Alcyone, daughter of Eolus, the wind-god, impelled by love for her husband Ceyx, whom she found dead on the shore after a shipwreck, threw herself into the sea. The gods, rewarding their conjugal love, changed the pair into kingfishers. What connection exists between this, which is simply a classic yarn, and the ancient theory of […]
Tag: Russia
Bird stories, Himalayan Griffon (Gyps himalayensis)
The Mustangi Gurung of Nepal chop down the dead body for burial into many pieces and offer the vultures. Lama calls the vulture by praying and blowing his trumpet. There is a belief that a skilled lama can invite only the required number of vulture in accordance to the weight of a dead body to […]
Bird stories, Eurasian Buzzard (Buteo buteo)
After the creation of the world, the God ordered all birds to dig an individual well for each of them to wash there. Everyone obeyed, apart from the buzzard who was absent at the moment. When it finally arrived it decided to use trickery and get a well for free. The buzzard suggested the crow […]
Bird stories, Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus)
Not more than a century ago English farmers thought it necessary to sow barley when the earliest note of the cuckoo was heard in order to insure a full crop. In Russian folklore the Erzians from Mordovia the story is that the cuckoo was destined to become a domestic bird, however, at first it promised […]
Bird stories, Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus)
The Buryat people of Siberia say that the gods first brought the vulture to the world for a very specific purpose. After the deities had created the first people, they sent a vulture to protect them from any harm that might befall them at the hands of evil spirits. But the people didn’t know of […]
Bird stories, Himalayan Vulture (Gyps himalayensis)
An old and very odd legend of the Kirghiz tells of the treasures that awaited those who plundered a Himalayan Griffon nest. It was said that after an appropriate period of incubation, the Griffon’s egg hatches – and an axe emerges from the shell. Not just any axe; an axe that can cleave anything on […]
Bird stories, Carrion Crow (Corvus corone)
There once was a very learned Bishop, who saw a fine large nest up in an elm-tree, and when he had climbed up he saw that it was full of young Crow-chicks. One of these chicks had such a winsome appearance and took him home to the Palace. In due time the Crow grew up, […]