d elsewhere. Alectromancy(2) was an ancient and peculiarly
senseless method of divination (so called) in which a cock was employed.
The bird had to be young and quite white. Its feet were cut off and
crammed down its throat with a piece of parchment on which were written
certain Hebrew words. The cock, after the repetition of a prayer by the
operator, was placed in a circle divided into parts corresponding to the
letters of the alphabet, in each of which a grain of wheat was placed.
A certain psalm was recited, and then the letters were noted from which
the cock picked up the grains, a fresh grain being put down for each
one picked up. These letters, properly arranged, were said to give the
answer to the inquiry for which divination was made. I am not sure what
one was supposed to do if, as seems likely, the cock refused to act in
the required manner.

(2) Cf. ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE: _The Occult Sciences_ (1891), pp. 124 and
125.

The _owl_ was reckoned a bird of evil omen with the Romans, who derived
this opinion from the Etrurians, along with much else of their so-called
science of augury. It was particularly dreaded if seen in a city, or,
indeed, anywhere by day. PLINY (Caius Plinius Secundus, A.D. 61-before
115) informs us that on one occasion "a horned owl entered the very
sanctuary of the Capitol;... in consequence of which, Rome was purified
on the nones of March in that year."(1)

(1) PLINY: _Natural History_, bk. x. chap. xvi. (BOSTOCK and RILEY'S
trans., vol. ii., 1855, p. 492).

The folk-lore of the British Isles abounds with quaint beliefs and
stories concerning birds. There is a charming Welsh legend concerning
the _robin_, which the Rev. T. F. T. DYER quotes from _Notes and
Queries_:--"Far, far away, is a land of woe, darkness, spirits of evil,
and fire. Day by day does this little bird bear in his bill a drop of
water to quench the flame. So near the burning stream does he fly,
that his dear little feathers are SCORCHED; and hence he is named
Brou-rhuddyn (Breast-burnt). To serve little children, the robin
dares approach the infernal pit. No good child will hurt the devoted
benefactor of man. The robin returns from the land of fire, and
therefore he feels the cold of winter far more than his brother birds.
He shivers in the brumal blast; hungry, he chirps before your door."(2)

(2) T. F. THISELTON DYER, M.A.: _English Folk-Lore_ (1878), pp. 65 and
66.

Another legend accounts for the robin