the west wind and the dancing sunlight, sleep The 

 put away like a nomad's winter-tent and dreams Summer 

 become realities. Often I have wondered how 

 it is that so little is commonly known of the 

 bat-lore of our own and other races. Doubt- 

 less there is some book which deals with this 

 lore. There may be some familiar one for 

 aught I know, but I have never met with or 

 heard of it. 



Recently I tried in vain to get some such 

 book dealing with the folklore and mythology 

 of the bat. And yet in the traditional lore of 

 all countries there are many allusions to this 

 'blind bird of the dusk.' The Greeks, the 

 Romans, the Celts of Europe, the westering 

 Gaels, had many legends and superstitions 

 connected with it. To-day the Finn, the 

 Magyar, the Basque and the island Gael 

 keep some of the folklore that has ebbed 

 away from other nations, or become confused 

 or remembered only by old folk in old out-of- 

 the-way places. Somewhere I have notes of 

 several bat-legends and fragments of bat-lore 

 collected once for a friend, who after all went 

 'to hunt the bat' before he could use them. 

 That was the phrase which started the quest. 

 He had read it, or heard it I think, and wrote 

 to me asking if I had ever heard the phrase 

 * to hunt the bat ' as synonymous with death. 



149 



