In the Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 221, the Garuḍas or Rukhs are described as being “of the nature of vultures.” A Brāhmaṇa got hid among the back feathers of one while it was asleep, and was carried by it to the Golden City next day. These birds are referred to (vol. i, p. 78) as breeding on a mountain called Swarṇamūla, in Ceylon. Compare also the account of Bhārunda birds in The Kathākośa (Tawney), p. 164. According to Prof. Sayce, the original idea of the Rukh is to be found in Zū, the storm-bird or god of the Sumerians (The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, p. 353).
A lion-headed eagle with outspread wings, holding a lion by each of its feet, formed the symbol of Lagash or Shirpurla, one of the earliest Sumerian cities. It was the emblem of Ningirsu, the god of the city (A History of Sumer and Akkad, by L. W. King, 1910, pp. 98, 100). According to Mr. King’s revised chronology, this takes back the notion of this gigantic eagle, which carried off and devoured the largest quadrupeds, to the fourth millenium B.C. Its Sumerian name was Imgig.
In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 134, a Prince’s wife, disguised as a Sannyāsi, or Hindu religious mendicant, on her way to join her husband who was ill—poisoned by lying on powdered glass that was spread over his bed—rested under a tree in which a pair of Rukhs (in this story called Bihangama and Bihangamī) had their nest, containing two young birds. She cut in two a snake that was about to climb the tree, and that was accustomed to kill the young ones each year. She overheard the conversation of the birds, which was to the effect that some of their droppings would cure the Prince, if reduced to powder and applied with a brush to the Prince’s body, after bathing him seven times, with seven jars of water and seven jars of milk. One of the birds carried her on his back to the Prince, with the rapidity of lightning. At p. 219, we learn that the dung of the young of this bird, when applied fresh to the eyeballs, would cure blindness.
At pp. 189 and 192, a puppy and a young hawk joined a Prince on his journey, but apparently owing to the omission of some incident of the tale they were of no service to him. Such omissions are common; they can only be supplied by collecting variants.
In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), pp. 74, 75—Tales of the Punjab, pp. 66, 67—a crow, peacock, and jackal in turn warned a girl against a robber with whom she was going.
At p. 273—Tales of the Punjab, p. 259—Prince Rasālu was given the task of separating a hundred-weight of millet seed from a hundred-weight of sand with which it had been mixed. This was done for him by crickets in return for his saving a cricket from a fire.
In the Jātaka story No. 444 (vol. iv, pp. 19, 20), a man laid his hand on the head of a boy who had been bitten by a snake, and then repeated a spell to restore him to health. The boy’s father laid his hand on the boy’s breast while saying a second spell.
In the Tamil Story of Madana Kāma Rāja, or “Dravidian Nights” (Naṭēśa Sāstrī), p. 21 ff., a Prince purchased for a hundred pagodas apiece, a kitten and a snake, which he reared for twelve years. They assisted him afterwards.
At p. 91 ff., a Prince was ordered by a King to bring snake’s poison, and afterwards whale’s fat.
At p. 109 ff., a Prince who had four heavenly wives lost them through his mother’s returning to one of them her celestial garment, which had been concealed. When in search of a way to his wives, he saved an Ant-King, a Frog-King, and a Cricket-King. He went to Indra, who gave him four tasks, of which one was that after an acre of land had been sown with sesame seed and ploughed one hundred times, he was to collect all the seeds. The Ant-King brought his subjects and collected them for him. Another of the tasks, the last one, was the selection of Indra’s daughter, who was one of his wives, from the four, who were all given the same appearance. The Cricket-King enabled him to do this, by hopping onto her foot.