102 THE RAVEN 



top 6l" one of these, a big owl had built her nest ; 

 on :the: other side of it, a raven had built hers ; a 

 curious mixture of associations, archaeological and 

 religious, the bird of Pallas and the bird of Odin 

 nestling together in amity, on a building reared by 

 the Roman worshippers of Jupiter and Juno, and 

 which long supplied the wants of the descendants of 

 the Phoenicians, who clung, with desperate tenacity, 

 to their ancestral worship of Baal and of Ashtaroth. 

 The bill of the raven is a formidable weapon, 

 strong, stout, sharp at the edges, curved towards 

 the tip. It is his one weapon of offence, but it 

 answers the purpose of two or three. Like the 

 dirk of the Highlanders, among whom he is still so 

 often found, it is equally available as a dagger or as 

 a carving-knife. It can also be used as a pair of 

 pincers. It can kill a rat at one blow, crush its 

 head into pulp with one squeeze, and then, with its 

 powerful pull, can tear the muscles asunder, or 

 strip off the flesh in small morsels from the bones. 

 It can drive its beak right through the spines of a 

 hedgehog and deal it a death-blow. It is said that 

 it will never attack a man. If this be true, it is, I 

 think, not so much from any defect of courage, as 

 from his keen intellectual perception of what will 

 pay and what will not. A raven, and still more a 



