FABLE AND FOLKLORE in 



Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat 

 Awake the god of clay; and, at his warning, 

 Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, 

 The extravagant and erring spirit hies 

 To his confine: and of the truth herein 

 This present object made probation. 

 Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. 



Not only ghosts, but the Devil and all his powers of 

 darkness, especially warlocks and witches, must disappear 

 at Chanticleer's cheerful warning that daylight is at 

 hand. 



Domestic fowls had become common in Palestine at the 

 time of Jesus, having been received long before from 

 Persia. According to the Mishna Jews were prohibited 

 from selling a white cock to the heathen because it was suit- 

 able for sacrifice, but if it were defective it became unsuit- 

 able. Cyrus Adler tells us that they used to cut off a toe, and 

 so circumvent the prohibition. Says the Talmud : "There 

 be three that be unyielding — Israel among the peoples, 

 the dog among beasts, and the cock among birds" (Beca, 

 56). 



No doubt it is true, as Mr. R. L. Gales pointed out a 

 few years ago in the National Review, that the sacred 

 mythology of the Nativity and Passion, which is far 

 wider than my immediate use of it, sprang up when the 

 minds of people constantly dwelt on the Faith in a spirit 

 of devotion rather than of controversy. "It seems, too, 

 that there was in the Christianity of the earlier ages 

 something that we may perhaps call a pantheistic ele- 

 ment, which has since disappeared." 



Russians tell the story that while Christ was hanging 

 on the cross the sparrows were maliciously chirping /if! 

 jif! that is, "He is living, He is living!" in order to urge 

 the tormenters to fresh cruelties ; but the swallows cried, 



