Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



some wonder-working thing like the Kalevalan 

 Sampo ; for the tablets are too broken to per- 

 ceive clearly what it was. His bird character 

 appears in a fragment concerning a certain god 

 Lugal-turda, who, like KuUervo and other 

 cuckoo heroes, had neither father nor mother : 



A turban be placed on his head 



When from the nest of the god Zu he came, 



and again in a phrase in the annals of Assur- 

 nazir-pal, " like the divine Zu bird upon them 

 darted/' The late George Smith very acutely 

 likened the Zu bird to the eagle or the wood- 

 pecker as they appear in the folk-lore of 

 Europe. As to Lugal-turda, whom I suspect 

 to have been the cuckoo, he translated : 



No mother gave him life. 



No father with him associated. 



No noble knew him ; 



Of the resolution of his heart, the resolution he changed not. 



In his own heart the resolution he kept ; 



Into the likeness of a bird was he transformed. 



Into the likeness of the divine Zu bird was he transformed. 



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