Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/329

 the observer) to be noticed and interpreted; these were its cry (anciently [Greek: phônê] or [Greek: klangê]), its flight ([Greek: ptêsis]), its posture when settled ([Greek: hedra] or [Greek: kathedra]), and any movement or action performed by it while thus settled ([Greek: energeia]). These divisions are still recognised in modern augury.

The cry is observed in the case of many birds. The scream of an eagle is a warning of fighting or conflict to come. The croak of a raven, especially if it be thrice repeated, while the bird is flying over a house or a village, is a premonition of death to one of the inmates. The laugh of the woodpecker, owing I suppose to its mocking sound, is a sign that an intrigue against some one's person or pocket is in train. The repeated call of the cuckoo within the bounds of a village forebodes an epidemic therein.

Flight is chiefly observed in the case of the birds of prey. The successful swoop of an eagle upon its prey, or the rapid determined flight of a hawk in pursuit of some other bird, is an encouragement to the observer (provided of course that the birds are seen on his right hand) to pursue untiringly any enterprise in which he is engaged, and is a promise of success and profit therein. In Scyros I once pointed out to my guide a large hawk chasing a flock of pigeons, which he at once hailed as a good omen and watched carefully as long as it was in sight; and when I asked him what kind of hawk it was, he promptly replied that that kind was known as [Greek: tsikros]—the goshawk, I believe. This word is a modern form of the ancient [Greek: kirkos], and a closely similar incident is mentioned in the Odyssey, when this bird, the 'swift messenger of Apollo,' is seen by Telemachus on the right, tearing a pigeon in its talons and scattering its feathers to the ground, and is taken to foreshow the fate that awaits Eurymachus.

The position occupied and the posture are observed above all in the case of owls. The 'brown owl' ([Greek: koukoubagia]), perched upon the roof of a house and suggesting by its inert posture that it is waiting in true oriental fashion for an event expected within a few days, forebodes a death in the household; but if it settle there for a few moments only, alert and vigilant, and then fly off elsewhere, it betokens merely the advent and sojourn there ofbefore the sounds of [Greek: e] and [Greek: i] is regularly softened to [Greek: ts]. The [Greek: r] has, as often, suffered metathesis.]