84 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



allow themselves to be borne over the sea. The large 

 birds submit to it willingly, for they like their little guests 

 who by their merry twitterings help to kill the time on 

 the long voyage.'' 



Ebeling met that evening, he says, in Cairo, the African 

 explorer Theodor von Heuglin, who, as all know, was a 

 specialist in African ornithology, related to him the con- 

 versation with the Bedouin, and asked his opinion on it. 

 "Let others laugh," said von Heuglin. "I do not laugh, 

 for the thing is known to me. I should have recently 

 made mention of it in my work if I had had any strong 

 personal proof to justify it. We must be much more 

 careful in such matters than a mere story-teller or 

 novelist." 



A Swedish traveller, Hedenborg, is quoted by August 

 Petermann, the geographer, as stating that in autumn on 

 the Island of Rhodes, in the y£gean Sea, when the storks 

 came in flocks across the water he often heard birds sing- 

 ing that he was unable to discover. "Once he followed a 

 flock of storks, and as they alighted he saw small birds 

 fly up from their backs." 



There was published in London in 1875 a book entitled 

 Bible Lands and Bible Customs, the author of which was 

 the Rev. Henry J. Van Lennep, D.D. Dr. Lennep in- 

 forms his readers that many small birds are unable to 

 fly across the Mediterranean, "and to meet such cases the 

 crane has been provided. ... In the autumn numerous 

 flocks may be seen coming from the north . . . flying 

 low and circling over the plains. Little birds of various 

 species may then be seen flying up to them, while the 

 twittering songs of those comfortably settled on their 

 backs may then be distinctly heard." (Quoted in Nature, 

 March 24, 1881 ). We may smile at the good man's faith 



