RAVENS’ FEATHERS. 107 
We read in the First Book of Kings, xvii. 4, that when 
the prophet Elijah fled from the tyranny of King Ahab, 
and concealed himself by the brook Cherith, God com- 
manded the ravens to feed him there. The remembrance 
of this passage may have been in our poet’s mind when he 
penned the following lines in the Winter's Tale. Anti- 
gonus, ordered by Leontes to expose the infant Perdita 
to death, says, with a touch of pity :— 
“ Come on, poor babe: 
Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens 
To be thy nurses!” 
Winter's Tale, Act ii. Sc. 3. 
As in the case of the owl, it appears that ravens’ feathers 
were employed by the witches of old in their incantations ; 
for it was believed that the wings of this bird carried 
contagion with them wherever they appeared. Marlowe, 
in his Few of Malta, speaks of— 
“the sad presaging raven, that tolls 
The sick man’s passport in her hollow beak, 
And in the shadow of the silent night 
Doth shake contagion from her sable wings.” 
Hence the curse which Shakespeare puts into the mouth 
of Caliban :— 
“ As wicked dew as e’er my mother brush’d 
With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen, 
Drop on you both!” 
Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2. 
