Of the Raven Guillim says: “It hath bene an ancient received opinion, and the same also grounded upon the warrant of the sacred scriptures (if I mistake not) that such is the propertie of the Raven, that from the time his young ones are hatched or disclosed, untill he seeth what colour they will be of, he never taketh care of them nor ministreth any food unto them, therefore it is thought that they are in the meane space nourished with the heavenly dew. And so much also doth the kingly prophet, David, affirme, Which giveth fodder unto the cattell, and feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him. Psal. 147, 9. The Raven is of colour blacke, and is called in Latine, Corvus, or Corax, and (according to Alexander) hath but one kind of cry or sound which is Cras, Cras. When he perceiveth his young ones to be pennefeathered and black like himself, then doth he labour by all meanes to foster and cherish them from thence forward.”[149]
“Some report that those who rob the Tiger of her yong, use a policy to detaine their damme from following them by casting sundry looking-glasses in the way, whereat shee useth long to gaze, whether it be to behold her owne beauty or because when shee seeth her shape in the glasse, she thinketh she seeth one of her yong ones, and so they escape the swiftnesse of her pursuit. And thus,” moralizes our author, “are many deceived of the substance, whiles they are much busied about the shadowes.”[150]
The following, however, shows that Master Guillim was growing sceptical of some of the ‘vulgar errours’ of his day:
“Pierius, in his Hieroglyphicks saith, that if a man stricken of a Scorpion sit upon an asse, with his face towards the taile of the asse, his paine shall passe out of him into the asse, which shall be tormented for him. In my opinion he that will beleeve this, is the creature that must be ridden in this case!”[151]
CHAPTER VI.
Allusive Arms—Armes Parlantes.