THE RAVENS: OF NIMEGUEN. 249 
name, signifying Dead-field, or Corpse-field. 
It is the history, or tradition, that a Multi- 
tude of Christian proselytes were killed and 
buried there, under the persecution of a Ro- 
man governor :— 
«A thousand chosen saints, whom Amphibel had 
taught, 
Flying the Pagan foe, their lives that strictly sought, 
Were slain where Litchfield is, whose name doth 
rightly sound, 
There, of those Christians slain, Dead-field, or Bury- 
ing-ground.” Drayvon. 
** And does not the Raven share in the 
superstitions attached to the Owl?” 
** Assuredly ; and it owes this to its black 
colour, its feeding upon dead bodies, and its 
extraordinary instincts and sagacity. There 
is no part of the world in which the Raven 
has not taken a strong hold upon the imagi- 
nations of mankind, and has, in consequence, 
become an object of much attention, and 
often of marked regard and veneration. On 
the quay at Nimeguen, two ravens are now, 
or were formerly kept, in a roomy apart- 
ment, with a wooden cage in front, which 
served them for a balcony, and fed daily 
