At the weaving a thin invisible web in the dusk 

 *v, iS ™F °^ wherein to entangle and bring close the hearts 

 of lovers. Old Donald Finlay of the Songs 

 must have had some such idea in his mind 

 when in his Song of the Owl he makes the 

 bird say in effect, 'I may be old and forlorn, 

 but am not to be blamed for that : neither of 

 rapine nor of lies have I ever been guilty : is 

 there a grave anywhere that I have ever 

 violated ? and to the mate of my choice have 

 I ever been faithless ? ' 



This name of the Silver-Spinner, however, 

 though often in Germany, Scandinavia, and 

 our own country associated with the poetic 

 legend alluded to, is really a romantic deriva- 

 tive from the ancient connection of the small 

 owl with the Maiden Maid goddess who pre- 

 sided over spinning as one of her foremost 

 womanly attributes. 'The Woman's Bird,' 

 as the small owl is sometimes called, deserves 

 the name, for in almost every language ancient 

 and modern, except English and Finnish, its 

 name is feminine. The sacred bird of Athens 

 or the Lesbian Nyctimene is still 'the 

 woman's bird' among the Australian abori- 

 gines : Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Ice- 

 landic, Vendish, German, French, Hungarian, 

 all afford the same sex-indication. The great 

 white owl, however, is the bird of heroes, 



208 



