The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-03-24

therefore direct acknowledgement of the crows familiarity with the occuk sciences, though it is true that there have, as usual, been found gradging people to gird at the heassf in the fashion of the Cwn<- ads. -as If the great Jupiter hadde notA- ing else to doe but to dryve about jacke- dawes and crowes.r But the consensus of nations is against these carpins critics, and the Scandlnavians triumphAntly place on the shoulders of Odin the two crows called Hugin and Munnin-Min and Memory and there they remain jogging up h,s faculties and carrying out his be- nests. This northern belief in the crow or raven as ambassador or kings messen- ger might not find credence in a genera ton where the claims to sovereignty are not generally known, and might possibly be scoffed zs if ses forth, were It nos borne out by the tales sf the sunny south, where the crow is much. more generally res pectea and does not need to dodge every man he sees lest he should have . gun about him. In Sam, they say the crow comes out of the woods to tell the news he has heard there. He is 90 free sf the towns, and makes such diligent use of the latitude granted h,m-imperti- nent use, those unimpressed by his merits are apt to call 1t. when in oriental houses he makes light of the dianer table, and drops meerschaum pipes over the edge of the veranda, and purioins soap from the bedrooms-that there Is oviously no reason why he should go into the woods for any but intelligent purposes. Consequently the Slamese say ..ka bok khAo," the crow IS bringing in- formation, when they hear him ca~ing. Whenever he hears the sound, the wlse householder rushes indoors to the basket where he keeps a mass of boiled nee dyed some bright color, and specially prepared for the occasions such as lhls He comes out again as fast as he can, and throws a solid lump of rice on the roof of his house. 1.-the messenger crow stops to eat 1t, then the good man is per suaded that the intelligence brought has special significance for him, and that the crow wishes to demonstrate his good faith by accepting the offered hospitality What the actual piece of news IS, is un- fortunately Jeff in doubt but it is usually revealed by the arnval of some friend
 
 1t but guessing, which IS not the fault of the crow, but of the absurd friend who does not come. If a misfortune should happen, then the bird is not the less be- lieved to have been the hamburger of 1t, and he is stigmatized as a ka pen-lzng, a crow of bad import: but il would be manifcs, y un, n to visit upon him pun i.hment iur merely revealing the ruth that was in him. fhis species of augury IS not confined to the Mongolians: por- phyrius told us long ago that the Arabs listened to the crows, as the TyrrheniAns believed that the eagle brought them su- pernatural information. It IS, at any rate. much more 10 the credit of the bird than the discussions between English farmers and naturallsts as to whether reoks and crows do more harm to the crops by sea- soning the grain which they indub,tably eat with the grubs that are no less dili- gent in the same occupation. Such dis- cussions are not merely useless, for neither party ever persuades, or has the least hope of persuAding. its opponents :; they are positively insulting. as implying that the crow IS nothing more than an ordinary b.rd, like any pal,ry goose or common barn-door fowl, with no higher instincts about him than to get as much as he can eat, and that of the most sa- voTy character possible. The greatest triumph. however, which the crow has achieved-the more satisfactory as beng won over cold, unsympathetic. unbe- heving portion of mankind-is his ap- pearanee in Christian arr. like the subsi- dence of the devil of the old Morality plays into the clown of modern panto- mines. This is primarily. no doubt. an aliusion to the ravens that fed Elijah, .bu, It has extended much farther. Thus St. Oswald IS always represented as holding in his hands crow with a ring in its mouth. St. Benedict appears with the same bird at his feet. and $. Paul. the Hermit, IS portrayed with raven bring ing him loaf Of bread. Crows are no, likely to gain any more such distinctions now-a-days. Their Aouted claims to sov- ereignty. their original gay dress. and above all the cruel desire to rob them of the ti,le of sbkrsdsn5. have, i, IS to be feared, permanently de,erIorated char acter never al any time remarkable for virtue or even honesty.
 
 Topnoody.
 The Drummer