Saturday, September 10, 2011

Love Owls!!

Owls are one of the oldest species of vertebrate animal in existence, fossils have been found dating back 60 million years, showing the bird to have changed very little in that time.
Throughout the history of mankind, the owl has featured significantly in mythology & folklore. Owls are one of the few birds that have been found in prehistoric cave paintings. Owls have been both revered & feared throughout many civilizations from ancient to more recent times
The Romans saw owls as omens of impending disaster. Hearing the hoot of an owl indicated an imminent death, it is thought that the death of many famous Romans was predicted by the hoot of an owl, including Julius Caesar, Augustus & Agrippa.
Some people believed that owls were particularly bad to children, in Malaya it was believed that owls ate new-born babies, the Swahili believed that owls brought sickness to children, in Arabia it was believed that owls were evil spirits that carried children off in the night.
Some people believed that owls had magic powers, in Arabia it was thought that each female Owl laid two eggs - one with the power to make hair fall out, the other with the power to restore it. In Algeria, it was believed that if the right eye of an Eagle Owl was placed in the hand of a sleeping woman, that she would tell everything you wanted to know (now that is stretching the imagination too far).
I think Owls are beautiful creatures, and love to collect anything to do with them.
These are a few of my collections...



1 comment: