278 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 
RAVEN. 
CORVUS CO RAX. 
[Plate XXIV.] 
Gsiel. Syst. i , p. 364. — Ind. Orn.p. 150. — Le Corbeau, 
Briss. 2. p. 8, et var. — Buff. Ois. 3, p. 13. PI. enl. 
495. — Temm. Man. d’Orn. p. 107. — Raven, Lath. 
Gen. Syn. i. p. 367. Id. sup. p. 74. — Penn. Brit. 
Zool. No. 74. Arct. Zool. No. 134. — Shaw, Gen. 
Zool. 7, p. 341. — Bewick, 1, p. 100.— Low, Fauna 
Orcadeiisis, p. 45. — Phil ad a. Museum. 
“ A knowledge of this celebrated bird has been handed 
down to us from the earliest ages; and its history is almost 
coeval with that of man. In the best and most ancient of all 
books, we learn, that at the end of forty days, after the great 
flood had covered the earth, Noah, wishing to ascertain 
whether or not the waters had abated, sent forth a Raven, 
which did not return into the ark.* This is the first notice 
that is taken of this species. Though the Raven was de- 
clared 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.t The colour of the Raven gave 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, 0 
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,’ X 
The above mentioned circumstances taken into conside- 
ration, one should suppose that the lot of the subject of this 
chapter would have been of a different complexion from 
what history and tradition inform us is the fact. But in 
every coihntry, we are told, the Raven is considered an 
omnious 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, immemorially, has been the inno- 
cent subject of vulgar detestation. 
* Gen. viii. 7. f 1 Kings, xvii. 5, 6. 
t Song of Solomon, v. 9, 10, 11. 
Augury, or the art of foretelling future events by the 
flight, cries, or motion of birds, descended from the Chal- 
deans to the Greeks, thence to the Etrurians, and from them 
it was transmitted to the Romans.* The crafty legislators 
of these celebrated nations, from a deep knowledge of hu- 
man nature, made superstition a principal feature of their 
religious ceremonies; well knowing that it required a more 
than ordinary policy to govern a multitude, ever liable to 
the fatal influences of passion; and who, without some time- 
ly restraints, would burst forth like a torrent, whose course 
is marked by wide-spreading desolation. Hence, to the 
purposes of polity the Raven was made subservient; and the 
Romans having consecrated it to Apollo, as to the god of 
divination, its flight was observed with the greatest solem- 
nity; and its tones and inflections of voice were noted with 
a precision, which intimated a belief in its infallible pre- 
science. 
But the ancients have not been the only people infected 
with this species of superstition: the moderns, even though 
favoured with the light of Christianity, have exhibited as 
much folly, through the impious curiosity of prying into fu- 
turity, as the Romans themselves. It is true that modem 
nations have not instituted their sacred colleges or sacer- 
dotal orders, for the purposes of divination; but in all coun- 
tries there have been self-constituted augurs, whose interpre- 
tations of omens have been received with religious respect 
by the credulous multitude. Even at this moment, in some 
parts of the world, if a Raven alight on a village church, 
the whole fraternity is in an uproar; and Heaven is impor- 
tuned, in all the ardour of devotion, to avert the impending 
calamity. 
The poets have taken advantage of this weakness of hu- 
man nature, and in their hands the Raven is a fit instrument 
of terror. Shakspeare puts the following malediction into 
the mouth of his Caliban: 
“As wicked de,w as ere my mother brush’d 
With Raven’s feather, from unwholesome fen 
Drop on you both! ”t 
* That the science of augury is very ancient, we learn from the Hebrew 
lawgiver, who prohibits it, as well as every other kind of divination. 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 suc- 
cessors 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, em- 
ployed the most skilful augurs from Etruria, to introduce the practice of it 
into their religious ceremonies. And by a decree of the senate, some of the 
youth of the best families in Rome were annually sent into Tuscany, to be 
instructed in this art. Vide Ciceron. de Divin. Also Calmet, and the abbe 
Banier. 
t Tempest, act i. scene 2. 
