The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-04-05

daughter of the boughs! Yea, and
bring thee tidings of reward. Hence
forth from this very hour, and because
of this deed of thine, it shall be that il
many land thy race and kind shal
bear upon their bosoms the hue an'
banner of thy faithful blood; and the
children Of every house shall YEAR,
with q natural love towards the birds
of the ru.idy breast and shall greet
their presence in its season with 8
voice of thanks giving.
BRoN RHUDDYN.
Second only to this is another Celtic
legend, which one hears everywhere in
Wales
TO the far distant spirit land of sor
row, darkness and perpetual fire, M
awful region of wailing and woe, the
robin gees every day. bearing in his
bill 4 drop Of water to quench the evi
flames, rcn;urlng 50 close in his yea
that his feathers were scorched by tho
fires, and so, in the Welsh tongue, he
is Bron rhudllya, or the breast burnt
THE PAGAN STORY.
Such arc the religious stories of the
red-hreast.
But as the early Christians, time
and again, attached their own particu
lar religious belief and significance tc
the Pagan legends and mythologica
stories already i'll existence, we car
easily prove an earlier mysterious and
supernatural belief in the robins red
feathers, and this universal reverence
undoubtedly produced a necessity fol
the legend of the cross, and, indeed
stimulated its creation.
THE LIGHTNING BIRD.
Brittany alone claims the origin OF
the thorns legend, and yet in Great
Britain, Germany and almost every
country of Europe the bird is regarded
with marked veneration-the bird
apart even from the irreverent and
cruel schoolboys' sport.
No wonder the schoolboy respects
his life and property, for in Devonshire
the "clomb'' (crockery) is broken in the
home of an offender against the harry
nest, and somewhere we may hear:
"If We take out o; their nest
Yell never thrive again.
Or,
Ifye touch one of their eggs
Bad luck will surely follow.
Even the weasel and the polecat are
said to refrain.
In Cornouaille he is immortal, and
every year brings dowry to some gen.
tie village maiden. Grimm considers
him as Thor's bird, the bird of thunder
and lightning, because throughout
Germany there exists universal faith
in the safety of the house from light
ming stroke where a robins nest is
near, and, per contra, that the despoiler
of the nest has his home shattered by
lightning. Then, too, Thor's beard
was always spoken of and depicted as
red, and we can thus very reasonably
find correspondence of idea and
thought.
Again in the Tyrol, if his nest be
destroyed the cows give ''red milk, %
and the culprit is struck with epilepsy
so that double disaster follows de-
struction. In Normandy, also Celtic,
the Welsh legend is varied, for the
bird flies down to purgatory and brings
up burning brand; and still another,
that the wren did so, and the robin, in
sympathy for her burning breast, ap-
preached too near. and in offering his
feathers to cover her scorched flesh was
himself scorched severely. For the
robin and the wren stories twinc and
intertwine, as do the ivy and the brars
of departed lovers in the Ballads: "The
robin and the wren are God Almighty's S
cock and hen" In Bretagne, too. Just
as the wren is hunted on Christmas
Day in the Isle of Man, so is the robin
killed, spitted on a hazel wand and
roasted before fire on Candlemas Day:
and all combine to prove the birds
connection with the fire element.
Passing further aiield, We find analc-
gous belief in a "thunder bird para
mount amongst all savage peoples.
The Indians Of North and South
America, Caribs. Brazilians, Basutos,
B .chuanas and Pacific Islanders alike
describe him as red, but vary the size
from a monster to a tiny speck. The
Il Illus believe it to have "a red bill, red
lc IS and Il short red tail like fire >
When seen, it must be killed and boiled
and the fat rubbed on man and beast
to prevent death by lightning.
TIE AMERICAN RED BREAST.
Again, though his American name
sake is larger and is in reality red
breasted thrush, we find the same in
stinctise habits. Wilson, the famed
ornitEologist, says: HIS nest is held
more sacred among school boys than
that Of some other birds, and while
they will exuit in plunderiny jay's
nest or 4 cat birds, general feeling OF
respect prevails on the discovery of a
robins"
BEAUTIFUL INDIAN LEGEND.