Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



And later, if the lucky, favorable ideas at first 

 associated with the south and the right hand 

 caused him to turn with his face to the north, 

 in order to have favorable sunrise on his right 

 hand, still, the left would be unlucky, because 

 there dies the sun, there dwell the dark gods. 

 The notion that cuckoos do not retire to 

 the south, but hibernate in hollow trees, 

 sprang up from observing several facts and put- 

 ting wrong constructions on them. Cuckoos 

 do not band together, like swifts, swallows, 

 storks and cranes, just before migrating to 

 warmer lands; they are stealthy birds and 

 after ceasing to call, still lurk about, and then 

 are gradually missed from their haunts without 

 any action to show what they intend. The 

 mystery was solved to the satisfaction of coun- 

 try people by the frequent finding of cuckoos 

 in full feather in the hollows of old trees, 

 especially of willow-trees. What else brought 

 them there, except it were to sleep out the 

 winter, like flies and many insects ? It was 



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