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They will not rob the nest of this bird. Some people attribute this 

 to the belief that such an act would surely be revenged by a raid on the 

 chickens ; but those who are well versed in folk-lore, especially in the 

 South of Ireland, confess that the immunity enjoyed by the scare-crow 

 is due to some other cause than fear for the safety of young chickens ; 

 and although few persons are to be met with capable of defining the 

 actual reason, there is little doubt that the freedom from molestation is 

 traceable to superstitious fear inspired by the Badb in ancient times. 



The croaking of the Badb was considered to be peculiarly unlucky — 

 much more so than the croaking of a raven. In fact, not many years 

 ago, sturdy men who heard the scare-crow shriek in the morning would 

 abandon important projects long fixed for the same day. 



Nor is this superstition confined to Ireland alone. The popular 

 tales of Scotland and Wales, which are simply the echo of similar 

 stories once current, and still not quite extinct, in this country, contain 

 frequent allusions to this mystic bird. The readers of the Mabinogion 

 will call to mind, amongst other instances, the wonderful crow of 

 Owain, prince of Eheged, a contemporary of Arthur, mentioned in the 

 tale called the Dream of Ehonabwy, which always secured victory by the 

 aid of the three hundred crows under its command ; and in Campbell's 

 Popular Tales of the West Highlands we have a large stock of legends, 

 in most of which the principal fairy agency is exercised by the hoody 

 or scare-crow. 



It may be observed, by the way, that the name hoody, formerly 

 applied by the Scotch to the hooded crow, or scare-crow, from its appear- 

 ance, is now generally applied to its less intelligent relative, the com- 

 mon carrion-crow. But the hoody of Highland fairy mythology is, 

 nevertheless, the same as the Badb, or royston-crow. 



I have referred to Neman, Macha, and Morrigu, as the so- called sisters 

 of the Badb. Properly speaking, however, the name Badb would seem to 

 have been the distinctive title of the mythological beings supposed to rule 

 over battle and carnage. M. Pictet feels a difficulty in deciding whether 

 there were three such beings, or whether Neman, Macha, and Mor~ 

 rigu, are only different names of the same goddess ; but after careful 

 examination of the subject, I am inclined to believe that these names 

 represent three different characters, the attributes of Neman being like 

 those of Eros, who confounded her victims with madness, whilst Mor- 

 rigu incited to deeds of valour, or planned strife and battle, and Macha 

 revelled amidst the bodies of the slain. 



The task of elucidating the mythological character of these fairy 

 queens has not been rendered easier by the labours of the etymologists, 

 from Cormac to O'Davoran. . Thus, in Cormac's Glossary, Nemann is 

 said to have been the wife of JNeit, " the god of battle with the pagan 

 Gaeidhel." In the battle of Magh-Rath (O'Donovan's ed., p. 241) 

 she is called Be nith-gubhach Neid, " the battle- terrific Be- Neid," or 

 " wife of Neid." In an Irish MS. in Trin. Coll. Dublin, class H. 3, 18, 

 p. 73, col. 1, Neit is explained "gum duine .i. gaisced ; dia catha. 



R. I. A. PROC — VOL. X. 3 L 



