RAVENS. 205 



ignorant as interpreters of the will of their idol gods. 

 Thus, in the remotest periods of antiquity, the Raven 

 was consecrated to Apollo, one of their chief deities, and 

 by the priests and people, was therefore considered as a 

 foreteller of good or evil. Through a long course of 

 centuries it has borne the same character, and even to 

 this day there are not a few who believe that 



" Ravens give the note of death, 



As through mid-air they wing their way." 



It is most probable that their supposed prophetic 

 power, respecting battles and bloodshed, originated in 

 their very frequent presence on these occasions, drawn, 

 to the field of slaughter by an attractive banquet of un- 

 buried bodies of the slain. Hence, poets have described 

 it as possessing a mysterious knowledge of these things. 



" Ill-omen'd bird ! as legends say, 



Thou hast the wondrous power to know, 



While health fills high the throbbing veins, 

 The fated hour when blood must flow." 



The Icelanders, notwithstanding their endeavours to 

 destroy as many as they can, yet give them credit for the- 

 gift of prophecy, and have a high opinion of them as- 

 soothsayers. And the priests of the North American. 

 Indians wear, as a distinguishing mark of their sacred 

 profession, two or three Raven-skins, fixed to the girdle- 

 behind their back, in such a manner that the tails stick 

 out horizontally from the body. They have also a split 

 Raven-skin on the head, so fastened as to let the beak 

 project from the forehead. 



That birds, if entirely unmolested, will become tame, 

 and fearless, has been frequently noticed. During Cap- 

 tain Back's Arctic expedition, two Ravens appeared as 

 his earliest visitors, announcing the approach of Spring ;, 

 he would not suffer them to be disturbed, and in a few 

 days they consequently became so familiar as scarcely to 

 move ten paces when any one passed them : they were 

 the only living things, he adds, that held communion 



