FABLE AND FOLKLORE 211 



sketched but their supernatural abilities, and also — in ac- 

 cordance with constant experience of the general antago- 

 nism between nature and human purposes — the malig- 

 nancy characterizing most of them. 



For, as has been said, Garuda, Simurgh, Phenix, 

 Fung- Whang and all the others are only visions woven 

 out of the sunshine, the clouds and the winds, in the loom 

 of primitive imagination. It is quite a waste of time, 

 therefore, to try as some have done (notably Professor 

 Newton 55 ) to connect any one of them with some living 

 or extinct reality, as, for example, the Rukh with the 

 epiornis or any other of the big extinct ratite birds of 

 Madagascar. Eagles and vultures and peacocks have 

 served as suggestions for fantastic creations of a vagrant 

 fancy, and that is all the reality they ever had. We do 

 not know, probably never can know, the ultimate source 

 of these stories and images, so varied yet so alike; nor 

 whether all have spread from one source, or have in some 

 instances arisen independently, as would seem probable in 

 the case of those told about American aboriginal camp- 

 fires ; but we may be sure that their conception was in the 

 morning of civilization (more likely far back of that) as 

 products of the uncultured, nature-fearing, marvel-loving 

 fancy of prehistoric mankind. 



