The Hidden History of the Rooster by Lewis Spence 1920
The cock has always been connected with magical practice in the various parts of the world throughout the ages, and is to be considered in more than one light in this connection. He is the herald of the dawn, and many examples might be cited of assemblies of demons and sorcerers where his shrill cry, announcing dayspring, has put the infernal Sabbath to rout. It is said that for the purpose of averting such a contingency, sorcerers were wont to smear the head and breast of the cock with olive oil, or else to place around his neck a collar of vine-branches. In many cases the future was divined through the instrumentality of this bird. It was also believed that in the stomach of the cock was found a called Lappilus Alectorius, from the Greek name of bird, the virtue of which was to give strength and courage, and which is said to have inspired the gigantic might of Milo of Crotona. Originally a native of India, the cock arrived in Europe in early times, via Persia, where we find him alluded to in the Zoroastrian books as the beadle of Sraosa, the sun, and affrighter of demons. Among the Arabs, it is said that he crows when he becomes aware of the presence of jinns. The Jews received their conception of the coch as a scarer of evil spirits from the Persians, as did the Armenians, who say that he greets with his clarion callthe guardian angels. who descend to earth with that day, and that he gives the key-note to the angelic choirs of heaven to commence their daily round of song. In India, too, and among the Pagan Slavs, he was supposed to scare away demons from dwelling places, and was often the first living creature introduced into a newly-built house. The Jews, however, believe that it is possible for the cock to become the victim of demons, and they say that if he upsets a dish he should be killed. The cock is often used directly in magical practice. Thus, in Scotland, he is buried under the patients' bed in cases of epilepsy. The Germans believed that if a sorcerer throws a black cock into the air, thunder and lightning will follow, and among the Chams of Cambodia, a woman who wishes to become a sorceress sacrifices a live cock on a termite's nest, cutting the bird in two from the head to the tail, and placing it on an altar, in front of which she dances and sings, until the two halves of the bird come together again, and it comes to life and crows. His name was often pronounced by the Greeks as a cure for the diseases of animals, and it was said by the Romans that locked doors could be opened with his tail feathers. The bird was often pictured on amulets in early times, and figured as the symbol of Abraxas, the principal deity of a Gnostic sect.
The cock is often regarded as the guide of souls to the underworld, and in this respect was associated by the Greeks with Persephone and Hermes, and the Slavs of pagan times often sacrificed cocks to the dead, and to the household serpents in which they believed their ancestors to be reincarnated. Conversely, the coch was sometimes pictured as having an infernal connection, especially if his colour be black. Indeed he is often employed in black magic, perhaps the earliest instance of this being in the Atharia Veda. A black cock is offered up to propitiate the Devil in Hungary, and a black hen was used for the same purpose in Germany. The Greek syrens, the Shedim of the Talmud, and the Izpuzteque, whom the dead Aztec encounters on the road to Mictlan, the Place of the Dead, all have coach's feet. There is a widespread folk-belief that once in seven years the cock lays a little egg. In Germany it is necessary to throw this over the roof, or tempests will wreck the homestead, but should the egg be hatched, it will produce a cockatrice or basilisk. In Lithuania they put the cock's egg in a pot, and place it in the oven. From this egg is hatched a Kauks, a bird with a tail like that of a golden pheasant, which, if properly tended, will bring its owner great good luck. Gross mentions in a chronicle of Bale, in Switzerland, that in the month of August, 1474, a cock of that town was accused and convicted of laying an egg, and was condemned to death. He was publicly burned along with his egg, at a place called Kablenberg, in sight of a great multitude of people.
The cock was also regarded as having a connection with light and with the sun, probably because of the redness of his comb, and the fiery sheen of his plumage, or perhaps because he heralds the day. It is the cock who daily wakens the heroes in the Scandinavian Asgard.
The cock has always been connected with magical practice in the various parts of the world throughout the ages, and is to be considered in more than one light in this connection. He is the herald of the dawn, and many examples might be cited of assemblies of demons and sorcerers where his shrill cry, announcing dayspring, has put the infernal Sabbath to rout. It is said that for the purpose of averting such a contingency, sorcerers were wont to smear the head and breast of the cock with olive oil, or else to place around his neck a collar of vine-branches. In many cases the future was divined through the instrumentality of this bird. It was also believed that in the stomach of the cock was found a called Lappilus Alectorius, from the Greek name of bird, the virtue of which was to give strength and courage, and which is said to have inspired the gigantic might of Milo of Crotona. Originally a native of India, the cock arrived in Europe in early times, via Persia, where we find him alluded to in the Zoroastrian books as the beadle of Sraosa, the sun, and affrighter of demons. Among the Arabs, it is said that he crows when he becomes aware of the presence of jinns. The Jews received their conception of the coch as a scarer of evil spirits from the Persians, as did the Armenians, who say that he greets with his clarion callthe guardian angels. who descend to earth with that day, and that he gives the key-note to the angelic choirs of heaven to commence their daily round of song. In India, too, and among the Pagan Slavs, he was supposed to scare away demons from dwelling places, and was often the first living creature introduced into a newly-built house. The Jews, however, believe that it is possible for the cock to become the victim of demons, and they say that if he upsets a dish he should be killed. The cock is often used directly in magical practice. Thus, in Scotland, he is buried under the patients' bed in cases of epilepsy. The Germans believed that if a sorcerer throws a black cock into the air, thunder and lightning will follow, and among the Chams of Cambodia, a woman who wishes to become a sorceress sacrifices a live cock on a termite's nest, cutting the bird in two from the head to the tail, and placing it on an altar, in front of which she dances and sings, until the two halves of the bird come together again, and it comes to life and crows. His name was often pronounced by the Greeks as a cure for the diseases of animals, and it was said by the Romans that locked doors could be opened with his tail feathers. The bird was often pictured on amulets in early times, and figured as the symbol of Abraxas, the principal deity of a Gnostic sect.
The cock is often regarded as the guide of souls to the underworld, and in this respect was associated by the Greeks with Persephone and Hermes, and the Slavs of pagan times often sacrificed cocks to the dead, and to the household serpents in which they believed their ancestors to be reincarnated. Conversely, the coch was sometimes pictured as having an infernal connection, especially if his colour be black. Indeed he is often employed in black magic, perhaps the earliest instance of this being in the Atharia Veda. A black cock is offered up to propitiate the Devil in Hungary, and a black hen was used for the same purpose in Germany. The Greek syrens, the Shedim of the Talmud, and the Izpuzteque, whom the dead Aztec encounters on the road to Mictlan, the Place of the Dead, all have coach's feet. There is a widespread folk-belief that once in seven years the cock lays a little egg. In Germany it is necessary to throw this over the roof, or tempests will wreck the homestead, but should the egg be hatched, it will produce a cockatrice or basilisk. In Lithuania they put the cock's egg in a pot, and place it in the oven. From this egg is hatched a Kauks, a bird with a tail like that of a golden pheasant, which, if properly tended, will bring its owner great good luck. Gross mentions in a chronicle of Bale, in Switzerland, that in the month of August, 1474, a cock of that town was accused and convicted of laying an egg, and was condemned to death. He was publicly burned along with his egg, at a place called Kablenberg, in sight of a great multitude of people.
The cock was also regarded as having a connection with light and with the sun, probably because of the redness of his comb, and the fiery sheen of his plumage, or perhaps because he heralds the day. It is the cock who daily wakens the heroes in the Scandinavian Asgard.
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