CHAPTER XI 



FROM ANCIENT AUGURIES TO MODERN 

 RAINBIRDS 



THE pagans of primitive times along the shores of 

 the Mediterranean believed in personal gods and 

 their guidance in human affairs. With the ap- 

 proval of these gods, or of that departmental god or 

 goddess having charge of the matter in mind, one's pro- 

 ject would prosper, whereas their disapproval meant 

 failure and very likely some punishment under divine 

 wrath. The human difficulty was to learn the will of said 

 gods. 



Equally well settled was the doctrine that birds — which 

 seemed to belong to the celestial spaces overhead where 

 the gods lived and manifested their variable moods, now 

 in sunshine and zephyr, now by storm-clouds, and rainfall 

 — were inspired messengers of the gods, and required 

 reverent attention. This, however, did but throw the 

 difficulty one step further back, for how could human in- 

 telligence comprehend the messages birds were constantly 

 bringing ? 



At any rate the principal and most numerous omens 

 in the pre-Christian centuries were drawn from birds; 

 and this kind of divination gained so much credit that 

 other kinds were little regarded. It was based, as has 

 been indicated, on the theory that these creatures, by 

 their actions, wittingly or unwittingly, conveyed the will 

 of the gods. This super-avian attribute was by no means 



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