Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-12-09

ated with beautiful regularity, it is not
to be wondered that the owl came to b.
looked on as very much of a prophet
These cOincidents We're the originals of
the white horse and red headed girl
miracle. In time the dread with which
the owl was regarded was transferred
in great measure to the ravens. They
foretold the death of Alexander the
Great flying about the Macedonians
tent and returning stubbornly though
driven away by the guards. The al
ways reliable Appian and others tell
how they pulled the cOverlid from thu
couch of Cicero a little while before the
murder of the god of the forum. They
did not perch upon the head of
Pompey's statue on the day that great
Caesar fell. but contemporaneous
writer's assert that more than 20 dark
pinionS waved over the route to the
spot of death. The old Romaic dread
of the raven is seen today in the dash
ing legions of the French army, many
of which carry this bird into battle.
''Ouida" makes dramatic use of the
habit in her lurid tale of the death
grapple on the field of Zaraila.
Spencer. Marston. Butler the author of
"Hudibras.' Drayton and Shakespeare
were all believers in the fatality of the
raven. Possibly the dread of it crossed
the British channel with the Roman in
vasion. Such things are far reaching.
Still in the west of England its croaking
about the house preSageS death. In Swe-
den these offshoots of the crow family
are believed to be the ghosts of murdered
men. In that country the devil is
thought to be the especial protector of
the magpie. which also is akin to the
crow. The Scotch have a rhyme about
magpies:
One is sorrow, two are mirth;
Three are IA wedding. four are a birth.
Five are heaven, six are hell;
Seven are the dell himself.
The thievish habits of the magpie and
his inky cloak are responsible for his ill
repute. He is a sort of feathered NapO-
leon of finance. and will steal anything
from a wedding ring to an old gum-boot.
Growing hens are universally discs
teemed. The old couplet about whist
ling woman and a Growing hem is well
known. In fact. this unjust and unpro-
phetic rhyme is common to all countries
and is found in many languages Prob
ably it's popularity is due to the fact that
confirmed whistlers of any sex are hated
by the good The cuckoo is another bird
of i'll omen. It brings bad luck to the
home near which it builds. In parts of
the British isles peasants will not under
take a journey ii they see it early in the
morning. The cuckoo also is a thief. Dis
honesty. often condoned in unfeathere
hpeds. is crime in birds, costing them
reputation and the enmity of all. In Ire
land the utterly inoffensive and very
graceful swallow is called 1.-The devils
bird but why is not known In Scot
land the yellowhammer fills this unen-
viable role. 1t is unlucky in Italy to own
doves just before marriage. Pigeons, too.
bring bad luck to the house that feeds
them. Rocks are precursors OF mortal
ity. Among the jewellers in the English
fens wild geese are disliked for a singular
reason: Their night cries probably are
the origin of the weird tale of the Ca
briel hounds'-that ghostly pack which
sweeps in full cry through the air at
night and brings death to the inmates of
a house over which it PUSHES The geese
in some way are connected with them
and come in for obloquy.
Southern negroes regard the jaybird
with comicaly grave distrust To them
he is the counselor, guide and friend Of
the evil one himself. The amount of con-
fidence established ages ago between the
devil and the iaybird is to the African
mind enormous. Plantation .uncles'' and
"aunties'' believe that whenever Satan
can spare the time from his irving opera
tons he visits earth, and he and the
jaybird hold council of the powers: de-
wishing ways and means wherein and
whereby to insnare the darky soul. Be
fore this combination the yoodOo charm
Of red flannel fishhones, scrapings of