274 THE RAVEN. 
and thrice she held him to the fire, and thrice she 
rubbed him well with brimstone. 
" Terque senem flamma, ter aqua, tet sulphure lustrat." 
She then applied her lancet to his jugular, and having 
let out all the old man's blood, she replaced it with 
broth made from the ingredients which she had 
stewed down for the operation. This did the job, 
and up jumped her father ^son a spruce dashing 
young fellow in the prime of life, with a fine black 
beard in lieu of a white one. N. B. From this oper- 
ation we might surmise, that transfusion of blood in 
surgery is no modern invention. 
Pity it is that the raven, a bird of such note and 
consequence in times gone by, should be exposed to 
unrelenting persecution, in our own days of pro- 
fessed philanthropy. His noble aspect, his aerial 
evolutions, and his wonderful modulations of voice, 
all contribute to render him an ornament to any 
gentleman's park. He can scarcely be styled a bird 
of rapine, in the strict sense of the word; for, in the 
.yfew inland parts of this country where he is still pro- 
tected, we hear of no very alarming acts of depreda- 
tion on his part. A stray chicken or so, during the 
time that he is obliged to feed his young — a rickety 
lamb which would never make mutton — a leveret 
started from her seat by the village mole-catcher — - 
make up nearly the whole amount of the raven's 
plunder. For my own part I would freely give him 
these ; ay, and a dozen pheasants annually to boot, 
if he would but visit us again, and once more attempt 
to take up a permanent abode amongst us. 
