Or one might take it as an appeal to some known or fancied superstitiousness on the crows' part; as if the white cord were a kind of fetich, with which they would never presume to meddle.
"A Rambler's lease"
Bradford Torrey
Only a certain sort of infantile superstitiousness of nature remained in her, and made her cling to the forms, in which, though she knew they did not mean what they pretended, she suspected there might be some sort of mechanical efficacy at last; like the partly undeceived disciple and assistant of a master juggler, who is not quite sure that there may not be a supernatural power behind some of the tricks.
"Between Whiles"
Helen Hunt Jackson
First of these qualities, superstitiousness, may be ascribed in large measure to geographical isolation.
"Armenian Legends and Festivals"
Louis A. Boettiger