{"id":11119,"date":"2018-07-30T04:41:42","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T11:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/?p=11119"},"modified":"2018-07-29T16:58:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-29T23:58:23","slug":"the-maw-of-a-kite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/30\/the-maw-of-a-kite\/","title":{"rendered":"The Maw of a Kite"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"red kite\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/rickwright\/17332462222\/in\/photolist-VDnuaJ-VDnu7Y-WEtc9m-sdG5dt-spBpay-sv7ybk-ryktmX-sv7mgt-suY2aj-syi78Z-ee5XA4-ee5XyD-ee5XwX-ee5Xwx-eebDBJ-eebHhC-dMcDYt-cznve3-cznv6y-cznuJE-cznvbd-cznv8J-cznv3U-cqqFQE-bEzcxo-bEzcA7-asEg3N-asAWJP-asDzEJ-asBC9v-asDzSw-asAWQT-afZhiT-ag3kPd-98eM42-98eLWM-8DXy2i-8E1Fxh-8E1mDo-8E1my5-86aqiY-867dnc-867c82-867gFn-867cXg-86ayRE-867cGv-867fxx-867cuk-867ciR\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7678\/17332462222_271977d42f.jpg\" alt=\"red kite\" width=\"500\" height=\"185\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The dashing and dramatic red kite was famous in the ancient and medieval world for its boldness: snatching the caps off people&#8217;s heads and, no doubt, pestering them for French fries in proto-parking lots.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"red kite\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/rickwright\/17394693201\/in\/photolist-sv7mgt-suY2aj-syi78Z-ee5XA4-ee5XyD-ee5XwX-ee5Xwx-eebDBJ-eebHhC-dMcDYt-cznve3-cznv6y-cznuJE-cznvbd-cznv8J-cznv3U-cqqFQE-bEzcxo-bEzcA7-asEg3N-asAWJP-asDzEJ-asBC9v-asDzSw-asAWQT-afZhiT-ag3kPd-98eM42-98eLWM-8DXy2i-8E1Fxh-8E1mDo-8E1my5-86aqiY-867dnc-867c82-867gFn-867cXg-86ayRE-867cGv-867fxx-867cuk-867ciR-867bWa-867haF-86apC1-86apoE-86arVJ-867hov-867gqp\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8863\/17394693201_56dc3d5e47.jpg\" alt=\"red kite\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>At times, that audacity served the cause of justice, as Gregory of Tours tells us in his sixth-century\u00a0<em>Glories of the Saints Confessor<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A wine merchant in Lyon decided to inflate his profits by mixing his wares with water. He succeeded to no small extent, as he was selling water for wine. Once a boatman came down the Sa\u00f4ne to market, his purse full of coins. To pay for a purchase, he took a coin out of the purse, which was made of unscraped leather. A kite flying overhead saw the purse and because it was still covered in hair, mistook it for a prey animal and flew down and grabbed it. The kite carried it high into the sky, but when it found that it would have no food from it &#8212; for kites eat meat, not air &#8212; it dropped its prey, which disappeared into the river where it could not be seen. The cheating wine merchant found this instructive, and acknowledging his guilt said tearfully, &#8220;I have sinned and now suffer for it; I accumulated wealth from water, but I see now that all wealth falls into the water and disappears.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a title=\"red kite\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/rickwright\/17430741391\/in\/photolist-spBpay-sdG5dt-sv7ybk-ryktmX-syi78Z-suY2aj-sv7mgt\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7729\/17430741391_ce7b9a509e.jpg\" alt=\"red kite\" width=\"500\" height=\"283\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The kite went away hungry, the sailor impoverished &#8212; but the merchant was saved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The dashing and dramatic red kite was famous in the ancient and medieval world for its boldness: snatching the caps off people&#8217;s heads and, no doubt, pestering them for French fries in proto-parking lots. At times, that audacity served the cause of justice, as Gregory of Tours tells us in his sixth-century\u00a0Glories of the Saints &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/30\/the-maw-of-a-kite\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Maw of a Kite&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11119"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11120,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11119\/revisions\/11120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}