Preface 



of the bird toward a deity as to fairly permit 

 the inference that at a period still more remote 

 the bird itself was worshipped. One may only 

 guess how near the primitive Europeans of 

 that period were to the condi- 

 tion of the savage to-day who 

 worships the bird which is the 

 totem of his clan, and never 

 slays it save on certain occa- 

 sions when its death is accompanied by reli- 

 gious rites. 



I follow in mythology and epic poetry and 

 legends the traces of certain birds, the eagle, 

 the swan, the woodpecker, the cuckoo, the 

 owl, the peacock, the dove, and try to show 

 how their peculiarities and habits, observed 

 by primitive man with the keenness of savages, 

 have laid the foundation for certain elements 

 in various religions and mythologies, and 

 sometimes furnished through the peculiarities 

 of the creature's habits or character the skele- 



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