Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



son why he bursts every now and then into a 

 cackle ; to think what fools these mortals be ! 

 It was not the Italiots alone who used to wor- 

 ship Picus because of his antics, queer voice 

 and rolling drum. The Wotjaks still honor 

 him as a god. A few centuries ago the Estho- 

 nians and Finns, who, history says, were Chris- 

 tianized in the I2th and 13th centuries, were 

 seen to be Christians only out of fear, to be 

 still quietly worshipping their old idols. The 

 Esthonians kept their thunder god Pikker 

 or Pikne. Could we resurrect the temple 

 huts filled with idols, which they concealed in 

 lonely woods, we should certainly see wooden 

 images of a bird god, Pikker the woodpecker. 

 He is no other than our mysterious deity of 

 Italy, Picus the father of Faunus. This is 

 only one of many threads that connect the 

 Finnic peoples of Russia and Siberia with the 

 rustic classes, the ancient subject races of 

 Italy, ay, and of Greece, and of men eastward 

 beyond the iEgean, whose faded features may 



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