If down on the ground behind thee, thy wife is taken from thee by force. If the wren calls from the east, poets are coming to thee or news from them. If it calls from the south behind thee, thou wilt see good chiefs of the clergy, or thou wilt hear the report of a noble ex-hero. If it cries from the south-west, thieves and bad clerics and bad women are coming to thee. If from the west, evil fighting-men are coming. If it calls from the north-west, a fine, well-born hero and noble hospitallers and good women are coming. If it calls from the north, evil men are coming, whether youths or clerics, whether bad women and malicious youths, who are to arrive. If it calls from the south, disease or wolves among the cattle. If it calls from off the ground, or a stone, a cross, it means news of a great man for thee. If it calls at the feet of the bed, that is against people, and the number of times it alights on the ground indicates the number of dead, and the side towards which its face is, from that it reveals the dead (is as dlomus na mairb).
This last passage is obscure. I think it means, if the wren's head is turned to a lucky quarter the dead will be in a happy state, and vice versâ. Some of the meanings given to the croak of the raven are mere puns. Gradh gradh is a pun on the Irish grádh, derived from the Latin gradus. Bacach means "lame, crippled," bacc, "a shepherd's crook," bachall, "a pastoral staff," carna, "flesh," coin, "dogs." The words for east and west also mean front and rear. To fall westwards means to fall backwards, so that north-east, south-east, maybe taken to mean left front, right front, respectively; north-west, south-west, left rear, right rear. In Mr. Campbell's Popular Tales of the Western Highlands, vol. i. p. 275, will be found further illustrations of crow language.
5 Feb. 1884.
