168 BIRDS AND MAN 



struggle grew fiercer ; they closed more often and 

 fell longer distances, until they were near the earth 

 once more, when they finally separated, flying away 

 in opposite directions. He was afraid that the birds 

 had fatally injured each other, but after two or three 

 days he saw them again in their places. 



It was not possible for him, he told me, to describe 

 the feelings he had while watching the birds. It 

 was the most wonderful thing he had ever witnessed, 

 and while the fight lasted he looked round from time 

 to time, straining his eyes and praying that some one 

 would come to share the sight with him, and because 

 no one appeared he was miserable. 



I could well understand his feeling, and have not 

 ceased to envy him his good fortune. Thinking, after 

 leaving him, of the sublime conflict he had described, 

 and of the raven's savage nature, Blake's question in 

 his " Tiger, tiger, burning bright " came to my mind : 



Did He who made the lamb make thee ? 



We can but answer that it was no other ; that when 

 the Supreme Artist had fashioned it with bold, free 

 lines out of the blue-black rock, he smote upon it 

 with his mallet and bade it live and speak ; and its 

 voice when it spoke was in accord with its appearance 

 and temper — the savage, human-like croak, and the 



