Saxby - Birds of Omen in Shetland

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REFERENCE LI R RY h sbook s ~ available on loan.

IRDS OF O NIN SHETLAND.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS TO .THE VIKING CLUB LONDONOCTOBER 3, ,892.

BY

JESSIE M E. SAXBY,AUTHOR OF TH VIKING BOYS ETC.

WITH

NOTES ON THE FOLK-LORE THE RAVEN ND THE OWL.

BYW. A CLOUSTON

AUTHOR OF PUPULAR TALES AND FICTIONS FLOW -RS FROM APERSIAl GARDEN, .Tr:.

Qusth the Raven, Nevermore E . A. oeIt was the Owl that shrieked,That falal bellman, that gives the slern st Good Nighl.-/l1ITcbeth.

ot;itJaub

JtDt a ~ u ~nJirhhntIl

PR IVA TEL PR I N TED .18 93.


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CON T N T S

BIRDS OF OMEN IN SHETLAND:

IntroductoryThe CorbieThe KatyogleConclusion

FOLK LoRE OF THE RAVEN AND THE OWL:

I The RavenII The Owl

PAGE6

IS

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BIRDS OMEN IN SHETL NDBY

JESSIE M SAX BY.

AM afraid that you will think that I hal e chosen a very gruesomesubject to talk about; but perhaps you will see light when I

mention that my purpose is to dwell upon the surroundings of Birdsof Omen as much as upon the feathered folk themselves. Moreover, Ishall confine my remarks to a couple only of the many birds who figurein mythology and superstition as the augurs of Fate. And, becausewe are an association of Northern folk my two Birds of Omen are thepair best known to our beloved fatherland. They are the Corbie andthe Katyogle.

Not only are these well known in the North, they stand first of birdsin all folk-lore. The Corbie (or Raven) is sacred to the All-Father. TheKatyogle (or Owl) is consecrated to the goddess of wisdom. From Odincame the strong hand, which made the sea-kings masters of menwhile the human race shall exist upon earth. From Pallas Athene camethe mighty mind which made the Greeks a living power for all time.Now I hope you will not think the time misspent which we are goingto give to the history of two, such notable and interesting creatures asthe familiars of the greatest of gods and the wisest of goddesses.

I have too much respect for the Corbie and Katyogle to dwell indetail upon their n tur l history I care not for their order, according to the scientist. The genus and species to which they belonginfluence me not one whit. Why-when I know on the authority of aShetland witch, that the Corbie can assume any form he pleases, andthat the Katyogle is the inhabitant of another world in disguise-whyshould I trouble my spirit with assigning to either a place in theDarwinian circle?What does a katyogle who can read the future care for systemswhich are formed upon things seen and proved? What does a corbie,whose ancestor scomed Noah and the flood, care for the rules laid


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6 irds Omen Shedown in class-books? They don t care, and no more do I when thinking of them: their legendary history is that which interests me, andwhich I hope to make interesting to you.

Before entering. further into the details of their st< >ry I may remark.that, in glancing back at the nature-worship of primitive man, it is easyto discover how certain birds and beasts become associated with certainattributes, and, later, with certain persons. As a matter of fact, thevirtues and vices of humanity live in the lower orders of creatures,and are as marked in them as in individuals of our race. Any personinterested in the study of natural science must notice this constantly.We are not much in advance of our nature-worshipping forefathers whenwe talk of cllildren a s little ducks, of amorous couples as turtle-doves, of a lawyer as a sly fox, of a treacherous coward as a cur,of a vain person as a peacock.

Indeed, we may frankly own that in many things our forefatherswere wiser than we; they reflected more, and they looked abroadbeyond their own kind more. The proper study of mankind is man,says a famous writer; but I venture to differ from him. is from thecreation beneath us and the creation above us, from physiology andpsychology, that we gather our most valuable lore. . is from the studyof beasts which perish, and the study of things unseen and eternal,that we learn what we are ourselves.

I do not in the least wonder that folk lang syne believed that thebirds of the air could tell the matter, and I think that Sigurd theVolsing understood the language of wood-peekers, chattering abouthimself, just as well as ve knew what a serpent had to whisper in awoman s ear. I do not say this scoffingly. There are more things inheaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy, and I ammore than willing to give credence to a great deal of what we have beentaught to sneer at as superstitions, but which I prefer to call glimpsesof the unknown, distorted, no doubt, but proceeding from some hiddensource of truth all the same.

And now we return to our two royal Birds of Omen, and beginningwith Yar. Corbie, let us dwell first upon his character and hisantecedents.

I trust no native of our Isles, or of Scandinavia, is so left to himselfas to confound a Raven with an ignoble, base-born Crow: let that crowbe as black as the vilest of his kind is painted. The Sassenach, whowalks by things seen, may detect little difference; but the Northman, whohas risked his life in scaling the precipices to take a Raven s nest; theudaller, who ,has seen the eye struck out of the head of his puiraumous baste 0 a riil at wis in linin ; the islanger, who has watchedthe bold reiver flyaway with his awlie fool ; the fisher, who has cursed


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he Cor Jie 7the ominous corp corp that followed him from the land, when hisboat s head was for the haaf: these know that a mere Crow can neverpresume to call himself brother to a Raven.

Even from a naturalist s point of view, the two are quite different incharacter and habits. T he Crow is social, fond of gossiping, and-inquisitive to a degree. The Raven is recluse in his habits, and nevertroubles himself about any fowl outside of his immediate circle, and therequirements of his dinner-table. The Crow is a petty pilferer, dodgingaround back-doors and stealing any trifle he can .find. The Ravenprosecutes the profession of lifting, after the manner of a Rob Roy,or a Viking. The Crow is a shuffling, sneaking, common thief. TheRaven is a dignified and daring brigand.Those who have studied the Raven can well understand how theSea-kings of the North took him for their emblem in preference to allother creatures.

The lordly bird, dwelling aloof in some inaccessible precipice,floating silently on black wings over the heads of more commoncreatures, dropping with stern, implacable ferocity on his prey, calmlycroaking of doom when the sun shines, rejoicing in a storm, hauntingthe footsteps of death, feasting on the dead: well might he be taken asthe symbol and companion of Sea-rovers, whose sable flag was the terrorof nations, whose Raven ensign seldom drooped before the banner of afoe. The Raven ,,:as held sacred by the Vikings. When setting outon marauding expeditions, the Raven was with many ceremonies, letloose, and where he led the Norsemen followed, believing that theirBird of Omen would lead to some scene of triumph.

The device on OQin s shield was a Raven; so was that on theLandeyda of Sigurd. At the prow of each Viking ship, at the mastheads,on the warrior s crest, sat the Raven. Little wonder if the bird hadbecome associated with images of death and despair. When Odin firstappeared in Northland, he was accompanied by two Ravens who couldspeak all manner of tongues, and flew on his behests to the uttermostparts of the earth. When the famous Viking Floki set out on his firstgreat voyage of discovery, he took with him three Ravens, which he hadpreviously consecrated to the gods Odin, Thor, and Balder. Onapproaching Iceland Floki let fly before him the Ravens. Thebird consecrated to Thor flew away back to the Faroe Isles, from.whence the Viking had sailed; the bird consecrated to Odin returnedand rested on the ship; the bird consecrated to Balder flew onward anddiFected the voyager to the land of which he was in search. This Flokiwas one of the first of the Sea-kings who set out for the express purposeof disc011ery rather than plunder To fight and conquer had always beenthe Scandinavians first object, but Floki seems to have been possessed


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8 irds men hellanaof a passion for more peaceful and laudable adventure. He ~boundless faith in the Raven, and was, so fortunate in all his voyages,through following his noted birds, that Rafn, or Hrafn, was addedto his name; and he is spoken of in the Saga as Floki Rafna.On the eve of battle the Ravens were supposed to gather from afar,and foretell the results of the impending conflict, by hovering over thosewho would be vanquished. But the Bird of Omen was not the onlycreature who came to the field of fight, with the instinctive knowledgethat the clashing o f arms was the beginning of war:

Worms of the earth and fGwls of the air,Beasts of the forest all gathering there;All regarding man as their prey,All rejoicing in his decay.

These must be gainers no matter which side lost or won. The war-song of Harold Harfager begins with a grand description of the partwhich nature, n i ~ t and inanimate, takes in the fierce meeting ofheroes: The sun is rising dimly red,The wind is wailing low and dread,From his cliff the eagle sallies,Leaves the wolf his darksome valleys,In the mist the ravens hover,Peep the wild dogs from the cover,Screaming, croaking, baying, yelling,Each in his wild accents telling- Soon we feast on dead and dying,Fairhaired Harold s flag is flying.

One of the most beautiful legends of the Raven I know is that of theyoung Sea-king Ingulf, who sailed away to win renown, carrying withhim his father s blessing and the family Raven, who had been thecompanion of his ancestors for more than a century. For long monthsold Torsting looked for his only son s dragon to return, ,but the shipcame not. Months, ay years, went by, and then one day the Ravenalighted by the threshold. He was recognised and welcomed, andeager eyes turned to the sea expecting to behold Ingulf s dragon at last.There was no vessel in the offing, and old Torsting, on whose wristthe Raven had perched, discovered an iron ring upon the bird s leg.That Ingulf was a prisoner he never doubted, for that fatal badge otcaptivity told the story: and in grief and wrath the father prepared togo forth to search for his son, and free him from his chains or die inthe attempt. The Raven he doubted not would guide to the placewhere Ingulf languished but a week before the day of the intendeddeparture the Raven disappeared. The omen was dark, but oldTorsting still determined on embarking, and when the appointed time


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Tlte orbic 9

arrived he sought the shore where his ship lay ready. As he stood amoment to bid farewell to weeping wife and daughters, the Raven wasseen swiftly flying over the sea towards his master. Without sound, asdirect as a bullet, the bird shot downwards and dropped dead atTorsting's feet. As the Sea-king raised the lifeless Raven he found,tangled in its beak, a long lock of golden hair with a piece of gory scalpand a well-known silver fillet attached to it. The hair of Ingulf Myson no longerlives said the old man. Yet will I go in search of him;I will follow Ingulf to Valhalla: let my pyre be lit in yonder ship.Bearing the dead Raven on his folded arms Torsting stepped aboard to

Perish on the wave,Like the old Vikinger brave,And in high Valhalla's halls,Hold' eternal festivals;And drink the blood-red draughtNone but heroes ever quaffed,With Odin and the spirits of the free.In the fire, or in the wreck;He will die upon the deck,And be buried like a' monarch of the sea.

After such a tragedy as that, I scarcely like to enlarge upon adifferent kind of story of a Raven, which, however might have endedin a tragedy too:

A certain Shetland witch was in the habit of changing persons witha Corbie, which she kept as a familiar. e would sit harmless in thechimney corner, as a decent auld wife in mutch and slug, whileshe roamed the skies on evil errands, in the ominous garb of a Raven.The witch had a daughter who was graduating in her mother's profession,and the daughter one day tried to personate the Raven too. By ill-luckshe forgot the magic words necessary for bringing her back to humanshape; and she must have remained a corbie for the rest of her days,if her witch-mother had not received intimation of the state of affairs,from the real Raven, disporting himself as a comely lass, but desirous ofrecovering his own person ere long. By some mighty effort of witchccraft, the proper transformation was effected, but with a little drawback:the girl did not recover the use of her human tongue, but croaked likea Raven to the end of her days; and that was the origin of the burr inspeech which we call corbieing. Any person who has this particularkind of articulation is believed to have witch-blood in him. No doubtyou have heard and believe, that, when Ravens are seen conflicting inthe air and calling occasionally corp corp corp somebody isgoing to die. A sceptic may say that a Corbie is safe to predict thatthere will-be a corpse knocking around, for there genc:rally is. But thatis not a fair inference; and so you will find, if you chance to be the


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irds o Omen n Shetlandperson who sees and hears the Raven so prophesying. For the corpto which he alludes }s one in which you, the listener, are personallyinterested.

I often think that Yarl Corbie wishes us to accept him in the wordsof one of his kind, who spoke from a basket on the back of BarnabyRudge. I'm a devil I'm a devil loudly proclaimed that Raven;and as a fallen angel is a grander creature than a mere earth-born fowl Ithink, I rather prefer to accept the Raven on his own statement. Hecertainly looks Satanic, and we know him to be in league with powersof darkness. He commands our respect and awes us in spite of our-

. selves. When I see a Raven I want to remember some guid wirdthat will sain me, and I would. advise you all to take the sameprecaution.

Ravens are not in the habit of flocking, like crows and otherignoble birds. They only gather in crowds when death has spread thebanquet for the Raven. You will not find more than one or two pairsfrequenting a district ; but some poor beast dies, the Corbies soonappear in numbers around 'the body. Where they come from, and howthey know s s of the feast spread for them, is a mystery, unless, asI have already said, they are in league with Satanic powers.Although Ravens are not uncommon in our Islands, I daresay onewould be over the mark in saying that a hundred couples have residencein our cliffs, yet on one occasion some eight hundred were found collected to gorge upon flinched whales at Uyasound. Now, wheredid all those corbies come from? And where do all the Corbies comefrom whenever carrion is around? has been observed that Ravensdo far more harm on Sunday than on any other day of the week; andan old man told me the reason w s that the odious craters want tashaw their disrespect for Gude, like the Deil's ain bairns 'at they are.

A more commonplace explanation is that on Sunday there are fewpeople out of doors in Shetland all is quiet, and the Raven, takingadvantage of the Sabbath silence and solitude, boldly carries on his lifting with impunity. is a common belief that Ravens are attractedto a house where a corpse is lying, and I see nothing unreasonable in thebelief, when we know that Ravens flock mysteriously to some spotwhere carrion lies; a spot where never more than two or three havebeen seen together. They are not fetched by their brothers. Theycome from afar, led by some subtle sense beyond the senses of mereman to comprehend.

The Raven attaches himself to a locality and clings to that spot withextreme tenacity. Year after year he resumes his nest on the samecliff and will not be driven from it. There he dwells winter andsummer, amid the lofty precipices overhanging the sea. The night


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Tlte Katyo f le. winds wail and the billows foam around. The snows drift over therocks, and salt waters fling their spray upon his nest, but, unmoved andimmutable, the Raven remains king of the cliff while generations o f ~ m e nare born and perish.

BUT perhaps I have dwelt long enough upon the Bird of Odin, sowill now turn to the Bird of Pallas the bird of profound meditation and prophesy. The Serpent, which was also one of PallasAthene s familiars, represents her wisdom and the Owl her rtecliveand prophetic attributes. I do not know what kind of owl it was thatthe goddess chose. It may have been the sad Aziola, which Shelleythought was some tedious woman, until he learned to love itsmelancholy tones. It was in Italy that he found this owl, and possiblythe Aziola is the Owl of Greek mythology. But as I have not, likeShelley, studied that creature in its native haunts, ~ as history gives usno details regarding the Bird of Pallas, I will speak of the king of itskind with whom I am familiar; that is the Snowy Owl, the Katyogle ofthe North. There is something eerie and awesome in the very wordKatyogle. I have never got over my early impressions regarding thecreature, and these were of a most ghostly nature, being associated withwinter, darkness, the death of a neighbour, and whispers of the Katyoglebeing sent as a warning, if folk wad but look and understand thesigns that come frae Abune. I well remember the occasion when Ifirst beheld a real live Katyogle. One was crippled, captured, andbrought to my father, and we were desired to go and look at this ravis it had been before explained to me that a Katyogle is a SnowyOwl, familarity with pictures of its congeners might have destroyed myillusions regarding the creature; but ,,,hen I heard its English. name Ialso saw its living self, and that confirmed my childish belief in it supernatural character. A large, lordly bird, of snowy plumage, with solemnface, bespeaking a mind rapt in contemplation of nature s mysteries, yetalive to the degradation of captivity. His great, golden eyes lookedboldly into ours, and their gaze, so concentrated, so wary so indignant,so savage, had a magnetic force in it, and cast a spell on me. TheKatyogle did not move his burly person when the curious observer wentround to inspect him. He merely turned his head and followed withthat unwinking stare of mingled feelings.

You can scarcely imagine the peculiar, not ludicrous, but fearsome,effect produced by the solemn, over-wise face looking straight at youover the creature s back. The neck had no appearance of being twistedfrom a more comfortable position. He seemed to find it as easy towear his head one way as another. When we approached very near, hehissed and looked malignant enough to deter any meddlesome person


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12 rds Shetlandfrom laying hands on him. Being a philosop4er, the Katyogle reconciles himself to the uses of adversity. He grows comparatively tamein captivity, he learns. to eat what is placed before him, to recognisewith a measure of gentleness those who treat him with consideration,but he never becomes, like the Raven, a willing captive. Like theRaven, he is supposed to live to a great age. When young, the bird is.speckled all over with brown, black, grey, or russet, but year by year ashe grows older he becomes more white, until at last he stands in hissnow-coat, pure as the shroud of his Arctic birthplace.

the Katyogle does live, as affirmed, for more than a century, wecannot wonder at the accumulation of wisdom which pervades thecountenances of mature males. t is believed that, like all higherorders of beings, the Katyogle takes a mate for better, for worse, tilldeath do them part ; and, like all Northern folk, he has the love ofHome very strongly developed. When a Katyogle has chosen a certainlocality for his abode, he will cling to it in preference to any other, andwill return to his favourite spot, even when scared from it betimes bythe bloodthirsty Briton, who is never so happy as when hunting a livingthing to death.

A pair of Katyogles haunted Crushafiel for years, although assuredthat the Heogues had many advantages. There may have been a betterreason than love of a certain place which made the couple continue toreside in the hill of Crushafiel. t may be that there is an understanding among Katyogles regarding rights of property. They are a reservedand stately race. They prefer a recluse life. Probably their code ofhonour leaves a certain amount of ground to be hunted over by certainindividuals, and does not permit- others of the species to encroachthereon. This may explain why more than one or two birds seldomhaunt the same district.

Crushafiel is undulating and covered in some parts with heather.Flowers of Alpine beauty and brightness abound; there are manyscattered boulders and sheltered nooks, but the hill is flat at itshighest level and commands an extensive view There the goldenplover and sandy 100 delight to nest, and you may hear their wistfulpiping any day or night that you may choose to wander over theshaggy hill; there the mountain linnet loves to sport; there the merrylittle wheatear practises its gift of mimicry; there the pretty littlefield mouse weaves its dainty cradle; there the fairy rings are set.It has been supposed by some that those circles mark a place wherethe Law-ting was held, or where honoured men were buried. Othersinsist that the airy rings refer to some system of religion, Druidicalor Scandinavian. Either, or all, suppositions please me The Katyogle lights upon those magic rings, and muses on history, and we


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The afyoglecannot wonder that he looks with aversion on our kind as he reviewswhathas been. But I want you to know some of our dear old fauldsand fiels jour heogues and sayters j and so I will tell you more ofthe Katyogle s haunts.When that couple of snowy owls were romancing by the fairyrings, and feeding their poetic souls upon golden plover, an ancientKatyogle was keeping watch on the Muckle Heogue by the tombsof the mighty dead. Perhaps he was moralizing on the littleness ofour great men. The muckle Heogue is a small steep hill, set on thetop of another hill j and on its crown there is an ancient burying-ground. t its base is a second and later place of sepulture, fromwhence the hill slopes gradually towards Baltasound on the south,and Haroldswick on the north. Of this second burying place thereexists a legend: A battle was fought close by and a mighty Vikingnamed Harold was slain and buried there. The cairns which coveredthe graves have been overthrown, and the tombs are open and emptyof all save ferns and lichens. They are built of large stones, aremuch shorter than a man, and deep enough for a person to sit upright.In that position the warriors were left in Glory s bed. Of theburying place on the summit of the Heogue no tradition remains. was accidentally discovered when a bonfire was lit to celebrate ourPrince s marriage with the fair Dane whom the Hialtlanders claimas kinswoman. Some urns were found and preserved, and a fewcharred bones. When the scientist had poked among the stones, andhad rifled the graves to his heart s content, the place was left oncemore to be the Katyogle s haunt. And there he comes with thewinter snows, year by year j silently, spectrely, he alights upon aboulder at the base of the Heogue, and surveys the scene, weird anddesolate in our sight, congenial and inspiring in his e has beenbrought from the charmed Arctic circle on the impulse of a strongnortherly gale, and he has fasted long. The short winter dayhas ended, and in the dusky light we can scarcely distinguish theKatyogle from the surrounding stones and patches of snow. emakes himself small and long shaped, andlooks all around very keenly.Then he draws himself in close, and full, and ponders over what hashappened since he left Hialtland in the preceding Spring. Presentlyit occurs to him that in all probability some beetles are hiding amongthe mosses at his feet. Softly he drops from the stone and inspects jwhile doing so his golden eyes are made very small. His search isrewarded, but he does not relish beetles very much j so, after sacrificinga few he returns to his vantage ground and his musings. Ere longa flutter of many pinions, and the tinkling twitter of, birdies, rousehim to keen interest in practical things. Then the broad, white wings


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ir s men in Shetlandof the Katyogle expand; the glorious eyes flash like the radiant locksof Balder; he utters a fearful screech; and, taking a swift, slanting,course, drops upon the flock, which scatters in terror. A bird iscaught, and in brief time the Katyogle makes complete end of it;but before that is done, the snafool have flown to the shelter of afarmyard.

The noise made by the Katyogle has scared a juvenile rabbit ofsmall sense, that had been amusing itself with darting out and inamong the gravestones. It had never seen or heard a snowy owl inits life, and in uttermost terror it scampers over the hill to reach itsburrow. Alas it is seen and dropped upon by the enemy. Shortshrift has the kyning, and when its remains have been conveyedto their living tomb, Katyogle settles himself once more by Harold'sgrave, and continues there for hours, motionless as if he were carvedin stone. The winds moan drearily around; the snow-flakes driftover the hill: these do not affect him. He has seen generations ofmen return to the dust. He has eaten a substantial meal. Thesethings are enough for him to consider. Surely he composes a sagaon the spot I-The miles of rugged hill and moor which stretch be-tween Southavoe and Uyasound are a favourite resort of the Katyogles;and small wonder That is the nesting-ground oflapwing, snipe, goldenplover, and various tiny birds. Their nursery duties are, of course,ended before the Katyogles arrive from Iceland and Lapland, butsome species flock during the winter months, and are always to befound on these hills.

you linger by the burn Watley in the gloaming you will hearthe snipe drumming over the marshes not far away. You willhear the golden plover sadly appealing to each other from hill tohiil. A heron, fishing in the loch, and disturbed, will startle you byuttering his hideous scream as he rises in the air and seeks anotherlocality. Presently a dunlin, or sandy-loo, will whistle softly as heruns over the shingled margins of the burn, and then skims away,seeking the sea-shore. The plaintive piping of whaups the hysterical cries of lapwings; the varied interjections of gulls; come to youalso from passing birds. And be sure the chorus is not infrequentlyaugmented by the. profound remarks of a hoodie crow out on theprowl. t may be that a grim Raven's sepulchral corp corp corp Iis added as he sails overhead, with his sinister glance upon you.He is probably route for Helyawater, by whose sheltering knoweshe expects to find a feeble lamb, or a worn-out pony. you followthe burn to its source, you will probably find his Ravenship by thehaunted vatn. He will have alighted on the cairn which rises froma tiny islet in the loch. He may be descended from the identical


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T le K atyogleRaven that belonged to a Viking and used to dwell on that holm-tradition says. t is said that the Yarl was buried there and by hisgrave dwelt the Raven.

One wild Yiile night a lad dared the spells of evil and tried toreach the cairn. He was drowned in Helyawater and the Ravenremained master of the situation. you approach very cautiouslyyou may catch a glimpse of the Katyogle near the vatn. He hasbeen slumbering all day in that sequestered spot among the stonesfrom some of which he is scarcely distinguishable for they are whitestreaked with grey lichen. Helyawater lies apart from all tracks and theHialtlander remarks that thankfully when he has occasion to crossthose hills after dusk.Even by daylight few people care to visit the lonely vatn. Butthe birds love it though many a defenceless one falls victim thereto the falcon crow and owl I do not think the aristocratic Katyoglecares to prosecute his nocturnal art under the observation of a criticalCorbie therefore he will silently wing his way to some brae wherehe can overlook a hamlet. He knows that plenty of mice may bein the yards or among the stubble that skylarks and mountain linnetsare cowering among the grasses and corn-stacks. In one cottage liesa dying man and all is quiet around that dwelling ~ no one ventures to leave it unless on some most imperative duty.

Naturally the Katyogle prefers the quiet kail-yard of that houseto others where merry folk and busy folk are making noise out andin. The Katyogle s character is antagonistic to fuss. Solitude is hisparadise. ecan now understand how he takes to the neighbourhood of sick and dying people. Katyogles will frequently be foundon the Isles of Hoonie and Balta which are riddled with rabbitburrows and whose shores swarm with little birds. These islands arethe favourite haunts of the Raven also. eshould not grudge ourBirds of Omen their haunts and their share of game. After all issaid their methods of sport and their weapons are God-given. Whenthey adopt breech-loaders and train ferrets to do their hunting willbe time enough to think of putting restraints on them.

The Corbie seldom attacks living creatures unless they are weakand unprotected. The Katyogle leaves Hialtland ere its featheredfolk begin to wed doubtless he has engagements of his own of thesame sort in the Arctic regions during the spring and summer anddoes not return to our Isles till the nestlings are reared andflown I do not mean to say that Corbie and Katyogle would passan egg or a half-fledged birdie if such came their way; but as amatter of fact brooding parents have not much to fear from our


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irds Omen n ShetlandBirds of Omen. The one is far away when their households are upontheir minds, the other-prefers dead meat For sake of associationsrevered and cherished, I pray you, spare the Corbie and Katyogle tohaunt the hills and rocks, and add the poetry of superstitious legendto the wild beauty of our Isles. .

I hope I have not exhausted your patience. I have not provedmyself-as Shelley feared the owlet would-a tedious woman, perhapsyou will allow me to finish with a poem which describes the Corbieand Katyogle, exercising their functions as Birds of Omen, premisingwith this little bit of Scottish folk-lore:

a raven flies across the fisher's path, when hound for the sea, his v o y ~ willbe unlucky; and if the bird appears, or croaks, wheR you are looking out for the boats,evil will happen. When a snowy owl takes (haunts) the neighbourhood of a home, .some one in it will die.

1 LM ee-bovering without motion of the wingl 2 Ya tn-a small fresh water Iaka. 3 Ullkill 8trauger 4 Ampweight Oil the spirit foreboding evil. Sorrow iuull\las I bove g r ~ t deal.

N his mighty wing of ebon,Comes the Bird of Night :'Not upon the' misty hill topDoes he stay his flight;Spurning valley, rock, and ocean,All before him spread,Slowly on his dusky pinion,Sails he overhead.Where the fisher's home is freshenedBy the passing waves, .Hoarsely bodes the warning Raven.As he lower laves.'Quickly from her lonely dwellingComes the gentle wife,Looks she out where ocean carriesAll she loves in life.There are shadows on the mountain,There are ripples on the fountain,And a rainbow spans the lea;Clouds across the azure heavenBy a waking wind are driven:There is sorrow on the sea.Then the spectre Bird of Omen,Dark as midnight's gloom,Hovers, uttering weird-like warningOf a coming doom.Ah she knows the dismal croaker,And her cheek grows pale;Wistful glances sends she seawardsSearching for s sail.Downward roll the awful thunders,Answering billows' rave,Swiftly close the 'angry watersO'er the fisher's grave.Solemnly departs the Raven,

And the mourners dwell\Vhere he boded evil tidings,Where his shadow fell,O'er the vatn 2 in the valle'vGhostly wreaths of vapour' rallyTo enshroud the smiling lea.In a mist each rocky giant,Frowning, holds his head, defiantOf the sorrow from the sea.

On a snowy wing of silence,From the distant hill,Gleaming, like a white-robed spirit,In the evening still,Comes the lowly Owlet, bearingDeath to broken hearts;And he haunts the house whence sorrowNever more departs.Round the cot, on noiseless pinion,Flits the unkin 3 bird;And the dying wife has seen it,And her soul is stirred.Welcome, says she, well I ken thee,Phantom bird of snow ;Thou hast come to call my spirit,And I gladly go.Over hill and rock and river,Restless shapes of dtrkness quiver,And upon the quiet leaLies an amp4 of chill foreboding,Troqbled bosoms overloadingWith the sorrow of the sea.Silently, as shadow fallingFrom a sombre cloud,Goes the Owlet back to Norland,Wrapped in downy shroud;And upon the Arctic mountain,Where the bleak winds moan,Full of melancholy dreamings,Broods he all alone.Troubled breakers dash tumultuousO'er the fisher's breast;On the grave where sleeps his widowPale flowers meekly rest.And the Raven bodes of evil,

As he did of yore;But a silence binds the homesteadBy the wavewashed shore.Death and darkness cast their mantle,Dtil an ' whan abOne a hantle, 5And their shade lies on the lea:Birds of Omen from them borrowThe insignia of sorrow-The sad secret of the sea


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OLKLOR

R VENOF

ND THE OWLBy W. A CLOUSTON.

I TH E ANY and interesting are thesuperstitions which have beencurrent, time out of mind, amongalmost all peoples, regarding theRaven, whose appearance and harshcry are universally considered asforeboding misfortune. We read inthe Old Testament that the Ravenwas twice s ingled out from all otherbirds as being endowed with mysterious tntelligence-when Noah senta raven forth from the Ark, toascertain whether the waters hadabated, and when ravens weredivinelv commissioned to feed theprophet Elijah, while he dwelt bythe brook Cherith, that is beforeJordan.

According to the Koran, after Cainhad slain his brother, Adam was perplexed how to dispose of the bodywhen it was become offensive, tillAllah sent a raven, which killedanother raven in his presence, andthen dug a pit with his beak andclaws, and buried him therein,thus showing our great progenitorwhat he must also do.The Rabbis say that when Noahsent forth the raven, the bini thusremonstrated: From all cattle,beasts, and fowls, thou sendest nonebut me. Noah retorted: Whatneed has the world for thee? Thouart good neither for food nor sat:rilice. But God commanded Noah. to receive the raven, as the worldshould one day be in need of him. When? asked Noah. The allon

V EN.cution from on high was: Whenthe waters are dried up from off thisearth, there shall in a time to comearise a certain righteous man, andthen shall make use of the raven.This, says Rabbi Eliezer, explainswhat is written of the prophet Elijah,when he dwelt by the brook Cherith,that the ravens brought himbread and flesh every morningI Kings xvii, 6). Yet the raven,according to Jewish law, is uncleanDeut. xiv, 14Originally the raven was white,the Hebrew doctors inform us, andwas changed to a deep black as apunishment for its deceitful conduct:

a legend which they may have borrowed from Ovid s etamorphosesB. ii, Fab. 9, 10, where it is relatedthat Apollo having been told by araven, which he employed as amessenger, of the misconduct ofCoronis, the god in his sudden wrathslew her with an arrow, and immediately repented of his rash action ;and as a warning to all tale-tellersto cite old Gower, who has the storyin his lljessio mantis B. Upon the hridd he tok this wreche :1That there he was snow-whyt to fore.Evere afterward colhlak thereforeHe was transformed. as it scheweth.And many a man yet him heschreweth.And c1epen2 him unto this dayA Raven. be whom yet man maiTake evidence whan he criethThat some mishap it dgnifieth.

ReYenge a lI


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Foll.:Lon of the Raven and the Owl. This legend is reproduced-mutaHs mutandis - in the rabianNights, with a parrot, and in allEuropean versions of the Seven

Wise Masters, with a magpie, inplace of the raven. lThe Tyrolese have a very differentstory to account for the ?able hue ofthe raven. In the olden t ime ravenswere of beautiful appearance, withplumage as white as snow, whichthey kept clean by constant washingin a certain stream. To this streamcame one day the Holy Child, desiring to drink, but the ravensprevented him by splashing the waterabout and befouling it ; whereuponhe said: Ungrateful birds Proudyou may be of your beauty, but yourfeathers, now so snowy white, shallbecome black, and so remain untilthe Day of Judgment.The expression raven blacknesshas become synonymous with thedeepest hue of black. Solomon saysthat the locks of the beloved arecurly, and black as a raven (Cant.v, II). Milton, in his masque ofComus, says that sweet strains ofmusic smoothed the raven down ofDarkness till it smiled. 2 And in themost pathetic of all the countlesspathetic Scotch songs, the faithful,loving, old wife reminds her spouse-

John Anderson, my jo, John,When we were first acquaint,Your l eeks were like the raven,Your bonny brow was brent.

In BarthololntE//s eProprietatz busRerum, a kind of encyclopredia,compiled in Latin by an Englishmonk, about the middle of the 13thcentury, and translated into Englishin 1397, it is said: The ral'en beholdeth the mouths of her birds whenthey yawn. But she giveth them nomeat ere she know and see thelikeness of her own blackness, and1 In NO.4 of Callaway's Zulu N seryTales, a raven betrays a false hr ide.2 Byron is reported, in Captain Medwin'sConversations, to have tried to be-little thisfine passage by comparing it to .. strokinga black cat, to elicit electric sparks. Onemight with as much propriety say thatByron s expression the music her face(in Tlte Bride Abydos) meant that thelady had a singing face on ly te filched

t u ~ t frol\1 Richard Lovelace.

of her own colour and feathers. Andwhen they begin to wax black, thenafterward she feedeth them with al lher might and strength. It is saidthat ravens' birds are fed with dewof heaven all the time they have noblack feathers by benefit of age.Among fowls, adds the learnedBartholomew, only the raven hathfottr and sixty changing-s voice(Lib. xviii, c. 10.) This notion of the raven ~ i n g atfirst regardless of her young is alluded to in Psalm cxlvii, 9 : H egiveth to the beast his food, and tothe young ravens when they cry ;also in the Book of Job (xxxviii, 4) :Who provideth for the raven hisfood? When his young ones cryunto God, they wander for lack ofmeat. And again it is employed inthe gospel of S. Luke, xii, 24, as anexample of God's providence: Consider the ravens., for they neither sownor reap; which nei ther have storehouse nor barn; and Cod feedeththem: how much more are ye betterthan the fowls? The faithful oldservitor Adam, in Shakspeare's playof s You Like (ii, 3), also alludesto the same widespread belief:

He th at doth the ravens feed. Be comfort to my age.Burns, also, in his Collar s SaturdayNight, represents the parent pairas praying-That He, who stills the raven 's c lam' rousnest,And decks the lily fair in . flowery pride,Would, in the way His wisdom sees the bestFor them and for their l it tle ones provide.A terrible punishment is threatenedto be inflicted by this carrion lovingbird on disobedient children in theProverbs ascribed to Solomon (xxx,17): The eye that mocketh at hisfather, and despiseth to obey hismother,.the ravens of the valley shall

pick it out, and the young eaglesshall eat it And in several passagesof the Old Testament ruined citiesare described as the haunts of ravensand owls.Porphyry tells us that the Magianscalled the priests of Mithras, thesun-god, ravens: on the mantle ofMithras a raven was perched. Afterthe mysteriou::; disappearance ofAristeas, the necromancer, it ~


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rite ~ a v e theiieved that he retlirned to theearth in the form of a raven.

In the Norse mythology Odin stwo ravens, Hugin and Munin (Mindand Memory), after roaming over theworld, returned and perched on hisshoulders, and gave him a fuU account ofall they had seen and heard;hence one of the numerous names ofOdin was Hrafnagud, the Ravengod. In the Saf{as we read thatwhen Sigurd told his mother that heand his foUowers were about toencounter in battle an enemy thatoutnumbered them by seven to one,she said, would have raised theein my wool chest, if I had beencertain that thou wouldst live forever. Better is it to die than to livein shame. Take this merki i.e.standard), which I have made withmy best skill, and which I believewill be victorious for those beforewhom it is carried, but fatal to himwho carries it. This standard wasin the shape of a raven, and whenthe wind blew on it, it seemed as ifthe raven_spread his wings. SigurdJ arl went against Finnleik Jarl atSkidamyri, and both arrayed theirmen. When the fight began, theScots slew the standard-bearer ofSigurd Jarl j he appointed anotherto carry it, but after a while he, too,feU j three standard-bearers wereslain, but Sigurd Jarl was victorious.The most famous raven-standardwas called Landeyda, or Landravager. t was said to have beenwov and embroidered in one noontide, by the daughter of RegnerLodbrok, the son of Sigurd-thatdauntless warrior who chanted hisdeath-song while perishing in ahorrible pit, fiUed with deadlyserpents. I f the the Danish armswere destined to defeat, the ravenhung his head and drooped his wings;if victory was to attend them, heappeared to be soaring. l

1 In the Heimskringla Earl Hakon,commander of the fleet, is called Warderof the v e s ~ Raven, - Pliny mentionsthat the natives of Taprobane, when blownfar out to sea, were enabled to return toland by steering in the same direction asthe crows flew; aad it is curious to find theRaven was employed for the like purposeby the adventurous Norsemen.

On the c e i e 6 ~ a t e d Bayeux tapestry,WiUiam the Conquerer (who was adescendant of the old Vikings) isrepresented at the battle of Hastingswith a banner on which is the figureof a raven. When Thor s terriblehammer, Mialnar, feU in Denmarkbefore the Cross, the time-honouredraven-standard was superseded bythe symbol of the Christian religion.

Moslems call the raven the Birdof Separation, because did notreturn to the Ark (but, from theexpression to and fro in thebiblical narrative, it is clear that thebird must have returned to the Arkat intervals);l and also Abu Zajir,or Father of Omens, from the universal belief in its powers of foreteUing coming events, especiallymisfortunes. In Western as weU asin Eastern lands the appearance, orhearing the cry, of a raven on one sleft hand foreboded death, or someserious calamity, while the reversewas understood when the bird wasseen or heard to cry on one s right.Thus, in Dryden s translation ofVirgil-The hoarse raven on yon blasted bough,Fly croaking to the lift presaged thecoming blow;In Plautus play of Aulularia (iv, 3) : I t was not for nothing that theraven was just now croaking on myleft hand. In Gay s Fables (xxxvi, f f .That raven on yon lift hand oak(Curse on his ill-betiding croak Bodes me no good.

The Arabs and Persians set greatstore by the appearance of certainanimals and birds on the right orleft hand, as indicating the successor failure of any enterprise about tobe undertaken; and to this the1 Sir David Lyndesay, in his Dialogoetuix Experit1lCt and ane Courteour, BookI irst, says that, when Noah perceived thesky clear-He send furth Corbie messingeirIn to the air for to espyGeve he saw ony montanis dry;Sum sayis the Ravin did furth remaue,And come nocht to the ark agane.The phrase ., corbiemessenger used tobe applied to one who had been sent on anerrand and was slow in returning, or didnot return at all


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The Raven. Thus, in Shakspeare s Troilus v 2Thersites . malignantly exclaims:Would I could meet that rogueDiomed, I would croak like a raven,I would bode, 1 would bode.the Third Part of Henry V v. 6 ,Henry of Gloster says that at his. birth the ra ven rooked her on thechimney-top. Lady Macbeth remarks (i, 5 -

The raven himself is hoarseThat croaks the fatal entrance of DuncanUnder my battiements.The noble Othello, devoured byjealousy, and too ready to yeild

credence to the arch-villain Iago sinsinuations against the chaste Desdemona, exclaims iv, i -Oh, it came o'er my memory.As doth a raven o'er the infected house,Boding to all.

the play of King John iv. 3), wer e a d - .Vast confusion waits,As doth a raven o'er a sickfallen beast;

and in Titus Andronicus (ii, 3), theatal raven j and Hamlet, referringto' the murder of his father, says( iii ,2)- The croaking ravenDoth bellow for revenge.The poet Spenser speaks o f

Death's dreadful messenger,The hoarse night-raven, trompe of dolefuldrere.George Peele, in his drama of

David a zd Bethsabe makes theChorus speak o f -The fatal Raven, that in his voiceCarries the dreadful summons ofour deaths;

and the violated maiden Thamarresolves to hide her shame-in desert woods;There will I lure with my windy sighsNight ravens and owls to rend my side,Which with a rusty weapon I WIll wound,And make them passage to my pantingheart;

and Joab, referring to Absalom, says:Night ravens and owls shall sing his fatalknell. Barham's tale of The OldWoman of Berkeley Ingoldsby

Legends -The Raven croaked as she sat at her m ~ lAnd the old woman knew what she saId;And she grew pale at the Raven s tale,And sickened and went to bed ;

and in a Scotch ballad-Yestreen, I was working my stocking,And you wi your sheep on the hill.A filthy black corbie sat croakingI'm sure i t foreboded some ill.

Besides being a harbinger of griefand death, the raven was believed topossess the dreadful property ofconveying infectious diseases. Thusthe monster Caliban Tempest i, invokes on Prospero and MirandaAs wicked dew as e er my mother brushedWith raven s feather from the unwholesomefenDrop on you both JAnd in Marlowe s play of The JewofMalta-The sad, presaging Raven, that tellsThe sick man s passport in her hollow beak,And in the shadow of the silent nightDoth shake contagion from her sable wing.

When many a braw fellow washanged for reiving in the Bordercountry, the Raven must have hadgreat feasts on the bodies whichwere left dangling - as a warning to whom it might concern. Ofthis we may accept the followingrhyme, current in Berwickshire inthose days of fierce unrest, as goodevidence-The Corbies in the Corbie HeughAre crouping, like to dee;But our laird will give them meat enough,And that you soon shall see,When Houdie and his reivers rudeHang on the gallows tree.

The corp corp corp of theRaven received a very original interpretation from David Ferguson, oneof the early Scottish reformers: AtSt. Andrew s he met along withother ministers of the Church, inorder to protest against the installation of Patrick Adamson as Bishopof that see. On that occasion aperson came in and reported thatthere was a Corbie croupin on thekirk. 'That's a bad omen, saidFerguson; 'for its origination is fromavium garribus the Raven isomnimodo a 'black' bird, and therefore ominous; and if we read rightlywhat it speaks, it will be found to becorrupt I corrupt I corrupt ' IBut while we may v y properlydespise the once universal belief, M'Crie's Sketckes 0/ Scottisk CkurchHistory vol. i p. liS.


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Folk-Lore of the k ~ n and the Owl.that the croaking of the Raven wasa prognostic of the death of somehuman being in its neighbourhood,the notion, which prevails in some.parts of Ireland, that the appearanceof a number of ravens in Autumn isa sign of great mortality m o ~ gsheep, seems to have foundatIOn nascertained fact In an old chapbook, entitled, h ~ Shepherd s Prognosticatz on for the Weather, printedin 1573, it is said that if ravens beseen to stand gaping towards thesun, it is a manifest sign of extremeheat to follow ; and doubtless this,like many other bits of the weatherlore of our simple forefathers, was. the result of close observation ofnatural phenomena. In somedistrictsof Scotland ravens build their nestsin the sea-cliffs, says the Rev. WalterGreo-or. f they 'make short flightsi n l ~ d it is taken. as an indicationof stormy weather; but if they Il: akea strong flight inland to a o n s l d e ~ -able distance, it is a token of fairweather.

Reference has already been madeto the popular belief that Satan oftenassumes the form of the Raven. InDanish folk-songs (says Grimm, inhis Deutsche Mytholngie), the vilderavn, vilde val-ravn (corvz sstraf{isJ, takes exactly the place ofthe diabolic troll. And in thepuppet-play of Dr. Faust i t isremarkable that the raven who is thebearer of the written covenant withthe Devil is called the bird ofMercury, which would be exactlyrio-ht of Odin. -A wild legend is

c ~ r r e n t in Aberdeenshire which tellshow a man who had made a pactionwith Satan at length sickened anddied, whereupon a raven flew intothe house , crying, I want my ownI want my own The dead wizard sneighbours, to preserve his corpsefrom the clutches of the fiend, madea circle round it;and standing withinthe circle, by constantly making theall-powerful sign of the Cross, keptoff the raven till day dawned, whenhe flew away. Another Berwickshirerhyme alludes to the notion that Folk-Lore oj tlu North East oj Scotland,

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Satan, in the form of a raven, neverfails to claim his o w n ~Satan, in a Corbie's shape,Will come and take his pets away.In some of our carly ballads theDevil in raven-form appears at sea,to work destruction. Thus in theScotch ballad of The Twa Corbies,one of those diabolical birds saysAs I sa t on the deep sea sand,I saw a fair ship right at hand;I waved Illy wings, I beat my beak,The ship sank, and I heard a shriek.

Here, surely, was either Satan himsellor one of his angels I n anotherballad we meet with him again inthe same shaDe:The ship rolled on the heavy deep,The wind no longer blew,And over them, greedy to sink them all,The fierce wild Raven flew. .Cicero regarded it as an evil omenwhen a raven perched on the shipwhich bore him over the sea. Chinese sailors, when ravens rest on amast, throw crumbs to them, in orderto secure a fair wind. In one ofMr. Giles Strange Stories jrom aChinese Studio, a man who has beenchanged into a ravenis tbus sustainedby the seamen. To disturb ravensin any manner is considered as veryunlucky, and Archdeacon Gray relates that sailors on the Yangtzefeared most disastrous consequencesshould the passengers shoot them,as they purposed doing.

Ravens, as well as black cats,were believed to be familiars ofwitches and wizards. The Mirakeuck which recounts the exploits ofDr. Faust, was also called DieSckwartze Rabe (the Black Raven),and the figure of the bird itselfappears on the title-page. In Goethe sFaust, the witch asks MephistophelesWo sind eure beiden Raben?(Where have you left your pair ofRavens ?); and Faust himself, inanother part of the famous dramaticpoem, asks, What weave they thereround the Raven-stone? the oldGerman name for a place of executionwhere the corpses attracted numbersof ravens; and in a rejected chorusof Byron s Deformed Transformedthe grim epithet also occurs-The Raven sitsOn the Raven-stone.


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Tlu Ravm 23After all is said, however, theRaven, like the certain gentleman .with whom he was identified by theearly Christians, and in much la tertimes by the people ofmost Europeancountries, may not be so black as heis painted. Were not three ravensthe companions of St. Benedict?And did not three others escort St.Gregory? In the myth, or romant:e,of King Oswald, also, a raven flieson to his shoulder, the king talks toit, and even kneels before it. Andwas it not through the conversationof ravens that the poor blinded tailor,in the German story of The Two

Travellers, learned the means ofrecovering his sight?The longevity of the Raven isbelieved to be much greater thanthat of any other bird or beast, andit has been known to live in captivityfully a hundred years. On thissubject a diverting story is told inthe Let/res Nouvelles de Bour-sault, 1698 : The wife of a shoemaker,having been ordered by her husbandto buy him a linnet, went one day tothe Quay de la Megisserie, where shemet one of her gossips. \Vhat hasbrought you here? she asked. Ihave come to buy a bird, repliedher gossip. And I for the samething, said the shoemaker's wIfe.And I, quoth the other, choose aRaven. By my faith, replied theshoemaker's wife, you select an uglybird. Doubtless, said her gossip, i t is not very beautiful, but it issaid that it lives seven or eig-hthundred years, and I would see -my husband and I i f that is true. 1Boursault adds that the commonbelief is, that there is no animalwhich lives so long as the Raven. I t is said that three weasels Iivethe age of a dog; three dogs, theage of a horse; three horses, the ageof a man; three men, the age of astag three stags, the age of a.raven and three ravens, un temps mnombrable.

Christian hagiology represents tworavens as being the means of con-lOne of the {acetiae of Hierokles is of apedant who, having heard that the Ravenlives 200 years, bought one. thaI he should

~ s ~ t i lh


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rit Raven.to a throne, and his own {ather andmother, now fallen on evil days,unwittingly performed the menialservices predicted by the ravens,after which he discovered himself tothem, and they lived happily everafterwards.Setting aside the old-world belief bird and beast languages, in allof which the sage Hebrew king,Solomon, is said to have been profoundly skilled, the Raven whentaken young is easily tamed andtaught to imitate human speech to awonderful degree. An Arabian historian mentions a raven who spokeintelligently, not merely by rote, andrecited the Soorat-es-Szjdek or 32ndchapter of the Koran, and, on coming to the verse which should perepeated witlJ prostration, performedthe action, saying at the same time,My body prostrateth itself to Thee,and my heart confideth in TheePliny, in his tur l History x 60,relates an extraordinary story of atame raven who was the admirationof all Rome, and whose murderaroused the indignation of the populace:

In the reign of Tiberius one of a broodof ravens that had been bred in the top ofthe temple of Castor, happened to fly intoa shoemaker s shop that stood opposite, onwhich, with a feeling of religious reverence,it was looked upon as doubly recommendedby the owner of the place. The bird, having been taught to speak at an early age,used every morning to fly to the Rostra,which look towards the Forum, hcre,addressing each by his name, it would saluteTiberius, and then the Cresars, Germanicusand Drusus [nephew and son of i b e r i u ~ ]after which it would proceed to greet theRoman populace, as they passed, and thenreturn to the shop: for several years it wasremarkable for the co'nstancy of its atten-dance. The owner of another shoemaker'sshop in the neighbourhood in a suddeu fitof anger killed the bird, enraged, as hewould have had it appear, because with itsordure it had soiled some of his shoes.Upon this there was such rage manifestedby the multitude that he was at oncedriven from that part of the city, and soonafter put to death. The fame, too, of thebird was celebrated with almost endlessobsequies. The body was placed upon alitter, carr ied on th e shoulders of twoEthiopians, preceded by a piper. and borneto the pile with garlands of every size anddescription. The pile was erec ted on theright hand side of the Appian Way, at thesecond milestone from tbe city, in the fieldgenerally called tbe Field of tbe Rediculus.

Thus did the rare talent of a bird appearsufficient ground to the Roman people forhonouring it with funeral obsequies. as wellas for inflicting punishment on a Romancitizen, and that, too, on an occasion inwhich no such crowds had ever escortedthe funeral of anyone out of the wholenumber of its distinguished men, and whereno one had been found to avenge the deathof Scipio }Emelianus, the manwho destroyedCarthage and Numantia. This event hap-pened in th e consulship of M. Serviliusand Caius Cestius, on the 5th day beforethe Calends of April i.e. March 28).In the Complaynt oj Scotlandwhich has been ascribed to Sir DavidLyndesay of the Mount, among other

writers, we have a very curious storyof a crafty shoemaker and his tworavens, during the CQntest for supremacy between Augustus C


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26 Folk Lore of the Raven n the Owl.his kind which perched upon a bustof Pallas (the Owl, by the way,would have been the more appropriateBird of Omen for such a place )above Edgar Allan Poe's chamberdoor, as he pondered, weak andweary, over many a quaint andcurious volume of forgotten lor -that Raven whose only answer to allthat was said to him was the souldepressing word, NevermoreStartled at the stillness broken by reply soaptly spoken.. Doubtless, said I .. what it utters is itsonly stock and storeCaught from some unhappy masterWhom unmerciful disasterFollowed fast and followed fasterTill his songs one burden bore-Till the dirges of his hope the melancholyburden bore-Of 'Never-nevermore '

By way of a, set-off to these sadverses (which must call up the wholepoem to many readers), let us takea diverting Persian story, which has

I I T L IKE the Raven, everywhere andin all times, the Owl has beenconsidered as a bird of evil omen, itssudden presence or cry portendingdeath ordiredisaster. The Athenians,however, amongst whom the bird wasthe symbol of Pallas Athene, regarded its appearance on the eve ofbattle as a presage of victory.1 Junoassumed the form of the eagle-owlbecause, says Aldrovandus,she mightnot take on herself the likeness ofanysmall or vulgar bird, but rather beembodied in one whose reign bynight was equal to that of the eagleby day.

1 Athene was styled Glallcopb=owl-eyed.This symbol of the Owl according toPayne Knight, was adopted for the goddessof wisdom because the owl was .. a birdwhich seems to surpass all other creaturesin acuteness of organic perception, its eyebeing designed to observe objects which toall others are enveloped in darkness, its earto hear sounds distinctly, and its nostrils todiscriminate effluvia with such nicety that ithas bee:J. deemed prophetic, from discover-ing the putridity of death;even in the firststages of the disease. In the Panjab, onthe contrary, the Owl is an emblem ofextreme stupidity.

been brought to mind by Poe's Ravenwith its single boding word: Awealthy Mogul, sauntering throughthe bazaar one day, observed a fineparrot in a cage, and asked its price. A thousand rupees, he was told. That seems a very large sum ofmoney for a bird, said the Mogul.Tell me truly-is i t really worth thesum you ask? The parrot savedits owner from the sin of lying byscreaming out, There's not a doubtof it The Mogul was pleased withthis reply so apt ly spoken, and atonce paid down the money and car'ried the bird home. But he soonfound that the parrot had beentaught (or had itself picked up) onlythe words which had come so surprisingly in answer to the question asto its value, and, with deep vexation,he exclaimed, I was a fool to buythis bird for a thousand rupees.To which the parrot serenely replied, There's not a doubt of it

O W LIn the fragments of Menander itis said that ifthe owl should cry wehave reason to be afraid. Plinyterms the bird bubo funebris etmaxime abominatus. Virgil introduces it among the prodigies andhorrors that preceded the death ofDido, and makes it complain,In lengthened shriek, and dire funereal

str inOvid, in the 5th Book of his Meta-morphoses relates how Ascalapuswas transformed .by Ceres into anowl, and condemned to predict evil,because he had accused her to Joveof having eaten a young pomegranatein secret, against the prohibition:JII ornened in his form the unlucky fowlAbhorred hy man and called a screechingOwl.I t is said that Demosthenes, beforegoing into exile, declared that PallasAthene delighted in three fear-inspiring beasts-the owl, the dragon, andthe Athenian people. Owls were soabundant in Athens that the proverb to send owls to Athens was equivalent to our English saying of coals


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Tke Owl.to Newcastle, the Arab proverb,dates to Hijar , and the Greek sayiner fiers to Syracuse.The Romans twice purified thecity with water and sulphur on account of the appearance of the GreatOwl in the temples to ~ v h i h a lusionis made by Butler In his Hudzbras

The Roman Senate, when withinThe city walls an Owl was seen,Did cause their clergy, with lustration(Our synod calls, humiliation),The round-faced prodigy t avertFrom doing town and country hurl.According to Ovid, the screech-owlwas supposed to destroy children if

they were not watched ; ~ t n d Hassel-quist, writing in the middle of theJ8th century, makes the s ~ n e s t ~ e -ment reerardin the owls 111 Syria.In o m ~ it w ~ s customary to nailthe dead bodies of owls on the doorsof houses in order to protect theinmates f;om the dreaded influenceof the living birds.In Enerlish folk-lore the barn, orscreech ;wl is specially invested with

s u p e r n ~ t u r a l power, it is probablethat the Irish superstitIOn of the. Ban-shee had its oriO in in the hornfyIngcry of this s p ~ c i e s E:llis, hisModenz Husbandman writes: Withus [in Hertfordshire] the owl is calledHobhouchin, and makes a greatwhooping noise or. cry manl:' timesin the night, especially a fair one;for when the owl whoops loudest,and does this oftenest, it is by mostdeemed a sign of pleasant weather;according to the verse:Nor the Owl, foretelling vain,From the high rooL observing Phrebus set,Will idly then nocturnal tales repeat.

She will not sing against rain, apdhas this farther observation recordedof her that when she frequents atown n;ore than ordinary it presagesmortality and sickness to that. place;but according to the notIOn ofc o u ~ t r y dames, it is this s ~ r e e c h o ~ lthat forbodes death or sickness Inthis manner for these make a mostdisaerreeable'noise, sometimes in our

v i l l a ~ e s and about our houses, in thenierht-ti:ne one of which has beenknoown to ~ c r e e c h so near a windowas to disturb a family, and then it isreckoned a fatal omen A pretty leO'end is current in Normandy, to a ~ c o u n t for the Owl's

nocturnal habits: The Wren, in thesuccessful effort of fetching fire fromheaven for the use of man, lost allits plumage, and the other birds eachpresented it with a feather, save thesurly Owl, and hence it is ~ s h a m e dto show its face in the day-time.The Bat is often associated withthe Owl in popular legends as highlyobjectionable, and e: ren gruesome,and a Welsh tale gives a CUrIOUSreason why those creatures love thedarkness rather than the light : TheDove and the Bat, on a journey together, came late at night to thedwelling of the Chief of the Owls,and souerht and were granted shelter.After supper the Bat broke forth intoa loud, laudatory strain on the wisdomof their entertainer, attributing to himqualit ies which it was well known henever possessed. When the Bat h.adended his eulogium, the Dove, Withmodest dignity, simply t h a n k ~ dOwl for his attentions and hospitalIty,on which both the Owl and the Batattacked her furiously, accusing herof inerratitude, and drove her out intothe dark and stormy night. Whenmorning dawned the Dove flew tothe King, who in great wrath passedan edict, enacting that thenceforththe Owl and the Bat should never presume to fly abroad until the sun wasdown, under pain of being attackedby all other birds. .In Sicily the Owl that CrIes bynierht near the house of a sick mananonounces his approaching death;but amon owls it is the Horned Owl( jacobu, chiovu, or llio that isespecially feared. The h o ~ n e d owlsinO s near the house of a Sick mant h r ~ e days before his death; if ther.eare no sick people in the house, Itannounces to one, at least, of its inhabitants that he or she will be struckwith squinancy of the tonsil. Thepeasants in Sicily, when in springthey hear the lamentation of thehorned owl for the first time, go totheir master to give notice of theirintention of leaving his service.In HunO'ary the Owl is called thebird of death. In the Sanskritcollections of apologues and talescalled the P,mcha/antra (Five Chap-

1 De Gubernatis Zoological Il1ytk g) , 249


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Folk Lore of t l Raven and tIle Owl.8tel s) and the Hitopadesa (FriendlyAdvice) the King of the Crows compares the hostile Owl, who arrivestowards night, to Yama, the god of thedead. Josephus Ant xix, 7) tells usthat when Herod Agrippa cf Actsxii) was receiving the flattering acclaim preceding his death, he lookedupwards and perceived an owl overhis head, and knew presently that itwas but a messenger of his misfortune; and suddenly he wasseized, and so forth.-In I-fogarth s Four Stages of Cruelty an owlis introduced as hover ing abovethe corpse of the murdered woman,though in some reproductions of theplate it seems more like a bat.In the New World the Owl isalso regarded as an uncanny bird.The natives of Yucatan believe thc.tif it alights on, or even flies over, ahouse, it is a sure presage of death .The Apache Indians have a greatdread of the Owl: On the SierraMadre expedition, one of the commanders caught an owlet, which hefastened to the pommel of his saddle.When the ugly bird began its lowmuttered notes, the excitement amongthe Apache scouts was somethingwonderful to witness. Their headman approached General Crook, andremonstrated against the retentionof this sure prognostic of defeat. lWilson,the American ornithologist,in describing the cry of the. Owl,says: The ghostly watchman hasfrequently warned me of approachingmorning, sweeping down and surrounding my fires, uttering a loudand sudden 'Waugh 0 Waugh 'sufficient to have startled a wholegarrison. - Sir John Richardsonnarrates the circumstance of a party-of Scotch Highlanders who passed along winter s night of intense fear inthe depths of an American forest.They had made their bivouac firefrom wood taken from an Indiantomb. All night long the shrieks ofthe Virginian Owl rang in theiraffrighted ears, cries which they atonce judged came from the spirit ofthe old warrior, bemoaning his desecrated resting-place.The Lummi, inhabitants of the main-

1 J G. Bourke. on The Religion of theApache Indians, in Folk Lore ii. 426.

land opposite Vancouver s Island,will never kill an owl, says Mr.Dorman. Among the Aztecs, Quiches, and Mayos, the Peruvians,i\raucanians, and Algonkins, the owlwas thought to have some relation tothe dead. The Ojibways called thebridge they thought the spirits of thedead had to pass the Owl Bridge.The Creek priests carried a stuffedowl with them as the badge of theirprofession. The Arickaras placed onein their council-Iodge,and the culturehero of the Monquins of Californiawas represented, like Athene, ashaving one for his companion. Thenatives of the Antil les wore tunicswith figures of these birds embroidered on them. Among the Zulusowls of pot tery were very commonobjects ofworship. Brinton says theIndians were of opinion that therewere numbers of inferior deities, andthat the irrational animals were engaged in viewing their actions. TheEagle, for this purpose, with her keeneye, soared about in the day, and theOwl, with her nightly eye, was perched on the trees around their camp.Therefore, when they observed theEagle or the Owl near, they immediately offered sacrifice, or burnedtobacco.lIn Barbary, if the Owl appearfrom the northward the evil thusportended will not be confined toone person, but a plague will ensue,which will not be stayed until thebird of ill omen disappears.The Egyptians and the Ethiopiansemployed an image of the Owl as amessenger of death, as a bull s headwas formerly used in Scotland andsome other European countries.When this grim token was sentby the king it was considered as apoint o( honour for the recipient tokill himself at once, as any attemptto evade the message would be anindelible stain on the family. Diodonts Siculus tel ls of an Egyptianmother who strangled her son withher girdle, because he sought toescape the doom thus announced.

The dead body of the Owl was used1 The Origin ofPrimitive Superstition.by Rushton M. Dorman. Philadelphia, lSSr.pp. 262, 263.


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Je Owl.for magic charms and in incantations. Horace makes it one of theingredients in Canidia's infernal mixture. Propertius mingles it in hislove - charm. Ovid makes Medeaconsummate her horrid cauldron ofwonder-working juices withA screech-awl s carcass, and ill-omenedwin swhich Ben Jonson modifies intoThe screech-awl s eggs, and the feathersblack.The hell-broth of the Weird Sistersin Macbeth is seasoned with owlet swin r

the folk-lore of many lands theashes of the Owl s penetrating eyesare good for clearing the sight; thefeet, burned with the herb plumbago,render the bite of a serpent harmless; owls eggs and the blood of theirnestlings preserve the hair and makeit curly. Owl broth is considered acure for the whooping cough. AndSwan, in his Speculum Mundt , recommends owls eggs to be broken,and put into the cups of a drunkard,or one desirous to follow drinking,with the result that they will so workwith him that he will suddenly loathehis good liquor, and be displeasedwith his drinking. Hindoos fastenan owl s claw round a child s neck tokeep him from nervousness, and thesmoke of owl s flesh thev considervery efficacious in keeping off ghostsfrom children.

In Madagascar the spirits of thosewho die and remain unburied arebelieved to be doomed to associatewith, if not actually become, owls orbats. The wild, unearthly screechof some of the owls in that islandrenders them objects of dislike andeven of terror. The cry of the demonbird of Ceylon, called by the nativesUlama, is quite as awe-inspiring asthat o f the screech-owl. Perched ona neighbouring tree (says Davys), itmakes low and hideous screams, conveying the idea of extreme distress.Its harsh and horrid notes are supposed to be of evil omen, and a prelude to death ormisfortune. In Siamwhen an owl is seen to perch uponthe roof of a house it signifies thedea th of at least one of the inmates.The Ainos have a singular legendto account for the tuft on the Owl s

head: A rat having stolen the owl shoarded dainties, he went to the dwelling of that rodent, and threatenedto kill him. But the rat humbly askedto be forgiven, and, as peace-offering, gave the owl a gimlet , wherebyhe might obtain greater pleasure thanhe should have derived from thechoice food of which he had beendeprived. You must stick the gimlet point upwards in the ground, atthe foot of that tree, then climb tothe top of the tree and slide down thetrunk, said the crafty rat. The owlw ho in this instance certainly didnot justify the reputation of it s kindfor superior sagacity-did all as therat had instructed him, and slidingdown impaled himself on the sharppointed gimlet. Full of rage, he wentoff to kill the rat, who, anticipating avisit of th is nature , came along theroad to meet him, and pacified himwith a cap for his head-and this ishow the Owl came to have the thicktuft of erect feathers which he wearsto this day.

English poetry abounds in allusionsto the cry of the Owl. Thus Chaucer,in his Pa lemmt 0 /FOldes, mentions,The oule, that of deth the bode bringeth.Spenser speaks of thellI-fated owl, death's dreadful messenger.

Chatterton, the marvellous boy,says:Hark tile death-owl loud doth s ingTo the night-mares as they go.Its alarming scream has probablyoften had such effect on the weaknerves of an .invalid as actually tohasten death. In Shakspeare's playof Mt dsummer l\ t ght s ream(v, 2),we read:

The screech-owl, screeching loud,Puts the wretch that lies in woeIn remembrance of a shroud.Among the numerous prodigies whichCasca witnessed the day precedingthe great dictator' s assassination(JuHus Ccesar i, 3), he says:

The bird of night did sit ,Even at noon-day, upon the market-place,Hooting and shrieking.The cry of the dreaded bird is heardby Lady Macbeth. While the bloodydeed is being done, the murderer'asks, Didst thou not hear a noise and she answers, I heard the owl


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3 Folk-Lore of the Raven and the Owl.scream and the cricket cry. . Andin the same tragedy Macbeth, ii, 3)Lennox says that on the night ofDuncan's murder,

The obscure birdClamoured the live-long night.In the play of He1lry V (Part 3,v,6) the king says to the Duke ofGloster, afterwards Richard II I :

The owl shrieked at thy birth-an evilsign I

In Ric/lard (iv,4) the king interrupts the messengers of evil t idingswjth, Out on ye, owls -nothingbut sonRs of death? In Henry V(iv, 2), Thou ominous and fearfulowl of death And in an obscureplay we read:When screechowls croak upon the chimneytops,It's certain that you of a corse shall hear.

But according to a song in Love sLabote r s Lost (v, 2), the owl's cry doesnot sound specially sad in some ears:\;< Then blood is nipt and ways be foul,Then mightly sings the staring owl-

To-whoaTo-whit to-whoa a merry note,While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.The sprite Ariel Tlte Tempest, v, I)couches when owls do cry.Poor Ophelia, in her incoherentbabblings, says Hamlet, iv, 5 :

The Owl was a baker's daughter,alluding to a folk-tale, which recountshow the Saviour, having been refusedbread by a baker's daughter, changedher into an owl. A version currentin Herefordshire runs thus: Onceon a time, a fairy, disguised as a poorold woman, went to a baker's shop,and begge.l some dough of thedaughter, who gave her a very smallpiece. This she far ther requestedleave to bake in the oven, where itswelled to the size of a large loaf,and the baker's daughter refused tolet the pretended old woman have it,but crave her another and smallerpiece of dough, and with the sameresult as before. A third and stillsmaller piece grew even larger thanthe others, and was again withheldby the baker's daughter. The fairy,now fully convinced of the woman'scovetousness, resumed her properform, and striking. the culprit withher wand, she was mstantly changedinto an owl.

According to another legend, itwas an earl's daughter who wastransformed into an owl for disobedience, and condemned to c ryOh, hoo hoo my feet are coldIn the north of England she isadvanced to the lofty rank ofPharaoh's daughter, and sings-orscreeches: Oh oMl ance was a king's daughter, and sat onmy father's knee,But now am a poor howlet, and bide ina hollow tree.And Waterton, in his Essays onNatural History, cites the followingverse of a rural song:Once was a monarch's daughter,And sat on a lady's knee.Rtlt ,un now a nightly rover,Banished to the ivy-tree;Crying, hoo, hoo, 1100-hoo, hoo, hoo -Hoo, hoo, hoo, my feet are cold,Pity me, for here you see mePersecuted, poor, and old.In a version current in' Norway thewoman is changed into a woodpecker--see the story of Gertrude's Bird,in Dasent's Popular Tales from tlteNorse. The association of the Owlwith ivy is' thus referred to by Drayton:Like an owl, by night to go abroad,Roosted all day within an ivy-tad.

The cry of the Owl, like that ofthe Raven, has also its significationin weather-lore. According to an oldchap-book, when the owlscreechethin foul weather it is a sign of fairweather at hand ; and in severaldistricts of England its cry is sometimes taken as an indication ofapproaching hail or rain, accompanied by lightning.

The famous Robbers of the Rhine,deeming it too vulgar to whistle as asignal, adopted the owl's to-whoo which resounded through the forest,even more portentously than the cryof the bird itself.In Mr. Hardy's novel, ar fromt ll Madding Crowd, Joseph Poor-

1 Miss Garnett , in her Women 0/ Turkey,gives a Kurdish story, in which a girl, griefstricken at the murder of her brother by hercruel stepmother, prays that Allah wouldchange her into an owl nd she was atonce transformed into that sad bird; sheflew up and away, and was seen there nomore.


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Tlte Owl. 3grass, on losing his way in a woodat night, shouts Man-a-lost > andan owl cries Who? who? who?which Joseph imagines is some mananswering him.Once on a time, if we may credit aCornish story, a young man did notobtain a possibly good wife, and ayoung woman remained unwed, inconsequence of the hooting ofan owl.This is how the story goes:Mr. Lemine had been, as was hiswont, spending his evening hourswith the lady of his love. He was atimid man, and always returned toTregenebris early. Beyond this, asthe lady was alone, she deemed itprudent to let the world know thatMr. Lemine left by daylight. Oneevening, it was scarcely yet dark, andour lover was returning home throughLeah Lanes. LHis horse started at anold woman who had crept under thehedge for shelter from a passingshower. As Mr. Lemine saw afigure in the shade he was terrified.Tu-whit, tu-whoo ho I sang anowl. It 's only me-Aunt BettyFoss, screamed the old woman.Tu-whit, tu-whoo hoi hoI sang theowl again. Don't ye be afeard,Mr. Lemine, shrieked Aunt Betty.Tu-whit, tu-whoo hoi hoi hoi alsoshrieked the owl. Oh, it's onlyJohn Lemine, of Tregenebris, stammered the frightened lover, who hadby this t ime reached home. He wentno more a-courting. He was fullypersuaded that either a highwaymanand his crew or the Devil and hisimps were upon him. He died abachelor, and the charming ladybecame a peevish old maid, and diedin solitude, all owing to the hootingowl. Some do say that Betty Fosswas a witch, and the owl was herfamiliaL'Samuel Rowland, a prolific writerof the 17th century, in his MoreKnaves Yet a supplement to hisour Knaves), printed 'in 1613, thusgirds at the popular belief in theOwl's ominous screech:Wise Gosling did but heare the scrich-owlecrye,And told his wife, and straight a pigge diddye.

, Hunt', Popular Romances of the Westof England.

It might perhaps be expected thatBlair, the author of Tile Grave, shouldinclude the hooting of the Owl in hisdescription of a stormy night:The wind is up -hark how it howlsmethinksTill now I never heard a sound so dreary :Doors creak, and windows clap, and night'sfoul bird,Rooked in the spire, screams loud.Again the screech-owl shrieks-ungracioussound

John Keats, in the opening linesof his story of the ve 0/ t Agm s,very forcibly describes the severityof the winter's night-St. Agnes' Eve-ah. bit ler chill it was,The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold.And Coleridge makes happy use ofthe Bird of Night in his Uzristabel:'Tis the middle of the night by the castleclock,And the owls have awakened the crowingcock:Tu-whit Tu whoaAnd hark again the crowing cock,How drowsily crew.And Gray,in his far-famed Elegy, usesa very appropriate term in referenceto the bird that loves solitude:

From yonder ivy-mantled towerThe topin owl does to the moon complainOf such as, wandering near her secret bower,Molest her ancient, solitary reign.Apart from ~ superstitions whichhave been always and everywhere

current regarding the Owl, and thenumerous bad names it has beencalled, the Bird of Night is oneof the best friends of the farmer.Goldsmith says that a single owl ismore serviceable than half-a-dozencats in ridding a barn of its vermin.When it has young, it will bring toits nest a mouse every ten or fifteenminutes. An old writer says: Jnthe year 158o, at Hallowtide, an armyof mice so overran the marshes nearSouthminster that they < te up thegrass to the very roots. But atlength a number of strange paintedowls came and devoured all themice. The plague of voles, fromwhich farmers in some districts ofScotland have been lately suffering,is said to be largely owing to thedestruction of their natural enemies,the owls. Graham, in his Britz sk


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ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE RA VEN

Foik Lore of tlte Raven and tlte Owi.Ceor;;ics has a good word {or theBird of Night:

Let the screeching OwlA s acred b ir d be held; protect her nest,Whether in n ei gh bo ur in g crag, within the. reachOf venturous boy, it hang, or in the rentOf s ome o ld ech oi ng t ower, where her sadplaint

MON the Gipsies, the Raven seemsto playa part in a remedy for thatmysterious influence, dreaded alikein the East and in the West, the Evil Eye. This is t he recipe :A jar is filled with water from astream, and it must be taken with,not against, .the current as it flows.In it are placed seven coals, sevenhandfuls of meal, and s ev en clovesof garlic, all of wh ich is put on thefire. When the w at er b eg in s to boil,it is stirred with a thr ee -f orked twig,. w hile a wise woman chants

Evil eyes look on theeMa y they he re ex ti ngu ish ed beAnd then seven ravensPluck o ut the evil eyes,

and so forth. Dr. Wlislocki, aneminent authority on Gipsy customs,thinks the seven ravens mentionedin this incantation are representedby the seven coals put into thepitcher of water.Not only are Ravens popularly

credited with the possession of superhuman intelligence, but in Walesthey are beli eved to be guardians ofhidden treasures- thus taking theplace of serpents in Eastern fictionsa nd it would appear, from thefollowing thrilling story, that treasure-seekers had better leave themundisturbed: In a certain cavern inGlamorganshire, called the OgofCigfrain, or Cavern of the Ravens, issaid to be a chest of gold, watchedover by two birds of gloomy plumage,in a darkness so p ro fo un d that nothing can be seen but the fire of theirsleepless eyes. To go there with the

1 See Charles G. Godfrey s Gipsy Sorcerypp. 5', 52

The live-long n ig ht she moans, save whelshe skims,Prowling, along the ground, or throughthe barnHer nightly round performs: unwelcomeguestWhose met eo r eyes shoot terror throughthe dark,And numb the tiny revellers with dr ea d,

purpose of disturbing them is tobring on a heaving and rolling of theground, accompanied by thunder andlightning. A swaggering drover fromBrecknockshire, though warned by a dark woman that he had betternot try it, s neerin gl y said that acouple of ravens were a fine matterto be afraid of, indeed, and'venturedinto the cavern, with a long ropeabout his waist. and a lantern in hishand. Some rilen who had accompanied him seeing that he was benton this rash and dangerous enter-.prise) held the coil of rope and paidit out as he went in farther andfarther. The result was prompt andsimple: the sk y cracked with loudbursts of thunder and flashes oflightning, and the drover roared withaffright, and rushed out of the darkcavern with his hair on end. Nocoaxing ever prevailed on him toreveal the terrible sights he hadseen.

Popular belief in the propheticpowers of the Raven seems to havesuggested the title of a curious littlework, published at London in 1609 :Tlte Ravens A lmanacke. Foretellinf[of a Plague Famille and CivillWarre tltat sf/all hapjJen Ihis presentyear I609 etc. With certaille rem-edies rules and receipts etc.This tract is described as a mockprediction, and a moral warning.drawn up with considerable humourand force, ami intermixed with comicnovels and incidents. One of theauthor's objects was to ridicule thepretended prophecies of almanacmakers.1 Wirt Sikes Britis Goblins pp. 389, 390 .

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Saxby - Birds of Omen in Shetland