. The bird . not exist without the persistent toil of the ibis, thestork, the crow, and the vulture. Hence arises an universal sympathy for the animal, an instinctivetenderness for all life, which, more than anything else, makes the PURIFICATION. 147 itliarm of the East. The West has its peculiar splendours—in sun andclimate America is not less dazzling ; but the moral attraction of Asialies in the sentiment of unity which you feel in a world where manis not divorced from nature ; where the primitive alliance remainsunbroken ; where the animals are ignorant that they have cause todread the hum
. The bird . not exist without the persistent toil of the ibis, thestork, the crow, and the vulture. Hence arises an universal sympathy for the animal, an instinctivetenderness for all life, which, more than anything else, makes the PURIFICATION. 147 itliarm of the East. The West has its peculiar splendours—in sun andclimate America is not less dazzling ; but the moral attraction of Asialies in the sentiment of unity which you feel in a world where manis not divorced from nature ; where the primitive alliance remainsunbroken ; where the animals are ignorant that they have cause todread the human species. Laugh at it if you will; but there is agentle pleasure in observing this confidence—in seeing the birds comeat the Brahmins call to eat from his very hand—in watching the the pagoda-roofs sleeping in domestic peace, playing with or suck-ling their little ones in as much security as in the bosom of theirnative forests. At Cairo, remarks a traveller, the turtle-doves know so well ^_SL^. they are under the jirotection of the public, that they live in themidst of the very clamour of the city. Every day I see them cooing U8 PUKIFICATION. on my window-shutters, in a veiy narrow street, at the entrance of anoisy bazaar, and at the busiest moment of the year, a little beforethe Ramadan, when the ceremonies of marriage fiU the city day andnight with uproar and tumult. The level roofs of the houses, theusual promenade of the prisoners of the harem and their slaves, arein like manner haunted by a crowd of birds. The eagles sleep inconfidence on the balconies of the minarets. Conquerors have never failed to turn into derision this gentleness,this tenderness for animated nature. The Persians, the Romans inEgypt, our Europeans in India, the French in Algeria, have oftenoutraged and stricken these innocent brothers of man, the object of hisancient reverence. A Cambyses slew the sacred cow; a Roman theibis or cat which destroyed unclean reptiles. But what means thecow
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