INDIAN FOLK-LORE 311 



is not much inferior to that of the raven, stretching, 

 as it does from the Western United States, over 

 the whole of Europe, and over two-thirds of Asia, 

 right away to Formosa or Hainan. The poet 

 therefore was geographically accurate when he said, 

 "the magpie scatters notes of presage wide" It 

 would never do for the magpie, pert, prying, pushing, 

 inquisitive, acquisitive bird that she is, to be behind 

 anybody else in anything ; and if the history of the 

 raven begins with Noah, hers must do so also. She 

 was the only bird so runs the legend who refused 

 to enter the ark when Noah bade her, but preferred 

 to stay gossiping on its roof about the drowning 

 world. The patriarch rebuked her for her con- 

 tumacy, her self-will, her evil example ; and, ever 

 since then, she has been what she is, a bird of 

 mystery, of suspicion, of omen of what kind of 

 omen in any particular case, it is safer not to say 

 till you see what comes after it. 



In one of the hymns of the Rig Veda, the earliest 

 of the Hindu scriptures, the magpie is a bird, now 

 of good, now of evil influence. On the one hand, 

 she is the harbinger of consumption and disease ; 

 on the other, when a witch has deprived two young 

 princes, in their sleep, of speech and life, it is two 

 magpies who are sent, like the two ravens, the 



