548 Some Superstitions appertaining 



precipices, and of their chance of becoming my "executors,"* 

 and having to feed on my lifeless carcass. Pennant tells us 

 that " a vulgar respect is paid to the raven, as being the bird 

 appointed by heaven to feed the prophet Elijah, when he fled 

 from the rage of Ahab." (1 Kings, xvii. See Brand, vol. ii. 

 p. 526.) From whatever source the notion may have derived 

 its origin, I find that it is considered bad luck to kill a raven. 

 I happened once to be in conversation, on this subject, with 

 a countryman, who seemed to regard the perpetration of such 

 an act in a very serious light. On my questioning him far- 

 ther, he told me that a friend of his once shot a raven, and 

 that, " somehow or another (he did not know how it was), 

 his best cow died within a week after; and he had made 

 up his mind that nothing should ever induce him to shoot 

 another." This instance affords an apt illustration of one of 

 the fallacies enumerated by Sir Thomas Brown : *' collecting 

 presages from voice or food of birds, and conjoining events 

 unto causes of no connection." (See Vulgar Errors, book i. 

 chap. 4-.) 



iThe Owl.^ — From a similar cause, perhaps, to that just 

 mentioned in the case of the raven, the discordant screech of 

 the pwl has probably come to be regarded with no little super- 

 stitious dread, as foreboding evil ; and the more so, perhaps, 

 from the circumstance of its being heard only in the dark or 

 twilight, 



" The obscure bird 



Clamour'd the livelong night." Macbeth. 



** Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night. 



The time when scritch-owls cry, and ban-dogs howl. 



That time best fits the work we have in hand." 



Henri/ F/., part ii. 



" The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil sign." 



Henri/ VL, part iii. 



** The Roman senate, when within 

 The city walls an owl was seen. 

 Did cause their clergy, with lustrations 

 (Our synod calls humiliations). 

 The round-faced prodigy t' avert 

 From doing town or country hurt." f 



Hudibrasy part ii. canto iii. 709. 



* " Their executors, the knavish crows. 



Fly o'er them all, impatient for their hour." Henri/ V. 



•j- Quoted by Brand, ii. 523., along with other passages. See, also, 

 Mr.Waterton's amusing article on " the habits of the barn owl" (V. 9., 

 &c.), for classical quotations. 



