128 THE RAVEN IN POETRY AND FOLK-LORE 



the Winter s Tale, Antigonus, when compelled by 

 its unnatural father, Leontes, to expose to death 

 the infant child, prays for it as follows : 



" Come on, poor babe : 



Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens 

 To be thy nurses ! Wolves and bears, they say, 

 Casting their savageness aside, have done 

 Like offices of piety." 



While a passage in Titus Andronicus put the 

 charge more clearly thus : 



" Some say that ravens foster forlorn children, 

 The whilst their own birds famish in their nests." 



The belief rested, I suspect, in the first instance, 

 on two or three passages of the Bible put together : 

 the story of Elijah fed by ravens ; the verse in the 

 Psalms, " Who feedeth the young ravens when 

 they cry" ; and a similar verse in Job, " Who pro- 

 videth for the raven his food ? When the young 

 ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat." 

 A writer, in an old magazine, not only takes the 

 truth of the story for granted, but elaborately 

 explains how it is that the whole breed of ravens 

 does not cease to exist in consequence. " Young 

 ravens are forsaken by their parents before they 

 are fledged, and therefore they would starve, if 



