REIKEVIG. 
2 76 
afford the natives a salutary and welcome meal, 
but that, being destitute of fire-arms, they have 
no means of killing them. Poultry of all kind is 
quite unknown to the Icelanders, except that a 
“ Thus in days of yore she sang, 
“ When the din of battle rang; 
When the hour of death drew nigh, 
“And mighty chiefs were doom’d to die. 
THOR. 
“ The Raven croaks 5 the warriors slain 
“ With blood her dusky wings distain j 
“ Tir’d, her morning prey she seeks, 
“ And with blood and carnage reeks. 
“ Thus, perch’d upon an aged oak, 
“ The boding bird was heard to croak ; 
“ When all the plain with blood was spread, 
“ Thirsting for the mighty dead. 
“ The Raven was also sacred to Odin , the Hero and God of 
« the North. On the sacred flag of the Danes was em- 
“ broidered this bird. Odin was said always to have been 
<< attended with two, who sate on his shoulders, whence he 
was* called the Gocl of Ravens: one was styled Huginn or 
“ Thought; the other Muninn or Memory. They whispered in 
“ his ear all they saw or heard. In the earliest dawn he sent 
“ them to fly round the world, and they returned before din- 
“ ner, fraught with intelligence. Odin thus sang their 
importance: 
Huginn and Muninn , my delight 1 
“ Speed through the world their daily flight: 
