54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



beautiful (crown of light) Aurora, surprised by the morning cloud, the 

 raven, in the embrace of another lover, the night. 



In the Norse mythology the ravens that sit on Odin's shoulders are 

 the clouds that are seen on either side of the rising sun. As the sun 

 mounts higher and the heat increases, the clouds are dissipated, to re- 

 turn again in the evening vs^hen the air is cooler and the sun sinks into 

 the western sea. The wolves have doubtless the same nebulous origin 

 as the ravens ; the name of one of them, FreJci, most probably being a 

 reminiscence if not a direct derivative of the Sanskrit vrikas (wolf), 

 which, as we have before stated, in the Vedic hymns signifies the black 

 night or the howling storm-cloud. 



In the Semitic languages, from the prolific root arah, one of the 

 meanings of which is to be black, was formed the Hebrew oreb (raven), 

 ereb (evening, land of the setting sun), etc. From the same root also 

 come Erebos and Arabia hence, on linguistic grounds alone, it is im- 

 possible to decide whether Elijah was fed by the ravens or the Arabians. 



The legend of Schamir is found in most of the languages of Europe, 

 but in variously modified forms. In one place it is a stone, in another 

 a worm, and in yet another it is a plant. Their agreement, however, 

 in the power to rend rocks and to discover hidden treasures shows the 

 origin of the myth to have been the storm-cloud which carries the 

 thunderbolt, and with it rends the hardest rocks. 



In the Egyptian mythology the reason assigned for dedicating the 

 hawk to Horus is the bold flight which the bird is observed to make 

 toward the sun without being dazzled by its rays ; * but the reason for 

 dedicating the crow to the same god is not so apparent, though it is 

 probable that under the forms both of the wolf and the crow was rep- 

 resented the black night as an invariable and necessary follower of the 

 god of day. .^lian says that in the temple of Apollo at Delphi was 

 the statue of a wolf, and that the reason the wolf was sacred to this 

 god was because he was born of Latona, or nursed by her, under this 

 form.f It was doiibtless ^ wolf of the same species that suckled the 

 warlike twins of Silvia, at a later age, on the banks of the Tiber. 



In both the Hindoo and the Greek mythologies we find the owl 

 intimately associated with the crow the owl, like the crow, being one 

 of the demons of the night ; but, as the owl was the representative of 

 the bright night, or the moon, there was a constant warfare going on 

 between them. The Pancatantra describes a battle between the owls 

 and the crows, the casus belli being the opposition of the crows to the 

 owl being elected king of birds. Aristotle, too, gravely informs us as 

 a fact of natural history that " the crow and the owl also are ene- 

 mies, for at mid-day the crow, taking advantage of the dim sight of 

 the owl, secretly seizes and devours its eggs, and the owl eats those of 

 the crow during the night." J 



* Pritchard, op. cit, p. 318. f ^lian, "Hist. Animal.," lib. x, chap. xs. 



X Aristotle, " Hist. Animal.," lib. ix, chap. ii. 



