A FLOCK OF MYTHOLOGICAL CROWS. 55 



Whether an observance of the habits of crows led to their being 

 selected, in the first place, to represent the dark and evil principle, can 

 not now be told, but it is very certain that their feeding upon dead 

 bodies, frequenting battle-fields and plague-infested districts, would add 

 to and intensify their ominous reputation, even if it did not originate 

 it ; moreover, being constantly associated with death in its most repul- 

 sive forms, and from their keenness of scent and vision being able, 

 apparently, to foretell the death of an animal or human being, their 

 very presence soon came to be regarded as a foreboding of evil. 



This keenness of scent and vision and their straight, vigorous flight 

 were taken advantage of by the old Norse sea-rovers, who made use of 

 these birds as pilots to guide them on their murderous forays and voy- 

 ages of discovery. According to the " Landnama Book," one of the 

 earliest records of Iceland, about the year 865 a. d., Floki, one of the 

 most famous Vikings of that day, having performed a great sacrifice 

 and consecrated three ravens to Odin, started from Norway on a voy- 

 age of discovery. After touching at the Shetland and Faroe Islands, 

 Floki steered northwest for the open sea, and when he was fairly out 

 of sight of land he turned loose one of his ravens, which, after rising 

 to a great height, flew off toward the land they had left. From this 

 Floki concluded that he was nearer these islands than any other land. 

 After proceeding on his course some days longer he "let fly " another 

 raven, which, after being some hours on the wing, returned to the ves- 

 sel. Floki continued his course, and after a few days more let loose 

 his third raven, and followed the direction of its flight until he reached 

 the eastern coast of Iceland. 



In Callimachus's hymn to Apollo, we also have mention of a pilot- 

 crow being sent by the god to guide the tongue-tied Battus to Libya, 

 where the Python had declared that he must found a colony. And, 

 again, Plutarch tells, on the authority of Callisthenes, that when Al- 

 exander crossed the Libyan desert to consult the oracle of Jupiter 

 Ammon, he was directed by a flock of crows, that suddenly made its 

 appearance, and guided him on his way, flying briskly ahead when he 

 was on the march, lighting when he halted, and, what is stranger still, 

 when he was going wrong calling him by their croaking until he was 

 in the right direction again. We might also mention, in this connec- 

 tion, the story Herodotus tells of the ubiquitous Aristeas, whom the 

 Metapontines say appeared in their country, and told them to erect an 

 altar to Apollo, and place near it a statue bearing the name of Aristeas 

 the Proeonnesian, for Apollo had visited their country only of all the 

 Italians, and that he who was now Aristeas had accompanied the god 

 in the shape of a crow. 



Another characteristic of crows is their longevity. Hesiod as- 

 serts that they will live nine times as long as a man, and it is certain 

 that they have attained an age of more than one hundred years. On 

 this account the sorceress Medea, with many other ingredients of a 



