


| 
1923.] The Owl in Folklore. 55 
fre at the mouth of that well ( Ag! oily, ae Bigeye: 
Thus, according to the tradition, as given by Mirkhona, the 
owl has since then been condemned as an inauspicious bi rd! 
The story of an Owl and a Mobad. 
The poe ing story associated the owl with ruins. It is 
said, that at one time, a Persian King on seeing a pair of owls, 
asked his Mobad. i.e., his priestly minister, as to what the pair 
was talking. The Mobad said: ‘‘They wish and pray, that 
you, the reigning king, may live long, because they find in your 
reign many forsaken or deserted ‘villages to wander or live 
in.” It is said, that the king had, by his misrule, caused many 
a village to be deserted by the people. So, the owls had many 
deserted villages for their abode. They 
a long life to such a bad king. This wasa taunt, intended or 
unintended, for the king by the Mobad, and, it is said, that the 
ing ae this to heart and began to m manage his st tate affairs 
better, so that, in ane end, there remained verv few deserted 
places it in ugh king gdom 
P irdoust on Owls. 
t is this idea, prevalent from olden times, of associating 
owls ek ruins. that led Firdousi to sav on the fall of Persia: 
urther on, in connection with the same iota Mirkhond i 
ae a sca has come to be considered as a good auspicious bird. 
was informec =. ange as se where the careaarers of his son had hid 
oye ene He started t here, and on the way, he happened to see 
a white co ‘Rintese ‘safid) pate ae by a hen (makidn). A serpent 
-— he hen, and the cock, running after the serpent, defended his 

eak t 
not eat a sna tes tal the ia first ngs e. ayom rs was eae 
with tne sight. He was going on an see to eat the murderers of his 
& 
of his son. Thenceforth, he declared his he: apse Pat pee N 
them. Mirkhond adds: ‘‘ It is said that 5 Dene ean enter a house in 
which there is a cock ; and, above all, "should this bird come to the resi- 
dence of a demon. and move aises of the glorious 
and exalted Creator, that instant the evil spirit od to — ” (History 
ina 

of the Kings of Persia, translated fro ersian of 
Mirkhond by David Shea, 1832, pp. 56-57). People generally do not like 
shoutin ours. Mirkhond thus explains t 
son why persons draw an evil omen fr able 
crowing of the cock, and at the same time put him to death, is this; 
that when Kayomars w ized with a fatal illness, at the time of the 
evening vice, this bird crowed al imm after, this 
pag diat 
orthodox monarch passed away to the word of eternity. ” Beet p. 57.) 
2 *« Place of Animals in Human Thought,” by Countess Cezaresco. 
