52 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIX, 
The reason, why, of all aninals, man takes omens mostly 
from birds, is that they are the most migratory, migrating in 
thousands. and tens of thousands at different seasons, from 
one country to another, hundreds of miles! distant, some 
marching at the rate of 200 miles per hour. So, their arrival, 
in one season or another, in one country or another, presages a 
change of season. The English proverb ‘ One swallow does not 
make a summer,” illustrates this view. Now, a change of season 
often gladdens the hearts of men, who are tired with the rigour 
or a kind of monotony of a season. Hence arose, the custom 
of taking omens from birds. 
The object of this paper is to speak particularly about one 
bird, the owl, which is held to be inauspicious among many 
people, and to present some folklore about it. 
The Owl in the Avesta. 
In tne Avesta, the owl, which is spoken of as pesha 
(Pers. Push (4: ), is represented, as having feathers which 
serve as a kind of amulet. If one rubs his body with the 
feathers, he is safe from the curses of his enemies. Both, its 
feather and its bone, protect the person holding them from 
his body that no enemy can smite him. On the contrary, 
he becomes victorious and gprs (Behram Yasht. ; 
35-40). King Kavi Usa (Kai Kaus of the Shah-nameh) and 
king Thraétaona (Traitana Faa_ of the Hindus, Faridun of the 
Shah-nameh) carried its feathers or bones over their bodies 
and were victorious Faridum was victorious by these means 
over the snake-mouthed Azi-Dahaka or Zohak. Here, we find, 
that this ies a of being considered as inauspicious, 1s 
held to be luc 
There is ie word in the Avesta, w ye the late Dastur 
Dr. Hoshang Jamasp took to be for owl. It is Sijdareh 
(Vendidad XIII, 2),? which he reads as viiadreh ® ® and compares it 
with Sans. z4q Marathi wy Gujarati 2(\'4Persian oS. He says: 
“In this place it is used for an owl. It is true that accord- 
ing to Natural History and Ornithology as developed in 
the present day, the owl is included in the species Strix or 
Strigida, but in the old times when the Avesta was translated 
into Pahlavi (250 or 300 B.C.), the owl was not probably classi- 
as a distinct species and was included in the category of 
duigtals wy. vulture or carnivorous bird, because it feeds ape 
| Vide «* The ‘eels a of Birds,” * by Charles Dixon. 
2 Vide his Vendidad, Vol. I (!907), p. 455 
3 Ibid, Preface, p. VII. 
