IOO 
THE RAVEN, 
Cook ; and in the lowest Southern or Antarctic regions, 
other travellers have found him pursuing his cautious 
predatory life, just as in England.* 
From the' earliest times the raven, with his deep and 
solemn voice, has always commanded attention, and 
superstitious people have become impressed with the idea 
that there is something unearthly in his nature and 
ominous in his voice.f By the Romans this bird was 
consecrated to Apollo, and regarded as a foreteller of 
good or evil. Through a long course of centuries this 
character has clung to him ; and even to this day, there 
are many who believe that the raven’s croak predicts a 
death. 
No wonder, then, that Shakespeare has taken advantage 
of this wide-spread belief, and has introduced the raven 
into many of the solemn passages of his Plays, to carry 
conviction to the minds of the people, and render his 
images the more impressive. He frequently alludes to 
“the ill-boding raven : ” 
“It comes o’er my memory, 
As doth the raven o’er the infectious house, 
Boding to all” 
Othello , Act iv. Sc. i. 
Thersites, in Troilus and Cressida (Act v. Sc. 2), 
says,— 
* Stanley’s “ Familiar History of Birds,” p. T79. 
f An excellent dissertation on the organ of voice in the raven will be found in 
the second volume of Yarrell’s " British Birds,” 3rd ed. p. 72 
