LANGUAGE. 257 



coming events. The belief that birds are possessed 

 of a knowledge of futurity, is part of the same 

 notion which has led men to seek indications of what 

 is about to happen in their flight and other move- 

 ments, and which has given rise both to the ancient 

 vaticination by augury, and to various popular 

 superstitions which still survive. The power of 

 communicating the gift of prophecy inherent in the 

 serpent, was also a prominent article of the mystic 

 creed of antiquity. The Trojan prophetess, Cassan- 

 dra, is said to have acquired her art by having been 

 left one night, when a child, together with her twin 

 brother Helenus, in the temple of Apollo, when the 

 two were found next morning with some serpents 

 coiled round them and licking their ears. And 

 Pliny, in his Natural History, tells us that Demo- 

 critus had mentioned the names of certain birds, 

 whose blood being mixed together would produce a 

 serpent of such virtue, that any one who ate of it 

 should understand whatever was said by birds when 

 they conversed together. This story is alluded to 

 by Addison in one of his Spectators *. 



It were to be wished that all fables in natural 

 history were as obvious to an ordinary reader as 

 this ; for we meet with others in books wearing the 

 air of well-ascertained facts, which could only ori- 

 ginate in the fancy of the writers. This is exempli- 

 fied in the story told of the butcher-bird (JLanius 

 excubitor), which is said to imitate the voices of 

 other birds, by way of decoying them within his 

 reach, that he may devour them ; " excepting this," 

 it is added, " his natural note is the same throughout 



* Vol. vii. No. 512. See upon this subject Bayle, Diction- 

 naire, in articles Cassandra, Melampu?, Pereira, and Tiresias. See 

 also some remarks on the language of birds in Montaigne, Essais, 

 Liv. ii. Es. 12, Apologie pour Kaymonde de Sebonde. 



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