Weekly Trinity journal., 1873-05-17
SACRED BIRDS.

Extraordinary honors were PAID TO the
goose in ancient times, and it is still held
in great veneratiOn by some of the East
ern nations. The figure that occurs so
frequently on Buddhist monuments is
the Brahmanee goose. The ancient Brit
Ons, according to Caesar, held it impious
to eat the flesh Of geese. The ibis was
another bird held in the highest sanctity
by the old Egyptians. There are still
numerous pits containing ibis mummies
in that country. The largest Of them,
little to the west of the pyramid of Alb
ourtir, is about twenty feet deep. The
floor of this pit, for probably a depth of
many feet, is covered with heaps on heaps
and layers on layers, of coarse earthern
jars. the lids cemented down, containing
each the body of an ibis, preserved with
bitumen, and closed with narrow folds of
cloth bandages. "Some of the mum
mics are found" says Lord Nugent, in
his Lands Classical and Sacred, in q
state of great preservation-black and
charred, and incapable of being taken
out of the. .bandages, but all the bones, the
heads, and all the feathers entire
Whether these animals were thus en-
balmed and brought to this place of bur-
ial whenever found dead, or whether COL
lected here as only objects Of worship, is
question of which no ancient authority
assists in the solution.
DIR. Shaw states that the Mahometans
have great veneration and esteem for
stork. 1t is almost as sacred with them
as the ibis was with the Egyptians and
they would look upon a person as profane
who would kill or even harm one. So
precious were these birds held in Thessa-
ly, which country they are said to have
cleared Of serpents, that the slayer Of a
stork was punished with death. They
were thought much Of at Rome, and
when a person who, in freak Of luxury
ordered one to be placed on his dinner-ta-
BILE, he drew upon himself the obloquy of
the entire city.
The robin is considered in several coun-
tries sacred bird to kill one is little
less than sacrilege and its eggs are free
from the hand of the bird-nester. 1t is
asserted that the respect shown for it by
man is joined in by the animals of the
wood. The weasel and wildcat, it is
said, will neither molest it nor eat it when
killed. One cause for the veneration in
which it is held may be the superstition
which represents it rs the medium thro'
which.mankind are warned of approach
ing death. Before the decease Of per-
son, robin is believed, in many instan-
ces, TO tap thrice at the window Of the
room in which the sick person is lying
Grimm says that the peculiar veneration
with which this bird is treated has been
shown by the whole German race from
remote times and he refers to the birds
color and its name as evidences that it
was sacred to Thor, the god Of lightning.
The swallow, too, in Germany, is deem
ed sacred bird. Like the stork, it pre-
serves the house on which it builds its
nest from fire and lightning. The Span
ish peasants have tradition that il was
n swallow that tried to pluck the thorns
out of the crown Of Christ as he hung
upon the cross hence they have great
reverence for this bird and will never des-
troy it.
In France, in the Pays de Caux, the
wren is sacred bird. To kill it, or to
rob its nest, is deemed an atrocity which
will bring down the lightning on the cul-
prit's dwelling. Snch an act was also
regarded with horror in Scotland. Rob
ert Chambers mentions the following
malcdiction on those who rob the nest OF
the wren:
Malisons, maIisons mair than ten,
That harry the lodge Of Heavens hen.