The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. 99 
the figure of the cock perched on an altar before a priest 
making his offerings, leads us to conclude that this bird was 
to some extent sacred, and that one of the numerous names 
of the cock, viz., 'e-na-nu ^y (PV " *° divine," 
" augurans," " observans somnia " (Vulgate), represents this 
bird in this capacity as a soothsayer. The following names 
occur as denoting the cock ; all have the determinate prefix 
of " food," before them. 
(a.) j£j JflC cu-ni-pu, or JgJ Jy£ J^JJ ^f<y 
cu-ni-ip (khu). The derivation of this word is uncertain : it 
may be connected with the Hebrew F)5?> " a wing," and 
allude to the constant clapping of its wings in the act of 
crowing (cf. Pliny, x. 21, "ipsum verum cantum plausu 
laterum"), hence called the " wing-bird"; or it may refer to 
the original meaning of the Hebrew word for a wing, ie., "to 
cover," " to hide," in allusion to the hen bird covering and 
brooding over its chickens. As some other names of the 
domestic fowl refer to the bird's voice, it is not improbable 
that cunipn may more definitely denote the covering or 
brooding hen, but was not used exclusively in that sense. 1 
(6.) iz]} zz\]*£ 'e-zi-zu, "the strong bird," Heb. (tt£). 
This is a suitable name for the bold pugnacious cock, the 
emblem of Mars, able, according to the Latin tradition, to 
inspire terror even in the lion. With the Assyrian name we 
may aptly compare the Aramaic word " the strong 
bird,'' occasionally used by Talmudic writers as one of the 
names of the cock : see Buxtorf, " Lex. Chal.," pp. 384, 385. 
The fern., rfHJIJ gabrith, is also given as the name of the hen. 
(c.) With 'e-zi-zu is also associated the Accadian name 
^jf t^Z- -^E^ T -*-«-«"< gar-mi-kharmes (f), a word which awaits 
explanation. 
(d.) Another name as an equivalent of 'e-zi-zu is 
fy Spf^y a-gus-se; but as another very similar word, 
ft *^ a-vu-se, also occurs as a synonym, the two may be 
1 Our English word " cock" is borrowed from the French coc, and is not of 
Anglo-Saxon origin. The old word for a cock was Hana, a masculine word, corre- 
sponding to English hen; cf. German, der Hahn ; and see Skeat, "Etym. 
Diet.," p. 118. 
