1^8 pfant Isore, Tscgc"^/, anil bLjric/, 



must eat three good meals of Cherries. In Sussex, the White- 

 thorn is called the Cuckoo's Bread-and-Cheese Tree, and an old 

 proverb runs — 



•' When the Cuckoo comes to the bare Thorn, 

 Then sell your Cow and buy your Com." 



Mr. Parish has remarked that it is singular this name should be 

 given to the Whitethorn, as among all Aryan nations the tree is 

 associated with lightning, and the Cuckoo is connected with the 

 lightning gods Jupiter and Thor. 



Pliny relates that the Halcyon, or Kingfisher, at breeding-time, 

 foretold calm and settled weather. The belief in the wisdom of 

 birds obtained such an ascendancy over men's minds, that we find 

 at length no affair of moment was entered upon without consulting 

 them. Thus came in augury, by which was meant a forewarning 

 of future events derived from prophetic birds. One of these systems 

 of divinations, for the purpose of discovering some secret or future 

 event was effected by means of a Cock and grains of Barley, in 

 the following manner : the twenty-four letters of the alphabet 

 having been written in the dust, upon each letter was laid a grain 

 of Barley, and a Cock, over which previous incantations had been 

 uttered, was let loose among them; those letters off which it 

 pecked the Barley, being joined together, were then believed to 

 declare the word of which they were in search. The magician 

 Jamblichus, desirous to find out who should succeed Valens in the 

 imperial purple, made use of this divination, but the Cock only 

 picked up four grains, viz., those which lay upon the (Greek) 

 letters th. e. o. d., so that it was uncertain whether Theodosius, 

 Theodotus, Theodorus, or Theodectes, was the person designed 

 by the Fates. Valens, when informed of the matter, was so terribly 

 enraged, that he put several persons to death simply because 

 their names began with these letters. When, however, he pro- 

 ceeded to make search after the magicians themselves, Jamblichus 

 put an end to his majesty's life by a dose of poison, and he was 

 succeeded by Theodosius in the empire of the East. 



The loves of the Nightingale and the Rose have formed a 

 favourite topic of Eastern poets. In a fragment by the celebrated 

 Persian poet Attar, entitled Bulbul Nanieh (the Book of the 

 Nightingale), all the birds appear before Solomon, and charge the 

 Nightingale with disturbing their rest by the broken and plaintive 

 strains which he warbles forth in a sort of frenzy and intoxication. 

 The Nightingale is summoned, questioned, and acquitted by the 

 wise king, because the bird assures him that his vehement love for 

 the Rose drives him to distraction, and causes him to break forth 

 into those languishing and touching complaints which are laid to 

 his charge. Thus the Persians believe that the Nightingale in 

 Spring flutters around the Rose-bushes, uttering incessant com- 

 plaints, till, overpowered by the strong scent, he drops stupefied to 

 the ground. The impassioned bird makes his appearance in Eastern 



