Some vestiges of this superstition are still to be found in this country, and many of our farmers' wives would be disconcerted at hear ing the croaking of a raven, at the moment they were setting out on a journey, whether of business, or of pleasure. The following lines from Walker's Epictetus are introduced, to shew that though the vulgar, in the early ages, might believe in these fooleries, yet there were not wanting then, as well as now, persons who were able to ridicule and despise them.

"The direful raven's, or the night owl's voice,
Frightens the neighbourhood with boding noise;
While each believes the knowing bird portends
Sure death, or to himself, or friends;

Though all that the nocturnal prophet knows,
Is want of food, which he by whooting shews."

Epictetus is supposed to have lived in the time of the Emperor Nero, more than 1700 years ago.

Noctua volavit.

An owl flew by us, it is a fortunate omen, our project will succeed, or we shall hear good news from our friends. The raven, on

the

the contrary, was considered as a bird of ill omen, and its appearance was supposed to predict evil.

"That raven on yon left hand oak,

Curse on his ill foreboding croak,
Bodes me no good."

The owl was in a particular manner reverenced by the Athenians, as it was the favoured bird of Minerva, their patroness. When Pericles was haranguing his men on board one of his vessels, who had mutinied, an owl, flying by on the right hand, is said to have settled on the mast of the ship, and the men observing the omen were immediately pacified, and came into his opinion.

The phrase, noctua volavit, was also sometimes used to intimate that any advantage obtained was procured by bribery, by giving money on which the figure of an owl was impressed, such coin being common among the Athenians.

Quartă Lunâ nati.

Born in the fourth moon. Persons who were peculiarly unfortunate, scarcely any

thing succeeding to their minds, were said to be born in the fourth moon, that being the month in which Hercules was born, whose labours, though beneficial to the world, were productive of little advantage to himself. The Spaniards say, "En hora mala nace, quien mala fama cobra," he was born under an unlucky planet, or in an evil hour, who gets an ill name. The contrary to this, but equally the child of superstition, is

Alba Gallina Filius.

"Hijo de la Gallina blanca."

Born of a white hen. This was said of persons who were extremely fortunate; who were successful in whatever they undertook; "who were born," as we say, "with a silver spoon in their mouth." The following is related by Suetonius, as giving origin to this adage. When Livia, the wife of Augustus Cæsar, was at one of her country seats, an eagle flying over the place, dropped a white hen, holding a sprig of laurel in its beak, into her lap. The empress was so pleased with the adventure, that she ordered the hen to be taken care of, and the laurel to be set in the

garden.

garden. The hen, we are told, proved unusually prolific, and the laurel was equally thrifty; and as there was thought to be something supernatural in its preservation, branches from it continued long to be used by succeeding emperors, in their triumphs. "En hora buena nace, quien buena fama cobra." He that gets a good name, was born under a fortunate planet, or in a lucky hour.

Laureum baculum gesto.

I am always armed with a sprig of laurel, was said by persons who had unexpectedly escaped from any threatened danger. The laurel was thought by the ancients to be an antidote against poison, and to afford security against lightning. On account of these supposed properties, Tiberius Cæsar is said to have constantly worn a branch of laurel around his head. Laurel water was prescribed by the ancient physicians, in the cure of those fits to which children are subjected. It was, therefore, until within a very few years, always found in the shops of the apothecaries. Later

experience

experience has shewn, that the distilled water of the laurel leaf, when strongly impregnated, is a powerful and deadly poison. It was with this preparation that Captain Donellan killed Sir Theodosius Baughton. The opinion of the power of the laurel in preserving against lightning, rests on no better foundation than that of its efficacy in preventing the effects of poison, or in curing epilepsy.

A horse-shoe nailed on the threshold of the door, was supposed by the common people in this country, to preserve the house from the effects of witchcraft, and it is still in repute among our sailors, who nail a horse-shoe to the mast, with a view of preserving the vessel from such evil influence.

Fænum habet in Cornu, longe fuge.

Fly from that man, he has hay on his horns. This is said of persons of morose, quarrelsome, and malevolent dispositions, with whom it is dangerous to associate; alluding to the custom of fixing whisps of hay to the horns of vicious oxen. "Hic est niger, hunc tu, Romane, caveto."

D