CORRESPONDENCE.
July 19, 1919.
Dear Sir,—I notice that in discussing “Elijah and the Ravens” (Folk-lore in O. T. vol. iii. c. xiv.) you do not refer to the common explanation that the Ravens were a Bedouin tribe who had the bird as their totem. Perhaps a fact related to me recently by a friend whose name is Raven may be new to you, and I venture to acquaint you with it, as it supports to some extent the explanation to which I refer.
He was travelling some years ago in Palestine—beyond Jordan, if I remember right—and seeing some Arabs or Bedouins he asked his dragoman who they were. The man replied, “They are your kinsmen,” and Dr. Raven, thinking it was an attempt at wit, said, “Yes, all sons of Adam are of kin.” But the dragoman persisted that the kinship was closer, for they bore the same name as the doctor: “Ravens they are, of the tribe that fed the prophet.” My friend visited them, or was visited by them, that evening, and found that they too were inclined to count him as sprung from the tribe.
W. K. Stride.
Wootton Parsonage, Boarshill, Nr. Oxford.
