136 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



find that nothing short of a providential watch- 

 ing would prevent them from devouring the 

 prophet's morsel. 



An old fourteenth-century manuscript writ- 

 ten in the English of that time relates in rude 

 verse the raven's outgoing from the ark as 



follows : 



" Then opin Noe his windowe 

 Let ut a rauen and forth lie flew 

 Dune and up, sought here and thare 

 A stede to sett upon somewquar, 

 Upon the water sone he fand 

 A drinkled beste ther flotand 

 Of that fless was he so fain 

 To ship come he neuer againe." 



Spenser, the old poet, tells us of 



" The hoarse night rauen trump of doleful drere." 



Shakespeare has it that the raven 



" Tolls 



The sick man's passport in her hollow bill, 

 And in the shadow of the silent night 

 Doth shake contagion from her sable wings." 



It was believed that the nestlings could be 

 made into medicine, and here is the way to do 

 it as given by Guillim, who wrote so long ago 

 that his English may not be understood at a 

 glance : 



