THE CARRION CROW 



67 



as a Crow had croaked about her bedroom window 

 "something dreadful." 



In Thibet, we read, there is an evil city of Crows, and 

 Hiawatha is said to have known of a land of dead crow- 

 men. The .Crow, according to the old Vedas, fell from 

 Paradise, and in Norway there is "the Hill of Bad 

 Spirits," where the souls of the wicked fly about in the 

 guise of crows. Happy the present generation who are 

 taught more toleration for "all things both great and 

 small." 



The Carrion Crow has always done good work as a 

 scavenger, for which he has had small thanks. The poets 

 have all combined in holding him up to execration. 



" My roost is the creaking gibbet's beam 



Where the murderer's bones swing bleaching; 

 Where the clattering chain rings back again 

 To the night-wind's desolate screeching." 



It is good to believe that " sweetness and light " are 

 gradually getting the upper hand; and the gibbet with 

 its ghastly burden, and most of the cruel superstitions 

 concerning some of the most useful of God's feathered 

 creatures are alike a thing of the past. 



