The the mountain-range about two miles away to 



Children our i e ft. 



and the " ^V e see tnat • • • tnae falling birds ? " 



Clan of " Yes," I answered, noticing a singular occa- 



Peace. sional fall in the general steady flight, as though 

 the suddenly wheeling bird had been shot : 

 " and what o' that, John ? " 



"It's just this: when ye see craws flyin' 

 steady like that an' then yince in a while 

 drapping oot like yon, ye may tak' it as 

 meanin' there's heavy rain no that great way 

 aff : onyways, when ye see the like when thae 

 black deils are fleein' straight for the hills, ye 

 maun feel sure frae the double sign that ye'll 

 hae a good chance o' being drookit afore twa- 

 three hours." 



One question led to another, and I heard 

 much crow and corbie lore from John Logan, 

 some of it already familiar to me and some 

 new to me or vaguely half- known — as the 

 legend that the corbies or ravens, and with 

 them all the crow-kind, were originally white, 

 but at the time of the Deluge were turned 

 sooty -black because the head of the clan, 

 when sent out by Noah from the Ark, did 

 not return, but stayed to feed on the bodies 

 of the drowned. "So the blackness of death 

 was put on them, as my old mother has it in 

 her own Gaelic." 



244 



