Adam's Animal Stories (weblog)

Years ago, one Hindu friend told me about a ritual for the recently departed.

The family will prepare large amounts of nicely prepared foods, placing all of this out for the crows on thalis (dishes/trays), somewhere near the departed. The crows, of course, immediately come down to the food. However, in some instances they may not directly begin to eat it, but rather they may simply walk around it, looking and smelling, but NOT eating!

The crow is believed by these Hindus to have the ability to "see spirits" and other phenomena usually outside of humans' reach.

When the crows refuse to eat the food in this way, this means that the spirit of the "departed" has not yet departed. More rituals are to be conducted and sacred verses recited for the spirit of the deceased to move on.

All in one moment, suddenly all of the crows will jump on the food and begin to eat, and when this happend, it signifies that the soul has indeed gone on to the higher.

Years after I had heard this story, I was sitting with my Hindi teacher in Mumbai and he saw something I had written in my workbook about the crows. When he asked what I had written, I explained to him the above. He immediately recognized this, adding that his own grandmother had just very recently died, and that this same ritual was performed for her with identical results regarding the crows and the food.

I have been told other credible accounts of crows gathering in groups and holding "court," whereby they decide the fate of one crow among their own number, either finally "agreeing" to continue to accept him or her, or to cast him/her out of the group.

Of course, many have seen the documentaries showing the crows' cleverness in solving problems, such as how to get food from remote and tricky locations.

Indeed, I am confident that crows have abilities we do not, and also that they share with us many similar abilities in terms of very keen intelligence and social sensibilities among their kind.


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