Identifier: birdlegendlife00walk (find matches)
Title: Bird legend and life
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Walker, Margaret Coulson
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, The Baker & Taylor Company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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followed. Thediscoveries of both Iceland and Greenland are attributed totheir leadership. To the Romans and Greeks, the raven was an embodiedgod and the chief bird of omen, whose effigy was borne ontheir banners, and whose auguries were followed with thegreatest confidence; while to the German mind he was HisSatanic Majesty .made manifest in feathers. Not only gods, but mortals also, are known to have as-sumed raven shape—if Don Quixote be an authority—forthis doughty knight informs us that the great King Arthurpassed into raven form, not through choice, but throughwitchcraft, and that as a raven he still lives and flies aboutover his erstwhile kingdom, waiting to be liberated; and thatfor this reason no Englishman would ever be guilty of takingthe life of one of these birds, for fear of becoming a regicide. In some parts of Germany these birds are believed tohold the souls of the damned, while in other European sec-tions wicked priests only are believed to be so reincarnated. 168
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Photograph by A. Hyatt Verrill THE MANY-WINTERED CROW Old Munin has selected a place where he mayponder undisturbed over the occurances of the day. THE RAVEN OR CROW IN LITERATURE In Sweden the ravens croaking at night in the swamps aresaid to be the ghosts of murdered persons who have beendenied Christian burial, and whom, on this account, Charonhas refused ferriage across the river Styx. As a companion of saints this bird has had a wide ex-perience; every day for sixty years he brought bread to St.Paul, the Hermit, in the desert, and on the day preceding thesaints death he brought a double share, that there might besufficient to supply the needs of St. Anthony, who was visitinghim. St. Benedicts raven saved his life by bearing awaythe poisoned loaf sent to this saint by a jealous priest. Afterhis torture and death at Saragossa, when the body of St.Vincent was thrown to the wild beasts, it was rescued byravens and borne to his brothers at Valencia, where it re-posed in a tomb till th

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