Excerpt from Bird Legend and Life
The most important avian legends and superstitions and also to discover in them evidences of apparent truth. Some of the most agreeable and interesting legends of the past were gathered about these guests of our groves Whose actions formed the basis of innumerable fancies and superstitions. Birds exercised a strong influence on prehistoric religion, having been worshiped as gods in the earlier days, and, later, looked upon as living representatives of the higher powers. The Greeks went so far as to attribute the origin of the world itself to the egg of some mysterious bird. Then in the days when mortals did not die at all, but passed, these small creatures, flitting about among the trees, represented to those inhabiting the earth the Visible spirits of departed friends. The Aztecs believed that all good people, as a reward of merit, were metamorphosed at the close of life into feathered songsters, and as such were permitted to pass a certain term in the beautiful groves of Paradise. To them, as to all North American Indians, thun der was the cloud bird flapping his mighty Wings, While the lightning was the flash of his he peoples of other coun tries believed that the higher showed their displeasure.
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