230 
RAVENS. 
devoured it. He then hopped down for the other 
piece, and regaining his perch a second time, con- 
sumed that, much to the annoyance of his com- 
panion, whom he thus artfully and cleverly contrived 
to outwit. 
No wonder that so knowing a bird, gifted, at the 
same time, with a voice so deep and solemn, as to 
command attention whenever it is heard, should, in 
all ages, have impressed superstitious people with a 
notion that it had something unearthly in its nature; 
and in heathen countries especially, should have been 
respected by the ignorant as interpreters of the will 
of their idol-gods. Thus, in the remotest periods of 
antiquity, the Raven was consecrated to Apollo, one 
of their chief deities, and by the priests and people, 
was therefore considered as a foreteller of good or 
evil. Through a long course of centuries it has 
borne the same character, and even to this day there 
are not a few who believe that 
• u Ravens give the note of death 
As through mid-air they wing their way.” 
It is most probable that their supposed prophetic 
power, respecting battles and bloodshed, originated 
in their very frequent presence on these occasions, 
drawn to the field of slaughter by an attractive ban- 
quet of unburied bodies of the slain. Hence, poets 
have described it as possessing a mysterious know- 
ledge of these things. 
“ 111 omen’d bird ! as legends say, 
Thou hast the wondrous power to know 
While health fills high the throbbing veins 
The fated hour when blood must flow. 
The Icelanders, notwithstanding their endeavours 
