FABLE AND FOLKLORE 165 



are the ghosts of bad old landlords, because they steal 

 vegetables from the peasants' gardens — "Always robbin' 

 the poor!" 



This eerie feeling is of long descent. The supreme 

 war-goddess of the Gaels, as Squire 7 * explains, was 

 Morrigu, the Red Woman or war-goddess, who figures 

 in the adventures of Cuchulain, and whose favorite dis- 

 guise was to change herself into a carrion-crow, the 

 "hoodie-crow" of the Scotch. She had assistants who 

 revelled among the slain on a battlefield. "These grim 

 creatures of the savage mind had immense vitality . . . 

 indeed, they may be said to survive still in the supersti- 

 tious dislike and suspicion shown in all Keltic-speaking 

 countries for their avatar — the hoodie crow." 



In Pennant's Tour in Scotland (1771) is described a 

 curious ceremony in which offerings were made by Scot- 

 tish herdsmen to the hooded crow, eagle and other 

 enemies of sheep to induce them to spare the flocks. A' 

 Morayshire saying in old times ran thus: 



The guil, the Gordon, and the hoodie crow, 

 Were the three worst things Murray ever saw. 



(The guil, Swann explains, is an obnoxious weed, the 

 Gordon refers to the thieving propensities of a neighbor- 

 ing clan, and the crow killed lambs and annoyed sickly 

 sheep.) "It is interesting," says Wentz, 62 "to observe 

 that this Irish war-goddess Morrigu, the bodb or babd, 

 . . . has survived to our own day in the fairy-lore of the 

 chief Celtic countries. In Ireland the survival in the 

 popular and still almost general belief among the 

 peasantry that the fairies often exercise their magical 

 powers under the form of royston crows; and for this 

 reason these birds are always greatly dreaded and 



