RAVEN. 165 



" What is thy beloved more than another beloved, thou 

 fairest among women?" " My beloved is white and ruddy, 

 the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine 

 gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a JRaven."* 



The above mentioned circumstances taken into consideration, 

 one should suppose that the lot of the subject of this chapter 

 would have been of a different complexion from what history 

 and tradition inform us is the fact. But in every country, we 

 are told, the Raven is considered an ominous bird, whose croak- 

 ings foretel approaching evil; and many a crooked beldam has 

 given interpretation to these oracles, of a nature to infuse terror 

 into a whole community. Hence this ill-fated bird, immemori- 

 ally, has been the innocent subject of vulgar obloquy and de- 

 testation. 



Augury, or the art of foretelling future events by the flight, 

 cries, or motions of birds, descended from the Chaldeans to the 

 Greeks, thence to the Etrurians, and from them it was transmit- 

 ted to the Romans.! The crafty legislators of these celebrated 

 nations, from a deep knowledge of human nature, made super- 

 stition a principal feature of their religious ceremonies; well 

 knowing that it required a more than ordinary policy to govern 

 a multitude, ever liable to the fatal influences of passion; and 



* Song of Solomon, v, 9, 10, 11. 



t That the science of augury is very ancient, we learn from the Hebrew 

 lawgiver, who prohibits it, as well as every other kind of divination. Deut. 

 chap, xviii. The Romans derived their knowledge of augury chiefly from 

 the Tuscans or Etrurians, who practised it in the earliest times. This art 

 was known in Italy before the time of Romulus, since that prince did not 

 commence the building 1 of Rome till he had taken the auguries. The succes- 

 sors of Romulus, from a conviction of the usefulness of the science, and at 

 the same time not to render it contemptible, by becoming too familiar, em- 

 ployed the most skilful augurs from Etruria, to introduce the practice of it 

 into their religious ceremonies. And by a decree of the senate, some of the 

 youth of the best families in Rome were annually sent into Tuscany, to be 

 instructed in this art. Vide Ciceron. de Divin, Also Calmet, and the abbe 

 Banier, 





