The Love Element in Bird Protection 133 



the deep. And I, also, give unto thee power to 

 send forth thy messengers.' Thereupon, the Ibis, 

 the messenger of Thoth, came into being. The 

 miraculous bird was beneficent in all his ways, 

 destroying locusts, scorpions, serpents, and the 

 noxious creatures which infested the country and 

 its searching out and destruction of these enemies 

 to the growing crops and to man himself led to 

 the profound respect which this messenger of a 

 god enjoyed." > 



Theth, inventor of astrology and mathematics, 

 the god of wisdom and magic, the one among 

 them with divine power to restore the dead to 

 life, and the Ibis became one and inseparable. He 

 was often pictured as having the head of an Ibis, 

 even when restoring the dead, and the picture of 

 the bird is, indeed, the hieroglyphic of his name 

 as well as the hieroglyphic for "the soul." Is it 

 not possible that the weakness in the love element 

 in our regard for bird-life will help explain why 

 this all seems such nonsense to us. Nevertheless, 

 much might be said in support of the belief that 

 the bird is the gift of God, and in very fact in- 

 separably associated with man's well-being on the 

 earth -beneficent messengers meriting loving rev- 

 erence. Having written thus, much of what will 

 doubtless sound like ancient fable, may I be per- 

 mitted to add a parable of the 1919 model? 



Professor Blake, returning from a morning 



