Humʹa (The)

A fabulous Oriental bird which never alights, but is always on the wing. It is said that every head which it overshadows will wear a crown (Richardson). The spléndid little bird suspended over the throne of Tippoo Saib at Seringapatam represented this poetical fancy.

In the first chapter of the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table a certain popular lecturer is made to describe himself. in allusion to his many wanderings, to this bird: “Yes, I am like the Huma, the bird that never lights; being always in the cars, as the Huma is always on the wing.”

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.