l62 



Bird Legends. 



precious "stone" must climb up and kill one 

 of the young ravens, who must be a cock 

 bird, and not over six weeks old. Then 

 the aggressor decends, taking careful note 

 of the tree. The old raven immediately 

 returns with the stone, which he puts in his 

 son's beak, and, thereupon, both tree and 

 nest become invisible. The man, however, 

 feels for the tree, and on reaching the nest 

 he carries off the stone in triumph. Riigen 

 folks declare that this feat can only be ac- 

 complished by the help of the devil, and 

 that the man's soul is the price paid for 

 such assistance. 



The Swabian peasantry maintain that the 

 young ravens are nourished solely by the 

 dew from heaven during the first nine days 

 of their existence. As they are naked, and 

 of a light color, the old birds do not believe 

 they are their progeny, and consequently 

 neglect to feed them; but they occasionally 

 cast a glance at the nest, and when the 

 young ones begin to show a little black 

 down on their breasts by the tenth day, the 

 parents bring them the first carrion. 



The magpie shares the raven's reputation 

 for sorcery in many places, and he is also 

 supposed to bring bad luck. Silesia is the 

 only exception, for there people think that 

 the chattering of a magpie foretells the ar- 

 rival of esteemed visitors. In Tyrol, on 

 the contrary, its screaming denotes famine 

 or pestilence. Whenever a magpie screams 

 outside a house in West Prussia or Hesse, 

 it is regarded as a sure token of strife within 

 that same day. A magpie boiled down 

 into soup makes him who eats it lose his 

 senses. 



In Lech Valley a curious notion exists, 

 that when nine magpies are seen together, 

 one of them is sure to be a witch. It is 

 unlucky to shoot a magpie in Prussia; and 

 in the Wetterau, the same theory is held 

 respecting the water-wagtails, who are much 

 given to frequenting the neighborhood of 

 cows, "because they were formerly cows 

 themselves !" 



Popular tradition states that magpies 

 were originally white birds, and that they 

 owe their black feathers to some enchant- 

 ment. But the time will come when they 

 will cast off the spell and resume once more 

 their snowy plumage, and then happy days 

 will dawn on the earth. The Emperor 

 Barbarossa sleeps within the mountain so 

 long as the magpies wear their parti-colored 

 plumage; but when they gain their former 

 white hue, he will awake, and will emerge 

 from his subterranean cavern, to reign 

 triumphantly over a great united Father- 

 land. In Uhland's well-known ballad of 

 the Emperor Barbarossa, it is the ravens 

 who encircle the Kyffhauser mountain 

 where the Kaiser reposes. 



Other ill-omened birds are the jackdaws, 

 whose appearance in flights betokens either 

 tempest or war; and the owl, whose hooting 

 portends death; while in the Prussian Mark, 

 Silesia, and Austria, the same quality is 

 ascribed to the cock when he crows into 

 the house. A crowing hen means ill-fortune, 

 but it can be averted by immediately wring- 

 ing the neck of the evil prophet. A white 

 cock is a good omen. The Tyrolese peas- 

 anty say that, when a cock is seven years 

 old, he lays an t^^g which produces a 

 dragon. 



Peacocks, when they make their dis- 

 agreeable shrill noise, are said to predict 

 rain, a piece of weather lore embodied in 

 the following couplet: 



When the peacock loudly bawls, 

 Then we'll have both rain and squalls. 



And in Lupton's " Notable Things," we read 

 that the oftener they cry the more rain is 

 signified. Again, the woodpecker's cry de- 

 notes wet, a notion which prevails on the 

 Continent of Europe. It has on this account 

 been properly called the "rain bird," and in 

 Northumberland it is known as the "rain 

 fowl." Several items of weather lore are 

 associated with our domestic bird, the cock. 

 Thus, according to an old proverb: 



