A FLOCK OF MYTHOLOGICAL CROWS. 45 



dead. In the last book of the " Ramayana," we also find that, when 

 the gods were fleeing before the demons, Yama, the god of the dead, 

 borrowed the plumage of the crow in order to escape, in payment for 

 which service he gave the crow the privilege of eating the funereal 

 food. 



In the Grecian mythology, at least as early as the days of Hesiod, 

 the character of the crow or raven (Kopa^), as a prophet of evil, had 

 already been established (see ante, page 43) ; yet we find it here also 

 sacred to the sun-god and usually associated with the same malignant 

 animals as in the Hindoo mythology. 



Our Hellenic myths say that, " once upon a time, Apollo sent his 

 feathered attendant, the raven, who was then pure white, to bring 

 water for sacrifice, but the raven, finding a fig-tree with fruit nearly 

 ripe, waited until it should mature, and he could appease his hunger ; 

 then, having to account for his delay, he took a water-snake out of the 

 fountain, placed it in the pitcher, and brought it to the god, and told 

 him that the snake had daily drunk the fountain dry. But Apollo was 

 not to be deceived by any such story, and, as a punishment for his 

 crime, he turned the raven black, and condemned him to be tormented 

 with thirst during the season that figs are ripening." * 



Another says that " Apollo was in love with a beautiful nymph 

 of Thessaly named Koronis, but she was false to the god, and was 

 surprised with another lover by the raven, who flew off without heed- 

 ing her entreaties and told his master ; the god in a transport of jeal- 

 ousy slew the faithless damsel, and then, angry at the tattling raven 

 for bringing him the unwelcome tidings, he turned his plumage 

 black." t 



In the Grecian myth of the battle between the gods and the giants, 

 Apollo is said to have disguised himself in the plumage of the crow, 

 as we have before seen was done by Yama, in the Hindoo version of 

 the story. 



In the Roman mythology there were wanting many of the idealistic 

 conceptions of the Greek mind, and even the glorious Apollo was not 

 given a place in the Roman pantheon until a late day. Cicero says, 

 " The whole religion of the Romans at first consisted of sacrifices and 

 divination by birds." J 



Besides the sacred geese and chickens which were always on hand 

 and kept in proper condition to consummate the " tripndlicm sollsti- 

 miim,^'' whenever the good of the state required it, the Roman college 

 of augurs divided all other birds, for the purposes of divination, into 

 two general classes Alites, those from which the augury was taken 

 by observing their direction and manner of flight ; and Oscineo, 

 those in which the augury was taken from the voice or cry. Of the 

 latter class none were considered more sacred or more certainly omi- 

 nous than the crow and raven, though Cicero says, " The croak of a 



* Eratosthenes. \ Ovid. X Cicero, " De Nat. Deorum." 



