Birds in legend, fable and folklore

About this book

Birds in sacred stories, fables, and popular sayings are the subject of Ernest Ingersoll’s survey, written for readers curious about the beliefs attached to them. When he traces the claim that ostriches hide their heads in sand, he finds an older account in which the bird shields its vulnerable head beneath cover. At Hierapolis, doves were treated as sacred and fed in temple yards, a custom Ingersoll connects to ancient religious practice. The book ranges well beyond familiar European lore, describing the phoenix-like feng-huang of Chinese and Japanese tradition.