothesis rather than to mythology.\n\nThe reaction of this tranquil geographical situation and history has\nbeen to produce, or mould, a people gentle, self-contained and averse to\nstrife. This is not particularly to their credit or their discredit. It\nis as natural for a race developed in the valley of the Hoang Ho to be\npeaceable as for one bred along the Danube or the St. Lawrence to be\nbelligerent.\n\nIn such an unterrifying situation as his the Mongolian felt no impulse\nto coin the manifestations of nature, elemental or animated, into\nmalignant demons, but rather impersonated them, if at all, as beings\nwith kindly intentions and of beautiful form. That such impersonations\nare few, and that Chinese mythology furnishes a comparatively small\ncontribution to the world\u2019s store of specimens of that primitive stage\nin human mentality, is, I think, another evidence of the equable\nphysical environment in which the people of the Flowery Kingdom have\nbeen nurtured, which, while it contributed to their sanity, did little\nto stimulate their imaginations.\n\nOn the other hand, men and women who endured, day by day, the blistering\nheat and drouth of the desert; or who knew the awe-inspiring mountains,\nwhere gloomy glens alternate with cloud-veiled heights, the thunders of\nunseen avalanches shock the ear, and appalling fires that no man kindles\nrage against the snows; or who night and day must guard his or her life\nin the jungle against lurking perils from tooth and claw and\npoison-fang\u2014such persons were aroused to mental as well as physical\nalertness for safety\u2019s sake, and saw in almost every circumstance of\ntheir lives visions of unearthly power. Unable in their narrow, slowly\ndeveloping knowledge and meagre intellection, to comprehend much of what\nconfronted them, yet understanding some small sources and agencies of\npower, what more natural than that they should picture the often\ntremendous exhibitions of nature\u2019s force as the product of enormously\n_greater_ powers. Hence not only the bigness attributed to the mythical\nbirds we have sketched but their supernatural abilities, and also\u2014in\naccordance with constant experience of the general antagonism between\nnature and human purposes\u2014the malignancy characterizing most of them.\n\nFor, as has been said, Garuda, Simurgh, Phenix, Fung-Whang and all the\nothers are only visions woven out of the sunshine, the clouds and the\nwinds, in the loom of primitive imagination. It is quite a waste of\ntime, therefore, to try as some have done (notably Professor Newton[55])\nto connect any one of them with some living or extinct reality, as, for\nexample, the Rukh with the epiornis or any other of the big extinct\nratite birds of Madagascar. Eagles and vultures and peacocks have served\nas suggestions for fantastic creations of a vagrant fancy, and that is\nall the reality they ever had. We do not know, probably never can know,\nthe ultimate source of these stories and images, so varied yet so alike;\nnor whether all have spread from one source, or have in some instances\narisen independently, as would seem probable in the case of those told\nabout American aboriginal campfires; but we may be sure that their\nconception was in the morning of civilization (more likely far back of\nthat) as products of the uncultured, nature-fearing, marvel-loving fancy\nof prehistoric mankind.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER XI\n               FROM ANCIENT AUGURIES TO MODERN RAINBIRDS\n\n\nThe pagans of primitive times along the shores of the Mediterranean\nbelieved in personal gods and their guidance in human affairs. With the\napproval of these gods, or of that departmental god or goddess having\ncharge of the matter in mind, one\u2019s project would prosper, whereas their\ndisapproval meant failure and very likely some punishment under divine\nwrath. The human difficulty was to learn the will of said gods.\n\nEqually well settled was the doctrine that birds\u2014which seemed to belong\nto the celestial spaces overhead where the gods lived and manifested\ntheir variable moods, now in sunshine and zephyr, now by storm-clouds,\nand rainfall\u2014were inspired messengers of the gods, and required reverent\nattention. This, however, did but throw the difficulty one step further\nback, for how could human intelligence comprehend the messages birds\nwere constantly bringing?\n\nAt any rate the principal and most numerous omens in the pre-Christian\ncenturies were drawn from birds; and this kind of divination gained so\nmuch credit that other kinds were little regarded. It was based, as has\nbeen indicated, on the theory that these creatures, by their actions,\nwittingly or unwittingly, conveyed the will of the gods. This\nsuper-avian attribute was by no means confined to the prominent raven\nand crow, whose prophetic qualities have been portrayed in another\nchapter, for various birds came to be considered \u201cfortunate\u201d or\n\u201cunfortunate,\u201d from the point of view of the seeker after supernal\nguidance, either on account of their own characteristics or according to\nthe place and manner of their appearance; hence the same species might,\nat different times, foretell contrary events. Let me quote here a\nsuccinct statement from _The Encyclopedia Londonensis_, published in the\nearly part of the 18th century:\n\n  If a flock of various birds came flying about any man it was an\n  excellent omen. The eagle was particularly observed for drawing\n  omens; when it was observed to be brisk and lively, and especially\n  if, during its sportiveness, it flew from the right hand to the\n  left, it was one of the best omens that the gods could give.\n  Respecting vultures there are different opinions, both among the\n  Greek and the Roman authors; by some they are represented as birds\n  of lucky omen, while Aristotle and Pliny reckon them among the\n  unlucky birds. If the hawk was seen seizing and devouring her prey,\n  it portended death; but if the prey escaped deliverance from danger\n  was portended. Swallows wherever and under whatever circumstances\n  they were seen were unlucky birds; before the defeat of Pyrrhus and\n  Antony they appeared on the tent of the former and the ship of the\n  latter; and, by dispiriting their minds, probably prepared the way\n  for their subsequent disasters. In every part of Greece except\n  Athens, owls were regarded as unlucky birds; but at Athens, being\n  sacred to Minerva, they were looked upon as omens of victory and\n  success. The swan, being an omen of fair weather, was deemed a lucky\n  bird by mariners.\n\n  The most inauspicious omens were given by ravens, but the degree of\n  misfortune which they were supposed to portend depended, in some\n  measure, in their appearing on the right hand or the left; if they\n  came croaking on the right hand it was a tolerably good omen; but if\n  on the left a very bad one.... The crow appearing [at a wedding]\n  denoted long life to the married pair, if it appeared with its mate;\n  but if it was seen single separation and sorrow were portended.\n  Whence it was customary at nuptials for the maids to watch that none\n  of these birds coming singly should disturb the solemnity.\n\nIt was hardly to be expected that the comprehension of all this science\nof soothsaying should belong to ordinary mortals; and therefore there\narose early in its development certain clever \u201cwise men\u201d who declared\nthemselves endowed with magical power to understand the language of\nbirds, and to interpret both their chatter and their actions. Thus\noriginated the profession of _augury_, a word that spells \u201cbird-talk\u201d in\nits root-meaning, with its later product _auspices_, or \u201cbird-viewers.\u201d\nThe augur originally was a priest (or a magician, if you prefer that\nterm) who listened to what the birds said; and the auspex was another\nwho watched what they did, or examined their entrails to observe\nanything abnormal that he might construe as an answer to prayer, or\ninterpreted something else in the nature of an omen from this or that\ndivinity, or from all the gods together.\n\nI need not describe the elaborate rites and ceremonies that came to be\nassociated with the practice of this kind of divination (ornithomancy),\nespecially under the revered and powerful College of Augurs that\npractically ruled the Roman Republic, even in the Augustan age, for it\nwill suffice to direct attention to a few features.\n\nBirds were distinguished by the Roman augurs as _oscines_ or _alites_,\n\u201ctalkers\u201d and \u201cflyers.\u201d The oscines were birds that gave signs by their\ncry as well as by flight, such as ravens, owls and crows. The alites\nincluded birds like eagles and vultures, which gave signs by their\nmanner of flying. The quarter of the heavens in which they appeared, and\ntheir position relative to that of the observer, were most important\nfactors in determining the significance of the supposed message, as has\nbeen extensively explained in an earlier chapter of this book.\n\nThis science or business of bird-divination, for it was both, was of\nprehistoric antiquity. Plutarch[94] records that Romulus and Remus, the\nfabled founders of the Latin race began their eventful life under a wild\nfig-tree, where a she-wolf nursed them, and a woodpecker constantly fed\nand watched over them. \u201cThese creatures,\u201d Plutarch remarks, \u201care\nesteemed holy to the god Mars\u2014the woodpecker the Latins still especially\nworship and honor. Romulus became skilled in divination, and first\ncarried the _lituus_, or diviner\u2019s staff, a crooked rod with which\nsoothsayers indicated the quarters of the heavens when observing the\nflight of birds.\u201d\n\n                Among the Romans not a bird\n                Without a prophecy was heard.\n                Fortunes of empire often hung\n                On the magician magpie\u2019s tongue,\n                And every crow was to the state\n                A sure interpreter of fate.\u2014_Churchill._\n\nThe peculiar province of the auspices, or bird-inspecters, was to seek\nthe will of the gods as to some contemplated act or policy by watching\nthe behavior of the sacred chickens, cared for by an official called\n_pullarius_. \u201cIf the chickens came too slowly out of the cage, or would\nnot feed, it was a bad omen; but if they fed greedily, so that some part\nof their food fell and struck the ground, it was deemed an excellent\nomen.\u201d\u2014and so forth and so forth.\n\nIt is rather engaging to inquire why the humble barnyard fowl was used\nfor so momentous a function. Partly, no doubt, because it was the most\nconvenient kind of bird to keep and propagate in captivity, and\ntherefore would always be at hand when wanted (and in case the\nprophecy-demand was light an occasional pullet for the official pot\nwould not be missed!), but also because its witlessness made it\ndependable. A devotee of this way of omen-catching would explain that of\ncourse the bird was unconscious of the part it played; that its mind was\na mere receptacle of divine impulses to act in a certain way, the\nsignificance of which the auspex understood and reported. If that theory\nis true, it follows that the more empty-headed the \u201cmedium\u201d is the\nbetter, for it would then have fewer ideas of its own to short-circuit\nthe inspired impulses. This view has, in fact, influenced ignorant folks\neverywhere in their conclusion that men who were witless, or crazy, or\nhad lost their mentality in a trance, were \u201cpossessed,\u201d mostly by devils\nbut sometimes by good \u201cspirits\u201d which had found a mind \u201cswept and\ngarnished,\u201d as St. Luke said, and had become vocal tenants; whence, it\nwas argued, no human rationality interfered with the transmission of the\nmessage, and men must accept what the tongues uttered as inspired words.\n\u201cOut of the mouths of babes and sucklings came forth praise\u201d that was\npraise indeed, because the infants knew not what they said. That was the\nreason Balaam listened with so much respect to the warning spoken by his\nass; and many a preaching ass since has had a similar reward for\narticulate braying.\n\nOne more consideration suggests itself. The ominous flock kept by the\npullarius contained both cocks and hens; and the cock, as a bird of the\nsun, has been \u201csacred\u201d from prehistoric antiquity in that primitive\nnature-worship from which the Greco-Romans were by no means free. \u201cIt is\nnot improbable,\u201d we are assured by Houghton[95] \u201cthat the sacrificial\nrites and consultation by augury, in which cooks figured among the\nRomans, came originally from Babylonia.... I think that the figure [in a\nseal] of a cock perched on an altar before a priest making his\nofferings ... represents the bird in this capacity as a soothsayer.\u201d In\nfact, a whole department of the science of augury was known as\nalectromancy, in which a barnyard cock was the agent or medium of\ninspiration.\n\nThese practices\u2014which were entirely void of morality\u2014are a curious index\nof the mental barbarism of the early Greeks and Romans, for they are\nquite on a level with the ideas and doings of savages now.\n\nWith the advance in knowledge and enlightenment culminating in the\nphilosophy of Cicero and his skeptical contemporaries, both faith and\npractice in this childish consultation of chickens and crows\ndisappeared, or descended to be merely a political sop for the credulous\npopulace. Even this passed away when superstitious paganism faded out of\nthe religion of mankind in Europe, or, more exactly, it became changed\ninto a faith in weather prophecy by noticing the behavior of birds and\nother animals; but these prognostications are based not on a supposed\nmessage from the gods but on deductions from observation and experience.\nLet us see how far this modern method of augury is of service as a sort\nof homemade Weather Bureau\u2014we will, as it were, study the genesis of the\nRain-bird. It began early. Aristophanes tells us, of the Greeks:\n\n              From birds in sailing men instruction take\n              Now lie in port, now sail, and profit make.\n\nThe proprietor of Gardiner\u2019s Island, at the eastern end of Long Island,\nNew York, where fish-hawks then abounded, and always since have been\nunder protection, told Alexander Wilson[46] many facts of interest\nrespecting their habits, among others the following:\n\n  They are sometimes seen high in the air, sailing and cutting strange\n  gambols, with loud vociferations, darting down several hundred feet\n  perpendicularly, frequently with part of a fish in one claw, which\n  they seem proud of, and to claim \u201chigh hook,\u201d as the fishermen call\n  him who takes the greatest number. On these occasions they serve as\n  a barometer to foretell the changes of the atmosphere; for when the\n  fish-hawks are thus sailing high in air, in circles, it is\n  universally believed to prognosticate a change of weather, often a\n  thunder-storm in a few hours. On the faith of the certainty of these\n  signs the experienced coaster wisely prepares for the expected\n  storm, and is rarely mistaken.\n\nIt would be hard to find a better epitome of the \u201csigns\u201d given by birds\nto the weather-prophet. Similar behavior in sea-gulls is interpreted in\nthe same way: but in most cases high flight is said to denote\ncontinuance of fine weather, and in general there is good sense in that\nview, because, as a rule, bad weather descends upon us from the higher\nstrata of the atmosphere, and birds up there would be the first to feel\nits approach. Hence the joyous greeting, \u201cEverything is lovely and the\ngoose honks (not \u2018hangs\u2019) high.\u201d Sailors have a rhyme\u2014\n\n       When men-of-war-hawks fly high, \u2019tis a sign of clear sky;\n       When they fly low prepare for a blow.\n\nThis point is made in particular in respect to swallows of various\nkinds, which are regarded in most countries as presaging rain when they\nall go skimming along close to the ground; but it was pure fancy that\nexpanded this warning into the senseless couplet\n\n                     When the swallow buildeth low\n                     You can safely reap and sow.\n\nThat is, I suppose, the season will then furnish rain enough for a good\ncrop. The same thing is sung of swans. But even the swallows cannot be\ndepended on as indicators, for in late summer and autumn they are more\nlikely to skim along the ground and over ponds than to go anywhere else;\nand, as showing the uncertainty in men\u2019s minds in this matter, or else\nhow signs change with locality, it may be mentioned that in Argentina\nswallows are held to indicate coming storms not by low but by elevated\nflight. Thus the naturalist Hudson[44] writes of the musical martin\n(Progne), familiar about Buenos Ayres: \u201cIt is ... the naturalist\u2019s\nbarometer, as whenever, the atmosphere being clear and dry, the progne\nperches on the weathercock or lightning-rod, on the highest points of\nthe house-top, or on the topmost twig of some lofty tree, chanting its\nincantation, cloudy weather and rain will surely follow within\ntwenty-four hours.\u201d\n\nNone of the host of sayings, of which you may read hundreds in the\npublications of the United States Weather Service, and in such\ncollections of odd lore as _Gleanings for the Curious_,[96] that pretend\nto foretell the character of a whole season from what birds do, are\nworth credence. For example, some declare that \u201ca dry summer will follow\nwhen birds build their nests in exposed places,\u201d on the theory, I\nsuppose, that the builders will have no fear of getting wet; and\n\n                   If birds in the autumn grow tame,\n                   The winter will be cold for game.\n\nOne important exception to this kind of nonsense may be made, however,\nfor in certain circumstances it is fair to accept from our American\nbirds a broad hint as to the character of the approaching winter.\nExperience convinces us that an unusually early arrival of migratory\nbirds from the north indicates an extra cold winter to follow. Several\nnorthwestern sayings about ducks and geese tell us that whenever they\nleave Lake Superior noticeably earlier than is their wont; or fly\nsouthward straight and fast, not lingering near accustomed\nhalting-places, then a severe season is to be anticipated. In the sum\nthis is logical, for this reason:\n\nBirds whose home is in the far North\u2014and several species go to the\nextreme limit of arctic lands to make their nests\u2014must quit those\ndesolate coasts as soon as chilling rains, snow-storms, and frost begin\nto kill the insects, bury the plants and freeze the streams, thus\ncutting off food-supplies; and they must keep ahead of those\nfamine-producing conditions as they travel southward toward their\nwinter-resorts in a more hospitable zone. On the average, their arrival\nin the United States will be nearly on the same date year after year.\n\nIt sometimes happens, however, that winter will pounce upon the arctic\nborder of the continent days or weeks earlier than usual, and the cold\nand snowfall will exceed the normal quantity. In such circumstances the\nbirds must make their escape more hastily than ordinarily, and will come\ndown across the Canadian border in larger and more hurrying companies,\nvery likely accompanied by such species as snow-birds, crossbills, pine\nfinches and evening grosbeaks, which in general pass the winter somewhat\nto the north of our boundary. Excessive cold in the far North is almost\ncertain to influence southern Canada and the northern states, and it is\ntherefore safe to conclude, when we witness this behavior of migratory\nbirds, that a winter of exceptional severity has set in at the north and\nis in store for us. But the prophets are ourselves\u2014not the birds! They\nare dealing with dangerous conditions, and leave it to us to do the\ntheorizing.\n\nOne feature of the behavior of the fish-hawks in Wilson\u2019s story was\ntheir restlessness, taken by fishermen to betoken a rising storm. There\nmay be some value in this \u201csign,\u201d since it is noted in many other cases.\nDozens of proverbs mention as indications various unusual actions\nnoticeable in poultry, such as crowing at odd times, clappings of the\nwings, rolling in the dust, standing about in a distraught kind of way,\na tendency to flocking, and so forth. Many popular sayings tell us that\nboth barnyard fowls and wild birds become very noisy before an\nunfavorable change in the weather.\n\n                 When the peacock loudly bawls\n                 Soon we\u2019ll have both rain and squalls,\n\nis one such. Virgil\u2019s statement that \u201cthe owl\u201d screeches unduly at such\na time is supported by modern testimony.\n\nA reasonable explanation of this uneasiness is that it is the effect of\nthat increased electrical tension in the atmosphere that often precedes\na shower, to which small creatures are perhaps more sensitive than are\nmen and large animals. It will not do, then, to reject _all_ the\nweather-signs popularly alleged to be given by animals.\n\nAt the same time, as has been suggested, much of the current\nweather-prophecy relating to animals is silly, such, for example, that\na solitary turkey-buzzard seen at a great altitude indicates rain;\nthat blackbirds\u2019 notes are very shrill before rain; that there will be\nno rain the day a heron flies down the creek; that when woodpeckers\npeck low on the tree-trunks expect a hard winter. These, and many\nother nonsensical maxims, are in fact spurious. Most of them, no\ndoubt, were uttered originally in jest, or as a whimsical answer to\nsome inquisitive child, then repeated as amusing, and finally quoted\nseriously. Others have been brought to us from the old world by early\nfarmer-immigrants\u2014French in Canada, Louisiana and New England, Dutch\nin New York, Swedish and German in New Jersey and Pennsylvania,\nSpanish in the Southwest, and so on\u2014and have been applied to our\nnative birds, where often they fail to fit. A saw that perhaps had\nsome value when told of the European robin or blackbird, is\nludicrously inappropriate when said of our blackbirds and robins,\nwhich are totally different in nature and habits.\n\nOne of the most venerable of these worthless prognostics, and one that\nvery likely is a relic of Roman auspices, twenty-five centuries ago, is\nthat of the goose-bone:\n\n  \u201cTo read the winter of any year take the breast-bone of a goose\n  hatched during the preceding spring. The bone is translucent, and it\n  will be found to be colored and spotted. The dark color and heavy\n  spots indicate cold. If the spots are of light shade, and\n  transparent, wet weather, rain or snow, may be looked for.\n\n                 \u201cIf the November goose-bone be thick,\n                 So will the winter weather be;\n                 If the November goose-bone be thin,\n                 So will the winter weather be.\u201d\n\nOne need not wonder at the indignant refusal of hard-headed commanders\nof old who refused to let their strategy or tactics to be interfered\nwith by alarmed priests who reported unfavorable auguries from dissected\nhens. Eusebius records the legend that a bird was presented to Alexander\nthe Macedonian when on the point of setting out for the Red Sea, in\norder that he might read the auguries according to custom. Alexander\nkilled the bird by an arrow, saying, \u201cWhat folly is this? How could a\nbird that could not foresee its death by this arrow, predict the\nfortunes of our journey?\u201d The shocked bystanders might have replied, of\ncourse, that the poor creature had no such knowledge in itself, but was\nmerely the blank on which divine intelligence was written; but the\nchances are that they held their tongues! Plutarch mentions many a case\nin which commanders construed the \u201comens\u201d in a way contrary to the\npriestly interpretation, in order to carry out some plan that could not\nbe delayed, and yet conciliate the superstitious soldiers.\n\nIt will have been noticed that most of the prophecies learned from birds\nrelate to coming rain or bad weather, and winter rather than summer. In\n_The Strange Metamorphosis of Man_ (1634), as quoted by Brewer,[34]\nspeaking of the goose, we read: \u201cShe is no witch or astrologer, ... but\nshe hath a shrewd guesse of rainie weather, being as good as an almanac\nto some that beleeve in her.\u201d Men generally seem more desirous of\nascertaining the evil than the good that may be in store for them. The\nfeeling is, perhaps, that if we knew of dangers ahead we might prepare\nfor them, but that in fair days we can take care of ourselves. Almost\nevery country has some particular \u201crain-bird\u201d whose cry is supposed to\nforetell showers. In England it is the green woodpecker, or yaffle; in\nMalaya a broadbill; in some parts of this country the spotted sandpiper,\nor tipup; but _everywhere_ some sort of cuckoo is called \u201crain-bird\u201d or\n\u201crain-crow,\u201d although the various cuckoos of America, Europe, and the\nOrient, differ widely in appearance, habits and voice.\n\nWhy should peoples so dissimilar and widely scattered attribute to this\nvery diverse cuckoo family the quality of \u201crain-birds\u201d more than to\nanother family? I can only believe that it denotes the survival of a\nvery ancient Oriental notion, whose significance was very real in a\nsymbolic way to the primitive people among whom it originated locally,\nbut has now been utterly forgotten.\n\nPlunging into the thickets of comparative mythology, hoping to pluck a\nfew fruity facts for our pains, we find that in Hindoo myths the cuckoo\nstands as a symbol of the sun when hidden behind clouds, that is, for a\nrainy condition of the sky; furthermore that this bird has a reputation\nfor possessing exceeding wisdom surpassing that of other birds, all of\nwhich are fabled to be supernaturally wise: and that it knew not only\nthings present but things to come. It was, in fact, in the opinion of\nthe ancient Hindoos, a prophetic bird of unrivalled vatic ability. The\nGreeks thought their own cuckoo had inherited some of these qualities,\nfor they made it one of the birds in the Olympian aviary of Zeus, who,\nplease remember, was the pluvial god.\n\nPlainly this rainy-day character was given to the bird through the\ncircumstance that in southern Asia, as in southern Europe, the cuckoo is\none of the earliest and quite the most conspicuous of spring-birds\u2014and\nthe spring is the rainy season. In early days farmers had little\nknowledge of a calendar. They sowed and reaped when it seemed fitting to\ndo so. The coming of the cuckoo coincided with experience, and came to\nbe their almanac-date for certain operations\u2014_a signal convenient in\nadvice to the young, or to a newcomer_; and as a rule hoped-for showers\nfollowed the bird\u2019s advent. In the same way old-fashioned Pennsylvania\nfarmers used to connect corn-planting time and the first-heard singing\nof the brown thrasher.\n\nHesiod instructed his rural countrymen that if \u201cit should happen to rain\nthree days in succession when the cuckoo sings among the oak-trees, then\nlate sowing will be as good as early sowing\u201d\u2014doubtless good agricultural\ncounsel. Not more than a century ago English farmers thought it\nnecessary to sow barley when the earliest note of the cuckoo was heard\nin order to insure a full crop. Mr. Friend[11] reasons thus about this:\n\u201cAs the cuckoo only returns to our shores at a certain time, it has been\ncustomary to predict from his appearance what kind of season will\nfollow; and farmers have in all ages placed great reliance on omens of\nweather and crops drawn from this source.... In Berwickshire those oats\nwhich are sown after the first of April are called \u2018gowk\u2019s\u2019 [cuckoo\u2019s]\noats....\n\n                     Cuckoo oats and wood cock hay\n                     Make a farmer run away.\n\nIf the spring is so backward that the oats cannot be sown until the\ncuckoo is heard, or the autumn so wet that the hay cannot be gathered in\nuntil the woodcocks come over, the farmer is sure to suffer great loss.\u201d\n\nSo much for these old maxims; and when British or Italian immigrants\nbecame colonists in America, and found cuckoos here, they continued the\nsayings, regardless of difference in climate and other circumstances.\nOur species are not early migrants in spring, are poor guides for\nplanters, and seem to have no prophetic gift, yet they are rain-birds\nbecause their ancestral relatives in India were such 3,000 years ago.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XII\n               A PRIMITIVE VIEW OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES\n\n\nIf anyone should ask you how a particular bird came to be blue or red or\nstreaked, or how it happened that birds in general differ in colors and\nother features, \u201ceach after its kind,\u201d in other words how specific\ndistinctions came about, you, a liberal-minded and well-read person,\nwould undoubtedly answer that each and all \u201cdeveloped\u201d these specific\ncharacteristics. You might go on to explain that they resulted from the\ncombined influences of natural and sexual selection, to the latter of\nwhich birds are supposed to be especially susceptible, and thereby show\nyourself a good Darwinist.\n\nBut primitive thinkers, like children, are not evolutionists but\ncreationists. They believe that things were made as they are: if so,\nsomebody made them. They are convinced that no person like themselves or\nany of their acquaintances could do it, so they attribute the feat to\nsome being with superhuman powers. This being is almost always the\nmythical ancestor, pristine instructor or \u201cculture-hero,\u201d of the nation,\ntribe or clan to which the thinker belongs; and it is perfectly natural\nand a matter of course to assume that he had magical functions and\nsupernatural powers. Next, some genius invents a story to fit the case,\nand as anything is possible to such a being as the hero it is adopted\nand passed into the tribal history that the elders recount by the\nevening fire, and that everybody accepts without suspicion or criticism.\nThe Hebrews, for example, said that Adam, their \u201cfirst man,\u201d \u201cgave names\nto all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the\nfield; ... and whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the\nname thereof.\u201d As to his reasons for giving this name to one creature\nand another to that, it has been whimsically explained that he called\nthe raccoon that because \u201cit looked like a \u2018coon\u2019\u201d\u2014quite as good a\nreason as the legend requires.\n\nNow the two questions at the beginning of this chapter were, in fact,\nasked by a great variety of our aboriginal Americans, the red Indians,\nand undoubtedly by the aborigines of most other countries; but for the\npresent let us stick to North America.\n\nWhen some bright-witted, inquisitive Iroquois youngster, hearing and\nseeing many birds on a soft June morning, asked his mother how it\nhappened that they wore such a diversity of plumages, she told him this\nstory: In the beginning the birds were naked, but some of them became\nashamed, and cried for coverings. (In those days, of course, birds\ntalked with one another, and even with the wiser sort of men.) They were\ntold that their suits were ready but were a long way off. At last the\nturkey-buzzard was persuaded to go and get them. He had been a clean\nbird, but during the long journey had to eat much carrion and filth,\nhence his present nature. Guided by the gods he reached the store of\nplumages, and selfishly chose for himself the most beautifully colored\ndress, but as he found he could not fly in it he was forced to take his\npresent one, which enables him to soar most gracefully. Finally he\nbrought their varied suits to the other birds.\n\nThe Iroquois lad would be quite satisfied with this account of the\nmatter; but a boy on the opposite side of the continent would get a very\ndifferent explanation. He would be told that Raven did it. Raven\u2014or the\nraven\u2014was the mythical ancestor or culture hero, as ethnologists would\nsay, of the foremost clan of the Tlingit tribe, whose territory was in\nsouthern Alaska. He was present at the making of the world and its\npeople, and did many marvellous things. While he was at Sitka arranging\naffairs in the new world he assigned to all the birds, one by one, the\nplace of their resort and their habits, and his good nature is shown by\nthe fact that to the robin and the hummingbird he assigned the duty of\ngiving pleasure to men, the former by its song and the latter by its\nbeauty. By and by the birds dressed one another in different ways, so\nthat they might easily be recognized apart. They tied the hair of the\nbluejay up high with a string, put a striped coat on the little\nwoodpecker, and so on. The Kwakiutl coastal Indians of British Columbia\ndeny this, however. They say the birds did not select their own\ncostumes, but that one of their ancestors painted all the birds he found\nat a certain place. When he reached the cormorant his colors were\nexhausted and he had only charcoal left, hence the cormorant is wholly\nblack.\n\nGeorge Keith,[99] who in 1807 was a fur-trader on the Mackenzie River,\ngathered and recorded much valuable material as to the customs and ideas\nof the Beaver Indians of that region, who belonged to the Ojibway\nfamily. In one of his stories Keith gives the Indians\u2019 explanation of\nhow certain birds got their colors: it was during the time of a great\nflood. At that period all birds were white, but l\u2019\u00e9pervier (the\nsharp-shinned hawk), l\u2019\u00e9merillon (the goshawk), and l\u2019canard de France\n(mallard) agreed to change to a plumage in colors\u2014how it was to be done\nthe Indians were unable to say. The story proceeds:\n\n  Immediately after this event the corbeau [raven] made his\n  appearance. \u201cCome,\u201d says l\u2019\u00e9pervier to the corbeau, \u201cwould you not\n  wish to have a coat like mine?\u201d \u201cHold your tongue!\u201d rejoined the\n  corbeau. \u201cWith your crooked bill is not white handsomer than any\n  other color?\u201d The others argued with the corbeau to consent, but he\n  remained inflexible, which so exasperated l\u2019\u00e9pervier and the others\n  that they determined to avenge this affront, and each taking a burnt\n  coal in his bill they blacked him all over. The corbeau, enraged at\n  this treatment, and determined not to be singular, espied a flock of\n  \u00e9tourneaux [blackbirds] and, without shaking off the black dust of\n  his feathers, threw himself amongst them and bespattered them all\n  over with black, which is the reason for their still retaining this\n  color.\n\nFurther south, on Puget Sound, once lived the tribe of Twanas, who held\nthat in former times men painted themselves in various hues, whereupon\nDokblatt, their culture-hero, who notoriously was fond of changing\nthings, turned these men into birds, which explains the present\ndiversity in avian plumage.\n\nThe Arawaks of Venezuela, however, account for this matter by saying\nthat the birds obtained their gay feathers by selecting parts of a huge,\ngaudily colored water-snake that the cormorant killed for them by diving\ninto the water; yet the cormorant, with great modesty, kept for himself\nonly the snake\u2019s head, which was blackish.\n\nMost explanatory stories concern single kinds of birds, and inform us\nhow they got the peculiar features by which we identify them with their\nnames; and here we get back to the nearctic raven. A history of the\nexploits of this personage\u2014bird, bird-man or bird-god\u2014who is the hero of\nmore tales than any other of the giants that flourished in the formative\nperiod of the northern Indian\u2019s world, would fill a big book. \u201cThe\ncreator of all things and the benefactor of man was the great raven\ncalled by the Thlingit Yel, Yeshil or Yeatl, and by the Haida\nNe-kilstlas. He was not exactly an ordinary bird but had ... many human\nattributes, and the power of transforming himself into anything in the\nworld. His coat of feathers could be put on or taken off at will like a\ngarment, and he could assume any character whatever. He existed before\nhis birth, never grows old, and will never die.\u201d So Mr. (now Admiral)\nNiblack, U. S. N., characterized this supreme magician;[100] and Dr. E.\nW. Nelson[101] adds that this creation-legend is believed by the Eskimos\nfrom the Kuskoquim River in southern Alaska northward to Bering Strait,\nand thence eastward all along the Arctic Coast. The purely mythological\nrelation of this widely revered northwestern raven is thus summarized by\nBrinton[27]:\n\n  This father of the race is represented as a mighty bird, called Yel,\n  or Yale, or Orelbale, from the root [Athabascan] _ell_, a term they\n  apply to everything supernatural. He took to wife a daughter of the\n  Sun (the Woman of Light), and by her begat the race of men. He\n  formed the dry land for a place for them to live upon, and stocked\n  the rivers with salmon that they might have food. When he enters his\n  nest it is day, but when he leaves it it is night; or, according to\n  another myth, he has two women for wives, the one of whom makes the\n  day, the other the night. In the beginning Yel was white in plumage,\n  but he had an enemy ... by whose machinations he was turned black.\n  Yel is further represented as the god of the winds and storms, and\n  of the thunder and lightning.\n\nIt is plain that in studying the deeds and accidents attributed to this\nAmerican member of the sun-born \u201cfabulous flock\u201d described in another\nchapter, it is often difficult to separate Raven the demigod, from the\nsable, kawing, cunning bird so conspicuous all over northern Canada; and\nin this respect Yel differs from Rukh, Simurgh, and the other similar\nfigments of Oriental fancies, in that he is modelled upon a real bird,\nrather than on something utterly unknown to earthly ornithology.\n\nA favorite tale with many variants describes how the cormorant lost its\nvoice. As the Haidas of Queen Charlotte Islands tell it, Raven once\ninvited the cormorant to go a-fishing with him. The cormorant went, and\nnaturally caught many fish, while the Raven took none. Then Raven, angry\nmade the cormorant stick out its tongue. \u201cThere is something on it,\u201d\nquoth Raven, and pulled the tongue out by the roots; and that is why\ncormorants have no voice.[C]\n\nFootnote C:\n\n  The cormorant was once a wool-merchant. He entered into a partnership\n  with the bramble and the bat, and they freighted a large ship with\n  wool. She was wrecked and the firm became bankrupt. Since that\n  disaster the bat skulks about until midnight to avoid his creditors,\n  the cormorant is forever diving into the deep to discover its\n  foundered vessel, while the bramble seizes hold of every passing sheep\n  to make up the firm\u2019s loss by stealing the wool. This is an ancient\n  European story quite as silly as the Haida one.\n\nHere Raven is plainly the supernatural, irresponsible being of Totemic\nimportance, who often presented himself as a man or in some other form,\nfor he could assume any shape he liked. Thus the Hudson Bay Eskimos\nrelate that Raven was a man who loudly cautioned persons when moving a\nvillage-camp not to forget the deer-skin under-blanket called \u201ckak\u201d: so\nhe got that nickname, and ravens still fly about fussily calling _kak!\nkak!_ The Tlingits also have a story in which Raven begins the action as\na man, and ends plain bird\u2014an outwitted one at that. Raven was in a\nhouse and played a trick on Petrel, then tried to get away by flying up\nthrough the smoke-hole in the roof, but got stuck there. Seeing this\nPetrel built a birchwood fire under him, so as to make much smoke. The\nraven was white before that time, but the smudge blackened him forever.\n\nThe Greenland Eskimos account for the change in the raven from white to\nblack by the story of its vexing the snow-owl, which was its fast friend\nin the ancient days before marvels became marvellous. One day the raven\nmade a new dress, dappled black and white (the summer plumage), for the\nowl, which in return fashioned a pair of whalebone boots for the raven,\nand also a white dress, as was proper for ravens at that time; but the\nraven would not stay quiet while it was tried on. The owl shouted\nangrily, \u201cSit still or I shall pour the lamp over you!\u201d Nevertheless the\nbird kept hopping about until the owl, out of patience, picked up the\nsoapstone saucer-lamp and drenched him with the sooty lamp-oil. Since\nthen the ever-restless raven has been black all over.\n\nThe Haidas say that the crow likewise was originally white, and that on\none occasion Raven turned it black as a spiteful sort of joke.\n\nIt is interesting to recall that in classic myth ravens were once as\nwhite as swans and as large; but one day a raven told his patron,\nApollo, that Coronis, a Thessalian nymph whom he passionately loved, was\nfaithless, whereupon the god shot the nymph with his dart, but hating\nthe telltale bird\n\n             ... he blacked the raven o\u2019er\n             And bid him prate in his white plumes no more,\n\nas Ovid sings in Addison\u2019s translation. Some accounts say that one of\nOdin\u2019s messenger-ravens was white. To this day the peasants about\nBrescia, in Italy, speak of January 30 and 31, and February 1, as\n\u201cblackbird days,\u201d and explained that many years ago the local blackbirds\nwere white; but in one hard winter it was so cold these thrushes were\ncompelled to take refuge in chimneys, and ever since have worn a sooty\nplumage.\n\nThis belief that the sable brotherhood of the crow-tribe was once white\nseems to be universal, and perhaps arises in the equally general, albeit\nsomewhat childish, feeling that nothing is as it used to be; and coupled\nwith this is the similarly common feeling that every event or condition\nought to be accounted for. Thus we get a glimpse at the psychology in\nthese primitive stories of the reason why this and that animal is as we\nsee it. Skeat[7] found among the Malays, for example, a legend that in\nthe days of King Solomon the argus pheasant was dowdily dressed, and it\nbesought the crow to paint its plumage in splendid colors. The crow\ncomplied and gave the pheasant its present beautifully variegated\ncostume; but when the artist asked for a similar service toward itself\nfrom the pheasant the latter not only refused but spilt a bottle of ink\nover the crow.\n\nTo return to the erratic, and usually mischievous career of Yel, the\nNorthwestern (raven) culture-hero, it is remembered that often, kindly\nor unkindly, he changed sundry birds besides owls from something else\ninto their present form. For example, he sent a hawk into the Tlingit\ncountry after fire. Previously the hawk\u2019s bill had been long, but in\nbringing the fire this long beak was burned short, and has ever remained\nso. Nelson[101] learned from Alaskan Eskimos why the short-eared owl has\nso diminutive a beak, nearly hidden in the feathers of the flat face.\nThis owl, it appears, was once a little girl who lived in a village by\nthe lower Yukon. \u201cShe was changed by magic into a bird with a long bill,\nand became so frightened that she sprang up and flew off in an erratic\nway until she struck the side of a house, flattening her beak and face\nso that she became just as the owls are seen to-day.\u201d\n\nRaven made woodpeckers (red-shafted flickers) out of the blood that\ngushed from his nose after he had bruised it; and Haida fishermen now\ntie scarlet flicker feathers to their halibut hooks \u201cfor luck.\u201d Their\nneighbors, the Clalams, thought it better to use a piece of kingfisher\nskin\u2014and in my opinion their reasoning was the sounder of the two.\nPerhaps it was Raven whom the Tshimshian Indians of Nass River meant\nwhen they spoke of \u201cGiant\u2019s\u201d treatment of the gulls. The Giant, as\nProfessor Boaz heard it designated, had some oolachans (smelts) and\nstuck them on sticks to roast by his fire. \u201cWhen they were done a gull\nappeared over the Giant. Then the Giant called him \u2018Little Gull.\u2019 Then\nmany gulls came, which ate all the Giant\u2019s oolachans. They said while\nthey were eating it _qana, qana, qana!_ Then he was sad. Therefore he\ntook the gulls and threw them into the fireplace, and ever since the\ntips of their wings have been black.\u201d\n\nThe culture-hero of the Twana Indians of the Puget Sound region was\nDokibat, as has been mentioned, who had a habit of changing things,\nturning men into stones or birds, and so forth. A boy hearing that he\nwas coming, and fearing some unpleasant transformation, ran away,\ncarrying with him a water-box (used in canoe-journeys by sea) with water\nin it. The water shaking about sounded somewhat like _pu-pu-pu_ when\nrepeated rapidly; but as the boy ran wings came to him and he began to\nfly, and the noise in the box sounded like the cooing of the wood-dove,\nwhich the Twans called \u201chum-o.\u201d A man was pounding against a cedar-tree.\nDokibat came along and asked him what he was doing. \u201cTrying to break or\nsplit this tree,\u201d was the answer. Dokibat said: \u201cYou may stop and go\naway, and I will help you.\u201d As the woodman went wings came to him, also\na long bill and a strong head, and he became a woodpecker.\n\nHow the woodpecker got the red mark on the back of its head, which is a\ncharacteristic of most species, is explained by the Algonkins thus,\naccording to Schoolcraft:[102] Manabozho, the renowned culture-hero of\nthe Ojibways and their relatives, made a campaign against the Shining\nManito, and at last, finding him in his lair, a mortal combat began. At\nlength Manabozho had left only three arrows, and the fight was going\nagainst him. Ma-ma, the woodpecker, cried out: \u201cShoot him at the base of\nthe scalp-lock; it is his only vulnerable spot!\u201d (The Indians have many\nstories turning on this point, and reminding us of that of Achilles.)\nThen with the third and last arrow Manabozho hit the fatal spot, and\ntaking the scalp of the Shining Manito as a trophy he rubbed blood from\nit on the woodpecker\u2019s head, which remains red in his descendants. That\nthe redheaded species (_Melanerpes torquatus_), abundant in summer in\nthe Ojibway country, is meant here is evident from the further statement\nthat its red feathers were thereafter regarded as symbols of valor, and\nwere chosen to ornament the warriors\u2019 pipes, for no other woodpecker of\nthe region could furnish enough such feathers to answer the purpose.\n\nThe Menominees, of southern Wisconsin, had a different story relating to\nthe scarlet crest of another kind of woodpecker. They say that\nBall-carrier, who was a bad-tempered sort of fellow among their\ndemigods, promised the logcock, or big black woodpecker of the forest,\nthat if he would kill a certain Cannibal-Woman he should have a piece of\nher scalp with its lock of red hair. So the bird rushed at her and drove\nhis chisel-like beak into her heart. Then Ball-carrier gave her red\nscalp-lock to the logcock, which placed it on his own head, as one may\nsee now. In Indo-European mythology woodpeckers figure among\nlightning-birds, and the red mark on their heads is deemed the badge of\ntheir office.\n\nThe need of accounting for notable features like this in animals seems\nto have appealed to all sorts of people, all around the world, in each\ncase according to local ideas. Thus an Arabic tradition current in\nPalestine accounts for the fork in the tail of swallows by the fact that\na bird of this species baffled a scheme of the Old Serpent (Eblis) in\nParadise, whereupon the serpent struck at it, but succeeded only in\nbiting out a notch in the middle of its tail. Another example: Nigerian\nnegros say that the vulture got its bald head by malicious transference\nof a disease with which a green pigeon had been suffering\u2014a native guess\nat the filth-bacteria to which modern zoologists attribute the\nnakedness! Oddly enough, a folk-tale in Louisiana, related by\nFortier,[106] similarly explains the baldness of our turkey-buzzard by\nsaying it came from a pan of hot ashes thrown at the vulture\u2019s head in\nrevenge for an injury it had committed on a rabbit\u2014and \u201cbuzzards never\neat bones of rabbits.\u201d\n\nThe Iowas account for the peculiar baldness of this bird by a long story\nrecounted by Spence[12] in which their mythical hero Ictinike figures.\nIctinike asked a buzzard to carry him toward a certain place. The crafty\nbird consented, but presently dropped him in a tall hollow tree.\nIctinike was wearing \u2019coonskins, and when presently some persons came\nalong he thrust their tails through cracks in the trunk. Three women,\nthinking that raccoons had become imprisoned in the tree, cut a hole to\ncapture them, whereupon Ictinike came out and the women ran away. Then\nIctinike lay down wrapped in his furs as if asleep, and an eagle, a\ncrow, and a magpie came and began pecking at him. The buzzard, thinking\nthis meant a feast, rushed down from the sky, and Ictinike jumped up and\ntore off its scalp, since which the buzzard has been bald.\n\nBut many explanations of why birds are now so or so make no mention of\nRavens or Ictinikes, but just tell you the fact. Thus the Eskimos of\nnorthwestern Alaska relate that one autumn day very long ago the cranes\nprepared to go southward. As they were gathered in a great flock they\nsaw a beautiful girl standing alone near a village. Admiring her\ngreatly, the cranes gathered about her, and lifting her on their\nwide-spread wings bore her far up and away. While the cranes were taking\nher aloft their brethren circled about below her so closely that she\ncould not fall, and with hoarse cries drowned her screams for help. So\nshe was swept away into the sky, and never seen again. Always since that\ntime the cranes have circled about in autumn, uttering loud cries.\n\nThe Hudson Bay Eskimos tell their boys and girls when they see the funny\nlittle guillemots by the sea-cliffs and ask about them, that once a lot\nof children were playing near the brink of such a precipice. Their noisy\nshouts disturbed a band of seal-hunters on the strand below; and one of\nthe men exclaimed, \u201cI wish the cliff would topple over and bury those\nnoisy children!\u201d In a moment the height did so, and the poor infants\nfell among the rocks below. There they were changed into guillemots and\ndwell to this day on the crags at the edge of the sea.\n\nAnother juvenile story explains that the swallows became what they are\nby a change from Eskimo children who were making \u201cplay-house\u201d igloos of\nmud on the top of a cliff. To this day the swallows come every summer\nand fix their mud nests to the rocks, recalling their childish joy in\nthe previous state of their existence. Hence the Eskimo children\nparticularly love to watch these birds in their \u201cigluiaks,\u201d which are\nsaid not to be molested by the predatory ravens.\n\nOnce a long war was fought between the brants and the herons, according\nto a Tlingit legend, but at last the swans intervened and a peace was\narranged. To celebrate it the herons indulged in much dancing, and have\nbeen dancers ever since. I am inclined to think this another crane\nlegend, because the few herons known in the Tlingit country do not\nindulge in such antics, whereas the cranes do \u201cdance\u201d a great deal in\nthe mating-season. These Indians, by the way, say that they learned the\nuse of pickaxes by watching a heron strike the ground with its beak; and\nthe suggestion of snowshoes was caught from the ptarmigan, on whose feet\ngrow in winter expansions of the toes that serve to make it easier for\nthe bird to walk on snow.\n\nThe ruffed grouse, the Ojibways declare, was marked with eleven spots on\nits tail to remind him of the time when he wouldn\u2019t do as he was told,\nand had to fast eleven days as a punishment. On the other hand Manabozho\nrewarded the kingfisher for some useful information by hanging a medal\n(in color) about its neck; but in bestowing the medal Manabozho snatched\nat the kingfisher\u2019s head, intending to twist it off\u2014a very\ncharacteristic dodge of these treacherous old culture-heroes\u2014but only\nrumpled the bird\u2019s crest, so that it has been a ragged sort of headdress\never since.\n\nThe extinct Chitimacha Indians of northern Louisiana had a tale that a\nman set the marshes on fire, and a little bird uprose through the smoke\nand remonstrated. The man was angry and threw a shell at the bird, which\nwounded its wings and made them bleed, and thus the red-winged blackbird\ngot its scarlet shoulders.\n\nA familiar and active little shrike of the northern border of South\nAmerica is the kiskadee, with a conspicuous white mark on its head. The\nArawaks say that this radiant little songster, which has the same sort\nof fierce hostility to hawks and other large birds as distinguishes our\ndoughty kingbird, got tired of a war that was going on among the\nanimals, put a white bandage around its head and pretended to be sick.\nThe war halted long enough to expose the fraud of the little malingerer,\nand kiskadees were sentenced to wear the white bandage perpetually.\n\nArawak story-tellers also relate that the trumpeter (Psophia) and a\nkingfisher quarrelled over the spoils of war, and knocked each other\ninto the ashes, which accounts for the gray of their plumage. The\nnakedness of the trumpeter\u2019s legs is owing to his stepping into an ant\u2019s\nnest, and getting them picked clean. The owl discovered a package among\nthe spoil of the war that contained only darkness, since which that bird\ncannot endure daylight. It is interesting to compare with this the\nadventure of the trumpeter current among the Maquiritares, which is\nrelated elsewhere.\n\nSo the stories go on. The Pimas, for example, believe that the mountain\nbluebird was originally an unlovely gray, but acquired its present\nexquisite azure coat by bathing in a certain lake of blue water that had\nneither inlet nor outlet. It bathed in this regularly for four mornings.\nOn the fourth morning it shed all its plumage and came out with the skin\nbare; but on the fifth morning it emerged from its bath with a coat of\nblue.\n\nThis tradition is somewhat sentimental, as befits the sweetly warbling\nand beloved bluebird, which is not only a favorite, but has a certain\nsacredness in the southwest; but often, in the majority of cases\nperhaps, a rough humor tinges the history. Thus Manabush, a mythical\nancestor of the Menominees, once assembled all the birds by a\nsubterfuge, and then killed several. The little grebe, or \u201chell-diver,\u201d\nwas one of those chosen for death, and as it was a poor runner it was\neasily caught. Manabush said contemptuously, \u201cI won\u2019t kill you, but you\nshall always have red eyes and be the laughing-stock of all the birds.\u201d\nWith that he gave the poor bird a kick, sending it far out into Lake\nMichigan and knocking off its tail, so that the hell-diver is red-eyed\nand almost tailless to this day.\n\nI have restricted this chapter mainly to examples from the folklore of\nthe American Indians, but, were there not danger of becoming tedious,\nmany more might be quoted from the fireside tales of other countries,\nespecially Africa. African traditions, however, can hardly be held to\naccount for the following explanations by some Southern darkies as given\nby Martha Young[2]:\n\n  The bluejay was yoked into a plow by the sparrow, and the\n  necklace-like mark on his breast is the mark left by the yoke worn\n  in this degrading service.\n\n  The buzzard originally had a \u201cfine plume sweepin\u2019 from de top of his\n  head,\u201d but lost it in a quarrel with a dog. \u201cSense dat day Buzzard\n  don\u2019t never miss fust pickin\u2019 out de eye of ev\u2019thing that he gwine\n  eat,\u201d so that it cannot see to resist if it is not quite dead.\n\n  Darkies say that the hummingbird lost her voice\u2014\u201cshe choke her voice\n  clean out of her wid honey\u201d\u2014through being so greedy when she first\n  discovered the honey in flowers, by reason of contracting a\n  \u201cswimmin\u2019 in de head\u201d by incessant whirling, as her poising on wings\n  seems to the negroes. \u201cShe hav a notion now that she los\u2019 her voice\n  ... deep in some flower. She\u2019s al\u2019a\u2019rs lookin\u2019 fer dat los\u2019 voice.\n  Flash in dis flower! Dash in dat flower! But she\u2019ll nuvver, nuvver\n  fin\u2019 it.\u201d\n\nCharles G. Leland quotes in his _Etruscan Roman Remains_[97] a note\ngiven him by Miss Mary Owen, of St. Joseph, Missouri, that the negroes\nand half-breeds in southern Missouri consider the redheaded woodpecker a\ngreat sorcerer, who can appear as either a bird or as a redman with a\nmantle or cloak on his arm. He is supposed to be very grateful or very\nvengeful as his mood requires. He sometimes bores holes in the heads of\nhis enemies, while they sleep, and puts in maggots which keep the\nvictims forever restless and crazy. He made the bat by putting a rat and\na bird together.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XIII\n                        BIRDS AND THE LIGHTNING\n\n\nNothing in nature, except perhaps the rising and setting of the sun, has\nimpressed mankind more than the fearsome phenomena of a thunder-storm.\nSuch a storm in the Rocky Mountains, or among the Californian Sierras,\nis truly terrifying in its magnificence, and it is none the less so in\nthe Alps or Himalayas or on the volcanic summits of Central Africa. The\nlightnings dart about the darkly clouded peaks, and the thunder-crashes\nleap from cliff to cliff in echoes that stun one, for they seem like\nvast iron missiles hurled by Titanic strength, and rebounding from crags\nthat are falling in prodigious ruin\u2014perhaps on your head.\n\nOn the plains, too, such a storm may be fearfully grand, for amid\nrolling thunders and a tremendous downpour of rain come an incessant\nflash and sparkle of lightnings that illuminate the prairie with a\nviolet flame almost blinding in its glare. A person who did not\ncomprehend the physical meaning of such a display might well be excused\nfor trembling in awe and terror\u2014moreover, the danger is real.\n\nI believe that almost from the first there were wise men, the\nphilosophers of their time, who understood that the clouds were fleeting\nmasses of fog, that rain was the water pressed out of them, and that the\nlightning and its associated rumble were somehow as natural as the\nblowing of the wind. The mass of wondering and terrified people,\nhowever, could not think of the rush and noise and glare of stormy\nweather otherwise than as something produced by living beings of huge,\nmysterious and usually destructive power; and they were as real to them,\nalthough invisible, as are the electric currents and tremendous\nair-vibrations to us. Among the aboriginal Chinese electricity was\nrepresented as residing on the mountains in the form of birds, and their\nThunder-god is pictured with a bird\u2019s beak and claws, and armed with a\ndrum and hammer.\n\n\u201cThe drama of mythology,\u201d De Gubernatis tells us, \u201chas its origin in the\nsky; but the sky may be either clear or gloomy; it may be illumined by\nthe sun or by the moon; it may be obscured by the darkness of night, or\nthe condensation of its vapors into clouds.... The god who causes rain\nto fall, who from the highest heaven fertilizes the earth, takes the\nform now of a ram, now of a bull; the lightning that flies like a winged\narrow, is represented now as a bird, now as winged horse; and thus, one\nafter another, all the shifting phenomena of the heavens take the form\nof animals, becoming at length now the hero himself, now the animal that\nwaits upon the hero, and without which he would possess no supernatural\npower whatever.\u201d\n\nTo the minds of the redmen in the eastern part of the United States the\nviolent storms frequent in summer were somehow produced by vague\nsupernatural beings spoken of as Thunder-gods; but on the open prairies\nand plains of the West, where even more terrific electric disturbances\noccur, and also along the Northwest Coast and in Alaska, they were\nattributed to birds of enormous size, who darkened the rain-clouds with\ntheir shadows and produced thunder by flapping their wings and lightning\nby opening their eyes, shooting flaming arrows, and so forth. Some\ntribes believed in one such bird only, others in a family or flock of\nthem variously colored, while still others declared that the agent was a\ngiant who clothed himself in a huge bird-skin as a flying-dress.\n\nIf one asked what any one of these creatures was like, the answer\nusually was that it resembled a colossal eagle. The Comanches and\nArapahoes described it to Dr. Mooney as a big bird with a brood of small\nones, and said that it carried in its claws a quantity of arrows with\nwhich it strikes the victims of lightning. This reminds us of the bird\nof Jove in classic fable, clutching the javelins of his master, the\nThunderer; and a comic touch is that these southern Indians called the\neagle stamped on our coins by their thunder-bird\u2019s name, innocently\nsupposing that our national emblem was their \u201cbaa,\u201d the lightning-maker!\n\nThe Mandans, a Dakotan tribe, say that the thunder-bird has two toes on\neach foot\u2014one before and one behind; and the Algonquian Blackfeet\nrepresent it on their medicine-lodges by simply drawing four black\nbird-claws on a yellow shank. When it flies softly, as is usually its\nway, according to the Mandans, it is not heard by mankind, but when it\nflaps its wings violently a roaring noise is produced. It breaks through\nthe clouds to force a way for the rain, and the glance of its fiery eyes\nappears in the lightnings. \u201cWe don\u2019t see the thunder-birds,\u201d a Winnebago\nIndian explained. \u201cWe see their flashes only.\u201d\n\nThis terrifying creature dwelt on a remote mountain, or on some rocky\nelevation difficult of access, and built a nest as big as a village,\nsurrounded by the bones and horns of the great animals on which it\npreyed. Every tribal district seems to have had at least one pair. The\nIndians about Lake Superior believed that theirs were at home on the\nbeetling heights of that bold promontory on the northern shore of the\nlake long celebrated as Thunder Cape. This is, for natural reasons, a\ntheatre of electric action, which the Chippeways accounted for by the\nfiction of a magic bird\u2014quite as natural in its way as is the\nmeteorology. At any rate the redmen feared to climb the mountain and\nprove their theory, for they said men had been struck by lightning there\nin impious attempts at investigating the bird-god\u2014the old story of\nreligious interference with scientific curiosity. These same people held\nthat their thunder-bird sat on her eggs during fair weather, and hatched\nout her brood in the storm\u2014which hatching _was_ the storm.\n\n\u201cA place,\u201d says the ethnologist Mooney,[77] \u201cknown to the Sioux as\nWaqkina-oye, \u2018the Thunderer\u2019s nest\u2019\u2014... is in eastern South Dakota in\nthe neighborhood of Big Stone Lake. At another place, near the summit of\nthe Coteau des Prairies, in eastern South Dakota, a number of large\nround boulders are pointed out as the eggs of the thunder-bird.\nAccording to the Comanches there is a place on upper Red River where the\nthunder-bird once alighted on the ground.... The same people tell how a\nhunter once shot and wounded a large bird which fell to the ground.\nBeing afraid to attack it alone on account of its size, he returned to\ncamp for help, but on again approaching the spot the hunters heard the\nthunder rolling and saw flashes of lightning shooting out from the\nravine where the bird lay wounded. On coming nearer the lightning\nblinded them so that they could not see the bird, and one flash struck\nand killed a hunter. His frightened companions then fled back to camp,\nfor they knew it was a thunder-bird.\u201d\n\nIn contrast to this the Eskimos of the lower Yukon Valley tell of a\nformer man of their race who dared, after others had failed, to raid the\nlair of and kill a gigantic fowl that for a long time had preyed as a\n\u201cman-eater\u201d on the village of their ancestors; and they have held this\nman in high honor as a hero to this day.\n\nThis conception of a thunder-and-lightning-producing bird has a\nprominent place among the notions of the native inhabitants of the\nnorthwestern American coast-country, where the attributed\ncharacteristics and deeds vary with local surroundings and tribal\npeculiarities. In one place a storm was supposed to result from its\nactivity in catching whales; and a Chehalis legend has it that\nThunderbird sprang from a whale killed by South Wind. As soon as it was\nborn South Wind followed it, and Ootz-Hooi, the giantess, found its nest\nand threw the eggs down a cliff. From these eggs sprang the Chehalis\npeople. The Tlingit, of the Southern Alaskan coast-region, account for\nthe great amount of rain that falls in a thunder-shower by explaining\nthat the thunder-bird carries a lake on its back. A conventional\nrepresentation of the thunder-bird as it appears to the Haidas of this\nNorthwest Coast decorates the title-page of this book.\n\nThe Salish Indians of the Thomson River region, in southern British\nColumbia, believe that the thunder-bird uses its wings as bows to shoot\narrows, _i.e._, lightnings. \u201cThe rebound of his wings in the air, after\nshooting, makes the thunder. For this reason the thunder is often heard\nin different parts of the sky at once, being the noise from each wing.\nThe arrowheads fired by the thunder are found in many parts of the\ncountry. They are of black stone and of very large size.\u201d The last\nstatement may refer to meteoric stones, or it may be purely fanciful. A\ncommon belief among the farmer-folk of Europe is that the smooth,\nchisel-shaped tools or weapons of prehistoric (Neolithic) men,\nfrequently turned up by the plow, and known technically as \u201ccelts,\u201d are\nthunderbolts; but this is only incidental to the present theme.\n\nThe raven is a hero-bird among the Cherokees, who say that he became\nblack by attempting to bring fire from a hollow tree that had been set\non fire purposely by \u201cthe Thunderer\u201d by means of lightning. The bird did\nnot succeed, and blackened its plumage forever.\n\nIn Japan the ptarmigan, a dweller on mountain-tops, is called _rai-cho_,\n\u201cthunder-bird,\u201d and is \u201csacred to the God of Thunder,\u201d as Weston\nexpresses it, adding that \u201cpictures of them are often hung up in\nfarmers\u2019 cottages as a charm against lightning.\u201d\n\nThunderstorms are usually accompanied by much wind, and the common\nconception of birds as the agent of wind, or the wind itself, has been\nexhibited briefly in another chapter; it prevailed not only among our\nAmerican Indians but in various other parts of the world, including\nSouth Africa\u2014or did, when men were less skeptical of such ideas than\nnow. In ancient Sanskrit mythology the delicate white cirrus cloud\ndrifting overhead was a fleeting swan, and so also was it in the creed\nof the early Scandinavians and to our wild Navahoes\u2014a good illustration\nnot only of independent and parallel images for an idea, but of the\nlikeness of human minds under great diversity of race and conditions.\nBlack clouds were thought of by the Norse folks as \u201cravens coursing over\nthe earth and returning to whisper the news in the ear of listening\nOdin,\u201d as Baring-Gould expresses it. The immemorial resemblance traced\nbetween bird and cloud is not far-fetched: and recurs to the modern poet\nas it did in olden times to the Psalmist when he spoke of the wings of\nthe wind. \u201cThe rushing vapor is the roc of the _Arabian Nights_, which\nbroods over its great luminous egg, the sun, and which haunts the\nsparkling Valley of Diamonds, the starry sky.... If the cloud was\nsupposed to be a great bird, the lightnings were regarded as writhing\nworms or serpents in its beak.... The lightning-bolt, shattering all it\nstruck, was regarded as the stone dropped by the cloud-bird.\u201d[54]\n\nIn the _Kalevala_ Puhuri, the North Wind, father of Pakkanen, the Frost,\nis sometimes personified as a gigantic eagle.\n\nThese facts and considerations prepare the way for legends that began to\nbe told in the very beginning of things, because then, and until\nyesterday, all ordinary folks thought them true as well as interesting;\nand they are repeated even now as curiosities of primitive faith\u2014stories\nof birds and plants called \u201copeners.\u201d\n\nThe oldest, perhaps, is the Rabbinical legend of Solomon, who desired to\nobtain a stone-breaking \u201cworm\u201d (so the idea was even then ancient!) in\npossession of Asmodeus, the Demon of Destruction. Asmodeus refused to\nfetch it, and told Solomon that if he wanted this magic creature (whose\nname was _schamir_) he must find the nest of \u201cthe,\u201d not \u201ca,\u201d moorhen and\ncover it with a plate of glass so that the mother-bird could not get\naccess to her young. This was done. When the moorhen returned and saw\nthe situation she flew away, brought the schamir from its hiding-place,\nand was about to lay it on the glass, which it would break; but Benaiah,\nSolomon\u2019s agent, who lay in wait, shouted, and so frightened the bird\nthat she dropped the schamir, whereupon Benaiah picked it up, as he had\nplanned to do. It was by aid of this \u201cworm,\u201d which shaped the stone-work\nfor him, that Solomon was able to build his Temple without sound of\nhammer or saw. Other versions assert that a raven or an eagle was the\nbird, and that the magic glass-breaker was a stone brought from the\nuttermost East.\n\nThe story travelled to Greece, and there became attached to the hoopoe,\na small crested bird that figures largely in south-European and African\nwonder-tales. A hoopoe, runs the Greek story, had a nest in an old wall\nin which was a crevice. The proprietor, noticing the rent in his wall,\nplastered it over; thus when the hoopoe returned to feed her young she\nfound that the nest had been covered so that she was unable to enter it.\n\n  Forthwith she flew away in quest of a plant called poa (the\n  springwort?), and having found a spray returned and applied it to\n  the plaster, which at once fell off from the crack and gave her free\n  access to her nest. Then she went forth to seek food, but during her\n  absence the master again plastered up the hole. The object was again\n  removed by means of the magic poa, and a third time the hole was\n  stopped and opened in the same way.\n\n  The springwort and several other flowering plants were credited in\n  old times with a magical property in opening locks. \u201cPliny records\n  the superstition concerning it almost in the same form in which it\n  is now found in Germany. If anyone touches a lock with it the lock,\n  however strong, must yield.... One cannot easily find it oneself,\n  but generally the woodpecker [according to Pliny, also the raven; in\n  Switzerland and Swabia the hoopoe; in the Tyrol the swallow] will\n  bring it under the following circumstances: When the bird visits its\n  nest the nest must be stopped up with wood. The bird will open it by\n  touching it with a spring-wurzel. Meantime a fire or a red cloth\n  must be placed near by, which will so frighten the bird that it will\n  let the magic root fall.\u201d\n\nThe English antiquary Aubrey (1626\u201397) records an anecdote of a keeper\nof a baronial park in Herefordshire who \u201cdid for exprinent\u2019s sake drive\nan iron naile thwert the hole of the woodpecker\u2019s nest, there being a\ntradition that the damme will bring some leafe to open it. He layed at\nthe bottom of the tree a cleane sheet, and before many houres passed the\nnaile came out, and he found a leafe lying by it on the sheet. They say\nthe moonwort will do such things.\u201d The moonwort is a fern which was\nformerly reputed to have power to draw nails out of horseshoes.\n\nFrom such roots as these grew the superstitions and legends innumerable\nof plants that would cure a snake (another lightning-symbol) or other\nanimal of wounds, or even restore the dead. A tradition of the Middle\nAges is that two little birds were seen fighting till one was exhausted.\n\u201cIt went away and ate of a certain herb and then returned to renew the\nbattle. When the old man who witnessed the encounter had seen this done\nseveral times he took away the herb on which the bird was wont to feed,\nwhereupon the little bird, unable to find its plant, set up a great cry\nand died.\u201d It is a foolish little story, but illustrative.\n\nOne reads of magic crystals, and of gems with marvellous properties that\nwould open mountains in which princes or glittering treasures were\nhidden. A curious example of this is related by Leland[97] anent the\nconstant and ordinarily fruitless hunt for treasure in ancient Etruscan\ntombs, which went on in Italy for centuries. \u201cWhen one would find a\ntreasure,\u201d the peasants told Leland, \u201che must take the door of the house\nin which he dwells and carry it forth into the fields at night until he\ncomes to a tree. Then he must wait till many birds fly over him, and\nwhen they come he must throw down the door, making a great noise. Then\nthe birds in fear will speak with a human voice, and tell where the\ntreasure is buried.\u201d\n\nMuch of this tinctures the mental life of many uneducated persons to\nthis day. They will tell you now at Rauen, in Germany, that a princess\nis entombed alive in the Markgrafenstein, and that she and her wealth\ncan be released only by one who will go there on a Friday at midnight\ncarrying a white woodpecker\u2014which would seem to make an albino of that\nspecies well worth searching for! The woodpecker of old was a\n\u201clightning-bird\u201d because, among other reasons, it was supposed to get\nfire by boring into wood, as did primitive savages by means of the\nfire-drill; and its red cap was not only a badge of its office, but a\nlightning-symbol in general.\n\nLet me illuminate this matter still more by quoting the comments of John\nFiske[98] on the mythical conceptions of this character that are so old,\nand so cherished among the unlearned:\n\n  Among the birds enumerated by Kuhn [author of _The Descent of Fire_]\n  and others as representing the storm-cloud, are likewise the wren or\n  kinglet (French _roitelet_); the owl, sacred to Athen\u00e6; the cuckoo,\n  stork and sparrow; and the red-breasted robin, whose name Robert was\n  originally an epithet of the lightning-god Thor. In certain parts of\n  France it is still believed that the robbing of a wren\u2019s nest will\n  render the culprit liable to be struck by lightning. The same belief\n  was formerly entertained in Teutonic countries with respect to the\n  robin....\n\n  Now, as the raven or woodpecker, in the various myths of schamir, is\n  the dark storm-cloud, so the rock-splitting worm, or plant or pebble\n  is nothing more or less than the flash of lightning carried and\n  dropped by the cloud....\n\n  The persons who told these stories were not weaving ingenious\n  allegories about thunder-storms, or giving utterance to\n  superstitions of which the original meaning was forgotten. The old\n  grannies who, along with a stoical indifference to the fate of\n  quails and partridges, used to impress upon me the wickedness of\n  killing robins, did not add that I should be struck by lightning if\n  I failed to heed their admonitions. They had never heard that the\n  robin was the bird of Thor: they merely rehearsed the remnant of the\n  superstition which had survived to their own times, while the\n  essential part of it had long since faded from recollection. The\n  reason for regarding a robin\u2019s life as more sacred than a\n  partridge\u2019s had been forgotten; but it left behind, as was natural,\n  a vague recognition of that mythical sanctity. The primitive meaning\n  of a myth fades away as inevitably as the primitive meaning of a\n  word or phrase; and the rabbins which told of a worm which shattered\n  rocks no more thought of the writhing thunderbolts than the modern\n  reader thinks of oyster-shells when he sees the word _ostracism_, or\n  consciously breathes a prayer when he writes the phrase _Good-bye_.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XIV\n                    LEGENDS IN A HISTORICAL SETTING\n\n\nIt is not easy in preparing a book devoted mainly to fable and folklore\nto sort out material for a separate chapter on \u201clegends.\u201d A legend may\nbe defined as a narrative of something thought of as having actually\nhappened in connection with some real purpose or place, but which is\nunsupported by historical evidence. In many cases such narratives are\nquite incredible, but even so they may have a historically illustrative,\na literary, or at least an amusing interest. Stories of a considerable\nnumber of well-known kinds of birds are in this way connected with\nactual persons, or with verifiable incidents of the past, and hence may\nbe said to be \u201clegends in an historical setting.\u201d A fair example of them\nis the incident of the Capitoline geese.\n\nEarly in the third century before the Christian era a horde of Gaulish\ninvaders under Brennus over-ran central Italy, and in 388 B.C. captured\nall of Rome itself except the lofty citadel called the Capitol, where a\nRoman general officer, Marcus Manlius, held out with a small garrison on\nthe point of starvation. One night the besieging Gauls, having\ndiscovered an unguarded by-path, crept up the rocky steep, intending the\nsurprise and capture of the almost worn-out defenders. \u201cBut,\u201d says\nPlutarch,[94] in Dryden\u2019s translation, \u201cthere were sacred Geese kept\nnear the Temple of Juno, which at other times were plentifully fed, but\nat this time, by reason of the Corn and all other Provisions were grown\nstrait, their allowance was shorten\u2019d and they themselves in a poor and\nlean condition. This Creature is by nature of quick sense, and\napprehensive of the least noise; so that besides watchful through\nhunger, and restless, they immediately discovered the coming of the\nGauls; so that running up and down, with their noise and cackling they\nraised the whole camp.\u201d\n\nManlius sprang from sleep, aroused a body of soldiers and repelled the\nattack. It was the beginning of an ultimate victory over the enemy. Rome\nwas saved, and in recognition of it Manlius was given the honorary title\nCapitolinus, and for a long time afterward the incident was celebrated\nannually by a procession to the Capitol in which a golden goose was\ncarried. Livy also tells us in his history that the prototype of this\ngolden symbol was a single sentinel goose never seen before, hence a\ndivine aid sent to Rome for the purpose by the gods. It is interesting\nto note that\n\n                  These consecrated geese in orders\n                  That to the capitol were warders\n                  And being then upon patrol\n                  With noise alone beat off the Gaul,\n\nas _Hudibras_ has it, were \u201csacred\u201d to Juno, for this was before the\ntime when she, having changed from the status of simple wife to Jupiter\n(and a model to human wives), had become the imperious and\ntrouble-making empress of later days, and had discarded the motherly\ngoose for the exotic, proud, and royally splendid peacock. This is a\ncapital example of the adaptive character of the assignment of birds to\nthe various demigods of the Roman pantheon; and it suggests the query\nwhether in some principal cases reverence for the bird itself did not\nprecede the conception of the divinity it afterward typified.\n\nAnother tale of birds acting as sentinels explains how the wren came to\nbe so mortally hated by the Irish, whose cruel \u201chunting of the wren\u201d is\ndescribed in another chapter. According to Lady Wilde,[60] a student of\nIrish folklore, this hatred is owing to the fact that once when Irish\ntroops were approaching to attack a part of Thomas Cromwell\u2019s army\n(about 1650) \u201cwrens came and perched on the Irish drums, and by their\ntapping and noise aroused the English soldiers, who fell on the Irish\ntroops and killed all of them.\u201d This is a variant of a legend far older\nthan Cromwell\u2019s campaigning; and it is not the true explanation of the\nantipathy the cruder Irish and Manxmen still feel toward this innocent\nlittle songster, while at the same time they have a peculiar tenderness\nfor the robin.\n\nA third parallel is found in the annoyance caused the Scottish\nCovenanters. Many a meeting of pious Presbyterians in some hidden,\nheathery glen of the misty hills was discovered and roughly dispersed\n\u201cbecause of the hovering, bewailing plovers, fearful for their young,\nclamoring overhead.\u201d The poet Leyden alludes to the long-remembered\ngrudge against this suspicious bird when, speaking of the religious\nrefugees on the moors, he writes:\n\n          The lapwing\u2019s clamorous whoop attends their flight,\n          Pursues their steps where\u2019er the wanderers go,\n          Till the shrill scream betrays them to the foe.\n\nReturning to ancient history, two bird-stories of Alexander the Great\nare delightful as illustrating how an independent and masterful\nintellect, even in that early day above the Pagan superstitions of the\ntime, might with ingenuity and boldness bend the sanctions of religion\nto his own ends without destroying them. The first one is an incident\nrecorded of Alexander\u2019s campaign in Asia Minor in 334 B.C. His fleet\nwas anchored in the harbor of Miletus, and opposite it lay the fleet\nof the Persians. Alexander had no desire to disturb this situation,\nfor he meant his army, not the navy, to do the work in view. One day\nan eagle, Jove\u2019s bird, was seen sitting on the shore behind the\nMacedonian ships, and Parmenion, chief of staff, found in this fact\nconvincing indication by the gods that victory was with the ships.\nAlexander pointed out that the eagle had perched on the land, not on\nthe ships, giving thereby the evident intimation that it was only\nthrough the victory of the troops on land that the fleet could have\nvalue. As Alexander was commander-in-chief, this was evidently the\northodox interpretation.\n\nTwo years later Alexander was one day laying out on its site the plan of\nhis foreordained city of Alexandria, in Egypt, and was marking the\ncourse of the proposed streets by sprinkling lines of flour in the lack\nof chalk-dust. \u201cWhile the king,\u201d says Plutarch, \u201cwas congratulating\nhimself on his plan, on a sudden a countless number of birds of various\nsorts flew over from the land and the lake in clouds, and settling on\nthe spot in clouds devoured in a short time all the flour, so that\nAlexander was much disturbed in mind at the omen involved, till the\naugurs restored his confidence, telling him the city ... was destined to\nbe rich in its resources, and a feeder of nations of men.\u201d\n\nThe straight face with which Plutarch[94] recites these and similar\nstories of hocus-pocus in the matter of inconvenient omens is\ndelightful; but the faith of the common people was not so easily shaken.\nFor example: When the Sicilian-Greek army of Agathocles, Tyrant of\nSyracuse in the third century, B. C., was facing near Times a more\npowerful Carthaginian force, Agathocles let loose a number of owls among\nhis men, \u201cwho suddenly took great courage as the birds sacred to Pallas\nsettled blinking upon their helmets and shields\u201d\u2014and they routed the\nbigger enemy. That was true religious inspiration\u2014as true as ever blazed\nin the heart of Christian crusader; but it was a sacrilegious trick on\nthe part of Agathocles!\n\nJust across the strait from Sicily, at Regium (Reggio), was the home of\nthe celebrated cranes of Ibycus. Ibycus, a local poet, was being\nmurdered by robbers when he called on the cranes fluttering near by to\ngive witness of his death. Later, the murderers were one day at the\ntheatre, when they saw a flock of cranes, and in fright whispered to one\nanother: \u201cThe cranes of Ibycus!\u201d They were overheard, arrested and\nexecuted, whence the proverb \u201cthe cranes of Ibycus\u201d to express crime\ncoming unexpectedly to light.\n\n_The Wonderful Magazine_, an amazing periodical issued in London from\n1793 to 1798, contained a story that in 1422 a \u201cRoman\u201d emperor besieging\nZeta took all the sparrows his men could catch, and, tying lighted\nmatches to their feet, let them go toward the town. But the citizens\nmade a great noise, and the frightened sparrows flying back set the\nRoman camp on fire and so raised the siege. The reader may put his own\nestimate on this bit of historical lore; and may discover, if he can,\nwhere and what was Zeta.\n\nArabs in Palestine tell how a bird was involved in David\u2019s sin of\ncoveting Uriah\u2019s wife. David, they say, had shut himself up in a tower\nfor meditation, when, happening to look up, he saw just outside the\nwindow a bird of amazing beauty\u2014a pigeon whose plumage gleamed like gold\nand jewels. David threw some crumbs on the floor, whereupon the pigeon\ncame in and picked them up, but eluded David\u2019s attempt to capture it. At\nlast, to escape his efforts, it flew to the window and settled on one of\nthe bars. He pursued, but it departed. It was then, as David followed\nthe bright creature with longing eyes, that he caught sight of Madame\nUriah in the bath\u2014and was done for!\n\nAmong other excellent things in Hanauer\u2019s _Tales from Palestine_[43] is\nthe following report of Solomon\u2019s contest with a dove:\n\n\u201cIn the southern wall of the Kubbet \u2019es-Sakhra [at Jerusalem], the\nmosque that now stands near the site of the ancient Temple, on the right\nside of the door as one enters there is a gray slab framed in marble of\na dark color. It contains a figure, formed by natural veins in the\nstone, which is distinct enough to be taken for a picture of two doves\nperched facing each other on the edge of a vase. With this picture is\nconnected a tale....\n\n\u201cThe great king Solomon understood the language of beasts, birds and\nfishes, and, when he had occasion to do so, would converse with all of\nthem. One day, soon after he had completed the Temple, as he was\nstanding at a window of the royal palace, he overheard a conversation\nbetween a pair of birds that were sitting on the housetop. Presently the\nmale, who was evidently trying to impress the female with his\nimportance, exclaimed: \u2018Solomon is a conceited fool! Why should he be so\nvain of this pile of buildings he has raised? I, if I wished, could kick\nthem all over in a few minutes.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe king, greatly enraged by this pompous speech, summoned the offender\ninto his presence and demanded what he meant by such an outrageous\nboast. \u2018Your majesty,\u2019 replied the bird, \u2018will, I am sure, forgive my\naudacity, when I explain that I was in the company of a female; since\nyour majesty doubtless knows from experience that in such circumstances\nthe temptation to boast is almost irresistible.\u2019 The monarch, forgetting\nhis anger in his amusement, said with a smile: \u2018Go your way this time,\nbut see that you do not repeat the offence,\u2019 and the bird, after a\nprofound obeisance, flew away to rejoin his mate.\n\n\u201cHe had hardly alighted before the female, unable to repress her\ncuriosity, eagerly inquired why he had been summoned to the palace.\n\u2018Oh,\u2019 said the impudent boaster, \u2018the king heard me tell you that if I\nchose I could kick down all his buildings in no time, and he sent for me\nto beg me not to do it.\u2019\n\n\u201cSolomon, who, of course, heard this remark also, was so indignant at\nthe incorrigible vanity of its author that he at once turned both birds\ninto stone. They remain to this day as a reminder of the saying: \u2018The\npeace of mankind consists in guarding the tongue.\u2019\u201d\n\nBut the stories of Solomon and his bird-friends are many. He was\nevidently a jolly old soul, and tradition says that when he travelled\nacross the desert clouds of birds formed a canopy to protect him from\nthe sun. The hoopoe, a high-crested bird that figures largely in other\nfanciful tales of the East, tells wise Solomonic stories, and is still\nregarded by Saharan nomads as possessed of peculiar virtues. The great\nJewish king, whose reality is almost hidden under the legendary mantle,\nis said to have chosen the hoopoe, the cock and the pewit: the first\nbecause of its wit, the second in admiration of its cry, and the third\nbecause, says Hanauer, it can see through the earth, and could tell him\nwhere fountains of water could be found. The last preference is natural\nin an arid region, the pewit being a water-bird, the familiar\nlapwing-plover; and as it annually migrates through Palestine into\nEthiopia it is reasonable that it should be fabled to be the means of\nbringing Solomon and the Queen of Sheba together, as is described in\nChapter XXVII of the Koran. It should be noted that all of these birds\nare crested.\n\nThe veneration given to doves by the Mohammedans at Mecca is accounted\nfor elsewhere; but swallows are held in almost equal reverence by both\nofficials and pilgrims at that great shrine of Islam, and build their\nnests in the haram. This respect is explained by Keane[14] as the result\nof a belief that they were the instruments by which Mecca was saved from\nthe Abyssinian (Christian) army that is known to have invaded Arabia in\nthe year of Mohammed\u2019s birth, and to have been disastrously expelled.\nThe tradition is that God sent flocks of swallows, every bird carrying\nthree small stones in its beak and two in its claws, which were dropped\non the heads of the Abyssinians, and miraculously penetrated the bodies\nof men and elephants until only one of the invaders was left alive. He\nfled back to his country, and had just finished telling of the disaster\nto the king when one of the swallows, which had followed him from Mecca,\ndropped its pebble and killed him too. The kernel of this dramatic story\nis in the nineteenth section of the Koran:[59] \u201cAnd he sent against them\nbirds in flocks (ababils), claystones did he hurl down at them.\u201d The\nhistorical explanation is that the Abyssinian invaders were destroyed by\nsmall-pox, the pustules of which are called in Arabic by a word meaning\n\u201csmall stones.\u201d\n\nOf a piece with these traditions and the Rabbinical tales of the Jews\nare the monkish legends preserved in early British chronicles, such as\nthat by the Venerable Bede or by William of Malmesbury. The orthodox as\nwell as dissenters had trouble with birds. Among the traditions of the\ncelebrated Scotch-Irish missionary Columba (Latinized from his baptismal\nname Colum, \u201cdove\u201d) is one that once in his ardent youth Colum was\ntrying to make by stealth in a church a copy of the psalter in\npossession of the selfish king, Finian of Donegal, who had refused the\nyoung enthusiast that privilege. A meddlesome stork, confined within the\nchurch, informed the sacristan, and Colum was arrested. Nevertheless by\ndivine aid he got his copy, helpful to him afterward in his beneficent\nwork in the Scottish highlands.\n\nOne of the prettiest of these old stories is that of St. Kenneth and the\ngulls.[22] One day about A. D. 550 the blackheaded gulls, flying as\nusual along the coast of Wales, and scanning the sea sharply for food or\nanything else interesting to a gull, found floating in a coracle\u2014a\nround, wickerwork canoe\u2014a human baby a day or two old, contentedly\nasleep on a pallet made of a folded purple cloth. Several gulls seized\nthe corners of this cloth and so carried the child to the ledge of the\nWelsh cliff where they nested, plucked feathers from their breasts to\nmake a soft bed, laid the baby on it, then hastened to fly inland and\nbring a doe to provide it with milk, for which an angel offered a brazen\nbell as a cup. There the blessed waif lived for several months; but one\nday, in the absence of all the gulls, a shepherd discovered the infant\nand took him down to his hut and his kind wife. The gulls, returning\nfrom the sea, heard of this act from the doe. They at once rushed to the\nshepherd\u2019s cottage, again lifted the babe by the corners of its purple\nblanket, and bore him back to the ledge of their sea-fronting crag.\nThere he stayed until he had grown to manhood\u2014a man full of laughter and\nsinging and kind words; and the Welsh peasants of the Gower Peninsula\nrevered him and called him Saint Kenneth.\n\nSomewhat similar is the legendary history of Coemagen, or Saint Kelvin,\nan Irish monk of the eighth century, into whose charge was committed the\ninfant son of Colman, a Leinster noble. \u201cCoemagen fed the child on the\nmilk of a doe which came from the forest to the door of his cell. A\nraven was wont, after the doe had been milked, to perch on the bowl, and\nsometimes would upset it. \u2018Bad luck to thee!\u2019 exclaimed the saint. \u2018When\nI am dead there will be a famous wake, but no scraps for thee and thy\nclan!\u2019 When very old St. Kelvin moved into a forest hermitage, where the\nbirds came to him as companions. Once, while praying, his supplicating\npalms outstretched, a blackbird (thrush) dropped her eggs into the\nhollow of his hands, and he held his arms rigid until the chicks\nhatched.\u201d\n\nA curious parallel to the last incident is quoted by the Baroness\nMartinengo-Caesaresco[20] \u201cfrom an industrious translator\u201d of the book\n_Tatchi-Lou-Lun_, describing how when a bird laid her eggs on the head\nof the first Buddha, which she mistook for the branch of a tree, he\nplunged himself into a trance so as not to move until the eggs had\nhatched and the young were flown.\n\nSt. Bede the younger, a contemporary of Coemagen, had a dove that used\nto come at his call; and an Irish monk, Comgall, would bid the swans\nnear his residence come and cluster devotionally around his feet. Many\nsaints, the legends declare, had authority over birds, and one, St.\nMillburg, abbess of Wenlock, in Shropshire, kept them out of the\nfarmers\u2019 crops by telling them it was naughty to despoil the grain. Of\nold, according to Canon Kingsley, St. Guthlac in Crowland said, as the\nswallows sat upon his knee, \u201cHe who leads his life according to the will\nof God, to him will the wild deer and the wild birds draw more near.\u201d\n\nThe religious \u201chermits,\u201d so prevalent at that period, were men who chose\na more or less solitary life, quite as much, I suspect, on account of\ntheir love of nature as from purely devotional motives, and this was\nparticularly true of those in Great Britain, exhibiting the\ncharacteristic British fondness for animal life. There was an early St.\nBartholomew, for example, who in the sixth century or thereabout dwelt\nin seclusion on one of the Farne Islands off the northeastern coast of\nEngland, and made friends of the gulls and cormorants of the place. One\nof these he had tamed to eat out of his hand, and once, when Bartholomew\nwas away fishing, a hawk pursued this poor bird into the chapel and\nkilled it. Brother Bartholomew came in and found the hawk there with\nbloody talons and a shame-faced appearance. He caught it, kept it two\ndays without food to punish it, then let it go. At another time, as he\nsat by the shore, a cormorant approached and pulled at his skirt, then\nled him to where one of its young had fallen into a crevice of the rocks\nwhence the good man rescued it.\n\nOne of these rocky islets in the North Sea became so famous during the\nnext century that it has been known ever since as Holy Isle, and the\nruins of its monastery and cathedral still remain and may be seen from\nthe railway train as it passes along the brink of the lofty coast a\nlittle south of Berwick-on-Tweed. This was the seat of the renowned\nBishop Cuthbert of whom many quaint stories are told, apart from the\nrecord of his religious work. They attribute to his influence the\nextraordinary gentleness and familiarity characteristic of the eider\nduck, which is known to this day in Northumbria as Cuthbert\u2019s bird. It\nwas he, according to a narrative of a monk of the 13th century, who\ninspired these ducks with a hereditary trust in mankind by taking them\nas companions of his solitude when for several years he resided alone on\nLindisfarne. There is good reason to accept this and similar traditions\nas largely true, for a like ability in \u201cgentling\u201d birds and other wild\nanimals is manifested to-day by some persons of a calm and kindly sort.\n\nEarly in the eighth century a monk of intensely ascetic disposition,\nnamed Guthlac, retired to a solitary hermitage on an island in the\ndismal morasses of Lincolnshire, which afterward, if not then, was\ncalled Croyland or Crowland. He was sorely tempted by the Devil we are\ninformed, and had many battles with \u201cdemons\u201d\u2014native British refugees\nhiding in the fens; but in the intervals of his fasting and fighting he\ngot acquainted with the wild creatures about him. \u201cThe ravens, the\nbeasts and the fishes,\u201d says the record, \u201ccame to obey him. Once a\nvenerable brother named Wilfred visited him, and ... suddenly two\nswallows came flying in ... and often they sat fearlessly on the\nshoulders of the holy man Guthlac, and then lifted up their song, and\nafterward they sat on his bosom and on his arms and his knees.... When\nGuthlac died angelic songs were heard in the sky, and all the air had a\nwondrous odor of exceeding sweetness.\u201d\n\nSt. Kentigern, when a schoolboy, was wrongly accused of having twisted\noff the head of his master\u2019s pet robin. He proved his innocence by\nputting the head and body together, whereupon the robin came to life and\nattended Kentigern until he became a great and good man. His master was\nSt. Servan, and the robin was one that used to eat from his hand and\nperch on his shoulder, where it would twitter whenever Servan chanted\nthe Psalms.\n\nHere we encounter the mystical kind of story with which those old\nchroniclers like to embellish their biographies of holy men, and there\nwas no limit to their credulity. Such is the tale of Carilef, a French\nwould-be hermit of M\u00e9n\u00e0t, in Auvergne, who thought he was guided to set\nup a religious station because a wren had laid an egg in a hood that he\nhad left hanging on a bush\u2014a very wrenlike proceeding; and that was the\nfoundation of the monastery about which the city of St. Calais grew in\nlater times. Several other incidents of this kind are on record, showing\nthat the value placed on any action by a bird that could be construed as\na divine message. It is written that Editha, one of the early queens of\nEngland, persuaded her husband to found a religious house near Oxford on\naccount of the omens she interpreted from the voice and actions of a\ncertain magpie. Similarly the site for the abbey of Thierry, near\nRheims, in France, was indicated to St. Theodoric, in the sixth century,\nby a white eagle circling around the top of the hill on which it\nsubsequently was erected; and this miraculous eagle was seen year after\nyear in the sky above it.\n\nAbout that time Kenelm, son and heir of Kenulph, king of Wessex, was\nseven years old. His sister, who wanted to succeed to the throne in his\nplace, procured his murder. The instant this was accomplished the fact\nwas notified to the Pope, according to the _Chronicles_ of Roger de\nWendover, by a white dove that alighted on the altar of St. Peter\u2019s,\nbearing in its beak a scroll on which was written\n\n                 In Clent cow-pasture, under a thorn,\n                 Of head bereft lies Kenelm, king-born.\n\nThe Pope sent word to England, the body was found in a thicket over\nwhich hung a pillar of supernal light, and was taken to Winchelcumb, in\nGloucestershire, for burial; and at the spot near Halesowen, in\nShropshire, where he was killed, Kenelm\u2019s Chapel was erected.\n\nBut the most mystical legend in which birds are a part, is one familiar\nin Brittany. It is related of St. Leonore, a Welsh missionary who went\nto Brittany in the sixth century, to whom many fabulous powers and deeds\nare attributed, the most comprehensible of which Baring-Gould has put\ninto verse. Leonore, with a band of followers, had decided to settle in\nBrittany on a desolate moor; but they had forgotten to bring any\nseed-wheat, and were alarmed.\n\n              Said the abbot, \u201cGod will help us\n                In this hour of bitter loss.\u201d\n              Then one spied a little redbreast\n                Sitting on a wayside cross.\n\n              Doubtless came the bird in answer\n                To the words the monk did speak,\n              For a heavy wheat-ear dangled\n                From the robin\u2019s polished beak.\n\n              Then the brothers, as he dropped it\n                Picked it up and careful sowed;\n              And abundantly in autumn\n                Reaped the harvest where they strewed.[21]\n\nGreater poets than Baring-Gould or even Bishop Trench have found\nliterary material in these monastic tales. Witness Longfellow\u2019s _Golden\nLegend_, where he sings of good St. Felix, the Burgundian missionary who\ncrossed the Channel, and in A.D. 604 converted to Christianity the wild\nking of the East Saxons; and who listened to the singing of a milk-white\nbird for a hundred years, although it had seemed to him but an hour, so\nenchanted was he with the music. No doubt myth-mongers might discourse\nvery scientifically on this and some other of these episodes in the\npenumbra of history, but we will leave the pleasure of it to them.\n\nNone of these traditions of early bird-lovers and teachers of kindness\nare so pleasant as are those inspired by the gracious life of St.\nFrancis.[22] A familiar classic is his sermon to the birds when\n\n                 Around Assisi\u2019s convent gate\n                 The birds, God\u2019s poor who cannot wait,\n                 From moor and mere and darksome wood\n                 Came flocking for their dole of food.\n\nOne of the prettiest Franciscan stories is that of the saint and the\nnightingale as presented by Mrs. Jamieson;[105] and, by the way,\nantiphonal singing with birds is related of several holy men and women\nof old:\n\n  As he was sitting with his disciple Leo, he felt himself penetrated\n  with joy and consolation by the song of the nightingale ... and\n  Francis began to sing, and when he stopped the nightingale took up\n  the strain; and thus they sang alternately until the night was far\n  advanced and Francis was obliged to stop for his voice failed. Then\n  he confessed that the little bird had vanquished him. He called it\n  to him, thanked it for its song, and gave it the remainder of his\n  bread; and having bestowed his blessing upon it the creature flew\n  away.\n\nLongfellow has preserved in melodious verse that legend of the Spanish\nCharles V and the swallow that chose his tent as a site for its nest at\na time when the emperor\u2014\n\n                  I forget in what campaign,\n                  Long besieged in mud and rain\n                  Some old frontier town of Flanders.\n\n                  Yes, it was a swallow\u2019s nest,\n                    Built of clay and hair of horse\u2019s\n                  Mane, or tail, or dragoon\u2019s crest,\n                  Found on hedgerows east and west\n                    After skirmish of the forces.\n\nThe headquarters staff were scandalized by the bird\u2019s impudence, but\nCharles forbade their malice:\n\n                   \u201cLet no hand the bird molest,\u201d\n                   Said he solemnly, \u201cnor hurt her!\u201d\n                 Adding then, by way of jest,\n                   \u201cGolondrina is my guest,\n                   \u2019Tis the wife, of some deserter!\u201d\n\n                 So unharmed and unafraid\n                   Sat the swallow still and brooded,\n                 Till the constant cannonade\n                 Through the walls a breach had made,\n                   And the siege was thus concluded.\n\n                 Then the army elsewhere bent\n                   Struck the tents as if disbanding,\n                 Only not the Emperor\u2019s tent.\n                 For he ordered as he went,\n                   Very curtly, \u201cLeave it standing.\u201d\n\n                 So it stood there all alone,\n                   Loosely flapping, torn and tattered,\n                 Till the brood was fledged and flown,\n                 Swinging o\u2019er those walks of stone\n                   Which the cannon-shot had shattered.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER XV\n                       SOME PRETTY INDIAN STORIES\n\n\nNot many of the stories about birds now or formerly current among the\nAmerican aborigines are of a pleasing character. They are fantastic\nmyths for the most part, as appears from many of the incidents given\nelsewhere in this book; and often they are so wildly improbable,\nincoherent, and unbirdlike as to disgust rather than interest us. That\nis partly owing, no doubt, to our difficulty in taking the native point\nof view, and our ignorance of the significance the half-animal,\nhalf-human characters in the tales have to the redmen, with whom, in\nmost cases, the startling narratives pass for veritable tribal history.\nTheir stories are as foreign to our minds as is their \u201ctum-tum\u201d music to\nour ears. Now and then, however, we come across an understanding and\npleasing legend, of purely native origin, and touched with poetic\nfeeling.\n\nA favorite story among the central Eskimos, for instance, is that of\ntheir race-mother Sedna, who was the daughter of a chief, and was wooed\nby a fulmar (a kind of northern petrel) who promised her, if she would\nmarry him, a delightful life in his distant home. So she went away with\nhim. But she had been ruefully deceived, and was cruelly mistreated. A\nyear later her father went to pay her a visit; and discovering her\nmisery he killed her husband and took his repentant daughter home. The\nother fulmars in the village followed them, mourning and crying for\ntheir murdered fellow, and fulmars continue to utter doleful cries to\nthis day.\n\nAnother Eskimo tale relates that a loon told a poor blind boy that he\ncould cure him of his affliction. So the boy crept after the bird to a\nlake, where the loon took him and dived with him into the water. Three\ntimes they repeated their submergence, the last time staying a long time\nunder the water, but when the boy came to the surface after the third\ndiving he had good eyesight. This seems one of the rare examples of a\ntale told simply for its own sake, and free of any esoteric\nsignificance.\n\nA very pretty legend, current among the Eskimos of western Alaska, has\nbeen preserved for us by Edward W. Nelson,[101] who spent several years,\nlate in the 19th century, in studying the ornithology and ethnology of\nthe Bering Sea region. It relates to the redpolls, the most abundant and\nentertaining land-birds of Alaska, where it would be a surprisingly hard\nheart that was not touched by their companionship as winter closes down\non a dreary landscape of snow-drifts. Let me quote Mr. Nelson\u2019s words:\n\n  At this season the stars seem each to hang from the firmament by an\n  invisible cord, and twinkle clear and bright overhead. The sharp,\n  querulous yelp of the white fox alone breaks the intense stillness.\n  A white, frosty fog hangs in the air\u2014the chilled breath of\n  nature\u2014which falls silently to the ground in the lovely crystal\n  handiwork of northern genii. In the north a pale auroral arch moves\n  its mysterious banners, and the rounding bosom of the earth, chill\n  under its white mantle, looks dreary and sad. After such a night the\n  sun seems to creep reluctantly above the horizon, as though loath to\n  face the bitter cold. The smoke rises slowly and heavily in the\n  fixed atmosphere, and warm rooms are doubly appreciated.\n\n  Soon small troops of these little redpolls come ... flitting about\n  the houses on all sides, examining the bare spots on the ground,\n  searching the old weeds and fences, clinging to the eaves, and even\n  coming to the window-sills, whence they peer saucily in, making\n  themselves continually at home, and receiving a hearty welcome for\n  their cheering presence. The breast is now a beautiful peach-blossom\n  pink, and the crown shining scarlet. How this bird came to bear\n  these beautiful colors is told in one of the Indian myths ... which\n  begins thus:\n\n  Very long ago the whole of mankind was living in cheerless\n  obscurity. Endless night hid the face of the world, and men were\n  without the power of making a fire, as all the fire of the world was\n  in the possession of a ferocious bear living in a far-off country to\n  the north. The bear guarded his charge with unceasing vigilance, and\n  so frightful was his appearance that no man dared attempt to obtain\n  any of the precious substance. While the poor Indians were sorrowing\n  over their misfortunes the redpoll, which at that time was a plain\n  little wood-sparrow, dressed in ordinary dull brown, heard their\n  plaint\u2014for in those days men and beasts understood one another,\u2014and\n  his heart was touched. He prepared himself for a long journey and\n  set out toward the lodge of the cruel bear. After many adventures\n  ... he reached the place, and by a successful ruse stole a living\n  ember from the perpetual fire which glowed close under the breast of\n  the savage guardian, and flew away back with it in his beak. The\n  glow of the coal was reflected from his breast and crown, while his\n  forehead became slightly burned. Far away he flew, and finally\n  arrived safely at the home of mankind, and was received with great\n  rejoicing.\n\n  He gave the fire to the grateful people and told them to guard it\n  well; and as he did so they noticed the rich glow on his breast and\n  brow, and said: \u201cKind bird, wear forever that beautiful mark as a\n  memento of what you have done for us;\u201d and to this day the redpoll\n  wears this badge in proof of the legend, as all may see, and mankind\n  has ever since had fire.\n\nOne might gather a considerable collection of historical anecdotes\nrelating to birds that in one way or another aided the Indians of old to\nobtain or to preserve fire, and some of them are noted incidentally\nelsewhere in this volume; but few are as poetic and entertaining as Mr.\nNelson\u2019s contribution.\n\nThe late Charles G. Leland found among the Algonkins of Maine and\neastward a great number of tales that he put into his books. One or two\nof them are about birds, and these he threw into verse and published\nthem in a volume entitled _Kuloskap the Master_.[91] The longest and\nmost romantic of these is the love-story of the Leaf for the Red Bird\n(scarlet tanager), quoted in part below:\n\n            In the earliest time on the greatest mountain\n            Lived merry Mipis, the little leaf ...\n            Listens all day to the birds and the breezes,\n            And goes to sleep to the song of the owl.\n\n            Merry Mipis on a bright May morning\n            Was stretching himself in the warm sunshine\n            When he heard afar a wonderful music,\n            A sound like a flute and the voice of a maiden,\n            Rippling melodies melting in one.\n            Never before had he heard such singing.\n            Then looking up he beheld before him\n            A beautiful merry little bird-girl,\n            Dressed in garments of brilliant scarlet,\n            Just like his own in the Indian summer.\n            \u201cO fairest of small birds,\u201d said merry Mipis,\n            \u201cWho are you, and what is your name?\u201d\n            Thus she answered: \u201cI am Squ\u2019tes,\n            The Little Fire....\n            I have lived in the deep green forest,\n            Even as you have for many ages,\n            Singing my songs to K\u2019musom\u2019n,\n            Unto our Father the mighty mountain;\n            And, because he well loved my music,\n            For a reward he sent me hither\n            To seek a youth whose name is Mipis,\n            Whom he wills that I should wed.\u201d\n\nThis unexpected and rather unmaidenly avowal rather startled Mipis, and\nmade him suspicious of some trickery, despite the attraction of her\ncharm; but Squ\u2019tes, \u201cnever heeding what the leaf thought,\u201d began again\u2014\n\n               Pouring out in the pleasant sunshine\n               Her morning song. As Mipis listened\n               To the melodious trill he melted;\n               For the sweet tune filled all the forest,\n               Every leaf on the tree was listening....\n               And as the music grew tender and stronger,\n               And as in one long soft note it ended,\n               Little Leaf said to her: \u201cBe my own.\u201d\n               So in the greenwood they lived together.\n\nOne day both go to the Mountain and thank him for their happiness; and\nin the course of the visit the grandsire warns them not to go away from\nthe Mountain, for dangers fill the outside world, thus:\n\n             The little Indian boy Monimquess,\n             Who, armed with a terrible bow and arrows,\n             Shoots all of the little birds of the forest;\n\nand\u2014\n\n               Aplasemwesit, the Little Whirlwind,\n               Who never rests. He is always trying\n               To blow the leaves away from the branches.\n\nSo they built their nest on the great tree that grew \u201cin the safest\nplace in all the mountain,\u201d and for a time continued in bliss; but Mipis\ncould see from their lofty home a far, beautiful country, and wanted to\nvisit it. So Red Bird took the discontented Little Leaf in her bill and\nbore him away into the delightful lowland, where again they built a\nhome; but here the Indian boy heard the wonderful singing, and shot the\nsinger, and Little Whirlwind seized Mipis and took him to his grandsire,\nthe Storm, who resolved to keep Mipis as a prisoner. That night the\nMountain dreamed of this, and sent his son to demand Mipis, and the\nStorm gave him up, so that soon Little Leaf was back on his safe\nmountain-tree\u2014but he lived in lonely grief.\n\n               His life was gone with the Little Fire,\n               And the fire of his life was all in ashes.\n\nHow then had it fared with the lost Red Bird? When she fell under the\nboy\u2019s arrow she was not killed but sorely wounded; and when the young\nIndian carried her home, very proud of his prize, his grandsire said\ntruly that the bird must be kept captive. Red Bird recovered rapidly,\nand one morning Monimquess was dismayed to hear her singing as loudly as\npossible, \u201clike a brook to sunshine,\u201d as he thought, for he knew she was\ntrying to make herself heard by the Mountain, and that if she succeeded\ndestruction would be hurled upon the wigwam. At last, wearied with\nanxious thinking\u2014\n\n         Down by the fire he lay on a bearskin\n         Smoking himself into silent sleep.\n         The door was closed, nor was there a crevice\n         Through which the Red Bird could creep to freedom,\n         When all at once she thought of the opening\n         Through which the smoke from the fire ascended,\n         Ever upward so densely pouring\n         Nobody dreamed she would dare to pass it.\n\n         As the head of Monimquess drooped on his shoulder....\n         Softly the Red Bird rose, and taking\n         A birchen bucket filled it with water.\n         Dipping her wing in the water she sprayed it\n         Little by little upon the fire.\n         Little by little the fire, like Monimquess,\n         Sank to sleep, and the bright red flame\n         Lay down to rest in the dull gray ashes.\n         Out of the smoke-hole, in careful silence,\n         Flitted Squ\u2019tes....\n\nSo the lovers were reunited. Then\n\n             ... Squ\u2019tes and Mipis\n             Lived all the summer upon the mountain,\n             Sung in its shadows and shone in the sunshine.\n             Still as of yore they are singing and shining;\n             And so it will be while the mountain is there.\n\nA very curious feature of this delicate romance, which reminds one of\nthe love-story of the Nightingale and the Rose, is the transposition of\nsex. To our minds it would seem natural that the bird, as the most\nactive of the two characters, should take the male part and the leaf the\nother; and it is false to fact that Red Bird, as a female, should\n_sing_. The Indians must have known that this was unnatural, yet their\npoetic sense arranged it otherwise, just as the poets have pictured the\nnightingale pressing _her_ breast against a thorn, yet singing, as only\nmale birds do!\n\nElsewhere I have shown how important a part the loon plays in the\nmythology and fireside tales of the redmen of the Northeastern region of\nour country and that of the Great Lakes. To the Algonkins of Maine and\neastward this bird was the messenger of their great hero Glooscap, or\nKuloskap, as Leland spells it with careful accuracy when writing in the\nlanguage of the Pasamaquoddies; and he has told in verse the story of\nhow this service was accepted by the willing bird. One day when Kuloskap\nwas pursuing the gigantic magician, Winpe, his enemy, a flock of loons\ncame circling near him, and to his question to their leader: \u201cWhat is\nthy will, O Kwimu?\u201d the loon replied: \u201cI fain would be thy servant, thy\nservant and thy friend.\u201d Then the Master taught the loons a cry, a\nstrange, prolonged cry, like the howl of a dog when he calls to the\nmoon, or when, far away in the forest, he seeks to find his master; and\nhe instructed them to utter this weird summons whenever they required\nhim.\n\n  Now it came to pass long after, the Master in Uktakumkuk\n  (The which is Newfoundland) came to an Indian village,\n  And all who dwelt therein were Kwimuuk, who had been\n  Loons in the time before. And now they were very glad\n  As men to see once more the Master, who had blessed them\n  When they were only birds. Therefore he made them his huntsmen.\n  Also his messengers. Hence comes that in all the stories\n  Which are told of the mighty Master the loons are ever his friends;\n  And the Indians, when they hear the cry of the loons, exclaim:\n  \u201cKimu elkomtuejul Kuloskapul\u201d\u2014the Loon is calling\n  Kuloskap, the Master.\n\nLeith Adams[103] says: \u201cStories are told\u201d\u2014among the Micmacs in New\nBrunswick\u2014\u201chow the snowy owl still laments the Golden Age when man and\nall animals lived in perfect amity until it came to pass that they began\nto quarrel; when the great Glooscap, or Gotescarp, got disgusted and\nsailed across the seas to return when they made up their differences. So\nevery night the owl repeats to this day his _Koo, koo, skoos_. \u2018Oh, I am\nsorry, Oh, I am sorry.\u2019\u201d\n\nA quaint little legend comes from the Tillamooks, whose home was\nformerly on the Oregon coast, where the tides do not rise very much. In\nthe beginning of the world, it teaches, the crow had a voice like that\nof the thunder-bird, and the thunder-bird the voice of a crow. The\nlatter proposed to exchange voices. The crow agreed to this, but\ndemanded that in return the thunder-bird give her low water along the\nseashore, so that she might more easily gather the clams and other\nmussels, which was a part of a Tillamook woman\u2019s daily task. The\nthunder-bird therefore made the water draw back a very long distance.\nBut when the crow went out on the waste of sea-bottom she saw so many\nmarine monsters that she was frightened, and begged the thunder-bird not\nto make the waters recede so far; and that is the reason that now but\nlittle ocean-bottom is exposed at ebb tide on the Oregon coast.\n\nThe Gualala Indians were a tribe of the great Pomo family that half a\ncentury ago dwelt happily in the northwestern corner of Sonoma County,\nCalifornia, and their staple food was the flour of crushed and filtered\nacorns of several kinds of oaks. In their country, as elsewhere in that\nState, the California woodpecker (_Melanerpes_) is a very common bird,\nwhich has the habit of drilling numerous small holes in pines and other\nsoft-wooded trees, and fixing in each an acorn\u2014a method of storing its\nfavorite food against a time of famine. The Indians understood this very\nwell, and in times of scarcity of food in camp they would cut down the\nsmall trees and climb the big ones, and rob the cupboards of the far\nmore provident birds. \u201cAnd here,\u201d says Powers,[19] \u201cI will make mention\nof a kind of sylvan barometer.... These acorns are stored away before\nthe rainy season sets in, sometimes to the amount of a half-bushel, and\nwhen they are wetted they presently swell and start out a little. So\nalways, when a rainstorm is brewing, the woodpeckers fall to work with\ngreat industry a day or two in advance and hammer them in all tight.\nDuring the winter, therefore, whenever the woods are heard rattling with\nthe pecking of these busy little commissary-clerks heading up their\nbarrels of worms, the Indian knows a rainstorm is certain to follow.\u201d\n\nThe Chippeway Indians, as Schoolcraft noted, account for the friendly\nspirit of the robin by relating that he was once a young brave whose\nfather set him a task too cruel for his strength, and made him starve\ntoo long when he had reached man\u2019s estate and had to go through the\ncustomary initiation-ceremonies. He turned into a robin, and said to his\nfather: \u201cI shall always be the friend of man and keep near their\ndwellings. I could not gratify your pride as a warrior, but I will cheer\nyou by songs.\u201d\n\nThis pretty fiction is noteworthy, when one recalls the many instances\nin Greek and European myths and poetry of men and women transforming\nthemselves into birds.\n\nThe Cherokees had an interesting story about the wren, always a\nbusybody. She gets up early in the morning, they say, pries into\neverything, and goes around to every lodge in the settlement to get news\nfor the birds\u2019 council. When a new baby is born she finds out whether it\nis a boy or a girl, and reports to the council. If it is a boy the birds\nsing in mournful chorus: \u201cAlas! The whistle of the arrow! My shins will\nburn,\u201d for the birds know that when the boy grows older he will hunt\nthem with his blowgun and arrows, and roast them on a stick. But if the\nbaby is a girl they are glad, and sing: \u201cThanks! The sound of the\npestle! At her home I shall surely be able to scratch where she sweeps,\u201d\nbecause they know that after a while they will be able to pick up stray\ngrains where she beats the corn into meal.[104]\n\nIn the myths or folklore of the Pawnees a character in several tales, as\nrelated by Grinnell,[105] is a little bird, smaller than a pigeon. \u201cIts\nback is blue, but its breast white, and its head is spotted. It flies\nswiftly over the water, and when it sees a fish it dives down into the\nwater to catch it. This bird is a servant or a messenger for the\nNahurac.\u201d The Nahurac are an assemblage of imaginary animals by whom\nmany wonderful things are done; and it communicates to living men their\nwishes or orders, and acts as a guide when men are summoned to come or\ngo somewhere. But this is perilously near the purely mythical, and it is\nmentioned only as an example of the widespread conception of birds as\nmessengers and interpreters.\n\nI hope I may be pardoned if I add to this group of Indian bird-stories\none or two told in the Negro cabins of North Carolina, and probably\nelsewhere, and written down in Volume XI of the American _Folk-Lore\nJournal_, among many other tales of the out-door creatures to which the\nrural darkies like to attribute human attributes, and to use as puppets\nin their little comedies of animal life, which are likely to be keen\nsatires on humanity. The one to be quoted is a parable of how Ann Nancy\n(a spider) got caught in a tight place by Mr. Turkey Buzzard, and how\nshe escaped, for Mr. Buzzard was going to eat her.\n\n\u201cBut,\u201d says the narrator, \u201cshe beg so hard, and compliment his fine\npresence, and compare how he sail in the clouds while she \u2019bliged to\ncrawl in the dirt, till he that proudful and set up he feel mighty\npardonin\u2019 spirit, and he let her go.\u201d\n\nAnn Nancy, however, did not enjoy the incident, and \u201cjess study constant\nhow she gwine get the best of every creeter,\u201d and particularly of the\ntormenting bird.\n\n\u201cShe knew Mr. Buzzard\u2019s weak point am he stomach, and one day she make\nit out dat she make a dining, and \u2019vite Mr. Buzzard an\u2019 Miss Buzzard an\u2019\nde chillens. Ann Nancy she know how to set out a dinin\u2019 fo\u2019 sure, and\nwhen dey all got sot down to the table, an\u2019 she mighty busy passin\u2019 the\nhot coffee to Mr. Buzzard an\u2019 the little Buzzards, she have a powerful\nbig pot o\u2019 scalding water ready, and she lip it all over poor ol\u2019 Mr.\nBuzzard\u2019s haid, and the po\u2019 ol\u2019 man done been baldhaided from that day.\n\n\u201cAn\u2019 he don\u2019t forget on Ann Nancy, \u2019cause you \u2019serve she de onliest\ncreeter on the topside the earth what Mr. Buzzard don\u2019t eat.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                       LIST OF BOOKS REFERRED TO\n\n\n 1. HALLIDAY, WILLIAM R. Greek Divination. (London, 1913.)\n\n 2. YOUNG, MARTHA. Plantation Bird Legends. (New York, 1902.)\n\n 3. WORCESTER, DEAN. The Philippines. (New York, 1901.)\n\n 4. BRINTON, DANIEL G. The Religions of Primitive Peoples. (New York,\n  1897.)\n\n 5. DORSEY, J. OWEN. Report U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, 1884\u20135.\n  (Washington, 1888.)\n\n 6. MCGEE, W. J. The Seri Indians, in Report U. S. Bureau Ethnology,\n  1895\u20136, Part I.\n\n 7. SKEAT, WILLIAM W. Malay Magic. (London, 1900.)\n\n 8. GAY, JOHN. Poems. The Shepherd\u2019s Week. (Boston, 1854.)\n\n 9. HIGGINSON, THOMAS W. Army Life in a Black Regiment. (Boston, 1870.)\n\n10. SWANN, JAMES G. The Northwest Coast. (New York, 1857.)\n\n11. FRIEND, HENRY. Flowers and Flower Lore. (London, 1883.)\n\n12. SPENCE, LEWIS. Myths of the North American Indians. (London, 1914.)\n\n13. DOUGHTY, CHARLES M. Wanderings in Arabia. (London, 1908.)\n\n14. KEANE, JOHN F. T. Six Months in the Hejaz. (London, 1887.)\n\n15. LAYARD, EDWARD L. The Birds of South Africa. (London, 1875\u20136.)\n\n16. CANDLER, EDMUND. The Unveiling of Lhasa. (London, 1905.)\n\n17. TYLOR, EDWARD B. Primitive Culture. (New York, 1920.)\n\n18. KAY, CHARLES DE. Bird Gods of Ancient Europe. (New York, 1898.)\n\n19. POWERS, STEPHEN. The Tribes of California. (Washington, 1877.)\n\n20. MARTINENGO-CAESARESCO, COUNTESS E. L. The Place of Animals in Human\n  Thought. (London, 1909.)\n\n21. BARING-GOULD, SABINE. Curious Myths of the Middle Ages. (London,\n  1867.)\n\n22. BROWN, ABBIE F. Book of Saints and Kindly Beasts. (Boston, 1900.)\n  Consult also \u201cLives\u201d of St. Francis of Assisi.\n\n23. WARD, WILLIAM HAYES. Seal Wonders of Western Asia. (Carnegie\n  Institution, No. 100.)\n\n24. BAYLEY, HAROLD. The Lost Language of Symbolism. (London, 1913.)\n\n25. DALTON, EDWARD T. Byzantine Art and Architecture.\n\n26. Sacred Books of the East, Pahlavi Texts, Vol. XXIV, 112.\n\n27. BRINTON, DANIEL G. Myths of the New World. (New York, 1868.) See also\n  his American Hero Myths (1882).\n\n28. OSWALD, FELIX. Zoological Sketches. (Philadelphia, 1883.)\n\n29. ROTHERY, G. C. A B C of Heraldry. (Philadelphia, 1915.)\n\n30. MALLET, PAUL H. Northern Antiquities. (London, 1890.)\n\n31. GROSVENOR, EDWIN A. Constantinople. (Boston, 1895.)\n\n32. GOLDSMITH, OLIVER. A History of the Earth and Animated Nature.\n  (London, 1774.)\n\n33. BROWNE, SIR THOMAS. Inquiry into Vulgar Errors. (London, 1846.)\n\n34. BREWER, E. C. Handbooks, particularly \u201cPhrase and Fable.\u201d\n\n35. WALLACE, ALFRED RUSSEL. The Malay Archipelago. (New York, 1869.)\n\n36. LEE, HENRY. Sea Fables Explained. (London, 1884.)\n\n37. COOK, ARTHUR B. Zeus. (Cambridge, Eng., 1914.)\n\n38. HULME, F. EDWARD. Natural History Lore and Legend. (London, 1895.)\n\n39. WALKER, MARGARET C. Bird Legends and Life. (New York, 1908.)\n\n40. WALTON, ISAAK. The Compleat Angler. (London, 100th Edition, 1888.)\n\n41. ARISTOTLE. History of Animals. (London, Bohn, 1862.)\n\n42. HARTING, J. E. The Ornithology of Shakespeare. (London, 1871). Compare\n  Thiselton-Dyer\u2019s Folk Lore of Shakespeare.\n\n43. HANAUER, J. E. Tales Told in Palestine. (Cincinnati, 1904.)\n\n44. HUDSON, W. H. Birds of La Plata. (London, 1920.)\n\n45. WHITE, GILBERT. Natural History of Selborne.\n\n46. WILSON, ALEXANDER. North American Ornithology. (New York, 1853.)\n\n47. SWANN, H. KIRKE. A Dictionary of English and Folk Names of British\n  Birds. (London, 1913.) It contains a useful bibliography, and quotes\n  largely from the Rev. C. Swainson\u2019s Folk Lore and Provincial Names of\n  British Birds (English Dialect Society, 1886.)\n\n48. ST. JOHNSTON, LT.-COL. T. R. The Islanders of the Pacific. (London,\n  1921.)\n\n49. LYLY, JOHN. Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit. (London, 1868.)\n\n50. COUES, ELLIOTT. Birds of the Northwest. (Washington, 1874.)\n\n51. CRUDEN, ALEXANDER. A Complete Concordance to the Holy Scriptures.\n\n52. LAUFER, BERTHOLD. Bird Divination among the Thibetans. (Leiden, 1914.)\n\n53. MILLER, LEO. In the Wilds of South America. (New York, 1918.)\n\n54. GUBERNATIS, ANGELO DE. Zoological Mythology. (New York, 1872.)\n\n55. NEWTON, ALFRED. Dictionary of Birds. (London, 1896.)\n\n56. CONWAY, MONCURE D. The Wandering Jew. (New York, 1881.) See also his\n  Solomonic Literature (Chicago, 1899.)\n\n57. WATTERS, JOHN J. The Birds of Ireland. (Dublin, 1853.)\n\n58. SYKES, ELLA. Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia. (London,\n  1914.)\n\n59. SALE, GEORGE. The Koran (Alcoran of Mohammed.) (London, 1825.)\n\n60. WILDE, LADY JANE F. Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions\n  of Ireland. (London, 1902.)\n\n61. SMITH, HORATIO. Festivals. (New York, 1836.)\n\n62. WENTZ, W. Y. The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries. (London, 1911.)\n\n63. JENNER, MRS. HENRY. Christian Symbolism. (London, 1910.)\n\n64. O\u2019CONNOR, VINCENT C. Travels in the Pyrenees. (London, 1913.)\n\n65. BASSETT, FLETCHER S. Legends and Superstitions of the Sea. (Chicago,\n  1888.)\n\n66. ELWORTHY, F. T. The Evil Eye. (London, 1895.)\n\n67. GOSTLING, FRANCES M. P. Rambles about the Riviera. (New York, 1914.)\n  See also her books about the French chateaux, and the Bretons.\n\n68. BALL, MRS. KATHERINE M. Decorative Motives in Oriental Art. In _Japan_\n  (magazine), New York, 1922.\n\n69. DRYDEN, JOHN. Ovid\u2019s Metamorphoses: \u201cTransformation of Syrinx.\u201d\n  (Boston, 1854.)\n\n70. BENDIRE, MAJOR CHARLES. Life Histories of North American Birds, Vol.\n  I. (Washington, Smithsonian Institution, 1892.)\n\n71. MACBAIN, ALEXANDER. Celtic Mythology and Religion. (Stirling, 1917.)\n\n72. FRAZER, SIR J. G. Golden Bough (series). The Scapegoat (1913).\n\n73. WATERTON, CHARLES. Essays (London, 1870). Also Wanderings in South\n  America. (New York, 1910.)\n\n74. SQUIRE. Mythology of the British Isles. (London, 1905.)\n\n75. LANCIANI, RODOLPH A. Pagan and Christian Rome. (Boston, 1893.)\n\n76. WILLIAMS, SAMUEL W. The Middle Kingdom. (New York, 1883.)\n\n77. MOONEY, JAMES. Report U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, Vol. XIV, 1892\u20133.\n\n78. BRODERIP, W. J. Zoological Recreations. (London, 1849.)\n\n79. NUTTALL, THOMAS. Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and\n  Canada. (Cambridge, 1832.)\n\n80. HEATON, MRS. JOHN L. By-Paths in Sicily. (New York, 1920.)\n\n81. IRBY, COL. HOWARD L. Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar. (London,\n  1875.)\n\n82. JONES, W. Credulities Past and Present. (London, 1877.)\n\n83. SWANTON, JOHN R. Report U. S. Bureau Ethnology, Vol. XXVI, 1904\u20135, p.\n  454.\n\n84. HAZLITT, WILLIAM C. Dictionary of Faiths and Folklore. (London, 1895.)\n\n85. STEVENSON, HAMILTON S. Animal Life in Africa. (London, 1912.)\n\n86. MANAT, JAMES I. \u00c6gean Days. (London, 1913.)\n\n87. The Arabian Nights: Payne\u2019s edition (London, 1901.)\n\n88. COSTELLO, LOUIS S. The Rose Garden of Persia. (London, 1899),\n  including \u201cFlowers and Birds\u201d by Azz\u2019 Eddin Elmocadessi, \u201cJamshid\u2019s\n  Courtship\u201d by Firdausi, and prose notes.\n\n89. POLO, MARCO. Travels: Yule\u2019s edition. (London, 1875.)\n\n90. DAVIS, F. H. Myths and Legends of Japan. (N. Y., 1912.) Consult also\n  Joly, Henri L. Legend in Japanese Art. (London, 1908.)\n\n91. LELAND, CHARLES G. Kuloskap, the Master. (New York, 1902.)\n\n92. THISELTON-DYER, THOMAS F. English Folklore. (London, 1878.) Consult\n  also his Folk-lore of Plants, and his Folk Lore of Shakespeare.\n\n93. FIRDAUSI. The Shah Nameh: Atkinson\u2019s Translation. (London, 1886.)\n\n94. PLUTARCH. Lives: Camillus, Romulus, Alexander, Etc.\n\n95. Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archeology, Vol. viii, p. 80.\n\n96. BOMBAUGH, C. C. Gleanings from the Harvest-Fields of Literature.\n  (Baltimore, 1873.)\n\n97. LELAND, CHARLES G. Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition.\n  (London, 1892.)\n\n98. FISKE, JOHN. Myths and Myth-Makers. (Boston, 1872.)\n\n99. KEITH, GEORGE. Letters: in Les Bourgeis de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest.\n  (Quebec, 1889.)\n\nFootnote 100:\n\n  NIBLACK, ALBERT P. Report U. S. National Museum, 1888.\n\nFootnote 101:\n\n  NELSON, EDWARD W. Birds of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean.\n  (Washington, 1883.)\n\nFootnote 102:\n\n  SCHOOLCRAFT, HENRY G. Algic Researches. (New York, 1839.)\n\nFootnote 103:\n\n  ADAMS, A. LEITH. Field and Forest Rambles. (London, 1873.)\n\nFootnote 104:\n\n  MOONEY, JAMES. Report U. S. Bureau Ethnology, Vol. XIX, 1897\u20138, p.\n  401.\n\nFootnote 105:\n\n  GRINNELL, GEORGE BIRD. Pawnee Hero-Stories and Folk-Tales. (New York,\n  1889.)\n\nFootnote 106:\n\n  FORTIER, ALCE. Stories and Folk-Tales. (New York, 1889). Also,\n  Louisiana Folk-Tales. (Boston, 1885.)\n\nFootnote 107:\n\n  JAMESON, MRS. ANNA B. History of our Lord as Exemplified in Works of\n  Art. (London, 1872). See also her Legends of the Monastic Orders\n  (1872), and her Sacred and Legendary Art (1911).\n\nFootnote 108:\n\n  VERRALL, MARGARET DE G. Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens.\n  (London, 1890.)\n\nFootnote 109:\n\n  DIODORUS SICULUS. Historical Library.\n\nFootnote 110:\n\n  VILLARI, PASQUALE. The Barbarian Invasion of Italy. (New York, 1902.)\n\nFootnote 111:\n\n  FOX-DAVIES, ARTHUR C. Complete Guide to Heraldry. (London, 1909.)\n\nFootnote 112:\n\n  PERROT AND CHIPIEZ. History of Art in Antiquity: Vol. IV, Sardinia and\n  Judea.\n\nFootnote 113:\n\n  Seal of the United States: How it was Developed and Adopted.\n  (Washington, Department of State, 1892.)\n\n\n\n\n                                 INDEX\n\n\n Abbey, founded by birds, 269\n\n Adjutant Stork, stone in head of, 96\n\n Aetites, or eagle-stone, 96\n\n Albatross, raft-nest of, 76\n\n Alectorius, a magic stone, 95\n\n Alectromancy, 217\n\n American eagle, 36\n\n Ani, or Black Witch, see _Jumbiebird_.\n\n Anka, mythical bird, 198\n\n Arabian mythical birds, 193, 196\n\n Ark, messengers from the, 99\n\n Arthur, King, becomes a raven, 163\n\n Arvenus, legend of Lake, 78\n\n Asbestos, a bird\u2019s skin, 195\n\n Augury and Auspice defined, 214\n\n\n Babes in the Wood, story, 116\n\n Bennu, a sun-symbol, 195\n\n Bestiaries described, 58\n\n Bird-myths, origin of, 226, 253\n\n Bird-of-Paradise, legends of, 63\n\n Bird-superstitions rare in United States, 7\n\n Birds, alleged hibernation of, 89\n\n Birds as \u201cOpeners,\u201d 249\u2013253\n\n Birds as pilots, 161\n\n Birds as spirits, 10, 25, 189\n\n Birds associated with monks and hermits, 262\u2013271\n\n Birds becoming gods, 18\n\n Birds changing into other birds, 92\n\n Birds connected with Lightning, 242\u2013253\n\n Birds, fabulous, explained, 202, 208, 226\n\n Birds, lucky and unlucky, 25\n\n Birds of Assyrian seals, 202\n\n Birds of the Bosphorus, 16\n\n Birds riding on bigger birds, 81\n\n Birds transport souls, 190\n\n Birds, variety of accounted for, 226\u2013241\n\n Bittern, breast-light of, 79\n\n Blackbird, red-winged, 239\n\n Blackbirds blackened by Raven, 229\n\n Blackbirds once white, 233\n\n Bluebird, mountain, 23, 240\n\n Blue jay, legend of, 240\n\n Bluejay visits the Devil, 166\n\n Brahminy duck, sacred in Thibet, 18\n\n Buffon denies song to American birds, 78\n\n Bulbul, Persian nightingale, 48\n\n Butcher-bird, alleged trick of, 79\n\n Buzzard, turkey, features of, 227, 236, 241, 284\n\n\n Chickens as weather-prophets, 221\n\n Chickens used in augury, 216, 223\n\n Chimney swift, Josselyn\u2019s account of, 62\n\n Chouans, named from owl\u2019s cry, 187\n\n Cinamros, Persian myth, 205\n\n Cock, alectorius of, 96\n\n Cock, as Gaulish emblem, 44\n\n Cock, barnyard, a sun-bird, 218\n\n Cock, Christian legends of, 109, 151\n\n Cock, stoned on Shrove Tuesday, 123\n\n Cormorants, legends of, 228, 231\n\n Cranes carry away girl, 237\n\n Crane\u2019s foot, origin, 170\n\n Cranes transport small birds, 83\n\n Cranes war with Pygmies, 94\n\n Crocodile-bird, legend of, 60\n\n Crossbill, Christian legend of, 113\n\n Crow, Chinese three-legged, 172\n\n Crow, formerly white, 233\n\n Crow, hooded, dread of, 165\n\n Crow in Ghost Dance, 176\n\n Crow, omens from, 213\n\n Crows\u2019-feet at eyes, 170\n\n Crows visit the Devil, 166\n\n Cuckoos as rain-prophets, 223\n\n Cupid of the Gaels, 3\n\n Curassow, legend of, 170\n\n\n David beguiled by a pigeon, 259\n\n Deluges, birds connected with, 98\u2013108\n\n Demonic birds, 52, 205\n\n Devil\u2019s birds, 166\n\n Direction, element in divination, 8, 175, 213\n\n Divination by birds, 212\u2013217;\n   trifled with, 257, 258\n\n Dove and the Holy Grail, 137\n\n Dove as bird of peace, 140\n\n Dove, Christian legends of, 113, 139\n\n Dove guides Cortez\u2019s ship, 138\n\n Dove instructs Pope Gregory, 133\n\n Dove of St. Remi, 133, 137\n\n Dove, revered in Islam, 135\n\n Dove saves Genghis Khan, 141\n\n Dove sent from the Ark, 101\n\n Dove, symbol of Holy Ghost, 133, 134, 138\n\n Dove, symbol of Ishtar, 127\u2013132\n\n Doves at Dodona, 130\n\n Doves in Jewish sacrifice, 140\n\n Doves in Solomonic legends, 259\n\n Doves, prophetic, 5\u20139\n\n\n Eagle, double-headed, 29, 33, 52\n\n Eagle, emblem of St. John, 149\n\n Eagle, golden, or war, 24, 35\n\n Eagle, imperial, 30\n\n Eagle-lecterns, origin of, 149\n\n Eagle, legends of, 97\n\n Eagle, Mexican harpy, 38\n\n Eagle, myths about, 68, 73, 76\n\n Eagle of Lagash, 28\n\n Eagles, omens from, 213\n\n Eagle-stone, or aetites, 96\n\n Easter eggs, customs explained, 124\n\n Eggs in mosques and churches, 54\n\n Eskimo bird-tales, 273, 274\n\n\n Fairies traced to Morrigu, 165\n\n Falcon, symbolism of, 150\n\n Feng-whang. See _Fung-whang_.\n\n Fish-hawk, legend of, 80\n\n France, popular emblem of, 41\u201346\n\n Franklin compares eagle and turkey, 37\n\n Fung-whang, Chinese myth, 207\n\n\n Garuda, Hindoo myth, 206\n\n Gaul, name explained, 41\n\n Genghis Khan saved by owl, 186\n\n Ghost Dance explained, 177\n\n Goatsuckers, cries of dreaded, 6, 15\n\n Goldfinch, Christian legend of, 113\n\n Goose and golden eggs, 66\n\n Goose-bone fable, 222\n\n Goose, golden Capitoline, 255\n\n Goose growing on trees, 64\n\n Goose in Buddhist myth, 67\n\n Grebe, legend of, 240\n\n Green fowl, Mohammedan, 15\n\n Grouse, marks on ruffed, 238\n\n Guan, legend of, 107\n\n Guatemala, emblem of, 39\n\n Guillemots, origin of, 237\n\n Gulls offend Giant, 234\n\n\n Hair, superstitions about, 9\n\n Halcyon days, meaning of, 22\n\n Harpies, Sirens, etc., 193\n\n Hibernation of birds, 89\n\n Ho-ho, Japanese myth, 208\n\n Hoopoe, legends of, 153, 250, 261\n\n Hornbill, superstitions about, 16\n\n Hummingbird, hibernation of, 90\n\n Hummingbird, riding a crane, 81\n\n Hummingbird, voice lost, 241\n\n\n Indian poetic story, 275\u2013279\n\n\n Jackdaw of Rheims, 157\n\n Jay, Canada, gives warning, 4\n\n Jumbie-bird, Ani, or Black Witch, 189\n\n\n Kamar, Persian myth, 206\n\n Karshipta, Persian myth, 206\n\n King, choice of by birds, 82, 206\n\n Kingbird, riding a hawk, 81\n\n Kingfisher, halcyon myth, 20, 234\u2013239\n\n Kingfisher, sent from the Ark, 102\n\n Kiskadee, legend of, 239\n\n Kite, Egyptian legend of, 151\n\n\n Lapwing and Covenanters, 256\n\n Lark, Laverock, funereal, 115\n\n Legend, definition of, 254\n\n Lightning attributed to birds, 243\u2013253\n\n Loon, origin of its cry, 279\n\n Lucky birds, 25\n\n\n Macaw as fire-bird, 41\n\n Magpie, portents by, 171\n\n Mexico, national emblem, 38\n\n Migrating birds carried by others, 81\u201388\n\n Migration to the moon, 91\n\n Moccasin flower legend, 6\n\n Monks, medieval and birds, 262\u2013271\n\n Morrigu and her crows, 165\n\n\n Nightingale, myths and legends, 48, 50\n\n Number, important in divination, 8, 171\n\n Nuns of Whitby, 88\n\n\n Odin\u2019s ravens, 150\n\n Omens trifled with, 257, 258\n\n Ornithomancy, origin of, 5\n\n Osage Indians, bird ancestry, 11\n\n Osprey, legend of, 80\n\n Ostrich eggs, use of, 54\n\n Ostrich, errors pertaining to, 54\n\n Ostrich plumes, symbolism, 153\n\n Owein\u2019s ravens, 162\n\n Owl, a Baker\u2019s daughter, 121\n\n Owl a monarch\u2019s daughter, 183\n\n Owl, Athenian, 180\n\n Owl in medieval medicine, 185\n\n Owl once a singer, 112\n\n Owl once an Eskimo girl, 233\n\n Owl saves heroes, 186, 258\n\n Owls, Christian legends of, 121\n\n Owls, superstitions about, 181, 187, 213, 258\n\n Oystercatcher, why blessed, 112\n\n\n Palm, associated with phenix, 198\n\n Paradise-birds, 63, 64\n\n Peacock feathers, indicate rank, 144\n\n Peacock, feathers, superstitions, 148\n\n Peacock, saves Chinese general, 187\n\n Peacocks, legends of, 141\u2013147\n\n Pelican, errors pertaining to, 58\n\n Pelican, Seri ancestor, 11\n\n Pelican, symbolism of, 147\n\n Pharaoh\u2019s chicken, 34\n\n Pheasant, Argus, painted, 233\n\n Phenix as a Christian symbol, 196\n\n Phenix described, 191\n\n Pigeons in church feasts, 125\n\n Pigeons of Venice, 125\n\n Pigeon shrine near Yarkand, 136\n\n Polynesian bird-gods, 19\n\n\n Quails, Israelitish legend, 93\n\n Quetzal-bird, 39\n\n\n Rabbit and Easter eggs, 124\n\n Rain-birds described, 223\n\n Rara avis (swan), 46\n\n Raven as culture-hero, 228\u2013234\n\n Raven, characteristics of, 134\n\n Raven, Dickens\u2019s \u201cGrip,\u201d 156\n\n Raven dresses the birds, 228\n\n Raven feeds Elijah, 158\n\n Raven feeds hermits, 164\n\n Raven flag of Danes, 159\n\n Raven, ghostly, 164\n\n Raven, Mosaic view of, 158\n\n Raven, myths concerning, 72, 105, 248\n\n Raven once white, 168, 232\n\n Raven, portents by, 169, 173, 213\n\n Raven saves body of St. Vincent, 164\n\n Raven sent from the Ark, 100\n\n Raven\u2019s Hill and Barbarossa, 163\n\n Ravens, Odin\u2019s messengers, 150\n\n Redbreast, Christian legends of, 114\n\n Redbreast covers corpses, 116\n\n Redpoll, bringing fire, 274\n\n Rhea, errors concerning, 55\n\n Robin, American, singing, 282\n\n Robin, European. See _Redbreast_.\n\n Roc (Rukh), Sinbad\u2019s discovery, 200\n\n\n Sacred birds explained, 16, 24\n\n Sagehen, Paiute story of, 106\n\n Salamander as a bird, 196\n\n Scapegoats among birds, 25\n\n Scarlet bird of Taoists, 207\n\n Schamir, Solomonic legend, 249\n\n Seal of United States, 36\n\n Semiramis, story of, 128\n\n Sentinel-birds, stories of, 254, 256\n\n Seven Whistlers, 13, 89\n\n Shrike, errors regarding, 79\n\n Shrove Tuesday customs, 123\n\n Simurgh, Persian myth, 205\n\n Smell, sense in birds, 75\n\n Snow-owl blackens raven, 232\n\n Souls brought by birds, 12\n\n Souls carried away by birds, 13, 139, 148\n\n Sparrow in Christian legends, 112\n\n Speech by birds, 3, 10, 13\n\n Stones possessed by birds, 95\n\n Stork, as a migrant, 92\n\n Stork, legends of, 112, 153\n\n Stymphalia, birds of, 192, 194\n\n Swallow, Eskimo origin of, 238\n\n Swallow in Christian legends, 112\n\n Swallow, omens from, 25, 213, 218\n\n Swallow restores blindness, 96\n\n Swan, black (rara avis), 47\n\n Swan, death song, 76\n\n Swan, omens from, 213\n\n Symplegades, legend of, 131\n\n\n Thibetan divination, 174\n\n Thunder-birds described, 243\u2013248, 281\n\n Thunder Cape, name explained, 245\n\n Trochilus legend, 60\n\n Trogon, or quetzal-bird, 39\n\n Trumpeter, legends of, 107, 239\n\n Tulare, legend of lake, 108\n\n Turkey, Franklin\u2019s preference, 37\n\n Turkey, Indian legend of, 106\n\n\n Vulture, baldness explained, 227, 236, 241\n\n Vulture, omens from, 213\n\n Vulture revered in Egypt, 151\n\n Vultures, Persian, 207\n\n Vulture, Turkey. See _Buzzard_.\n\n\n Wagtail, Ainu legend of, 103\n\n War-eagle, American Indian, 35\n\n Weathercocks explained, 151\n\n Weather prognostics by birds, 217, 219, 282\n\n Whippoorwill as a prophet, 5, 6\n\n Winds as birds, 203, 206, 249\n\n Woodpecker, Californian, 281\n\n Woodpecker, magical powers of, 250\n\n Woodpecker, redheaded, 23, 106, 235, 241\n\n Wren, Cherokee story of, 282\n\n Wren, hunting of in Ireland, 118\n\n\n Yel, culture-hero, 230\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                          TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES\n\n\n 1. P. 229, changed \u201cl\u2019epervier\u201d to \u201cl\u2019\u00e9pervier\u201d.\n 2. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.\n 3. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as\n      printed.\n 4. Footnotes have been re-indexed using letters.\n 5. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.","title":"Birds in Legend, Fable and Folklore","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":85111}