The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1873-05-18


Extraordinary honors were paid to the
goose in ancient times, and it is still held
in great vcneratiOn by some of tho East.
ern nations. The figure that occurs so
frequently on Buddhist monuments is the
Ordinance goose. The ancient Briions
according to Cesar, held it impious TO cot
the ilcsh of gecso. Tho ibis was another
bind held in the highest sanciity by the
old Egyptians, There are still numerous
pits containing ibis mummies in that
country. The largest of them; little to
the westward Of the pyramid Of Aboukir,
Ia about twenty feet deep The floor of
this pit, for probably q dept OF many feet,
is covered with heaps on heaps, aud layers
on layers, Of coarse carthen jars, the lids
cemented down, containing each the body
of an ibis, preserved with bitumen and
inclosed with numerous folds of narrow
cloth bandages. " Some of the mumm les
are found" says Lord Nugent, in his
Lands Classical and Sacred, ain a state
Of great preservation black aud charred
and incapable Of being taken whole out Of
The bandages, but oil the bones, the heart
and all the feathers entire. Whether
these animals were thus cmbalmed and
brought TO this place OF burial whenever
found dead or whether collected here only
as objects of worship, is question of
which no ancient authority assists in the
| solution.
DR.. Shaw states that the Mahometans
have great yeneration and esteem for
the stork. IL is almost as sacred with
them as the ibis was with the Egyptians
and they would look upon person as pro-
fame who should kill or even harm one.
SO precious were these birds held 10
Thcssaly, which country they are said 10
have cleared of serPents, that the slayer
Of stork o punished with death They
were thought much of at Rome, for when
a person who. from freak of luxury, Or
dered one to be placed ON his dinner table
he drew upon himself the lreful obloouy
of the whole city,
The robin is considered in several coun-
tries sacred bird to kill one il little
less than sacrilegc; and its eggs are free
from the hand Of the bird hester Ii is
asserted that the respect shown to it by
man is joined in by the animals of the
wood. The weasel and wildcat, it is said.
will neither modest it nor eat il when
killed. >0ne cause for the venera,ion in
which it is held may be the supm stition
which represents it as the medium through
which mankind are warned of approach
ing DEATH.
Before the deeease OF q person, robin
is believed, in many instances, to tap
thrice at the room in which the sick per-
son is lying, Grimm says that the pecu-
liar veneration with which this bird is
treated has been shown by the whole Ger.
man race from remote times; and he refers
10 the birds color aud name as evidences
that it was sacred to Thor, the god of
lightning.
The swallow, too, in Germany, is desm-
ed sacred bird. Like the stork, il pre-
serves the house on which il builds its
mes, from fire aud lightning. The Span.
ish peasants have tradition that il was
swallow that tried to pluck the thorns out
Of the crown of Christ as lie hung upon
the cross hence they have great rever-
ence for this bird, and will never dc.
stroy it.
In France, in the Pays de Caux, the
wren is a sacred bird. To kill it, or rob
its nest, is deemed an atrOcity which will
bring down the lightning on the culprits
dwelling. Such on act was also regarded
with horror in Scotland. Robert Cham.
bers mentions the following popular male
diciion upon those who rob the nests Of
the wren
Malseus, rnalisons male than ten,
That harry the lodge Of heavens hen
[Belgravia.