12 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



to habitable dimensions not by further miracles, nor by 

 natural accretion, but, as a rule, by the labor and in- 

 genuity of the "first men" themselves, usually aided by 

 favorite animals. Thus the Seri Indians naturally held 

 the pelican in especial regard, but that did not prevent 

 their utilizing it to the utmost. Dr. W J McGee 6 found 

 that one of their customs was to tie a broken-winged, liv- 

 ing pelican to a stake near the seashore, and then appro- 

 priate the fishes brought to the captive by its free 

 relatives. 



In fewer cases we find that not only tribal but also 

 individual origin is ascribed to a bird, the best illustra- 

 tion of which is the notion of the natives of Perak, in the 

 Malay Peninsula, that a bird brings the soul to every 

 person at birth. A woman who is about to become a 

 mother selects as the place where her baby shall be 

 born the foot of a certain tree — any one that appeals to 

 her fancy — and this will be the "name-tree" of her child. 

 The parents believe that a soul has been waiting for this 

 child in the form of a bird that for some time before 

 the birth frequents all the trees of the chosen kind in 

 that vicinity, searching for the occasion when it may de- 

 liver its charge, intrusted to it by Kari, the tribal god. 

 This bird must be killed and eaten by the expectant 

 mother just before the actual birth or the baby will never 

 come to life, or if it does will speedily die. A poetic 

 feature in this tender explanation of the mystery of life 

 among the jungle-dwellers is that the souls of first-born 

 children are brought always by the newly hatched off- 

 spring of the bird that contained the soul of the mother 

 of the child. 7 



Apart from this singular conception of the source of 

 existence, the general theory of spirituality in birds is 



