26 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



cences of the conjuring by the Hebrew shaman as de- 

 scribed in the Old Testament ? 



This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: 

 He shall be brought into the priest. . . . Then shall the priest 

 command to take for him that is to be cleaned two birds alive 

 and clean, and cedar wood and scarlet and hyssop. And the 

 priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an 

 earthen vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he 

 shall take it and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, 

 and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird 

 that was killed over the running water; and he shall sprinkle 

 upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, 

 and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird 

 loose into the open field. (Lev. xiv, 27.) 



The matter of "luck" in this hocus-pocus seems to lie 

 in the chance as to which birds is chosen to be "scapegoat," 

 and so is allowed to remain alive, cleaning its feathers as 

 best it may. Evidently, the bird that wishes to do noth- 

 ing to offend anyone must go warily. A cuckoo, for ex- 

 ample, may spoil the day for an English milkmaid by 

 incautiously sounding its call before her breakfast. 



Such has been the mental attitude underlying the amaz- 

 ing ideas and practices that will be found described in 

 succeeding chapters of this collection of traditional bird- 

 lore, much of which is so juvenile and absurd. Until 

 one reviews the groping steps by which mankind ad- 

 vanced with very uneven speed — a large body of it having 

 yet hardly begun the progress, even among the "civilized" 

 — from the crudest animism to a clearer and clearer com- 

 prehension of "natural law in the physical world," he 

 cannot understand how men gave full credence to fictions 

 that the most superficial examination, or the simplest 

 reasoning, would show were false, and trembled before 

 the most imaginary of alarms. Add to this childish 



