104 ITS PRESENCE ON BATTLE-FIELDS. 



" Ravens 

 Fly o'er our heads, and downward look on us, 

 As we were sickly prey." 



Julius Ccesar, Act v. Sc. 3. 



In Henry V (Act iv. Sc. 2) we have a graphic picture of 

 a distressed army followed by ravens on the look-out for 

 corpses : — 



" Yond island carrions, desperate of their bones, 

 Ill-favour'dly become the morning field : 

 Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose, 

 And our air shakes them passing scornfully. 

 And their executors, the knavish crows, 

 Fly o'er them all, impatient for their hour." 



It is most probable that the supposed prophetic 

 power of the raven, respecting battles and bloodshed, 

 originated in its frequent presence on these occasions, 

 drawn to the field of slaughter by an attractive banquet 

 of unburied bodies of the slain. Hence poets have 

 described this bird as possessing a mysterious knowledge 

 of these things. The Icelanders, notwithstanding their 

 endeavours to destroy as many as they can, yet give 

 them credit for the gift of prophecy, and have a high 

 opinion of them as soothsayers. And the priests of the 

 North American Indians wear, as a distinguishing mark 

 of their sacred profession, two or three raven skins, 

 fixed to the girdle behind their back, in such a 



