Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



stage in which we find it, namely, treatment 

 of the father like the mother after the birth 

 in connection with festivities in honor of the 

 little stranger. 



Yet, one may say, the cuckoo does not 

 brood its eggs. Here the kindly traits of 

 most birds became blended with the unnatural 

 conduct of cuckoos, and were applied to the 

 same bird god, whom we find as a hero in 

 the old ballads. 



The Irish have regarded Fion and Cuchul- 

 laind as historical characters, which is not sur- 

 prising, when one sees the way in which the 

 old Irish historians provided them with plausi- 

 ble ancestors and dates. But those whom dates 

 would not convince are still loath to give up 

 the actuality of heroes about whom so much 

 that is possible to man has been handed down, 

 and relegate them, as mere abstractions, to the 

 status of survivals from old gods. It is clear, 

 however, that the cycle of stories about Fion 

 and Oisin — the Ossianic heroes, as Macpher- 



91 



