262 
GREAT HORNED OWL. 
the old lady herself, rising before day to bake, in passing 
towards the oven, surprised her late prisoner, the Owl, regaling 
himself on the body of a newly killed hen ! The thief instantly 
made for his hole under the house, from whence the enraged 
matron soon dislodged him with the brush handle, and without 
mercy despatched him. In this snug retreat were found the 
greater part of the feathers, and many large fragments, of her 
whole family of chickens. 
There is something in the character of the Owl so recluse, 
solitary, and mysterious, something so discordant in the tones 
of its voice, heard only amid the silence and gloom of night, 
and in the most lonely and sequestered situations, as to have 
strongly impressed the minds of mankind in general with 
sensations of awe and abhorrence of the whole tribe. The 
poets have indulged freely in this general prejudice ; and in 
their descriptions and delineations of midnight storms, and 
gloomy scenes of nature, the Owl is generally introduced to 
heighten the horror of the picture. Ignorance and superstition, 
in all ages, and in all countries, listen to the voice of the Owl, 
and even contemplate its physiognomy with feelings of disgust, 
and a kind of fearful awe. The priests, or conjurers, among 
some of our Indian nations, have taken advantage of the 
reverential horror for this bird, and have adopted the Great 
Horned Owl , the subject of the present account, as the symbol 
or emblem of their office. “ Among the Creeks,” says Mr 
Bartram, in his Travels , p. 504, “ the junior priests, or students, 
constantly wear a white mantle, and have a Great Owl skin 
cased and stuffed very ingeniously, so well executed as almost 
to appear like the living bird, having large sparkling glass 
beads, or buttons, fixed in the head for eyes. This insignia 
of wisdom and divination they wear sometimes as a crest on 
the top of the head ; at other times the image sits on the arm, 
or is borne on the hand. These bachelors are also distinguished 
from the other people by their taciturnity, grave and solemn 
countenance, dignified step, and singing to themselves songs 
or hymns in a low, sweet voice, as they stroll about the town.” 
Nothing is a more effectual cure for superstition than a 
