RAVEN LORE
A segment from BIRD
LEGEND AND LIFE
By Margaret Coulson Walker, 1908
Illustrated with photos including these
by A. Hyatt Verrill…there are many
more…
Digitized by Doug Frizzle;
February 2013.
ORIGIN OF THE EATEN
TRUE it is—and it would be an
injustice to conceal the fact, much
more to deny it — that ravens of old fed Elijah; but that was the punishment of some
old sin committed by two who before the flood bore the
human shape, and who, soon after the
ark rested on Mount Ararat, flew off to the
desolation of swamped forests and the
disfigured solitudes of the drowned
glens. Dying ravens hide themselves
from daylight in burial places among
the rocks, and are seen hobbling
into their tombs,
as if driven thither by a flock of
fears, and crouching under a remorse that disturbs instinct, even as if it were
conscience. So sings and says the
Celtic superstition—muttered to us in a dream —adding that there are raven ghosts; great black bundles of feathers, forever in the
forest, night-hunting in famine for prey, emitting a last feeble croak at the blush of dawn, and then
all at once invisible."
—Wilson's "Recreations of
Christopher North."
ORIGIN OF CROWS—ESKIMO
In the
moon of falling leaves, an Indian mother,
the wife of a chief, took with her
into the forest her children that they might help her in gathering
spruce boughs to be used in collecting the
eggs of salmon. Leaving the children
to watch a pile of boughs on the
beach, she returned to find them
gone. On calling to them to return
she was answered only by the voices
of crows flying about over the
forest. For their wandering and
disobedience they were doomed to live in this form forevermore, and to this
day crows are carved on the totems
of all of their tribe.
A HEBRIDES
FABLE
A crow never can be put to
shame. The lapwing, who, as every one knows, has a habit of repeating himself,
said to the crow: "I never saw
your like for stealing eggs, for stealing eggs." The crow, rubbing his
beak on the grass, replied:
"Nor did we ourselves, though it is we who are older." 
Journal of Am. Folk Lore.
Journal of Am. Folk Lore.
WHY RAVENS ARE BLACK—A
TYROLESE STORY
In the
old days ravens were of beautiful appearance, with plumage as white as snow,
which they kept clean by constant
washing in a stream. To this stream came once upon a time the Holy Child desiring to drink, but the ravens prevented him by splashing about and
making muddy the water. Whereupon He
said: "Ungrateful birds! Proud you may be of your beauty, but your feathers so snowy white shall become
black and remain so till the
Judgment Day," and so they have
been ever since.
ZlNGERLE.
In the
myth of the metamorphosis of Coronis
by Apollo as told by Ovid, the
raven, once white, was turned black for deceitful conduct.
"The raven flies not
straight like other birds, but
crooked because cursed by Noah."
THE CROW STONE
"On the first of April boil the
eggs taken out of a crow's nest until they
are hard, and being cold, let them
be placed in the nest as they were before. When the
crow knows this she flies a long way to find the
stone, and returns with it to her nest, and the
eggs being touched with it they become fresh and prolific. The stone must be
immediately snatched out of the
nest. Its virtue is to increase riches, to bestow honors, and foretell future
events."
Leonardus
Camillus—Mirror of Stones.
In Brittany two crows are said to come and perch on the
house-roof when the head of the family is about to die. Two crows are there assigned to every family to foretell family
events.
—Journal of Folk Lore,
Vol. XI.
Hindoos gave food to the crows as to the
souls of the dead.
—Zoological Mythology, p. 253.
In Switzerland a crow perching on the roof of a house in which a corpse lies means
that the soul of the dead is lost
Swainson.
"In Sussex the cry of the
crow thrice repeated is considered a sure sign of death."
In Bohemia, peasants declare
that from springtime up to St.
Lawrence's, or, according to some,
St. Bartholomew's Day, the crows dare not roost in the
forest or on trees, because they
were the birds who pecked out the eyes of St. Lawrence, or, as some say, of St. Carlo Borromeo.
The children are also told on the
birth of a baby that it was brought to the
house by crows, who let it fall down the
chimney.
Grohmann.
"In Andalusia,
if the raven is heard croaking over
a house, an unlucky day is expected; repeated thrice, it is a fatal
presage." If perching high, turning and croaking, a corpse will come from
that direction.
In some
parts of Europe the
raven is supposed to have the power
of bringing infection.
"Saturday is the raven's day, and woe to the
armies that fall on that day under the
gloom of its ominous
wing." —Robinson's "Poet's Birds" p. 381.
WEATHER LORE
"When crows fly low it
is a sign of rain."
When rooks or crows stay at home or return early in the
day, rain should be expected; if they
fly far away it will be fair.
—Devonshire.
Ravens bring the summer rain.
—Greece.
When rooks congregate on the dead branches of trees there
will be rain before night; if they
sit on the live branches, the day will be fine.
—Yorkshire.