Note 140 — Chapter IV · ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

The legend of the hoopoe is thus told by Arrian: “To the king of the Indians was born a son. The child had elder brothers, who, when they came to man’s estate, turned out to be very unjust and the greatest of reprobates. They despised their brother because he was the youngest; and they scoffed at their father and their mother, whom they despised because they were old and grey-headed. The boy, accordingly, and his aged parents could no longer live with these wicked men, and away they fled from home, all three together. In the course of the protracted journeys which they had then to undergo, the old people succumbed to fatigue and died, and the boy showed them no light regard, but buried them in himself, having cut off his head with a sword. Then, as the Brachmanes (Brâhman) tell us, the all-seeing sun, in admiration of this surprising act of piety, transformed the boy into a bird, which is most beautiful to behold, and which lives to a very advanced age. So on his head there grew up a crest, which was, as it were, a memorial of what he had done in the time of his flight.”140