Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



find it in Irish and in dialects of German 

 like that in the Mark of Brandenburg ; later 

 still, even the y sound has disappeared. We 

 can thus replace with a simple etymology 

 that labored and unconvincing one found in 

 the dictionaries. In French again the word 

 "gauche" left hand, put M. Littre to his 

 trumps. Here is our grayish-brown friend 

 again, the gawk, German Gauch, with the 

 guttural ch softened down to French utter- 

 ance. Hence in the dialect of Craven we 

 have gauk-handed for left-handed. This un- 

 lucky, because criminal, bird was identified 

 with that quarter from which cold winds come, 

 or into which the sun plunges and perishes ; it 

 was identified with the side turned to the north 

 or the west — which came about in this way. 



The early European, who was taught to 

 regard the sunrise as the quarter toward which 

 to face in prayer to higher beings, found the 

 cold-bringing north winds on his left, the 

 flower-bringing south winds on his right. 



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