(M116) In Norse legend, Ingiald, son of King Aunund, was timid in his youth, but after eating the heart of a wolf he became very bold; Hialto gained strength and courage by eating the heart of a bear and drinking its blood;(429) and when Sigurd killed the dragon Fafnir and tasted his heart’s blood, he acquired thereby a knowledge of the language of birds.(430) The belief that the language of birds or of animals in general can be learned by eating some part of a serpent appears to be ancient and wide-spread. Democritus is reported to have said that serpents were generated from the mixed blood of certain birds, and that therefore whoever ate a serpent would understand the bird language.(431) The Arabs in antiquity were supposed to be able to draw omens from birds because they had gained a knowledge of the bird language by eating either the heart or liver of a serpent; and the people of Paraka in India are said to have learned the language of animals in general by the same means.(432) Saxo Grammaticus relates how Rollo acquired all knowledge, including an understanding of the speech of animals, both wild and tame, by eating of a black serpent.(433) In Norway, Sweden, and Jutland down to the nineteenth century the flesh of a white snake was thought to confer supernatural wisdom on the eater;(434) it is a German and Bohemian superstition that whoever eats serpent’s flesh understands the language of animals.(435) Notions of the same sort, based no doubt on a belief in the extraordinary wisdom or subtlety of the serpent, often meet us in popular tales and traditions.(436)