Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/335

 *cies of future success (one of which was literally fulfilled in the battle of Navarino two years later) is an incarnation of the soul of a fallen Greek warrior. '"Would I were a bird" (I said), "that I might fly and go to Mesolonghi, and see how goes the sword-*play and the musketry, how fight the unconquered falcons of Roumelie." And a bird of golden plumage warbled answer to me: "Hold, good George; an thou thirstest for Arab blood, here too are infidels for thee to slay as many as thou wilt. Dost see far away yonder the Turkish ships? Charos is standing over them, and they shall be turned to ashes." "Good bird, how didst thou learn this that thou tellest me?" "A bird I seem to thee to be, but no bird am I. Yon island that I espied for thee afar belongeth to Navarino; 'twas there I spent my last breath a-fighting. Tsamados am I, and unto the world have I come; from the heavens where I dwell I discern you clearly, yet yearn to see you face to face." "Nay, what shouldest thou see now among us in our unhappy land? Knowest thou not what befell and now is in the Morea?" "Good George, be not distraught, consent not to despair; though the Morea fight not now, a time will come again when they will fight like wild beasts and chase their foe. Piteously shall bones lie scattered before Mesolonghi, and there shall the lions of Suli rejoice." And the bird flew away and went up to the heavens .'

Such an identification of the winged messenger with the soul of a dead man does not represent the ordinary thought of the people; it is a conceit peculiar to this ballad; but the very fact that the dead warrior is made to assume the guise of a bird in order to communicate with his living comrades shows how strong is the popular feeling that birds are the natural intermediaries between earth and heaven.

Thus then the ancient belief that birds are among the most apt instruments of divine and human communion has survived as little impaired by lapse of ages as the practical science of augury founded upon it. Perhaps indeed it has even fared better; for practical augury has, I suspect, suffered from the paucity or extinction of professional augurs, who alone could be expected to(probably a diminutive from [Greek: oxypteros]), a 'falcon,' is a favourite name for the warrior, just as the humbler [Greek: pouli], 'bird,' is used for 'scout.']