"Wenn durch die dünne Luft ein schwarzer Rabe fleucht Und krähet sein Geschrei, und wenn des Eulen Fraue Ihr Wiggen-gwige heult: sind Losungen sehr rauhe." --Rochholtz, the work quoted before, i. p. 155.
[397] ii. 105; cfr. also _Du Cange_, s. v. _corbitor_.--In the German legend of the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, the emperor, buried under a mountain, wakens and asks, "Are the crows still flying round the mountain?" he is answered that they are still flying. The emperor sighs and lies down again, concluding that the hour of his resurrection has not yet arrived.
[398] In the _Ornithologia_ of Aldrovandi. The messenger crow is of frequent occurrence in legends.
[399] In Plutarch, two crows guide Alexander the Great, when he goes to consult the oracle of Zeus Ammôn.
[400] Hence the name of Avis S. Martini also given to the crow, because it often comes about St Martin's day. In Du Cange and in the _Roman du Renard_ we also find indicated the auspices to be taken from the crow's flight; for the same custom in Germany, cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 546.
[401] Horace, _Carm._ iii. 27.--In _Afanassief_, again (iv. 36), the rook is asked where it has flown to. It answers, "Into the meadows to write letters and sigh after the maiden;" and the maiden is advised to hurry towards the water. The maiden declares that she fears the crab. In this maiden, that is afraid of the crab, I think I can recognise the zodiacal sign of Virgo (attracted by the crab of the summer),--the virgin who approaches the water, the autumn and the autumnal rains; the virgin loved by the crow, who is the friend of the rains.
[403] Sâkaṁ yakshma pra pata ćâsheṇa kīkidîvinâ; _Ṛigv._ x. 97, 13.
Saróvka, saróvka, Kasha varlla Na parók skakála, Gastiei saszivála.
[405] The magpie is proverbial as a babbler; hence, from its Italian name _gazza_, the name _gazzetta_ given to newspapers, as divulging secrets.--In the _Dialogus Creaturarum_, dial. 80, it is written of the magpie, called _Agazia_: "Pica est avis callidissima.... Hæc apud quemdam venatorem et humane et latine loquebatur, propter quod venator ipsam plenaria fulciebat. Pica autem non immemor beneficii, volens remunerare eum, volavit ad Agazias, et cum eis familiariter sedebat et humane sermocinabatur. Agaziæ quoque in hoc plurimum lætabantur cupientes et ipsæ garrire humaneque loqui."