84 ITS USE IN MEDICINE. 



In the ancient pharmacopoeia, which savoured not a 

 little of magic, the owl appears to have been " great medi- 

 cine." Ovid tells us that this bird was used wholesale in 

 the composition of Medea's gruel : — 



" Et strigis infames ipsis cum carnibus alas." 



While, according to Horace, the old witch Canidia made 

 use of the feathers in her incantations : — 



" Plumamque nocturnal strigis." 



The " owlet's wing " was an ingredient of the cauldron 

 wherein the witches prepared their " charm of powerful 

 trouble" (Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. i) ; and, with the character 

 assigned to it by the ancients, Shakespeare, no doubt, felt 

 that the introduction of an owl in a dreadful scene of a 

 tragedy would help to make the subject come home more 

 forcibly to the people, who had, from early times, asso- 

 ciated its presence with melancholy, misfortune, and 

 death. Accordingly, we find the unfortunate owl stig- 

 matized at various times as the " obscure," " ominous," 

 "fearful," and "fatal" "bird of night." Its doleful cry 

 pierces the ear of Lady Macbeth while the murder is 

 being done : — 



" Hark ! — Peace ! It was the owl that shriek'd, 

 The fatal bellman which gives the stern'st good night." 



Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. i. 



And when the murderer rushes in immediately after- 

 wards, exclaiming, — 



