CHAPTER XX

THE OWLS

When night fell over the Holy Land, and all the country from Edom and the desert of Shur to the farthest northward range of Lebanon, and from Syria and Arabia to the great sea, lay under its spell, the reign of the owl family began. When the tropical moon silvered the sands of the desert, stretched molten paths across the seas, sailed with the current down the Jordan, and laughed at her reflected face in Merom and the Red Sea, the great horned owl crept from the homes of the dead near Carmel, from caves of robbers close to Gennesaret, from ruins around Jericho, from fallen cities in Judea, from desert thickets, from mountain and forest fastnesses, and lifted its weird voice.

Then all the little owls from Tyre to Askelon set up their wavering accompaniment to the beating surf of the Mediterranean. Their companions of ruins, hollow trees, caves, desert thickets and forests, lakes and rivers, over plain, field, and valley called to each other to awake and come out to moonlight, love-making, and good feeding.

Not to be surpassed, the screech owl from the hills near Damascus, the Lebanon valleys, down the coast from Sidon to Gaza, around Merom, near the cities of the Jordan Valley from Sechem to Jerusalem, close to Nazareth and Bethlehem, raised their wavering voices in a chant to the moon, the friend to night-hunters.

Belated caravans crossing the wilderness of Shur, coming in from the Arabian desert and across the hot sands of Syria, called to lagging camels and urged them to hasten. Shepherds watching their herds and flocks over hills, in valleys, and at watering-places near the edges of the desert shuddered and whispered an appeal to the living God for protection: for superstition was in their blood, and the cries were awesome. All the inhabitants of field and plain felt the heart leap of apprehension. In villages and walled cities tired workers turned on their beds and breathed a prayer for safety. When the wail broke in the gardens around the palaces of kings where great courts held revel, people shuddered as they danced.

For the owl is introduced in the Bible only to say that it is unfit for human food, and to prove that its voice can add a last touch to any picture of horror. This bird appeared as frequently as any other in the Bible of my childhood. Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah all put it into every picture of desolation they drew. The latest versions seem to feel that this was a mistake of translators, and that the bird intended was the ostrich. Perhaps this is right, but I doubt it in most instances. The ostrich had sufficient vocal accomplishments to entitle it to a place among any list of horrors made by sound, but the ostrich was a bird of light, of wide range, and voracious appetite. I imagine that when it had hunted all day searching for food along the edges of the desert, and returned to its nest at night, it was tired enough to sleep until morning. Moreover, it was a bird that was not found near many of the ruins mentioned, where the latest versions place it; for most of these were caused by the fortunes of war and were the remains