Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



foster-brothers as may have escaped the vigi- 

 lance of Madam Cuckoo and grown up to be 

 rivals for food and the attention of his foster- 

 parents. 



In looseness of morals Cuchullaind almost 

 equals Lemminkainen, who, as we have seen, 

 was a god of love. Although he has a serious 

 love affair and a wife, yet, whilst he is be- 

 trothed to the woman he afterward marries, he 

 has a second love affair in Scotland. More- 

 over he was said to have a taboo or prohibition 

 laid on him not to wed ; and cuckoos were 

 falsely thought to have no regular mate. 



In the stress of single combat Cuchullaind 

 showed his bird traits with singular clearness. 

 He had a very disagreeable way of changing in 

 size, becoming diasthartha, as a bird ruffles up 

 its feathers in fighting and appears twice its 

 normal size. He leapt in the heat of combat 

 on to the rim of his opponent's shield. In his 

 fight with the giant GoU he soared up and 

 alighted on the shield of Goll " like any bird 

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