REFERENCE LIBRARY
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BIRDS

OMEN

OF

IN SHETLAND.
(INAUGURAL ADDRESS TO .THE VIKING CLUB, LONDON,OCTOBER '3, ,892.)

BY

JESSIEAUTHOR

OF

M.

"THE

E.

SAXBY,

VIKING

BOYS,"

ETC.

•

WITH

NOTES ON THE FOLK-LORE OF
THE

RAVEN

AND

THE

OWL.

BY

W. A. CLOUSTON,AUTHOR OF "PUPULAR TALES AND FICTIONS,"PERSIAl' GARDEN,""FLOW"-RS FROM A".Tr:.

Qusth the Raven, '.' Nevermore 1"-E. A. Poe.
It was the Owl that shrieked,
That falal bellman, that gives the slern'st Good Nighl.-/l1ITcbeth.

ot;itJ!
PRIVA TEL YPRINTED.

18 93.

aub

JtDt!a1 ~ura~.n!

JirhhntIl

CON TEN T S.

BIRDS OF OMEN IN SHETLAND:
PAGE

Introductory5

The Corbie

6

The Katyogle

II

ConclusionIS

FOLK-LoRE OF THE RAVEN AND THE OWL:

I. The Raven
II. The Owl

1726

BIRDS OF OMEN IN SHETLAND.
BY

JESSIEM.

E.

SAX BY.

---t---

I

AM afraid that you will think that I hal'e chosen a very gruesome
subject to talk about; but perhaps you will see "light" when I
mention that my purpose is to dwell upon the "surroundings" of Birdsof Omen as much as upon the feathered folk themselves. Moreover, I
shall confine my remarks to a couple only of the many birds who figure
in mythology and superstition as the augurs of Fate. And, because
we are an association of Northern folk, my two Birds of Omen are thepair best known to our beloved fatherland. They are the Corbie andthe Katyogle.
Not only are these well known in the North, they stand first of birds
in all folk-lore. The Corbie (or Raven) is sacred to the All-Father. The
Katyogle (or Owl) is consecrated to the goddess of wisdom. From Odincame the "strong hand," which made, the sea-kings masters of men
while the human race shall exist upon earth. From Pallas Athene camethe mighty mind which made the Greeks a living power for all time.
Now, I hope you will not think the time misspent which we are goingto give to the history of two, such notable and interesting creatures as
the "familiars" of the greatest of gods and the wisest of goddesses.
I have too much respect for the Corbie and Katyogle to dwell in
detail upon their natural history. I care not for their" order," according to the scientist. The genus and species to which they belong
influence me not one whit. Why-when I know on the authority of a
Shetland witch, that the Corbie can assume any form he pleases, andthat the Katyogle is the inhabitant of another world in disguise-why
should I trouble my spirit with assigning to either a place in the
Darwinian circle?
What does a katyogle who can read the future care for systems
which are formed upon things seen and proved? What does a corbie,
whose ancestor scomed Noah and the flood, care for the rules laid

6

Birds of Omen ill She

down in class-books? They don't care, and no more do I when thinking of them: their legendary history is that which interests me, andwhich I hope to make interesting to you.
Before entering. further into the details of their st<,>ry, I may remark.
that, in glancing back at the nature-worship of primitive man, it is easy
to discover how certain birds and beasts become associated with certain
attributes, and, later, with certain persons. As a matter of fact, thevirtues and vices of humanity live in the lower orders of creatures,
and are as marked in them as in individuals of our race. Any person
interested in the study of natural science must notice this constantly.
We are not much in advance of our nature-worshipping forefathers when
we talk of ·cllildren as" little ducks," of amorous couples as "turtledoves," of a lawyer as a "sly fox," of a treacherous coward as a "cur,"of a vain person as a " peacock."
Indeed, we may frankly own that in many things our forefathers
were wiser than we; they reflected more, and they looked abroad
beyond their own kind more. " The proper study of mankind is man,"says a famous writer; but I venture to differ from him. It is from thecreation beneath us, and the creation above us, from physiology andpsychology, that' we gather our most valuable lore.. It is from the studyof" beasts which perish," and the study of" things unseen and eternal,"that we learn what we are ourselves.
I do not in the least wonder that folk lang syne believed that the"birds of the air" could" tell the matter," and I think that Sigurd theVolsing understood the language of wood-peekers, chattering about
himself, just as well as Eve knew what a serpent had to whisper in awoman's ear. I do not say this scoffingly. "There are more things inheaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy," and I am
more than willing to give credence to a great deal of what we have beentaught to sneer at as superstitions, but which I prefer to call "glimpsesof the unknown," distorted, no doubt, but proceeding from some hidden
source of truth all the same.
And now we return to our two royal Birds of Omen, and beginningwith Yar.! Corbie, let us dwell first upon his character and his
antecedents.
I trust no native of our Isles, or of Scandinavia, is so left to himself
as to confound a Raven with an ignoble, base-born Crow: let that crowbe as black as the vilest of his kind is painted. The Sassenach, whowalks by things seen, may detect little difference; but the Northman, who
has risked his life in scaling the precipices to take a Raven's nest; theudaller, who ,has seen the eye struck out of the head of his "puiraumous baste 0' a riil 'at wis in linin'''; the islanger, who has watched
the bold reiver flyaway with his" awlie fool"; the fisher, who has cursed

The Cor/Jie.

7

the ominous "corp! corp!" that followed him from the land, when his
boat's head was for the haaf: these know that a mere Crow can neverpresume to call himself brother to a Raven.
Even from a naturalist's point of view, the two are quite different incharacter and habits. T-he Crow is social, fond of gossiping, and-inquisitive to a degree. The Raven is recluse in his habits, and nevertroubles himself about any fowl outside of his immediate circle, and therequirements of his dinner-table. The Crow is a petty pilferer, dodging
around back-doors and stealing any trifle he can .find. The Ravenprosecutes the profession of "lifting," after the manner of a Rob Roy,or a Viking. The Crow is a shuffling, sneaking, common thief. The
Raven is a dignified and daring brigand.
Those who have studied the Raven can well understand how the
Sea-kings of the North took him for their emblem in preference to allother creatures.
The lordly bird, dwelling aloof in some inaccessible precipice,floating silently on black wings over the heads of more common
creatures, dropping with stern, implacable ferocity on his prey, calmly
croaking of doom when the sun shines, rejoicing in a storm, haunting
the footsteps of death, feasting on the dead: well might he be taken as
the symbol and companion of Sea-rovers, whose sable flag was the terrorof nations, whose Raven ensign seldom drooped before the banner of afoe. The Raven ,,:as held sacred by the Vikings. When setting out
on marauding expeditions, the Raven was, with many ceremonies, letloose, and where he led the Norsemen followed, believing that their
Bird of Omen would lead to some scene of triumph.
The device on OQin's shield was a Raven; so was that on theLandeyda of Sigurd. At the prow of each Viking ship, at the mastheads,on the warrior's crest, sat the Raven. Little wonder if the bird had
become associated with images of death and despair. When Odin first
appeared in Northland, he was accompanied by "two Ravens who could
speak all manner of tongues, and flew on his behests to the uttermost
parts of the earth."
When the famous Viking Floki set out on his first
great voyage of discovery, he took with him three Ravens, which he had
previously consecrated to the gods Odin, Thor, and Balder. On
approaching Iceland Floki "let fly before him" the Ravens. The
bird consecrated to Thor flew away back to the Faroe Isles, from.whence the Viking had sailed; the bird consecrated to Odin returned
and rested on the ship; the bird consecrated to Balder flew onward anddiFected the voyager to the land of which he was in search. This Floki
was one of the first of the Sea-kings who set out for the express purposeof disc011ery rather than plunder. To fight and conquer had always been
the Scandinavians' first object, but Floki seems to have been possessed8

Birds of Omen ~'1Z Shellana.

of a passion for more peaceful and laudable adventure. He h~dboundless faith in the Raven, and was, so fortunate in all his voyages,
through following his noted birds, that" Rafn," or " Hrafn," was added
to his name; and he is spoken of in the Saga as "Floki Rafna."
On the eve of battle the Ravens were supposed to gather from afar,
and foretell the results of the impending conflict, by hovering over those
who would be vanquished. But the Bird of Omen was not the only
creature who came to the field of fight, with the instinctive knowledge
that the clashing o,f arms was the beginning of war:
Worms of the earth and fGwls of the air,
Beasts of the forest all gathering there;
All regarding man as their prey,
All rejoicing in his decay.
These must be gainers no matter which side lost or won. The warsong of Harold Harfager begins with a grand description of the partwhich nature, ani~ate and inanimate, takes in the fierce meeting ofheroes:
The sun is rising dimly red,
The wind is wailing low and dread,
From his cliff the eagle sallies,
Leaves the wolf his darksome valleys,
In the mist the ravens hover,
Peep the wild dogs from the cover,
Screaming, croaking, baying, yelling,
Each in his wild accents telling" Soon we feast on dead and dying,
Fair·haired Harold's flag is flying."
One of the most beautiful legends of the Raven I know is that of theyoung Sea-king Ingulf, who sailed away to win renown, carrying withhim his father's blessing and the family Raven, who had been thecompanion of his ancestors for more than a century. For long months'
old Torsting looked for his only son's dragon to return, ,but the ship
came not. Months, ay, years, went by, and then one day the Raven
alighted by the threshold. He was recognised and welcomed, andeager eyes turned to the sea expecting to behold Ingulf's dragon at last.
There was no vessel in the offing, and old Torsting, on whose wrist
the Raven had perched, discovered an iron ring upon the bird's leg.
That Ingulf was a prisoner he never doubted, for that fatal badge ot
captivity told the story: and in grief and wrath the father prepared togo forth to search for his son, and free him from his chains or die in
the attempt. The Raven he doubted not would guide to the place
where Ingulf languished j but a week before the day of the intended
departure the Raven disappeared. The omen was dark, but old
Torsting still determined on embarking, and when the appointed timeTlte Corbic.

9

arrived he sought the shore where his ship lay ready. As he stood amoment to bid farewell to weeping wife and daughters, the Raven wasseen swiftly flying over the sea towards his master. Without sound, as
direct as a bullet, the bird shot downwards and dropped dead at
Torsting's feet. As the Sea-king raised the lifeless Raven he found,tangled in its beak, a long lock of golden hair with a piece of gory scalp
and a well-known silver fillet attached to it. "The hair of Ingulf! My
son no longerlives!" said the old man. "Yet will I go in search of him;
I will follow Ingulf to Valhalla: let my pyre be lit in yonder ship."
Bearing the dead Raven on his folded arms Torsting stepped aboard to
Perish on the wave,
Like the old Vikinger brave,
And in high Valhalla's halls,
Hold' eternal festivals;
And drink the blood-red draught
None but heroes ever quaffed,
With Odin and the spirits of the free.
I n the fire, or in the wreck;
He will die upon the deck,
And be buried like a' monarch of the sea.

)

After such a tragedy as that, I scarcely like to enlarge upon adifferent kind of story of a Raven, which, however, might have ended
in a tragedy too:
A certain Shetland witch was in the habit of changing persons witha Corbie, which she kept as a " familiar." He would sit harmless in thechimney corner, as a decent auld wife in " mutch " and" slug," while
she roamed the skies on evil errands, in the ominous garb of a Raven.
The witch had a daughter who was graduating in her mother's profession,and the daughter one day tried to personate the Raven too. By ill-luck
she forgot the magic words necessary for bringing her back to humanshape; and she must have remained a corbie for the rest of her days,
if her witch-mother had not received intimation of the state of affairs,from the real Raven, disporting himself as a comely lass, but desirous ofrecovering his own person ere long. By some mighty effort of witch c
craft, the proper transformation was effected, but with a little drawback:the girl did not recover the use of her human tongue, but croaked likea Raven to the end of her days; and that was the origin of the burr inspeech which we call "corbieing." Any person who has this particularkind of articulation is believed to have witch-blood in him. No doubt
you have heard and believe, that, when Ravens are seen" conflicting in
the air," and calling occasionally "corp! corp! corp!" somebody isgoing to die. A sceptic may say that a Corbie is safe to predict that
there will-be a corpse knocking around, for there genc:rally is. But thatis not a fair inference; and so you will find, if you chance to be the

10

.,

Birds of Omen in Shetland.

person who sees and hears the Raven so prophesying. For the" corp"
to which he alludes }s one in which you, the listener, are personallyinterested.
I often think that Yarl Corbie wishes us to accept him in the words
of one of his kind, who spoke from a basket on the back of Barnaby
Rudge. "I'm a devil! I'm a devil!" loudly proclaimed that Raven;and as a fallen angel is a grander creature than a mere earth-born fowl, I
think, I rather prefer to accept the Raven on his own statement. He
certainly looks Satanic, and we know him to be in league with powersof darkness. He commands our respect and awes us in spite of our. selves. When I see a Raven I want to remember some" guid wird"that will "sain" me, and I would. advise you all to take the same
precaution.
Ravens are not in the habit of "flocking," like crows and otherignoble birds. They only gather in crowds when death has spread thebanquet for the Raven. You will not find more than one or two pairs
frequenting a district; but i( some poor beast dies, the Corbies soon
appear in numbers around 'the body. Where they come from, and how
they know so soon of the feast spread for them, is a mystery, unless, asI have already said, they are in league with Satanic powers.
Although Ravens are not uncommon in our Islands, I daresay one
would be over the mark in saying that a hundred couples have residence
in our cliffs, yet on one occasion some eight hundred were found collected to gorge upon" flinched" whales at Uyasound. Now, where
did all those corbies come from? And where do all the Corbies comefrom whenever carrion is around? It has been observed that Ravens
do far more harm on Sunday than on any other day of the week; andan old man told me the reason was that the" odious craters want tashaw their disrespect for Gude, like the Deil's ain bairns 'at they are."
A more commonplace explanation is that on Sunday there are few
people out of doors in Shetland j all is quiet, and the Raven, taking
advantage of the Sabbath silence and solitude, boldly carries on his"lifting" with impunity. It is a common belief that Ravens are attracted
to a house where a corpse is lying, and I see nothing unreasonable in the
belief, when we know that Ravens flock mysteriously to some spot
where carrion lies; a spot where never more than two or three havebeen seen together. They are not" fetched " by their brothers. They
come from afar, led by some subtle sense beyond the senses of mere
man to comprehend.
The Raven attaches himself to a locality and clings to that spot withextreme tenacity. Year after year he resumes his nest on the same
cliff, and will not be driven from it. There he dwells winter andsummer, amid the lofty precipices overhanging the sea. The nightTlte Katyo,f!le.

IIwinds wail and the billows foam around. The snows drift over therocks, and salt waters fling their spray upon his nest, but, unmoved andimmutable, the Raven remains king of the cliff while generations of~menare born and perish.
BUT perhaps I have dwelt long enough upon the Bird of Odin, so
will now turn to the Bird of Pallas-the bird of "profound meditation" and "prophesy." The Serpent, which was also one of Pallas
Athene's "familiars," represents her wisdom, and the Owl her r¢teclive
and prophetic attributes. I do not know what kind of owl it was thatthe goddess chose. It may have been the" sad Aziola," which Shelleythought was "some tedious woman," until he learned to love its
melancholy tones. It was in Italy that he found this owl, and possibly
the Aziola is the Owl of Greek mythology. But as I have not, like
Shelley, studied that creature in its native haunts, a~d as history gives us
no details regarding the Bird of Pallas, I will speak of the king of its
kind with whom I am familiar; that is the Snowy Owl, the Katyogle of
the North. There is something eerie and awesome in the very word
Katyogle. I have never got over my early impressions regarding thecreature, and these were of a most ghostly nature, being associated withwinter, darkness, the death of a neighbour, and whispers of the Katyogle
being" sent" as "a warning," if "folk wad but look and understand thesigns that come frae Abune." I well remember the occasion when I
first beheld a real live Katyogle. One was crippled, captured, "andbrought to my father, and we were desired to go and look at this ram
avis. If it had been before explained to me that a Katyogle is a Snowy
Owl, familarity with pictures of its congeners might have destroyed myillusions regarding the creature; but ,,,hen I heard its English. name I
also saw its living self, and that confirmed my childish belief in it supernatural character. A large, lordly bird, of snowy plumage, with solemn
face, bespeaking a mind rapt in contemplation of nature's mysteries, yet
alive to the degradation of captivity. His great, golden eyes lookedboldly into ours, and their gaze, so concentrated, so wary, so indignant,so savage, had a magnetic force in it, and cast a spell on me. The
Katyogle did not move his burly person when the curious observer went
round to inspect him. He merely turned his head and followed withthat unwinking stare of mingled feelings.
You can scarcely imagine the peculiar, not ludicrous, but fearsome,effect produced by the solemn, over-wise face looking straight at you
over the creature's back. The neck had no appearance of being twistedfrom a more comfortable position. He seemed to find it as easy towear his head one way as another. When we approached very near, hehissed and looked malignant enough to deter any meddlesome person

12

...

B£rds of Omm ~·n Shetland.

from laying hands on him.
Being a philosop4er, the Katyogle reconciles himself to the uses of adversity. He grows comparatively tamein captivity, he learns. to eat what is placed before him, to recognisewith a measure of gentleness those who treat him with consideration,
but he never becomes, like the Raven, a willing captive. Like theRaven, he is supposed to live to a great age. When young, the bird is.
speckled all over with brown, black, grey, or russet, but year by year as
he grows older he becomes more white, until at last he stands in his
snow-coat, pure as the shroud of his Arctic birthplace.
If the Katyogle does live, as affirmed, for more than a century, we
cannot wonder at the accumulation of wisdom which pervades thecountenances of mature males. It is believed that, like all higher
orders of beings, the Katyogle takes a mate "for better, for worse, till
death do them part"; and, like all Northern folk, he has the love ofHome very strongly developed. When a Katyogle has chosen a certain
locality for his abode, he will cling to it in preference to any other, andwill return to his favourite spot, even when scared from it betimes by
the blood·thirsty Briton, who is never so happy as when hunting a living
thing to death.
A pair of Katyogles haunted Crushafiel for years, although assured
that the Heogues had many advantages. There may have been a better
reason than love of a certain place which made the couple continue toreside in the hill of Crushafiel. It may be that there is an understanding among Katyogles regarding rights of property. They are a reserved
and stately race. They prefer a recluse life. Probably their code ofhonour leaves a certain amount of ground to be hunted over by certain
individuals, and does not permit- others of the species to encroach
thereon. This may explain why" more than one or two birds seldom
haunt the same district.
Crushafiel is undulating and covered in some parts with heather.
Flowers of Alpine beauty and brightness abound; there are many
scattered boulders and sheltered nooks, but the hill is flat at its
highest level and commands an extensive view. There the goldenplover and sandy 100 delight to nest, and you may hear their wistfulpiping any day or night that you may choose to wander over the
shaggy hill; there the mountain linnet loves to sport; there the merry
little wheatear practises its gift of mimicry; there the pretty little
field mouse weaves its dainty cradle; there the fairy rings are set.
It has been supposed by some that those circles mark a place where
the Law-ting was held, or where honoured men were buried. Others
insist that the" (airy rings" refer to some system of religion, Druidical
or Scandinavian. Either, or all, suppositions please me! The Katyogle lights upon those magic rings, and muses on history, and weThe ·Kafyogle.

13

cannot wonder that he looks with aversion on our kind as he reviews"what has been." But I want you to know some of our dear old faulds
and fiels jour heogues and sayters j and so I will tell you more of
the Katyogle's haunts.
When that couple of snowy owls were romancing by the "fairy
rings," and feeding their poetic souls upon golden plover, an ancient
Katyogle was keeping watch on the Muckle Heogue by the tombsof the mighty dead. Perhaps he was moralizing on the littleness of
our great men. The muckle Heogue is a small steep hill, set on the
top of another hill j and on its crown there is an ancient buryingground. ' At its base is a second and later place of sepulture, fromwhence the hill slopes gradually towards Baltasound on the south,and Haroldswick on the north. Of this second burying place there
exists a legend: A battle was fought close by, and a mighty Viking
named Harold was slain and buried there. The cairns which covered
the graves have been overthrown, and the tombs are open and emptyof all save ferns and lichens. They are built of large stones, aremuch shorter than a man, and deep enough for a person to sit upright.
In that position the warriors were "left in Glory's bed." Of theburying place on the summit of the Heogue no tradition remains.
It was accidentally discovered when a bonfire was lit to celebrate our·Prince's marriage with the fair Dane whom the Hialtlanders claim
as kinswoman. Some urns were found and preserved, and a few
charred bones. When the scientist had poked among the stones, andhad rifled the graves to his heart's content, the place was left once
'more to be the Katyogle's haunt.
And there he comes with thewinter snows, year by year j silently, spectrely, he alights upon aboulder at the base of the Heogue, and surveys the scene, weird anddesolate in our sight, congenial and inspiring in his. He has been'brought from the charmed Arctic circle on the impulse of a strong
northerly gale, and he has fasted long.
The short winter day
has ended, and in the dusky light we can scarcely distinguish the
Katyogle" from the surrounding stones and patches of snow. He
makes himself small and long shaped, and· looks all around very keenly.
Then he draws himself in close, and full, and ponders over what has
happened since he left Hialtland in the preceding Spring. Presently
it occurs to him that in all probability some beetles are hiding among
the mosses at his feet. Softly he drops from the stone and inspects jwhile doing so his golden eyes are made very small. His search isrewarded, but he does not relish beetles very much j so, after sacrificing
a few, he returns to his vantage ground and his musings. Ere longa flutter of many pinions, and the tinkling twitter of, birdies, rouse
him to keen interest in practical things. Then the broad, white wings

Birds of Omen in Shetland.

of the Katyogle expand; the glorious eyes flash like the radiant locksof Balder; he utters a fearful screech; and, taking a swift, slanting,course, drops upon the flock, which scatters in terror.
A bird iscaught, and in brief time the Katyogle makes complete end of it;
but before that is done, the snafool have flown to the shelter of a
farmyard.
The noise made by the Katyogle has scared a juvenile rabbit ofsmall sense, that had been amusing itself with darting out and inamong the gravestones. It had never seen or heard a snowy owl in
its life, and in uttermost terror it scampers over the hill to reach its
burrow. Alas! it is seen and dropped upon by the enemy. Shortshrift has the "kyning," and when its remains have been conveyed
to their living tomb, Katyogle settles himself once more by Harold's
grave, and continues there for hours, motionless as if he were carved
in stone. The winds moan drearily around; the snow-flakes drift
over the hill: these do not affect him. He has seen generations ofmen return to the dust. He has eaten a substantial meal. These
things are enough for him to consider. Surely he composes a sagaon the spot I-The miles of rugged hill and moor which stretch between Southavoe and Uyasound are a favourite resort of the Katyogles;
and small wonder! That is the nesting-ground oflapwing, snipe, goldenplover, and various tiny birds. Their nursery duties are, of course,
ended before the Katyogles arrive from Iceland and Lapland, butsome species flock during the winter months, and are always to befound on these hills.
If you linger by the burn 0' Watley in the gloaming you will hear
the snipe "drumming" over the marshes not far away. You willhear the golden plover sadly appealing to each other from hill tohiil. A heron, fishing in the loch, and disturbed, will startle you byuttering his hideous scream as he rises in the air and seeks anotherlocality. Presently a dunlin, or sandy-loo, will whistle softly as heruns over the shingled margins of the burn, and then skims away,seeking the sea-shore. The plaintive piping of "whaups "; the hysterical cries of lapwings; the varied interjections of gulls; come to you
also from passing birds. And be sure the chorus is not infrequently
augmented by the. profound remarks of a hoodie crow out on the
prowl. It may be that a grim Raven's sepulchral" corp! corp! corp I"
is added as he sails overhead, with his sinister glance upon you.
He is probably en route for Helyawater, by whose sheltering knoweshe expects to find· a feeble lamb, or a worn-out pony. If you follow
the burn to its source, you will probably find his Ravenship by thehaunted vatn. He will have alighted on the cairn which rises froma tiny islet in the loch. He may be descended from the identical

TIle K atyogle.

Raven that belonged to a Viking, and used to dwell on that holmtradition says. It is said that the Yarl was buried there, and by his
grave dwelt the Raven.
One wild Yiile night a lad dared the spells of evil and tried toreach the cairn. He was drowned in Helyawater, and the Raven
remained master of the situation. If you approach very cautiously
you may catch a glimpse of the Katyogle near the vatn.
He hasbeen slumbering all day in that sequestered spot among the stones,
from some of which he is scarcely distinguishable, for they are white,streaked with grey lichen. Helyawater lies apart from all tracks, and the
Hialtlander remarks that thankfully when he has occasion to crossthose hills after dusk.
Even by daylight few people care to visit the lonely vatn. But
the birds love it, though many a defenceless one falls victim there
to the falcon, crow, and owl. I do not think the aristocratic Katyogle
cares to prosecute his nocturnal art under the observation of a critical
Corbie, therefore he will silently wing his way to some brae where
he can overlook a hamlet. He knows that plenty of mice may bein the yards, or among the stubble, that skylarks and mountain linnets
are cowering among the grasses and corn-stacks. In one cottage lies
a dying man, and all is quiet around that dwelling, ~or no one ventures to leave it unless on some most imperative duty.
Naturally the Katyogle prefers the quiet kail-yard of that houseto others where merry folk and busy folk are making noise out andin. The Katyogle's character is antagonistic to fuss. Solitude is his
paradise. We can now understand how he "takes to" the neighbourhood of sick and dying people. Katyogles will frequently be foundon the Isles of Hoonie and Balta, which are riddled with rabbit
burrows, and whose shores swarm with little birds. These islands are
the favourite haunts of the Raven also. We should not grudge ourBirds of Omen their haunts and their share of game. After all issaid, their methods of sport and their weapons are God-given. Whenthey adopt breech-loaders and train ferrets to do their hunting, will
be time enough to think of putting restraints on them.
The Corbie seldom attacks living creatures unless they are weak
and unprotected. The Katyogle leaves Hialtland ere its featheredfolk begin to wed; doubtless he has engagements of his own of thesame sort in the Arctic regions during the spring and summer, anddoes not return to our Isles till the nestlings are reared andflown. I do not mean to say that Corbie and Katyogle would passan egg or a half-fledged birdie, if such came their way; but, as amatter of fact, brooding parents have not much to fear from our16

Birds 0/ Omen in Shetland.

Birds of Omen. The one is far away when their households are upon
their minds, the other-prefers dead meat! For sake of associations
revered and cherished, I pray you, spare the Corbie and Katyogle tohaunt the hills and rocks, and add the poetry of superstitious legend
to the wild beauty of our Isles.
.
I hope I have not exhausted your patience. If I have not proved
myself-as Shelley feared the owlet would-a" tedious woman," perhaps
you will allow me to finish with a poem which describes the Corbie
and Katyogle, exercising their functions as Birds of Omen, premisingwith this little bit of Scottish folk-lore:" If a raven flies across the fisher's path, when hound for the sea, his voy~ge will
be unlucky; and if the bird appears, or croaks, wheR you are looking out for the boats,
evil will happen. When a snowy owl takes to (haunts) the neighbourhood of a home, .
some one in it will die."his mighty wing of ebon,
O N Comes
the Bird of Night :'Not upon the' misty hill top
Does he stay his flight;
Spurning valley, rock, and ocean,All before him spread,
Slowly on his dusky pinion,
Sails he overhead.
Where the fisher's home is freshened
By the passing waves, .
Hoarsely bodes the warning Raven.
As he lower laves.'
Quickly from her lonely dwelling
Comes the gentle wife,
Looks she out where ocean carries
All she loves in life.
There are shadows on the mountain,
There are ripples on the fountain,
And a rainbow spans the lea;
Clouds across the azure heaven
By a waking wind are driven:
There is sorrow on the sea.

On a snowy wing of silence,
From the distant hill,
Gleaming, like a white-robed spirit,
In the evening still,
Comes the lowly Owlet, bearing
Death to broken hearts;
And he haunts the house whence sorrow
Never more departs.
Round the cot, on noiseless pinion,
Flits the unkin 3 bird;
And the dying wife has seen it,
And her soul is stirred.
"Welcome," says she, "well I ken thee,
Phantom bird of snow ;Thou hast come to call my spirit,
And I gladly go."Over hill and rock and river,
Restless shapes of d£trkness quiver,
And upon the quiet lea
Lies an amp4 of chill foreboding,
Troqbled bosoms overloading
With the sorrow of the sea.

Then the spectre Bird of Omen,
Dark as midnight's gloom,
Hovers, uttering weird-like warning
Of a coming doom.
Ah! she knows the dismal croaker,
And her cheek grows pale;
Wistful glances sends she seawards
Searching for his sail.
Downward roll the awful thunders,
Answering billows' rave,
Swiftly close the 'angry waters
O'er the fisher's grave.
Solemnly departs the Raven,
And the mourners dwell\Vhere he boded evil tidings,
Where his shadow fell,O'er the vatn 2 in the valle'v
Ghostly wreaths of vapour' rally
To enshroud the smiling lea.
In a mist each rocky giant,
Frowning, holds his head, defiant
Of the sorrow from the sea.

Silently, as shadow falling
From a sombre cloud,Goes the Owlet back to Norland,
Wrapped in downy shroud;And upon the Arctic mountain,
Where the bleak winds moan,
Full of melancholy dreamings,
Broods he all alone.
Troubled breakers dash tumultuous
O'er the fisher's breast;
On the grave where sleeps his widow
Pale flowers meekly rest.
And the Raven bodes of evil,
As he did of yore;
But a silence binds the homestead
By the wave·washed shore.
Death and darkness cast their mantle,"Dtil an' whan! abOne a hantle," 5
And their shade lies on the lea:
Birds of Omen from them borrow
The insignia of sorrowThe sad secret of the sea

1 LM'ee-bovering without motion of the winglJ. 2 Ya,tn-a small fresh-water Iaka.
weight Oil the spirit foreboding evil. I} Sorrow iuull\las I "bove no gre<~t deal.

3 Ullkill-8trauger. 4 Amp-FOLK·LORE
OF

RAVEN

AND THE OWL.

By W. A. CLOUSTON.

I.-THEM ANY and interesting are thesuperstitions which have been
current, time out of mind, among
almost all peoples, regarding theRaven, whose appearance and harsh
cry are universally considered as
foreboding misfortune. We read in
the Old Testament that the Ravenwas twice singled out from all otherbirds as being endowed with mysterious tntelligence-when Noah senta raven forth from the Ark, toascertain whether the waters had
abated, and when ravens were
divinelv commissioned to feed theprophet Elijah, while he dwelt" by
the brook Cherith, that is before
Jordan."According to the Koran, after Cain
had slain his brother, Adam was perplexed how to dispose of the bodywhen it was become offensive, till
"Allah sent a raven, which killed
another raven in his presence, andthen dug a pit with his beak andclaws, and buried him therein,"thus showing our great progenitor
what he must also do.
The Rabbis say that when Noahsent forth the raven, the bini thus
remonstrated: "From all cattle,
beasts, and fowls, thou sendest none
but me." Noah retorted: "Whatneed has the world for thee? Thouart good neither for food nor sat:rilice." But God commanded Noah. to receive the raven, as the world
should one day be in need of him.
" When?" asked Noah. The allon

RA V EN.
cution from on high was: "When
the waters are dried up from off thisearth, there shall in a time to comearise a certain righteous man, andthen I shall make use of the raven."This, says Rabbi Eliezer, explains
what is written of the prophet Elijah,
when he dwelt by the brook Cherith,that " the ravens brought him
bread and flesh every morning"(I Kings xvii, 6). Yet the raven,according to Jewish law, is unclean(Deut. xiv, 14).
Originally the raven was white,
the Hebrew doctors inform us, andwas changed to a deep black as apunishment for its deceitful conduct:a legend which they may have borrowed from Ovid's Metamorphoses,
B. ii, Fab. 9, 10, where it is related
that Apollo having been told by araven, which he employed as amessenger, of the misconduct ofCoronis, the god in his sudden wrath
slew her with an arrow, and immediately repented of his rash ·action ;and as a warning to all tale-tellersto cite old Gower, who has the story
in his COlljessio Amantis, B. iiiUpon the hridd he tok this wreche : 1
That there he was snow-whyt to fore.
Evere afterward colhlak therefore
He was transformed. as it scheweth.
And many a man yet him heschreweth.
And c1epen 2 him unto this day
A Raven. be whom yet man mai
Take evidence whan he criethThat some mishap it dgnifieth.
1 ReYenge.

'2 Ca.lI.

Foll.:·Lon of the Raven and the Owl.

• 18

This legend is reproduced-mu-

taHs mutandis - in the ArabianNights, with a parrot, and in all
European versions of the Seven
Wise Masters, with a magpie, inplace of the raven. l
The Tyrolese have a very different
story to account for the ?able hue ofthe raven. In the olden time ravens
were of beautiful appearance, withplumage as white as snow, which
they kept clean by constant washingin a certain stream. To this stream
came one day the Holy Child, desiring to drink, but the ravens
prevented him by splashing the water
about and befouling it; whereupon
he said: "Ungrateful birds! Proudyou may be of your beauty, but yourfeathers, now so snowy white, shallbecome black, and so remain until
the Day of Judgment."
The expression" raven blackness"has become synonymous with the
deepest hue of black. Solomon saysthat the locks of the beloved are
curly, and" black as a raven" (Cant.
v, II). Milton, in his masque ofComus, says that sweet strains ofmusic "smoothed the raven down ofDarkness till it smiled." 2 And in themost pathetic of all the countlesspathetic Scotch songs, the faithful,loving, old wife reminds her spouseJohn Anderson, my jo, John,
When we were first acquaint,Your leeks were like the raven,Your bonny brow was brent.

In BarthololntE//s de Proprietatz'bus
Rerum, a kind of encyclopredia,
compiled in Latin by an English
monk, about the middle of the 13th
century, and translated into English
in 1397, it is said: "The ral'en beholdeth the mouths of her birds when
they yawn. But she giveth them nomeat ere she know and see thelikeness of her own blackness, and1 In NO.4 of Callaway's Zulu N""sery
Tales, a raven betrays a false hride.
2 Byron is reported, in Captain Medwin's
Conversations, to have tried to be-little thisfine passage by comparing it to .. stroking
a black cat, to elicit electric sparks." Onemight with as much propriety say that
Byron's expression the music of her face"(in Tlte Bride of Abydos) meant that thelady had" a singing face "-only Ite filched~he thou~ht frol\1 Richard Lovelace.
IIof her own colour and feathers. And
when they begin to wax black, thenafterward she feedeth them with all
her might and strength. It is said
that ravens' birds are fed with dewof heaven all the time they have no
black feathers by benefit of age.
Among fowls," adds the learned
Bartholomew, "only the raven hathfottr and sixty changing-s 0/ voice" !
(Lib. xviii, c. 10.)'.'
This notion of the raven b~ing at
first regardless of her young is alluded to in Psalm cxlvii, 9: "Hegiveth to the beast his food, and to
the young ravens when they cry";also in the Book of Job (xxxviii, 4) :"Who provideth for the raven his
food? When his young ones cry
unto God, they wander for lack ofmeat." And again it is employed in
the gospel of S. Luke, xii, 24, as an
example of God's providence: "Consider the ravens., for they neither sow
nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and Cod feedeth
them: how much more are ye better
than the fowls?" The faithful oldservitor Adam, in Shakspeare's playof As You Like It (ii, 3), also alludes
to the same wide·spread belief:
He that doth the ravens feed.
Be comfort to my age.

••

Burns, also, in his Collar's SaturdayNight, represents the" parent pair"as prayingThat He, who stills the raven's clam'rous
nest,
And decks the lily fair in. flowery pride,
Would, in the way His wisdom sees the best
For them and for their little ones provide.

A terrible punishment is threatened
to be inflicted by this carrion·loving
bird on disobedient children in theProverbs ascribed to Solomon (xxx,17): "The eye that mocketh at his
father, and despiseth to obey his
mother,.the ravens of the valley shallpick it out, and the young eagles
shall eat it" And in several passagesof the Old Testament ruined cities
are described as the haunts of ravens
and owls.
Porphyry tells us that the Magians
called the priests of Mithras, thesun-god, ravens: on the mantle ofMithras a raven was perched. Afterthe mysteriou::; disappearance ofAristeas, the necromancer, it wa~

'rite ~ave1t.
heiieved that he retlirned to theearth in the form of a raven.

)In the Norse mythology Odin's
two ravens, Hugin and Munin (Mindand Memory), after roaming over theworld, returned and perched on hisshoulders, and gave him a fuU account of all they had seen and heard;
hence one of the numerous names ofOdin was Hrafnagud, the Ravengod. In the Saf{as we read thatwhen Sigurd told his mother that heand his foUowers were about' toencounter in battle an enemy that
outnumbered them by seven to one,she said, "I would have raised theein my wool chest, if I had beencertain that thou wouldst live forever. Better is it to die than to livein shame.
Take this merki (i.e.
standard), which I have made with
my best skill, and which I believe
will be victorious for those before
whom it is carried, but fatal to him
who carries it." This standard wasin the shape of a raven, and when
the wind blew on it, it seemed as if
the raven_spread his wings. Sigurd
J arl went against Finnleik J arl at
Skidamyri, and both arrayed theirmen. When the fight began, theScots slew the standard-bearer of
Sigurd Jarl j he appointed anotherto carry it, but after a 'while he, too,feU j three standard-bearers wereslain, but Sigurd Jarl was victorious.
The most famous raven-standard
was called Landeyda, or Landravager. "It was said to have been
woven and embroidered in one noontide, by the daughter of Regner
Lodbrok, the son of Sigurd-thatdauntless warrior who chanted his
death-song while perishing in ahorrible pit, fiUed with deadly
serpents. If the the Danish arms
were destined to defeat, the ravenhung his head and drooped his wings;
if victory was to attend them, heappeared to be soaring."l1 In the Heimskringla, Earl Hakon,
commander of the fleet, is called" Warderof the Waves~ Raven,"- Pliny mentions
that the natives of Taprobane, when blown
far out to sea, were enabled to return toland by steering in the same direction as
the crows flew; aad it is curious to find theRaven was employed for'the like purposeby the adventurous Norsemen.

On the ceie6~ated Bayeux tapestry,
WiUiam the Conquerer (who was adescendant of the old Vikings) isrepresented at the battle of Hastings
with a banner on which is the figureof a raven. When Thor's terrible
hammer, Mialnar, feU in Denmark
before the Cross, the time-honoured
raven-standard was superseded by
the symbol of the Christian religion.
Moslems call the raven" the Bird
of Separation," because it did not
return to the Ark (but, from theexpression "to and fro" in the
biblical narrative, it is clear that thebird must have returned to the Ark
at intervals);l and also" Abu Zajir,"or Father of Omens, from the uni·versal belief in its powers of fore·
teUing coming events, especially
misfortunes. In Western as weU as
in Eastern lands the appearance, or
hearing the cry, of a raven on one's
left hand foreboded death, or someserious calamity, while the reverse
was understood when the bird wasseen or heard to cry on one's right.
Thus, in Dryden's translation of
VirgilThe hoarse raven on yon blasted bough,Fly croaking to the lift, presaged thecoming blow;

In Plautus' play of Aulularia (iv, 3):" I t was not for nothing that theraven was just now croaking on myleft hand." In Gay's Fables (xxxvi,
27 ff.)That raven on yon lift.hand oak(Curse on his ill-betiding croak I )Bodes me no good.

The Arabs and Persians set great
store by the appearance of certain
animals and birds on the right orleft hand, as indicating the successor failure of any enterprise about tobe undertaken; and to this the
1 Sir David Lyndesay, in his Dialog
oetuix Experit1lCt and ane Courteour, BookI"irst, says that, when Noah perceived thesky clearHe send furth Corbie messingeir
In to the air for to espy
Geve he saw ony montanis dry;Sum sayis the Ravin did furth remaue,
And come nocht to the ark agane.
The phrase ., corbie messenger" used tobe applied to one who had been sent on an
errand and was slow in returning, or did
not return at all

:20

Folk-Lore of tlte Raven «nd tlte Owl.

Egyptian poet Baha-ed.DIn Zohayr
alludes gracefully :-'My love is like a young gazelle,
Appearing on the huntsman's right;
And, ah, the bargain prospered well,
When she and lour troth did plight.

In English folk·lore, to see one
raven was accounted lucky, but tosee tltYee was an unfortunate omen.
Thus, in M. Lewis' ballad of Bill
Jones:" Ah, ' well.a.day !" the sailor said,"Some da:lger must impend!
Three ravens sit in yonder glade,And evil will happ~n, I'm, sore ~fraid,
Ere we reach our Journey send.
"And what have the ravens with us to do?
Does their sight betoken us evil?".. 1'0 see' one raven is lucky, 'tis true,
But it's certain destruction to light upon two,And meeting with three is the devil!"

The Persians regard this matter
somewhat differently, as the following
droll story will serve to show. A
gentleman before retiring to rest said
to his servant," If you see two ravens
together early in the morning, let meknow of it, that I may also behold
them, as it will be a good omen that
I shall pass the whole day pleasantly."
It so happened that the man did see
two ravens sitting together, but when
his master came out he saw but one,the other having flown away, atwhich he was very angry, and began
to b.::at the poor fellow, when there
arrived a present to the gentlemanof some choice food and wine from afriend. Upon this the servant exclaimed, "0 my lord, you saw butolle raven, and have received a finepresent; had you seen (~tlO, you would
have had my fate."

I

The belief in the prophetic powersof the raven is widely spread. In
Denmark its appearance in a village
is considered a prognostication thatthe parish priest will die ~hortly., .It
is believed to be an exorcIsed spmt ;the hole in its left wing was caused
by a stake driven i~to the earth
where the spirit was exorcised; andwoe to him who looks up when thebird flies overhead, and sees throughthe hole for he will become, a ,nightraven himself, and the spirit in theraven's form will be released. The
raven is for ever flying eastwards, inhope of reaching the Holy Sepulchre,for when it arrives there it will findrest. - In Sweden, ravens which
scream by night in forest swamps
and moors are believed to be the"hosts of murdered men, whosebodies have been concealed in thoseplaces by their undetected murderers,
and have therefore not received
Christian burial. In Iceland it isstill held that ravens not only knowwhat is going on at a distance, butthey are also acquainted with allthat is to happen in the future.
Cornish folk have a legend that
King Arthur is still alive in the formof a raven, and many will not shootthe bird, lest they should slay" thecoming kin~."In many parts ofEngland, when a raven is seen overthe head of either a bride or a bridegroom, it is regarded as the forerunner of sorrow and misfortune.
In Bohemia ravens are believed to
be tenanted by the souls of thedamned, and even by the arch-fiend
himself, for witches ride on them.
In Andalusia, if the raven is heard
croaking over a house, an unlucky
day is expected; if his croak isrepeated thrice, it is a fatal presage;and perching high and croaking, acorpse will soon come from that
direction. In Languedoc they saythat wicked priests aiter death become ravens, and wicked nuns
become crows.
In Germany, according to Rochholtz, when a raven sits upon theroof of a house where there is acorpse, it means that the dead man's
soul has not gone to Paradise! In
the Tyrol, when the raven shrieks aa misfortune impends in the neighbourhood; and in the canton ofBerne, when ravens flock to a house,
it means sickness to the cows.
Among the Arabs of the Great
Desert, tbe Raven's presence is apresage of good or evil according tocircumstances. For example, theysay: "When you see a raven fly
alone, wandering in the sky, do not
pursue your journey; but if you see
twO fly together, proceed with confidence." In certain parts of South
Germany the Raven is believed to be
the harbinger of good fortune.
Allusions to the evil-boding cry of
the Raven ,are very frequent in theworks of the Elizabethan dramatists.

The Raven.
Thus, in Shakspeare's Troilus (v, 2)
Thersites . malignantly exclaims:"Would I could meet that rogue
Diomed, I would croak like a raven,
I would bode, 1 would bode." In
the Third Part of Henry V (v. 6),
Henry of Gloster says that at his. birth" the ra'ven rooked her on thechimney-top." Lady Macbeth remarks (i, 5)The raven 'himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battiements.

The noble Othello, devoured by
jealousy, and too ready to yeild
credence to the arch-villain Iago's
insinuations against the chaste Desdemona, exclaims (iv, i)Oh, it came o'er my memory.
As doth a raven o'er the infected house,
Boding to all.

In the play of King John (iv. 3), weread.
Vast confusion waits,
As doth a raven o'er a sick·fallen beast;

and in Titus Andronicus (ii, 3), "the(atal raven"j and Hamlet, referring
to' the murder of his father, says
(iii,2)The croaking raven
Doth bellow for revenge.

The poet Spenser speaks ofDeath's dreadful messenger,
The hoarse night-raven, trompe of dolefuldrere.

George Peele, in his drama ofDavid a1zd Bethsabe, makes the
Chorus speak ofThe fatal Raven, that in his voice
Carries the dreadful summons of our deaths;

and the violated maiden Thamar
resolves to hide her shamein desert woods;
There will I lure with my windy sighs
Night ravens and owls to rend my side,
Which with a rusty weapon I WIll wound,And make them passage to my panting
heart;and Joab, referring to Absalom, says:
Night ravens and owls shall sing his fatal
knell.

In Barham's tale of "The Old
Woman of Berkeley" (Ingoldsby
Legends)The Raven croaked as she sat at her m~al.
And the old woman knew what she saId;
And she grew pale at the Raven's tale,
And sickened and went to bed ;2tand in a Scotch ballad·Yestreen, I was working my stocking,And you wi' your sheep on the hill.
A filthy black corbie sat croakingI'm sure it foreboded some ill.

Besides being a harbinger of grief
and death, the raven was believed topossess the dreadful property of
conveying infectious diseases. Thus
the monster Caliban (Tempest, i, 5)
invokes on Prospero and MirandaAs wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed
With raven's feather from the unwholesomefenDrop on you both J

And in Marlowe's play of The Jewof Malta-

The sad, presaging Raven, that tells
The sick man's passport in her hollow beak,And in the shadow of the silent night
Doth shake contagion from her sable wing.

When many a "braw fellow" washanged for reiving in the Bordercountry, the Raven must have hadgreat feasts on the bodies whichwere left dangling - as a warning"to whom it might concern." Of
this we may accept the following
rhyme, current in Berwickshire in
those days of fierce unrest, as goodevidenceThe Corbies in the Corbie HeughAre crouping, like to dee;
But our laird will give them meat enough,And that you soon shall see,
When Houdie and his reivers rude
Hang on the gallows tree.

The "corp! corp! corp!" of theRaven received a very original interpretation from David Ferguson, oneof the early Scottish reformers: "At
St. Andrew's he met along withother ministers of the Church, inorder to protest against the installation of Patrick Adamson as Bishopof that see. On that occasion aperson came in and reported that
there was 'a Corbie croupin' on the
kirk.' 'That's a bad omen,' said
Ferguson; 'for its origination is fromavium garribus, the Raven is
omnimodo, a 'black' bird, and therefore ominous; and if we read rightly
what it speaks, it will be found to becorrupt I corrupt I corrupt!'" I
But while we may very properly
despise the once universal belief,• 1 M'Crie's Sketckes 0/ Scottisk Ckurch
History, vol. i. p. liS.

Folk-Lore of the ka~en and the Owl.
that the croaking of the Raven was
a prognostic of the death of somehuman being in its neighbourhood,the notion, which prevails in some.
parts of Ireland, that the appearanceof a number of ravens in Autumn isa sign of great mortality amo~gsheep, seems to have foundatIOn In
ascertained fact-In an old chapbook, entitled, Th~ Shepherd's Prognosticatz'on for the Weather, printed
in 1573, it is said that" if ravens be
seen to stand gaping towards thesun, it is a manifest sign of extreme
heat to follow"; and doubtless this,like many other bits of the weatherlore of our simple forefathers, was. the result of close observation ofnatural phenomena. In some districtsof Scotland ravens build their nests
in the sea-cliffs, says the Rev. Walter
Greo-or. "If they 'make short flights
inla~d, it is taken. as an indicationof stormy weather; but if they Il:1akea strong flight inland to a conslde~­
able distance, it is a token of fairweather."!
Reference has already been madeto the popular belief that Satan often
assumes the form of the Raven. In
Danish folk-songs (says Grimm, in
his Deutsche'Mytholngie), the" vilde
ravn," "vilde val-ravn" (corvz's
straf{isJ, takes exactly the place ofthe < diabolic troll.
And in thepuppet-play of Dr. Faust "it isremarkable that the raven who is thebearer of the written covenant with
the Devil is called the bird of
Mercury, which would be exactly
rio-ht of Odin."-A wild legend isc~rrent in Aberdeenshire which tells
how a man who had made a paction
with Satan at length sickened anddied, whereupon a raven flew into
the house, crying, " I want my own!
I want my own 1" The dead wizard's
neighbours, to preserve his corpse
from the clutches of the fiend, madea circle round it;and standing within
the circle, by constantly making the
all-powerful sign of the Cross, kept
off the raven till day dawned, when
he flew away. Another Berwickshire
rhyme alludes to the notion that
1 Folk-Lore ojtlu North East oj Scotland,

P,137·

Satan, in the form of a raven, neverfails to claim" his own"~
Satan, in a Corbie's shape,
Will come and take his pets away.

In some of our carly ballads theDevil in raven-form appears at sea,
to work destruction. Thus in the
Scotch ballad of "The Twa Corbies,"
one of those diabolical birds saysAs I sat on the deep sea sand,I saw a fair ship right at hand;
I waved Illy wings, I beat my beak,The ship sank, and I heard a shriek.

Here, surely, was either Satan himsell
or one of his" angels"! I n anotherballad we meet with him again in
the same shaDe:
The ship rolled on the heavy deep,
The wind no longer blew,
And over them, greedy to sink them all,
The fierce wild Raven flew.
.

Cicero regarded it as an evil omen
when a raven perched on the ship
which bore him over the sea. Chinese sailors, when ravens rest on amast, throw crumbs to them, in order
to secure a fair wind.
In one of
Mr. Giles' Strange Stories jrom a
Chinese Studio, a man who has beenchanged into a ravenis tbus sustainedby the seamen. To disturb ravens
in any manner is considered as very
unlucky, and Archdeacon Gray relates that sailors on the Yangtze
feared most disastrous consequences
should the passengers shoot them,as they purposed doing.
Ravens, as well as black cats,were believed to be familiars ofwitches and wizards. The Mirake!
Buck, which recounts the exploits ofDr. Faust, was also called Die
Sckwartze Rabe (the Black Raven),
and· the figure of the bird itself
appears on the title-page. In Goethe'sFaust, the witch asks Mephistopheles"Wo sind eure beiden Raben?"(Where have you left your pair ofRavens ?); and Faust himself, in
another part of the famous dramatic
poem, asks, " What weave they there
round the Raven-stone? "-the old
German name for a place of execution
where the corpses attracted numbersof ravens; and in a rejected chorusof Byron's Deformed Transformed
the grim epithet also occursThe Raven sits
On the Raven-stone.

Tlu Ravm.
After all is said, however, theRaven, like the" certain gentleman" .
with whom he was identified by theearly Christians, and in much latertimes by the people of most European
countries, may not be so black as heis painted. Were not three ravens
the companions of St. Benedict?
And did not three others escort St.
Gregory? In the myth, or romant:e,of King Oswald, also, a raven flies
on to his shoulder, the king talks toit, and even kneels before it. And
was it not through the conversationof ravens that the poor blinded tailor,in the German story of" The Two
Travellers," learned the means ofrecovering his sight?
The longevity of the Raven isbelieved to be much greater thanthat of any other bird or beast, andit has been known to live in captivity
fully a hundred years.
On thissubject a diverting story is told in
the Let/res Nouvelles de M. Boursault, 1698 : The wife of a shoemaker,
having been ordered by her husband
to buy him a linnet, went one day to
the Quay de la Megisserie, where she
met one of her gossips. "\Vhat hasbrought you here? she asked. " I
have come to buy a bird," replied
her gossip. "And I for the samething," said the shoemaker's wIfe.
"And I," quoth the other, "choose aRaven." "By my faith," replied theshoemaker's wife, "you select an ugly
bird." "Doubtless," said her gossip,"it is not very beautiful, but it issaid that it lives seven or eig-ht
hundred years, and I would seemy husband and I-if that is true."1
Boursault adds that the common
belief is, that there is no animal
which lives so long as the Raven.
" It is said that three weasels Ii ve
the age of a dog; three dogs, theage of a horse; three horses, the ageof a man; three men, the age of astag j three stags, the age of a.raven j
and three ravens, " un temps mnombrable."
Christian hagiology represents tworavens as being the means of conlOne of the {acetiae of Hierokles is of apedant who, having heard that the Raven
lives 200 years, bought one. thaI he should~s~ert... i", lh<: fact fQr himself.

23

victing murderers: 51. Meinrad wasa hermit who had built himself a cellon the site of the present monasteryof Einsiedeln, in Canton Schwytz,
where his companions were two tameravens. One day he was brutallymurdered by two brigands, who had
hoped to find treasure, but were ofcourse disappointed. The ravens,
eager to avenge their master's death,followed the murderers to a little inn
at Zurich, where they flapped theirwings against the windows, andscreamed for hours. The robbers
thought this a warning from Heavenand confessed their crime, and they
were at once executed.-The small
hostel which was the scene of thisremarkable occurrence, was afterwards called the" Ravens' Inn," anda black stone on which were carved
the figures of two Ravens was built
into the front wall. It would appear
that the poet Longfellow found it
still "a den of tb ieves" (in themodern sense of the expression, as
applied to hostelries). since he thus
homorously refers to the extortionate
c1nrges at the inn-now, however,almost entirely rebuilt, a place ofgoood repute, and called the" Hotel
Bilhartz"Beware of the Raven of Zurich!
'fis a bird of omen ill,With a noisy and unclean breast,
And a very, very long bill !

It may perhaps De fairly questioned
whether such an occurrence as thediscovery of the saint's murderers by
two ravens, as above related, has any
foundation in fact, since it bears avery suspicious resemblance to the
old Grecian story of the" Cranes of
Ibycus," which, with characteri5tic
modifications, somehow found its way
into one or two texts of the ArabianNz:r;hts, and of whic~ a variant. froma Persian manuscnpt collectIOn oftales, is given in my Appendix to thefirst and second "Supplement; I"
volumes of Sir R. F. Burton's Clnsummate translation of that fame us
story-book.
In ancient Welsh romances weread of heroes being aided by troopsof ravens - doubtless superhumanbeings in the forms of those birds.
Thus the story of" The Lady of tl:e
Fountain" (in the Mabil/(lgio71) con·

24

Folk-Lore of the Ravm a1td the Owl.

cludes as follows:" Thenceforward
Owain dwelt at Arthur's court greatly
beloved, as the head of his household,until he went away with his followers;
and those were an army 0/ threehundred ravens, which Kenverchyn
had left him. And wherever Owain
went with these he was victorious. "1
It might well be supposed thatcertain magical properties were
believed to belong to a bird so
awe-inspiring as the Raven. Our
Scandinavian cousins held that if aparticular white feather in the plumage of the bird could be privily
procured, the possessor would beendowed with all wisdom; but as
the raven, when wounded and in its
dying agonies, always exerts its laststrength to pick out this feather andswallow it, in order that its marvellous sagacity should perish with its
life, it may be concluded that few
men have ever contrived to obtain
the precious plume.
It is also said that the Raven has
within its body a talisman, called"Korp-sten" (Raven,stone), which
has the property of rendering him
who should swallow it invisible tohuman eyes.
Dr. Henderson, of
Chirnside, in his Popular Rhymes,elc., of tIle County if Ber'wick, saysthat his grandfather, who lived in
Ayton about the year 1720, obtained
possession of "an'article of glamourie
which he took out of a Corbie's nestin the Corbie Heugh, and which issaid to ha\'e wrought many miraculous cures, both on man and beast."
Among Dr. Henderson's manuscript
notes were found the following particulars regarding the "article ofglamourie" taken from a Corbie's
nest: "I t was in great repute forhealing tumours, swellings, and sores,
and also for curing distempers incattle, horses, and sheep: and the
Laird of Manderston, near Duns,
once sent for it to cure his cattle ofsome desperate disease which raged
amongst them, and which had carried
1 Another Mabinogi. called" The Dreamof Rhonabwy," represents Owain as having
an army of ravens in his service, which areengaged in combat with some of Arthur's
attendants.-Lady Charlotte Guest's /lfab-

inogiol1.

off some of his best animals, but
after the Corbie-stone was laid into
the pond where the cattle drank, notone of them died, and they all got
better in a day or tWO."lThe flesh of serpents, or the water .
in which it has been boiled, is often
mentioned in folk-tales as .endowing
him who partakes of either withprofound knowledge of the past, thepresent, and the future; but it isperhaps not so generally known thatthe like remarkable property belongs
to "broth made from a black raven,"which, if given to a child before
baptism, will make him a wizard.~
In Bohemia, the hearts of threeravens are burned, reduced to powder
and mingled with water, and the boldfellow who swallows the decoction
will become an unerring" shot."
The Raven figures frequently inthe popular fictions of Europe as wellas in those of most Eastern lands,
but one notable example may suflice
here: it occurs in the mediaevalromance commonly known as the" History of the Seven 'Vi se Mastersof Rome," of which the "Book of
Sindibid" is the' ancient Indian or
Persian, prototype.
A kni<Tht ~nd
his son row over to an island where
dwelt a holy hermit. They heal'
three ravens "conversing," and thefather remarks that he should like toknow what the birds are talking
a~out. The boy, who was acquainted
wIth .the language of birds, repliedthat he could tell, but was afraid ofgiving his father offence. The kni<Tht
insisted on knowing and at len~th
the boy said that the ravens had
predicted that he should become agreat man, and that his father should
one day hold a basin of water while
he washed his hands and his
mother should wait upon' him with a~owel. The knight, enraged at such
-lDsolence, as he deemed his son's
statement, threw the boy into the sea
and returned home. The youth was
picked up and taken on board a
passing ship, and (to be brief)
actually rose to be heir,presumptive
1 Muirhead's Birds

of Berwickslzire. P. 24 2 •~ See the Irish story of .. The Poor
~cholar." by the Hon. John Abercromby,in the Folk-Lore

7our1Ia/. vol. iii, 257.

'rite Raven.
to a throne, and his own {ather andmother, now fallen on evil days,
unwittingly performed the menial
services predicted by the ravens,
after which he discovered himself tothem, and "they lived happily everafterwards."
Setting aside the old-world belief
ip "bird and beast languages," in allof which the sage Hebrew king,Solomon, is said to have been profoundly skilled, the Raven whentaken young is easily tamed andtaught to imitate human speech to awonderful degree. An Arabian historian mentions a raven who spoke
intelligently, not merely by rote, andrecited the Soorat-es-Szjdek, or 32nd
chapter of the Koran, and, on coming to the verse which should pe
repeated witlJ prostration, performed
the action, saying at the same time,"My body prostrateth itself to Thee,and my heart confideth in Thee" !
Pliny, in his Natural History, x, 60,
relates an extraordinary story of atame raven who was the admirationof all Rome, and whose "murder"
aroused the indignation of the populace:In the reign of Tiberius one of a broodof ravens that had been bred in the top of
the temple of Castor, happened to fly intoa shoemaker's shop that stood opposite, on
which, with a feeling of religious reverence,
it was looked upon as doubly recommended
by the owner of the place. The bird, having been taught to speak at an early age,used every morning to fly to the Rostra,
which look towards the Forum, hcre,
addressing each by his name, it would salute
Tiberius, and then the Cresars, Germanicus
and Drusus [nephew and son of Tiberiu~],
after which it would proceed to greet the
Roman populace, as they passed, and thenreturn to the shop: for several years it was
remarkable for the co'nstancy of its attendance. The owner of another shoemaker's
shop in the neighbourhood in a suddeu fitof anger killed the bird, enraged, as hewould have had it appear, because with its
ordure it had soiled some of his shoes.
Upon this there was such rage manifestedby the multitude that he was at once
driven from that part of the city, and soonafter put to death. The fame, too, of thebird was celebrated with almost endlessobsequies. The body was placed upon alitter, carried on the shoulders of two
Ethiopians, preceded by a piper. and borneto the pile with garlands of every size anddescription. The pile was erected on theright hand side of the Appian Way, at thesecond milestone from tbe city, in the field
generally called tbe Field of tbe Rediculus.

B*

Thus did the rare talent of a bird appear
sufficient ground to the Roman people forhonouring it with funeral obsequies. as well
as for inflicting punishment on a Romancitizen, and that, too, on an occasion inwhich no such crowds had ever escorted
the funeral of anyone out of the whole
number of its distinguished men, and where
no one had been found to avenge the deathof Scipio }Emelianus, the man who destroyed
Carthage and Numantia. This event happened in the consulship of M. Servilius
and Caius Cestius, on the 5th day before
the Calends of April (i.e. March 28).

In the Complaynt oj Scotland,
which has been ascribed to Sir David
Lyndesay of the Mount, among otherwriters, we have a very curious storyof a crafty shoemaker and his tworavens, during the CQntest for supremacy between Augustus C<esar andAntony:At that tyme ther was ane cordinar ofRome, ane verray subtil riche villane. quha
be cam neutral induring the werres ; yit he
1I0cht beand certan qua suld be superior ofRome, and else beand desirus to have thegrace and favouris of hym that hapnit to be
imperiour, he. be grit subtilte. neurissit tua
yong corbeis in tua cagis, in tua syndry
housis. and he leyrnit them bayth to speik.
He leyrnit ane of them to saye, God savethy grace, nobil, victoreus, Augustus Cesar:and he leyrnit the other to saye, God save.thy grace, nobil, victoreus, Empriour
Anthonius. Than this subtel cordinar set
ane of his corbeis that gef 10viRg til Augustus furth at his windo. on the plane reu (i.e.
row), quhen he beheld ony gentil men ofAugustus' allya (i.e. aclies) pas or repas
befor his house; and siklyik he set furth hisothir corbe at his windo quhen he beheld
ony of the allya of Anthonius pas or repas
befor his house. The quhilk thing he didto that effect that he mycht wyn the favoirof Augustus, and nocht to tyne the favoir of
Anthonius. Of this sort he was lyik to thesourd with the tua edgis. Than quhen Augustus Cresar venquest Anthonius, and waspacebil empriour, this subtil cordonar presentitthe corbe lil Augustus. quhilk gef hym
loving in hyr artificial speche, of the quhilk
Cesar was verray glad. quhar for he gef thecordonar fyftene hundretht peces of gold.
But sune there eftir it was reportit toAugustus Cesar that the said subtil cordonar
hed ane corbe that gave as grit loving til
Anthonius. Than Augustus causit the said
corbe and the cordonar to be brocht in his
presens; and quhen he persavit that thecordinar was ane astuce, subtel falou, aod
dissymilit, he gan hang hym on ane potent(i.e. gibbet) befor the Capitol, and his tua
corbeis be syde hym. (Ed. 1801, pp. 285.
286.)

In reference to talking ravens, itwould never do to omit mention ofthat particularly weird specimen of

26

Folk-Lore of the Raven and the Owl.

his kind which "perched upon a bustof Pallas" (the Owl, by the way,
would have been the more appropriate
Bird of Omen for such a place!)
above Edgar Allan Poe's chamberdoor, as he "pondered, weak andweary, over many a quaint andcurious volume of forgotten lore"that Raven whose only answer to allthat was said to him was the souldepressing word, " Nevermore! "Startled at the stillness broken by reply soaptly spoken,.. Doubtless," said I, .. what it utters is its
only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master,Whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster,
Till his songs one burden boreTill the dirges of his hope the melancholy
burden boreOf 'Never-nevermore!'"By way of a, set-off to these sadverses (which must call up the wholepoem to many readers), let us takea diverting Persian story, which has

II.-T H E

L IKE the Raven, everywhere andin all times, the Owl has been
considered as a bird of evil omen, its
sudden presence or cry portending
death ordiredisaster. The Athenians,
however, amongst whom the bird was
the symbol of Pallas Athene, regarded its appearance on the eve ofbattle as a presage of victory. 1 Juno
assumed the form of the eagle-owl
because, says Aldrovandus,she might
not take on herself the likeness ofany
small or vulgar bird, but rather be
embodied in one whose reign bynight was equal to that of the eagleby day.
1 Athene was styled Glallcopb=owl-eyed.
This symbol of the Owl, according toPayne Knight, was adopted for the goddessof wisdom because the owl was .. a bird
which seems to surpass all other creaturesin acuteness of organic perception, its eye
being designed to observe objects which toall others are enveloped in darkness, its ear
to hear sounds distinctly, and its nostrils todiscriminate effluvia with such nicety that it
has bee:J. deemed prophetic, from discovering the putridity of death;even in the firststages of the disease." In the Panjab, on
the contrary, the Owl is an emblem of
extreme stupidity.

been brought to mind by Poe's Raven
with its single boding word: A
wealthy Mogul, sauntering throughthe bazaar one day, observed a fineparrot in a cage, and asked its price.
"A thousand rupees," he was told.
"That seems a very large sum ofmoney for a bird," said the Mogul.
"Tell me truly-is it really worth thesum you ask?" The parrot saved
its owner from the sin of lying byscreaming out, "There's not a doubtof it !" The Mogul was pleased withthis" reply so aptly spoken," and atonce paid down the money and car'ried the bird home. But he soon
found that the parrot had beentaught (or had itself picked up) only
the words which had come so surprisingly in answer to the question as
to its value, and, with deep vexation,
he exclaimed," I was a fool to buy
this bird for· a thousand rupees."
To which the parrot serenely replied," There's not a doubt of it !"OWL.

In the fragments of Menander it
is said that" if the owl should cry wehave reason to be afraid." Plinyterms the bird "bubo funebris etmaxime abominatus." Virgil introduces it among the prodigies andhorrors that preceded the death ofDido, and makes itcomplain,In lengthened shriek, and dire funereal
strain.

Ovid, in the 5th Book of his Metamorphoses, relates how Ascalapus
was transformed .by Ceres into anowl, and condemned to predict evil,
because he had accused her to Joveof having eaten a young pomegranate
in secret, against the prohibition:
JII-ornened in his form, the unlucky fowl,
Abhorred hy man, and called a screeching
Owl.

It is said that Demosthenes, before
going into exile, declared that Pallas
Athene delighted in three fear-inspiring beasts-the owl, the dragon, and
the Athenian people. Owls were soabundant in Athens that the proverb"to send owls to Athens" was equivalent to our English saying of "coals

Tke Owl.
to Newcastle," the Arab proverb,"dates to Hijar," and the Greek sayiner "fiers to Syracuse."
The °Romans twice purified thecity with water and sulphur on account of the appearance of the GreatOwl in the temples! to ~vhich a!lusion
is made by Butler In his Hudzbras:
The Roman Senate, when within
The city walls an Owl was seen,
Did cause their clergy, with lustration(Our synod calls, humiliation),
The round-faced prodigy t' avert
From doing town and country hurl.

According to Ovid, the screech-owl
was supposed to destroy children if
they were not watched ; ~tnd Hasselquist, writing in the middle of theJ 8th century, makes the sa~ne sta~e­ment reerardin er the owls 111 Syria.
In Rom~ it w~s customary to nailthe dead bodies of owls on the doorsof houses in order to protect theinmates f;om the dreaded influenceof the living birds.
In Enerlish folk-lore the barn, or
screech ;wl is specially invested withsupern~tural power, a.n~ it is probablethat the Irish superstitIOn of the. Banshee had its oriO'in in the hornfyIng
cry of this sp~cies. E:llis, ,i~ his
Modenz Husbandman, writes: Withus [in Hertfordshire] the owl is called
Hobhouchin, and makes a great
whooping noise or. cry manl:' times
in the night, especially a fair one;for when the owl whoops loudest,and does this oftenest, it is by mostdeemed a sign of pleasant weather;according to the verse:
Nor the Owl, foretelling vain,
From the high rooL observing Phrebus set,Will idly then nocturnal tales repeat.

She will not sing against rain, apd
has this farther observation recordedof her that when she frequents atown n;ore than ordinary it presages
mortality and sickness to that. place;but according to the notIOn ofcou~try dames, it is this s~reech-o~lthat forbodes death or sickness In
this manner' for these make a mostdisaerreeable'noise, sometimes in ourvilla~es and about our houses, in the
nierht-ti:ne one of which has been
knoown to ~creech so near a window
as to disturb a family, and then it isreckoned a fatal omen.".
•A pretty leO'end is current in Normandy, to a~count for the Owl's

nocturnal habits: The Wren, in the
successful effort of fetching fire fromheaven for the use of man, lost allits plumage, and the other birds eachpresented it with a feather, save thesurly Owl, and hence it is ~shamed
to show its face in the day-time.
The Bat is often associated with
the Owl in popular legends as highly
objectionable, and e:-ren gruesome,and a Welsh tale gives a CUrIOUS
reason why those creatures" love thedarkness rather than the light": The
Dove and the Bat, on a journey together, came late at night to thedwelling of the Chief of the Owls,
and souerht and were granted shelter.
After supper the Bat broke forth intoa loud, laudatory strain on the wisdomof their entertainer, attributing to him
qualities which it was well known henever possessed. When the Bat h.ad
ended his eulogium, the Dove, With
modest dignity, simply -thank~d ~heOwl for his attentions and hospitalIty,
on which both the Owl and the Bat
attacked her furiously, accusing herof inerratitude, and drove her out into
the dark and stormy night. When
morning dawned the Dove flew tothe King, who in great wrath passed
an edict, enacting that thenceforth
the Owl and the Bat should never presume to fly abroad until the sun wasdown, under pain of being attacked
by all other birds.
.
In Sicily the Owl that CrIes bynierht near the house of a sick man
anonounces his approaching death;but amon rr owls it is the Horned Owl( jacobu, °chiovu, or cllio) that is
especially feared. The ho~ned owl
sinO's near the house of a Sick man
thr~e days before his death; if ther.e
are no sick people in the house, It
announces to one, at least, of its inhabitants that he or she will be struck
with squinancy of the tonsil. The
peasants in Sicily, when in spring
they hear the lamentation of thehorned owl for the first time, go totheir master to give notice of theirintention of leaving his service. l
In HunO'ary the Owl is called the"bird of °death." In the Sanskrit
collections of apologues and tales
called the P,mcha/antra (Five Chap1 De Gubernatis' Zoological Il1ytk%g)',
p. 249·28

Folk-Lore of tIle Raven and tIle Owl.

land opposite Vancouver's Island,
tel's) and the Hitopadesa (Friendly
Advice) the King of the Crows comwill never kill an owl, says Mr.
Dorman. Among the Aztecs, Quipares the hostile Owl, who arrives
ches, and Mayos, the Peruvians,
towards night, to Yama, the god of thedead. Josephus (Ant. xix, 7) tells us i\raucanians, and Algonkins, the owl
that when Herod Agrippa (cf. Acts
was thought to have some relation to·
the dead. The Ojibways called thexii) was receiving the flattering acclaim preceding his death, he looked
bridge they thought the spirits of the
upwards and perceived an owl over dead had to pass the Owl Bridge.
his head, and knew presently that it
The Creek priests carried a stuffed
was but a messenger of his misfor- owl with them as the badge of theirtune;
and suddenly he wasprofession. The Arickaras placed one
in their council-Iodge,and the cultureseized," and so forth.-In I-fogarth's"Four Stages of Cruelty" an owl hero of the Monquins of California
is introduced as hovering above
was represented, like Athene, as
the corpse of the murdered woman, having one for his companion. The
though in some reproductions of the natives of the Antilles wore tunics
with figures of these birds embroidplate it seems more like a bat.
Among the Zulus
In the New World the Owl is ered on them.
owls of pottery were very common
also regarded as an uncanny bird.
The natives of Yucatan believe thc.t objects of worship. Brinton says the
Indians were of opinion that there
if it alights on, or even flies over, ahouse, it is a sure presage of death. were numbers of inferior deities, andthat the irrational animals were enThe Apache Indians have a great
dread of the Owl: "On the Sierra gaged in viewing their actions. The
Eagle, for this purpose, with her keen
Madre expedition, one of the commanders caught an owlet, which he eye, soared about in the day, and theOwl, with her nightly eye, was perchfastened to the pommel of his saddle.
ed on the trees around their camp.
When the ugly bird began its lowmuttered notes, the excitement among Therefore, when they observed theEagle or the Owl near, they immethe Apache scouts was something
diately offered sacrifice, or burned
wonderful to witness. Their head
man approached General Crook, andtobacco. l
In Barbary, if the Owl appear
remonstrated against the retention
from the northward the evil thusof this sure prognostic of defeat."lWilson,the American ornithologist, portended will not be confined to
one person, but a plague will ensue,
in' describing the cry of the. Owl,
which will not be stayed until thesays: "The ghostly watchman has
frequently warned me of approaching bird of ill omen disappears.
The Egyptians and the Ethiopians
morning, sweeping down and surrounding my fires, uttering a loudemployed an image of the Owl as amessenger of death, as a bull's headand sudden 'Waugh ~ 0 Waugh!'was formerly used in Scotland andsufficient to have startled a wholesome other European countries.
garrison. " - Sir John Richardson
When this grim token was sent
narrates the circumstance of a partyby the king it was considered as a-of Scotch Highlanders who passed apoint o( honour for the recipient tolong winter's night of intense fear inkill himself at once, as any attempt
the depths of an American forest.
to evade the message would be an
They had made their bivouac fireindelible stain on the family. Diofrom wood taken from an Indian
tomb. All night long the shrieks of donts Siculus tells of an Egyptian
mother who strangled her son with
the Virginian Owl rang in their
her girdle, because he sought toaffrighted ears, cries which they atonce judged came from the spirit of escape the doom thus announced.
the old warrior, bemoaning his deThe dead body of the Owl was usedsecrated resting-place.
The Lummi, inhabitants of the main1 J. G. Bourke. on "The Religion of the
Apache Indians," in Folk-Lore, ii. 426.

1.The Origin of Primitive Superstition.
by Rushton M. Dorman. Philadelphia, lSSr.
pp. 262, 263.

71Je Owl.

/
for magic charms and in incantations. Horace makes it one of theingredients in Canidia's infernal mixture. Propertius mingles it in his
love - charm. Ovid makes Medea
consummate her horrid cauldron of"wonder-working juices" with

A screech-awl's carcass, and ill-omened
wings;

which Ben Jonson modifies into
The screech-awl's eggs, and the feathers
black.

The hell-broth of the Weird Sisters'in Macbeth is seasoned with" owlet'swiner"
I~' the folk-lore of many lands theashes of the Owl's penetrating eyes
are good for clearing the sight; thefeet, burned with the herb plumbago,
render the bite of a serpent harmless; owls' eggs and the blood of theirnestlings preserve the hair and makeit curly. Owl broth is considered acure for the whooping cough. And
Swan, in his Speculum Mundt", recommends owls' eggs to be broken,
and put into the cups of a drunkard,
or one desirous to follow drinking,with the result that" they will so workwith him that he will suddenly loathe
his good liquor, and be displeased
with his drinking." Hindoos fasten'
an owl's claw round a child's neck tokeep him from nervousness, and thesmoke of owl's flesh thev consider
very efficacious in keeping off ghosts
from children.
In Madagascar the spirits of those
who die and remain unburied are
believed to be doomed to associate
with, if not actually become, owls orbats. The wild, unearthly screechof some of the owls in that island
renders them objects of dislike andeven of terror. The cry of the demonbird of Ceylon, called by the natives
Ulama, is quite as awe-inspiring asthat of the screech-owl. Perched ona neighbouring tree (says Davys), it
makes low and hideous screams, conveying the idea of extreme distress.
Its harsh and horrid notes are supposed to be of evil omen, and a prelude to death or misfortune. In Siamwhen an owl is seen to perch upon
the roof of a house it signifies thedeath of at least one of the inmates.
The Ainos have a singular legend
to account for the tuft on the Owl's

head: A rat having stolen the owl's
hoarded dainties, he went to the dwelling of that rodent, and threatened
to kill him. But the rat humbly asked
to be forgiven, and, as peace-offering, gave the owl a gimlet, whereby
he might obtain greater pleasure thanhe should have derived from thechoice food of which he had been
deprived. "You must stick the gimlet point upwards in the ground, atthe foot of that tree, then climb to
the top of the tree and slide down thetrunk," said the crafty rat. The owl-who in this instance certainly did
not justify the reputation of its kindfor superior sagacity-did all as therat had instructed him, and sliding
down impaled himself on the sharppointed gimlet. Full of rage, he went
off to kill the rat, who, anticipating avisit of this nature, came along theroad to meet him, and pacified him
with a cap for his head-and this is
how the Owl came to have the thicktuft of erect feathers which he wears
to this day.
English poetry abounds in allusions
to the cry of the Owl. Thus Chaucer,
in his Pa,lemmt 0./ FOldes, mentions,
The oule, that of deth the bode bringeth.

Spenser speaks of thellI-fated owl, death's dreadful messenger.

Chatterton, "the marvellous boy,"says:
Hark! tile death-owl loud doth sing
To the night-mares as they go.

Its alarming scream has probably
often had such effect on the weaknerves of an .invalid as actually tohasten death. In Shakspeare's playof Mt"dsummer l\'t'ght's Dream (v, 2),
we read:The screech-owl, screeching loud,Puts the wretch that lies in woe
In remembrance of a shroud.

Among the numerous prodigies which
Casca witnessed the day preceding
the great dictator's assassination(JuHus Ccesar, i, 3), he says:
The bird of night did sit,
Even at noon-day, upon the market-place,
Hooting and shrieking.

The cry of the dreaded bird is heard
by Lady Macbeth. While the bloody
deed is being done, the murderer'
asks, " Didst thou not hear a noise ?"and she answers, "I heard the owl

3°

Folk-Lore of the Raven and the Owl.

scream and the cricket cry." . And
in the same tragedy (Macbeth, ii, 3)
Lennox says that on the night ofDuncan's murder,
The obscure bird
Clamoured the live-long night.

In the play of He1lry VI (Part 3,v,6) the king says to the Duke of
Gloster, afterwards Richard II I :The owl shrieked at thy birth-an evil
sign IIn Ric/lard ffI (iv,4) the king interrupts the messengers of evil tidings
wjth, "Out on ye, owls !-nothingbut sonRs of death?" In I Henry VI(iv, 2), "Thou ominous and fearfulowl of death i" And in an obscureplay we read:
When screech·owls croak upon the chimney
tops,
It's certain that you of a corse shall hear.

But according to a song in Love's
Labote'r's Lost (v, 2), the owl's cry does
not sound specially sad in some ears:\;<,Then blood is nipt and ways be foul,
Then mightly sings the staring owlTo-whoa!
To-whit! to-whoa I-a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

The sprite Ariel (Tlte Tempest, v, I)
couches" when owls do cry."Poor Ophelia, in her incoherent
babblings, says (Hamlet, iv, 5) :The Owl was a baker's daughter,alluding to a folk-tale, which recounts
how the Saviour, having been refused
bread by a baker's daughter, changed
her into an owl. A version current
in Herefordshire runs thus: Onceon a time, a fairy, disguised as a poor
old woman, went to a baker's shop,and begge.l some dough of thedaughter, who gave her a very small
piece. This she farther requested
leave to bake in the oven, where it
swelled to the size of a large loaf,
and the baker's daughter refused to
let the pretended old woman have it,
but crave her another and smaller
piece" of dough, and with the same
result as before. A third and still
smaller piece grew even larger thanthe others, and was again withheldby the baker's daughter. The fairy,
now fully convinced of the woman's
covetousness, resumed her proper
form, and striking. the culprit withher wand, she was mstantly changed
into an owl.

According to another legend, it
was an earl's daughter who wastransformed into an owl for disobedience, and condemned to cry"Oh, hoo! hoo! my feet are cold!"

In the north of England she isadvanced to the ·lofty rank of
Pharaoh's daughter, and sings-or
screeches:"Oh! oM-66lance was a king's daughter, and sat on
my father's knee,
But now I am a poor howlet, and bide ina hollow tree."

And Waterton, in his Essays on
Natural History, cites the following
verse of a rural song:
Once I was a monarch's daughter,And sat on a lady's knee.
Rtlt I ,un now a nightly rover,Banished to the ivy-tree;
Crying, hoo, hoo, 1100-hoo, hoo, hooHoo, hoo, hoo, my feet are cold,
Pity me, for here you see me
Persecuted, poor, and old.

In a version current in' Norway the
woman is changed into a woodpecker--see the story of" Gertrude's Bird,"
in Dasent's Popular Tales from tlte
Norse. l -The association of the Owl
with ivy is' thus referred to by Drayton:
Like an owl, by night to go abroad,
Roosted all day within an ivy-tad.

The cry of the Owl, like that of
the Raven, has also its signification
in weather-lore. According to an oldchap-book, "when the owlscreechethin foul weather it is a sign of fairweather at hand"; and in several
districts of England its cry is sometimes taken as an indication of
approaching hail or rain, accompanied by lightning.
The famous Robbers of the Rhine,
deeming it too vulgar to whistle as asignal, adopted the owl's" to-whoo !"which resounded through the forest,
even more portentously than the cryof the bird itself.
In Mr. Hardy's novel, Far fromtIll! Madding Crowd, Joseph Poor1 Miss Garnett, in her Women 0/ Turkey,
gives a Kurdish story, in which a girl, griefstricken at the murder of her brother by her
cruel stepmother, prays that Allah wouldchange her into an owl, and" she was atonce transformed into that sad bird; sheflew up and away, and was seen there no
more."

Tlte Owl.
grass, on losing his way in a woodat night, shouts" Man-a-lost !:> andan owl cries "Who? who? who?"
which Joseph imagines is some mananswering him.
Once on a time, if we may credit a
Cornish story, a young man did not
obtain a possibly good wife, and ayoung woman remained unwed, inconsequence of the hooting of an owl.
This is how the story goes:
Mr. Lemine had been, as was his
wont, spending his evening hours
with the lady of his love. He was atimid man, and always returned toTregenebris early. Beyond this, as
the lady was alone, she deemed it
prudent to let the world know that
Mr. Lemine left by daylight. One
evening, it was scarcely yet dark, andour lover was returning home throughLeah Lanes. LHis horse started at an
old woman who had crept under thehedge for shelter from a passing
shower.
As Mr. Lemine saw afigure in the shade he was terrified.
"Tu-whit, tu-whoo! ho I" sang anowl.
"It's only me-Aunt Betty
Foss," screamed the old woman.
"Tu-whit, tu-whoo! hoi hoI" sang theowl again.
"Don't ye be afeard,
Mr. Lemine," shrieked Aunt Betty.
"Tu-whit, tu-whoo ! hoi hoi hoi" also
shrieked the owl. "Oh, it's only
John Lemine, of Tregenebris," stammered the frightened lover, who hadby this time reached home. He went
no more a-courting. He was fully
persuaded that either a highwayman
and his crew or the Devil and his
imps were upon him. He died abachelor, and the charming lady
became a peevish old maid, and diedin solitude, all owing to the hooting
owl. Some do say that Betty Foss
was a witch, and the owl was her
familiaL'
Samuel Rowland, a prolific writerof the 17th century, in his More
Knaves Yet (a supplement to his
Four Knaves), printed 'in 1613, thus
girds at the popular belief in the
Owl's ominous screech:
Wise Gosling did but heare the scrich-owle
crye,
And told his wife, and straight a pigge diddye.
, Hunt', Popular Romances of the Westof England.

31

It might perhaps be expected that
Blair, the author of Tile Grave, should
include the hooting of the Owl in his
description of a stormy night:
The wind is up -hark! how it howls!
methinks
Till now I never heard a sou nd so dreary :Doors creak, and windows clap, and night's
foul bird,
Rooked in the spire, screams loud.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Again the screech-owl shrieks-ungracious
sound!

John Keats, in the opening linesof his story of the Eve 0/ St. Agm's,
very forcibly describes the severityof the winter's nightSt. Agnes' Eve-ah. bitler chill it was,The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold.

And Coleridge makes happy use of
the Bird of Night in his Uzristabel:'Tis the middle of the night by the castle
clock,
And the owls have awakened the crowing
cock:
Tu-whit !-Tu whoa!
And hark again! the crowing cock,How drowsily it crew.

And Gray,in his far-famed Elegy, uses
a very appropriate term in reference
to the bird that loves solitude:
From yonder ivy-mantled tower
The IItoping owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient, solitary reign.

Apart from ~he superstitions whichhave been always and everywhere
current regarding the Owl, and thenumerous bad names it has beencalled, the Bird of Night is oneof the best friends of the farmer.
Goldsmith says that a single owl ismore serviceable than half-a-dozencats in ridding a barn of its vermin.
When it has young, it will bring to
its nest a mouse every ten or fifteen
minutes. An old writer says: "J n
the year 158o, at Hallowtide, an armyof mice so overran the marshes near
Southminster that they ·<).te up thegrass to the very roots.
But atlength a number of strange painted
owls came and devoured all themice." The plague of voles, fromwhich farmers in some districts of
Scotland have been lately suffering,is said to be largely owing to thedestruction of their natural enemies,
the owls. Graham, in his Britz"sk

Foik-Lore of tlte Raven and tlte Owi.
Ceor;;ics, has a good word {or the
Bird of Night:
Let the screeching Owl
A sacred bird be held; protect her nest,
Whether in neighbouring crag, within the.
reachOf venturous boy, it hang, or in the rent
Of some old echoing tower, where her sadplaint

The live-long night she moans, save whel1
she skims,
Prowling, along the ground, or throughthe barn
Her nightly round performs: unwelcome
guest!
Whose meteor eyes shoot terror throughthe dark,
And numb the tiny revellers with dread,

ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE RA VEN.
AMONG the Gipsies, the Raven seems

to playa part in a remedy for thatmysterious influence, dreaded alikein the East and in the West, the"Evil Eye." This is the" recipe" :A jar is filled with water from astream, and it must be taken with,not against, .the current as it flows.
In it are placed seven coals, sevenhandfuls of meal, and seven clovesof garlic, all of which is put on thefire. When the water begins to boil,
it is stirred with a three-forked twig,. while a "wise woman" chantsEvil eyes look on thee!
May they here extinguished be!
And then seven ravens
Pluck out the evil eyes,and so forth.
Dr. Wlislocki, aneminent authority on Gipsy customs,
thinks the" seven ravens" mentioned
in this incantation are represented
by the "seven coals" put into thepitcher of water. l
Not only are Ravens popularly
credited with the possession of superhuman intelligence, but in Wales
they are believed to be guardians ofhidden treasures- thus taking theplace of serpents in Eastern fictions-and it would appear, from thefollowing "thrilling" story, that treasure-seekers had better leave them
undisturbed: In a certain cavern in
Glamorganshire, called the Ogof
Cigfrain, or Cavern of the Ravens, issaid to be a chest of gold, watchedover by two' birds of gloomy plumage,in a darkness so profound that nothing can be seen but the fire of their
sleepless eyes. To go there with the
1 See Charles G. Godfrey's Gipsy Sorcery,pp. 5', 52.

purpose of disturbing them is tobring on a heaving and rolling of theground, accompanied by thunder andlightning. A swaggering drover from
Brecknockshire, though warned by a"dark woman" that he had better
not try it, sneeringly said that" acouple of ravens were a fine matterto be afraid of, indeed," and'ventured
into the cavern, with a long rope
about his waist. and a lantern in his
hand. Some rilen who had accompanied him (seeing that he was benton this rash and dangerous enter-.
prise) held the coil of rope and paid
it out as he went in farther andfarther. The result was prompt andsimple: the sky cracked with loudbursts of thunder and flashes oflightning, and the drover roared withaffright, and rushed out of the dark
cavern with his hair on end. No
coaxing ever prevailed on him toreveal the terrible sights he had
seen. lPopular belief in the prophetic
powers of the Raven seems to havesuggested the title of a curious little
work, published at London in 1609 :Tlte Ravens A lmanacke. Foretellinf[
of a Plague, Famille, and Civill
Warre, tltat sf/all hapjJen Ihis present
year I609, etc. With certaille remedies, rules, and receipts, etc.
This tract is described as" a mockprediction, and a moral warning.
drawn up with considerable humourand force, ami intermixed with comic
novels and incidents. One of theauthor's objects was to ridicule thepretended prophecies of almanacmakers."
1 Wirt Sikes' Britis" Goblins, pp. 389, 390 .