278 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 



RAVEN. 

 CORVUS COR.iX. 



[Plate XXIV.] 



Gmel. Syst. I, p. 364. — Ind. Orn.p. 150. — Le Cor beau, 

 Briss. 2. p. 8, et var. — Buff. Ois. 3, /;. 13. PL enl. 

 495. — Temm. Man. d'0?-n. p. 107. — Haven, Lath. 

 Gen. Syn. i. p. 367. Id. sup, p. 74. — Penn. Brif. 

 Zool. No. 74. ^rct. Zool. No. 134.— Shaw, Gen. 

 Zool. 7, p. 341. — Bewick, 1, p. 100. — Low, Fauna 

 Orcadensis, p. 45. — Philada. Museum. 



"A knowledge of this celebrated bird has been handed 

 down to us from the earliest ages; and its history is almost 

 coeval with that of man. In the best and most ancient of all 

 books, we learn, that at the end of forty days, after the great 

 flood had covered the earth, Noah, wishing to ascertain 

 whether or not the waters had abated, sent forth a Raven, 

 which did not return into the ark.* This is the first notice 

 that is taken of this species. Though the Raven was de- 

 clared unclean by the law of Moses, yet we are informed, 

 that when the propliet Elijah provoked the enmity of Ahab, 

 by prophesying against him; and hid himself by the brook 

 Cherith, the Ravens were appointed by Heaven to bring him 

 his daily food.t The colour of the Raven gave rise to a 

 similitude in one of the most beautiful of eclogues, which has 

 been perpetuated in all subsequent ages, and which is not less 

 pleasing for being trite or proverbial. The favourite of the 

 royal lover of Jerusalem, in the enthusiasm of afibction, 

 thus describes the object of her adoration, in reply to the 

 following question: 



' What is thy beloved more than another beloved, 

 thou fairest among women ? ' 'My beloved is white and 

 ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as 

 the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a 



Raven. 'X 



The above mentioned circumstances taken into conside- 

 ration, one should suppose that the lot of the subject of tiiis 

 chapter would have been of a different complexion from 

 what history and tradition inform us is the fact. But in 

 every country, we are told, the Raven is considered an 

 omuious bird, whose croakings forotell approaching evil; 

 and many a crooked beldam has given interpretation to these 

 oracles, of a nature to infuse terror into a whole community. 

 Hence this ill-fated bird, immemorially, has been the inno- 

 cent subject of vulgar detestation. 



* Gen. viii. 7. 



t Song of Solomon, v. 9, 10, 11. 



t 1 Kings, xvii. 5, 6. 



Augury, or the art of foretelling future events by the 

 flight, cries, or motion of birds, descended from the Chal- 

 deans to the Greeks, thence to the Etrurians, and from them 

 it was transmitted to the Romans.* The crafty legislators 

 of these celebrated nations, from a deep knowledge of hu- 

 man nature, made superstition a principal feature of their 

 religious ceremonies; well knowing that it required a more 

 than ordinary policy to govern a multitude, ever liable to 

 the fatal influences of passion; and who, without some time- 

 ly restraints, would burst forth like a torrent, whose course 

 is marked by wide-spreading desolation. Hence, to the 

 purposes of polity the Raven was made subservient; and the 

 Romans having consecrated it to Apollo, as to the god of 

 divination, its flight was observed with the greatest solem- 

 nity; and its tones and inflections of voice were noted with 

 a precision, which intimated a belief in its infallible pre- 

 science. 



But the ancients have not been the only people infected 

 with this species of superstition: the moderns, even though 

 favoured with the light of Christianity, have exhibited as 

 much folly, through the impious curiosity of prying into fu- 

 turity, as the Romans themselves. It is true that modern 

 nations have not instituted their sacred colleges or sacer- 

 dotal orders, for the purposes of divination; but in all coun- 

 tries there have been self-constituted augurs, whose interpre- 

 tations of omens have been received witii religious respect 

 by the credulous multitude. Even at this moment, in some 

 parts of the world, if a Raven alight on a village church, 

 the whole fraternity is in an uproar; and Heaven is impor- 

 tuned, in all the ardour of devotion, to avert the impending 

 calamity. 



The poets have taken advantage of this weakness of hu- 

 man nature, and in their hands the Raven is a fit instrument 

 of terror. Shakspcare puts the following malediction into 

 the mouth of his Caliban: 



"As wicked dew as ere my motlier brusli'd 

 With Raven's feather, from unwliolcsome fen 

 Drop on you both! "t 



* That the seienec of augury is very ancient, we learii from the Hebrew- 

 lawgiver, who prohibits it, as well as every other kind of divination. Deut. 

 chap, xviii. The Romans derived their knowledge of angury chiefly from 

 the Tuscans or Etrurians, who practised it in the earliest times. This art 

 was known in Italy before the time of Romulus, since that prince did not 

 commence the building of Rome till he had taken the auguries. The suc- 

 cessors of Romulus, from a conviction of the usefulness of the science, and 

 at the same time not to render it contemptible, by becoming too familiar, em- 

 ployed the most skilful augurs from Etruria, to introduce the practice of it 

 into their religious ceremonies. And by a decree of the senate, some of the 

 youth of the best families in Rome were annually sent into Tuscany, to bo 

 instructed in this art. Vide Ciceron. de Divin. iVlso Calmet, and the abb6 

 Banicr. 



t Tempest, act i. scene 2. 



