FABLE AND FOLKLORE 189 



assume the shape of an owl, and can in this disguise 

 attack and kill their enemies" — that is, they try to make 

 others believe so. The owl is chosen for their disguise, of 

 course, because it typifies the sly, unseen method of attack 

 in darkness with which they sought to terrify the people. 



Mr. Stuart Culin tells me that in Zufii owls, of which 

 four kinds are recognized by names, are not considered 

 sacred, and are killed for their feathers, which are used 

 on ceremonial masks, and, once a year, to decorate long 

 prayer-sticks. The people, he says, think that a certain big 

 gray owl lives in a house like a man, and if any Indian 

 goes to its house and the owl looks at him he will surely 

 die. When the headmen go out at night for some cere- 

 mony, and this owl is heard, it is a sign that rain will 

 come very soon. This large owl and the small burrowing- 

 owl are kept in houses as pets. Children are afraid of 

 them, and they are utilized by parents to make the 

 youngsters behave themselves. 



The Ashochimi, a mountain tribe of Californian 

 Indians now extinct, as described by Powers, 19 feared 

 certain hawks and owls, regarding them as malignant 

 spirits which they must conciliate by offerings, and by 

 wearing mantles of feathers, thus: 



When a great white owl alights near a village in the evening, 

 and hoots loudly, the headman at once assembles all his warriors 

 in council to determine whether Mr Strix demands a life or 

 only money. ... If they incline to believe that he demands a 

 life, someone in the village is doomed and will speedily die. 

 But they generally vote that he can be placated by an offering, 

 and immediately set out a quantity of shell-money and pinole, 

 whereupon the valorous trenchermen fall to eat the pinole them- 

 selves, and in the morning the headman decorates himself with 

 owl-feathers, carries out the shell-money with solemn for- 

 mality and flings it into the air under the tree where the owl 

 perched. 



