THE RAVEN OR CROW IN LITERATURE 



In Sweden the ravens croaking at night in the swamps are 

 said to be the ghosts of murdered persons who have been 

 denied Christian burial, and whom, on this account, Charon 

 has refused ferriage across the river Styx. 



As a companion of saints this bird has had a wide ex- 

 perience; every day for sixty years he brought bread to St. 

 Paul, the Hermit, in the desert, and on the day preceding the 

 saint's death he brought a double share, that there might be 

 sufficient to supply the needs of St. Anthony, who was visiting 

 him. St. Benedict's raven saved his life by bearing away 

 the poisoned loaf sent to this saint by a jealous priest. After 

 his torture and death at Saragossa, when the body of St. 

 Vincent was thrown to the wild beasts, it was rescued by 

 ravens and borne to his brothers at Valencia, where it re- 

 posed in a tomb till the Christians of that place were expelled 

 by the Moors. The remains of the saint were then carried 

 away by the exiled Christians, who were driven ashore at a 

 point since known as Cape St. Vincent, where they were 

 again placed in a tomb, to be guarded evermore by the faith- 

 ful ravens. And to St. Meinrad, St. Oswald, St. Francis, 

 St. Cuthbert, St, Ida and to various other saints and martyrs, 

 did these noble birds render substantial service. 



By some nations, the raven was regarded as the bearer 

 of propitious news from the gods, and sacrosanct; to others 

 he was the precursor of evil and an object of dread. With 

 divining power, which enabled him for ages to tell the farmer 

 of the coming of needed rain, the maiden of the coming of 

 her lover, and the invalid of the coming of death, he was 

 received with joy or sadness, according to the message he 

 bore. 



The belief in his power of divination was so general 

 that knowledge of the whereabouts of the lost has come to 



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