KIDDS OWN JOURNAL. 



167 



to justify this opinion ; but it is on the whole 

 more convenient to admit the three plants as 

 distinct. If we had not already exceeded 

 bounds, we could say much of the best known 

 foreign species and cultivated varieties of 

 the primrose, especially the auricula and the 

 polyanthus, but we must not indulge our- 

 selves. 



The favorite names, rose and violet, were of 

 very vague and extensive application among 

 our ancestors, and primrose (prima rasa) 

 first flower of the season, marks the favor 

 with which this plant was regarded. 



The botanical name now received in this 

 country is primula vulgaris, but it is the P. 

 acaulis of Curtis's London Flora, and the P. 

 grandifiora of Duby in De Candolle's Trod- 

 romus, a work of great authority, much 

 referred to. The natural order is called 

 Prirmdacea', and contains many well known 

 plants — all herbaceous, with a capsular many- 

 seeded fruit, having a free central receptacle 

 for the seeds and the stamens opposite the 

 petals; the straight embryo in the midst 

 of albumen, and lying parallel with the 

 scar. 



W. Hincks, F.L.S. 



ZOOLOGICAL FOLK LORE— No. V. 



BY J. M'lNTOSH, MEM. ENT. SOC, ETC 

 (Continued from Page 99.) 



No. 44. Eggs. — In North Nottinghamshire 

 there exists a species of superstition against 

 letting eggs out of the house after sunset. 

 The Nottingham Journal, alluding to this 

 species of ignorance, says, " A friend of ours 

 the other day, in want of some eggs, called at 

 a respectable farmhouse in East Markham, 

 and inquired of the good woman of the house 

 whether she had any eggs to sell. She 

 replied that she had a few scores to dispose 

 of. '* Then I'll take them home with me in 

 the cart," was the answer. To this she some- 

 what indignantly replied, " No you will not. 

 Don't you know that the sun has gone down? 

 You are welcome to the eggs at a proper 

 time of the day, but I will not let them go 

 out of the house after the sun is set, on any 

 consideration whatever." Can this be true 

 in enlightened 1854? 



45. The Raven. — The raven is almost 

 coeval with man. In the best and most 

 ancient of all books, we read (Genesis viii. 7), 

 that at the end of forty days after the great 

 flood had covered the earth, Noah, wishing 

 to ascertain whether or no the waters had 

 abated, sent forth a raven, which did not 

 return into the ark. This is the first notice 

 taken of this bird. Though the raven was 

 declared unclean by the law of Moses, yet 

 we are informed, that when the prophet 

 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 (2 

 Kings, xvii. 5 — 6). The color of the raven 

 has given rise to a similitude in one of the 

 most beautiful strains, which has been perpe- 

 tuated in all subsequent ages ; it is not the 

 less pleasing for being proverbial. The 

 favorite of the royal lover of Jerusalem, in 

 the enthusiasm of affection, thus describes 

 the object of her adoration, in reply to the 

 following question : — 



What is thy beloved more than another beloved, 

 O 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. 



This ill-fated bird has, from time immemorial, 

 been the innocent subject of vulgar obloquy 

 and detestation ! 



Augury, or the art of foretelling future 

 events by the flight, cries, or motions of 

 birds, descended from the Chaldeans to the 

 Greeks, thence to the Etrurians, and from 

 them it was transmitted to the Romans. That 

 the practice of augury is very ancient, we 

 learn from the Hebrew lawgiver, who pro- 

 hibits it, as well as every other kind of divi- 

 nation. (Deut. chap, xviii.) The Romans 

 derived the knowledge of augury 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 Auguria. The 

 successors 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, employed the most, skilful 

 augurers from Etruria to introduce the prac- 

 tice into their religious ceremonies ; and by 

 a decree of the Senate, some of the youth of 

 the best families were annually sent to 

 Tuscany to be instructed in this art. (See 

 Cicero de Divin.) 



The ancients were not the only people 

 infected by this species of superstition. The 

 moderns, though favored with the light of 

 Christianity, have exhibited as much folly, 

 through the impious curiosity of prying into 

 futurity, as the Romans themselves. It is 

 true that modern nations have not instituted 

 their sacred colleges for the purpose of divi- 

 nation ; but in all countries there have been 

 self-constituted augurs, whose interpretations 

 of omens have been received with vulgar 

 ! respect by the credulous multitudes. Even 

 i at this moment, in some parts of the world, 

 if a raven alights on a village church, the 

 whole fraternity is in an uproar, and Heaven 

 is importuned in all the ardor of devotion, to 

 avert the impending calamity. 



On a very recent occasion (See " Notes 



