RAVEN. TAS 
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.* The 
colour of the raven has given rise to a similitude, in one of the 
most beautiful of eclogues, which has been perpetuated in all 
subsequent ages, and which is not less pleasing for being trite 
or proverbial. The favourite 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 ! + 
The above-mentioned circumstances taken into considera- 
tion, one would suppose that the lot of the subject of this chap- 
ter would have been of a different complexion from what his- 
tory and tradition inform us is the fact. But in every country 
we are told the raven is considered an ominous bird, whose 
croakings foretell approaching evil; and many a crooked beldam 
has given interpretation to these oracles, of a nature to infuse 
terror into a whole community. Hence this ill-fated bird, 
from time immemorial, has 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 trans- 
mitted to the Romans.{ The crafty legislators of those cele- 
* 1 Kings xvii. 5, 6. 
+ Song of Solomon v. 9, 10, 11. 
+ That the science of augury is very ancient we learn from the 
Hebrew lawgiver, who prohibits it, as well as every other kind of divi- 
nation— Deut. chap. xviii. The Romans derived their 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 auguries. The successors of Romulus, from a conviction of 
the usefulness of the science, and at the same time not to render it con- 
temptible by becoming too familiar, employed the most skilful augurs 
VOL. ILI. ae 
