the owl

Speak only away, speak away, following the westward-facing year, as if in Yama's house, sapless, staring out, lodged there, staring out.

In the house of King Yama, your gaming with sand shall be your portion, and a mouse shall nibble it away.

O long-haired one, do not address the village with auspicious speech.

For that bird, though it is no wiser than the others and no finer to look at, but is exactly the sort of creature we know it to be, is courted by the rest of the birds whenever it utters its mournful and altogether unpleasant cry;

Whence, I suppose, Aesop also composed the fable that, being wise, the owl advised the birds, when the oak was first springing up, not to allow it but to destroy it by every means;

It is by that purpose that the bird is said to be dear to Athena, the fairest and wisest of the gods, and it found favour even in the art of Pheidias among the Athenians, who did not think it unworthy to set it beside the goddess, with the people's consent.

But the strongest proof of all is that Zeus, who now reigns, is represented as standing with an eagle on his head as a symbol of his royalty;

The owl will not attack us then.

And who is it brings an owl to Athens?

When an animal of the species that is the tribe's totem dies, its people hold a ceremony over its burial and grieve for it as they grieve for one of themselves.

And if, as he walks, owls hoot, he is alarmed and says "Athena is mightier" before he passes on.