102 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



ern addendum is that the magpie, one of the same group 

 of birds, was not permitted to enter the ark, but was 

 compelled to perch on the roof because it gabbled so in- 

 cessantly. A quaint 14th-century manuscript quoted by 

 Hulme 38 says of the raven's exit from the ark: 



Then opin Noe his window 



Let ut a rauen and forth he flew 



Dune and vp sought heare and thare 



A stede to sett upon somequar. 



Vpon the water sone he fand 



A drinkled best ther flotand 



Of that flees was he so fain 

 To ship came he never again. 



To this list of messengers medieval tradition added a 

 fourth — the kingfisher, which in Europe is blue-green 

 above and rich chestnut on the breast. At that time, how- 

 ever, it was a plain gray bird. This scout flew straight up 

 to heaven, in order to get a wide survey of the waters, 

 and went so near the sun that its breast was scorched to 

 its present tint and its back assumed the color of the sky 

 overhead. (This recalls Thoreau's saying that our blue- 

 bird carries the sky on its back and the earth on its 

 breast.) 



Faith in a general flood long ago is shown by primitive 

 documents to have prevailed not only in Asia Minor and 

 eastward, but in Persia, India and Greece. It did not 

 prevail in Europe generally, nor in Africa. On the other 

 hand missionaries report traditions of it in Polynesia — 

 where, curiously, geographers find evidence of great sub- 

 sidences since the archipelagoes affected have been in- 

 habited ; and certainly it was a part of the mythical pre- 

 history of many tribes among the aborigines of North 

 America, where birds were often connected with the ad- 



