FABLE AND FOLKLORE 205 



one the Tree of Life, and the other the Tree Opposed to 

 All Harm, the tree that bears the seeds of all useful 

 things; which is like the two trees in the Garden of 

 Eden, over in Babylon. In the latter tree sits and nests 

 the chief of all the mythic birds, the simurgh (called in the 

 Avesta "saena-meregha" ) , which is said to suckle its 

 young, and to be three natures "like a bat." "Whenever 

 he arises aloft a thousand twigs will shoot out from that 

 tree, and when he alights he breaks off the thousand twigs 

 and bites the seeds from them. And the bird cinamros 

 [second only to the simurgh] alights likewise in that 

 vicinity ; and his work is this, that he collects those seeds 

 that are bitten from the tree of many seeds, which is 

 opposed to harm, and he scatters them where Tishtar 

 [angel that provides rain] seizes the water [from the 

 demons of drought] ; so that, while Tishtar shall seize the 

 water, together with those seeds of all kinds, he shall 

 rain them on the world with the rain." Such is the lan- 

 guage of the sacred books. 26 



The simurgh figures in Firdausi's 93 legendary epic as 

 the foster-parent of Zal, father of Rustam, the national 

 hero of Persia. When Rudabah's flank was opened to 

 bring forth Rustam her wound was healed by rubbing it 

 with a simurgh's feather. Rustam himself, once wounded 

 unto death, was cured in the same manner, and other 

 cases are recorded in great variety. Firdausi explains 

 that the simurgh had its nest on Mt. Elburz, on a peak 

 that touched the sky in a place no man had ever seen; 

 and that it was to that eyrie that it carried the princely 

 baby Zal, whence it was recovered by its parents. In 

 the ancient Avestan ritual it is stated of the vulture 

 varengana: "If a man holds a bone of that strong bird 

 ... or a feather, no one can smite or turn to flight that 



