248 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



Black clouds were thought of by the Norse folks as 

 "ravens coursing over the earth and returning to whisper 

 the news in the ear of listening Odin," as Baring-Gould 

 expresses it. The immemorial resemblance traced be- 

 tween bird and cloud is not far-fetched: and recurs to 

 the modern poet as it did in olden times to the Psalmist 

 when he spoke of the wings of the wind. "The rush- 

 ing vapor is the roc of the Arabian Nights, which broods 

 over its great luminous tgg f the sun, and which haunts 

 the sparkling Valley of Diamonds, the starry sky. . . . 

 If the cloud was supposed to be a great bird, the light- 

 nings were regarded as writhing worms or serpents in 

 its beak. . . . The lightning-bolt, shattering all it struck, 

 was regarded as the stone dropped by the cloud-bird." 5 * 



In the Kalevala Puhuri, the North Wind, father of 

 Pakkanen, the Frost, is sometimes personified as a 

 gigantic eagle. 



These facts and considerations prepare the way for 

 legends that began to be told in the very beginning of 

 things, because then, and until yesterday, all ordinary 

 folks thought them true as well as interesting; and 

 they are repeated even now as curiosities of primitive 

 faith — stories of birds and plants called "openers." 



The oldest, perhaps, is the Rabbinical legend of Solo- 

 mon, who desired to obtain a stone-breaking "worm" 

 (so the idea was even then ancient!) in possession of 

 Asmodeus, the Demon of Destruction. Asmodeus re- 

 fused to fetch it, and told Solomon that if he wanted 

 this magic creature (whose name was schamir) he must 

 find the nest of "the," not "a," moorhen and cover it 

 with a plate of glass so that the motherbird could not 

 get access to her young. This was done. When the 

 moorhen returned and saw the situation she flew away, 



