THE PELICAN
The pelican is a wonderful bird which dwells in the region about the river Nile. The written history[4] tells us that there are two kinds,--those which dwell in the river and eat nothing but fish, and those which dwell in the desert and eat only insects and worms. There is a wonderful thing about the pelican, for never did mother-sheep love her lamb as the pelican loves its young. When the young are born, the parent bird devotes all his care and thought to nourishing them. But the young birds are ungrateful, and when they have grown strong and self-reliant they peck at their father's face, and he, enraged at their wickedness, kills them all.
[4] The reference here is probably to the 'Liber de Bestiis et Aliis Rebus' of Hugo de St. Victor.
On the third day the father comes to them, deeply moved with pity and sorrow. With his beak he pierces his own side, until the blood flows forth. With the blood he brings back life into the body of his young[5].
[5] There are many allusions in literature to this story. Cf. Shakespeare,--
"Those pelican daughters."--Lear, iii. 4. Cf. also the beautiful metaphor of Alfred de Musset, in his 'Nuit de Mai.'"Like the kind life-rendering pelican,
Repast them with my blood."--'Hamlet,' iv. 5.
"Like the kind life-rendering pelican,
Repast them with my blood."--'Hamlet,' iv. 5.
THE EAGLE
The eagle is the king of birds. When it is old it becomes young again in a very strange manner. When its eyes are darkened and its wings are heavy with age, it seeks out a fountain clear and pure, where the water bubbles up and shines in the clear sunlight. Above this fountain it rises high up into the air, and fixes its eyes upon the light of the sun and gazes upon it until the heat thereof sets on fire its eyes and wings. Then it descends down into the fountain where the water is clearest and brightest, and plunges and bathes three times, until it is fresh and renewed and healed of its old age[6].