60 Birds in Sanskrit Literature where they seem not to be afraid of noxious vermin. Significantly enough they go by the traditional names of सात बहिन or सात भाई, 'Seven Sisters or Brothers' in North India. If therefore these humble-looking birds are rare: they, can certainly claim high Vedic recognition ! the 8. The Minivets and Babblers mentioned above are all denizens of the lower Himalayas from the Sutlej valley eastwards and therefore well within the geographical limits of the later Rgvedic culture. 9. I may finally quote an interesting Hindi verse of Jamal, a Muslim poet, which is based on the same ideas of sympathetic magic as underlie the above hymn. A love-lorn young woman attemps to practise a charm against her tormentors, the Cuckoo, the bright Moon, the gentle breeze and finally the God of Love: "वायस, राहू, भुजंग, हर, लिखति त्रिया तत्काल लिखि लिखि मेटै सुन्दरी कारन कौन जमाल ?" Trans: "The pretty lady figures (upon the ground) the Crow, the Planet Rahu, the Python snake, and God Shiva, but immediately rubs them off, Jamal asks, why? 10. The answer is that the figures are meant to spite the enemies- the Crow to silence the Cuckoo; Rahu to swallow up the Moon; the Python (वायुभक्ष) to suck up and stop the breeze; and God Shiva to suppress कामदेव the God of Love. But no sooner the figures are completed she realizes her folly, for she would want them all when her husband returns home, and lest the charm becomes perminently effective she hastens to erase the drawings. 14 SWALLOW-SHRIKES insects The Ashy Swallow Shrike is the only bird of this family which occurs in India. It is of a plain grey-brown colour and of the size of a Sparrow. It has very long wings and resembles a Swallow in its method of hunting for the wing. "They are most elegant birds when on the wing and but for their constant harsh cry and their comparative slow sailing through the air, might be taken for a bevy of large Grey Swallows on the wing" (S. Baker). They often nest at the base of the leaves of palms (ar) or palm-ferns. Now in Sanskrit means a Sparrow and also a Swallow or Swift so that the name 'ara', by which the Ashy Swallow Shrike is known in Bengal, should also be a Sanskrit name for it, and it very naturally shares this name with the Palm-Swift (Art. 45).
