That is as large as all the waters of earth
Runs from the height down to the sea, Vourū-Kasha.”[[127]]
MYTHICAL BIRDS.
Birds have always held a prominent place in the various mythologies. Among the Assyrians, the zu or vulture was the symbol of the “god of the storm-cloud,” who was believed to have stolen the laws and attributes of Bel for the benefit of mankind, and to have been punished for the theft by transformation into a vulture.[[128]]
In Egyptian mythology, the tablets represent Isis as a bird. “For she is Isis, the charmer, the avenger of her brother, who seeks him without failing, who traverses the earth with lamentations, without resting before she has found him—creating the light with her feathers, producing the wind with her wings, celebrating the sacred dances, and depositing her brother in the tomb ... raising the remains of the god, with immovable heart ... she makes him grow, his arm becomes strong in the great dwelling.”[[129]]
In the Hindū poem of the Rāmāyaṇa, during the banishment of the innocent and beautiful Sīta, the pitying birds dipped their pinions in the sacred waters of the Ganges, and fanned her feverish face, that she might not faint with the heat.[[130]] In the same poem we have also descriptions of Garuḍa, the eagle-steed of Vishṇu, and Sampati, the sacred vulture, who gave information concerning the demon king that carried away the beautiful princess. Hindū mythology also contains “the celestial birds,” who were acquainted with right and wrong, and who, in one of the Purāṇas answered the questions of the sages, and also gave an account of the creation.
In northern Europe we find a wondrous eagle, who sits amongst the branches of the Ygdrasil—that beautiful tree of Norse mythology, whose three great roots strike downward among the Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians, and Germans. This great ash tree spreads its life-giving arms through the heavens, and on the topmost bough is the eagle “who knows many things,” and between his eyes sits the keen-eyed hawk, Vedfolner.[[131]]
We have also the Griffin of chivalry, the fabulous monster, half bird and half lion, that protected the gold of the Hyperborean regions from the one-eyed Arimaspians, and the Phœnix of Egyptian fable—the bird of gold and crimson plumage, that is burned upon her nest of spices every thousand years, and as often springs to life from her ashes. The Turks have their Kerkes, and the Japanese their Kirni, while China exhibits a nondescript dragon, which is a combination of bird and reptile. In the Greek Iliad we have the imperial bird of Jove—“Strong sovereign of the plumy race” bearing a signal from the god. Among the Persian myths we find the Karmak, a gigantic bird “which overshadowed the earth, and kept off the rain until the rivers were dried up.” And the law was brought to the Var of Yima by the bird Karśipta who recites the Avesta in the language of birds.
The raven was sacred to Apollo, and in Persia the priests of the sun were named ravens. In the Avesta this bird is called “the swiftest of all—the highest of the flying creatures ... he alone of all living things—he or none—overtakes the flight of an arrow, however well it has been shot; he grazes in the hidden ways of the mountains, he grazes in the depths of the vales, he grazes on the summit of the trees listening to the voices of the birds.”[[132]] Again it is said of the Vārengaṇa or raven: “Take thou a feather of that bird, with that feather thou shalt rub thine own body—with that feather thou shalt curse thine enemies; if a man holds a bone of that strong bird, no one can smite or turn to flight that fortunate man. The feather of that bird of birds brings him help, it brings unto him the homage of men, it maintains him in glory.”[[133]] It is said that the glory departed from Yima three times in the shape of a raven, and the raven is also one of the incarnations of the genius of Victory.
The Saēna, which, in later literature, is the Sīnamrū or Sīmūrgh, occupies an important place in Persian mythology. His resting place is on the Jaḍ-bēsh, or the tree of the eagle; this tree is the bearer of all seeds, and when the Sīmūrgh leaves it in his flight, a thousand twigs will shoot from the tree, and when he returns and alights thereon, he breaks off the thousand twigs, and sheds the seed from them. Then the bird Chaṉmrōsh who always sits near, watching the tree, will collect the seed which falls from the Jaḍ-bēsh, or tree of all seeds, and carry it to the fountain where Tishtar (or Tiśtrya) receives the waters, so that Tishtar may gather the seed of all kinds with the waters, and may shower it down upon the world with the rain.[[134]]