i 4 BIRDS L IN LEGEND 



at night and calling to one another as they go, supply 

 exactly the right suggestion to the timid. Sailors fear 

 them as "storm-bringers." Even more horrifying is the 

 primitive Welsh conception (probably capable of a similar 

 explanation) of the Three Birds of Rhiannon, wife of 

 Pwyll, ruler of Hades, that could sing the dead to life 

 and the living into the sleep of death. Luckily they were 

 heard only at the death of great heroes in battle. 



How easily such things may beguile the imagination 

 is told in Thomas W. Higginson's book on army life in 

 the black regiment of which he was the colonel during 

 the Civil War. This sane and vigorous young officer 

 writes of an incident on the South Carolina Coast: "I 

 remember that, as I stood on deck in the still and misty 

 evening, listening with strained senses for some sound 

 of approach of an expected boat, I heard a low con- 

 tinuous noise from the distance, more mild and desolate 

 than anything my memory can parallel. It came from 

 within the vast circle of mist, and seemed like the cry 

 of a myriad of lost souls upon the horizon's verge; it 

 was Dante become audible: yet it was but the accumu- 

 lated cries of innumerable seafowl at the entrance of the 

 outer bay." 9 



But I have rambled away along an enticing by-path, 

 as will frequently happen in the remainder of this book 

 — to the reader's interest, I venture to believe. 



Returning to the theme of a moment ago, I recall that 

 the Rev. H. Friend lx tells us that he has seen Buddhist 

 priests in Canton "bless a small portion of their rice, and 

 place it at the door of the refectory to be eaten by the 

 birds which congregate there." These offerings are to 

 the "house spirits," by which the Chinese mean the spirits 

 of their ancestors, who are still kindly interested in the 



