182 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



the origin of that particular form of superstition. In 

 southern India, according to Thurston (quoted by 

 Lauffer), the same dread prevails; and there the natives 

 interpret the bird's cries by their number, much as they 

 did those of crows. "One such screech forebodes death ; 

 two screeches, success in any approaching undertaking; 

 three, the addition by marriage of a girl to the family; 

 four, a disturbance ; five, that the hearer will travel. Six 

 screeches foretell the coming of guests; seven, mental 

 distress; eight, sudden death; and nine signify favorable 

 results. The number nine plays a great role in systems 

 of divination." 



In view of this Oriental and Greco-Latin history, 

 which spread with the imperial civilization into all west- 

 ern Europe, and in view of the bad associations of these 

 birds in the Old Testament, where they are pronounced 

 "unclean," and relegated to the desert as companions of 

 a dreadful company (Isaiah, xxxiv, n), it was natural 

 that owls should be regarded with almost insane fear and 

 aversion in the Middle Ages, as the record shows they 

 were. In Sweden even yet, the owl is considered a bird 

 of sorcery, and great caution is necessary in speaking of 

 any of them to avoid being ensnared; moreover it is 

 dangerous to kill one, as its associates might avenge its 

 death. Nuttall, 79 the English-American ornithologist, 

 notes that he often heard the following couplet when he 

 was a child in the old country: 



Oh ! — o-o-o — o-o ! 

 I was once a king's daughter, and sat on my father's knee, 

 But now I'm a poor hoolet, and hide in a hollow tree. 



This is explained in the northern counties of England 

 by a legend that Pharaoh's daughter was transformed 



