Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-02-18

TRADITloNs RELArlSG To BIRDS AND AMI
NALs.-Certain traditions relating TO birds
and beasts are only explIcable on the sup
position that they were once objects of
divination or worship. The old Germans.
we know from TacitIs, used white horses.
"a the Romans used chickens. for pur-
poses of augury. and OWNED future events
from the different intonatlons OF nelghlngs.
Hence it pr0ba oily j. that the discovery OF
horseshoe is 50 universally thought
lucky, some Of the feelings that once at
tached TO the animal itself still surviving
round the iron Of its hoof. For horses. like
dogs or birds, were invariably accredited
with a greater insight into futurity than
man himself. and the many superstitiOns
connected with the flight and voice OF birds
resolve themselves into the fancy, not incOn-
ceiyable among men surrounded on all sides
by unintelligible tongues, that birds were
the bearers of messages and warnings to
men which skill and observation might hope
to interpret. Why Is the robins life and
nest sacred, and why does an injury TO
either bring about bloody milk, lightning,
or rain? The Christian legend says that 1t
extracted thorn from the crown OF Christ.
or that it daily bears TO hell a drop ct water
to put out the flames and accounts in either
way for the red dye on its breast. But this
Is evidently a medieval gloss to some heath
on belief, IKE the reason for the unlueki-
ness of the magpie. that 1t would not enter
the ark, but sat jabbering outside over the
drowned world; or like the idea of the
aspen still trembling at the part it played
in the crucitxtiOn. IL has been suggested
that the robin. on account of its color, was
once sacred to Thor, the god of lightning
yet. it is not possible that its red breast
singled it out for worship from other birds,
lust as its red berries the rowan from among
trees long before its wOrshipers had arrived
at any ideas of abstract divinities All
over the world there Is regard for things
red. In the Highlands women tie some red
thread around the cows tails before turn
ing them out to grass in spring. and tie red
silk around their own fingers to keep off the
witches; and, Just as in Esthonia mothers
put some red thread in their babies cradles,
so in China they tie some round their child
ren Is waists, and teach them to regard red
as the best known safeguard against evil
spirits Indeed, one OF the chief lessons
of comparative folklore is caution
against the theory which deduces popular
traditions from Aryan and other mythology.
We have already alluded to the fact that in
parts of China the same feelings prevail
about the swallow as in England or Ger
many But there are yet other analogies
between the East and West. A growing
hen is an object of universal dislike in Eng
land and Brittany, and few families in
China will keep Growing hen. The owl $
voice is omnious of death or other calamni
ty in England and Germany, as it was in
Greece. Except at Athens) but in the Ce-
lestial Empire also it presages death. and
is regarded as the bird which calls for the
Itk,,
bird of ill omen, Is it not, therefore. like
ly that all popular fancies about birds and
animals have begun in the same way,
among the same or different races of the
globe, and were subsequently adopted, but
never originated, by mythology? May it
not be that certain birds or ANIMALS became
prominent into mythology because they had
already been prominent in tradition, rather
than that they became prominent in tradi-
dition because they had been prominent
in mythology? For instance, instead of
tracing dogs bowling a. death omen to
an Aryau belief that the dog guided the
soul from its earthly tenement to its abode
in heaven, may we not suppose that the
myth arose from an already existing omen,
and that the latter arose. as omens still do,
from a coincidence which suggested a con-
necton subseq uently sustained by super
fetal observation? The St. Swithin fallacy,
which arose within historical memory and
still holds its ground in an age of scientific
observation, well illustrates how one strik-
ing coincidence may grow into belief,
which no amount Of later evidence can
weaken or destroy. Just so, 1T happened
that a dog howled shortly before some cal
amity occurred TO our Aryan foreiathers.
thousands and thousand of years ago, long
before they bad attained to any thoughts
of soul or heaven, We can well imagine
that the dog which already betokened death,
should. when they came to frame the myth.
be conceived as the guide which was wait
ing for the soul to take it to heaven, and
that the belief thus perpetuated by the
myth might survive to the latest ages. 1t,
at all events, initiates against the exclusive
ly Aryan nature of the belief, and exempll-
fies the extraordinary coincidence OF ideas
among different people. that the Esqai-
maux lay dogs head ty the grave OF
child. for 1.-THE soul Of dog can find its
way everywhere. and will show the igno-
rant babe the way to the land of souls "
CornhM Magazine.