12 TlMEHRI. 
greatest imaginable diversity of bodily form. That he 
equally recognizes no limits to the possible instantaneous 
variation, at its own or at another's will, or even by 
chance, of the bodily form of any individual spirit is 
evinced in many of his tales. Two examples must 
suffice. The first tells how birds and men once waged 
combined war on a huge water-snake. The attacking 
party first agreed that whoever made the first onslaught 
should claim the skin of the snake as his spoil. For a 
long time no one would begin ; but at last the darter, or 
snake bird, dived under water and wounded the snake, 
which was then gradually drawn out and killed by the 
rest. Then the darter, claiming the skin, called his 
family and made all take hold of the booty and fly away 
with it. Then these birds, all of a dull gray colour, 
agreed to divide the skin, which, except at the head, ' 
was of very bright tints, each taking the part that was 
in its own beak. Arid when they had done this each 
dressed himself in his own bit of skin. Most of them 
— all except the darter who had actually begun the at- 
tack on the snake, but to whose lot the head of the skin 
happened to fall — at once became the various bright" 
coloured parrots and macaws. Only one, he who began 
the fight, remained dingy in colour and a simple darter. 
The second story is again of a war of the birds, this time 
against the king vultures, who were eventually driven 
into their own houses which were then burnt over their 
heads. Then the other birds began to quarrel over the 
plunder. The trumpet-bird and the heron got so angry 
that they fought and rolled each other in the ashes, so 
that the former acquired the gray colouring of its back 
and the latter became gray all over. Taking advantage 
