Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



struck me that the bird I had seen the moment 

 before resplendent in the sun was no longer so 

 beautiful. Its feathers seemed to fall from the 

 limp body at a touch. Its eye, that was lustrous 

 when I pickled it up, was glassed and tarnished. 

 Had it not been for a silly pride which forbade 

 me going home empty-handed, I should have 

 dug a hole and covered up my bird, dimly 

 conscious that I had done a wrong. 



Probably it was a clearer idea of what lay at 

 the bottom of this obscure repulsion that made 

 me indifferent to shooting, whilst liking nothing 

 in the world so much as haunting woods and 

 streams, watching wild beasts and birds and 

 reading books on natural history. But the 

 strain of life soon took hold on me and left 

 little leisure for such things. The old love for 

 animate creation followed me, however, among 

 ancient and outlandish languages. Perhaps 

 that is why I have found in strange corners 

 of mythology and philology various clews to 

 odd phenomena among ancient myths. 



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