FABLE AND FOLKLORE 199 



of birds. "It carries off the elephant," he says, "as the 

 cat carries off the mouse" ; and he relates that in conse- 

 quence of its kidnapping a bride God, at the prayer of the 

 prophet Handhallah, "banished it to an island in the cir- 

 cumambient ocean unvisited by men under the equinoctial 

 line." 



I find in Miss Costello's Rose Garden of Persia 88 some 

 interesting notes quoted from M. Garcin de Tassy, rela- 

 tive to the anka, which, De Tassy says, has become a 

 proverbial symbol in Persia for something spoken of 

 but not seen — and not likely to be ! Here he seems to be 

 using the Arabic name for the bird the Persians call 

 "simurgh," the signification of which, as Professor 

 A. V. W. Jackson tells me, is "the mythical," and which 

 is derived from the avestan word for "eagle" — another 

 link in our chain. De Tassy explains: 



It [the anka] is known only by name, and is so called from 

 having a white line round the neck like a collar; some say be- 

 cause of the length of the neck. ... It is said that the inhabi- 

 tants of the city of Res. . . . had in their country a mountain 

 called Demaj, a mile high. There came a very large bird with 

 a very long neck, of beautiful and divers colors. This bird was 

 accustomed to pounce on all the birds of that mountain, and 

 eat them up. One day he was hungry and birds were scarce, 

 so he pounced on a child and carried it off. He is called anka- 

 mogreb because he carries off the prey he seizes. . . . Soon 

 after this he was struck by a thunderbolt. 



Mohammed is reported to have said that at the time of 

 Moses God created a female bird called anka; it had eight 

 wings like the seraphs, and bore the figure of a man. God gave 

 it a portion of every thing, and afterwards created it a male. 

 Then God made a revelation to Moses that he had created two 

 extraordinary birds, and had assigned for their nourishment 

 the wHd beasts around Jerusalem. But the species multiplied, 

 and when Moses was dead they went to the land of Nejd and 

 Hijaz, and never ceased to devour the wild beasts and to carry 

 off children till the time when Khaled, son of Senan Abasi, 



