A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang - Umnet

the king. And for evermore Halcyone and her mate, known as the
Halcyon birds, defied the storm and tempest, and proudly breasted, side
by side, the angriest waves of the raging seas.
To them, too, did the gods grant a boon: that, for seven days before the
shortest day of the year, and for seven days after it, there should reign
over the sea a great calm in which Halcyone, in her floating nest,
should hatch her young. And to those days of calm and sunshine, the
name of the Halcyon Days was given.
And still, as a storm approaches, the white-winged birds come flying
inland with shrill cries of warning to the mariners whose ships they
pass in their flight.
"Ceyx!" they cry. "Remember Ceyx!"
And hastily the fishermen fill their sails, and the smacks drive
homeward to the haven where the blue smoke curls upwards from the
chimneys of their homesteads, and where the red poppies are nodding
sleepily amongst the yellow corn.
* * * * *
Note.--The kingfisher is commonly known as the real "Halcyon" bird.
Of it Socrates says: "The bird is not great, but it has received great
honour from the gods because of its lovingness; for while it is making
its nest, all the world has the happy days which it calls halcyonidæ,
excelling all others in their calmness."
ARISTÆUS THE BEE-KEEPER
"... Every sound is sweet; Myriads of rivers hurrying thro' the lawn,
The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of
innumerable bees."
Tennyson.