Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



melody and does literally sing its death-song 

 when it is caught by the ice of a freezing 

 night and cannot loose itself from the spot 

 to which it has been frozen. 



Kalev the father of Kalevipoeg, whose name 

 is also found in Kalevala, was of the race of 

 giants or demi-gods. A widow finds a pullet, 

 a starving crow and partridge egg ; she brings 

 them home and puts them in her locker. The 

 pullet broods the egg and hatches out a girl, 

 Linda, whose name means bird ; the pullet 

 herself turns into another girl Salme ; and 

 the starved crow becomes a domestic drudge. 

 What could be more redskin than such a 

 legend ? Linda is wooed successively by the 

 sun, the moon, the winds, the water and the 

 son of the richest king of the North — all in 

 vain ! She will take none but Kalev. Their 

 son Kalevipoeg " Kalev's boy " is a bird of a 

 boy, as the expression runs — born, be it noted, 

 after the death of his father — a hero of enor- 

 mous eating and drinking powers, of colossal 



73 



