ster Philomela,
that she lost her temper so far as to chop up her son Itylus, and present
him to his papa in the form of a ragout.

This, naturally, disgusted Tereus very much, and he "fell upon" the ladies
with a sword, but, just as he was about to stab them to the heart, he was
changed into a Hoopoe, Philomela into a nightingale, Procne into a swallow,
while Itylus became a pheasant.

"Vertitur in volucrem, cui stant in vertice cristae
Prominet immodicum pro longa cuspide rostrum;
Nomen epops volucri."

OVID, _Metam_. lib. vi.

_His crest and patent of nobility_.--Once upon a time, King Solomon, while
making a royal progress, was much, incommoded by the powerful rays of the
sun, and as he had ascendency over the birds, and knew their language, he
called upon the vultures to come and fly betwixt the sun and his nobility,
but the vultures refused. Then the kindly Hoopoes assembled, and flew in
close mass above his head, thus forming a shade under which he proceeded
on his journey in ease and comfort.

At sundown the monarch sent for the King of the Hoopoes, and desired him
to name a reward for the service which he and his followers had rendered.

Then the King of the Hoopoes answered that nothing could be more glorious
than the golden crown of King Solomon; and so Solomon decreed that the
Hoopoes should thenceforward wear golden crowns as a mark of his favour.
But alas! when men found the Hoopoes all adorned with golden crowns, they
pursued and slew them in great multitudes for greed of the precious metal,
until the King of the Hoopoes, in heavy sorrow, hied hastily to King
Solomon, and begged that the gift of the golden crowns might be rescinded,
ere every Hoopoe was slain.

Then Solomon, seeing the misery they had brought upon themselves by their
presumption, transformed their crowns of gold to crowns of feathers, which
no man coveted (for the Eastern ladies didn't wear hats), and the Hoopoes
wear them to this day as a mark of royal favour, but all the feathers fell
off the necks of the disobliging vultures.

_His amazing talent_.--In those dark ages ... the Hoopoe was considered as
prodigiously skilful in defeating the machinations of witches, wizards,
and hobgoblins. The female, in consequence of this art, could preserve her
offspring from these dreaded injuries.

She knew all the plants which defeat fascinations, those which give sight
to the blind; and, more wondrous still, those which open gates o