310 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



this time the omen of the bird is published to the 

 whole Japanese Army. The hawk has been named 

 by the Mikado himself, after the vessel on which 

 it was caught, the first syllable of the ship's name 

 meaning ' falcon/ and it is accepted as a * special 

 manifestation of heavenly favour, and a sign of the 

 continued success of the Imperial arms.' The appeal 

 made by this omen is easily understood, for the 

 Japanese, if shaken in their fidelity to religion as 

 represented by Buddhism, are still firm in their 

 belief in direct communication between man and 

 unseen beings, whether disembodied spirits or angels. 

 Only recently the Mikado quieted a factious opposi- 

 tion in Parliament by communicating his knowledge 

 that the spirits of his ancestors were disturbed by 

 such unseemly strife ; and the common people are 

 not only superstitious, but steeped in symbolism, in 

 which birds and flowers are constantly associated. 

 Hawks and eagles are the favourite subjects of 

 much of the religious as well as secular painting ; 

 and it must be noted that the omen that followed 

 the Yaloo battle came in the form which all natural 

 sentiment prescribes for such manifestations. 



It is the single bird that the human mind always 

 tends to look on as the bird of portent. It is the 

 otWo? the lone-flying, solitary creature descending 

 from the sky, which was regarded as the manifest 



