28 <I(4fMBLES OF A VOtMINIS 



to avert the ill-luck foretold by its appearance. There 

 are families even now who maintain that a magpie 

 always appears at the window where one of the line lies 

 dying. Swedish folk-lore sees in it a disguised magician. 

 The peasant of Switzerland regards with terror its 

 appearance on his roof. So close is it in league with 

 powers of evil that the Oldenburg farmer scares it from 

 its tree by cutting a cross upon the bark. 



But though in Tyrol you may craze the brain of your 

 enemy by making him drink the water in which the 

 flesh of a magpie has been boiled, the self-same potion 

 in the hands of a parish priest of Saxony has been used 

 as a remedy for the falling sickness ! The story goes 

 that when, after the Crucifixion, all other birds prepared 

 to show their grief, the pie would only put on half 

 mourning. His punishment has been to wear it ever 

 since, and that his name shall be associated far and wide 

 with ideas of evil. 



Widely as the magpie is distributed, there are places 

 where, like the sparrow, it has gained a footing only in 

 modern times. In Ireland, for example, it is not a 

 native, and was imported out of pure malice, as some 

 writers say, by the Sassenach invader. According to one 

 account he went over with the Orangemen. And some 

 there are, no doubt, who might be heard to hint that his 

 manners are symbolic of his origin 



" That in spite of all temptations 

 To belong to other nations, 

 He remains an Englishman ! " 



