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diff --git a/14080.txt b/14080.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6da38e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/14080.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8102 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Custom and Myth, by Andrew Lang + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Custom and Myth + +Author: Andrew Lang + +Release Date: November 17, 2004 [eBook #14080] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CUSTOM AND MYTH*** + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1884 Longmans, Green and Co. edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +CUSTOM AND MYTH + + +To E. B. Tylor, author of 'Primitive Culture,' these studies of the +oldest stories are dedicated. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Though some of the essays in this volume have appeared in various +serials, the majority of them were written expressly for their present +purpose, and they are now arranged in a designed order. During some +years of study of Greek, Indian, and savage mythologies, I have become +more and more impressed with a sense of the inadequacy of the prevalent +method of comparative mythology. That method is based on the belief that +myths are the result of a disease of language, as the pearl is the result +of a disease of the oyster. It is argued that men at some period, or +periods, spoke in a singular style of coloured and concrete language, and +that their children retained the phrases of this language after losing +hold of the original meaning. The consequence was the growth of myths +about supposed persons, whose names had originally been mere +'appellations.' In conformity with this hypothesis the method of +comparative mythology examines the proper names which occur in myths. The +notion is that these names contain a key to the meaning of the story, and +that, in fact, of the story the names are the germs and the oldest +surviving part. + +The objections to this method are so numerous that it is difficult to +state them briefly. The attempt, however, must be made. To desert the +path opened by the most eminent scholars is in itself presumptuous; the +least that an innovator can do is to give his reasons for advancing in a +novel direction. If this were a question of scholarship merely, it would +be simply foolhardy to differ from men like Max Muller, Adalbert Kuhn, +Breal, and many others. But a revolutionary mythologist is encouraged by +finding that these scholars usually differ from each other. Examples +will be found chiefly in the essays styled 'The Myth of Cronus,' 'A Far- +travelled Tale,' and 'Cupid and Psyche.' Why, then, do distinguished +scholars and mythologists reach such different goals? Clearly because +their method is so precarious. They all analyse the names in myths; but, +where one scholar decides that the name is originally Sanskrit, another +holds that it is purely Greek, and a third, perhaps, is all for an +Accadian etymology, or a Semitic derivation. Again, even when scholars +agree as to the original root from which a name springs, they differ as +much as ever as to the meaning of the name in its present place. The +inference is, that the analysis of names, on which the whole edifice of +philological 'comparative mythology' rests, is a foundation of shifting +sand. The method is called 'orthodox,' but, among those who practise it, +there is none of the beautiful unanimity of orthodoxy. + +These objections are not made by the unscholarly anthropologist alone. +Curtius has especially remarked the difficulties which beset the +'etymological operation' in the case of proper names. 'Peculiarly +dubious and perilous is mythological etymology. Are we to seek the +sources of the divine names in aspects of nature, or in moral +conceptions; in special Greek geographical conditions, or in natural +circumstances which are everywhere the same: in dawn with her rays, or in +clouds with their floods; are we to seek the origin of the names of +heroes in things historical and human, or in physical phenomena?' {3a} +Professor Tiele, of Leyden, says much the same thing: 'The uncertainties +are great, and there is a constant risk of taking mere jeux d'esprit for +scientific results.' {3b} Every name has, if we can discover or +conjecture it, a meaning. That meaning--be it 'large' or 'small,' 'loud' +or 'bright,' 'wise' or 'dark,' 'swift' or 'slow'--is always capable of +being explained as an epithet of the sun, or of the cloud, or of both. +Whatever, then, a name may signify, some scholars will find that it +originally denoted the cloud, if they belong to one school, or the sun or +dawn, if they belong to another faction. Obviously this process is a +mere jeu d'esprit. This logic would be admitted in no other science, +and, by similar arguments, any name whatever might be shown to be +appropriate to a solar hero. + +The scholarly method has now been applied for many years, and what are +the results? The ideas attained by the method have been so popularised +that they are actually made to enter into the education of children, and +are published in primers and catechisms of mythology. But what has a +discreet scholar to say to the whole business? 'The difficult task of +interpreting mythical names has, so far, produced few certain results'--so +writes Otto Schrader. {4} Though Schrader still has hopes of better +things, it is admitted that the present results are highly disputable. In +England, where one set of these results has become an article of faith, +readers chiefly accept the opinions of a single etymological school, and +thus escape the difficulty of making up their minds when scholars differ. +But differ scholars do, so widely and so often, that scarcely any solid +advantages have been gained in mythology from the philological method. + +The method of philological mythology is thus discredited by the disputes +of its adherents. The system may be called orthodox, but it is an +orthodoxy which alters with every new scholar who enters the sacred +enclosure. Even were there more harmony, the analysis of names could +throw little light on myths. In stories the names may well be, and often +demonstrably are, the latest, not the original, feature. Tales, at first +told of 'Somebody,' get new names attached to them, and obtain a new +local habitation, wherever they wander. 'One of the leading personages +to be met in the traditions of the world is really no more than--Somebody. +There is nothing this wondrous creature cannot achieve; one only +restriction binds him at all--that the name he assumes shall have some +sort of congruity with the office he undertakes, _and even from this he +oftentimes breaks loose_.' {5} We may be pretty sure that the adventures +of Jason, Perseus, OEdipous, were originally told only of 'Somebody.' The +names are later additions, and vary in various lands. A glance at the +essay on 'Cupid and Psyche' will show that a history like theirs is +known, where neither they nor their counterparts in the Veda, Urvasi and +Pururavas, were ever heard of; while the incidents of the Jason legend +are familiar where no Greek word was ever spoken. Finally, the names in +common use among savages are usually derived from natural phenomena, +often from clouds, sky, sun, dawn. If, then, a name in a myth can be +proved to mean cloud, sky, sun, or what not (and usually one set of +scholars find clouds, where others see the dawn), we must not instantly +infer that the myth is a nature-myth. Though, doubtless, the heroes in +it were never real people, the names are as much common names of real +people in the savage state, as Smith and Brown are names of civilised +men. + +For all these reasons, but chiefly because of the fact that stories are +usually anonymous at first, that names are added later, and that stories +naturally crystallise round any famous name, heroic, divine, or human, +the process of analysis of names is most precarious and untrustworthy. A +story is told of Zeus: Zeus means sky, and the story is interpreted by +scholars as a sky myth. The modern interpreter forgets, first, that to +the myth-maker sky did not at all mean the same thing as it means to him. +Sky meant, not an airy, infinite, radiant vault, but a person, and, most +likely, a savage person. Secondly, the interpreter forgets that the tale +(say the tale of Zeus, Demeter, and the mutilated Ram) may have been +originally anonymous, and only later attributed to Zeus, as unclaimed +jests are attributed to Sheridan or Talleyrand. Consequently no heavenly +phenomena will be the basis and explanation of the story. If one thing +in mythology be certain, it is that myths are always changing masters, +that the old tales are always being told with new names. Where, for +example, is the value of a philological analysis of the name of Jason? As +will be seen in the essay 'A Far-travelled Tale,' the analysis of the +name of Jason is fanciful, precarious, disputed, while the essence of his +myth is current in Samoa, Finland, North America, Madagascar, and other +lands, where the name was never heard, and where the characters in the +story have other names or are anonymous. + +For these reasons, and others too many to be adduced here, I have +ventured to differ from the current opinion that myths must be +interpreted chiefly by philological analysis of names. The system +adopted here is explained in the first essay, called 'The Method of +Folklore.' The name, Folklore, is not a good one, but 'comparative +mythology' is usually claimed exclusively by the philological +interpreters. + +The second essay, 'The Bull-Roarer,' is intended to show that certain +peculiarities in the Greek mysteries occur also in the mysteries of +savages, and that on Greek soil they are survivals of savagery. + +'The Myth of Cronus' tries to prove that the first part of the legend is +a savage nature-myth, surviving in Greek religion, while the sequel is a +set of ideas common to savages. + +'Cupid and Psyche' traces another Aryan myth among savage races, and +attempts to show that the myth may have had its origin in a rule of +barbarous etiquette. + +'A Far-travelled Tale' examines a part of the Jason myth. This myth +appears neither to be an explanation of natural phenomena (like part of +the Myth of Cronus), nor based on a widespread custom (like Cupid and +Psyche.) The question is asked whether the story may have been diffused +by slow filtration from race to race all over the globe, as there seems +no reason why it should have been invented separately (as a myth +explanatory of natural phenomena or of customs might be) in many +different places. + +'Apollo and the Mouse' suggests hypothetically, as a possible explanation +of the tie between the God and the Beast, that Apollo-worship superseded, +but did not eradicate, Totemism. The suggestion is little more than a +conjecture. + +'Star Myths' points out that Greek myths of stars are a survival from the +savage stage of fancy in which such stories are natural. + +'Moly and Mandragora' is a study of the Greek, the modern, and the +Hottentot folklore of magical herbs, with a criticism of a scholarly and +philological hypothesis, according to which Moly is the dog-star, and +Circe the moon. + +'The Kalevala' is an account of the Finnish national poem; of all poems +that in which the popular, as opposed to the artistic, spirit is +strongest. The Kalevala is thus a link between Marchen and Volkslieder +on one side, and epic poetry on the other. + +'The Divining Rod' is a study of a European and civilised superstition, +which is singular in its comparative lack of copious savage analogues. + +'Hottentot Mythology' is a criticism of the philological method, applied +to savage myth. + +'Fetichism and the Infinite,' is a review of Mr. Max Muller's theory that +a sense of the Infinite is the germ of religion, and that Fetichism is +secondary, and a corruption. This essay also contains a defence of the +_evidence_ on which the anthropological method relies. + +The remaining essays are studies of the 'History of the Family,' and of +'Savage Art.' + +The essay on 'Savage Art' is reprinted, by the kind permission of Messrs. +Cassell & Co., from two numbers (April and May, 1882) of the Magazine of +Art. I have to thank the editors and publishers of the Contemporary +Review, the Cornhill Magazine, and Fraser's Magazine, for leave to +republish 'The Early History of the Family,' 'The Divining Rod,' and +'Star Myths,' and 'The Kalevala.' A few sentences in 'The Bull-Roarer,' +and 'Hottentot Mythology,' appeared in essays in the Saturday Review, and +some lines of 'The Method of Folklore' in the Guardian. To the editors +of those journals also I owe thanks for their courteous permission to +make this use of my old articles. + +To Mr. E. B. Tylor and Mr. W. R. S. Ralston I must express my gratitude +for the kindness with which they have always helped me in all +difficulties. + +I must apologise for the controversial matter in the volume. Controversy +is always a thing to be avoided, but, in this particular case, when a +system opposed to the prevalent method has to be advocated, controversy +is unavoidable. My respect for the learning of my distinguished +adversaries is none the less great because I am not convinced by their +logic, and because my doubts are excited by their differences. + +Perhaps, it should be added, that these essays are, so to speak, only +flint-flakes from a neolithic workshop. This little book merely +skirmishes (to change the metaphor) in front of a much more methodical +attempt to vindicate the anthropological interpretation of myths. But +lack of leisure and other causes make it probable that my 'Key to All +Mythologies' will go the way of Mr. Casaubon's treatise. + + + + +THE METHOD OF FOLKLORE. + + +After the heavy rain of a thunderstorm has washed the soil, it sometimes +happens that a child, or a rustic, finds a wedge-shaped piece of metal or +a few triangular flints in a field or near a road. There was no such +piece of metal, there were no such flints, lying there yesterday, and the +finder is puzzled about the origin of the objects on which he has +lighted. He carries them home, and the village wisdom determines that +the wedge-shaped piece of metal is a 'thunderbolt,' or that the bits of +flint are 'elf-shots,' the heads of fairy arrows. Such things are still +treasured in remote nooks of England, and the 'thunderbolt' is applied to +cure certain maladies by its touch. + +As for the fairy arrows, we know that even in ancient Etruria they were +looked on as magical, for we sometimes see their points set, as amulets, +in the gold of Etruscan necklaces. In Perugia the arrowheads are still +sold as charms. All educated people, of course, have long been aware +that the metal wedge is a celt, or ancient bronze axe-head, and that it +was not fairies, but the forgotten peoples of this island who used the +arrows with the tips of flint. Thunder is only so far connected with +them that the heavy rains loosen the surface soil, and lay bare its long +hidden secrets. + +There is a science, Archaeology, which collects and compares the material +relics of old races, the axes and arrow-heads. There is a form of study, +Folklore, which collects and compares the similar but immaterial relics +of old races, the surviving superstitions and stories, the ideas which +are in our time but not of it. Properly speaking, folklore is only +concerned with the legends, customs, beliefs, of the Folk, of the people, +of the classes which have least been altered by education, which have +shared least in progress. But the student of folklore soon finds that +these unprogressive classes retain many of the beliefs and ways of +savages, just as the Hebridean people use spindle-whorls of stone, and +bake clay pots without the aid of the wheel, like modern South Sea +Islanders, or like their own prehistoric ancestors. {11a} The student of +folklore is thus led to examine the usages, myths, and ideas of savages, +which are still retained, in rude enough shape, by the European +peasantry. Lastly, he observes that a few similar customs and ideas +survive in the most conservative elements of the life of educated +peoples, in ritual, ceremonial, and religious traditions and myths. +Though such remains are rare in England, we may note the custom of +leading the dead soldier's horse behind his master to the grave, a relic +of days when the horse would have been sacrificed. {11b} We may observe +the persistence of the ceremony by which the monarch, at his coronation, +takes his seat on the sacred stone of Scone, probably an ancient fetich +stone. Not to speak, here, of our own religious traditions, the old vein +of savage rite and belief is found very near the surface of ancient Greek +religion. It needs but some stress of circumstance, something answering +to the storm shower that reveals the flint arrow-heads, to bring savage +ritual to the surface of classical religion. In sore need, a human +victim was only too likely to be demanded; while a feast-day, or a +mystery, set the Greeks dancing serpent-dances or bear-dances like Red +Indians, or swimming with sacred pigs, or leaping about in imitation of +wolves, or holding a dog-feast, and offering dog's flesh to the gods. +{12} Thus the student of folklore soon finds that he must enlarge his +field, and examine, not only popular European story and practice, but +savage ways and ideas, and the myths and usages of the educated classes +in civilised races. In this extended sense the term 'folklore' will +frequently be used in the following essays. The idea of the writer is +that mythology cannot fruitfully be studied apart from folklore, while +some knowledge of anthropology is required in both sciences. + +The science of Folklore, if we may call it a science, finds everywhere, +close to the surface of civilised life, the remains of ideas as old as +the stone elf-shots, older than the celt of bronze. In proverbs and +riddles, and nursery tales and superstitions, we detect the relics of a +stage of thought, which is dying out in Europe, but which still exists in +many parts of the world. Now, just as the flint arrow-heads are +scattered everywhere, in all the continents and isles, and everywhere are +much alike, and bear no very definite marks of the special influence of +race, so it is with the habits and legends investigated by the student of +folklore. The stone arrow-head buried in a Scottish cairn is like those +which were interred with Algonquin chiefs. The flints found in Egyptian +soil, or beside the tumulus on the plain of Marathon, nearly resemble the +stones which tip the reed arrow of the modern Samoyed. Perhaps only a +skilled experience could discern, in a heap of such arrow-heads, the +specimens which are found in America or Africa from those which are +unearthed in Europe. Even in the products of more advanced industry, we +see early pottery, for example, so closely alike everywhere that, in the +British Museum, Mexican vases have, ere now, been mixed up on the same +shelf with archaic vessels from Greece. In the same way, if a +superstition or a riddle were offered to a student of folklore, he would +have much difficulty in guessing its _provenance_, and naming the race +from which it was brought. Suppose you tell a folklorist that, in a +certain country, when anyone sneezes, people say 'Good luck to you,' the +student cannot say a priori what country you refer to, what race you have +in your thoughts. It may be Florida, as Florida was when first +discovered; it may be Zululand, or West Africa, or ancient Rome, or +Homeric Greece, or Palestine. In all these, and many other regions, the +sneeze was welcomed as an auspicious omen. The little superstition is as +widely distributed as the flint arrow-heads. Just as the object and use +of the arrow-heads became intelligible when we found similar weapons in +actual use among savages, so the salutation to the sneezer becomes +intelligible when we learn that the savage has a good reason for it. He +thinks the sneeze expels an evil spirit. Proverbs, again, and riddles +are as universally scattered, and the Wolufs puzzle over the same +devinettes as the Scotch schoolboy or the Breton peasant. Thus, for +instance, the Wolufs of Senegal ask each other, 'What flies for ever, and +rests never?'--Answer, 'The Wind.' 'Who are the comrades that always +fight, and never hurt each other?'--'The Teeth.' In France, as we read +in the 'Recueil de Calembours,' the people ask, 'What runs faster than a +horse, crosses water, and is not wet?'--Answer, 'The Sun.' The Samoans +put the riddle, 'A man who stands between two ravenous fishes?'--Answer, +'The tongue between the teeth.' Again, 'There are twenty brothers, each +with a hat on his head?'--Answer, 'Fingers and toes, with nails for +hats.' This is like the French 'un pere a douze fils?'--'l'an.' A +comparison of M. Rolland's 'Devinettes' with the Woluf conundrums of +Boilat, the Samoan examples in Turner's' Samoa,' and the Scotch enigmas +collected by Chambers, will show the identity of peasant and savage +humour. + +A few examples, less generally known, may be given to prove that the +beliefs of folklore are not peculiar to any one race or stock of men. The +first case is remarkable: it occurs in Mexico and Ceylon--nor are we +aware that it is found elsewhere. In Macmillan's Magazine {15} is +published a paper by Mrs. Edwards, called 'The Mystery of the Pezazi.' +The events described in this narrative occurred on August 28, 1876, in a +bungalow some thirty miles from Badiella. The narrator occupied a new +house on an estate called Allagalla. Her native servants soon asserted +that the place was haunted by a Pezazi. The English visitors saw and +heard nothing extraordinary till a certain night: an abridged account of +what happened then may be given in the words of Mrs. Edwards:-- + + Wrapped in dreams, I lay on the night in question tranquilly sleeping, + but gradually roused to a perception that discordant sounds disturbed + the serenity of my slumber. Loth to stir, I still dozed on, the + sounds, however, becoming, as it seemed, more determined to make + themselves heard; and I awoke to the consciousness that they proceeded + from a belt of adjacent jungle, and resembled the noise that would be + produced by some person felling timber. + + Shutting my ears to the disturbance, I made no sign, until, with an + expression of impatience, E--- suddenly started up, when I laid a + detaining grasp upon his arm, murmuring that there was no need to + think of rising at present--it must be quite early, and the kitchen + cooly was doubtless cutting fire-wood in good time. E--- responded, + in a tone of slight contempt, that no one could be cutting fire-wood + at that hour, and the sounds were more suggestive of felling jungle; + and he then inquired how long I had been listening to them. Now + thoroughly aroused, I replied that I had heard the sounds for some + time, at first confusing them with my dreams, but soon sufficiently + awakening to the fact that they were no mere phantoms of my + imagination, but a reality. During our conversation the noises became + more distinct and loud; blow after blow resounded, as of the axe + descending upon the tree, followed by the crash of the falling timber. + Renewed blows announced the repetition of the operations on another + tree, and continued till several were devastated. + +It is unnecessary to tell more of the tale. In spite of minute +examinations and close search, no solution of the mystery of the noises, +on this or any other occasion, was ever found. The natives, of course, +attributed the disturbance to the Pezazi, or goblin. No one, perhaps, +has asserted that the Aztecs were connected by ties of race with the +people of Ceylon. Yet, when the Spaniards conquered Mexico, and when +Sahagun (one of the earliest missionaries) collected the legends of the +people, he found them, like the Cingalese, strong believers in the mystic +tree-felling. We translate Sahagun's account of the 'midnight axe':-- + + When so any man heareth the sound of strokes in the night, as if one + were felling trees, he reckons it an evil boding. And this sound they + call youaltepuztli (youalli, night; and tepuztli, copper), which + signifies 'the midnight hatchet.' This noise cometh about the time of + the first sleep, when all men slumber soundly, and the night is still. + The sound of strokes smitten was first noted by the temple-servants, + called tlamacazque, at the hour when they go in the night to make + their offering of reeds or of boughs of pine, for so was their custom, + and this penance they did on the neighbouring hills, and that when the + night was far spent. Whenever they heard such a sound as one makes + when he splits wood with an axe (a noise that may be heard afar off), + they drew thence an omen of evil, and were afraid, and said that the + sounds were part of the witchery of Tezeatlipoca, that often thus + dismayeth men who journey in the night. Now, when tidings of these + things came to a certain brave man, one exercised in war, he drew + near, being guided by the sound, till he came to the very cause of the + hubbub. And when he came upon it, with difficulty he caught it, for + the thing was hard to catch: natheless at last he overtook that which + ran before him; and behold, it was a man without a heart, and, on + either side of the chest, two holes that opened and shut, and so made + the noise. Then the man put his hand within the breast of the figure + and grasped the breast and shook it hard, demanding some grace or + gift. + +As a rule, the grace demanded was power to make captives in war. The +curious coincidence of the 'midnight axe,' occurring in lands so remote +as Ceylon and Mexico, and the singular attestation by an English lady of +the actual existence of the disturbance, makes this youaltepuztli one of +the quaintest things in the province of the folklorist. But, whatever +the cause of the noise, or of the beliefs connected with the noise, may +be, no one would explain them as the result of community of _race_ +between Cingalese and Aztecs. Nor would this explanation be offered to +account for the Aztec and English belief that the creaking of furniture +is an omen of death in a house. Obviously, these opinions are the +expression of a common state of superstitious fancy, not the signs of an +original community of origin. + +Let us take another piece of folklore. All North-country English folk +know the Kernababy. The custom of the 'Kernababy' is commonly observed +in England, or, at all events, in Scotland, where the writer has seen +many a kernababy. The last gleanings of the last field are bound up in a +rude imitation of the human shape, and dressed in some tag-rags of +finery. The usage has fallen into the conservative hands of children, +but of old 'the Maiden' was a regular image of the harvest goddess, +which, with a sickle and sheaves in her arms, attended by a crowd of +reapers, and accompanied with music, followed the last carts home to the +farm. {18} It is odd enough that the 'Maiden' should exactly translate +[Greek], the old Sicilian name of the daughter of Demeter. 'The Maiden' +has dwindled, then, among us to the rudimentary kernababy; but ancient +Peru had her own Maiden, her Harvest Goddess. Here it is easy to trace +the natural idea at the basis of the superstitious practice which links +the shores of the Pacific with our own northern coast. Just as a portion +of the yule-log and of the Christmas bread were kept all the year +through, a kind of nest-egg of plenteous food and fire, so the kernababy, +English or Peruvian, is an earnest that corn will not fail all through +the year, till next harvest comes. For this reason the kernababy used to +be treasured from autumn's end to autumn's end, though now it commonly +disappears very soon after the harvest home. It is thus that Acosta +describes, in Grimston's old translation (1604), the Peruvian kernababy +and the Peruvian harvest home:-- + + This feast is made comming from the chacra or farme unto the house, + saying certaine songs, and praying that the Mays (maize) may long + continue, the which they call Mama cora. + +What a chance this word offers to etymologists of the old school: how +promptly they would recognise, in mama mother--[Greek], and in +cora--[Greek], the Mother and the Maiden, the feast of Demeter and +Persephone! However, the days of that old school of antiquarianism are +numbered. To return to the Peruvian harvest home:-- + + They take a certaine portion of the most fruitefull of the Mays that + growes in their farmes, the which they put in a certaine granary which + they do calle Pirua, with certaine ceremonies, watching three nightes; + they put this Mays in the richest garments they have, and, being thus + wrapped and dressed, they worship this Pirua, and hold it in great + veneration, saying it is the Mother of the Mays of their inheritances, + and that by this means the Mays augments and is preserved. In this + moneth they make a particular sacrifice, and the witches demand of + this Pirua, 'if it hath strength sufficient to continue until the next + yeare,' and if it answers 'no,' then they carry this Mays to the farme + to burne, whence they brought it, according to every man's power, then + they make another Pirua, with the same ceremonies, saying that they + renue it, to the ende that the seede of the Mays may not perish. + +The idea that the maize can speak need not surprise us; the Mexican held +much the same belief, according to Sahagun:-- + + It was thought that if some grains of maize fell on the ground, he who + saw them lying there was bound to lift them, wherein, if he failed, he + harmed the maize, which plained itself of him to God, saying, 'Lord, + punish this man, who saw me fallen and raised me not again; punish him + with famine, that he may learn not to hold me in dishonour.' + +Well, in all this affair of the Scotch kernababy, and the Peruvian Mama +cora, we need no explanation beyond the common simple ideas of human +nature. We are not obliged to hold, either that the Peruvians and Scotch +are akin by blood, nor that, at some forgotten time, they met each other, +and borrowed each other's superstitions. Again, when we find Odysseus +sacrificing a black sheep to the dead, {20} and when we read that the +Ovahereroes in South Africa also appease with a black sheep the spirits +of the departed, we do not feel it necessary to hint that the Ovahereroes +are of Greek descent, or have borrowed their ritual from the Greeks. The +connection between the colour black, and mourning for the dead, is +natural and almost universal. + +Examples like these might be adduced in any number. We might show how, +in magic, negroes of Barbadoes make clay effigies of their enemies, and +pierce them, just as Greeks did in Plato's time, or the men of Accad in +remotest antiquity. We might remark the Australian black putting sharp +bits of quartz in the tracks of an enemy who has gone by, that the enemy +may be lamed; and we might point to Boris Godunof forbidding the same +practice among the Russians. We might watch Scotch, and Australians, and +Jews, and French, and Aztecs spreading dust round the body of a dead man, +that the footprints of his ghost, or of other ghosts, may be detected +next morning. We might point to a similar device in a modern novel, +where the presence of a ghost is suspected, as proof of the similar +workings of the Australian mind and of the mind of Mrs. Riddell. We +shall later turn to ancient Greece, and show how the serpent-dances, the +habit of smearing the body with clay, and other odd rites of the +mysteries, were common to Hellenic religion, and to the religion of +African, Australian, and American tribes. + +Now, with regard to all these strange usages, what is the method of +folklore? The method is, when an apparently irrational and anomalous +custom is found in any country, to look for a country where a similar +practice is found, and where the practice is no longer irrational and +anomalous, but in harmony with the manners and ideas of the people among +whom it prevails. That Greeks should dance about in their mysteries with +harmless serpents in their hands looks quite unintelligible. When a wild +tribe of Red Indians does the same thing, as a trial of courage, with +real rattlesnakes, we understand the Red Man's motives, and may +conjecture that similar motives once existed among the ancestors of the +Greeks. Our method, then, is to compare the seemingly meaningless +customs or manners of civilised races with the similar customs and +manners which exist among the uncivilised and still retain their meaning. +It is not necessary for comparison of this sort that the uncivilised and +the civilised race should be of the same stock, nor need we prove that +they were ever in contact with each other. Similar conditions of mind +produce similar practices, apart from identity of race, or borrowing of +ideas and manners. + +Let us return to the example of the flint arrowheads. Everywhere +neolithic arrow-heads are pretty much alike. The cause of the +resemblance is no more than this, that men, with the same needs, the same +materials, and the same rude instruments, everywhere produced the same +kind of arrow-head. No hypothesis of interchange of ideas nor of +community of race is needed to explain the resemblance of form in the +missiles. Very early pottery in any region is, for the same causes, like +very early pottery in any other region. The same sort of similarity was +explained by the same resemblances in human nature, when we touched on +the identity of magical practices and of superstitious beliefs. This +method is fairly well established and orthodox when we deal with usages +and superstitious beliefs; but may we apply the same method when we deal +with myths? + +Here a difficulty occurs. Mythologists, as a rule, are averse to the +method of folklore. They think it scientific to compare only the myths +of races which speak languages of the same family, and of races which +have, in historic times, been actually in proved contact with each other. +Thus, most mythologists hold it correct to compare Greek, Slavonic, +Celtic, and Indian stories, because Greeks, Slavs, Celts, and Hindoos all +speak languages of the same family. Again, they hold it correct to +compare Chaldaean and Greek myths, because the Greeks and the Chaldaeans +were brought into contact through the Phoenicians, and by other +intermediaries, such as the Hittites. But the same mythologists will vow +that it is unscientific to compare a Maori or a Hottentot or an Eskimo +myth with an Aryan story, because Maoris and Eskimo and Hottentots do not +speak languages akin to that of Greece, nor can we show that the +ancestors of Greeks, Maoris, Hottentots, and Eskimo were ever in contact +with each other in historical times. + +Now the peculiarity of the method of folklore is that it will venture to +compare (with due caution and due examination of evidence) the myths of +the most widely severed races. Holding that myth is a product of the +early human fancy, working on the most rudimentary knowledge of the outer +world, the student of folklore thinks that differences of race do not +much affect the early mythopoeic faculty. He will not be surprised if +Greeks and Australian blacks are in the same tale. + +In each case, he holds, all the circumstances of the case must be +examined and considered. For instance, when the Australians tell a myth +about the Pleiades very like the Greek myth of the Pleiades, we must ask +a number of questions. Is the Australian version authentic? Can the +people who told it have heard it from a European? If these questions are +answered so as to make it apparent that the Australian Pleiad myth is of +genuine native origin, we need not fly to the conclusion that the +Australians are a lost and forlorn branch of the Aryan race. Two other +hypotheses present themselves. First, the human species is of unknown +antiquity. In the moderate allowance of 250,000 years, there is time for +stories to have wandered all round the world, as the Aggry beads of +Ashanti have probably crossed the continent from Egypt, as the Asiatic +jade (if Asiatic it be) has arrived in Swiss lake-dwellings, as an +African trade-cowry is said to have been found in a Cornish barrow, as an +Indian Ocean shell has been discovered in a prehistoric bone-cave in +Poland. This slow filtration of tales is not absolutely out of the +question. Two causes would especially help to transmit myths. The first +is slavery and slave-stealing, the second is the habit of capturing +brides from alien stocks, and the law which forbids marriage with a woman +of a man's own family. Slaves and captured brides would bring their +native legends among alien peoples. + +But there is another possible way of explaining the resemblance (granting +that it is proved) of the Greek and Australian Pleiad myth. The object +of both myths is to account for the grouping and other phenomena of the +constellations. May not similar explanatory stories have occurred to the +ancestors of the Australians, and to the ancestors of the Greeks, however +remote their home, while they were still in the savage condition? The +best way to investigate this point is to collect all known savage and +civilised stellar myths, and see what points they have in common. If +they all agree in character, though the Greek tales are full of grace, +while those of the Australians or Brazilians are rude enough, we may +plausibly account for the similarity of myths, as we accounted for the +similarity of flint arrow-heads. The myths, like the arrow-heads, +resemble each other because they were originally framed to meet the same +needs out of the same material. In the case of the arrow-heads, the need +was for something hard, heavy, and sharp--the material was flint. In the +case of the myths, the need was to explain certain phenomena--the +material (so to speak) was an early state of the human mind, to which all +objects seemed equally endowed with human personality, and to which no +metamorphosis appeared impossible. + +In the following essays, then, the myths and customs of various peoples +will be compared, even when these peoples talk languages of alien +families, and have never (as far as history shows us) been in actual +contact. Our method throughout will be to place the usage, or myth, +which is unintelligible when found among a civilised race, beside the +similar myth which is intelligible enough when it is found among savages. +A mean term will be found in the folklore preserved by the +non-progressive classes in a progressive people. This folklore +represents, in the midst of a civilised race, the savage ideas out of +which civilisation has been evolved. The conclusion will usually be that +the fact which puzzles us by its presence in civilisation is a relic +surviving from the time when the ancestors of a civilised race were in +the state of savagery. By this method it is not necessary that 'some +sort of genealogy should be established' between the Australian and the +Greek narrators of a similar myth, nor between the Greek and Australian +possessors of a similar usage. The hypothesis will be that the myth, or +usage, is common to both races, not because of original community of +stock, not because of contact and borrowing, but because the ancestors of +the Greeks passed through the savage intellectual condition in which we +find the Australians. + +The questions may be asked, Has race nothing, then, to do with myth? Do +peoples never consciously borrow myths from each other? The answer is, +that race has a great deal to do with the development of myth, if it be +race which confers on a people its national genius, and its capacity of +becoming civilised. If race does this, then race affects, in the most +powerful manner, the ultimate development of myth. No one is likely to +confound a Homeric myth with a myth from the Edda, nor either with a myth +from a Brahmana, though in all three cases the substance, the original +set of ideas, may be much the same. In all three you have +anthropomorphic gods, capable of assuming animal shapes, tricky, +capricious, limited in many undivine ways, yet endowed with magical +powers. So far the mythical gods of Homer, of the Edda, of any of the +Brahmanas, are on a level with each other, and not much above the gods of +savage mythology. This stuff of myth is quod semper, quod ubique, quod +ab omnibus, and is the original gift of the savage intellect. But the +final treatment, the ultimate literary form of the myth, varies in each +race. Homeric gods, like Red Indian, Thlinkeet, or Australian gods, can +assume the shapes of birds. But when we read, in Homer, of the arming of +Athene, the hunting of Artemis, the vision of golden Aphrodite, the +apparition of Hermes, like a young man when the flower of youth is +loveliest, then we recognise the effect of race upon myth, the effect of +the Greek genius at work on rude material. Between the Olympians and a +Thlinkeet god there is all the difference that exists between the Demeter +of Cnidos and an image from Easter Island. Again, the Scandinavian gods, +when their tricks are laid aside, when Odin is neither assuming the shape +of worm nor of raven, have a martial dignity, a noble enduring spirit of +their own. Race comes out in that, as it does in the endless sacrifices, +soma drinking, magical austerities, and puerile follies of Vedic and +Brahmanic gods, the deities of a people fallen early into its sacerdotage +and priestly second childhood. Thus race declares itself in the ultimate +literary form and character of mythology, while the common savage basis +and stuff of myths may be clearly discerned in the horned, and cannibal, +and shape-shifting, and adulterous gods of Greece, of India, of the +North. They all show their common savage origin, when the poet neglects +Freya's command and tells of what the gods did 'in the morning of Time.' + +As to borrowing, we have already shown that in prehistoric times there +must have been much transmission of myth. The migrations of peoples, the +traffic in slaves, the law of exogamy, which always keeps bringing alien +women into the families--all these things favoured the migration of myth. +But the process lies behind history: we can only guess at it, we can +seldom trace a popular legend on its travels. In the case of the +cultivated ancient peoples, we know that they themselves believed they +had borrowed their religions from each other. When the Greeks first +found the Egyptians practising mysteries like their own, they leaped to +the conclusion that their own rites had been imported from Egypt. We, +who know that both Greek and Egyptian rites had many points in common +with those of Mandans, Zunis, Bushmen, Australians--people quite +unconnected with Egypt--feel less confident about the hypothesis of +borrowing. We may, indeed, regard Adonis, and Zeus Bagaeus, and +Melicertes, as importations from Phoenicia. In later times, too, the +Greeks, and still more the Romans, extended a free hospitality to alien +gods and legends, to Serapis, Isis, the wilder Dionysiac revels, and so +forth. But this habit of borrowing was regarded with disfavour by pious +conservatives, and was probably, in the width of its hospitality at +least, an innovation. As Tiele remarks, we cannot derive Dionysus from +the Assyrian Daian nisi, 'judge of men,' a name of the solar god Samas, +without ascertaining that the wine-god exercised judicial functions, and +was a god of the sun. These derivations, 'shocking to common sense,' are +to be distrusted as part of the intoxication of new learning. Some +Assyrian scholars actually derive Hades from Bit Edi or Bit Hadi--'though, +unluckily,' says Tiele, 'there is no such word in the Assyrian text.' On +the whole topic Tiele's essay {28} deserves to be consulted. Granting, +then, that elements in the worship of Dionysus, Aphrodite, and other +gods, may have been imported with the strange AEgypto-Assyrian vases and +jewels of the Sidonians, we still find the same basis of rude savage +ideas. We may push back a god from Greece to Phoenicia, from Phoenicia +to Accadia, but, at the end of the end, we reach a legend full of myths +like those which Bushmen tell by the camp-fire, Eskimo in their dark +huts, and Australians in the shade of the gunyeh--myths cruel, puerile, +obscene, like the fancies of the savage myth-makers from which they +sprang. + + + + +THE BULL-ROARER. +A Study of the Mysteries. + + +As the belated traveller makes his way through the monotonous plains of +Australia, through the Bush, with its level expanses and clumps of grey- +blue gum trees, he occasionally hears a singular sound. Beginning low, +with a kind of sharp tone thrilling through a whirring noise, it grows +louder and louder, till it becomes a sort of fluttering windy roar. If +the traveller be a new comer, he is probably puzzled to the last degree. +If he be an Englishman, country-bred, he says to himself, 'Why, that is +the bull-roarer.' If he knows the colony and the ways of the natives, he +knows that the blacks are celebrating their tribal mysteries. The +roaring noise is made to warn all women to keep out of the way. Just as +Pentheus was killed (with the approval of Theocritus) because he profaned +the rites of the women-worshippers of Dionysus, so, among the Australian +blacks, men must, at their peril, keep out of the way of female, and +women out of the way of male, celebrations. + +The instrument which produces the sounds that warn women to remain afar +is a toy familiar to English country lads. They call it the bull-roarer. +The common bull-roarer is an inexpensive toy which anyone can make. I do +not, however, recommend it to families, for two reasons. In the first +place, it produces a most horrible and unexampled din, which endears it +to the very young, but renders it detested by persons of mature age. In +the second place, the character of the toy is such that it will almost +infallibly break all that is fragile in the house where it is used, and +will probably put out the eyes of some of the inhabitants. Having thus, +I trust, said enough to prevent all good boys from inflicting +bull-roarers on their parents, pastors, and masters, I proceed (in the +interests of science) to show how the toy is made. Nothing can be less +elaborate. You take a piece of the commonest wooden board, say the lid +of a packing-case, about a sixth of an inch in thickness, and about eight +inches long and three broad, and you sharpen the ends. When finished, +the toy may be about the shape of a large bay-leaf, or a 'fish' used as a +counter (that is how the New Zealanders make it), or the sides may be +left plain in the centre, and only sharpened towards the extremities, as +in an Australian example lent me by Mr. Tylor. Then tie a strong piece +of string, about thirty inches long, to one end of the piece of wood and +the bull-roarer (the Australian natives call it turndun, and the Greeks +called it [Greek]) is complete. Now twist the end of the string tightly +about your finger, and whirl the bull-roarer rapidly round and round. For +a few moments nothing will happen. In a very interesting lecture +delivered at the Royal Institution, Mr. Tylor once exhibited a +bull-roarer. At first it did nothing particular when it was whirled +round, and the audience began to fear that the experiment was like those +chemical ones often exhibited at institutes in the country, which +contribute at most a disagreeable odour to the education of the populace. +But when the bull-roarer warmed to its work, it justified its name, +producing what may best be described as a mighty rushing noise, as if +some supernatural being 'fluttered and buzzed his wings with fearful +roar.' Grown-up people, of course, are satisfied with a very brief +experience of this din, but boys have always known the bull-roarer in +England as one of the most efficient modes of making the hideous and +unearthly noises in which it is the privilege of youth to delight. + +The bull-roarer has, of all toys, the widest diffusion, and the most +extraordinary history. To study the bull-roarer is to take a lesson in +folklore. The instrument is found among the most widely severed peoples, +savage and civilised, and is used in the celebration of savage and +civilised mysteries. There are students who would found on this a +hypothesis that the various races that use the bull-roarer all descend +from the same stock. But the bull roarer is introduced here for the very +purpose of showing that similar minds, working with simple means towards +similar ends, might evolve the bull-roarer and its mystic uses anywhere. +There is no need for a hypothesis of common origin, or of borrowing, to +account for this widely diffused sacred object. + +The bull-roarer has been, and is, a sacred and magical instrument in many +and widely separated lands. It is found, always as a sacred instrument, +employed in religious mysteries, in New Mexico, in Australia, in New +Zealand, in ancient Greece, and in Africa; while, as we have seen, it is +a peasant-boy's plaything in England. A number of questions are +naturally suggested by the bull-roarer. Is it a thing invented once for +all, and carried abroad over the world by wandering races, or handed on +from one people and tribe to another? Or is the bull-roarer a toy that +might be accidentally hit on in any country where men can sharpen wood +and twist the sinews of animals into string? Was the thing originally a +toy, and is its religious and mystical nature later; or was it originally +one of the properties of the priest, or medicine-man, which in England +has dwindled to a plaything? Lastly, was this mystical instrument at +first employed in the rites of a civilised people like the Greeks, and +was it in some way borrowed or inherited by South Africans, Australians, +and New Mexicans? Or is it a mere savage invention, surviving (like +certain other features of the Greek mysteries) from a distant stage of +savagery? Our answer to all these questions is that in all probability +the presence of the [Greek], or bull-roarer, in Greek mysteries was a +survival from the time when Greeks were in the social condition of +Australians. + +In the first place, the bull-roarer is associated with mysteries and +initiations. Now mysteries and initiations are things that tend to +dwindle and to lose their characteristic features as civilisation +advances. The rites of baptism and confirmation are not secret and +hidden; they are common to both sexes, they are publicly performed, and +religion and morality of the purest sort blend in these ceremonies. There +are no other initiations or mysteries that civilised modern man is +expected necessarily to pass through. On the other hand, looking widely +at human history, we find mystic rites and initiations numerous, +stringent, severe, and magical in character, in proportion to the lack of +civilisation in those who practise them. The less the civilisation, the +more mysterious and the more cruel are the rites. The more cruel the +rites, the less is the civilisation. The red-hot poker with which Mr. +Bouncer terrified Mr. Verdant Green at the sham masonic rites would have +been quite in place, a natural instrument of probationary torture, in the +Freemasonry of Australians, Mandans, or Hottentots. In the mysteries of +Demeter or Bacchus, in the mysteries of a civilised people, the red-hot +poker, or any other instrument of torture, would have been out of place. +But in the Greek mysteries, just as in those of South Africans, Red +Indians, and Australians, the disgusting practice of bedaubing the +neophyte with dirt and clay was preserved. We have nothing quite like +that in modern initiations. Except at Sparta, Greeks dropped the +tortures inflicted on boys and girls in the initiations superintended by +the cruel Artemis. {33} But Greek mysteries retained the daubing with +mud and the use of the bull-roarer. On the whole, then, and on a general +view of the subject, we prefer to think that the bull-roarer in Greece +was a survival from savage mysteries, not that the bull-roarer in New +Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa is a relic of +civilisation. + +Let us next observe a remarkable peculiarity of the turndun, or +Australian bull-roarer. The bull-roarer in England is a toy. In +Australia, according to Howitt and Fison, {34} the bull-roarer is +regarded with religious awe. 'When, on lately meeting with two of the +surviving Kurnai, I spoke to them of the turndun, they first looked +cautiously round them to see that no one else was looking, and then +answered me in undertones.' The chief peculiarity in connection with the +turndun is that women may never look upon it. The Chepara tribe, who +call it bribbun, have a custom that, 'if seen by a woman, or shown by a +man to a woman, the punishment to both is _death_.' + +Among the Kurnai, the sacred mystery of the turndun is preserved by a +legend, which gives a supernatural sanction to secrecy. When boys go +through the mystic ceremony of initiation they are shown turnduns, or +bull-roarers, and made to listen to their hideous din. They are then +told that, if ever a woman is allowed to see a turndun, the earth will +open, and water will cover the globe. The old men point spears at the +boy's eyes, saying: 'If you tell this to any woman you will die, you will +see the ground broken up and like the sea; if you tell this to any woman, +or to any child, you will be killed!' As in Athens, in Syria, and among +the Mandans, the deluge-tradition of Australia is connected with the +mysteries. In Gippsland there is a tradition of the deluge. 'Some +children of the Kurnai in playing about found a turndun, which they took +home to the camp and showed the women. Immediately the earth crumbled +away, and it was all water, and the Kurnai were drowned.' + +In consequence of all this mummery the Australian women attach great +sacredness to the very name of the turndun. They are much less +instructed in their own theology than the men of the tribe. One woman +believed she had heard Pundjel, the chief supernatural being, descend in +a mighty rushing noise, that is, in the sound of the turndun, when boys +were being 'made men,' or initiated. {35} On turnduns the Australian +sorcerers can fly up to heaven. Turnduns carved with imitations of water- +flowers are used by medicine-men in rain-making. New Zealand also has +her bull-roarers; some of them, carved in relief, are in the Christy +Museum, and one is engraved here. I have no direct evidence as to the +use of these Maori bull-roarers in the Maori mysteries. Their +employment, however, may perhaps be provisionally inferred. + +One can readily believe that the New Zealand bull-roarer may be whirled +by any man who is repeating a Karakia, or 'charm to raise the wind':-- + + Loud wind, + Lasting wind, + Violent whistling wind, + Dig up the calm reposing sky, + Come, come. + +In New Zealand {36a} 'the natives regarded the wind as an indication of +the presence of their god,' a superstition not peculiar to Maori +religion. The 'cold wind' felt blowing over the hands at spiritualistic +seances is also regarded (by psychical researchers) as an indication of +the presence of supernatural beings. The windy roaring noise made by the +bull-roarer might readily be considered by savages, either as an +invitation to a god who should present himself in storm, or as a proof of +his being at hand. We have seen that this view was actually taken by an +Australian woman. The hymn called 'breath,' or haha, a hymn to the +mystic wind, is pronounced by Maori priests at the moment of the +initiation of young men in the tribal mysteries. It is a mere +conjecture, and possibly enough capable of disproof, but we have a +suspicion that the use of the mystica vannus Iacchi was a mode of raising +a sacred wind analogous to that employed by whirlers of the turndun. +{36b} + +Servius, the ancient commentator on Virgil, mentions, among other +opinions, this--that the vannus was a sieve, and that it symbolised the +purifying effect of the mysteries. But it is clear that Servius was only +guessing; and he offers other explanations, among them that the vannus +was a crate to hold offerings, primitias frugum. + +We have studied the bull-roarer in Australia, we have caught a glimpse of +it in England. Its existence on the American continent is proved by +letters from New Mexico, and by a passage in Mr. Frank Cushing's +'Adventures in Zuni.' {37} In Zuni, too, among a semi-civilised Indian +tribe, or rather a tribe which has left the savage for the barbaric +condition, we find the bull-roarer. Here, too, the instrument--a 'slat,' +Mr. Gushing calls it--is used as a call to the ceremonial observance of +the tribal ritual. The Zunis have various 'orders of a more or less +sacred and sacerdotal character.' Mr. Cushing writes:-- + + These orders were engaged in their annual ceremonials, of which little + was told or shown me; but, at the end of four days, I heard one + morning a _deep whirring noise_. Running out, I saw a procession of + three priests of the bow, in plumed helmets and closely-fitting + cuirasses, both of thick buckskin--gorgeous and solemn with sacred + embroideries and war-paint, begirt with bows, arrows, and war-clubs, + and each distinguished by his badge of degree--coming down one of the + narrow streets. The principal priest carried in his arms a wooden + idol, ferocious in aspect, yet beautiful with its decorations of + shell, turquoise, and brilliant paint. It was nearly hidden by + symbolic slats and prayer-sticks most elaborately plumed. He was + preceded by a guardian with drawn bow and arrows, while another + followed, _twirling the sounding slat_, which had attracted alike my + attention and that of hundreds of the Indians, who hurriedly flocked + to the roofs of the adjacent houses, or lined the street, bowing their + heads in adoration, and scattering sacred prayer-meal on the god and + his attendant priests. Slowly they wound their way down the hill, + across the river, and off toward the mountain of Thunder. Soon an + identical procession followed and took its way toward the western + hills. I watched them long until they disappeared, and a few hours + afterward there arose from the top of 'Thunder Mountain' a dense + column of smoke, simultaneously with another from the more distant + western mesa of 'U-ha-na-mi,' or 'Mount of the Beloved.' + + Then they told me that for four days I must neither touch nor eat + flesh or oil of any kind, and for ten days neither throw any refuse + from my doors, nor permit a spark to leave my house, for 'This was the + season of the year when the "grandmother of men" (fire) was precious.' + +Here then, in Zuni, we have the bull-roarer again, and once more we find +it employed as a summons to the mysteries. We do not learn, however, +that women in Zuni are forbidden to look upon the bull-roarer. Finally, +the South African evidence, which is supplied by letters from a +correspondent of Mr. Tylor's, proves that in South Africa, too, the bull- +roarer is employed to call the men to the celebration of secret +functions. A minute description of the instrument, and of its magical +power to raise a wind, is given in Theal's 'Kaffir Folklore,' p. 209. The +bull-roarer has not been made a subject of particular research; very +probably later investigations will find it in other parts of the modern +world besides America, Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. I have myself +been fortunate enough to encounter the bull-roarer on the soil of ancient +Greece and in connection with the Dionysiac mysteries. Clemens of +Alexandria, and Arnobius, an early Christian father who follows Clemens, +describe certain toys of the child Dionysus which were used in the +mysteries. Among these are _turbines_, [Greek], and [Greek]. The +ordinary dictionaries interpret all these as whipping-tops, adding that +[Greek] is sometimes 'a magic wheel.' The ancient scholiast on Clemens, +however, writes: 'The [Greek] is a little piece of wood, to which a +string is fastened, and in the mysteries it is whirled round to make a +roaring noise.' {39} Here, in short, we have a brief but complete +description of the bull-roarer of the Australian turndun. No single +point is omitted. The [Greek], like the turndun, is a small object of +wood, it is tied to a string, when whirled round it produces a roaring +noise, and it is used at initiations. This is not the end of the matter. + +In the part of the Dionysiac mysteries at which the toys of the child +Dionysus were exhibited, and during which (as it seems) the [Greek], or +bull-roarer, was whirred, the performers daubed themselves all over with +clay. This we learn from a passage in which Demosthenes describes the +youth of his hated adversary, AEschines. The mother of AEschines, he +says, was a kind of 'wise woman,' and dabbler in mysteries. AEschines +used to aid her by bedaubing the initiate over with clay and bran. {40a} +The word [Greek], here used by Demosthenes, is explained by Harpocration +as the ritual term for daubing the initiated. A story was told, as +usual, to explain this rite. It was said that, when the Titans attacked +Dionysus and tore him to pieces, they painted themselves first with clay, +or gypsum, that they might not be recognised. Nonnus shows, in several +places, that down to his time the celebrants of the Bacchic mysteries +retained this dirty trick. Precisely the same trick prevails in the +mysteries of savage peoples. Mr. Winwood Reade {40b} reports the +evidence of Mongilomba. When initiated, Mongilomba was 'severely flogged +in the Fetich House' (as young Spartans were flogged before the animated +image of Artemis), and then he was 'plastered over with goat-dung.' Among +the natives of Victoria, {40c} the 'body of the initiated is bedaubed +with clay, mud, charcoal powder, and filth of every kind.' The girls are +plastered with charcoal powder and white clay, answering to the Greek +gypsum. Similar daubings were performed at the mysteries by the Mandans, +as described by Catlin; and the Zunis made raids on Mr. Cushing's black +paint and Chinese ink for like purposes. On the Congo, Mr. Johnson found +precisely the same ritual in the initiations. Here, then, not to +multiply examples, we discover two singular features in common between +Greek and savage mysteries. Both Greeks and savages employ the +bull-roarer, both bedaub the initiated with dirt or with white paint or +chalk. As to the meaning of the latter very un-Aryan practice, one has +no idea. It is only certain that war parties of Australian blacks bedaub +themselves with white clay to alarm their enemies in night attacks. The +Phocians, according to Herodotus (viii. 27), adopted the same 'aisy +stratagem,' as Captain Costigan has it. Tellies, the medicine-man +([Greek]), chalked some sixty Phocians, whom he sent to make a night +attack on the Thessalians. The sentinels of the latter were seized with +supernatural horror, and fled, 'and after the sentinels went the army.' +In the same way, in a night attack among the Australian Kurnai, {41a} +'they all rapidly painted themselves with pipe-clay: red ochre is no use, +it cannot frighten an enemy.' If, then, Greeks in the historic period +kept up Australian tactics, it is probable that the ancient mysteries of +Greece might retain the habit of daubing the initiated which occurs in +savage rites. + +'Come now,' as Herodotus would say, 'I will show once more that the +mysteries of the Greeks resemble those of Bushmen.' In Lucian's Treatise +on Dancing, {41b} we read, 'I pass over the fact that you cannot find a +single ancient mystery in which there is not dancing. . . . To prove this +I will not mention the secret acts of worship, on account of the +uninitiated. But this much all men know, that most people say of those +who reveal the mysteries, that they "dance them out."' Here Liddell and +Scott write, rather weakly, 'to dance out, let out, betray, probably of +some dance which burlesqued these ceremonies.' It is extremely +improbable that, in an age when it was still forbidden to reveal the +[Greek], or secret rites, those rites would be mocked in popular +burlesques. Lucian obviously intends to say that the matter of the +mysteries was set forth in ballets d'action. Now this is exactly the +case in the surviving mysteries of the Bushmen. Shortly after the +rebellion of Langalibalele's tribe, Mr. Orpen, the chief magistrate in +St. John's Territory, made the acquaintance of Qing, one of the last of +an all but exterminated tribe. Qing 'had never seen a white man, except +fighting,' when he became Mr. Orpen's guide. He gave a good deal of +information about the myths of his people, but refused to answer certain +questions. 'You are now asking the secrets that are not spoken of.' Mr. +Orpen asked, 'Do you know the secrets?' Qing replied, 'No, only the +initiated men of that dance know these things.' To 'dance' this or that +means, 'to be acquainted with this or that mystery;' the dances were +originally taught by Cagn, the mantis, or grasshopper god. In many +mysteries, Qing, as a young man, was not initiated. He could not 'dance +them out.' {42} + +There are thus undeniably close resemblances between the Greek mysteries +and those of the lowest contemporary races. + +As to the bull-roarer, its recurrence among Greeks, Zunis, Kamilaroi, +Maoris, and South African races, would be regarded, by some students, as +a proof that all these tribes had a common origin, or had borrowed the +instrument from each other. But this theory is quite unnecessary. The +bull-roarer is a very simple invention. Anyone might find out that a bit +of sharpened wood, tied to a string, makes, when whirred, a roaring +noise. Supposing that discovery made, it is soon turned to practical +use. All tribes have their mysteries. All want a signal to summon the +right persons together and warn the wrong persons to keep out of the way. +The church bell does as much for us, so did the shaken seistron for the +Egyptians. People with neither bells nor seistra find the bull-roarer, +with its mysterious sound, serve their turn. The hiding of the +instrument from women is natural enough. It merely makes the alarm and +absence of the curious sex doubly sure. The stories of supernatural +consequences to follow if a woman sees the turndun lend a sanction. This +is not a random theory, without basis. In Brazil, the natives have no +bull-roarer, but they have mysteries, and the presence of the women at +the mysteries of the men is a terrible impiety. To warn away the women, +the Brazilians make loud 'devil-music' on what are called 'jurupari +pipes.' Now, just as in Australia, _the women may not see the jurupari +pipes on pain of death_. When the sound of the jurupari pipes is heard, +as when the turndun is heard in Australia, every woman flees and hides +herself. The women are always executed if they see the pipes. Mr. +Alfred Wallace bought a pair of these pipes, but he had to embark them at +a distance from the village where they were procured. The seller was +afraid that some unknown misfortune would occur if the women of his +village set eyes on the juruparis. {44} + +The conclusion from all these facts seems obvious. The bull-roarer is an +instrument easily invented by savages, and easily adopted into the ritual +of savage mysteries. If we find the bull-roarer used in the mysteries of +the most civilised of ancient peoples, the most probable explanation is, +that the Greeks retained both the mysteries, the bull-roarer, the habit +of bedaubing the initiate, the torturing of boys, the sacred obscenities, +the antics with serpents, the dances, and the like, from the time when +their ancestors were in the savage condition. That more refined and +religious ideas were afterwards introduced into the mysteries seems +certain, but the rites were, in many cases, simply savage. Unintelligible +(except as survivals) when found among Hellenes, they become intelligible +enough among savages, because they correspond to the intellectual +condition and magical fancies of the lower barbarism. The same sort of +comparison, the same kind of explanation, will account, as we shall see, +for the savage myths as well as for the savage customs which survived +among the Greeks. + + + + +THE MYTH OF CRONUS. + + +In a Maori pah, when a little boy behaves rudely to his parents, he is +sometimes warned that he is 'as bad as cruel Tutenganahau.' If he asks +who Tutenganahau was, he is told the following story:-- + +'In the beginning, the Heaven, Rangi, and the Earth, Papa, were the +father and mother of all things. "In these days the Heaven lay upon the +Earth, and all was darkness. They had never been separated." Heaven and +Earth had children, who grew up and lived in this thick night, and they +were unhappy because they could not see. Between the bodies of their +parents they were imprisoned, and there was no light. The names of the +children were Tumatuenga, Tane Mahuta, Tutenganahau, and some others. So +they all consulted as to what should be done with their parents, Rangi +and Papa. "Shall we slay them, or shall we separate them?" "Go to," +said Tumatuenga, "let us slay them." "No," cried Tane Mahuta, "let us +rather separate them. Let one go upwards, and become a stranger to us; +let the other remain below, and be a parent to us." Only Tawhiri Matea +(the wind) had pity on his own father and mother. Then the fruit-gods, +and the war-god, and the sea-god (for all the children of Papa and Rangi +were gods) tried to rend their parents asunder. Last rose the forest- +god, cruel Tutenganahau. He severed the sinews which united Heaven and +Earth, Rangi and Papa. Then he pushed hard with his head and feet. Then +wailed Heaven and exclaimed Earth, "Wherefore this murder? Why this +great sin? Why destroy us? Why separate us?" But Tane pushed and +pushed: Rangi was driven far away into the air. "_They became visible, +who had hitherto been concealed between the hollows of their parents' +breasts_." Only the storm-god differed from his brethren: he arose and +followed his father, Rangi, and abode with him in the open spaces of the +sky.' + +This is the Maori story of the severing of the wedded Heaven and Earth. +The cutting of them asunder was the work of Tutenganahau and his +brethren, and the conduct of Tutenganahau is still held up as an example +of filial impiety. {46a} The story is preserved in sacred hymns of very +great antiquity, and many of the myths are common to the other peoples of +the Pacific. {46b} + +Now let us turn from New Zealand to Athens, as she was in the days of +Pericles. Socrates is sitting in the porch of the King Archon, when +Euthyphro comes up and enters into conversation with the philosopher. +After some talk, Euthyphro says, 'You will think me mad when I tell you +whom I am prosecuting and pursuing!' 'Why, has the fugitive wings?' asks +Socrates. 'Nay, he is not very volatile at his time of life!' 'Who is +he?' 'My father.' 'Good heavens! you don't mean that. What is he +accused of?' 'Murder, Socrates.' Then Euthyphro explains the case, +which quaintly illustrates Greek civilisation. Euthyphro's father had an +agricultural labourer at Naxos. One day this man, in a drunken passion, +killed a slave. Euthyphro's father seized the labourer, bound him, threw +him into a ditch, 'and then sent to Athens to ask a diviner what should +be done with him.' Before the answer of the diviner arrived, the +labourer literally 'died in a ditch' of hunger and cold. For this +offence, Euthyphro was prosecuting his own father. Socrates shows that +he disapproves, and Euthyphro thus defends the piety of his own conduct: +'The impious, whoever he may be, ought not to go unpunished. For do not +men regard Zeus as the best and most righteous of gods? Yet even they +admit that Zeus bound his own father Cronus, because he wickedly devoured +his sons; and that Cronus, too, had punished his own father, Uranus, for +a similar reason, in a nameless manner. And yet when _I_ proceed against +_my_ father, people are angry with me. This is their inconsistent way of +talking, when the gods are concerned, and when I am concerned.' + +Here Socrates breaks in. He 'cannot away with these stories about the +gods,' and so he has just been accused of impiety, the charge for which +he died. Socrates cannot believe that a god, Cronus, mutilated his +father Uranus, but Euthyphro believes the whole affair: 'I can tell you +many other things about the gods which would quite amaze you.' {48} + +* * * * * + +We have here a typical example of the way in which mythology puzzled the +early philosophers of Greece. Socrates was anxious to be pious, and to +respect the most ancient traditions of the gods. Yet at the very outset +of sacred history he was met by tales of gods who mutilated and bound +their own parents. Not only were such tales hateful to him, but they +were of positively evil example to people like Euthyphro. The problem +remained, how did the fathers of the Athenians ever come to tell such +myths? + +* * * * * + +Let us now examine the myth of Cronus, and the explanations which have +been given by scholars. Near the beginning of things, according to +Hesiod (whose cosmogony was accepted in Greece), Earth gave birth to +Heaven. Later, Heaven, Uranus, became the husband of Gaea, Earth. Just +as Rangi and Papa, in New Zealand, had many children, so had Uranus and +Gaea. As in New Zealand, some of these children were gods of the various +elements. Among them were Oceanus, the deep, and Hyperion, the sun--as +among the children of Earth and Heaven, in New Zealand, were the Wind and +the Sea. The youngest child of the Greek Heaven and Earth was 'Cronus of +crooked counsel, who ever hated his mighty sire.' Now even as the +children of the Maori Heaven and Earth were 'concealed between the +hollows of their parents' breasts,' so the Greek Heaven used to 'hide his +children from the light in the hollows of Earth.' Both Earth and her +children resented this, and, as in New Zealand, the children conspired +against Heaven, taking Earth, however, into their counsels. Thereupon +Earth produced iron, and bade her children avenge their wrongs. {49a} Now +fear fell on all of them, except Cronus, who, like Tutenganahau, was all +for action. Cronus determined to end the embraces of Heaven and Earth. +But, while the Maori myth conceives of Heaven and Earth as of two beings +which have never been separated before, Hesiod makes Heaven amorously +approach his wife from a distance. Then Cronus stretched out his hand, +armed with a sickle of iron, or steel, and mutilated Uranus. Thus were +Heaven and Earth practically divorced. But as in the Maori myth one of +the children of Heaven clave to his sire, so, in Greek, Oceanus remained +faithful to his father. {49b} + +This is the first portion of the Myth of Cronus. Can it be denied that +the story is well illustrated and explained by the New Zealand parallel, +the myth of the cruelty of Tutenganahau? By means of this comparison, +the meaning of the myth is made clear enough. Just as the New Zealanders +had conceived of Heaven and Earth as at one time united, to the prejudice +of their children, so the ancestors of the Greeks had believed in an +ancient union of Heaven and Earth. Both by Greeks and Maoris, Heaven and +Earth were thought of as living persons, with human parts and passions. +Their union was prejudicial to their children, and so the children +violently separated the parents. This conduct is regarded as impious, +and as an awful example to be avoided, in Maori pahs. In Naxos, on the +other hand, Euthyphro deemed that the conduct of Cronus deserved +imitation. If ever the Maoris had reached a high civilisation, they +would probably have been revolted, like Socrates, by the myth which +survived from their period of savagery. Mr. Tylor well says, {50a} 'Just +as the adzes of polished jade, and the cloaks of tied flax-fibre, which +these New Zealanders were using but yesterday, are older in their place +in history than the bronze battle-axes and linen mummy-cloths of ancient +Egypt, so the Maori poet's shaping of nature into nature-myth belongs to +a stage of intellectual history which was passing away in Greece five-and- +twenty centuries ago. The myth-maker's fancy of Heaven and Earth as +father and mother of all things naturally suggested the legend that they +in old days abode together, but have since been torn asunder.' + +* * * * * + +That this view of Heaven and Earth is natural to early minds, Mr. Tylor +proves by the presence of the myth of the union and violent divorce of +the pair in China. {50b} Puang-ku is the Chinese Cronus, or +Tutenganahau. In India, {50c} Dyaus and Prithivi, Heaven and Earth, were +once united, and were severed by Indra, their own child. + +This, then, is our interpretation of the exploit of Cronus. It is an old +surviving nature-myth of the severance of Heaven and Earth, a myth found +in China, India, New Zealand, as well as in Greece. Of course it is not +pretended that Chinese and Maoris borrowed from Indians and Greeks, or +came originally of the same stock. Similar phenomena, presenting +themselves to be explained by human minds in a similar stage of fancy and +of ignorance, will account for the parallel myths. + +The second part of the myth of Cronus was, like the first, a stumbling- +block to the orthodox in Greece. Of the second part we offer no +explanation beyond the fact that the incidents in the myth are almost +universally found among savages, and that, therefore, in Greece they are +probably survivals from savagery. The sequel of the myth appears to +account for nothing, as the first part accounts for the severance of +Heaven and Earth. In the sequel a world-wide Marchen, or tale, seems to +have been attached to Cronus, or attracted into the cycle of which he is +centre, without any particular reason, beyond the law which makes +detached myths crystallise round any celebrated name. To look further +is, perhaps, chercher raison ou il n'y en a pas. + +The conclusion of the story of Cronus runs thus:--He wedded his sister, +Rhea, and begat children--Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and, lastly, +Zeus. 'And mighty Cronus swallowed down each of them, each that came to +their mother's knees from her holy womb, with this intent, that none +other of the proud children of Uranus should hold kingly sway among the +Immortals.' Cronus showed a ruling father's usual jealousy of his heirs. +It was a case of Friedrich Wilhelm and Friedrich. But Cronus (acting in +a way natural in a story perhaps first invented by cannibals) swallowed +his children instead of merely imprisoning them. Heaven and Earth had +warned him to beware of his heirs, and he could think of no safer plan +than that which he adopted. When Rhea was about to become the mother of +Zeus, she fled to Crete. Here Zeus was born, and when Cronus (in pursuit +of his usual policy) asked for the baby, he was presented with a stone +wrapped up in swaddling bands. After swallowing the stone, Cronus was +easy in his mind; but Zeus grew up, administered a dose to his father, +and compelled him to disgorge. 'The stone came forth first, as he had +swallowed it last.' {52a} The other children also emerged, all alive +and well. Zeus fixed the stone at Delphi, where, long after the +Christian era, Pausanias saw it. {52b} It was not a large stone, +Pausanias tells us, and the Delphians used to anoint it with oil and wrap +it up in wool on feast-days. All Greek temples had their fetich-stones, +and each stone had its legend. This was the story of the Delphian stone, +and of the fetichism which survived the early years of Christianity. A +very pretty story it is. Savages more frequently smear their +fetich-stones with red paint than daub them with oil, but the latter, as +we learn from Theophrastus's account of the 'superstitious man,' was the +Greek ritual. + +* * * * * + +This anecdote about Cronus was the stumbling-block of the orthodox Greek, +the jest of the sceptic, and the butt of the early Christian +controversialists. Found among Bushmen or Australians the narrative +might seem rather wild, but it astonishes us still more when it occurs in +the holy legends of Greece. Our explanation of its presence there is +simple enough. Like the erratic blocks in a modern plain, like the flint- +heads in a meadow, the story is a relic of a very distant past. The +glacial age left the boulders on the plain, the savage tribes of long ago +left the arrowheads, the period of savage fancy left the story of Cronus +and the rites of the fetich-stone. Similar rites are still notoriously +practised in the South Sea Islands, in Siberia, in India and Africa and +Melanesia, by savages. And by savages similar tales are still told. + +* * * * * + +We cannot go much lower than the Bushmen, and among Bushman divine myths +is room for the 'swallowing trick' attributed to Cronus by Hesiod. The +chief divine character in Bushman myth is the Mantis insect. His adopted +daughter is the child of Kwai Hemm, a supernatural character, 'the all- +devourer.' The Mantis gets his adopted daughter to call the swallower to +his aid; but Kwai Hemm swallows the Mantis, the god-insect. As Zeus made +his own wife change herself into an insect, for the convenience of +swallowing her, there is not much difference between Bushman and early +Greek mythology. Kwai Hemm is killed by a stratagem, and all the animals +whom he has got outside of, in a long and voracious career, troop forth +from him alive and well, like the swallowed gods from the maw of Cronus. +{54a} Now, story for story, the Bushman version is much less offensive +than that of Hesiod. But the Bushman story is just the sort of story we +expect from Bushmen, whereas the Hesiodic story is not at all the kind of +tale we look for from Greeks. The explanation is, that the Greeks had +advanced out of a savage state of mind and society, but had retained +their old myths, myths evolved in the savage stage, and in harmony with +that condition of fancy. Among the Kaffirs {54b} we find the same +'swallow-myth.' The Igongqongqo swallows all and sundry; a woman cuts +the swallower with a knife, and 'people came out, and cattle, and dogs.' +In Australia, a god is swallowed. As in the myth preserved by +Aristophanes in the 'Birds,' the Australians believe that birds were the +original gods, and the eagle, especially, is a great creative power. The +Moon was a mischievous being, who walked about the world, doing what evil +he could. One day he swallowed the eagle-god. The wives of the eagle +came up, and the Moon asked them where he might find a well. They +pointed out a well, and, as he drank, they hit the Moon with a stone +tomahawk, and out flew the eagle. {54c} This is oddly like Grimm's tale +of 'The Wolf and the Kids.' The wolf swallowed the kids, their mother +cut a hole in the wolf, let out the kids, stuffed the wolf with stones, +and sewed him up again. The wolf went to the well to drink, the weight +of the stones pulled him in, and he was drowned. Similar stories are +common among the Red Indians, and Mr. Im Thurn has found them in Guiana. +How savages all over the world got the idea that men and beasts could be +swallowed and disgorged alive, and why they fashioned the idea into a +divine myth, it is hard to say. Mr. Tylor, in 'Primitive Culture,' {55a} +adds many examples of the narrative. The Basutos have it; it occurs some +five times in Callaway's 'Zulu Nursery Tales.' In Greenland the Eskimo +have a shape of the incident, and we have all heard of the escape of +Jonah. + +It has been suggested that night, covering up the world, gave the first +idea of the swallowing myth. Now in some of the stories the night is +obviously conceived of as a big beast which swallows all things. The +notion that night is an animal is entirely in harmony with savage +metaphysics. In the opinion of the savage speculator, all things are men +and animals. 'Ils se persuadent que non seulement les hommes et les +autres animaux, mais aussi que toutes les autres choses sont animees,' +says one of the old Jesuit missionaries in Canada. {55b} 'The wind was +formerly a person; he became a bird,' say the Bushmen. + +G' oo ka! Kui (a very respectable Bushman, whose name seems a little hard +to pronounce), once saw the wind-person at Haarfontein. Savages, then, +are persuaded that night, sky, cloud, fire, and so forth, are only the +schein, or sensuous appearance, of things that, in essence, are men or +animals. A good example is the bringing of Night to Vanua Lava, by Qat, +the 'culture-hero' of Melanesia. At first it was always day, and people +tired of it. Qat heard that Night was at the Torres Islands, and he set +forth to get some. Qong (Night) received Qat well, blackened his +eyebrows, showed him Sleep, and sent him off with fowls to bring Dawn +after the arrival of Night should make Dawn a necessary. Next day Qat's +brothers saw the sun crawl away west, and presently Night came creeping +up from the sea. 'What is this?' cried the brothers. 'It is Night,' +said Qat; 'sit down, and when you feel something in your eyes, lie down +and keep quiet.' So they went to sleep. 'When Night had lasted long +enough, Qat took a piece of red obsidian, and cut the darkness, and the +Dawn came out.' {56} + +Night is more or less personal in this tale, and solid enough to be cut, +so as to let the Dawn out. This savage conception of night, as the +swallower and disgorger, might start the notion of other swallowing and +disgorging beings. Again the Bushmen, and other savage peoples, account +for certain celestial phenomena by saying that 'a big star has swallowed +his daughter, and spit her out again.' While natural phenomena, +explained on savage principles, might give the data of the swallow-myth, +we must not conclude that all beings to whom the story is attached are, +therefore, the Night. On this principle Cronus would be the Night, and +so would the wolf in Grimm. For our purposes it is enough that the feat +of Cronus is a feat congenial to the savage fancy and repugnant to the +civilised Greeks who found themselves in possession of the myth. Beyond +this, and beyond the inference that the Cronus myth was first evolved by +people to whom it seemed quite natural, that is, by savages, we do not +pretend to go in our interpretation. + +* * * * * + +To end our examination of the Myth of Cronus, we may compare the +solutions offered by scholars. As a rule, these solutions are based on +the philological analysis of the names in the story. It will be seen +that very various and absolutely inconsistent etymologies and meanings of +Cronus are suggested by philologists of the highest authority. These +contradictions are, unfortunately, rather the rule than the exception in +the etymological interpretation of myths. + +* * * * * + +The opinion of Mr. Max Muller has always a right to the first hearing +from English inquirers. Mr. Muller, naturally, examines first the name +of the god whose legend he is investigating. He writes: 'There is no +such being as Kronos in Sanskrit. Kronos did not exist till long after +Zeus in Greece. Zeus was called by the Greeks the son of Time ([Greek]). +This is a very simple and very common form of mythological expression. It +meant originally, not that time was the origin or source of Zeus, but +[Greek] or [Greek] was used in the sense of "connected with time, +representing time, existing through all time." Derivatives in -[Greek] +and -[Greek] took, in later times, the more exclusive meaning of +patronymics. . . . When this (the meaning of [Greek] as equivalent to +Ancient of Days) ceased to be understood, . . . people asked themselves +the question, Why is Zeus called [Greek]? And the natural and almost +inevitable answer was, Because he is the son, the offspring of a more +ancient god, Kronos. This may be a very old myth in Greece; but the +misunderstanding which gave rise to it could have happened in Greece +only. We cannot expect, therefore, a god Kronos in the Veda.' To expect +Greek in the Veda would certainly be sanguine. 'When this myth of Kronos +had once been started, it would roll on irresistibly. If Zeus had once a +father called Kronos, Kronos must have a wife.' It is added, as +confirmation, that 'the name of [Greek] belongs originally to Zeus only, +and not to his later' (in Hesiod elder) 'brothers, Poseidon and Hades.' +{58a} + +Mr. Muller says, in his famous essay on 'Comparative Mythology' {58b}: +'How can we imagine that a few generations before that time' (the age of +Solon) 'the highest notions of the Godhead among the Greeks were +adequately expressed by the story of Uranos maimed by Kronos,--of Kronos +eating his children, swallowing a stone, and vomiting out alive his whole +progeny. Among the lowest tribes of Africa and America, we hardly find +anything more hideous and revolting.' We have found a good deal of the +sort in Africa and America, where it seems not out of place. + +One objection to Mr. Muller's theory is, that it makes the mystery no +clearer. When Greeks were so advanced in Hellenism that their own early +language had become obsolete and obscure, they invented the god [Greek], +to account for the patronymic (as they deemed it) [Greek], son of +[Greek]. But why did they tell such savage and revolting stories about +the god they had invented? Mr. Muller only says the myth 'would roll on +irresistibly.' But why did the rolling myth gather such very strange +moss? That is the problem; and, while Mr. Muller's hypothesis accounts +for the existence of a god called [Greek], it does not even attempt to +show how full-blown Greeks came to believe such hideous stories about the +god. + +* * * * * + +This theory, therefore, is of no practical service. The theory of +Adalbert Kuhn, one of the most famous of Sanskrit scholars, and author of +'Die Herabkunft des Feuers,' is directly opposed to the ideas of Mr. +Muller. In Cronus, Mr. Muller recognises a god who could only have come +into being among Greeks, when the Greeks had begun to forget the original +meaning of 'derivatives in -[Greek] and -[Greek].' Kuhn, on the other +hand, derives [Greek] from the same root as the Sanskrit Krana. {59} +Krana means, it appears, der fur sich schaffende, he who creates for +himself, and Cronus is compared to the Indian Pragapati, about whom even +more abominable stories are told than the myths which circulate to the +prejudice of Cronus. According to Kuhn, the 'swallow-myth' means that +Cronus, the lord of light and dark powers, swallows the divinities of +light. But in place of Zeus (that is, according to Kuhn, of the daylight +sky) he swallows a stone, that is, the sun. When he disgorges the stone +(the sun), he also disgorges the gods of light whom he had swallowed. + +I confess that I cannot understand these distinctions between the father +and lord of light and dark (Cronus) and the beings he swallowed. Nor do +I find it easy to believe that myth-making man took all those +distinctions, or held those views of the Creator. However, the chief +thing to note is that Mr. Muller's etymology and Kuhn's etymology of +Cronus can hardly both be true, which, as their systems both depend on +etymological analysis, is somewhat discomfiting. + +The next etymological theory is the daring speculation of Mr. Brown. In +'The Great Dionysiak Myth' {60a} Mr. Brown writes: 'I regard Kronos as +the equivalent of Karnos, Karnaios, Karnaivis, the Horned God; Assyrian, +KaRNu; Hebrew, KeReN, horn; Hellenic, KRoNos, or KaRNos.' Mr. Brown +seems to think that Cronus is 'the ripening power of harvest,' and also +'a wily savage god,' in which opinion one quite agrees with him. Why the +name of Cronus should mean 'horned,' when he is never represented with +horns, it is hard to say. But among the various foreign gods in whom the +Greeks recognised their own Cronus, one Hea, 'regarded by Berosos as +Kronos,' seems to have been 'horn-wearing.' {60b} Horns are lacking in +Seb and Il, if not in Baal Hamon, though Mr. Brown would like to behorn +them. + +Let us now turn to Preller. {61a} According to Preller, Kronos is +connected with [Greek], to fulfil, to bring to completion. The harvest +month, the month of ripening and fulfilment, was called [Greek] in some +parts of Greece, and the jolly harvest-feast, with its memory of Saturn's +golden days, was named [Greek]. The sickle of Cronus, the sickle of +harvest-time, works in well with this explanation, and we have a kind of +pun in Homer which points in the direction of Preller's derivation from +[Greek]:-- + + [Greek] + +and in Sophocles ('Tr.' 126)-- + + [Greek]. + +Preller illustrates the mutilation of Uranus by the Maori tale of +Tutenganahau. The child-swallowing he connects with Punic and Phoenician +influence, and Semitic sacrifices of men and children. Porphyry {61b} +speaks of human sacrifices to Cronus in Rhodes, and the Greeks recognised +Cronus in the Carthaginian god to whom children were offered up. + +Hartung {61c} takes Cronus, when he mutilates Uranus, to be the fire of +the sun, scorching the sky of spring. This, again, is somewhat out of +accord with Schwartz's idea, that Cronus is the storm-god, the +cloud-swallowing deity, his sickle the rainbow, and the blood of Uranus +the lightning. {61d} According to Prof. Sayce, again, {62a} the blood- +drops of Uranus are rain-drops. Cronus is the sun-god, piercing the dark +cloud, which is just the reverse of Schwartz's idea. Prof. Sayce sees +points in common between the legend of Moloch, or of Baal under the name +of Moloch, and the myth of Cronus. But Moloch, he thinks, is not a god +of Phoenician origin, but a deity borrowed from 'the primitive Accadian +population of Babylonia.' Mr. Isaac Taylor, again, explains Cronus as +the sky which swallows and reproduces the stars. The story of the sickle +may be derived from the crescent moon, the 'silver sickle,' or from a +crescent-shaped piece of meteoric iron--for, in this theory, the fetich- +stone of Delphi is a piece of that substance. + +* * * * * + +It will be observed that any one of these theories, if accepted, is much +more 'minute in detail' than our humble suggestion. He who adopts any +one of them, knows all about it. He knows that Cronus is a purely Greek +god, or that he is connected with the Sanskrit Krana, which Tiele, {62b} +unhappily, says is 'a very dubious word.' Or the mythologist may be +quite confident that Cronus is neither Greek nor, in any sense, Sanskrit, +but Phoenician. A not less adequate interpretation assigns him +ultimately to Accadia. While the inquirer who can choose a system and +stick to it knows the exact nationality of Cronus, he is also well +acquainted with his character as a nature-god. He may be Time, or +perhaps he is the Summer Heat, and a horned god; or he is the harvest- +god, or the god of storm and darkness, or the midnight sky,--the choice +is wide; or he is the lord of dark and light, and his children are the +stars, the clouds, the summer months, the light-powers, or what you will. +The mythologist has only to make his selection. + +The system according to which we tried to interpret the myth is less +ondoyant et divers. We do not even pretend to explain everything. We do +not guess at the meaning and root of the word Cronus. We only find +parallels to the myth among savages, whose mental condition is fertile in +such legends. And we only infer that the myth of Cronus was originally +evolved by persons also in the savage intellectual condition. The +survival we explain as, in a previous essay, we explained the survival of +the bull-roarer by the conservatism of the religious instinct. + + + + +CUPID, PSYCHE, AND THE 'SUN-FROG.' + + +'Once upon a time there lived a king and a queen,' says the old woman in +Apuleius, beginning the tale of Cupid and Psyche with that ancient +formula which has been dear to so many generations of children. In one +shape or other the tale of Cupid and Psyche, of the woman who is +forbidden to see or to name her husband, of the man with the vanished +fairy bride, is known in most lands, 'even among barbarians.' According +to the story the mystic prohibition is always broken: the hidden face is +beheld; light is brought into the darkness; the forbidden name is +uttered; the bride is touched with the tabooed metal, iron, and the union +is ended. Sometimes the pair are re-united, after long searchings and +wanderings; sometimes they are severed for ever. Such are the central +situations in tales like that of Cupid and Psyche. + +In the attempt to discover how the ideas on which this myth is based came +into existence, we may choose one of two methods. We may confine our +investigations to the Aryan peoples, among whom the story occurs both in +the form of myth and of household tale. Again, we may look for the +shapes of the legend which hide, like Peau d'Ane in disguise, among the +rude kraals and wigwams, and in the strange and scanty garb of savages. +If among savages we find both narratives like Cupid and Psyche, and also +customs and laws out of which the myth might have arisen, we may +provisionally conclude that similar customs once existed among the +civilised races who possess the tale, and that from these sprang the +early forms of the myth. + +In accordance with the method hitherto adopted, we shall prefer the +second plan, and pursue our quest beyond the limits of the Aryan peoples. + +The oldest literary shape of the tale of Psyche and her lover is found in +the Rig Veda (x. 95). The characters of a singular and cynical dialogue +in that poem are named Urvasi and Pururavas. The former is an Apsaras, a +kind of fairy or sylph, the mistress (and a folle maitresse, too) of +Pururavas, a mortal man. {65} In the poem Urvasi remarks that when she +dwelt among men she 'ate once a day a small piece of butter, and +therewith well satisfied went away.' This slightly reminds one of the +common idea that the living may not eat in the land of the dead, and of +Persephone's tasting the pomegranate in Hades. + +Of the dialogue in the Rig Veda it may be said, in the words of Mr. +Toots, that 'the language is coarse and the meaning is obscure.' We only +gather that Urvasi, though she admits her sensual content in the society +of Pururavas, is leaving him 'like the first of the dawns'; that she +'goes home again, hard to be caught, like the winds.' She gives her +lover some hope, however--that the gods promise immortality even to him, +'the kinsman of Death' as he is. 'Let thine offspring worship the gods +with an oblation; in Heaven shalt thou too have joy of the festival.' + +In the Rig Veda, then, we dimly discern a parting between a mortal man +and an immortal bride, and a promise of reconciliation. + +The story, of which this Vedic poem is a partial dramatisation, is given +in the Brahmana of the Yajur Veda. Mr. Max Muller has translated the +passage. {66a} According to the Brahmana, 'Urvasi, a kind of fairy, fell +in love with Pururavas, and when she met him she said: Embrace me three +times a day, but never against my will, and let me never see you without +your royal garments, _for this is the manner of women_.' {66b} The +Gandharvas, a spiritual race, kinsmen of Urvasi, thought she had lingered +too long among men. They therefore plotted some way of parting her from +Pururavas. Her covenant with her lord declared that she was never to see +him naked. If that compact were broken she would be compelled to leave +him. To make Pururavas break this compact the Gandharvas stole a lamb +from beside Urvasi's bed: Pururavas sprang up to rescue the lamb, and, in +a flash of lightning, Urvasi saw him naked, contrary to the _manner of +women_. She vanished. He sought her long, and at last came to a lake +where she and her fairy friends were playing _in the shape of birds_. +Urvasi saw Pururavas, revealed herself to him, and, according to the +Brahmana, part of the strange Vedic dialogue was now spoken. Urvasi +promised to meet him on the last night of the year: a son was to be the +result of the interview. Next day, her kinsfolk, the Gandharvas, offered +Pururavas the wish of his heart. He wished to be one of them. They then +initiated him into the mode of kindling a certain sacred fire, after +which he became immortal and dwelt among the Gandharvas. + +It is highly characteristic of the Indian mind that the story should be +thus worked into connection with ritual. In the same way the Bhagavata +Purana has a long, silly, and rather obscene narrative about the +sacrifice offered by Pururavas, and the new kind of sacred fire. Much +the same ritual tale is found in the Vishnu Purana (iv. 6, 19). + +Before attempting to offer our own theory of the legend, we must examine +the explanations presented by scholars. The philological method of +dealing with myths is well known. The hypothesis is that the names in a +myth are 'stubborn things,' and that, as the whole narrative has probably +arisen from forgetfulness of the meaning of language, the secret of a +myth must be sought in analysis of the proper names of the persons. On +this principle Mr. Max Muller interprets the myth of Urvasi and +Pururavas, their loves, separation, and reunion. Mr. Muller says that +the story 'expresses the identity of the morning dawn and the evening +twilight.' {68} To prove this, the names are analysed. It is Mr. +Muller's object to show that though, even in the Veda, Urvasi and +Pururavas are names of persons, they were originally 'appellations'; and +that Urvasi meant 'dawn,' and Pururavas 'sun.' Mr. Muller's opinion as +to the etymological sense of the names would be thought decisive, +naturally, by lay readers, if an opposite opinion were not held by that +other great philologist and comparative mythologist, Adalbert Kuhn. +Admitting that 'the etymology of Urvasi is difficult,' Mr. Muller derives +it from 'uru, wide ([Greek]), and a root as = to pervade.' Now the dawn +is 'widely pervading,' and has, in Sanskrit, the epithet uruki, +'far-going.' Mr. Muller next assumes that 'Eurykyde,' 'Eurynome,' +'Eurydike,' and other heroic Greek female names, are 'names of the dawn'; +but this, it must be said, is merely an assumption of his school. The +main point of the argument is that Urvasi means 'far-going,' and that +'the far and wide splendour of dawn' is often spoken of in the Veda. +'However, the best proof that Urvasi was the dawn is the legend told of +her and of her love to Pururavas, a story that is true only of the sun +and the dawn' (i. 407). + +We shall presently see that a similar story is told of persons in whom +the dawn can scarcely be recognised, so that 'the best proof' is not very +good. + +The name of Pururavas, again, is 'an appropriate name for a solar hero.' +. . . Pururavas meant the same as [Greek], 'endowed with much light,' +for, though rava is generally used of sound, yet the root ru, which means +originally 'to cry,' is also applied to colour, in the sense of a loud or +crying colour, that is, red. {69a} Violet also, according to Sir G. W. +Cox, {69b} is a loud or crying colour. 'The word ([Greek]), as applied +to colour, is traced by Professor Max Muller to the root i, as denoting a +"crying hue," that is, a loud colour.' It is interesting to learn that +our Aryan fathers spoke of 'loud colours,' and were so sensitive as to +think violet 'loud.' Besides, Pururavas calls himself Vasistha, which, +as we know, is a name of the sun; and if he is called Aido, the son of +Ida, the same name is elsewhere given {69c} to Agni, the fire. 'The +conclusion of the argument is that antiquity spoke of the naked sun, and +of the chaste dawn hiding her face when she had seen her husband. Yet +she says she will come again. And after the sun has travelled through +the world in search of his beloved, when he comes to the threshold of +Death and is going to end his solitary life, she appears again, in the +gloaming, the same as the dawn, as Eos in Homer, begins and ends the day, +and she carries him away to the golden seats of the Immortals.' {69d} + +Kuhn objects to all this explanation, partly on what we think the +inadequate ground that there is no necessary connection between the story +of Urvasi (thus interpreted) and the ritual of sacred fire-lighting. +Connections of that sort were easily invented at random by the compilers +of the Brahmanas in their existing form. Coming to the analysis of +names, Kuhn finds in Urvasi 'a weakening of Urvanki (uru + anc), like +yuvaca from yuvanka, Latin juvencus . . . the accent is of no decisive +weight.' Kuhn will not be convinced that Pururavas is the sun, and is +unmoved by the ingenious theory of 'a crying colour,' denoted by his +name, and the inference, supported by such words as rufus, that crying +colours are red, and therefore appropriate names of the red sun. The +connection between Pururavas and Agni, fire, is what appeals to Kuhn--and, +in short, where Mr. Muller sees a myth of sun and dawn, Kuhn recognises a +fire-myth. Roth, again (whose own name means _red_), far from thinking +that Urvasi is 'the chaste dawn,' interprets her name as die geile, that +is, 'lecherous, lascivious, lewd, wanton, obscene'; while Pururavas, as +'the Roarer,' suggests 'the Bull in rut.' In accordance with these views +Roth explains the myth in a fashion of his own. {70a} + +Here, then, as Kuhn says, 'we have three essentially different modes of +interpreting the myth,' {70b} all three founded on philological analysis +of the names in the story. No better example could be given to +illustrate the weakness of the philological method. In the first place, +that method relies on names as the primitive relics and germs of the +tale, although the tale may occur where the names have never been heard, +and though the names are, presumably, late additions to a story in which +the characters were originally anonymous. Again, the most illustrious +etymologists differ absolutely about the true sense of the names. Kuhn +sees fire everywhere, and fire-myths; Mr. Muller sees dawn and +dawn-myths; Schwartz sees storm and storm-myths, and so on. As the +orthodox teachers are thus at variance, so that there is no safety in +orthodoxy, we may attempt to use our heterodox method. + +None of the three scholars whose views we have glanced at--neither Roth, +Kuhn, nor Mr. Muller--lays stress on the saying of Urvasi, 'never let me +see you without your royal garments, _for this is the custom of women_.' +{71} To our mind, these words contain the gist of the myth. There must +have been, at some time, a custom which forbade women to see their +husbands without their garments, or the words have no meaning. If any +custom of this kind existed, a story might well be evolved to give a +sanction to the law. 'You must never see your husband naked: think what +happened to Urvasi--she vanished clean away!' This is the kind of +warning which might be given. If the customary prohibition had grown +obsolete, the punishment might well be assigned to a being of another, a +spiritual, race, in which old human ideas lingered, as the neolithic +dread of iron lingers in the Welsh fairies. + +Our method will be, to prove the existence of singular rules of +etiquette, corresponding to the etiquette accidentally infringed by +Pururavas. We shall then investigate stories of the same character as +that of Urvasi and Pururavas, in which the infringement of the etiquette +is chastised. It will be seen that, in most cases, the bride is of a +peculiar and perhaps supernatural race. Finally, the tale of Urvasi will +be taken up again, will be shown to conform in character to the other +stories examined, and will be explained as a myth told to illustrate, or +sanction, a nuptial etiquette. + +The lives of savages are bound by the most closely-woven fetters of +custom. The simplest acts are 'tabooed,' a strict code regulates all +intercourse. Married life, especially, moves in the strangest fetters. +There will be nothing remarkable in the wide distribution of a myth +turning on nuptial etiquette, if this law of nuptial etiquette proves to +be also widely distributed. That it is widely distributed we now propose +to demonstrate by examples. + +The custom of the African people of the kingdom of Futa is, or was, even +stricter than the Vedic _custom of women_--'wives never permit their +husbands to see them unveiled for three years after their marriage.' {72} + +In his 'Travels to Timbuctoo' (i. 94), Caillie says that the bridegroom +'is not allowed to see his intended during the day.' He has a tabooed +hut apart, and 'if he is obliged to come out he covers his face.' He +'remains with his wife only till daybreak'--like Cupid--and flees, like +Cupid, before the light. Among the Australians the chief deity, if deity +such a being can be called, Pundjel, 'has a wife whose face he has never +seen,' probably in compliance with some primaeval etiquette or taboo. +{73a} + +Among the Yorubas 'conventional modesty forbids a woman to speak to her +husband, or even to see him, if it can be avoided.' {73b} Of the +Iroquois Lafitau says: 'Ils n'osent aller dans les cabanes particulieres +ou habitent leurs epouses que durant l'obscurite de la nuit.' {73c} The +Circassian women live on distant terms with their lords till they become +mothers. {73d} Similar examples of reserve are reported to be customary +among the Fijians. + +In backward parts of Europe a strange custom forbids the bride to speak +to her lord, as if in memory of a time when husband and wife were always +of alien tribes, and, as among the Caribs, spoke different languages. + +In the Bulgarian 'Volkslied,' the Sun marries Grozdanka, a mortal girl. +Her mother addresses her thus:-- + + Grozdanka, mother's treasure mine, + For nine long years I nourished thee, + For nine months see thou do not speak + To thy first love that marries thee. + +M. Dozon, who has collected the Bulgarian songs, says that this custom of +prolonged silence on the part of the bride is very common in Bulgaria, +though it is beginning to yield to a sense of the ludicrous. {74a} In +Sparta and in Crete, as is well known, the bridegroom was long the victim +of a somewhat similar taboo, and was only permitted to seek the company +of his wife secretly, and in the dark, like the Iroquois described by +Lafitau. + +Herodotus tells us (i. 146) that some of the old Ionian colonists +'brought no women with them, but took wives of the women of the Carians, +whose fathers they had slain. Therefore the women made a law for +themselves, and handed it down to their daughters, that they should never +sit at meat with their husbands, and _that none should ever call her +husband by his name_.' In precisely the same way, in Zululand the wife +may not mention her husband's name, just as in the Welsh fairy tale the +husband may not even know the name of his fairy bride, on pain of losing +her for ever. These ideas about names, and freakish ways of avoiding the +use of names, mark the childhood of languages, according to Mr. Max +Muller, {74b} and, therefore, the childhood of Society. The Kaffirs call +this etiquette 'Hlonipa.' It applies to women as well as men. A Kaffir +bride is not called by her own name in her husband's village, but is +spoken of as 'mother of so and so,' even before she has borne a child. +The universal superstition about names is at the bottom of this custom. +The Aleutian Islanders, according to Dall, are quite distressed when +obliged to speak to their wives in the presence of others. The Fijians +did not know where to look when missionaries hinted that a man might live +under the same roof as his wife. {75a} Among the Turkomans, for six +months, a year, or two years, a husband is only allowed to visit his wife +by stealth. + +The number of these instances could probably be increased by a little +research. Our argument is that the widely distributed myths in which a +husband or a wife transgresses some 'custom'--sees the other's face or +body, or utters the forbidden name--might well have arisen as tales +illustrating the punishment of breaking the rule. By a very curious +coincidence, a Breton sailor's tale of the 'Cupid and Psyche' class is +confessedly founded on the existence of the rule of nuptial etiquette. +{75b} + +In this story the son of a Boulogne pilot marries the daughter of the +King of Naz--wherever that may be. In Naz a man is never allowed to see +the face of his wife till she has borne him a child--a modification of +the Futa rule. The inquisitive French husband unveils his wife, and, +like Psyche in Apuleius, drops wax from a candle on her cheek. When the +pair return to Naz, the king of that country discovers the offence of the +husband, and, by the aid of his magicians, transforms the Frenchman into +a monster. Here we have the old formula--the infringement of a 'taboo,' +and the magical punishment--adapted to the ideas of Breton peasantry. The +essential point of the story, for our purpose, is that the veiling of the +bride is 'the custom of women,' in the mysterious land of Naz. 'C'est +l'usage du pays: les maris ne voient leurs femmes sans voile que +lorsqu'elles sont devenues meres.' Now our theory of the myth of Urvasi +is simply this: 'the custom of women,' which Pururavas transgresses, is +probably a traditional Aryan law of nuptial etiquette, l'usage du pays, +once prevalent among the people of India. + +If our view be correct, then several rules of etiquette, and not one +alone, will be illustrated in the stories which we suppose the rules to +have suggested. In the case of Urvasi and Pururavas, the rule was, not +to see the husband naked. In 'Cupid and Psyche,' the husband was not to +be looked upon at all. In the well-known myth of Melusine, the bride is +not to be seen naked. Melusine tells her lover that she will only abide +with him dum ipsam nudam non viderit. {76a} The same taboo occurs in a +Dutch Marchen. {76b} + +We have now to examine a singular form of the myth, in which the strange +bride is not a fairy, or spiritual being, but an animal. In this class +of story the husband is usually forbidden to perform some act which will +recall to the bride the associations of her old animal existence. The +converse of the tale is the well-known legend of the Forsaken Merman. The +king of the sea permits his human wife to go to church. The ancient +sacred associations are revived, and the woman returns no more. + + She will not come though you call all day + Come away, come away. + +Now, in the tales of the animal bride, it is her associations with her +former life among the beasts that are not to be revived, and when they +are reawakened by the commission of some act which she has forbidden, or +the neglect of some precaution which she has enjoined, she, like Urvasi, +disappears. + +* * * * * + +The best known example of this variant of the tale is the story of Bheki, +in Sanskrit. Mr. Max Muller has interpreted the myth in accordance with +his own method. {77} His difficulty is to account for the belief that a +king might marry a frog. Our ancestors, he remarks, 'were not idiots,' +how then could they tell such a story? We might reply that our +ancestors, if we go far enough back, were savages, and that such stories +are the staple of savage myth. Mr. Muller, however, holds that an +accidental corruption of language reduced Aryan fancy to the savage +level. He explains the corruption thus: 'We find, in Sanskrit, that +Bheki, the frog, was a beautiful girl, and that one day, when sitting +near a well, she was discovered by a king, who asked her to be his wife. +She consented, _on condition that he should never show her a drop of +water_. One day, being tired, she asked the king for water; the king +forgot his promise, brought water, and Bheki disappeared.' This myth, +Mr. Muller holds, 'began with a short saying, such as that "Bheki, the +sun, will die at the sight of water," as we should say that the sun will +set, when it approaches the water from which it rose in the morning.' But +how did the sun come to be called Bheki, 'the frog'? Mr. Muller supposes +that this name was given to the sun by some poet or fisherman. He gives +no evidence for the following statement: 'It can be shown that "frog" was +used as a name for the sun. Now at sunrise and sunset, when the sun was +squatting on the water, it was called the "frog."' At what historical +period the Sanskrit-speaking race was settled in seats where the sun rose +and set in water, we do not know, and 'chapter and verse' are needed for +the statement that 'frog' was actually a name of the sun. Mr. Muller's +argument, however, is that the sun was called 'the frog,' that people +forgot that the frog and sun were identical, and that Frog, or Bheki, was +mistaken for the name of a girl to whom was applied the old saw about +dying at sight of water. 'And so,' says Mr. Muller, 'the change from sun +to frog, and from frog to man, which was at first due to the mere spell +of language, would in our nursery tales be ascribed to miraculous charms +more familiar to a later age.' As a matter of fact, magical +metamorphoses are infinitely more familiar to the lowest savages than to +people in a 'later age.' Magic, as Castren observes, 'belongs to the +lowest known stages of civilisation.' Mr. Muller's theory, however, is +this--that a Sanskrit-speaking people, living where the sun rose out of +and set in some ocean, called the sun, as he touched the water, Bheki, +the frog, and said he would die at the sight of water. They ceased to +call the sun the frog, or Bheki, but kept the saying, 'Bheki will die at +sight of water.' Not knowing who or what Bheki might be, they took her +for a frog, who also was a pretty wench. Lastly, they made the story of +Bheki's distinguished wedding and mysterious disappearance. For this +interpretation, historical and linguistic evidence is not offered. When +did a Sanskrit-speaking race live beside a great sea? How do we know +that 'frog' was used as a name for 'sun'? + +* * * * * + +We have already given our explanation. To the savage intellect, man and +beast are on a level, and all savage myth makes men descended from +beasts; while stories of the loves of gods in bestial shape, or the +unions of men and animals, incessantly occur. 'Unnatural' as these +notions seem to us, no ideas are more familiar to savages, and none recur +more frequently in Indo-Aryan, Scandinavian, and Greek mythology. An +extant tribe in North-West America still claims descent from a frog. The +wedding of Bheki and the king is a survival, in Sanskrit, of a tale of +this kind. Lastly, Bheki disappears, when her associations with her old +amphibious life are revived in the manner she had expressly forbidden. + +* * * * * + +Our interpretation may be supported by an Ojibway parallel. A hunter +named Otter-heart, camping near a beaver lodge, found a pretty girl +loitering round his fire. She keeps his wigwam in order, and 'lays his +blanket near the deerskin she had laid for herself. "Good," he muttered, +"this is my wife."' She refuses to eat the beavers he has shot, but at +night he hears a noise, 'krch, krch, as if beavers were gnawing wood.' He +sees, by the glimmer of the fire, his wife nibbling birch twigs. In +fact, the good little wife is a beaver, as the pretty Indian girl was a +frog. The pair lived happily till spring came and the snow melted and +the streams ran full. Then his wife implored the hunter to build her a +bridge over every stream and river, that she might cross dry-footed. +'For,' she said, 'if my feet touch water, this would at once cause thee +great sorrow.' The hunter did as she bade him, but left unbridged one +tiny runnel. The wife stumbled into the water, and, as soon as her foot +was wet, she immediately resumed her old shape as a beaver, her son +became a beaverling, and the brooklet, changing to a roaring river, bore +them to the lake. Once the hunter saw his wife again among her beast +kin. 'To thee I sacrificed all,' she said, 'and I only asked thee to +help me dry-footed over the waters. Thou didst cruelly neglect this. Now +I must remain for ever with my people.' + +* * * * * + +This tale was told to Kohl by 'an old insignificant squaw among the +Ojibways.' {80a} Here we have a precise parallel to the tale of Bheki, +the frog-bride, and here the reason of the prohibition to touch water is +made perfectly unmistakable. The touch magically revived the bride's old +animal life with the beavers. Or was the Indian name for beaver +(temakse) once a name for the sun? {80b} + +A curious variant of this widely distributed Marchen of the animal bride +is found in the mythical genealogy of the Raja of Chutia Nagpur, a chief +of the Naga, or snake race. It is said that Raja Janameja prepared a +yajnya, or great malevolently magical incantation, to destroy all the +people of the serpent race. To prevent this annihilation, the +supernatural being, Pundarika Nag, took a human form, and became the +husband of the beautiful Parvati, daughter of a Brahman. But Pundarika +Nag, being a serpent by nature, could not divest himself, even in human +shape, of his forked tongue and venomed breath. And, just as Urvasi +could not abide with her mortal lover, after he transgressed the +prohibition to appear before her naked, so Pundarika Nag was compelled by +fate to leave his bride, if she asked him any questions about his +disagreeable peculiarities. She did, at last, ask questions, in +circumstances which made Pundarika believe that he was bound to answer +her. Now the curse came upon him, he plunged into a pool, like the +beaver, and vanished. His wife became the mother of the serpent Rajas of +Chutia Nagpur. Pundarika Nag, in his proper form as a great hooded +snake, guarded his first-born child. The crest of the house is a hooded +snake with human face. {81a} + +Here, then, we have many examples of the disappearance of the bride or +bridegroom in consequence of infringement of various mystic rules. +Sometimes the beloved one is seen when he or she should not be seen. +Sometimes, as in a Maori story, the bride vanishes, merely because she is +in a bad temper. {81b} Among the Red Men, as in Sanskrit, the taboo on +water is broken, with the usual results. Now for an example in which the +rule against using _names_ is infringed. {82a} + +This formula constantly occurs in the Welsh fairy tales published by +Professor Rhys. {82b} Thus the heir of Corwrion fell in love with a +fairy: 'They were married on the distinct understanding that the husband +was not to know her name, . . . and was not to strike her with iron, on +pain of her leaving him at once.' Unluckily the man once tossed her a +bridle, the iron bit touched the wife, and 'she at once flew through the +air, and plunged headlong into Corwrion Lake.' + +A number of tales turning on the same incident are published in +'Cymmrodor,' v. I. In these we have either the taboo on the name, or the +taboo on the touch of iron. In a widely diffused superstition iron +'drives away devils and ghosts,' according to the Scholiast on the +eleventh book of the 'Odyssey,' and the Oriental Djinn also flee from +iron. {82c} Just as water is fatal to the Aryan frog-bride and to the +Red Indian beaver-wife, restoring them to their old animal forms, so the +magic touch of iron breaks love between the Welshman and his fairy +mistress, the representative of the stone age. + +In many tales of fairy-brides, they are won by a kind of force. The +lover in the familiar Welsh and German Marchen sees the swan-maidens +throw off their swan plumage and dance naked.. He steals the feather- +garb of one of them, and so compels her to his love. Finally, she leaves +him, in anger, or because he has broken some taboo. Far from being +peculiar to Aryan mythology, this legend occurs, as Mr. Farrer has shown, +{83a} in Algonquin and Bornoese tradition. The Red Indian story told by +Schoolcraft in his 'Algic Researches' is most like the Aryan version, but +has some native peculiarities. Wampee was a great hunter, who, on the +lonely prairie, once heard strains of music. Looking up he saw a speck +in the sky: the speck drew nearer and nearer, and proved to be a basket +containing twelve heavenly maidens. They reached the earth and began to +dance, inflaming the heart of Wampee with love. But Wampee could not +draw near the fairy girls in his proper form without alarming them. Like +Zeus in his love adventures, Wampee exercised the medicine-man's power of +metamorphosing himself. He assumed the form of a mouse, approached +unobserved, and caught one of the dancing maidens. After living with +Wampee for some time she wearied of earth, and, by virtue of a 'mystic +chain of verse,' she ascended again to her heavenly home. + +Now is there any reason to believe that this incident was once part of +the myth of Pururavas and Urvasi? Was the fairy-love, Urvasi, originally +caught and held by Pururavas among her naked and struggling companions? +Though this does not appear to have been much noticed, it seems to follow +from a speech of Pururavas in the Vedic dialogue {83b} (x. 95, 8, 9). Mr. +Max Muller translates thus: 'When I, the mortal, threw my arms round +those flighty immortals, they trembled away from me like a trembling doe, +like horses that kick against the cart.' {84a} Ludwig's rendering suits +our view--that Pururavas is telling how he first caught Urvasi--still +better: 'When I, the mortal, held converse with the immortals who had +laid aside their raiment, like slippery serpents they glided from me, +like horses yoked to the car.' These words would well express the +adventure of a lover among the naked flying swan-maidens, an adventure +familiar to the Red Men as to Persian legends of the Peris. + +To end our comparison of myths like the tale of 'Cupid and Psyche,' we +find an example among the Zulus. Here {84b} the mystic lover came in +when all was dark, and felt the damsel's face. After certain rites, 'in +the morning he went away, he speaking continually, the girl not seeing +him. During all those days he would not allow the girl (sic), when she +said she would light a fire. Finally, after a magical ceremony, he said, +"Light the fire!" and stood before her revealed, a shining shape.' This +has a curious resemblance to the myth of Cupid and Psyche; but a more +curious detail remains. In the Zulu story of Ukcombekcansini, the +friends of a bride break a taboo and kill a tabooed animal. Instantly, +like Urvasi and her companions in the Yajur Veda, the bride and her +maidens disappear _and are turned into birds_! {84c} They are afterwards +surprised in human shape, and the bride is restored to her lover. + +Here we conclude, having traced parallels to Cupid and Psyche in many non- +Aryan lands. Our theory of the myth does not rest on etymology. We have +seen that the most renowned scholars, Max Muller, Kuhn, Roth, all analyse +the names Urvasi and Pururavas in different ways, and extract different +interpretations. We have found the story where these names were probably +never heard of. We interpret it as a tale of the intercourse between +mortal men and immortal maids, or between men and metamorphosed animals, +as in India and North America. We explain the separation of the lovers +as the result of breaking a taboo, or law of etiquette, binding among men +and women, as well as between men and fairies. + +* * * * * + +The taboos are, to see the beloved unveiled, to utter his or her name, to +touch her with a metal 'terrible to ghosts and spirits,' or to do some +action which will revive the associations of a former life. We have +shown that rules of nuptial etiquette resembling these in character do +exist, and have existed, even among Greeks--as where the Milesian, like +the Zulu, women made a law not to utter their husbands' names. Finally, +we think it a reasonable hypothesis that tales on the pattern of 'Cupid +and Psyche' might have been evolved wherever a curious nuptial taboo +required to be sanctioned, or explained, by a myth. On this hypothesis, +the stories may have been separately invented in different lands; but +there is also a chance that they have been transmitted from people to +people in the unknown past of our scattered and wandering race. This +theory seems at least as probable as the hypothesis that the meaning of +an Aryan proverbial statement about sun and dawn was forgotten, and was +altered unconsciously into a tale which is found among various non-Aryan +tribes. That hypothesis again, learned and ingenious as it is, has the +misfortune to be opposed by other scholarly hypotheses not less ingenious +and learned. + +* * * * * + +As for the sun-frog, we may hope that he has sunk for ever beneath the +western wave. + + + + +A FAR-TRAVELLED TALE. + + +A modern novelist has boasted that her books are read 'from Tobolsk to +Tangiers.' This is a wide circulation, but the widest circulation in the +world has probably been achieved by a story whose author, unlike Ouida, +will never be known to fame. The tale which we are about to examine is, +perhaps, of all myths the most widely diffused, yet there is no ready way +of accounting for its extraordinary popularity. Any true 'nature-myth,' +any myth which accounts for the processes of nature or the aspects of +natural phenomena, may conceivably have been invented separately, +wherever men in an early state of thought observed the same facts, and +attempted to explain them by telling a story. Thus we have seen that the +earlier part of the Myth of Cronus is a nature-myth, setting forth the +cause of the separation of Heaven and Earth. Star-myths again, are +everywhere similar, because men who believed all nature to be animated +and personal, accounted for the grouping of constellations in accordance +with these crude beliefs. {87} Once more, if a story like that of 'Cupid +and Psyche' be found among the most diverse races, the distribution +becomes intelligible if the myth was invented to illustrate or enforce a +widely prevalent custom. But in the following story no such explanation +is even provisionally acceptable. + +The gist of the tale (which has many different 'openings,' and +conclusions in different places) may be stated thus: A young man is +brought to the home of a hostile animal, a giant, cannibal, wizard, or a +malevolent king. He is put by his unfriendly host to various severe +trials, in which it is hoped that he will perish. In each trial he is +assisted by the daughter of his host. After achieving the adventures, he +elopes with the girl, and is pursued by her father. The runaway pair +throw various common objects behind them, which are changed into magical +obstacles and check the pursuit of the father. The myth has various +endings, usually happy, in various places. Another form of the narrative +is known, in which the visitors to the home of the hostile being are, not +wooers of his daughter, but brothers of his wife. {88} The incidents of +the flight, in this variant, are still of the same character. Finally, +when the flight is that of a brother from his sister's malevolent ghost, +in Hades (Japan), or of two sisters from a cannibal mother or step-mother +(Zulu and Samoyed), the events of the flight and the magical aids to +escape remain little altered. We shall afterwards see that attempts have +been made to interpret one of these narratives as a nature-myth; but the +attempts seem unsuccessful. We are therefore at a loss to account for +the wide diffusion of this tale, unless it has been transmitted slowly +from people to people, in the immense unknown prehistoric past of the +human race. + +* * * * * + +Before comparing the various forms of the myth in its first shape--that +which tells of the mortal lover and the giant's or wizard's daughter--let +us give the Scottish version of the story. This version was written down +for me, many years ago, by an aged lady in Morayshire. I published it in +the 'Revue Celtique'; but it is probably new to story-comparers, in its +broad Scotch variant. + + + +NICHT NOUGHT NOTHING. + + + There once lived a king and a queen. They were long married and had + no bairns; but at last the queen had a bairn, when the king was away + in far countries. The queen would not christen the bairn till the + king came back, and she said, 'We will just call him Nicht Nought + Nothing until his father comes home.' But it was long before he came + home, and the boy had grown a nice little laddie. At length the king + was on his way back; but he had a big river to cross, and there was a + spate, and he could not get over the water. But a giant came up to + him, and said, 'If you will give me Nicht Nought Nothing, I will carry + you over the water on my back.' The king had never heard that his son + was called Nicht Nought Nothing, and so he promised him. When the + king got home again, he was very happy to see his wife again, and his + young son. She told him that she had not given the child any name but + Nicht Nought Nothing, until he should come home again himself. The + poor king was in a terrible case. He said, 'What have I done? I + promised to give the giant who carried me over the river on his back, + Nicht Nought Nothing.' The king and the queen were sad and sorry, but + they said, 'When the giant comes we will give him the hen-wife's + bairn; he will never know the difference.' The next day the giant + came to claim the king's promise, and he sent for the hen-wife's + bairn; and the giant went away with the bairn on his back. He + travelled till he came to a big stone, and there he sat down to rest. + He said, + + 'Hidge, Hodge, on my back, what time of day is it?' The poor little + bairn said, 'It is the time that my mother, the hen-wife, takes up the + eggs for the queen's breakfast.' + + The giant was very angry, and dashed the bairn on the stone and killed + it. + + . . . . . + + The same adventure is repeated with the gardener's son. + + . . . . . + + Then the giant went back to the king's house, and said he would + destroy them all if they did not give him Nicht Nought Nothing this + time. They had to do it; and when he came to the big stone, the giant + said, 'What time of day is it?' Nicht Nought Nothing said, 'It is the + time that my father the king will be sitting down to supper.' The + giant said, 'I've got the richt ane noo;' and took Nicht Nought + Nothing to his own house and brought him up till he was a man. + + The giant had a bonny dochter, and she and the lad grew very fond of + each other. The giant said one day to Nicht Nought Nothing, 'I've + work for you to-morrow. There is a stable seven miles long and seven + miles broad, and it has not been cleaned for seven years, and you must + clean it to-morrow, or I will have you for my supper.' + + The giant's dochter went out next morning with the lad's breakfast, + and found him in a terrible state, for aye as he cleaned out a bit, it + aye fell in again. The giant's dochter said she would help him, and + she cried a' the beasts of the field, and a' the fowls o' the air, and + in a minute they a' came, and carried awa' everything that was in the + stable and made a' clean before the giant came home. He said, 'Shame + for the wit that helped you; but I have a worse job for you + to-morrow.' Then he told Nicht Nought Nothing that there was a loch + seven miles long, and seven miles deep, and seven miles broad, and he + must drain it the next day, or else he would have him for his supper. + Nicht Nought Nothing began early next morning and tried to lave the + water with his pail, but the loch was never getting any less, and he + did no ken what to do; but the giant's dochter called on all the fish + in the sea to come and drink the water, and very soon they drank it + dry. When the giant saw the work done he was in a rage, and said, + 'I've a worse job for you to-morrow; there is a tree seven miles high, + and no branch on it, till you get to the top, and there is a nest, and + you must bring down the eggs without breaking one, or else I will have + you for my supper.' At first the giant's dochter did not know how to + help Nicht Nought Nothing; but she cut off first her fingers and then + her toes, and made steps of them, and he clomb the tree, and got all + the eggs safe till he came to the bottom, and then one was broken. The + giant's dochter advised him to run away, and she would follow him. So + he travelled till he came to a king's palace, and the king and queen + took him in and were very kind to him. The giant's dochter left her + father's house, and he pursued her and was drowned. Then she came to + the king's palace where Nicht Nought Nothing was. And she went up + into a tree to watch for him. The gardener's dochter, going to draw + water in the well, saw the shadow of the lady in the water, and + thought it was herself, and said, 'If I'm so bonny, if I'm so brave, + do you send me to draw water?' The gardener's wife went out, and she + said the same thing. Then the gardener went himself, and brought the + lady from the tree, and led her in. And he told her that a stranger + was to marry the king's dochter, and showed her the man: and it was + Nicht Nought Nothing asleep in a chair. And she saw him, and cried to + him, 'Waken, waken, and speak to me!' But he would not waken, and + syne she cried, + + 'I cleaned the stable, I laved the loch, and I clamb the tree, + And all for the love of thee, + And thou wilt not waken and speak to me.' + + The king and the queen heard this, and came to the bonny young lady, + and she said, + + 'I canna get Nicht Nought Nothing to speak to me for all that I can + do.' + + Then were they greatly astonished when she spoke of Nicht Nought + Nothing, and asked where he was, and she said, 'He that sits there in + the chair.' Then they ran to him and kissed him and called him their + own dear son, and he wakened, and told them all that the giant's + dochter had done for him, and of all her kindness. Then they took her + in their arms and kissed her, and said she should now be their + dochter, for their son should marry her. + + And they lived happy all their days. + +In this variant of the story, which we may use as our text, it is to be +noticed that a lacuna exists. The narrative of the flight omits to +mention that the runaways threw things behind them which became obstacles +in the giant's way. One of these objects probably turned into a lake, in +which the giant was drowned. {92} A common incident is the throwing +behind of a comb, which changes into a thicket. The formula of leaving +obstacles behind occurs in the Indian collection, the 'Kathasarit sagara' +(vii. xxxix.). The 'Battle of the Birds,' in Campbell's 'Tales of the +West Highlands,' is a very copious Gaelic variant. Russian parallels are +'Vasilissa the Wise and the Water King,' and 'The King Bear.' {93a} The +incident of the flight and the magical obstacles is found in Japanese +mythology. {93b} The 'ugly woman of Hades' is sent to pursue the hero. +He casts down his black head-dress, and it is instantly turned into +grapes; he fled while she was eating them. Again, 'he cast down his +multitudinous and close-toothed comb, and it instantly turned into bamboo +sprouts.' In the Gaelic version, the pursuer is detained by talkative +objects which the pursued leave at home, and this marvel recurs in +Zululand, and is found among the Bushmen. The Zulu versions are +numerous. {93c} Oddly enough, in the last variant, the girl performs no +magic feat, but merely throws sesamum on the ground to delay the +cannibals, for cannibals are very fond of sesamum. {93d} + +* * * * * + +Here, then, we have the remarkable details of the flight, in Zulu, +Gaelic, Norse, Malagasy, {93e} Russian, Italian, Japanese. Of all +incidents in the myth, the incidents of the flight are most widely known. +But the whole connected series of events--the coming of the wooer; the +love of the hostile being's daughter; the tasks imposed on the wooer; the +aid rendered by the daughter; the flight of the pair; the defeat or +destruction of the hostile being--all these, or most of these, are +extant, in due sequence, among the following races. The Greeks have the +tale, the people of Madagascar have it, the Lowland Scotch, the Celts, +the Russians, the Italians, the Algonquins, the Finns, and the Samoans +have it. Now if the story were confined to the Aryan race, we might +account for its diffusion, by supposing it to be the common heritage of +the Indo-European peoples, carried everywhere with them in their +wanderings. But when the tale is found in Madagascar, North America, +Samoa, and among the Finns, while many scattered incidents occur in even +more widely severed races, such as Zulus, Bushmen, Japanese, Eskimo, +Samoyeds, the Aryan hypothesis becomes inadequate. + +To show how closely, all things considered, the Aryan and non-Aryan +possessors of the tale agree, let us first examine the myth of Jason. + +* * * * * + +The earliest literary reference to the myth of Jason is in the 'Iliad' +(vii. 467, xxiii. 747). Here we read of Euneos, a son whom Hypsipyle +bore to Jason in Lemnos. Already, even in the 'Iliad,' the legend of +Argo's voyage has been fitted into certain well-known geographical +localities. A reference in the 'Odyssey' (xii. 72) has a more antique +ring: we are told that of all barques Argo alone escaped the jaws of the +Rocks Wandering, which clashed together and destroyed ships. Argo +escaped, it is said, 'because Jason was dear to Hera.' It is plain, from +various fragmentary notices, that Hesiod was familiar with several of the +adventures in the legend of Jason. In the 'Theogony' (993-998) Hesiod +mentions the essential facts of the legend: how Jason carried off from +AEetes his daughter, 'after achieving the adventures, many and grievous,' +which were laid upon him. At what period the home of AEetes was placed +in Colchis, it is not easy to determine. Mimnermus, a contemporary of +Solon, makes the home of AEetes lie 'on the brink of ocean,' a very vague +description. {95} Pindar, on the other hand, in the splendid Fourth +Pythian Ode, already knows Colchis as the scene of the loves and flight +of Jason and Medea. + +* * * * + +'Long were it for me to go by the beaten track,' says Pindar, 'and I know +a certain short path.' Like Pindar, we may abridge the tale of Jason. He +seeks the golden fleece in Colchis: AEetes offers it to him as a prize +for success in certain labours. By the aid of Medea, the daughter of +AEetes, the wizard-king, Jason tames the fire-breathing oxen, yokes them +to the plough, and drives a furrow. By Medea's help he conquers the +children of the teeth of the dragon, subdues the snake that guards the +fleece of gold, and escapes, but is pursued by AEetes. To detain AEetes, +Medea throws behind the mangled remains of her own brother, Apsyrtos, and +the Colchians pursue no further than the scene of this bloody deed. The +savagery of this act survives even in the work of a poet so late as +Apollonius Rhodius (iv. 477), where we read how Jason performed a rite of +savage magic, mutilating the body of Apsyrtos in a manner which was +believed to appease the avenging ghost of the slain. 'Thrice he tasted +the blood, thrice spat it out between his teeth,' a passage which the +Scholiast says contains the description of an archaic custom popular +among murderers. + +Beyond Tomi, where a popular etymology fixed the 'cutting up' of +Apsyrtos, we need not follow the fortunes of Jason and Medea. We have +already seen the wooer come to the hostile being, win his daughter's +love, achieve the adventures by her aid, and flee in her company, +delaying, by a horrible device, the advance of the pursuers. To these +incidents in the tale we confine our attention. + +Many explanations of the Jason myth have been given by Scholars who +thought they recognised elemental phenomena in the characters. As usual +these explanations differ widely. Whenever a myth has to be interpreted, +it is certain that one set of Scholars will discover the sun and the +dawn, where another set will see the thunder-cloud and lightning. The +moon is thrown in at pleasure. Sir G. W. Cox determines {96} 'that the +name Jason (Iason) must be classed with the many others, Iasion, Iamus, +Iolaus, Iaso, belonging to the same root.' Well, what is the root? +Apparently the root is 'the root i, as denoting a crying colour, that is, +a loud colour' (ii. 81). Seemingly (i. 229) violet is a loud colour, +and, wherever you have the root i, you have 'the violet-tinted morning +from which the sun is born.' Medea is 'the daughter of the sun,' and +most likely, in her 'beneficent aspect,' is the dawn. But (ii. 81, note) +ios has another meaning, 'which, as a spear, represents the far-darting +ray of the sun'; so that, in one way or another, Jason is connected with +the violet-tinted morning or with the sun's rays. This is the gist of +the theory of Sir George Cox. + +Preller {97a} is another Scholar, with another set of etymologies. Jason +is derived, he thinks, from [Greek], to heal, because Jason studied +medicine under the Centaur Chiron. This is the view of the Scholiast on +Apollonius Rhodius (i. 554). Jason, to Preller's mind, is a form of +Asclepius, 'a spirit of the spring with its soft suns and fertile rains.' +Medea is the moon. Medea, on the other hand, is a lightning goddess, in +the opinion of Schwartz. {97b} No philological reason is offered. +Meanwhile, in Sir George Cox's system, the equivalent of Medea, 'in her +beneficent aspect,' is the dawn. + +We must suppose, it seems, that either the soft spring rains and the +moon, or the dawn and the sun, or the lightning and the thunder-cloud, in +one arrangement or another, irresistibly suggested, to early Aryan minds, +the picture of a wooer, arriving in a hostile home, winning a maiden's +love, achieving adventures by her aid, fleeing with her from her angry +father and delaying his pursuit by various devices. Why the spring, the +moon, the lightning, the dawn--any of them or all of them--should have +suggested such a tale, let Scholars determine when they have reconciled +their own differences. It is more to our purpose to follow the myth +among Samoans, Algonquins, and Finns. None of these races speak an Aryan +language, and none can have been beguiled into telling the same sort of +tale by a disease of Aryan speech. + +Samoa, where we find our story, is the name of a group of volcanic +islands in Central Polynesia. They are about 3,000 miles from Sidney, +were first observed by Europeans in 1722, and are as far removed as most +spots from direct Aryan influences. Our position is, however, that in +the shiftings and migrations of peoples, the Jason tale has somehow been +swept, like a piece of drift-wood, on to the coasts of Samoa. In the +islands, the tale has an epical form, and is chanted in a poem of twenty- +six stanzas. There is something Greek in the free and happy life of the +Samoans--something Greek, too, in this myth of theirs. There was once a +youth, Siati, famous for his singing, a young Thamyris of Samoa. But as, +according to Homer, 'the Muses met Thamyris the Thracian, and made an end +of his singing, for he boasted and said that he would vanquish even the +Muses if he sang against them,' so did the Samoan god of song envy Siati. +The god and the mortal sang a match: the daughter of the god was to be +the mortal's prize if he proved victorious. Siati won, and he set off, +riding on a shark, as Arion rode the dolphin, to seek the home of the +defeated deity. At length he reached the shores divine, and thither +strayed Puapae, daughter of the god, looking for her comb which she had +lost. 'Siati,' said she, 'how camest thou hither?' 'I am come to seek +the song-god, and to wed his daughter.' 'My father,' said the maiden, +'is more a god than a man; eat nothing he hands you, never sit on a high +seat, lest death follow.' So they were united in marriage. But the god, +like AEetes, was wroth, and began to set Siati upon perilous tasks: +'Build me a house, and let it be finished this very day, else death and +the oven await thee.' {99a} + +Siati wept, but the god's daughter had the house built by the evening. +The other adventures were to fight a fierce dog, and to find a ring lost +at sea. Just as the Scotch giant's daughter cut off her fingers to help +her lover, so the Samoan god's daughter bade Siati cut her body into +pieces and cast her into the sea. There she became a fish, and recovered +the ring. They set off to the god's house, but met him pursuing them, +with the help of his other daughter. 'Puapae and Siati threw down the +comb, and it became a bush of thorns in the way to intercept the god and +Puanli,' the other daughter. Next they threw down a bottle of earth +which became a mountain; 'and then followed their bottle of water, and +that became a sea, and drowned the god and Puanli.' {99b} + +This old Samoan song contains nearly the closest savage parallel to the +various household tales which find their heroic and artistic shape in the +Jason saga. Still more surprising in its resemblances is the Malagasy +version of the narrative. In the Malagasy story, the conclusion is +almost identical with the winding up of the Scotch fairy tale. The girl +hides in a tree; her face, seen reflected in a well, is mistaken by women +for their own faces, and the recognition follows in due course. {99c} + +Like most Red Indian versions of popular tales, the Algonquin form of the +Jason saga is strongly marked with the peculiarities of the race. The +story is recognisable, and that is all. + +The opening, as usual, differs from other openings. Two children are +deserted in the wilderness, and grow up to manhood. One of them loses an +arrow in the water; the elder brother, Panigwun, wades after it. A +magical canoe flies past: an old magician, who is alone in the canoe, +seizes Panigwun and carries him off. The canoe fleets along, like the +barques of the Phaeacians, at the will of the magician, and reaches the +isle where, like the Samoan god of song, he dwells with his two +daughters. 'Here, my daughter,' said he, 'is a young man for your +husband.' But the daughter knew that the proposed husband was but +another victim of the old man's magic arts. By the daughter's advice, +Panigwun escaped in the magic barque, consoled his brother, and returned +to the island. Next day the magician, Mishosha, set the young man to +hard tasks and perilous adventures. He was to gather gulls' eggs; but +the gulls attacked him in dense crowds. By an incantation he subdued the +birds, and made them carry him home to the island. Next day he was sent +to gather pebbles, that he might be attacked and eaten by the king of the +fishes. Once more the young man, like the Finnish Ilmarinen in Pohjola, +subdued the mighty fish, and went back triumphant. The third adventure, +as in 'Nicht Nought Nothing,' was to climb a tree of extraordinary height +in search of a bird's nest. Here, again, the youth succeeded, and +finally conspired with the daughters to slay the old magician. Lastly +the boy turned the magician into a sycamore tree, and won his daughter. +The other daughter was given to the brother who had no share in the +perils. {101} Here we miss the incident of the flight; and the +magician's daughter, though in love with the hero, does not aid him to +perform the feats. Perhaps an Algonquin brave would scorn the assistance +of a girl. In the 'Kalevala,' the old hero, Wainamoinen, and his friend +Ilmarinen, set off to the mysterious and hostile land of Pohjola to win a +bride. The maiden of Pohjola loses her heart to Ilmarinen, and, by her +aid, he bridles the wolf and bear, ploughs a field of adders with a +plough of gold, and conquers the gigantic pike that swims in the Styx of +Finnish mythology. After this point the story is interrupted by a long +sequel of popular bridal songs, and, in the wandering course of the +rather aimless epic, the flight and its incidents have been forgotten, or +are neglected. These incidents recur, however, in the thread of somewhat +different plots. We have seen that they are found in Japan, among the +Eskimo, among the Bushmen, the Samoyeds, and the Zulus, as well as in +Hungarian, Magyar, Celtic, and other European household tales. + +The conclusion appears to be that the central part of the Jason myth is +incapable of being explained, either as a nature-myth, or as a myth +founded on a disease of language. So many languages could not take the +same malady in the same way; nor can we imagine any series of natural +phenomena that would inevitably suggest this tale to so many diverse +races. + +We must suppose, therefore, either that all wits jumped and invented the +same romantic series of situations by accident, or that all men spread +from one centre, where the story was known, or that the story, once +invented, has drifted all round the world. If the last theory be +approved of, the tale will be like the Indian Ocean shell found lately in +the Polish bone-cave, {102a} or like the Egyptian beads discovered in the +soil of Dahomey. The story will have been carried hither and thither, in +the remotest times, to the remotest shores, by traders, by slaves, by +captives in war, or by women torn from their own tribe and forcibly +settled as wives among alien peoples. + +Stories of this kind are everywhere the natural property of mothers and +grandmothers. When we remember how widely diffused is the law of +exogamy, which forbids marriage between a man and woman of the same +stock, we are impressed by the number of alien elements which must have +been introduced with alien wives. Where husband and wife, as often +happened, spoke different languages, the woman would inevitably bring the +hearthside tales of her childhood among a people of strange speech. By +all these agencies, working through dateless time, we may account for the +diffusion, if we cannot explain the origin, of tales like the central +arrangement of incidents in the career of Jason. {102b} + + + + +APOLLO AND THE MOUSE. + + +Why is Apollo, especially the Apollo of the Troad, he who showered the +darts of pestilence among the Greeks, so constantly associated with a +mouse? The very name, Smintheus, by which his favourite priest calls on +him in the 'Iliad' (i. 39), might be rendered 'Mouse Apollo,' or 'Apollo, +Lord of Mice.' As we shall see later, mice lived beneath the altar, and +were fed in the holy of holies of the god, and an image of a mouse was +placed beside or upon his sacred tripod. The ancients were puzzled by +these things, and, as will be shown, accounted for them by +'mouse-stories,' [Greek], so styled by Eustathius, the mediaeval +interpreter of Homer. Following our usual method, let us ask whether +similar phenomena occur elsewhere, in countries where they are +intelligible. Did insignificant animals elsewhere receive worship: were +their effigies elsewhere placed in the temples of a purer creed? We find +answers in the history of Peruvian religion. + +After the Spanish conquest of Peru, one of the European adventurers, Don +Garcilasso de la Vega, married an Inca princess. Their son, also named +Garcilasso, was born about 1540. His famous book, 'Commentarias Reales,' +contains the most authentic account of the old Peruvian beliefs. +Garcilasso was learned in all the learning of the Europeans, and, as an +Inca on the mother's side, had claims on the loyalty of the defeated +race. He set himself diligently to collect both their priestly and +popular traditions, and his account of them is the more trustworthy as it +coincides with what we know to have been true in lands with which +Garcilasso had little acquaintance. + +* * * * * + +To Garcilasso's mind, Peruvian religion seems to be divided into two +periods--the age before, and the age which followed the accession of the +Incas, and their establishment of sun-worship as the creed of the State. +In the earlier period, the pre-Inca period, he tells us 'an Indian was +not accounted honourable unless he was descended from a fountain, river, +or lake, or even from the sea, or from a wild animal, such as a bear, +lion, tiger, eagle, or the bird they call cuntur (condor), or some other +bird of prey.' {104a} To these worshipful creatures 'men offered what +they usually saw them eat' (i. 53). But men were not content to adore +large and dangerous animals. 'There was not an animal, how vile and +filthy soever, that they did not worship as a god,' including 'lizards, +toads, and frogs.' In the midst of these superstitions the Incas +appeared. Just as the tribes claimed descent from animals, great or +small, so the Incas drew _their_ pedigree from the sun, which they adored +like the gens of the Aurelii in Rome. {104b} Thus every Indian had his +pacarissa, or, as the North American Indians say, totem, {105a} a natural +object from which he claimed descent, and which, in a certain degree, he +worshipped. Though sun-worship became the established religion, worship +of the animal pacarissas was still tolerated. The sun-temples also +contained huacas, or images, of the beasts which the Indians had +venerated. {105b} In the great temple of Pachacamac, the most spiritual +and abstract god of Peruvian faith, 'they worshipped a she-fox and an +emerald. The devil also appeared to them, and spoke in the form of a +tiger, very fierce.' {105c} This toleration of an older and cruder, in +subordination to a purer, faith is a very common feature in religious +evolution. In Catholic countries, to this day, we may watch, in Holy +Week, the Adonis feast described by Theocritus, {105d} and the procession +and entombment of the old god of spring. + +'The Incas had the good policy to collect all the tribal animal gods into +their temples in and round Cuzco, in which the two leading gods were the +Master of Life, and the Sun.' Did a process of this sort ever occur in +Greek religion, and were older animal gods ever collected into the +temples of such deities as Apollo? + +* * * * * + +While a great deal of scattered evidence about many animals consecrated +to Greek gods points in this direction, it will be enough, for the +present, to examine the case of the Sacred Mice. Among races which are +still in the totemistic stage, which still claim descent from animals and +from other objects, a peculiar marriage law generally exists, or can be +shown to have existed. No man may marry a woman who is descended from +the same ancestral animal, and who bears the same totem-name, and carries +the same badge or family crest, as himself. A man descended from the +Crane, and whose family name is Crane, cannot marry a woman whose family +name is Crane. He must marry a woman of the Wolf, or Turtle, or Swan, or +other name, and her children keep her family title, not his. Thus, if a +Crane man marries a Swan woman, the children are Swans, and none of them +may marry a Swan; they must marry Turtles, Wolves, or what not, and +_their_ children, again, are Turtles, or Wolves. Thus there is +necessarily an eternal come and go of all the animal names known in a +district. As civilisation advances these rules grow obsolete. People +take their names from the father, as among ourselves. Finally the +dwellers in a given district, having become united into a local tribe, +are apt to drop the various animal titles and to adopt, as the name of +the whole tribe, the name of the chief, or of the predominating family. +Let us imagine a district of some twenty miles in which there are Crane, +Wolf, Turtle, and Swan families. Long residence together, and common +interests, have welded them into a local tribe. The chief is of the Wolf +family, and the tribe, sinking family differences and family names, calls +itself 'the Wolves.' Such tribes were probably, in the beginning, the +inhabitants of the various Egyptian towns which severally worshipped the +wolf, or the sheep, or the crocodile, and abstained religiously (except +on certain sacrificial occasions) from the flesh of the animal that gave +them its name. {107} + +* * * * * + +It has taken us long to reach the Sacred Mice of Greek religion, but we +are now in a position to approach their august divinity. We have seen +that the sun-worship superseded, without abolishing, the tribal +pacarissas in Peru, and that the huacas, or images, of the sacred animals +were admitted under the roof of the temple of the Sun. Now it is +recognised that the temples of the Sminthian Apollo contained images of +sacred mice among other animals, and our argument is that here, perhaps, +we have another example of the Peruvian religious evolution. Just as, in +Peru, the tribes adored 'vile and filthy' animals, just as the solar +worship of the Incas subordinated these, just as the huacas of the beasts +remained in the temples of the Peruvian Sun; so, we believe, the tribes +along the Mediterranean coasts had, at some very remote prehistoric +period, their animal pacarissas; these were subordinated to the religion +(to some extent solar) of Apollo; and the huacas, or animal idols, +survived in Apollo's temples. + +* * * * * + +If this theory be correct, we shall probably find the mouse, for example, +revered as a sacred animal in many places. This would necessarily +follow, if the marriage customs which we have described ever prevailed on +Greek soil, and scattered the mouse-name far and wide. {108a} Traces of +the Mouse families, and of adoration, if adoration there was of the +mouse, would linger on in the following shapes:--(1) Places would be +named from mice, and mice would be actually held sacred in themselves. +(2) The mouse-name would be given locally to the god who superseded the +mouse. (3) The figure of the mouse would be associated with the god, and +used as a badge, or a kind of crest, or local mark, in places where the +mouse has been a venerated animal. (4) Finally, myths would be told to +account for the sacredness of a creature so undignified. + +Let us take these considerations in their order:-- + +(1) If there were local mice tribes, deriving their name from the +worshipful mouse, certain towns settled by these tribes would retain a +reverence for mice. + +In Chrysa, a town of the Troad, according to Heraclides Ponticus, mice +were held sacred, the local name for mouse being [Greek]. Many places +bore this mouse-name, according to Strabo. {108b} This is precisely what +would have occurred had the Mouse totem, and the Mouse stock, been widely +distributed. {108c} The Scholiast {109a} mentions Sminthus as a place in +the Troad. Strabo speaks of two places deriving their name from +Sminthus, or mouse, near the Sminthian temple, and others near Larissa. +In Rhodes and Lindus, the mouse place-name recurs, 'and in many other +districts' ([Greek]). Strabo (x. 486) names Caressus, and Poeessa, in +Ceos, among the other places which had Sminthian temples, and, +presumably, were once centres of tribes named after the mouse. + +Here, then, are a number of localities in which the Mouse Apollo was +adored, and where the old mouse-name lingered. That the mice were +actually held sacred in their proper persons we learn from AElian. 'The +dwellers in Hamaxitus of the Troad worship mice,' says AElian. 'In the +temple of Apollo Smintheus, mice are nourished, and food is offered to +them, at the public expense, and white mice dwell beneath the altar.' +{109b} In the same way we found that the Peruvians fed their sacred +beasts on what they usually saw them eat. + +(2) The second point in our argument has already been sufficiently +demonstrated. The mouse-name 'Smintheus' was given to Apollo in all the +places mentioned by Strabo, 'and many others.' + +(3) The figure of the mouse will be associated with the god, and used as +a badge, or crest, or local mark, in places where the mouse has been a +venerated animal. + +The passage already quoted from AElian informs us that there stood 'an +effigy of the mouse beside the tripod of Apollo.' In Chrysa, according +to Strabo (xiii. 604), the statue of Apollo Smintheus had a mouse beneath +his foot. The mouse on the tripod of Apollo is represented on a +bas-relief illustrating the plague, and the offerings of the Greeks to +Apollo Smintheus, as described in the first book of the 'Iliad.' {110a} + +* * * * * + +The mouse is a not uncommon local badge or crest in Greece. The animals +whose figures are stamped on coins, like the Athenian owl, are the most +ancient marks of cities. It is a plausible conjecture that, just as the +Iroquois when they signed treaties with the Europeans used their +totems--bear, wolf, and turtle--as seals, {110b} so the animals on +archaic Greek city coins represented crests or badges which, at some far +more remote period, had been totems. + +The Argives, according to Pollux, {110c} stamped the mouse on their +coins. {110d} As there was a temple of Apollo Smintheus in Tenedos, we +naturally hear of a mouse on the coins of the island. {111a} Golzio has +published one of these mouse coins. The people of Metapontum stamped +their money with a mouse gnawing an ear of corn. The people of Cumae +employed a mouse dormant. Paoli fancied that certain mice on Roman +medals might be connected with the family of Mus, but this is rather +guesswork. {111b} + +We have now shown traces, at least, of various ways in which an early +tribal religion of the mouse--the mouse pacarissa, as the Peruvians +said--may have been perpetuated. When we consider that the superseding +of the mouse by Apollo must have occurred, if it did occur, long before +Homer, we may rather wonder that the mouse left his mark on Greek +religion so long. We have seen mice revered, a god with a mouse-name, +the mouse-name recurring in many places, the huaca, or idol, of the mouse +preserved in the temples of the god, and the mouse-badge used in several +widely severed localities. It remains (4) to examine the myths about +mice. These, in our opinion, were probably told to account for the +presence of the huaca of the mouse in temples, and for the occurrence of +the animal in religion, and his connection with Apollo. + +A singular mouse-myth, narrated by Herodotus, is worth examining for +reasons which will appear later, though the events are said to have +happened on Egyptian soil. {111c} According to Herodotus, one Sethos, a +priest of Hephaestus (Ptah), was king of Egypt. He had disgraced the +military class, and he found himself without an army when Sennacherib +invaded his country. Sethos fell asleep in the temple, and the god, +appearing to him in a vision, told him that divine succour would come to +the Egyptians. {112a} In the night before the battle, field-mice gnawed +the quivers and shield-handles of the foe, who fled on finding themselves +thus disarmed. 'And now,' says Herodotus, 'there standeth a stone image +of this king in the temple of Hephaestus, and in the hand of the image a +mouse, and there is this inscription, "Let whoso looketh on me be +pious."' + +Prof. Sayce {112b} holds that there was no such person as Sethos, but +that the legend 'is evidently Egyptian, not Greek, and the name of +Sennacherib, as well as the fact of the Assyrian attack, is correct.' The +legend also, though Egyptian, is 'an echo of the biblical account of the +destruction of the Assyrian army,' an account which omits the mice. 'As +to the mice, here,' says Prof. Sayce, 'we have to do again with the Greek +dragomen (sic). The story of Sethos was attached to the statue of some +deity which was supposed to hold a mouse in its hand.' It must have been +easy to verify this supposition; but Mr. Sayce adds, 'mice were not +sacred in Egypt, nor were they used as symbols, or found on the +monuments.' To this remark we may suggest some exceptions. Apparently +this one mouse _was_ found on the monuments. Wilkinson (iii. 264) says +mice do occur in the sculptures, but they were not sacred. Rats, +however, were certainly sacred, and as little distinction is taken, in +myth, between rats and mice as between rabbits and hares. The rat was +sacred to Ra, the Sun-god, and (like all totems) was not to be eaten. +{113a} This association of the rat and the Sun cannot but remind us of +Apollo and his mouse. According to Strabo, a certain city of Egypt did +worship the shrew-mouse. The Athribitae, or dwellers in Crocodilopolis, +are the people to whom he attributes this cult, which he mentions (xvii. +813) among the other local animal-worships of Egypt. {113b} Several +porcelain examples of the field-mouse sacred to Horus (commonly called +Apollo by the Greeks) may be seen in the British Museum. + +That rats and field-mice were sacred in Egypt, then, we may believe on +the evidence of the Ritual, of Strabo, and of many relics of Egyptian +art. Herodotus, moreover, is credited when he says that the statue 'had +a mouse on its hand.' Elsewhere, it is certain that the story of mice +gnawing the bowstrings occurs frequently as an explanation of +mouse-worship. One of the Trojan 'mouse-stories' ran--That emigrants had +set out in prehistoric times from Crete. The oracle advised them to +settle 'wherever they were attacked by the children of the soil.' At +Hamaxitus in the Troad, they were assailed in the night by mice, which +ate all that was edible of their armour and bowstrings. The colonists +made up their mind that these mice were 'the children of the soil,' +settled there, and adored the mouse Apollo. {114a} A myth of this sort +may either be a story invented to explain the mouse-name; or a Mouse +tribe, like the Red Indian Wolves, or Crows, may actually have been +settled on the spot, and may even have resisted invasion. {114b} Another +myth of the Troad accounted for the worship of the mouse Apollo on the +hypothesis that he had once freed the land from mice, like the Pied Piper +of Hamelin, whose pipe (still serviceable) is said to have been found in +his grave by men who were digging a mine. {114c} + +Stories like these, stories attributing some great deliverance to the +mouse, or some deliverance from mice to the god, would naturally spring +up among people puzzled by their own worship of the mouse-god or of the +mouse. We have explained the religious character of mice as the relics +of a past age in which the mouse had been a totem and mouse family names +had been widely diffused. That there are, and have been, mice totems and +mouse family names among Semitic stocks round the Mediterranean is proved +by Prof. Robertson Smith: {115a} 'Achbor, the mouse, is an Edomite name, +apparently a stock name, as the jerboa and another mouse-name are among +the Arabs. The same name occurs in Judah.' Where totemism exists, the +members of each stock either do not eat the ancestral animal at all, or +only eat him on rare sacrificial occasions. The totem of a hostile stock +may be eaten by way of insult. In the case of the mouse, Isaiah seems to +refer to one or other of these practices (lxvi.): 'They that sanctify +themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the +midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the _mouse_, shall +be consumed together, saith the Lord.' This is like the Egyptian +prohibition to eat 'the abominable' (that is, tabooed or forbidden) 'Rat +of Ra.' If the unclean animals of Israel were originally the totems of +each clan, then the mouse was a totem, {115b} for the chosen people were +forbidden to eat 'the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his +kind.' That unclean beasts, beasts not to be eaten, were originally +totems, Prof. Robertson Smith infers from Ezekiel (viii. 10, 11), where +'we find seventy of the elders of Israel--that is, the heads of +houses--worshipping in a chamber which had on its walls the figures of +all manner of unclean' (tabooed) 'creeping things, and quadrupeds, _even +all the idols of the House of Israel_.' Some have too hastily concluded +that the mouse was a sacred animal among the neighbouring Philistines. +After the Philistines had captured the Ark and set it in the house of +Dagon, the people were smitten with disease. They therefore, in +accordance with a well-known savage magical practice, made five golden +representations of the diseased part, and five golden mice, as 'a +trespass offering to the Lord of Israel,' and so restored the Ark. {116} +Such votive offerings are common still in Catholic countries, and the +mice of gold by no means prove that the Philistines had ever worshipped +mice. + +* * * * * + +Turning to India from the Mediterranean basin, and the Aryan, Semitic, +and Egyptian tribes on its coasts, we find that the mouse was the sacred +animal of Rudra. 'The mouse, Rudra, is thy beast,' says the Yajur Veda, +as rendered by Grohmann in his 'Apollo Smintheus.' Grohmann recognises +in Rudra a deity with most of the characteristics of Apollo. In later +Indian mythology, the mouse is an attribute of Ganeca, who, like Apollo +Smintheus, is represented in art with his foot upon a mouse. + +Such are the chief appearances of the mouse in ancient religion. If he +really was a Semitic totem, it may, perhaps, be argued that his +prevalence in connection with Apollo is the result of a Semitic leaven in +Hellenism. Hellenic invaders may have found Semitic mouse-tribes at +home, and incorporated the alien stock deity with their own +Apollo-worship. In that case the mouse, while still originally a totem, +would not be an Aryan totem. But probably the myths and rites of the +mouse, and their diffusion, are more plausibly explained on our theory +than on that of De Gubernatis: 'The Pagan sun-god crushes under his foot +the Mouse of Night. When the cat's away, the mice may play; the shadows +of night dance when the moon is absent.' {117a} This is one of the +quaintest pieces of mythological logic. Obviously, when the cat (the +moon) is away, the mice (the shadows) _cannot_ play: there is no light to +produce a shadow. As usually chances, the scholars who try to resolve +all the features of myth into physical phenomena do not agree among +themselves about the mouse. While the mouse is the night, according to +M. de Gubernatis, in Grohmann's opinion the mouse is the lightning. He +argues that the lightning was originally regarded by the Aryan race as +the 'flashing tooth of a beast,' especially of a mouse. Afterwards men +came to identify the beast with his teeth, and, behold, the lightning and +the mouse are convertible mythical terms! Now it is perfectly true that +savages regard many elemental phenomena, from eclipses to the rainbow, as +the result of the action of animals. The rainbow is a serpent; {117b} +thunder is caused by the thunder-bird, who has actually been shot in +Dacotah, and who is familiar to the Zulus; while rain is the milk of a +heavenly cow--an idea recurring in the 'Zend Avesta.' But it does not +follow because savages believe in these meteorological beasts that all +the beasts in myth were originally meteorological. Man raised a serpent +to the skies, perhaps, but his interest in the animal began on earth, not +in the clouds. It is excessively improbable, and quite unproved, that +any race ever regarded lightning as the flashes of a mouse's teeth. The +hypothesis is a jeu d'esprit, like the opposite hypothesis about the +mouse of Night. In these, and all the other current theories of the +Sminthian Apollo, the widely diffused worship of ordinary mice, and such +small deer, has been either wholly neglected, or explained by the first +theory of symbolism that occurred to the conjecture of a civilised +observer. The facts of savage animal-worship, and their relations to +totemism, seem still unknown to or unappreciated by scholars, with the +exception of Mr. Sayce, who recognises totemism as the origin of the +zoomorphic element in Egyptian religion. + +Our explanation, whether adequate or not, is not founded on an isolated +case. If Apollo superseded and absorbed the worship of the mouse, he did +no less for the wolf, the ram, the dolphin, and several other animals +whose images were associated with his own. The Greek religion was more +refined and anthropomorphic than that of Egypt. In Egypt the animals +were still adored, and the images of the gods had bestial heads. In +Greece only a few gods, and chiefly in very archaic statues, had bestial +heads; but beside the other deities the sculptor set the owl, eagle, +wolf, serpent, tortoise, mouse, or whatever creature was the local +favourite of the deity. {118a} Probably the deity had, in the majority +of cases, superseded the animal and succeeded to his honours. But the +conservative religious sentiment retained the beast within the courts and +in the suit and service of the anthropomorphic god. {118b} + +The process by which the god ousted the beasts may perhaps be observed in +Samoa. There (as Dr. Turner tells us in his 'Samoa') each family has its +own sacred animal, which it may not eat. If this law be transgressed, +the malefactor is supernaturally punished in a variety of ways. But, +while each family has thus its totem, four or five different families +recognise, in owl, crab, lizard, and so on, incarnations of the same god, +say of Tongo. If Tongo had a temple among these families, we can readily +believe that images of the various beasts in which he was incarnate would +be kept within the consecrated walls. Savage ideas like these, if they +were ever entertained in Greece, would account for the holy animals of +the different deities. But it is obvious that the phenomena which we +have been studying may be otherwise explained. It may be said that the +Sminthian Apollo was only revered as the enemy and opponent of mice. St. +Gertrude (whose heart was eaten by mice) has the same role in France. +{119} The worship of Apollo, and the badge of the mouse, would, on this +principle, be diffused by colonies from some centre of the faith. The +images of mice in Apollo's temples would be nothing more than votive +offerings. Thus, in the church of a Saxon town, the verger shows a +silver mouse dedicated to Our Lady. 'This is the greatest of our +treasures,' says the verger. 'Our town was overrun with mice till the +ladies of the city offered this mouse of silver. Instantly all the mice +disappeared.' 'And are you such fools as to believe that the creatures +went away because a silver mouse was dedicated?' asked a Prussian +officer. 'No,' replied the verger, rather neatly; 'or long ago we should +have offered a silver Prussian.' + + + + +STAR MYTHS. + + +Artemus Ward used to say that, while there were many things in the +science of astronomy hard to be understood, there was one fact which +entirely puzzled him. He could partly perceive how we 'weigh the sun,' +and ascertain the component elements of the heavenly bodies, by the aid +of spectrum analysis. 'But what beats me about the stars,' he observed +plaintively, 'is how we come to know their names.' This question, or +rather the somewhat similar question, 'How did the constellations come by +their very peculiar names?' has puzzled Professor Pritchard and other +astronomers more serious than Artemus Ward. Why is a group of stars +called the Bear, or the Swan, or the Twins, or named after the Pleiades, +the fair daughters of the Giant Atlas? {121} These are difficulties that +meet even children when they examine a 'celestial globe.' There they +find the figure of a bear, traced out with lines in the intervals between +the stars of the constellations, while a very imposing giant is so drawn +that Orion's belt just fits his waist. But when he comes to look at the +heavens, the infant speculator sees no sort of likeness to a bear in the +stars, nor anything at all resembling a giant in the neighbourhood of +Orion. The most eccentric modern fancy which can detect what shapes it +will in clouds, is unable to find any likeness to human or animal forms +in the stars, and yet we call a great many of the stars by the names of +men and beasts and gods. Some resemblance to terrestrial things, it is +true, everyone can behold in the heavens. Corona, for example, is like a +crown, or, as the Australian black fellows know, it is like a boomerang, +and we can understand why they give it the name of that curious curved +missile. The Milky Way, again, does resemble a path in the sky; our +English ancestors called it Watling Street--the path of the Watlings, +mythical giants--and Bushmen in Africa and Red Men in North America name +it the 'ashen path,' or 'the path of souls.' The ashes of the path, of +course, are supposed to be hot and glowing, not dead and black like the +ash-paths of modern running-grounds. Other and more recent names for +certain constellations are also intelligible. In Homer's time the Greeks +had two names for the Great Bear; they called it the Bear, or the Wain: +and a certain fanciful likeness to a wain may be made out, though no +resemblance to a bear is manifest. In the United States the same +constellation is popularly styled the Dipper, and every one may observe +the likeness to a dipper or toddy-ladle. + +But these resemblances take us only a little way towards appellations. We +know that we derive many of the names straight from the Greek; but whence +did the Greeks get them? Some, it is said, from the Chaldaeans; but +whence did they reach the Chaldaeans? To this we shall return later, +but, as to early Greek star-lore, Goguet, the author of 'L'Origine des +Lois,' a rather learned but too speculative work of the last century, +makes the following characteristic remarks: 'The Greeks received their +astronomy from Prometheus. This prince, as far as history teaches us, +made his observations on Mount Caucasus.' That was the eighteenth +century's method of interpreting mythology. The myth preserved in the +'Prometheus Bound' of AEschylus tells us that Zeus crucified the Titan on +Mount Caucasus. The French philosopher, rejecting the supernatural +elements of the tale, makes up his mind that Prometheus was a prince of a +scientific bent, and that he established his observatory on the frosty +Caucasus. But, even admitting this, why did Prometheus give the stars +animal names? Goguet easily explains this by a hypothetical account of +the manners of primitive men. 'The earliest peoples,' he says, 'must +have used writing for purposes of astronomical science. They would be +content to design the constellations of which they wished to speak by the +hieroglyphical symbols of their names; hence the constellations have +insensibly taken the names of the chief symbols.' Thus, a drawing of a +bear or a swan was the hieroglyphic of the name of a star, or group of +stars. But whence came the name which was represented by the +hieroglyphic? That is precisely what our author forgets to tell us. But +he remarks that the meaning of the hieroglyphic came to be forgotten, and +'the symbols gave rise to all the ridiculous tales about the heavenly +signs.' This explanation is attained by the process of reasoning in a +vicious circle from hypothetical premises ascertained to be false. All +the known savages of the world, even those which have scarcely the +elements of picture-writing, call the constellations by the names of men +and animals, and all tell 'ridiculous tales' to account for the names. + +As the star-stories told by the Greeks, the ancient Egyptians, and other +civilised people of the old world, exactly correspond in character, and +sometimes even in incident, with the star-stories of modern savages, we +have the choice of three hypotheses to explain this curious coincidence. +Perhaps the star-stories, about nymphs changed into bears, and bears +changed into stars, were invented by the civilised races of old, and +gradually found their way amongst people like the Eskimo, and the +Australians, and Bushmen. Or it may be insisted that the ancestors of +Australians, Eskimo, and Bushmen were once civilised, like the Greeks and +Egyptians, and invented star-stories, still remembered by their +degenerate descendants. These are the two forms of the explanation which +will be advanced by persons who believe that the star-stories were +originally the fruit of the civilised imagination. The third theory +would be, that the 'ridiculous tales' about the stars were originally the +work of the savage imagination, and that the Greeks, Chaldaeans, and +Egyptians, when they became civilised, retained the old myths that their +ancestors had invented when they were savages. In favour of this theory +it may be said, briefly, that there is no proof that the fathers of +Australians, Eskimo, and Bushmen had ever been civilised, while there is +a great deal of evidence to suggest that the fathers of the Greeks had +once been savages. {125} And, if we incline to the theory that the star- +myths are the creation of savage fancy, we at once learn why they are, in +all parts of the world, so much alike. Just as the flint and bone +weapons of rude races resemble each other much more than they resemble +the metal weapons and the artillery of advanced peoples, so the mental +products, the fairy tales, and myths of rude races have everywhere a +strong family resemblance. They are produced by men in similar mental +conditions of ignorance, curiosity, and credulous fancy, and they are +intended to supply the same needs, partly of amusing narrative, partly of +crude explanation of familiar phenomena. + +Now it is time to prove the truth of our assertion that the star-stories +of savage and of civilised races closely resemble each other. Let us +begin with that well-known group the Pleiades. The peculiarity of the +Pleiades is that the group consists of seven stars, of which one is so +dim that it seems entirely to disappear, and many persons can only detect +its presence through a telescope. The Greeks had a myth to account for +the vanishing of the lost Pleiad. The tale is given in the +'Catasterismoi' (stories of metamorphoses into stars) attributed to +Eratosthenes. This work was probably written after our era; but the +author derived his information from older treatises now lost. According +to the Greek myth, then, the seven stars of the Pleiad were seven +maidens, daughters of the Giant Atlas. Six of them had gods for lovers; +Poseidon admired two of them, Zeus three, and Ares one; but the seventh +had only an earthly wooer, and when all of them were changed into stars, +the maiden with the mortal lover hid her light for shame. + +Now let us compare the Australian story. According to Mr. Dawson +('Australian Aborigines'), a writer who understands the natives well, +'their knowledge of the heavenly bodies greatly exceeds that of most +white people,' and 'is taught by men selected for their intelligence and +information. The knowledge is important to the aborigines on their night +journeys;' so we may be sure that the natives are careful observers of +the heavens, and are likely to be conservative of their astronomical +myths. The 'Lost Pleiad' has not escaped them, and this is how they +account for her disappearance. The Pirt Kopan noot tribe have a +tradition that the Pleiades were a queen and her six attendants. Long +ago the Crow (our Canopus) fell in love with the queen, who refused to be +his wife. The Crow found that the queen and her six maidens, like other +Australian gins, were in the habit of hunting for white edible grubs in +the bark of trees. The Crow at once changed himself into a grub (just as +Jupiter and Indra used to change into swans, horses, ants, or what not) +and hid in the bark of a tree. The six maidens sought to pick him out +with their wooden hooks, but he broke the points of all the hooks. Then +came the queen, with her pretty bone hook; he let himself be drawn out, +took the shape of a giant, and ran away with her. Ever since there have +only been six stars, the six maidens, in the Pleiad. This story is well +known, by the strictest inquiry, to be current among the blacks of the +West District and in South Australia. + +Mr. Tylor, whose opinion is entitled to the highest respect, thinks that +this may be a European myth, told by some settler to a black in the Greek +form, and then spread about among the natives. He complains that the +story of the loss of the _brightest_ star does not fit the facts of the +case. + +We do not know, and how can the Australians know, that the lost star was +once the brightest? It appears to me that the Australians, remarking the +disappearances of a star, might very naturally suppose that the _Crow_ +had selected for his wife that one which had been the most brilliant of +the cluster. Besides, the wide distribution of the tale among the +natives, and the very great change in the nature of the incidents, seem +to point to a native origin. Though the main conception--the loss of one +out of seven maidens--is identical in Greek and in Murri, the manner of +the disappearance is eminently Hellenic in the one case, eminently savage +in the other. However this may be, nothing of course is proved by a +single example. Let us next examine the stars Castor and Pollux. Both +in Greece and in Australia these are said once to have been two young +men. In the 'Catasterismoi,' already spoken of, we read: 'The Twins, or +Dioscouroi.--They were nurtured in Lacedaemon, and were famous for their +brotherly love, wherefore, Zeus, desiring to make their memory immortal, +placed them both among the stars.' In Australia, according to Mr. Brough +Smyth ('Aborigines of Victoria'), Turree (Castor) and Wanjel (Pollux) are +two young men who pursue Purra and kill him at the commencement of the +great heat. Coonar toorung (the mirage) is the smoke of the fire by +which they roast him. In Greece it was not Castor and Pollux, but Orion +who was the great hunter placed among the stars. Among the Bushmen of +South Africa, Castor and Pollux are not young men, but young women, the +wives of the Eland, the great native antelope. In Greek star-stories the +Great Bear keeps watch, Homer says, on the hunter Orion for fear of a +sudden attack. But how did the Bear get its name in Greece? According +to Hesiod, the oldest Greek poet after Homer, the Bear was once a lady, +daughter of Lycaon, King of Arcadia. She was a nymph of the train of +chaste Artemis, but yielded to the love of Zeus, and became the +ancestress of all the Arcadians (that is, Bear-folk). In her bestial +form she was just about to be slain by her own son when Zeus rescued her +by raising her to the stars. Here we must notice first, that the +Arcadians, like Australians, Red Indians, Bushmen, and many other wild +races, and like the Bedouins, believed themselves to be descended from an +animal. That the early Egyptians did the same is not improbable; for +names of animals are found among the ancestors in the very oldest +genealogical papyrus, {128} as in the genealogies of the old English +kings. Next the Arcadians transferred the ancestral bear to the heavens, +and, in doing this, they resembled the Peruvians, of whom Acosta says: +'They adored the star Urchuchilly, feigning it to be a Ram, and +worshipped two others, and say that one of them is a _sheep_, and the +other a lamb . . . others worshipped the star called the Tiger. _They +were of opinion that there was not any beast or bird upon the earth, +whose shape or image did not shine in the heavens_.' + +But to return to our bears. The Australians have, properly speaking, no +bears, though the animal called the native bear is looked up to by the +aborigines with superstitious regard. But among the North American +Indians, as the old missionaries Lafitau and Charlevoix observed, 'the +four stars in front of our constellation are a bear; those in the tail +are hunters who pursue him; the small star apart is the pot in which they +mean to cook him.' + +It may be held that the Red Men derived their bear from the European +settlers. But, as we have seen, an exact knowledge of the stars has +always been useful if not essential to savages; and we venture to doubt +whether they would confuse their nomenclature and sacred traditions by +borrowing terms from trappers and squatters. But, if this is improbable, +it seems almost impossible that all savage races should have borrowed +their whole conception of the heavenly bodies from the myths of Greece. +It is thus that Egede, a missionary of the last century, describes the +Eskimo philosophy of the stars: 'The notions that the Greenlanders have +as to the origin of the heavenly lights--as sun, moon, and stars--are +very nonsensical; in that they pretend they have formerly been as many of +their own ancestors, who, on different accounts, were lifted up to +heaven, and became such glorious celestial bodies.' Again, he writes: +'Their notions about the stars are that some of them have been men, and +others different sorts, of animals and fishes.' But every reader of Ovid +knows that this was the very mythical theory of the Greeks and Romans. +The Egyptians, again, worshipped Osiris, Isis, and the rest as +_ancestors_, and there are even modern scholars, like Mr. Loftie in his +'Essay of Scarabs,' who hold Osiris to have been originally a real +historical person. But the Egyptian priests who showed Plutarch the +grave of Osiris, showed him, too, the stars into which Osiris, Isis, and +Horus had been metamorphosed. Here, then, we have Greeks, Egyptians, and +Eskimo, all agreed about the origin of the heavenly lights, all of +opinion that 'they have formerly been as many of their own ancestors.' + +The Australian general theory is: 'Of the good men and women, after the +deluge, Pundjel (a kind of Zeus, or rather a sort of Prometheus of +Australian mythology) made stars. Sorcerers (Biraark) can tell which +stars were once good men and women.' Here the sorcerers have the same +knowledge as the Egyptian priests. Again, just as among the Arcadians, +'the progenitors of the existing tribes, whether birds, or beasts, or +men, were set in the sky, and made to shine as stars.' {130} + +We have already given some Australian examples in the stories of the +Pleiades, and of Castor and Pollux. We may add the case of the Eagle. In +Greece the Eagle was the bird of Zeus, who carried off Ganymede to be the +cup-bearer of Olympus. Among the Australians this same constellation is +called Totyarguil; he was a man who, when bathing, was killed by a +fabulous animal, a kind of kelpie; as Orion, in Greece, was killed by the +Scorpion. Like Orion, he was placed among the stars. The Australians +have a constellation named Eagle, but he is our Sinus, or Dog-star. + +The Indians of the Amazon are in one tale with the Australians and +Eskimo. 'Dr. Silva de Coutinho informs me,' says Professor Hartt, {131} +'that the Indians of the Amazonas not only give names to many of the +heavenly bodies, but also tell stories about them. The two stars that +form the shoulders of Orion are said to be an old man and a boy in a +canoe, chasing a peixe boi, by which name is designated a dark spot in +the sky near the above constellation.' The Indians also know +monkey-stars, crane-stars, and palm-tree stars. + +The Bushmen, almost the lowest tribe of South Africa, have the same star- +lore and much the same myths as the Greeks, Australians, Egyptians, and +Eskimo. According to Dr. Bleek, 'stars, and even the sun and moon, were +once mortals on earth, or even animals or inorganic substances, which +happened to get translated to the skies. The sun was once a man, whose +arm-pit radiated a limited amount of light round his house. Some +children threw him into the sky, and there he shines.' The Homeric hymn +to Helios, in the same way, as Mr. Max Muller observes, 'looks on the sun +as a half-god, almost a hero, who had once lived on earth.' The pointers +of the Southern Cross were 'two men who were lions,' just as Callisto, in +Arcadia, was a woman who was a bear. It is not at all rare in those +queer philosophies, as in that of the Scandinavians, to find that the sun +or moon has been a man or woman. In Australian fable the moon was a man, +the sun a woman of indifferent character, who appears at dawn in a coat +of red kangaroo skins, the present of an admirer. In an old Mexican text +the moon was a man, across whose face a god threw a rabbit, thus making +the marks in the moon. {132a} + +Many separate races seem to recognise the figure of a hare, where we see +'the Man in the Moon.' In a Buddhist legend, an exemplary and altruistic +hare was translated to the moon. 'To the common people in India the +spots on the moon look like a hare, and Chandras, the god of the moon, +carries a hare: hence the moon is called sasin or sasanka, hare-mark. The +Mongolians also see in these shadows the figure of a hare.' {132b} Among +the Eskimo, the moon is a girl, who always flees from her cruel brother, +the sun, because he disfigured her face. Elsewhere the sun is the girl, +beloved by her own brother, the moon; she blackens her face to avert his +affection. On the Rio Branco, and among the Tomunda, the moon is a girl +who loved her brother and visited him in the dark. He detected her +wicked passion by drawing his blackened hand over her face. The marks +betrayed her, and, as the spots on the moon, remain to this day. {133} + +Among the New Zealanders and North American Indians the sun is a great +beast, whom the hunters trapped and thrashed with cudgels. His blood is +used in some New Zealand incantations; and, according to an Egyptian +myth, was kneaded into clay at the making of man. But there is no end to +similar sun-myths, in all of which the sun is regarded as a man, or even +as a beast. + +To return to the stars-- + +The Red Indians, as Schoolcraft says, 'hold many of the planets to be +transformed adventurers.' The Iowas 'believed stars to be a sort of +living creatures.' One of them came down and talked to a hunter, and +showed him where to find game. The Gallinomeros of Central California, +according to Mr. Bancroft, believe that the sun and moon were made and +lighted up by the Hawk and the Coyote, who one day flew into each other's +faces in the dark, and were determined to prevent such accidents in the +future. But the very oddest example of the survival of the notion that +the stars are men or women is found in the 'Pax' of Aristophanes. Trygaeus +in that comedy has just made an expedition to heaven. A slave meets him, +and asks him, 'Is not the story true, then, that we become stars when we +die?' The answer is 'Certainly;' and Trygaeus points out the star into +which Ios of Chios has just been metamorphosed. Aristophanes is making +fun of some popular Greek superstition. But that very superstition meets +us in New Zealand. 'Heroes,' says Mr. Taylor, 'were thought to become +stars of greater or less brightness, according to the number of their +victims slain in fight.' The Aryan race is seldom far behind, when there +are ludicrous notions to be credited or savage tales to be told. We have +seen that Aristophanes, in Greece, knew the Eskimo doctrine that stars +are souls of the dead. The Persians had the same belief, {134a} 'all the +unnumbered stars were reckoned ghosts of men.' {134b} The German +folklore clings to the same belief, 'Stars are souls; when a child dies +God makes a new star.' Kaegi quotes {134c} the same idea from the Veda, +and from the Satapatha Brahmana the thoroughly Australian notion that +'good men become stars.' For a truly savage conception, it would be +difficult, in South Africa or on the Amazons, to beat the following story +from the 'Aitareya Brahmana' (iii. 33.) Pragapati, the Master of Life, +conceived an incestuous passion for his own daughter. Like Zeus, and +Indra, and the Australian wooer in the Pleiad tale, he concealed himself +under the shape of a beast, a roebuck, and approached his own daughter, +who had assumed the form of a doe. The gods, in anger at the awful +crime, made a monster to punish Pragapati. The monster sent an arrow +through the god's body; he sprang into heaven, and, like the Arcadian +bear, this Aryan roebuck became a constellation. He is among the stars +of Orion, and his punisher, also now a star, is, like the Greek Orion, a +hunter. The daughter of Pragapati, the doe, became another +constellation, and the avenging arrow is also a set of stars in the sky. +What follows, about the origin of the gods called Adityas, is really too +savage to be quoted by a chaste mythologist. + +It would be easy to multiply examples of this stage of thought among +Aryans and savages. But we have probably brought forward enough for our +purpose, and have expressly chosen instances from the most widely +separated peoples. These instances, it will perhaps be admitted, +suggest, if they do not prove, that the Greeks had received from +tradition precisely the same sort of legends about the heavenly bodies as +are current among Eskimo and Bushmen, New Zealanders and Iowas. As much, +indeed, might be inferred from our own astronomical nomenclature. We now +give to newly discovered stars names derived from distinguished people, +as Georgium Sidus, or Herschel; or, again, merely technical appellatives, +as Alpha, Beta, and the rest. We should never think when 'some new +planet swims into our ken' of calling it Kangaroo, or Rabbit, or after +the name of some hero of romance, as Rob Roy, or Count Fosco. But the +names of stars which we inherit from Greek mythology--the Bear, the +Pleiads, Castor and Pollux, and so forth--are such as no people in our +mental condition would originally think of bestowing. When Callimachus +and the courtly astronomers of Alexandria pretended that the golden locks +of Berenice were raised to the heavens, that was a mere piece of flattery +constructed on the inherited model of legends about the crown (Corona) of +Ariadne. It seems evident enough that the older Greek names of stars are +derived from a time when the ancestors of the Greeks were in the mental +and imaginative condition of Iowas, Kanekas, Bushmen, Murri, and New +Zealanders. All these, and all other savage peoples, believe in a kind +of equality and intercommunion among all things animate and inanimate. +Stones are supposed in the Pacific Islands to be male and female and to +propagate their species. Animals are believed to have human or +superhuman intelligence, and speech, if they choose to exercise the gift. +Stars are just on the same footing, and their movements are explained by +the same ready system of universal anthropomorphism. Stars, fishes, +gods, heroes, men, trees, clouds, and animals, all play their equal part +in the confused dramas of savage thought and savage mythology. Even in +practical life the change of a sorcerer into an animal is accepted as a +familiar phenomenon, and the power of soaring among the stars is one on +which the Australian Biraark, or the Eskimo Shaman, most plumes himself. +It is not wonderful that things which are held possible in daily practice +should be frequent features of mythology. Hence the ready invention and +belief of star-legends, which in their turn fix the names of the heavenly +bodies. Nothing more, except the extreme tenacity of tradition and the +inconvenience of changing a widely accepted name, is needed to account +for the human and animal names of the stars. The Greeks received from +the dateless past of savage intellect the myths, and the names of the +constellations, and we have taken them, without inquiry, from the Greeks. +Thus it happens that our celestial globes are just as queer menageries as +any globes could be that were illustrated by Australians or American +Indians, by Bushmen or Peruvian aborigines, or Eskimo. It was savages, +we may be tolerably certain, who first handed to science the names of the +constellations, and provided Greece with the raw material of her +astronomical myths--as Bacon prettily says, that we listen to the harsh +ideas of earlier peoples 'blown softly through the flutes of the +Grecians.' + +This position has been disputed by Mr. Brown, in a work rather komically +called 'The Law of Kosmic Order.' Mr. Brown's theory is that the early +Accadians named the zodiacal signs after certain myths and festivals +connected with the months. Thus the crab is a figure of 'the darkness +power' which seized the Akkadian solar hero, Dumuzi, and 'which is +constantly represented in monstrous and drakontic form.' The bull, +again, is connected with night and darkness, 'in relation to the horned +moon,' and is, for other reasons, 'a nocturnal potency.' Few stars, to +tell the truth, are diurnal potencies. Mr. Brown's explanations appear +to me far-fetched and unconvincing. But, granting that the zodiacal +signs reached Greece from Chaldaea, Mr. Brown will hardly maintain that +Australians, Melanesians, Iowas, Amazon Indians, Eskimo, and the rest, +borrowed their human and animal stars from 'Akkadia.' The belief in +animal and human stars is practically universal among savages who have +not attained the 'Akkadian' degree of culture. The belief, as Mr. Tylor +has shown, {137} is a natural result of savage ideas. We therefore infer +that the 'Akkadians,' too, probably fell back for star-names on what they +inherited from the savage past. If the Greeks borrowed certain +star-names from the Akkadians, they also, like the Aryans of India, +retained plenty of savage star-myths of their own, fables derived from +the earliest astronomical guesses of early thought. + +The first moment in astronomical science arrives when the savage, looking +at a star, says, like the child in the nursery poem, 'How I wonder what +you are!' The next moment comes when the savage has made his first rough +practical observations of the movements of the heavenly body. His third +step is to explain these to himself. Now science cannot offer any but a +fanciful explanation beyond the sphere of experience. The experience of +the savage is limited to the narrow world of his tribe, and of the +beasts, birds, and fishes of his district. His philosophy, therefore, +accounts for all phenomena on the supposition that the laws of the +animate nature he observes are working everywhere. But his observations, +misguided by his crude magical superstitions, have led him to believe in +a state of equality and kinship between men and animals, and even +inorganic things. He often worships the very beasts he slays; he +addresses them as if they understood him; he believes himself to be +descended from the animals, and of their kindred. These confused ideas +he applies to the stars, and recognises in them men like himself, or +beasts like those with which he conceives himself to be in such close +human relations. There is scarcely a bird or beast but the Red Indian or +the Australian will explain its peculiarities by a myth, like a page from +Ovid's 'Metamorphoses.' It was once a man or a woman, and has been +changed to bird or beast by a god or a magician. Men, again, have +originally been beasts, in his philosophy, and are descended from wolves, +frogs or serpents, or monkeys. The heavenly bodies are traced to +precisely the same sort of origin; and hence, we conclude, come their +strange animal names, and the strange myths about them which appear in +all ancient poetry. These names, in turn, have curiously affected human +beliefs. Astrology is based on the opinion that a man's character and +fate are determined by the stars under which he is born. And the nature +of these stars is deduced from their names, so that the bear should have +been found in the horoscope of Dr. Johnson. When Giordano Bruno wrote +his satire against religion, the famous 'Spaccio della bestia +trionfante,' he proposed to banish not only the gods but the beasts from +heaven. He would call the stars, not the Bear, or the Swan, or the +Pleiads, but Truth, Mercy, Justice, and so forth, that men might be born, +not under bestial, but moral influences. But the beasts have had too +long possession of the stars to be easily dislodged, and the tenure of +the Bear and the Swan will probably last as long as there is a science of +Astronomy. Their names are not likely again to delude a philosopher into +the opinion of Aristotle that the stars are animated. + +This argument had been worked out to the writer's satisfaction when he +chanced to light on Mr. Max Muller's explanation of the name of the Great +Bear. We have explained that name as only one out of countless similar +appellations which men of every race give to the stars. These names, +again, we have accounted for as the result of savage philosophy, which +takes no great distinction between man and the things in the world, and +looks on stars, beasts, birds, fishes, flowers, and trees as men and +women in disguise. Mr. Muller's theory is based on philological +considerations. He thinks that the name of the Great Bear is the result +of a mistake as to the meaning of words. There was in Sanskrit, he says, +{140} a root ark, or arch, meaning 'to be bright.' The stars are called +riksha, that is, bright ones, in the Veda. 'The constellations here +called the Rikshas, in the sense of the "bright ones," would be +homonymous in Sanskrit with the Bears. Remember also that, apparently +without rhyme or reason, the same constellation is called by Greeks and +Romans the Bear. . . . There is not the shadow of a likeness with a +bear. You will now perceive the influence of words on thought, or the +spontaneous growth of mythology. The name Riksha was applied to the bear +in the sense of the bright fuscous animal, and in that sense it became +most popular in the later Sanskrit, and in Greek and Latin. The same +name, "in the sense of the bright ones," had been applied by the Vedic +poets to the stars in general, and more particularly to that +constellation which in the northern parts of India was the most +prominent. The etymological meaning, "the bright stars," was forgotten; +the popular meaning of Riksha (bear) was known to everyone. And thus it +happened that, when the Greeks had left their central home and settled in +Europe, they retained the name of Arktos for the same unchanging stars; +but, not knowing why those stars had originally received that name, they +ceased to speak of them as arktoi, or many bears, and spoke of them as +the Bear.' + +This is a very good example of the philological way of explaining a myth. +If once we admit that ark, or arch, in the sense of 'bright' and of +'bear,' existed, not only in Sanskrit, but in the undivided Aryan tongue, +and that the name Riksha, bear, 'became in that sense most popular in +Greek and Latin,' this theory seems more than plausible. But the +explanation does not look so well if we examine, not only the Aryan, but +all the known myths and names of the Bear and the other stars. Professor +Sayce, a distinguished philologist, says we may not compare non-Aryan +with Aryan myths. We have ventured to do so, however, in this paper, and +have shown that the most widely severed races give the stars animal +names, of which the Bear is one example. Now, if the philologists wish +to persuade us that it was decaying and half-forgotten language which +caused men to give the names of animals to the stars, they must prove +their case on an immense collection of instances--on Iowa, Kaneka, Murri, +Maori, Brazilian, Peruvian, Mexican, Egyptian, Eskimo, instances. It +would be the most amazing coincidence in the world if forgetfulness of +the meaning of their own speech compelled tribes of every tongue and race +to recognise men and beasts, cranes, cockatoos, serpents, monkeys, bears, +and so forth, in the heavens. How came the misunderstood words always to +be misunderstood in the same way? Does the philological explanation +account for the enormous majority of the phenomena? If it fails, we may +at least doubt whether it solves the one isolated case of the Great Bear +among the Greeks and Romans. It must be observed that the philological +explanation of Mr. Muller does not clear up the Arcadian story of their +own descent from a she-bear who is now a star. Yet similar stories of +the descent of tribes from animals are so widespread that it would be +difficult to name the race or the quarter of the globe where they are not +found. Are they all derived from misunderstood words meaning 'bright'? +These considerations appear to be a strong argument for comparing not +only Aryan, but all attainable myths. We shall often find, if we take a +wide view, that the philological explanation which seemed plausible in a +single case is hopelessly narrow when applied to a large collection of +parallel cases in languages of various families. + +Finally, in dealing with star myths, we adhere to the hypothesis of Mr. +Tylor: 'From savagery up to civilisation,' Akkadian, Greek, or English, +'there may be traced in the mythology of the stars a course of thought, +changed, indeed, in application, yet never broken in its evident +connection from first to last. The savage sees individual stars as +animate beings, or combines star-groups into living celestial creatures, +or limbs of them, or objects connected with them; while at the other +extremity of the scale of civilisation the modern astronomer keeps up +just such ancient fancies, turning them to account in useful survival, as +a means of mapping out the celestial globe.' + + + + +MOLY AND MANDRAGORA. + + +'I have found out a new cure for rheumatism,' said the lady beside whom +it was my privilege to sit at dinner. 'You carry a potato about in your +pocket!' + +Some one has written an amusing account of the behaviour of a man who is +finishing a book. He takes his ideas everywhere with him and broods over +them, even at dinner, in the pauses of conversation. But here was a lady +who kindly contributed to my studies and offered me folklore and +survivals in cultivated Kensington. + +My mind had strayed from the potato cure to the New Zealand habit of +carrying a baked yam at night to frighten away ghosts, and to the old +English belief that a bit of bread kept in the pocket was sovereign +against evil spirits. Why should ghosts dread the food of mortals when +it is the custom of most races of mortals to feed ancestral ghosts? The +human mind works pretty rapidly, and all this had passed through my brain +while I replied, in tones of curiosity: 'A potato!' + +'Yes; but it is not every potato that will do. I heard of the cure in +the country, and when we came up to town, and my husband was complaining +of rheumatism, I told one of the servants to get me a potato for Mr. +Johnson's rheumatism. "Yes, ma'am," said the man; "but it must be a +_stolen_ potato." I had forgotten that. Well, one can't ask one's +servants to steal potatoes. It is easy in the country, where you can +pick one out of anybody's field.' 'And what did you do?' I asked. 'Oh, +I drove to Covent Garden and ordered a lot of fruit and flowers. While +the man was not looking, I stole a potato--a very little one. I don't +think there was any harm in it.' 'And did Mr. Johnson try the potato +cure?' 'Yes, he carried it in his pocket, and now he is quite well. I +told the doctor, and he says he knows of the cure, but he dares not +recommend it.' + +How oddly superstitions survive! The central idea of this modern folly +about the potato is that you must pilfer the root. Let us work the idea +of the healing or magical herb backwards, from Kensington to European +folklore, and thence to classical times, to Homer, and to the Hottentots. +Turning first to Germany, we note the beliefs, not about the potato, but +about another vegetable, the mandrake. Of all roots, in German +superstition, the Alraun, or mandrake, is the most famous. The herb was +conceived of, in the savage fashion, as a living human person, a kind of +old witch-wife. {144} + +Again, the root has a human shape. 'If a hereditary thief who has +preserved his chastity gets hung,' the broad-leafed, yellow-flowered +mandrake grows up, in his likeness, beneath the gallows from which he is +suspended. The mandrake, like the moly, the magical herb of the Odyssey, +is 'hard for men to dig.' He who desires to possess a mandrake must stop +his ears with wax, so that he may not hear the deathly yells which the +plant utters as it is being dragged out of the earth. Then before +sunrise, on a Friday, the amateur goes out with a dog, 'all black,' makes +three crosses round the mandrake, loosens the soil about the root, ties +the root to the dog's tail, and offers the beast a piece of bread. The +dog runs at the bread, drags out the mandrake root, and falls dead, +killed by the horrible yell of the plant. The root is now taken up, +washed with wine, wrapped in silk, laid in a casket, bathed every Friday, +'and clothed in a little new white smock every new moon.' The mandrake +acts, if thus considerately treated, as a kind of familiar spirit. 'Every +piece of coin put to her over night is found doubled in the morning.' +Gipsy folklore, and the folklore of American children, keep this belief +in doubling deposits. The gipsies use the notion in what they call 'The +Great Trick.' Some foolish rustic makes up his money in a parcel which +he gives to the gipsy. The latter, after various ceremonies performed, +returns the parcel, which is to be buried. The money will be found +doubled by a certain date. Of course when the owner unburies the parcel +he finds nothing in it but brass buttons. In the same way, and with +pious confidence, the American boy buries a marble in a hollow log, +uttering the formula, 'What hasn't come here, _come_! what's here, _stay_ +here!' and expects to find all the marbles he has ever lost. {145} Let +us follow the belief in magical roots into the old Pagan world. + +The ancients knew mandragora and the superstitions connected with it very +well. Dioscorides mentions mandragorus, or antimelon, or dircaea, or +Circaea, and says the Egyptians call it apemoum, and Pythagoras +'anthropomorphon.' In digging the root, Pliny says, 'there are some +ceremonies observed, first they that goe about this worke, look +especially to this that the wind be not in their face, but blow upon +their backs. Then with the point of a sword they draw three circles +round about the plant, which don, they dig it up afterwards with their +face unto the west.' Pliny says nothing of the fetich qualities of the +plant, as credited in modern and mediaeval Germany, but mentions +'sufficient it is with some bodies to cast them into sleep with the smel +of mandrago.' This is like Shakespeare's 'poppy and mandragora, and all +the drowsy syrups of the world.' Plato and Demosthenes {146a} also speak +of mandragora as a soporific. It is more to the purpose of magic that +Columella mentions 'the _half-human_ mandragora.' Here we touch the +origin of the mandrake superstitions. The roots have a kind of fantastic +resemblance to the human shape; Pliny describes them as being 'of a +fleshy substance and tender.' Now it is one of the recognised principles +in magic, that things like each other, however superficially, affect each +other in a mystic way, and possess identical properties. Thus, in +Melanesia, according to Mr. Codrington, {146b} 'a stone in the shape of a +pig, of a bread-fruit, of a yam, was a most valuable find,' because it +made pigs prolific, and fertilised bread-fruit trees and yam-plots. In +Scotland, too, 'stones were called by the names of the limbs they +resembled, as "eye-stane," "head-stane." A patient washed the affected +part of his body, and rubbed it well with the stone corresponding.' +{147a} In precisely the same way, the mandrake root, being thought to +resemble the human body, was credited with human and superhuman powers. +Josephus mentions {147b} a plant 'not easily caught, which slips away +from them that wish to gather it, and never stands still' till certain +repulsive rites are performed. These rites cannot well be reported here, +but they are quite familiar to Red Indian and to Bushman magic. Another +way to dig the plant spoken of by Josephus is by aid of the dog, as in +the German superstition quoted from Grimm. AElian also recommends the +use of the dog to pluck the herb aglaophotis, which shines at night. +{147c} When the dog has dragged up the root, and died of terror, his +body is to be buried on the spot with religious honours and secret sacred +rites. + +So much for mandragora, which, like the healing potato, has to be +acquired stealthily and with peril. Now let us examine the Homeric herb +moly. The plant is thus introduced by Homer: In the tenth book of the +'Odyssey,' Circe has turned Odysseus's men into swine. He sets forth to +rescue them, trusting only to his sword. The god Hermes meets him, and +offers him 'a charmed herb,' 'this herb of grace' ([Greek]) whereby he +may subdue the magic wiles of Circe. + +The plant is described by Homer with some minuteness. 'It was black at +the root, but the flower was like to milk. "Moly," the gods call it, but +it is hard for mortal men to dig, howbeit with the gods all things are +possible.' The etymologies given of 'moly' are almost as numerous as the +etymologists. One derivation, from the old 'Turanian' tongue of Accadia, +will be examined later. The Scholiast offers the derivation '[Greek], to +make charms of no avail'; but this is exactly like Professor Blackie's +etymological discovery that Erinys is derived from [Greek]: 'he might as +well derive critic from criticise.' {148} The Scholiast adds that moly +caused death to the person who dragged it out of the ground. This +identification of moly with mandrake is probably based on Homer's remark +that moly is 'hard to dig.' The black root and white flower of moly are +quite unlike the yellow flower and white fleshy root ascribed by Pliny to +mandrake. Only confusion is caused by regarding the two magical herbs as +identical. + +But why are any herbs or roots magical? While some scholars, like De +Gubernatis, seek an explanation in supposed myths about clouds and stars, +it is enough for our purpose to observe that herbs really have medicinal +properties, and that untutored people invariably confound medicine with +magic. A plant or root is thought to possess virtue, not only when +swallowed in powder or decoction, but when carried in the hand. St. +John's wort and rowan berries, like the Homeric moly, still 'make evil +charms of none avail;' + + Rowan, ash, and red threed + Keep the devils from their speed, + +says the Scotch rhyme. Any fanciful resemblance of leaf or flower or +root to a portion of the human body, any analogy based on colour, will +give a plant reputation for magical virtues. This habit of mind survives +from the savage condition. The Hottentots are great herbalists. Like +the Greeks, like the Germans, they expect supernatural aid from plants +and roots. Mr. Hahn, in his 'Tsui Goam, the Supreme Being of the Khoi +Khoi' (p. 82), gives the following examples:-- + + Dapper, in his description of Africa, p. 621, tells us:--'Some of them + wear round the neck roots, which they find far inland, in rivers, and + being on a journey they light them in a fire or chew them, if they + must sleep the night out in the field. They believe that these roots + keep off the wild animals. The roots they chew are spit out around + the spot where they encamp for the night; and in a similar way if they + set the roots alight, they blow the smoke and ashes about, believing + that the smell will keep the wild animals off. + + I had often occasion to observe the practice of these superstitious + ceremonies, especially when we were in a part of the country where we + heard the roaring of the lions, or had the day previously met with the + footprints of the king of the beasts. + + The Korannas also have these roots as safeguards with them. If a + Commando (a warlike expedition) goes out, every man will put such + roots in his pockets and in the pouch where he keeps his bullets, + believing that the arrows or bullets of the enemy have no effect, but + that his own bullets will surely kill the enemy. And also before they + lie down to sleep, they set these roots alight, and murmur, 'My + grandfather's root, bring sleep on the eyes of the lion and leopard + and the hyena. Make them blind, that they cannot find us, and cover + their noses, that they cannot smell us out.' Also, if they have + carried off large booty, or stolen cattle of the enemy, they light + these roots and say: 'We thank thee, our grandfather's root, that thou + hast given us cattle to eat. Let the enemy sleep, and lead him on the + wrong track, that he may not follow us until we have safely escaped.' + + Another sort of shrub is called abib. Herdsmen, especially, carry + pieces of its wood as charms, and if cattle or sheep have gone astray, + they burn a piece of it in the fire, that the wild animals may not + destroy them. And they believe that the cattle remain safe until they + can be found the next morning. + +Schweinfurth found the same belief in magic herbs and roots among the +Bongoes and Niam Niams in 'The Heart of Africa.' The Bongoes believe, +like the Homeric Greeks, that 'certain roots ward off the evil influences +of spirits.' Like the German amateurs of the mandrake, they assert that +'there is no other resource for obtaining communication with spirits, +except by means of certain roots' (i. 306). + +Our position is that the English magical potato, the German mandrake, the +Greek moly, are all survivals from a condition of mind like that in which +the Hottentots still pray to roots. + +Now that we have brought mandragora and moly into connection with the +ordinary magical superstitions of savage peoples, let us see what is made +of the subject by another method. Mr. R. Brown, the learned and +industrious author of 'The Great Dionysiak Myth,' has investigated the +traditions about the Homeric moly. He first {151} 'turns to Aryan +philology.' Many guesses at the etymology of 'moly' have been made. +Curtius suggests [Greek], akin to [Greek], 'soft.' This does not suit +Mr. Brown, who, to begin with, is persuaded that the herb is not a +magical herb, sans phrase, like those which the Hottentots use, but that +the basis of the myth 'is simply the effect of night upon the world of +day.' Now, as moly is a name in use among the gods, Mr. Brown thinks 'we +may fairly examine the hypothesis of a foreign origin of the term.' +Anyone who holds that certain Greek gods were borrowed from abroad, may +be allowed to believe that the gods used foreign words, and, as Mr. Brown +points out, there are foreign elements in various Homeric names of +imported articles, peoples, persons, and so forth. Where, then, is a +foreign word like moly, which might have reached Homer? By a long +process of research, Mr. Brown finds his word in ancient 'Akkadian.' From +Professor Sayce he borrows a reference to Apuleius Barbarus, about whose +life nothing is known, and whose date is vague. Apuleius Barbarus may +have lived about four centuries after our era, and _he_ says that 'wild +rue was called moly by the Cappadocians.' Rue, like rosemary, and indeed +like most herbs, has its magical repute, and if we supposed that Homer's +moly was rue, there would be some interest in the knowledge. Rue was +called 'herb of grace' in English, holy water was sprinkled with it, and +the name is a translation of Homer's [Greek]. Perhaps rue was used in +sprinkling, because in pre-Christian times rue had, by itself, power +against sprites and powers of evil. Our ancestors may have thought it as +well to combine the old charm of rue and the new Christian potency of +holy water. Thus there would be a distinct analogy between Homeric moly +and English 'herb of grace.' + +'Euphrasy and rue' were employed to purge and purify mortal eyes. Pliny +is very learned about the magical virtues of rue. Just as the stolen +potato is sovran for rheumatism, so 'rue stolen thriveth the best.' The +Samoans think that their most valued vegetables were stolen from heaven +by a Samoan visitor. {152a} It is remarkable that rue, according to +Pliny, is killed by the touch of a woman in the same way as, according to +Josephus, the mandrake is tamed. {152b} These passages prove that the +classical peoples had the same extraordinary superstitions about women as +the Bushmen and Red Indians. Indeed Pliny {152c} describes a magical +manner of defending the crops from blight, by aid of women, which is +actually practised in America by the Red Men. {152d} + +Here, then, are proofs enough that rue was magical outside of Cappadocia. +But this is not an argument on Mr. Brown's lines. The Cappadocians +called rue 'moly'; what language, he asks, was spoken by the +Cappadocians? Prof. Sayce (who knows so many tongues) says that 'we know +next to nothing of the language of the Cappadocians, or of the Moschi who +lived in the same locality.' But where Prof. Sayce is, the Hittites, if +we may say so respectfully, are not very far off. In this case he thinks +the Moschi (though he admits we know next to nothing about it) 'seem to +have spoken a language allied to that of the Cappadocians and Hittites.' +That is to say, it is not impossible that the language of the Moschi, +about which next to nothing is known, may have been allied to that of the +Cappadocians, about which we know next to nothing. All that we do know +in this case is, that four hundred years after Christ the dwellers in +Cappadocia employed a word 'moly,' which had been Greek for at least +twelve hundred years. But Mr. Brown goes on to quote that one of the +languages of which we know next to nothing, Hittite, was 'probably allied +to Proto-Armenian, and perhaps Lykian, and was above all not Semitic.' In +any case 'the cuneiform mode of writing was used in Cappadocia at an +early period.' As even Professor Sayce declines to give more than a +tentative reading of a Cappadocian cuneiform inscription, it seems highly +rash to seek in this direction for an interpretation of a Homeric word +'moly,' used in Cappadocia very many centuries after the tablets were +scratched. But, on the evidence of the Babylonian character of the +cuneiform writing on Cappadocian tablets, Mr. Brown establishes a +connection between the people of Accadia (who probably introduced the +cuneiform style) and the people of Cappadocia. The connection amounts to +this. Twelve hundred years after Homer, the inhabitants of Cappadocia +are said to have called rue 'moly.' At some unknown period, the +Accadians appear to have influenced the art of writing in Cappadocia. +Apparently Mr. Brown thinks it not too rash to infer that the Cappadocian +use of the word 'moly' is not derived from the Greeks, but from the +Accadians. Now in Accadian, according to Mr. Brown, mul means 'star.' +'Hence ulu or mulu = [Greek], the mysterious Homerik counter-charm to the +charms of Kirke' (p. 60). Mr. Brown's theory, therefore, is that moly +originally meant 'star.' Circe is the moon, Odysseus is the sun, and +'what _watches over_ the solar hero at night when exposed to the hostile +lunar power, but the stars?' especially the dog-star. + +The truth is, that Homer's moly, whatever plant he meant by the name, is +only one of the magical herbs in which most peoples believe or have +believed. Like the Scottish rowan, or like St. John's wort, it is potent +against evil influences. People have their own simple reasons for +believing in these plants, and have not needed to bring down their +humble, early botany from the clouds and stars. We have to imagine, on +the other hand (if we follow Mr. Brown), that in some unknown past the +Cappadocians turned the Accadian word for a star into a local name of a +plant, that this word reached Homer, that the supposed old Accadian myth +of the star which watches over the solar hero retained its vitality in +Greek, and leaving the star clung to the herb, that Homer used an 'Akkado- +Kappadokian' myth, and that, many ages after, the Accadian star-name in +its perverted sense of 'rue' survived in Cappadocia. This structure of +argument is based on tablets which even Prof. Sayce cannot read, and on +possibilities about the alliances of tongues concerning which we 'know +next to nothing.' A method which leaves on one side the common, natural, +widely-diffused beliefs about the magic virtue of herbs (beliefs which we +have seen at work in Kensington and in Central Africa), to hunt for moly +among stars and undeciphered Kappadokian inscriptions, seems a dubious +method. We have examined it at full length because it is a specimen of +an erudite, but, as we think, a mistaken way in folklore. M. Halevy's +warnings against the shifting mythical theories based on sciences so new +as the lore of Assyria and 'Akkadia' are by no means superfluous. +'Akkadian' is rapidly become as ready a key to all locks as 'Aryan' was a +few years ago. + + + + +'KALEVALA'; OR, THE FINNISH NATIONAL EPIC. + + +It is difficult to account for the fact that the scientific curiosity +which is just now so busy in examining all the monuments of the primitive +condition of our race, should, in England at least, have almost totally +neglected to popularise the 'Kalevala,' or national poem of the Finns. +Besides its fresh and simple beauty of style, its worth as a storehouse +of every kind of primitive folklore, being as it is the production of an +Urvolk, a nation that has undergone no violent revolution in language or +institutions--the 'Kalevala' has the peculiar interest of occupying a +position between the two kinds of primitive poetry, the ballad and the +epic. So much difficulty has been introduced into the study of the first +developments of song, by confusing these distinct sorts of composition +under the name of popular poetry, that it may be well, in writing of a +poem which occupies a middle place between epic and ballad, to define +what we mean by each. + +The author of our old English 'Art of Poesie' begins his work with a +statement which may serve as a text: 'Poesie,' says Puttenham, writing in +1589, 'is more ancient than the artificiall of the Greeks and Latines, +coming by instinct of nature, and used by the savage and uncivill, who +were before all science and civilitie. This is proved by certificate of +merchants and travellers, who by late navigations have surveyed the whole +world, and discovered large countries, and strange people, wild and +savage, affirming that the American, the Perusine, and the very +canniball, do sing, and also say, their highest and holiest matters in +certain riming versicles.' Puttenham is here referring to that instinct +of primitive men, which compels them in all moments of high-wrought +feeling, and on all solemn occasions, to give utterance to a kind of +chant. {157a} Such a chant is the song of Lamech, when he had 'slain a +man to his wounding.' So in the Norse sagas, Grettir and Gunnar _sing_ +when they have anything particular to say; and so in the Marchen--the +primitive fairy tales of all nations--scraps of verse are introduced +where emphasis is wanted. This craving for passionate expression takes a +more formal shape in the lays which, among all primitive peoples, as +among the modern Greeks to-day, {157b} are sung at betrothals, funerals, +and departures for distant lands. These songs have been collected in +Scotland by Scott and Motherwell; their Danish counterparts have been +translated by Mr. Prior. In Greece, M. Fauriel and Dr. Ulrichs; in +Provence, Damase Arbaud; in Italy, M. Nigra; in Servia, Talvj; in France, +Gerard de Nerval--have done for their separate countries what Scott did +for the Border. Professor Child, of Harvard, is publishing a beautiful +critical collection of English Volkslieder, with all known variants from +every country. + +A comparison of the collections proves that among all European lands the +primitive 'versicles' of the people are identical in tone, form, and +incident. It is this kind of early expression of a people's +life--careless, abrupt, brief, as was necessitated by the fact that they +were sung to the accompaniment of the dance--that we call ballads. These +are distinctly, and in every sense, popular poems, and nothing can cause +greater confusion than to apply the same title, 'popular,' to early epic +poetry. Ballads are short; a long ballad, as Mr. Matthew Arnold has +said, creeps and halts. A true epic, on the other hand, is long, and its +tone is grand, noble, and sustained. Ballads are not artistic; while the +form of the epic, whether we take the hexameter or the rougher laisse of +the French chansons de geste, is full of conscious and admirable art. +Lastly, popular ballads deal with vague characters, acting and living in +vague places; while the characters of an epic are heroes of definite +station, _whose descendants are still in the land_, whose home is a +recognisable place, Ithaca, or Argos. Now, though these two kinds of +early poetry--the ballad, the song of the people; the epic, the song of +the chiefs of the people, of the ruling race--are distinct in kind, it +does not follow that they have no connection, that the nobler may not +have been developed out of the materials of the lower form of expression. +And the value of the 'Kalevala' is partly this, that it combines the +continuity and unison of the epic with the simplicity and popularity of +the ballad, and so forms a kind of link in the history of the development +of poetry. This may become clearer as we proceed to explain the literary +history of the Finnish national poem. + +Sixty years ago, it may be said, no one was aware that Finland possessed +a national poem at all. Her people--who claim affinity with the Magyars +of Hungary, but are possibly a back-wave of an earlier tide of +population--had remained untouched by foreign influences since their +conquest by Sweden, and their somewhat lax and wholesale conversion to +Christianity: events which took place gradually between the middle of the +twelfth and the end of the thirteenth centuries. Under the rule of +Sweden, the Finns were left to their quiet life and undisturbed +imaginings, among the forests and lakes of the region which they aptly +called Pohja, 'the end of things'; while their educated classes took no +very keen interest in the native poetry and mythology of their race. At +length the annexation of Finland by Russia, in 1809, awakened national +feeling, and stimulated research into the songs and customs which were +the heirlooms of the people. + +It was the policy of Russia to encourage, rather than to check, this +return on a distant past; and from the north of Norway to the slopes of +the Altai, ardent explorers sought out the fragments of unwritten early +poetry. These runes, or Runots, were chiefly sung by old men called +Runoias, to beguile the weariness of the long dark winters. The custom +was for two champions to engage in a contest of memory, clasping each +other's hands, and reciting in turn till he whose memory first gave in +slackened his hold. The 'Kalevala' contains an instance of this +practice, where it is said that no one was so hardy as to clasp hands +with Wainamoinen, who is at once the Orpheus and the Prometheus of +Finnish mythology. These Runoias, or rhapsodists, complain, of course, +of the degeneracy of human memory; they notice how any foreign influence, +in religion or politics, is destructive to the native songs of a race. +{160} 'As for the lays of old time, a thousand have been scattered to +the wind, a thousand buried in the snow; . . . as for those which the +Munks (the Teutonic knights) swept away, and the prayer of the priest +overwhelmed, a thousand tongues were not able to recount them.' In spite +of the losses thus caused, and in spite of the suspicious character of +the Finns, which often made the task of collection a dangerous one, +enough materials remained to furnish Dr. Lonnrot, the most noted +explorer, with thirty-five Runots, or cantos. These were published in +1835, but later research produced the fifteen cantos which make up the +symmetrical fifty of the 'Kalevala.' In the task of arranging and +uniting these, Dr. Lonnrot played the part traditionally ascribed to the +commission of Pisistratus in relation to the 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey.' Dr. +Lonnrot is said to have handled with singular fidelity the materials +which now come before us as one poem, not absolutely without a certain +unity and continuous thread of narrative. It is this unity (so faint +compared with that of the 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey') which gives the +'Kalevala' a claim to the title of epic. + +It cannot be doubted that, at whatever period the Homeric poems took +shape in Greece, they were believed to record the feats of the supposed +ancestors of existing families. Thus, for example, Pisistratus, as a +descendant of the Nelidae, had an interest in securing certain parts, at +least, of the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey' from oblivion. The same family +pride embellished and preserved the epic poetry of early France. There +were in France but three heroic houses, or gestes; and three +corresponding cycles of epopees. Now, in the 'Kalevala,' there is no +trace of the influence of family feeling; it was no one's peculiar care +and pride to watch over the records of the fame of this or that hero. The +poem begins with a cosmogony as wild as any Indian dream of creation; and +the human characters who move in the story are shadowy inhabitants of no +very definite lands, whom no family claim as their forefathers. The very +want of this idea of family and aristocratic pride gives the 'Kalevala' a +unique place among epics. It is emphatically an epic of the people, of +that class whose life contains no element of progress, no break in +continuity; which from age to age preserves, in solitude and close +communion with nature, the earliest beliefs of grey antiquity. The Greek +epic, on the other hand, has, as M. Preller {161} points out, 'nothing to +do with natural man, but with an ideal world of heroes, with sons of the +gods, with consecrated kings, heroes, elders, _a kind of specific race of +men_. The people exist only as subsidiary to the great houses, as a mere +background against which stand out the shining figures of heroes; as a +race of beings fresh and rough from the hands of nature, with whom, and +with whose concerns, the great houses and their bards have little +concern.' This feeling--so universal in Greece, and in the feudal +countries of mediaeval Europe, that there are two kinds of men, the +golden and the brazen race, as Plato would have called them--is absent, +with all its results, in the 'Kalevala.' + +Among the Finns we find no trace of an aristocracy; there is scarcely a +mention of kings, or priests; the heroes of the poem are really popular +heroes, fishers, smiths, husbandmen, 'medicine-men,' or wizards; +exaggerated shadows of the people, pursuing on a heroic scale, not war, +but the common daily business of primitive and peaceful men. In +recording their adventures, the 'Kalevala,' like the shield of Achilles, +reflects all the life of a race, the feasts, the funerals, the rites of +seed-time and harvest of marriage and death, the hymn, and the magical +incantation. Were this all, the epic would only have the value of an +exhaustive collection of the popular ballads which, as we have seen, are +a poetical record of the intenser moments in the existence of +unsophisticated tribes. But the 'Kalevala' is distinguished from such a +collection, by presenting the ballads as they are produced by the events +of a continuous narrative, and thus it takes a distinct place between the +aristocratic epics of Greece, or of the Franks, and the scattered songs +which have been collected in Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, and +Italy. + +Besides the interest of its unique position as a popular epic, the +'Kalevala' is very valuable, both for its literary beauties and for the +confused mass of folklore which it contains. + +Here old cosmogonies, attempts of man to represent to himself the +beginning of things, are mingled with the same wild imaginings as are +found everywhere in the shape of fairy-tales. We are hurried from an +account of the mystic egg of creation, to a hymn like that of the +Ambarval Brothers, to a strangely familiar scrap of a nursery story, to +an incident which we remember as occurring in almost identical words in a +Scotch ballad. We are among a people which endows everything with human +characters and life, which is in familiar relations with birds, and +beasts, and even with rocks and plants. Ravens and wolves and fishes of +the sea, sun, moon, and stars, are kindly or churlish; drops of blood +find speech, man and maid change to snake or swan and resume their forms, +ships have magic powers, like the ships of the Phaeacians. + +Then there is the oddest confusion of every stage of religious +development: we find a supreme God, delighting in righteousness; Ukko, +the lord of the vault of air, who stands apart from men, and sends his +son, Wainamoinen, to be their teacher in music and agriculture. + +Across this faith comes a religion of petrified abstractions like those +of the Roman Pantheon. There are gods of colour, a goddess of weaving, a +goddess of man's blood, besides elemental spirits of woods and waters, +and the manes of the dead. Meanwhile, the working faith of the people is +the belief in magic--generally a sign of the lower culture. It is +supposed that the knowledge of certain magic words gives power over the +elemental bodies which obey them; it is held that the will of a distant +sorcerer can cross the lakes and plains like the breath of a fantastic +frost, with power to change an enemy to ice or stone. Traces remain of +the worship of animals: there is a hymn to the bear; a dance like the +bear-dance of the American Indians; and another hymn tells of the birth +and power of the serpent. Across all, and closing all, comes a hostile +account of the origin of Christianity--the end of joy and music. + +How primitive was the condition of the authors of this medley of beliefs +is best proved by the survival of the custom called exogamy. {164a} This +custom, which is not peculiar to the Finns, but is probably a universal +note of early society, prohibits marriage between members of the same +tribe. Consequently, the main action, such as it is, of the 'Kalevala' +turns on the efforts made by the men of Kaleva to obtain brides from the +hostile tribe of Pohja. {164b} + +Further proof of ancient origin is to be found in what is the great +literary beauty of the poem--its pure spontaneity and simplicity. It is +the production of an intensely imaginative race, to which song came as +the most natural expression of joy and sorrow, terror or triumph--a class +which lay near to nature's secret, and was not out of sympathy with the +wild kin of woods and waters. + + 'These songs,' says the prelude, 'were found by the wayside, and + gathered in the depths of the copses; blown from the branches of the + forest, and culled among the plumes of the pine-trees. These lays + came to me as I followed the flocks, in a land of meadows honey-sweet, + and of golden hills. . . . The cold has spoken to me, and the rain + has told me her runes; the winds of heaven, the waves of the sea, have + spoken and sung to me; the wild birds have taught me, the music of + many waters has been my master.' + +The metre in which the epic is chanted resembles, to an English ear, that +of Mr. Longfellow's 'Hiawatha'--there is assonance rather than rhyme; and +a very musical effect is produced by the liquid character of the +language, and by the frequent alliterations. + +This rough outline of the main characteristics of the 'Kalevala' we shall +now try to fill up with an abstract of its contents. The poem is longer +than the 'Iliad,' and much of interest must necessarily be omitted; but +it is only through such an abstract that any idea can be given of the +sort of unity which does prevail amid the most utter discrepancy. + +In the first place, what is to be understood by the word 'Kalevala'? The +affix la signifies 'abode.' Thus, 'Tuonela' is 'the abode of Tuoni,' the +god of the lower world; and as 'kaleva' means 'heroic,' 'magnificent,' +'Kalevala' is 'The Home of Heroes.' The poem is the record of the +adventures of the people of Kalevala--of their strife with the men of +Pohjola, the place of the world's end. We may fancy two old Runoias, or +singers, clasping hands on one of the first nights of the Finnish winter, +and beginning (what probably has never been accomplished) the attempt to +work through the 'Kalevala' before the return of summer. They commence +ab ovo, or, rather, before the egg. First is chanted the birth of +Wainamoinen, the benefactor and teacher of men. He is the son of +Luonnotar, the daughter of Nature, who answers to the first woman of the +Iroquois cosmogony. Beneath the breath and touch of wind and tide, she +conceived a child; but nine ages of man passed before his birth, while +the mother floated on 'the formless and the multiform waters.' Then +Ukko, the supreme God, sent an eagle, which laid her eggs in the maiden's +bosom, and from these eggs grew earth and sky, sun and moon, star and +cloud. Then was Wainamoinen born on the waters, and reached a barren +land, and gazed on the new heavens and the new earth. There he sowed the +grain that is the bread of man, chanting the hymn used at seed-time, +calling on the mother earth to make the green herb spring, and on Ukko to +send clouds and rain. So the corn sprang, and the golden cuckoo--which +in Finland plays the part of the popinjay in Scotch ballads, or of the +three golden birds in Greek folksongs--came with his congratulations. In +regard to the epithet 'golden,' it may be observed that gold and silver, +in the Finnish epic, are lavished on the commonest objects of daily life. + +This is a universal note of primitive poetry, and is not a peculiar +Finnish idiom, as M. Leouzon le Duc supposes; nor, as Mr. Tozer seems to +think, in his account of Romaic ballads, a trace of Oriental influence +among the modern Greeks. It is common to all the ballads of Europe, as +M. Ampere has pointed out, and may be observed in the 'Chanson de +Roland,' and in Homer. + +While the corn ripened, Wainamoinen rested from his labours, and took the +task of Orpheus. 'He sang,' says the 'Kalevala,' of the origin of +things, of the mysteries hidden from babes, that none may attain to in +this sad life, in the hours of these perishable days. The fame of the +Runoia's singing excited jealousy in the breast of one of the men around +him, of whose origin the 'Kalevala' gives no account. This man, +Joukahainen, provoked him to a trial of song, boasting, like Empedocles, +or like one of the old Celtic bards, that he had been all things. 'When +the earth was made I was there; when space was unrolled I launched the +sun on his way.' Then was Wainamoinen wroth, and by the force of his +enchantment he rooted Joukahainen to the ground, and suffered him not to +go free without promising him the hand of his sister Aino. The mother +was delighted; but the girl wept that she must now cover her long locks, +her curls, her glory, and be the wife of 'the old imperturbable +Wainamoinen.' It is in vain that her mother offers her dainty food and +rich dresses; she flees from home, and wanders till she meets three +maidens bathing, and joins them, and is drowned, singing a sad song: 'Ah, +never may my sister come to bathe in the sea-water, for the drops of the +sea are the drops of my blood.' This wild idea occurs in the Romaic +ballad, [Greek], where a drop of blood on the lips of the drowned girl +tinges all the waters of the world. To return to the fate of Aino. A +swift hare runs (as in the Zulu legend of the Origin of Death) with the +tale of sorrow to the maiden's mother, and from the mother's tears flow +rivers of water, and therein are isles with golden hills where golden +birds make melody. As for the old, the imperturbable Runoia, he loses +his claim to the latter title, he is filled with sorrow, and searches +through all the elements for his lost bride. At length he catches a fish +which is unknown to him, who, like Atlas, 'knew the depths of all the +seas.' The strange fish slips from his hands, a 'tress of hair, of +drowned maiden's hair,' floats for a moment on the foam, and too late he +recognises that 'there was never salmon yet that shone so fair, above the +nets at sea.' His lost bride has been within his reach, and now is +doubly lost to him. Suddenly the waves are cloven asunder, and the +mother of Nature and of Wainamoinen appears, to comfort her son, like +Thetis from the deep. She bids him go and seek, in the land of Pohjola, +a bride alien to his race. After many a wild adventure, Wainamoinen +reaches Pohjola and is kindly entreated by Loutri, the mother of the +maiden of the land. But he grows homesick, and complains, almost in +Dante's words, of the bitter bread of exile. Loutri will only grant him +her daughter's hand on condition that he gives her a sampo. A sampo is a +mysterious engine that grinds meal, salt, and money. In fact, it is the +mill in the well-known fairy tale, 'Why the Sea is Salt.' {169} + +Wainamoinen cannot fashion this mill himself, he must seek aid at home +from Ilmarinen, the smith who forged 'the iron vault of hollow heaven.' +As the hero returns to Kalevala, he meets the Lady of the Rainbow, seated +on the arch of the sky, weaving the golden thread. She promises to be +his, if he will accomplish certain tasks, and in the course of those he +wounds himself with an axe. The wound can only be healed by one who +knows the mystic words that hold the secret of the birth of iron. The +legend of this evil birth, how iron grew from the milk of a maiden, and +was forged by the primeval smith, Ilmarinen, to be the bane of warlike +men, is communicated by Wainamoinen to an old magician. The wizard then +solemnly curses the iron, _as a living thing_, and invokes the aid of the +supreme God Ukko, thus bringing together in one prayer the extremes of +early religion. Then the hero is healed, and gives thanks to the +Creator, 'in whose hands is the end of a matter.' + +Returning to Kalevala, Wainamoinen sends Ilmarinen to Pohjola to make the +sampo, 'a mill for corn one day, for salt the next, for money the next.' +The fatal treasure is concealed by Loutri, and is obviously to play the +part of the fairy hoard in the 'Nibelungen Lied.' + +With the eleventh canto a new hero, Ahti, or Lemminkainen, and a new +cycle of adventures, is abruptly introduced. Lemminkainen is a +profligate wanderer, with as many loves as Hercules. The fact that he is +regarded as a form of the sea-god makes it strange that his most noted +achievement, the seduction of the whole female population of his island, +should correspond with a like feat of Krishna's. 'Sixteen thousand and +one hundred,' says the Vishnu Purana, 'was the number of the maidens; and +into so many forms did the son of Madhu multiply himself, so that every +one of the damsels thought that he had wedded her in her single person.' +Krishna is the sun, of course, and the maidens are the dew-drops; {170} +it is to be hoped that Lemminkainen's connection with sea-water may save +him from the solar hypothesis. His first regular marriage is unhappy, +and he is slain in trying to capture a bride from the people of Pohjola. +The black waters of the river of forgetfulness sweep him away, and his +comb, which he left with his mother, bursts out bleeding--a frequent +incident in Russian and other fairy tales. In many household tales, the +hero, before setting out on a journey, erects a stick which will fall +down when he is in distress, or death. The natives of Australia use this +form of divination in actual practice, tying round the stick some of the +hair of the person whose fate is to be ascertained. Then, like Demeter +seeking Persephone, the mother questions all the beings of the world, and +their answers show a wonderful poetic sympathy with the silent life of +Nature. 'The moon said, I have sorrows enough of my own, without +thinking of thy child. My lot is hard, my days are evil. I am born to +wander companionless in the night, to shine in the season of frost, to +watch through the endless winter, to fade when summer comes as king.' The +sun is kinder, and reveals the place of the hero's body. The mother +collects the scattered limbs, the birds bring healing balm from the +heights of heaven, and after a hymn to the goddess of man's blood, +Lemminkainen is made sound and well, as the scattered 'fragments of no +more a man' were united by the spell of Medea, like those of Osiris by +Isis, or of the fair countess by the demon blacksmith in the Russian +Marchen, or of the Carib hero mentioned by Mr. McLennan, {171} or of the +ox in the South African household tale. + +With the sixteenth canto we return to Wainamoinen, who, like all epic +heroes, visits the place of the dead, Tuonela. The maidens who play the +part of Charon are with difficulty induced to ferry over a man bearing no +mark of death by fire or sword or water. Once among the dead, +Wainamoinen refuses--being wiser than Psyche or Persephone--to taste of +drink. This 'taboo' is found in Japanese, Melanesian, and Red Indian +accounts of the homes of the dead. Thus the hero is able to return and +behold the stars. Arrived in the upper world, he warns men to 'beware of +perverting innocence, of leading astray the pure of heart; they that do +these things shall be punished eternally in the depths of Tuoni. There +is a place prepared for evil-doers, a bed of stones burning, rocks of +fire, worms and serpents.' This speech throws but little light on the +question of how far a doctrine of rewards and punishments enters into +primitive ideas of a future state. The 'Kalevala,' as we possess it, is +necessarily, though faintly, tinged with Christianity; and the peculiar +vices which are here threatened with punishment are not those which would +have been most likely to occur to the early heathen singers of this +runot. + +Wainamoinen and Ilmarinen now go together to Pohjola, but the fickle +maiden of the land prefers the young forger of the sampo to his elder and +imperturbable companion. Like a northern Medea, or like the Master-maid +in Dr. Dasent's 'Tales from the Norse,' or like the hero of the Algonquin +tale and the Samoan ballad, she aids her alien lover to accomplish the +tasks assigned to him. He ploughs with a plough of gold the adder-close, +or field of serpents; he bridles the wolf and the bear of the lower +world, and catches the pike that swim in the waters of forgetfulness. +After this, the parents cannot refuse their consent, the wedding-feast is +prepared, and all the world, except the seduisant Lemminkainen, is bidden +to the banquet. The narrative now brings in the ballads that are sung at +a Finnish marriage. + +First, the son-in-law enters the house of the parents of the bride, +saying, 'Peace abide with you in this illustrious hall.' The mother +answers, 'Peace be with you even in this lowly hut.' Then Wainamoinen +began to sing, and no man was so hardy as to clasp hands and contend with +him in song. Next follow the songs of farewell, the mother telling the +daughter of what she will have to endure in a strange home: 'Thy life was +soft and delicate in thy father's house. Milk and butter were ready to +thy hand; thou wert as a flower of the field, as a strawberry of the +wood; all care was left to the pines of the forest, all wailing to the +wind in the woods of barren lands. But now thou goest to another home, +to an alien mother, to doors that grate strangely on their hinges.' 'My +thoughts,' the maiden replies, 'are as a dark night of autumn, as a +cloudy day of winter; my heart is sadder than the autumn night, more +weary than the winter day.' The maid and the bridegroom are then +lyrically instructed in their duties: the girl is to be long-suffering, +the husband to try five years' gentle treatment before he cuts a willow +wand for his wife's correction. The bridal party sets out for home, a +new feast is spread, and the bridegroom congratulated on the courage he +must have shown in stealing a girl from a hostile tribe. + +While all is merry, the mischievous Lemminkainen sets out, an unbidden +guest, for Pohjola. On his way he encounters a serpent, which he slays +by the song of serpent-charming. In this 'mystic chain of verse' the +serpent is not addressed as the gentle reptile, god of southern peoples, +but is spoken of with all hatred and loathing: 'Black creeping thing of +the low lands, monster flecked with the colours of death, thou that hast +on thy skin the stain of the sterile soil, get thee forth from the path +of a hero.' After slaying the serpent, Lemminkainen reaches Pohjola, +kills one of his hosts, and fixes his head on one of a thousand stakes +for human skulls that stood about the house, as they might round the hut +of a Dyak in Borneo. He then flees to the isle of Saari, whence he is +driven for his heroic profligacy, and by the hatred of the only girl whom +he has _not_ wronged. This is a very pretty touch of human nature. + +He now meditates a new incursion into Pohjola. The mother of Pohjola (it +is just worth noticing that the leadership assumed by this woman points +to a state of society when the family was scarcely formed) calls to her +aid 'her child the Frost;' but the frost is put to shame by a hymn of the +invader's, a song against the Cold: 'The serpent was his foster-mother, +the serpent with her barren breasts; the wind of the north rocked his +cradle, and the ice-wind sang him to sleep, in the midst of the wild +marsh-land, where the wells of the waters begin.' It is a curious +instance of the animism, the vivid power of personifying all the beings +and forces of nature, which marks the 'Kalevala,' that the Cold speaks to +Lemminkainen in human voice, and seeks a reconciliation. + +At this part of the epic there is an obvious lacuna. The story goes to +Kullervo, a luckless man, who serves as shepherd to Ilmarinen. Thinking +himself ill-treated by the heroic smith's wife, the shepherd changes his +flock into bears and wolves, which devour their mistress. Then he +returns to his own home, where he learns that his sister has been lost +for many days, and is believed to be dead. Travelling in search of her +he meets a girl, loves her, and all unwittingly commits an inexpiable +offence. 'Then,' says the 'Kalevala,' 'came up the new dawn, and the +maiden spoke, saying, "What is thy race, bold young man, and who is thy +father?" Kullervo said, "I am the wretched son of Kalerva; but tell me, +what is thy race, and who is thy father?" Then said the maiden, "I am +the wretched daughter of Kalerva. Ah! would God that I had died, then +might I have grown with the green grass, and blossomed with the flowers, +and never known this sorrow." With this she sprang into the midst of the +foaming waves, and found peace in Tuoni, and rest in the waters of +forgetfulness.' Then there was no word for Kullervo, but the bitter moan +of the brother in the terrible Scotch ballad of the Bonny Hind, and no +rest but in death by his own sword, where grass grows never on his +sister's tomb. + +The epic now draws to a close. Ilmarinen seeks a new wife in Pohja, and +endeavours with Wainamoinen's help to recover the mystic sampo. On the +voyage, the Runoia makes a harp out of the bones of a monstrous fish, so +strange a harp that none may play it but himself. When he played, all +four-footed things came about him, and the white birds dropped down 'like +a storm of snow.' The maidens of the sun and the moon paused in their +weaving, and the golden thread fell from their hands. The Ancient One of +the sea-water listened, and the nymphs of the wells forgot to comb their +loose locks with the golden combs. All men and maidens and little +children wept, amid the silent joy of nature; nay, the great harper wept, +and _of his tears were pearls made_. + +In the war with Pohjola the heroes were victorious, but the sampo was +broken in the fight, and lost in the sea, and that, perhaps, is 'why the +sea is salt.' Fragments were collected, however, and Loutri, furious at +the success of the heroes of Kalevala, sent against them a bear, +destructive as the boar of Calydon. But Wainamoinen despatched the +monster, and the body was brought home with the bear-dance, and the hymn +of the bear. 'Oh, Otso,' cry the singers, 'be not angry that we come +near thee. The bear, the honey-footed bear, was born in lands between +sun and moon, and he died not by men's hands, but of his own will.' The +Finnish savants are probably right, who find here a trace of the beast- +worship which in many lands has placed the bear among the number of the +stars. Propitiation of the bear is practised by Red Indians, by the +Ainos of Japan, and (in the case of the 'native bear') by Australians. +The Red Indians have a myth to prove that the bear is immortal, does not +die, but, after his apparent death, rises again in another body. There +is no trace, however, that the Finns claimed, like the Danes, descent +from the bear. The Lapps, a people of confused belief, worshipped him +along with Thor, Christ, the sun, and the serpent. {176} + +But another cult, an alien creed, is approaching Kalevala. There is no +part of the epic more strange than the closing canto, which tells in the +wildest language, and through the most exaggerated forms of savage +imagination, the tale of the introduction of Christianity. Marjatta was +a maiden, 'as pure as the dew is, as holy as stars are that live without +stain.' As she fed her flocks, and listened to the singing of the golden +cuckoo, a berry fell into her bosom. After many days she bore a child, +and the people despised and rejected her, and she was thrust forth, and +her babe was born in a stable, and cradled in the manger. Who should +baptize the babe? The god of the wilderness refused, and Wainamoinen +would have had the young child slain. Then the infant rebuked the +ancient Demigod, who fled in anger to the sea, and with his magic song he +built a magic barque, and he sat therein, and took the helm in his hand. +The tide bore him out to sea, and he lifted his voice and sang: 'Times go +by, and suns shall rise and set, and then shall men have need of me, and +shall look for the promise of my coming that I may make a new sampo, and +a new harp, and bring back sunlight and moonshine, and the joy that is +banished from the world.' Then he crossed the waters, and gained the +limits of the sea, and the lower spaces of the sky. + +Here the strange poem ends at its strangest moment, with the cry, which +must have been uttered so often, but is heard here alone, of a people +reluctantly deserting the gods that it has fashioned in its own likeness, +for a faith that has not sprung from its needs or fears. Yet it +cherishes the hope that this tyranny shall pass over: 'they are gods, and +behold they shall die, and the waves be upon them at last.' + +As the 'Kalevala,' and as all relics of folklore, all Marchen and ballads +prove, the lower mythology--the elemental beliefs of the people--do +survive beneath a thin covering of Christian conformity. There are, in +fact, in religion, as in society, two worlds, of which the one does not +know how the other lives. The class whose literature we inherit, under +whose institutions we live, at whose shrines we worship, has changed as +outworn raiment its manners, its gods, its laws; has looked before and +after, has hoped and forgotten, has advanced from the wilder and grosser +to the purest faith. Beneath the progressive class, and beneath the +waves of this troublesome world, there exists an order whose primitive +form of human life has been far less changeful, a class which has put on +a mere semblance of new faiths, while half-consciously retaining the +remains of immemorial cults. + +Obviously, as M. Fauriel has pointed out in the case of the modern +Greeks, the life of such folk contains no element of progress, admits no +break in continuity. Conquering armies pass and leave them still reaping +the harvest of field and river; religions appear, and they are baptized +by thousands, but the lower beliefs and dreads that the progressive class +has outgrown remain unchanged. + +Thus, to take the instance of modern Greece, the high gods of the divine +race of Achilles and Agamemnon are forgotten, but the descendants of the +Penestae, the villeins of Thessaly, still dread the beings of the popular +creed, the Nereids, the Cyclopes, and the Lamia. {178} + +The last lesson we would attempt to gather from the 'Kalevala' is this: +that a comparison of the _thoroughly popular_ beliefs of all countries, +the beliefs cherished by the non-literary classes whose ballads and fairy +tales have only recently been collected, would probably reveal a general +identity, concealed by diversity of name, among the 'lesser people of the +skies,' the elves, fairies, Cyclopes, giants, nereids, brownies, lamiae. +It could then be shown that some of these spirits survive among the lower +beings of the mythology of what the Germans call a cultur-volk like the +Greeks or Romans. It could also be proved that much of the narrative +element in the classic epics is to be found in a popular or childish form +in primitive fairy tales. The question would then come to be, Have the +higher mythologies been developed, by artistic poets, out of the +materials of a race which remained comparatively untouched by culture; or +are the lower spirits, and the more simple and puerile forms of myth, +degradations of the inventions of a cultivated class? + + + + +THE DIVINING ROD. + + +There is something remarkable, and not flattering to human sagacity, in +the periodical resurrection of superstitions. Houses, for example, go on +being 'haunted' in country districts, and no educated man notices the +circumstance. Then comes a case like that of the Drummer of Tedworth, or +the Cock Lane Ghost, and society is deeply moved, philosophers plunge +into controversy, and he who grubs among the dusty tracts of the past +finds a world of fugitive literature on forgotten bogies. Chairs move +untouched by human hands, and tables walk about in lonely castles of +Savoy, and no one marks them, till a day comes when the furniture of some +American cottage is similarly afflicted, and then a shoddy new religion +is based on the phenomenon. The latest revival among old beliefs is +faith in the divining rod. 'Our liberal shepherds give it a _shorter_ +name,' and so do our conservative peasants, calling the 'rod of Jacob' +the 'twig.' To 'work the twig' is rural English for the craft of +Dousterswivel in the 'Antiquary,' and perhaps from this comes our slang +expression to 'twig,' or divine, the hidden meaning of another. Recent +correspondence in the newspapers has proved that, whatever may be the +truth about the 'twig,' belief in its powers is still very prevalent. +Respectable people are not ashamed to bear signed witness of its +miraculous powers of detecting springs of water and secret mines. It is +habitually used by the miners in the Mendips, as Mr. Woodward found ten +years ago; and forked hazel divining rods from the Mendips are a +recognised part of ethnological collections. There are two ways of +investigating the facts or fancies about the rod. One is to examine it +in its actual operation--a task of considerable labour, which will +doubtless be undertaken by the Society for Psychical Research; the other, +and easier, way is to study the appearances of the divining wand in +history, and that is what we propose to do in this article. + +When a superstition or belief is widely spread in Europe, as the faith in +the divining rod certainly is (in Germany rods are hidden under babies' +clothes when they are baptized), we naturally expect to find traces of it +in ancient times and among savages all over the modern world. We have +already examined, in 'The Bull-Roarer,' a very similar example. We saw +that there is a magical instrument--a small fish-shaped piece of thin +flat wood tied to a thong--which, when whirled in the air, produces a +strange noise, a compound of roar and buzz. This instrument is sacred +among the natives of Australia, where it is used to call together the +men, and to frighten away the women from the religious mysteries of the +males. The same instrument is employed for similar purposes in New +Mexico, and in South Africa and New Zealand--parts of the world very +widely distant from each other, and inhabited by very diverse races. It +has also been lately discovered that the Greeks used this toy, which they +called [Greek], in the Mysteries of Dionysus, and possibly it may be +identical with the mystica vannus Iacchi (Virgil, 'Georgics,' i. 166). +The conclusion drawn by the ethnologist is that this object, called +turndun by the Australians, is a very early savage invention, probably +discovered and applied to religious purposes in various separate centres, +and retained from the age of savagery in the mystic rites of Greeks and +perhaps of Romans. Well, do we find anything analogous in the case of +the divining rod? + +Future researches may increase our knowledge, but at present little or +nothing is known of the divining rod in classical ages, and not very much +(though that little is significant) among uncivilised races. It is true +that in all countries rods or wands, the Latin virga, have a magical +power. Virgil obtained his mediaeval repute as a wizard because his name +was erroneously connected with virgula, the magic wand. But we do not +actually know that the ancient wand of the enchantress Circe, in Homer, +or the wand of Hermes, was used, like the divining rod, to indicate the +whereabouts of hidden wealth or water. In the Homeric hymn to Hermes +(line 529), Apollo thus describes the caduceus, or wand of Hermes: +'Thereafter will I give thee a lovely wand of wealth and riches, a golden +wand with three leaves, which shall keep thee ever unharmed.' In later +art this wand, or caduceus, is usually entwined with serpents; but on one +vase, at least, the wand of Hermes is simply the forked twig of our +rustic miners and water-finders. The same form is found on an engraved +Etruscan mirror. {183} + +Now, was a wand of this form used in classical times to discover hidden +objects of value? That wands were used by Scythians and Germans in +various methods of casting lots is certain; but that is not the same +thing as the working of the twig. Cicero speaks of a fabled wand by +which wealth can be procured; but he says nothing of the method of its +use, and possibly was only thinking of the rod of Hermes, as described in +the Homeric hymn already quoted. There was a Roman play, by Varro, +called 'Virgula Divina'; but it is lost, and throws no light on the +subject. A passage usually quoted from Seneca has no more to do with the +divining rod than with the telephone. Pliny is a writer extremely fond +of marvels; yet when he describes the various modes of finding wells of +water, he says nothing about the divining wand. The isolated texts from +Scripture which are usually referred to clearly indicate wands of a +different sort, if we except Hosea iv. 12, the passage used as motto by +the author of 'Lettres qui decouvrent l'illusion des Philosophes sur la +Baguette' (1696). This text is translated in our Bible, 'My people ask +counsel at their stocks, _and their staff declareth unto them_! Now, we +have here no reference to the search for wells and minerals, but to a +form of divination for which the modern twig has ceased to be applied. In +rural England people use the wand to find water, but not to give advice, +or to detect thieves or murderers; but, as we shall see, the rod has been +very much used for these purposes within the last three centuries. + +This brings us to the moral powers of the twig; and here we find some +assistance in our inquiry from the practices of uncivilised races. In +1719 John Bell was travelling across Asia; he fell in with a Russian +merchant, who told him of a custom common among the Mongols. The Russian +had lost certain pieces of cloth, which were stolen out of his tent. The +Kutuchtu Lama ordered the proper steps to be taken to find out the thief. +'One of the Lamas took a bench with four feet, and after turning it in +several directions, at last it pointed directly to the tent where the +stolen goods were concealed. The Lama now mounted across the bench, and +soon carried it, or, as was commonly believed, it carried him, to the +very tent, where he ordered the damask to be produced. The demand was +directly complied with; for it is vain in such cases to offer any +excuse.' {184a} Here we have not a wand, indeed, but a wooden object +which turned in the direction, not of water or minerals, but of human +guilt. A better instance is given by the Rev. H. Rowley, in his account +of the Mauganja. {184b} A thief had stolen some corn. The medicine-man, +or sorcerer, produced two sticks, which he gave to four young men, two +holding each stick. The medicine-man danced and sang a magical +incantation, while a zebra-tail and a rattle were shaken over the holders +of the sticks. 'After a while, the men with the sticks had spasmodic +twitchings of the arms and legs; these increased nearly to convulsions. . +. . According to the native idea, _it was the sticks which were +possessed primarily_, and through them the men, _who could hardly hold +them_. The sticks whirled and dragged the men round and round like mad, +through bush and thorny shrub, and over every obstacle; nothing stopped +them; their bodies were torn and bleeding. At last they came back to the +assembly, whirled round again, and rushed down the path to fall panting +and exhausted in the hut of one of a chief's wives. The sticks, rolling +to her very feet, denounced her as a thief. She denied it; but the +medicine-man answered, "The spirit has declared her guilty; the spirit +never lies."' The woman, however, was acquitted, after a proxy trial by +ordeal: a cock, used as her proxy, threw up the muavi, or ordeal-poison. + +Here the points to be noted are, first, the violent movement of the +sticks, which the men could hardly hold; next, the physical agitation of +the men. The former point is illustrated by the confession of a civil +engineer writing in the 'Times.' This gentleman had seen the rod +successfully used for water; he was asked to try it himself, and he +determined that it should not twist in his hands 'if an ocean rolled +under his feet.' Twist it did, however, in spite of all his efforts to +hold it, when he came above a concealed spring. Another example is +quoted in the 'Quarterly Review,' vol. xxii. p. 374. A narrator, in whom +the editor had 'implicit confidence,' mentions how, when a lady held the +twig just over a hidden well, 'the twig turned so quick as to snap, +breaking near her fingers.' There seems to be no indiscretion in saying, +as the statement has often been printed before, that the lady spoken of +in the 'Quarterly Review' was Lady Milbanke, mother of the wife of Byron. +Dr. Hutton, the geologist, is quoted as a witness of her success in the +search for water with the divining rod. He says that, in an experiment +at Woolwich, 'the twigs twisted themselves off below her fingers, which +were considerably indented by so forcibly holding the rods between them.' +{186} Next, the violent excitement of the four young men of the Mauganja +is paralleled by the physical experience of the lady quoted in the +'Quarterly Review.' 'A degree of agitation was visible in her face when +she first made the experiment; she says this agitation was great' when +she began to practise the art, or whatever we are to call it. Again, in +'Lettres qui decouvrent l'illusion' (p. 93), we read that Jacques Aymar +(who discovered the Lyons murderer in 1692) se sent tout emu--feels +greatly agitated--when he comes on that of which he is in search. On +page 97 of the same volume, the body of the man who holds the divining +rod is described as 'violently agitated.' When Aymar entered the room +where the murder, to be described later, was committed, 'his pulse rose +as if he were in a burning fever, and the wand turned rapidly in his +hands' ('Lettres,' p. 107). But the most singular parallel to the +performance of the African wizard must be quoted from a curious pamphlet +already referred to, a translation of the old French 'Verge de Jacob,' +written, annotated, and published by a Mr. Thomas Welton. Mr. Welton +seems to have been a believer in mesmerism, animal magnetism, and similar +doctrines, but the coincidence of his story with that of the African +sorcerer is none the less remarkable. It is a coincidence which must +almost certainly be 'undesigned.' Mr. Welton's wife was what modern +occult philosophers call a 'Sensitive.' In 1851, he wished her to try an +experiment with the rod in a garden, and sent a maid-servant to bring 'a +certain stick that stood behind the parlour door. In great terror she +brought it to the garden, her hand firmly clutched on the stick, nor +could she let it go . . . ' The stick was given to Mrs. Welton, 'and it +drew her with very considerable force to nearly the centre of the garden, +to a bed of poppies, where she stopped.' Here water was found, and the +gardener, who had given up his lease as there was no well in the garden, +had the lease renewed. + +We have thus evidence to show (and much more might be adduced) that the +belief in the divining rod, or in analogous instruments, is not confined +to the European races. The superstition, or whatever we are to call it, +produces the same effects of physical agitation, and the use of the rod +is accompanied with similar phenomena among Mongols, English people, +Frenchmen, and the natives of Central Africa. The same coincidences are +found in almost all superstitious practices, and in the effects of these +practices on believers. The Chinese use a form of planchette, which is +half a divining rod--a branch of the peach tree; and 'spiritualism' is +more than three-quarters of the religion of most savage tribes, a Maori +seance being more impressive than anything the civilised Sludge can offer +his credulous patrons. From these facts different people draw different +inferences. Believers say that the wide distribution of their favourite +mysteries is a proof that 'there is something in them.' The incredulous +look on our modern 'twigs' and turning-tables and ghost stories as mere +'survivals' from the stage of savage culture, or want of culture, when +the fancy of half-starved man was active and his reason uncritical. + +The great authority for the modern history of the divining rod is a work +published by M. Chevreuil, in Paris, in 1854. M. Chevreuil, probably +with truth, regarded the wand as much on a par with the turning-tables, +which, in 1854, attracted a good deal of attention. He studied the topic +historically, and his book, with a few accessible French tracts and +letters of the seventeenth century, must here be our guide. A good deal +of M. Chevreuil's learning, it should be said, is reproduced in Mr. +Baring Gould's 'Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,' but the French author +is much more exhaustive in his treatment of the topic. M. Chevreuil +could find no earlier book on the twig than the 'Testament du Frere Basil +Valentin,' a holy man who flourished (the twig) about 1413; but whose +treatise is possibly apocryphal. According to Basil Valentin, the twig +was regarded with awe by ignorant labouring men, which is still true. +Paracelsus, though he has a reputation for magical daring, thought the +use of the twig 'uncertain and unlawful'; and Agricola, in his 'De Re +Metallica' (1546) expresses a good deal of scepticism about the use of +the rod in mining. A traveller of 1554 found that the wand was _not_ +used--and this seems to have surprised him--in the mines of Macedonia. +Most of the writers of the sixteenth century accounted for the turning of +the rod by 'sympathy,' which was then as favourite an explanation of +everything as evolution is to-day. In 1630 the Baron de Beau Soleil of +Bohemia (his name sounds rather Bohemian) came to France with his wife, +and made much use of the rod in the search for water and minerals. The +Baroness wrote a little volume on the subject, afterwards reprinted in a +great storehouse of this lore, 'La Physique Occulte,' of Vallemont. +Kircher, a Jesuit, made experiments which came to nothing; but Gaspard +Schott, a learned writer, cautiously declined to say that the Devil was +always 'at the bottom of it' when the rod turned successfully. The +problem of the rod was placed before our own Royal Society by Boyle, in +1666, but the Society was not more successful here than in dealing with +the philosophical difficulty proposed by Charles II. In 1679 De Saint +Remain, deserting the old hypothesis of secret 'sympathies,' explained +the motion of the rod (supposing it to move) by the action of +corpuscules. From this time the question became the playing ground of +the Cartesian and other philosophers. The struggle was between theories +of 'atoms,' magnetism, 'corpuscules,' electric effluvia, and so forth, on +one side, and the immediate action of devils or of conscious imposture, +on the other. The controversy, comparatively simple as long as the rod +only indicated hidden water or minerals, was complicated by the revival +of the savage belief that the wand could 'smell out' moral offences. As +long as the twig turned over material objects, you could imagine +sympathies and 'effluvia' at pleasure. But when the wand twirled over +the scene of a murder, or dragged the expert after the traces of the +culprit, fresh explanations were wanted. Le Brun wrote to Malebranche on +July 8, 1689, to tell him that the wand only turned over what the holder +had the _intention_ of discovering. {190} If he were following a +murderer, the wand good-naturedly refused to distract him by turning over +hidden water. On the other hand, Vallemont says that when a peasant was +using the wand to find water, it turned over a spot in a wood where a +murdered woman was buried, and it conducted the peasant to the murderer's +house. These events seem inconsistent with Le Brun's theory of +_intention_. Malebranche replied, in effect, that he had only heard of +the turning of the wand over water and minerals; that it then turned (if +turn it did) by virtue of some such force as electricity; that, if such +force existed, the wand would turn over open water. But it does not so +turn; and, as physical causes are constant, it follows that the turning +of the rod cannot be the result of a physical cause. The only other +explanation is an intelligent cause--either the will of an impostor, or +the action of a spirit. Good spirits would not meddle with such matters; +therefore either the Devil or an impostor causes the motion of the rod, +if it _does_ move at all. This logic of Malebranche's is not agreeable +to believers in the twig; but there the controversy stood, till, in 1692, +Jacques Aymar, a peasant of Dauphine, by the use of the twig discovered +one of the Lyons murderers. + +Though the story of this singular event is pretty well known, it must +here be briefly repeated. No affair can be better authenticated, and our +version is abridged from the 'Relations' of 'Monsieur le Procureur du +Roi, Monsieur l'Abbe de la Garde, Monsieur Panthot, Doyen des Medecins de +Lyon, et Monsieur Aubert, Avocat celebre.' + +On July 5, 1692, a vintner and his wife were found dead in the cellar of +their shop at Lyons. They had been killed by blows from a hedging-knife, +and their money had been stolen. The culprits could not be discovered, +and a neighbour took upon him to bring to Lyons a peasant out of +Dauphine, named Jacques Aymar, a man noted for his skill with the +divining rod. The Lieutenant-Criminel and the Procureur du Roi took +Aymar into the cellar, furnishing him with a rod of the first wood that +came to hand. According to the Procureur du Roi, the rod did not move +till Aymar reached the very spot where the crime had been committed. His +pulse then rose, and the wand twisted rapidly. 'Guided by the wand or by +some internal sensation,' Aymar now pursued the track of the assassins, +entered the court of the Archbishop's palace, left the town by the bridge +over the Rhone, and followed the right bank of the river. He reached a +gardener's house, which he declared the men had entered, and some +children confessed that three men (_whom they described_) had come into +the house one Sunday morning. Aymar followed the track up the river, +pointed out all the places where the men had landed, and, to make a long +story short, stopped at last at the door of the prison of Beaucaire. He +was admitted, looked at the prisoners, and picked out as the murderer a +little hunchback (had the children described a hunchback?) who had just +been brought in for a small theft. The hunchback was taken to Lyons, and +he was recognised, on the way, by the people at all the stages where he +had stopped. At Lyons he was examined in the usual manner, and confessed +that he had been an accomplice in the crime, and had guarded the door. +Aymar pursued the other culprits to the coast, followed them by sea, +landed where they had landed, and only desisted from his search when they +crossed the frontier. As for the hunchback, he was broken on the wheel, +being condemned on his own confession. It does not appear that he was +put to the torture to make him confess. If this had been done his +admissions would, of course, have been as valueless as those of the +victims in trials for witchcraft. + +This is, in brief, the history of the famous Lyons murders. It must be +added that many experiments were made with Aymar in Paris, and that they +were all failures. He fell into every trap that was set for him; +detected thieves who were innocent, failed to detect the guilty, and +invented absurd excuses; alleging, for example, that the rod would not +indicate a murderer who had confessed, or who was drunk when he committed +his crime. These excuses seem to annihilate the wild contemporary theory +of Chauvin and others, that the body of a murderer naturally exhales an +invisible matiere meurtriere--peculiar indestructible atoms, which may be +detected by the expert with the rod. Something like the same theory, we +believe, has been used to explain the pretended phenomena of haunted +houses. But the wildest philosophical credulity is staggered by a +matiere meurtriere which is disengaged by the body of a sober, but not by +that of an intoxicated, murderer, which survives tempests in the air, and +endures for many years, but is dissipated the moment the murderer +confesses. Believers in Aymar have conjectured that his real powers were +destroyed by the excitements of Paris, and that he took to imposture; but +this is an effort of too easy good-nature. When Vallemont defended Aymar +(1693) in the book called 'La Physique Occulte,' he declared that Aymar +was physically affected to an unpleasant extent by matiere meurtriere, +but was not thus agitated when he used the rod to discover minerals. We +have seen that, if modern evidence can be trusted, holders of the rod are +occasionally much agitated even when they are only in search of wells. +The story gave rise to a prolonged controversy, and the case remains a +judicial puzzle, but little elucidated by the confession of the +hunchback, who may have been insane, or morbid, or vexed by constant +questioning till he was weary of his life. He was only nineteen years of +age. + +The next use of the rod was very much like that of 'tipping' and turning +tables. Experts held it (as did Le Pere Menestrier, 1694), questions +were asked, and the wand answered by turning in various directions. By +way of showing the inconsistency of all philosophies of the wand, it may +be said that one girl found that it turned over concealed gold if she +held gold in her hand, while another found that it indicated the metal so +long as she did _not_ carry gold with her in the quest. In the search +for water, ecclesiastics were particularly fond of using the rod. The +Marechal de Boufflers dug many wells, and found no water, on the +indications of a rod in the hands of the Prieur de Dorenic, near Guise. +In 1700 a cure, near Toulouse, used the wand to answer questions, which, +like planchette, it often answered wrong. The great sourcier, or water- +finder, of the eighteenth century was one Bleton. He declared that the +rod was a mere index, and that physical sensations of the searcher +communicated themselves to the wand. This is the reverse of the African +theory, that the stick is inspired, while the men who hold it are only +influenced by the stick. On the whole, Bleton's idea seems the less +absurd, but Bleton himself often failed when watched with scientific care +by the incredulous. Paramelle, who wrote on methods of discovering +wells, in 1856, came to the conclusion that the wand turns in the hands +of certain individuals of peculiar temperament, and that it is very much +a matter of chance whether there are, or are not, wells in the places +where it turns. + +On the whole, the evidence for the turning of the wand is a shade better +than that for the magical turning of tables. If there are no phenomena +of this sort at all, it is remarkable that the belief in them is so +widely diffused. But if the phenomena are purely subjective, owing to +the conscious or unconscious action of nervous patients, then they are +precisely of the sort which the cunning medicine-man observes, and makes +his profit out of, even in the earliest stages of society. Once +introduced, these practices never die out among the conservative and +unprogressive class of peasants; and, every now and then, they attract +the curiosity of philosophers, or win the belief of the credulous among +the educated classes. Then comes, as we have lately seen, a revival of +ancient superstition. For it were as easy to pluck the comet out of the +sky by the tail, as to eradicate superstition from the mind of man. + +Perhaps one good word may be said for the divining rod. Considering the +chances it has enjoyed, the rod has done less mischief than might have +been expected. It might very well have become, in Europe, as in Asia and +Africa, a kind of ordeal, or method of searching for and trying +malefactors. Men like Jacques Aymar might have played, on a larger +scale, the part of Hopkins, the witch-finder. Aymar was, indeed, +employed by some young men to point out, by help of the wand, the houses +of ladies who had been more frail than faithful. But at the end of the +seventeenth century in France, this research was not regarded with +favour, and put the final touch on the discomfiture of Aymar. So far as +we know, the hunchback of Lyons was the only victim of the 'twig' who +ever suffered in civilised society. It is true that, in rural England, +the movements of a Bible, suspended like a pendulum, have been thought to +point out the guilty. But even that evidence is not held good enough to +go to a jury. + + + + +HOTTENTOT MYTHOLOGY. + + +'What makes mythology mythological, in the true sense of the word, is +what is utterly unintelligible, absurd, strange, or miraculous.' So says +Mr. Max Muller in the January number of the Nineteenth Century for 1882. +Men's attention would never have been surprised into the perpetual study +and questioning of mythology if it had been intelligible and dignified, +and if its report had been in accordance with the reason of civilised and +cultivated races. What mythologists wish to discover is the origin of +the countless disgusting, amazing, and incongruous legends which occur in +the myths of all known peoples. According to Mr. Muller-- + + There are only two systems possible in which the irrational element in + mythology can be accounted for. One school takes the irrational as a + matter of fact; and if we read that Daphne fled before Phoebus, and + was changed into a laurel tree, that school would say that there + probably was a young lady called Aurora, like, for instance, Aurora + Konigsmark; that a young man called Robin, or possibly a man with red + hair, pursued her, and that she hid behind a laurel tree that happened + to be there. This was the theory of Euhemeros, re-established by the + famous Abbe Bernier [Mr. Muller doubtless means Banier], and not quite + extinct even now. According to another school, the irrational element + in mythology is inevitable, and due to the influence of language on + thought, so that many of the legends of gods and heroes may be + rendered intelligible if only we can discover the original meaning of + their proper names. The followers of this school try to show that + Daphne, the laurel tree, was an old name for the dawn, and that + Phoibos was one of the many names of the sun, who pursued the dawn + till she vanished before his rays. Of these two schools, the former + has always appealed to the mythologies of savage nations, as showing + that gods and heroes were originally human beings, worshipped after + their death as ancestors and as gods, while the latter has confined + itself chiefly to an etymological analysis of mythological names in + Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, and other languages, such as had been + sufficiently studied to admit of a scientific, grammatical, and + etymological treatment. + +This is a long text for our remarks on Hottentot mythology; but it is +necessary to prove that there are not two schools only of mythologists: +that there are inquirers who neither follow the path of the Abbe Banier, +nor of the philologists, but a third way, unknown to, or ignored by Mr. +Muller. We certainly were quite unaware that Banier and Euhemeros were +very specially concerned, as Mr. Muller thinks, with savage mythology; +but it is by aid of savage myths that the school unknown to Mr. Muller +examines the myths of civilised peoples like the Greeks. The disciples +of Mr. Muller interpret all the absurdities of Greek myth, the gods who +are beasts on occasion, the stars who were men, the men who become +serpents or deer, the deities who are cannibals and parricides and +adulterers, as the result of the influence of Aryan speech upon Aryan +thought. Men, in Mr. Muller's opinion, had originally pure ideas about +the gods, and expressed them in language which we should call figurative. +The figures remained, when their meaning was lost; the names were then +supposed to be gods, the nomina became numina, and out of the +inextricable confusion of thought which followed, the belief in cannibal, +bestial, adulterous, and incestuous gods was evolved. That is Mr. +Muller's hypothesis; with him the evolution, a result of a disease of +language, has been from early comparative purity to later religious +abominations. Opposed to him is what may be called the school of Mr. +Herbert Spencer: the modern Euhemerism, which recognises an element of +historical truth in myths, as if the characters had been real characters, +and which, in most gods, beholds ancestral ghosts raised to a higher +power. + +There remains a third system of mythical interpretation, though Mr. +Muller says only two methods are possible. The method, in this third +case, is to see whether the irrational features and elements of civilised +Greek myth occur also in the myths of savages who speak languages quite +unlike those from whose diseases Mr. Muller derives the corruption of +religion. If the same features recur, are they as much in harmony with +the mental habits of savages, such as Bushmen and Hottentots, as they are +out of accord with the mental habits of civilised Greeks? If this +question can be answered in the affirmative, then it may be provisionally +assumed that the irrational elements of savage myth are the legacy of +savage modes of thought, and have survived in the religion of Greece from +a time when the ancestors of the Greeks were savages. But inquirers who +use this method do not in the least believe that either Greek or savage +gods were, for the more part, originally real men. Both Greeks and +savages have worshipped the ghosts of the dead. Both Greeks and savages +assign to their gods the miraculous powers of transformation and magic, +which savages also attribute to their conjurers or shamans. The mantle +(if he had a mantle) of the medicine-man has fallen on the god; but Zeus, +or Indra, was not once a real medicine-man. A number of factors combine +in the conception of Indra, or Zeus, as either god appears in Sanskrit or +Greek literature, of earlier or later date. Our school does not hold +anything so absurd as that Daphne was a real girl pursued by a young man. +But it has been observed that, among most savage races, metamorphoses +like that of Daphne not only exist in mythology, but are believed to +occur very frequently in actual life. Men and women are supposed to be +capable of turning into plants (as the bamboo in Sarawak), into animals, +and stones, and stars, and those metamorphoses happen as contemporary +events--for example, in Samoa. {200} + +When Mr. Lane was living at Cairo, and translating the 'Arabian Nights,' +he found that the people still believed in metamorphosis. Any day, just +as in the 'Arabian Nights,' a man might find himself turned by an +enchanter into a pig or a horse. Similar beliefs, not derived from +language, supply the matter of the senseless incidents in Greek myths. + +Savage mythology is also full of metamorphoses. Therefore the +mythologists whose case we are stating, when they find identical +metamorphoses in the classical mythologies, conjecture that these were +first invented when the ancestors of the Aryans were in the imaginative +condition in which a score of rude races are to-day. This explanation +they apply to many other irrational elements in mythology. They do not +say, 'Something like the events narrated in these stories once occurred,' +nor 'A disease of language caused the belief in such events,' but 'These +stories were invented when men were capable of believing in their +occurrence as a not unusual sort of incident' + +Philologists attempt to explain the metamorphoses as the result of some +oblivion and confusion of language. Apollo, they say, was called the +'wolf-god' (Lukeios) by accident: his name really meant the 'god of +light.' A similar confusion made the 'seven shiners' into the 'seven +bears.' {201} These explanations are distrusted, partly because the area +to be covered by them is so vast. There is scarcely a star, tree, or +beast, but it has been a man or woman once, if we believe civilised and +savage myth. Two or three possible examples of myths originating in +forgetfulness of the meaning of words, even if admitted, do not explain +the incalculable crowd of metamorphoses. We account for these by saying +that, to the savage mind, which draws no hard and fast line between man +and nature, all such things are possible; possible enough, at least, to +be used as incidents in story. Again, as has elsewhere been shown, the +laxity of philological reasoning is often quite extraordinary; while, +lastly, philologists of the highest repute flatly contradict each other +about the meaning of the names and roots on which they agree in founding +their theory. {202a} + +By way of an example of the philological method as applied to savage +mythology, we choose a book in many ways admirable, Dr. Hahn's 'Tsuni +Goam, the Supreme Being of the Khoi Khoi.' {202b} This book is sometimes +appealed to as a crushing argument against the mythologists who adopt the +method we have just explained. Let us see if the blow be so very +crushing. To put the case in a nutshell, the Hottentots have commonly +been described as a race which worshipped a dead chief, or conjurer--Tsui +Goab his name is, meaning Wounded Knee, a not unlikely name for a savage. +Dr. Hahn, on the other hand, labours to show that the Hottentots +originally worshipped no dead chief, but (as a symbol of the Infinite) +the Red Dawn. The meaning of the name Red Dawn, he says, was lost; the +words which meant Red Dawn were erroneously supposed to mean Wounded +Knee, and thus arose the adoration and the myths of a dead chief, or +wizard, Tsui Goab, Wounded Knee. Clearly, if this can be proved, it is +an excellent case for the philological school, an admirable example of a +myth produced by forgetfulness of the meaning of words. Our own opinion +is that, even if Tsui Goab originally meant Red Dawn, the being, as now +conceived of by his adorers, is bedizened in the trappings of the dead +medicine-man, and is worshipped just as ghosts of the dead are +worshipped. Thus, whatever his origin, his myth is freely coloured by +the savage fancy and by savage ideas, and we ask no more than this +colouring to explain the wildest Greek myths. What truly 'primitive' +religion was, we make no pretence to know. We only say that, whether +Greek religion arose from a pure fountain or not, its stream had flowed +through and been tinged by the soil of savage thought, before it widens +into our view in historical times. But it will be shown that the logic +which connects Tsui Goab with the Red Dawn is far indeed from being +cogent. + +Tsui Goab is thought by the Hottentots themselves to be a dead man, and +it is admitted that among the Hottentots dead men are adored. 'Cairns +are still objects of worship,' {203a} and Tsui Goab lies beneath several +cairns. Again, soothsayers are believed in (p. 24), and Tsui Goab is +regarded as a deceased soothsayer. As early as 1655, a witness quoted by +Hahn saw women worshipping at one of the cairns of Heitsi Eibib, another +supposed ancestral being. Kolb, the old Dutch traveller, found that the +Hottentots, like the Bushmen, revered the mantis insect. This creature +they called Gaunab. They also had some moon myths, practised adoration +of the moon, and danced at dawn. Thunberg (1792) saw the cairn-worship, +and, on asking its meaning, was told that a Hottentot lay buried there. +{203b} Thunberg also heard of the worship of the mantis, or grey +grasshopper. In 1803 Liechtenstein noted the cairn-worship, and was told +that a renowned Hottentot doctor of old times rested under the cairn. +Appleyard's account of 'the name God in Khoi Khoi, or Hottentot,' +deserves quoting in full:-- + + Hottentot: Tsoei'koap. + Namaqua: Tsoei'koap. + Koranna: Tshu'koab, and the author adds: 'This is the word from which + the Kafirs have probably derived their u-Tixo, a term which they have + universally applied, like the Hottentots, to designate the Divine + Being, since the introduction of Christianity. Its derivation is + curious. It consists of two words, which together mean the "wounded + knee." It is said to have been originally applied to a doctor or + sorcerer of considerable notoriety and skill amongst the Hottentots or + Namaquas some generations back, in consequence of his having received + some injury in his knee. Having been held in high repute for + extraordinary powers during life, he appeared to be invoked even after + death, as one who could still relieve and protect; and hence, in + process of time, he became nearest in idea to their first conceptions + of God.' + +Other missionaries make old Wounded Knee a good sort of being on the +whole, who fights Gaunab, a bad being. Dr. Moffat heard that 'Tsui Kuap' +was 'a notable warrior,' who once received a wound in the knee. Sir +James Alexander {204} found that the Namaquas believed their 'great +father' lay below the cairns on which they flung boughs. This great +father was Heitsi Eibib, and, like other medicine-men, 'he could take +many forms.' Like Tsui Goab, he died several times and rose again. Hahn +gives (p. 61) a long account of the Wounded Knee from an old chief, and a +story of the battle between Tsui Goab, who 'lives in a beautiful heaven,' +and Gaunab, who 'lives in a dark heaven.' As this chief had dwelt among +missionaries very long, we may perhaps discount his remarks on 'heaven' +as borrowed. Hahn thinks they refer to the red sky in which Tsui Goab +lived, and to the black sky which was the home of Gaunab. The two +characters in this crude religious dualism thus inhabit light and +darkness respectively. + +* * * * * + +As far as we have gone, Tsui Goab, like Heitsi Eibib among the Namas, is +a dead sorcerer, whose graves are worshipped, while, with a common +inconsistency, he is also thought of as dwelling in the sky. Even +Christians often speak of the dead with similar inconsistency. Tsui +Goab's worship is intelligible enough among a people so credulous that +they took Hahn himself for a conjurer (p. 81), and so given to ancestor- +worship that Hahn has seen them worship their own fathers' graves, and +expect help from men recently dead (pp. 112, 113). But, while the Khoi +Khoi think that Tsui Goab was once a real man, we need not share their +Euhemerism. More probably, like Unkulunkulu among the Zulus, Tsui Goab +is an ideal, imaginary ancestral sorcerer and god. No one man requires +many graves, and Tsui Goab has more than Osiris possessed in Egypt. {205} + +If the Egyptians in some immeasurably distant past were once on the level +of Namas and Hottentots, they would worship Osiris at as many barrows as +Heitsi Eibib and Tsui Goab are adored. In later times the numerous +graves of one being would require explanation, and explanations would be +furnished by the myth that the body of Osiris was torn to pieces and each +fragment buried in a separate tomb. + +Again, lame gods occur in Greek, Australian, and Brazilian creeds, and +the very coincidence of Tsui Goab's lameness makes us sceptical about his +claims to be a real dead man. On the other hand, when Hahn tells us that +epical myths are now sung in the dances in honour of warriors lately +slain (p. 103), and that similar dances and songs were performed in the +past to honour Tsui Goab, this looks more as if Tsui Goab had been an +actual person. Against this we must set (p. 105) the belief that Tsui +Goab made the first man and woman, and was the Prometheus of the +Hottentots. + +* * * * * + +So far Dr. Hahn has given us facts which entirely fit in with our theory +that an ancestor-worshipping people, believing in metamorphosis and +sorcery, adores a god who is supposed to be a deceased ancestral sorcerer +with the power of magic and metamorphosis. But now Dr. Hahn offers his +own explanation. According to the philological method, he will 'study +the names of the persons, until we arrive at the naked root and original +meanings of the words.' Starting then with Tsui Goab, whom all evidence +declares to be a dead lame conjurer and warrior, Dr. Hahn avers that +'Tsui Goab, originally Tsuni Goam, was the name by which the Red Men +called the Infinite.' As the Frenchman said of the derivation of jour +from _dies_, we may hint that the Infinite thus transformed into a lame +Hottentot 'bush-doctor' is diablement change en route. To a dead lame +sorcerer from the Infinite is a fall indeed. The process of the decline +is thus described. Tsui Goab is composed of two roots, tsu and goa. Goa +means 'to go on,' 'to come on.' In Khoi Khoi goa-b means 'the coming on +one,' the dawn, and goa-b also means 'the knee.' Dr. Hahn next writes +(making a logical leap of extraordinary width), 'it is now obvious that, +//goab in Tsui Goab cannot be translated with knee,'--why not?--'but we +have to adopt the other metaphorical meaning, the _approaching_ day, i.e. +the dawn.' Where is the necessity? In ordinary philology, we should +here demand a number of attested examples of goab, in the sense of dawn, +but in Khoi Khoi we cannot expect such evidence, as there are probably no +texts. Next, after arbitrarily deciding that all Khoi Khois +misunderstand their own tongue (for that is what the rendering here of +goab by 'dawn' comes to), Dr. Hahn examines tsu, in Tsui. Tsu means +'sore,' 'wounded,' 'painful,' as in 'wounded knee'--Tsui Goab. This does +not help Dr Hahn, for 'wounded dawn' means nothing. But he reflects that +a wound is red, tsu means wounded: therefore tsu means red, therefore +Tsui Goab is the Red Dawn. Q.E.D. + +This kind of reasoning is obviously fallacious. Dr. Hahn's point could +only be made by bringing forward examples in which tsu is employed to +mean red in Khoi Khoi. Of this use of the word tsu he does not give one +single instance, though on this point his argument depends. His +etymology is not strengthened by the fact that Tsui Goab has once been +said to live in the red sky. A red house is not necessarily tenanted by +a red man. Still less is the theory supported by the hymn which says +Tsui Goab paints himself with red ochre. Most idols, from those of the +Samoyeds to the Greek images of Dionysus, are and have been daubed with +red. By such reasoning is Tsui Goab proved to be the Red Dawn, while his +gifts of prophecy (which he shares with all soothsayers) are accounted +for as attributes of dawn, of the Vedic Saranyu. + +Turning from Tsui Goab to his old enemy Gaunab, we learn that his name is +derived from //gau, 'to destroy,' and, according to old Hottentot ideas, +'no one was the destroyer but the night' (p. 126). There is no apparent +reason why the destroyer should be the night, and the night alone, any +more than why 'a lame broken knee' should be 'red' (p. 126). Besides (p. +85), Gaunab is elsewhere explained, not as the night, but as the +malevolent ghost which is thought to kill people who die what we call a +'natural' death. Unburied men change into this sort of vampire, just as +Elpenor, in the Odyssey, threatens, if unburied, to become mischievous. +There is another Gaunab, the mantis insect, which is worshipped by +Hottentots and Bushmen (p. 92). It appears that the two Gaunabs are +differently pronounced. However that may be, a race which worships an +insect might well worship a dead medicine-man. + +* * * * * + +The conclusion, then, to be drawn from an examination of Hottentot +mythology is merely this, that the ideas of a people will be reflected in +their myths. A people which worships the dead, believes in sorcerers and +in prophets, and in metamorphosis, will have for its god (if he can be +called a god) a being who is looked on as a dead prophet and sorcerer. He +will be worshipped with such rites as dead men receive; he will be mixed +up in such battles as living men wage, and will be credited with the +skill which living sorcerers claim. All these things meet in the legend +of Tsui Goab, the so-called 'supreme being' of the Hottentots. His +connection with the dawn is not supported by convincing argument or +evidence. The relation of the dawn to the Infinite again rests on +nothing but a theory of Mr. Max Muller's. {209} His adversary, though +recognised as the night, is elsewhere admitted to have been, originally, +a common vampire. Finally, the Hottentots, a people not much removed +from savagery, have a mythology full of savage and even disgusting +elements. And this is just what we expect from Hottentots. The puzzle +is when we find myths as low as the story of the incest of Heitsi Eibib +among the Greeks. The reason for this coincidence is that, in Dr. Hahn's +words, 'the same objects and the same phenomena in nature will give rise +to the same ideas, whether social or mythical, among different races of +mankind,' especially when these races are in the same well-defined state +of savage fancy and savage credulity. + +Dr. Hahn's book has been regarded as a kind of triumph over inquirers who +believe that ancestor-worship enters into myth, and that the purer +element in myth is the later. But where is the triumph? Even on Dr. +Hahn's own showing, ancestor-worship among the Hottentots has swamped the +adoration of the Infinite. It may be said that Dr. Hahn has at least +proved the adoration of the Infinite to be earlier than ancestor-worship. +But it has been shown that his attempt to establish a middle stage, to +demonstrate that the worshipped ancestor was really the Red Dawn, is not +logical nor convincing. Even if that middle stage were established, it +is a far cry from the worship of Dawn (supposed by the Australians to be +a woman of bad character in a cloak of red' possum-skin) to the adoration +of the Infinite. Our own argument has been successful if we have shown +that there are not only two possible schools of mythological +interpretation--the Euhemeristic, led by Mr. Spencer, and the +Philological, led by Mr. Max Muller. We have seen that it is possible to +explain the legend of Tsui Goab without either believing him to have been +a real historical person (as Mr. Spencer may perhaps believe), or his +myth to have been the result of a 'disease of language' as Mr. Muller +supposes. We have explained the legend and worship of a supposed dead +conjurer as natural to a race which believes in conjurers and worships +dead men. Whether he was merely an ideal ancestor and warrior, or +whether an actual man has been invested with what divine qualities Tsui +Goab enjoys, it is impossible to say; but, if he ever lived, he has long +been adorned with ideal qualities and virtues which he never possessed. +The conception of the powerful ancestral ghost has been heightened and +adorned with some novel attributes of power: the conception of the +Infinite has not been degraded, by forgetfulness of language, to the +estate of an ancestral ghost with a game leg. + +* * * * * + +If this view be correct, myth is the result of thought, far more than of +a disease of language. The comparative importance of language and +thought was settled long ago, in our sense, by no less a person than +Pragapati, the Sanskrit Master of Life. + +'Now a dispute once took place between Mind and Speech, as to which was +the better of the two. Both Mind and Speech said, "I am excellent!" Mind +said, "Surely I am better than thou, for thou dost not speak anything +that is not understood by me; and since thou art only an imitator of what +is done by me and a follower in my wake, I am surely better than thou!" +Speech said, "Surely I am better than thou, for what thou knowest I make +known, I communicate." They went to appeal to Pragapati for his +decision. He (Pragapati) decided in favour of Mind, saying (to Speech), +"Mind is indeed better than thou, for thou art an imitator of its deeds, +and a follower in its wake; and inferior, surely, is he who imitates his +better's deeds, and follows in his wake."' + +So saith the 'Satapatha Brahmana.' {211} + + + + +FETICHISM AND THE INFINITE. + + +What is the true place of Fetichism, to use a common but unscientific +term, in the history of religious evolution? Some theorists have made +fetichism, that is to say, the adoration of odds and ends (with which +they have confused the worship of animals, of mountains, and even of the +earth), the first moment in the development of worship. Others, again, +think that fetichism is 'a corruption of religion, in Africa, as +elsewhere.' The latter is the opinion of Mr Max Muller, who has stated +it in his 'Hibbert Lectures,' on 'The Origin and Growth of Religion, +especially as illustrated by the Religions of India.' It seems probable +that there is a middle position between these two extremes. Students may +hold that we hardly know enough to justify us in talking about the +_origin_ of religion, while at the same time they may believe that +Fetichism is one of the earliest traceable steps by which men climbed to +higher conceptions of the supernatural. Meanwhile Mr. Max Muller +supports his own theory, that fetichism is a 'parasitical growth,' a +'corruption' of religion, by arguments mainly drawn from historical study +of savage creeds, and from the ancient religious documents of India. + +These documents are to English investigators ignorant of Sanskrit 'a book +sealed with seven seals.' The Vedas are interpreted in very different +ways by different Oriental scholars. It does not yet appear to be known +whether a certain word in the Vedic funeral service means 'goat' or +'soul'! Mr. Max Muller's rendering is certain to have the first claim on +English readers, and therefore it is desirable to investigate the +conclusions which he draws from his Vedic studies. The ordinary +anthropologist must first, however, lodge a protest against the tendency +to look for _primitive_ matter in the Vedas. They are the elaborate +hymns of a specially trained set of poets and philosophers, living in an +age almost of civilisation. They can therefore contain little testimony +as to what man, while still 'primitive,' thought about God, the world, +and the soul. One might as well look for the first germs of religion, +for _primitive_ religion strictly so called, in 'Hymns Ancient and +Modern' as in the Vedas. It is chiefly, however, by way of deductions +from the Vedas, that Mr. Max Muller arrives at ideas which may be briefly +and broadly stated thus: he inclines to derive religion from man's sense +of the Infinite, as awakened by natural objects calculated to stir that +sense. Our position is, on the other hand, that the germs of the +religious sense in early man are developed, not so much by the vision of +the Infinite, as by the idea of Power. Early religions, in short, are +selfish, not disinterested. The worshipper is not contemplative, so much +as eager to gain something to his advantage. In fetiches, he ignorantly +recognises something that possesses power of an abnormal sort, and the +train of ideas which leads him to believe in and to treasure fetiches is +one among the earliest springs of religious belief. + +Mr. Muller's opinion is the very reverse: he believes that a +contemplative and disinterested emotion in the presence of the Infinite, +or of anything that suggests infinitude or is mistaken for the Infinite, +begets human religion, while of this religion fetichism is a later +corruption. + +* * * * * + +In treating of fetichism Mr. Muller is obliged to criticise the system of +De Brosses, who introduced this rather unfortunate term to science, in an +admirable work, 'Le Culte des Dieux Fetiches' (1760). We call the work +'admirable,' because, considering the contemporary state of knowledge and +speculation, De Brosses's book is brilliant, original, and only now and +then rash or confused. Mr. Muller says that De Brosses 'holds that all +nations had to begin with fetichism, to be followed afterwards by +polytheism and monotheism.' This sentence would lead some readers to +suppose that De Brosses, in his speculations, was looking for the origin +of religion; but, in reality, his work is a mere attempt to explain a +certain element in ancient religion and mythology. De Brosses was well +aware that heathen religions were a complex mass, a concretion of many +materials. He admits the existence of regard for the spirits of the dead +as one factor, he gives Sabaeism a place as another. But what chiefly +puzzles him, and what he chiefly tries to explain, is the worship of odds +and ends of rubbish, and the adoration of animals, mountains, trees, the +sun, and so forth. When he masses all these worships together, and +proposes to call them all Fetichism (a term derived from the Portuguese +word for a talisman), De Brosses is distinctly unscientific. But De +Brosses is distinctly scientific when he attempts to explain the animal- +worship of Egypt, and the respect paid by Greeks and Romans to shapeless +stones, as survivals of older savage practices. + +The position of De Brosses is this: Old mythology and religion are a +tissue of many threads. Sabaeism, adoration of the dead, mythopoeic +fancy, have their part in the fabric. Among many African tribes, a form +of theism, Islamite or Christian, or self-developed, is superimposed on a +mass of earlier superstitions. Among these superstitions, is the worship +of animals and plants, and the cult of rough stones and of odds and ends +of matter. What is the origin of this element, so prominent in the +religion of Egypt, and present, if less conspicuous, in the most ancient +temples of Greece? It is the survival, answers De Brosses, of ancient +practices like those of untutored peoples, as Brazilians, Samoyeds, +Negroes, whom the Egyptians and Pelasgians once resembled in lack of +culture. + +This, briefly stated, is the hypothesis of De Brosses. If he had +possessed our wider information, he would have known that, among savage +races, the worships of the stars, of the dead, and of plants and animals, +are interlaced by the strange metaphysical processes of wild men. He +would, perhaps, have kept the supernatural element in magical stones, +feathers, shells, and so on, apart from the triple thread of Sabaeism, +ghost-worship, and totemism, with its later development into the regular +worship of plants and animals. It must be recognised, however, that De +Brosses was perfectly well aware of the confused and manifold character +of early religion. He had a clear view of the truth that what the +religious instinct has once grasped, it does not, as a rule, abandon, but +subordinates or disguises, when it reaches higher ideas. And he avers, +again and again, that men laid hold of the coarser and more material +objects of worship, while they themselves were coarse and dull, and that, +as civilisation advanced, they, as a rule, subordinated and disguised the +ruder factors in their system. Here it is that Mr. Max Muller differs +from De Brosses. He holds that the adoration of stones, feathers, +shells, and (as I understand him) the worship of animals are, even among +the races of Africa, a corruption of an earlier and purer religion, a +'parasitical development' of religion. + +However, Mr. Max Muller himself held 'for a long time' what he calls 'De +Brosses's theory of fetichism.' What made him throw the theory +overboard? It was 'the fact that, while in the earliest accessible +documents of religious thought we look in vain for any very clear traces +of fetichism, they become more and more frequent everywhere in the later +stages of religious development, and are certainly more visible in the +later corruptions of the Indian religion, beginning with the Atharvana, +than in the earliest hymns of the Rig Veda.' Now, by the earliest +accessible documents of religious thought, Professor Max Muller means the +hymns of the Rig Veda. These hymns are composed in the most elaborate +metre, by sages of old repute, who, I presume, occupied a position not +unlike that of the singers and seers of Israel. They lived in an age of +tolerably advanced cultivation. They had wide geographical knowledge. +They had settled government. They dwelt in States. They had wealth of +gold, of grain, and of domesticated animals. Among the metals, they were +acquainted with that which, in most countries, has been the latest +worked--they used iron poles in their chariots. How then can the hymns +of the most enlightened singers of a race thus far developed be called +'the earliest religious documents'? Oldest they may be, the oldest that +are accessible, but that is a very different thing. How can we possibly +argue that what is absent in these hymns, is absent because it had not +yet come into existence? Is it not the very office of pii vates et Phoebo +digna locuti to purify religion, to cover up decently its rude shapes, as +the unhewn stone was concealed in the fane of Apollo of Delos? If the +race whose noblest and oldest extant hymns were pure, exhibits traces of +fetichism in its later documents, may not that as easily result from a +recrudescence as from a corruption? Professor Max Muller has still, +moreover, to explain how the process of corruption which introduced the +same fetichistic practices among Samoyeds, Brazilians, Kaffirs, and the +people of the Atharvana Veda came to be everywhere identical in its +results. + +Here an argument often urged against the anthropological method may be +shortly disposed of. 'You examine savages,' people say, 'but how do you +know that these savages were not once much more cultivated; that their +whole mode of life, religion and all, is not debased and decadent from an +earlier standard?' Mr. Muller glances at this argument, which, however, +cannot serve his purpose. Mr. Muller has recognised that savage, or +'nomadic,' languages represent a much earlier state of language than +anything that we find, for example, in the oldest Hebrew or Sanskrit +texts. 'For this reason,' he says, {218} 'the study of what I call +_nomad_ languages, as distinguished from _State_ languages, becomes so +instructive. We see in them what we can no longer expect to see even in +the most ancient Sanskrit or Hebrew. We watch the childhood of language +with all its childish freaks.' Yes, adds the anthropologist, and for +this reason the study of savage religions, as distinguished from State +religions, becomes so instructive. We see in them what we can no longer +expect to see even in the most ancient Sanskrit or Hebrew faiths. We +watch the childhood of religion with all its childish freaks. If this +reasoning be sound when the Kaffir tongue is contrasted with ancient +Sanskrit, it should be sound when the Kaffir faith is compared with the +Vedic faith. By parity of reasoning, the religious beliefs of peoples as +much less advanced than the Kaffirs as the Kaffirs are less advanced than +the Vedic peoples, should be still nearer the infancy of faith, still +'nearer the beginning.' + +We have been occupied, perhaps, too long with De Brosses and our apology +for De Brosses. Let us now examine, as shortly as possible, Mr. Max +Muller's reasons for denying that fetichism is 'a primitive form of +religion.' The negative side of his argument being thus disposed of, it +will then be our business to consider (1) his psychological theory of the +subjective element in religion, and (2) his account of the growth of +Indian religion. The conclusion of the essay will be concerned with +demonstrating that Mr. Max Muller's system assigns little or no place to +the superstitious beliefs without which, in other countries than India, +society could not have come into organised existence. + +* * * * * + +In his polemic against Fetichism, it is not always very easy to see +against whom Mr. Muller is contending. It is one thing to say that +fetichism is a 'primitive form of religion,' and quite another to say +that it is 'the very beginning of all religion.' Occasionally he attacks +the 'Comtian theory,' which, I think, is not now held by many people who +study the history of man, and which I am not concerned to defend. He +says that the Portuguese navigators who discovered among the negroes 'no +other trace of any religious worship' except what they called the worship +of feiticos, concluded that this was the whole of the religion of the +negroes (p. 61). Mr. Muller then goes on to prove that 'no religion +consists of fetichism only,' choosing his examples of higher elements in +negro religion from the collections of Waitz. It is difficult to see +what bearing this has on his argument. De Brosses (p. 20) shows that +_he_, at least, was well aware that many negro tribes have higher +conceptions of the Deity than any which are implied in fetich-worship. +Even if no tribe in the world is exclusively devoted to fetiches, the +argument makes no progress. Perhaps no extant tribe is in the way of +using unpolished stone weapons and no others, but it does not follow that +unpolished stone weapons are not primitive. It is just as easy to +maintain that the purer ideas have, by this time, been reached by aid of +the stepping-stones of the grosser, as that the grosser are the +corruption of the purer. Mr. Max Muller constantly asserts that the +'human mind advanced by small and timid steps from what is intelligible, +to what is at first sight almost beyond comprehension' (p. 126). Among +the objects which aided man to take these small and timid steps, he +reckons rivers and trees, which excited, he says, religious awe. What he +will not suppose is that the earliest small and timid steps were not +unaided by such objects as the fetichist treasures--stones, shells, and +so forth, which suggest no idea of infinity. Stocks he will admit, but +not, if he can help it, stones, of the sort that negroes and Kanekas and +other tribes use as fetiches. His reason is, that he does not see how +the scraps of the fetichist can appeal to the feeling of the Infinite, +which feeling is, in his theory, the basis of religion. + +After maintaining (what is readily granted) that negroes have a religion +composed of many elements, Mr. Muller tries to discredit the evidence +about the creeds of savages, and discourses on the many minute shades of +progress which exist among tribes too often lumped together as if they +were all in the same condition. Here he will have all scientific +students of savage life on his side. It remains true, however, that +certain elements of savage practice, fetichism being one of them, are +practically ubiquitous. Thus, when Mr. Muller speaks of 'the influence +of public opinion' in biassing the narrative of travellers, we must not +forget that the strongest evidence about savage practice is derived from +the 'undesigned coincidence' of the testimonies of all sorts of men, in +all ages, and all conditions of public opinion. 'Illiterate men, +ignorant of the writings of each other, bring the same reports from +various quarters of the globe,' wrote Millar of Glasgow. When sailors, +merchants, missionaries, describe, as matters unprecedented and unheard +of, such institutions as polyandry, totemism, and so forth, the evidence +is so strong, because the witnesses are so astonished. They do not know +that anyone but themselves has ever noticed the curious facts before +their eyes. And when Mr. Muller tries to make the testimony about savage +faith still more untrustworthy, by talking of the 'absence of recognised +authority among savages,' do not let us forget that custom ([Greek]) is a +recognised authority, and that the punishment of death is inflicted for +transgression of certain rules. These rules, generally speaking, are of +a religious nature, and the religion to which they testify is of the sort +known (too vaguely) as 'fetichistic.' Let us keep steadily before our +minds, when people talk of lack of evidence, that we have two of the +strongest sorts of evidence in the world for the kind of religion which +least suits Mr. Muller's argument--(1) the undesigned coincidences of +testimony, (2) the irrefutable witness and sanction of elementary +criminal law. Mr. Muller's own evidence is that much-disputed work, +where 'all men see what they want to see, as in the clouds,' and where +many see systematised fetichism--the Veda. {222} + +The first step in Mr. Max Muller's polemic was the assertion that +Fetichism is nowhere unmixed. We have seen that the fact is capable of +an interpretation that will suit either side. Stages of culture overlap +each other. The second step in his polemic was the effort to damage the +evidence. We have seen that we have as good evidence as can be desired. +In the third place he asks, What are the antecedents of fetich-worship? +He appears to conceive himself to be arguing with persons (p. 127) who +'have taken for granted that every human being was miraculously endowed +with the concept of what forms the predicate of every fetich, call it +power, spirit, or god.' If there are reasoners so feeble, they must be +left to the punishment inflicted by Mr. Muller. On the other hand, +students who regard the growth of the idea of power, which is the +predicate of every fetish, as a slow process, as the result of various +impressions and trains of early half-conscious reasoning, cannot be +disposed of by the charge that they think that 'every human being was +miraculously endowed' with any concept whatever. They, at least, will +agree with Mr. Max Muller that there are fetiches and fetiches, that to +one reverence is assigned for one reason, to another for another. +Unfortunately, it is less easy to admit that Mr. Max Muller has been +happy in his choice of ancient instances. He writes (p. 99): 'Sometimes +a stock or a stone was worshipped because it was a forsaken altar or an +ancient place of judgment, sometimes because it marked the place of a +great battle or a murder, or the burial of a king.' Here he refers to +Pausanias, book i. 28, 5, and viii. 13, 3. {223} In both of these +passages, Pausanias, it is true, mentions stones--in the first passage +stones on which men stood [Greek], in the second, barrows heaped up in +honour of men who fell in battle. In neither case, however, do I find +anything to show that the stones were worshipped. These stones, then, +have no more to do with the argument than the milestones which certainly +exist on the Dover road, but which are not the objects of superstitious +reverence. No! the fetich-stones of Greece were those which occupied the +holy of holies of the most ancient temples, the mysterious fanes within +dark cedar or cypress groves, to which men were hardly admitted. They +were the stones and blocks which bore the names of gods, Hera, or Apollo, +names perhaps given, as De Brosses says, to the old fetichistic objects +of worship, _after_ the anthropomorphic gods entered Hellas. This, at +least is the natural conclusion from the fact that the Apollo and Hera of +untouched wood or stone were confessedly the _oldest_. Religion, +possessing an old fetich did not run the risk of breaking the run of luck +by discarding it, but wisely retained and renamed it. Mr. Max Muller +says that the unhewn lump may indicate a higher power of abstraction than +the worship paid to the work of Phidias; but in that case all the savage +adorers of rough stones _may_ be in a stage of more abstract thought than +these contemporaries of Phidias who had such very hard work to make Greek +thought abstract. + +Mr Muller founds a very curious argument on what he calls 'the ubiquity +of fetichism.' Like De Brosses, he compiles (from Pausanias) a list of +the rude stones worshipped by the early Greeks. He mentions various +examples of fetichistic superstitions in Rome. He detects the fetichism +of popular Catholicism, and of Russian orthodoxy among the peasants. +Here, he cries, in religions the history of which is known to us, +fetichism is secondary, 'and why should fetiches in Africa, where we do +not know the earlier development of religion, be considered as primary?' +What a singular argument! According to Pausanias, this fetichism (if +fetichism it is) _was_ primary, in Greece. The _oldest_ temples, in +their holiest place, held the oldest fetich. In Rome, it is at least +probable that fetichism, as in Greece, was partly a survival, partly a +new growth from the primal root of human superstitions. As to +Catholicism, the records of Councils, the invectives of the Church, show +us that, from the beginning, the secondary religion in point of time, the +religion of the Church, laboured vainly to suppress, and had in part to +tolerate, the primary religion of childish superstitions. The documents +are before the world. As to the Russians, the history of their +conversion is pretty well known. Jaroslaf, or Vladimir, or some other +evangelist, had whole villages baptized in groups, and the pagan peasants +naturally kept up their primary semi-savage ways of thought and worship, +under the secondary varnish of orthodoxy. In all Mr. Max Muller's +examples, then, fetichism turns out to be _primary_ in point of time; +_secondary_ only, as subordinate to some later development of faith, or +to some lately superimposed religion. Accepting his statement that +fetichism is ubiquitous, we have the most powerful a priori argument that +fetichism is primitive. As religions become developed they are +differentiated; it only fetichism that you find the same everywhere. Thus +the bow and arrow have a wide range of distribution: the musket, one not +so wide; the Martini-Henry rifle, a still narrower range: it is the +primitive stone weapons that are ubiquitous, that are found in the soil +of England, Egypt, America, France, Greece, as in the hands of Dieyries +and Admiralty Islanders. And just as rough stone knives are earlier than +iron ones (though the same race often uses both), so fetichism is more +primitive than higher and purer faiths, though the same race often +combines fetichism and theism. No one will doubt the truth of this where +weapons are concerned; but Mr. Max Muller will not look at religion in +this way. + +Mr. Max Muller's remarks on 'Zoolatry,' as De Brosses calls it, or animal- +worship, require only the briefest comment. De Brosses, very unluckily, +confused zoolatry with other superstitions under the head of Fetichism. +This was unscientific; but is it scientific of Mr. Max Muller to discuss +animal-worship without any reference to totemism? The worship of sacred +animals is found, in every part of the globe, to be part of the sanction +of the most stringent and important of all laws, the laws of marriage. It +is an historical truth that the society of Ashantees, Choctaws, +Australians, is actually constructed by the operation of laws which are +under the sanction of various sacred plants and animals. {226} There is +scarcely a race so barbarous that these laws are not traceable at work in +its society, nor a people (especially an ancient people) so cultivated +that its laws and religion are not full of strange facts most easily +explained as relics of totemism. Now note that actual living totemism is +always combined with the rudest ideas of marriage, with almost repulsive +ideas about the family. Presumably, this rudeness is earlier than +culture, and therefore this form of animal-worship is one of the earliest +religions that we know. The almost limitless distribution of the +phenomena, their regular development, their gradual disappearance, all +point to the fact that they are all very early and everywhere produced by +similar causes. + +Of all these facts, Mr. Max Muller only mentions one--that many races +have called themselves Snakes, and he thinks they might naturally adopt +the snake for ancestor, and finally for god. He quotes the remark of +Diodorus that 'the snake may either have been made a god because he was +figured on the banners, or may have been figured on the banners because +he was a god'; to which De Brosses, with his usual sense, rejoins--'we +represent saints on our banners because we revere them; we do not revere +them because we represent them on our banners.' + +In a discussion about origins, and about the corruption of religion, it +would have been well to account for institutions and beliefs almost +universally distributed. We know, what De Brosses did not, that zoolatry +is inextricably blent with laws and customs which surely must be early, +if not primitive, because they make the working faith of societies in +which male descent and the modern family are not yet established. Anyone +who wishes to show that this sort of society is a late corruption, not an +early stage in evolution towards better things, has a difficult task +before him, which, however, he must undertake, before he can prove +zoolatry to be a corruption of religion. + +As to the worship of ancestral and embodied human spirits, which (it has +been so plausibly argued) is the first moment in religion, Mr. Max Muller +dismisses it, here, in eleven lines and a half. An isolated but +important allusion at the close of his lectures will be noticed in its +place. + +The end of the polemic against the primitiveness of fetichism deals with +the question, 'Whence comes the supernatural predicate of the fetich?' If +a negro tells us his fetich is a god, whence got he the idea of 'god'? +Many obvious answers occur. Mr. Muller says, speaking of the Indians (p. +205): 'The concept of _gods_ was no doubt growing up while men were +assuming a more and more definite attitude towards these semi-tangible +and intangible objects'--trees, rivers, hills, the sky, the sun, and so +on, which he thinks suggested and developed, by aid of a kind of awe, the +religious feeling of the infinite. We too would say that, among people +who adore fetiches and ghosts, the concept of gods no doubt silently grew +up, as men assumed a more and more definite attitude towards the tangible +and intangible objects they held sacred. Again, negroes have had the +idea of god imported among them by Christians and Islamites, so that, +even if they did not climb (as De Brosses grants that many of them do) to +purer religious ideas unaided, these ideas are now familiar to them, and +may well be used by them, when they have to explain a fetich to a +European. Mr. Max Muller explains the origin of religion by a term ('the +Infinite ') which, he admits, the early people would not have +comprehended. The negro, if he tells a white man that a fetich is a god, +transposes terms in the same unscientific way. Mr. Muller asks, 'How do +these people, when they have picked up their stone or their shell, pick +up, at the same time, the concepts of a supernatural power, of spirit, of +god, and of worship paid to some unseen being?' But who says that men +picked up these ideas _at the same time_? These ideas were evolved by a +long, slow, complicated process. It is not at all impossible that the +idea of a kind of 'luck' attached to this or that object, was evolved by +dint of meditating on a mere series of lucky accidents. Such or such a +man, having found such an object, succeeded in hunting, fishing, or war. +By degrees, similar objects might be believed to command success. Thus +burglars carry bits of coal in their pockets, 'for luck.' This random +way of connecting causes and effects which have really no inter-relation, +is a common error of early reasoning. Mr. Max Muller says that 'this +process of reasoning is far more in accordance with modern thought'; if +so, modern thought has little to be proud of. Herodotus, however, +describes the process of thought as consecrated by custom among the +Egyptians. But there are many other practical ways in which the idea of +supernatural power is attached to fetiches. Some fetich-stones have a +superficial resemblance to other objects, and thus (on the magical system +of reasoning) are thought to influence these objects. Others, again, are +pointed out as worthy of regard in dreams or by the ghosts of the dead. +{230} To hold these views of the origin of the supernatural predicate of +fetiches is not 'to take for granted that every human being was +miraculously endowed with the concept of what forms the predicate of +every fetich.' + +Thus we need not be convinced by Mr. Max Muller that fetichism (though it +necessarily has its antecedents in the human mind) is 'a corruption of +religion.' It still appears to be one of the most primitive steps +towards the idea of the supernatural. + +What, then, is the subjective element of religion in man? How has he +become capable of conceiving of the supernatural? What outward objects +first awoke that dormant faculty in his breast? Mr. Max Muller answers, +that man has 'the faculty of apprehending the infinite'--that by dint of +this faculty he is capable of religion, and that sensible objects, +'tangible, semi-tangible, intangible,' first roused the faculty to +religious activity, at least among the natives of India. He means, +however, by the 'infinite' which savages apprehend, not our metaphysical +conception of the infinite, but the mere impression that there is +'something beyond.' 'Every thing of which his senses cannot perceive a +limit, is to a primitive savage or to any man in an early stage of +intellectual activity _unlimited_ or _infinite_? Thus, in all +experience, the idea of 'a beyond' is forced on men. If Mr. Max Muller +would adhere to this theory, then we should suppose him to mean (what we +hold to be more or less true) that savage religion, like savage science, +is merely a fanciful explanation of what lies beyond the horizon of +experience. For example, if the Australians mentioned by Mr. Max Muller +believe in a being who created the world, a being whom they do not +worship, and to whom they pay no regard (for, indeed, he has become +'decrepit'), their theory is scientific, not religious. They have looked +for the causes of things, and are no more religious (in so doing) than +Newton was when he worked out his theory of gravitation. The term +'infinite' is wrongly applied, because it is a term of advanced thought +used in explanation of the ideas of men who, Mr. Max Muller says, were +incapable of conceiving the meaning of such a concept. Again, it is +wrongly applied, because it has some modern religious associations, which +are covertly and fallaciously introduced to explain the supposed emotions +of early men. Thus, Mr. Muller says (p. 177)--he is giving his account +of the material things that awoke the religious faculty--'the mere sight +of the torrent or the stream would have been enough to call forth in the +hearts of the early dwellers on the earth . . . a feeling that they were +surrounded on all sides by powers invisible, infinite, or divine.' Here, +if I understand Mr. Muller, 'infinite' is used in our modern sense. The +question is, How did men ever come to believe in powers infinite, +invisible, divine? If Mr. Muller's words mean anything, they mean that a +dormant feeling that there were such existences lay in the breast of man, +and was wakened into active and conscious life, by the sight of a torrent +or a stream. How, to use Mr. Muller's own manner, did these people, when +they saw a stream, have mentally, at the same time, 'a feeling of +_infinite_ powers?' If this is not the expression of a theory of 'innate +religion' (a theory which Mr. Muller disclaims), it is capable of being +mistaken for that doctrine by even a careful reader. The feeling of +'powers infinite, invisible, divine,' _must_ be in the heart, or the mere +sight of a river could not call it forth. How did the feeling get into +the heart? That is the question. The ordinary anthropologist +distinguishes a multitude of causes, a variety of processes, which shade +into each other and gradually produce the belief in powers invisible, +infinite, and divine. What tribe is unacquainted with dreams, visions, +magic, the apparitions of the dead? Add to these the slow action of +thought, the conjectural inferences, the guesses of crude metaphysics, +the theories of isolated men of religious and speculative genius. By all +these and other forces manifold, that emotion of awe in presence of the +hills, the stars, the sea, is developed. Mr. Max Muller cuts the matter +shorter. The early inhabitants of earth saw a river, and the 'mere +sight' of the torrent called forth the feelings which (to us) seem to +demand ages of the operation of causes disregarded by Mr. Muller in his +account of the origin of Indian religion. + +The mainspring of Mr. Muller's doctrine is his theory about 'apprehending +the infinite.' Early religion, or at least that of India, was, in his +view, the extension of an idea of Vastness, a disinterested emotion of +awe. {233a} Elsewhere, we think, early religion has been a development +of ideas of Force, an interested search, not for something wide and far +and hard to conceive, but for something practically _strong_ for good and +evil. Mr. Muller (taking no count in this place of fetiches, ghosts, +dreams and magic) explains that the sense of 'wonderment' was wakened by +objects only semi-tangible, trees, which are _taller_ than we are, 'whose +roots are beyond our reach, and which have a kind of life in them.' 'We +are dealing with a quartenary, it may be a tertiary troglodyte,' says Mr. +Muller. If a tertiary troglodyte was like a modern Andaman Islander, a +Kaneka, a Dieyrie, would he stand and meditate in awe on the fact that a +tree was taller than he, or had 'a kind of life,' 'an unknown and +unknowable, yet undeniable something'? {233b} Why, this is the sentiment +of modern Germany, and perhaps of the Indian sages of a cultivated +period! A troglodyte would look for a 'possum in the tree, he would tap +the trunk for honey, he would poke about in the bark after grubs, or he +would worship anything odd in the branches. Is Mr. Muller not +unconsciously transporting a kind of modern malady of thought into the +midst of people who wanted to find a dinner, and who might worship a tree +if it had a grotesque shape, that, for them, had a magical meaning, or if +boilyas lived in its boughs, but whose practical way of dealing with the +problem of its life was to burn it round the stem, chop the charred wood +with stone axes, and use the bark, branches, and leaves as they happened +to come handy? + +Mr. Muller has a long list of semi-tangible objects 'overwhelming and +overawing,' like the tree. There are mountains, where 'even a stout +heart shivers before the real presence of the _infinite_'; there are +rivers, those instruments of so sudden a religious awakening; there is +earth. These supply the material for semi-deities. Then come sky, +stars, dawn, sun, and moon: 'in these we have the germs of what, +hereafter, we shall have to call by the name of deities.' + +Before we can transmute, with Mr. Muller, these objects of a somewhat +vague religious regard into a kind of gods, we have to adopt Noire's +philological theories, and study the effects of auxiliary verbs on the +development of personification and of religion. Noire's philological +theories are still, I presume, under discussion. They are necessary, +however, to Mr. Muller's doctrine of the development of the vague 'sense +of the infinite' (wakened by fine old trees, and high mountains) into +devas, and of devas (which means 'shining ones') into the Vedic gods. Our +troglodyte ancestors, and their sweet feeling for the spiritual aspect of +landscape, are thus brought into relation with the Rishis of the Vedas, +the sages and poets of a pleasing civilisation. The reverence felt for +such comparatively refined or remote things as fire, the sun, wind, +thunder, the dawn, furnished a series of stepping-stones to the Vedic +theology, if theology it can be called. It is impossible to give each +step in detail; the process must be studied in Mr. Muller's lectures. Nor +can we discuss the later changes of faith. As to the processes which +produced the fetichistic 'corruption' (that universal and everywhere +identical form of decay), Mr. Muller does not afford even a hint. He +only says that, when the Indians found that their old gods were mere +names, 'they built out of the scattered bricks a new altar to the Unknown +God'--a statement which throws no light on the parasitical development of +fetichism. But his whole theory is deficient if, having called fetichism +a _corruption_, he does not show how corruption arose, how it operated, +and how the disease attacked all religions everywhere. + +We have contested, step by step, many of Mr. Muller's propositions. If +space permitted, it would be interesting to examine the actual attitude +of certain contemporary savages, Bushmen and others, towards the sun. +Contemporary savages may be degraded, they certainly are not primitive, +but their _legends_, at least, are the oldest things they possess. The +supernatural elements in their ideas about the sun are curiously unlike +those which, according to Mr. Muller, entered into the development of +Aryan religion. + +The last remark which has to be made about Mr. Muller's scheme of the +development of Aryan religion is that the religion, as explained by him, +does not apparently aid the growth of society, nor work with it in any +way. Let us look at a sub-barbaric society--say that of Zululand, of New +Zealand, of the Iroquois League, or at a savage society like that of the +Kanekas, or of those Australian tribes about whom we have very many +interesting and copious accounts. If we begin with the Australians, we +observe that society is based on certain laws of marriage enforced by +capital punishment. These laws of marriage forbid the intermixing of +persons belonging to the stock which worships this or that animal, or +plant. Now this rule, as already observed, _made_ the 'gentile' system +(as Mr. Morgan erroneously calls it) the system which gradually reduces +tribal hostility, by making tribes homogeneous. The same system (with +the religious sanction of a kind of zoolatry) is in force and has worked +to the same result, in Africa, Asia, America, and Australia, while a host +of minute facts make it a reasonable conclusion that it prevailed in +Europe. Among these facts certain peculiarities of Greek and Roman and +Hindoo marriage law, Greek, Latin, and English tribal names, and a crowd +of legends are the most prominent. {236} Mr. Max Muller's doctrine of +the development of Indian religion (while admitting the existence of +Snake or Naga tribes) takes no account of the action of this universal +zoolatry on religion and society. + +After marriage and after tribal institutions, look at _rank_. Is it not +obvious that the religious elements (magic and necromancy) left out of +his reckoning by Mr. Muller are most powerful in developing rank? Even +among those democratic paupers, the Fuegians, 'the doctor-wizard of each +party has much influence over his companions.' Among those other +democrats, the Eskimo, a class of wizards, called Angakuts, become 'a +kind of civil magistrates,' because they can cause fine weather, and can +magically detect people who commit offences. Thus the germs of rank, in +these cases, are sown by the magic which is fetichism in action. Try the +Zulus: 'the heaven is the chief's,' he can call up clouds and storms, +hence the sanction of his authority. In New Zealand, every Rangatira has +a supernatural power. If he touches an article, no one else dares to +appropriate it, for fear of terrible supernatural consequences. A head +chief is 'tapued an inch thick, and perfectly unapproachable.' Magical +power abides in and emanates from him. By this superstition, an +aristocracy is formed, and property (the property, at least, of the +aristocracy) is secured. Among the Red Indians, as Schoolcraft says, +'priests and jugglers are the persons that make war and have a voice in +the sale of the land.' Mr. E. W. Robertson says much the same thing +about early Scotland. If Odin was not a god with the gifts of a medicine- +man, and did not owe his chiefship to his talent for dealing with magic, +he is greatly maligned. The Irish Brehons also sanctioned legal +decisions by magical devices, afterwards condemned by the Church. Among +the Zulus, 'the Itongo (spirit) dwells with the great man; he who dreams +is the chief of the village.' The chief alone can 'read in the vessel of +divination.' The Kaneka chiefs are medicine-men. + +Here then, in widely distant regions, in early European, American, +Melanesian, African societies, we find those factors in religion which +the primitive Aryans are said to have dispensed with, helping to +construct society, rank, property. Is it necessary to add that the +ancestral spirits still 'rule the present from the past,' and demand +sacrifice, and speak to 'him who dreams,' who, therefore, is a strong +force in society, if not a chief? Mr. Herbert Spencer, Mr. Tylor, M. +Fustel de Coulanges, a dozen others, have made all this matter of common +notoriety. As Hearne the traveller says about the Copper River Indians, +'it is almost necessary that they who rule them should profess something +a little supernatural to enable them to deal with the people.' The few +examples we have given show how widely, and among what untutored races, +the need is felt. The rudimentary government of early peoples requires, +and, by aid of dreams, necromancy, 'medicine' (i.e. fetiches), tapu, and +so forth, obtains, a supernatural sanction. + +Where is the supernatural sanction that consecrated the chiefs of a race +which woke to the sense of the existence of infinite beings, in face of +trees, rivers, the dawn, the sun, and had none of the so-called late and +corrupt fetichism that does such useful social work? + +To the student of other early societies, Mr. Muller's theory of the +growth of Aryan religion seems to leave society without cement, and +without the most necessary sanctions. One man is as good as another, +before a tree, a river, a hill. The savage organisers of other societies +found out fetiches and ghosts that were 'respecters of persons.' Zoolatry +is intertwisted with the earliest and most widespread law of prohibited +degrees. How did the Hindoos dispense with the aid of these +superstitions? Well, they did not quite dispense with them. Mr. Max +Muller remarks, almost on his last page (376), that 'in India also . . . +the thoughts and feelings about those whom death had separated from us +for a time, supplied some of the earliest and most important elements of +religion.' If this was the case, surely the presence of those elements +and their influence should have been indicated along with the remarks +about the awfulness of trees and the suggestiveness of rivers. Is +nothing said about the spirits of the dead and their cult in the Vedas? +Much is said, of course. But, were it otherwise, then other elements of +savage religion may also have been neglected there, and it will be +impossible to argue that fetichism did not exist because it is not +mentioned. It will also be impossible to admit that the 'Hibbert +Lectures' give more than a one-sided account of the Origin of Indian +Religion. + +The perusal of Mr. Max Muller's book deeply impresses one with the +necessity of studying early religions and early societies simultaneously. +If it be true that early Indian religion lacked precisely those +superstitions, so childish, so grotesque, and yet so useful, which we +find at work in contemporary tribes, and which we read of in history, the +discovery is even more remarkable and important than the author of the +'Hibbert Lectures' seems to suppose. It is scarcely necessary to repeat +that the negative evidence of the Vedas, the religious utterances of +sages, made in a time of what we might call 'heroic culture,' can never +disprove the existence of superstitions which, if current in the former +experience of the race, the hymnists, as Barth observes, would +intentionally ignore. Our object has been to defend the 'primitiveness +of fetichism.' By this we do not mean to express any opinion as to +whether fetichism (in the strictest sense of the word) was or was not +earlier than totemism, than the worship of the dead, or than the +involuntary sense of awe and terror with which certain vast phenomena may +have affected the earliest men. We only claim for the powerful and +ubiquitous practices of fetichism a place _among_ the early elements of +religion, and insist that what is so universal has not yet been shown to +be 'a corruption' of something older and purer. + +One remark of Mr. Max Muller's fortifies these opinions. If fetichism be +indeed one of the earliest factors of faith in the supernatural; if it +be, in its rudest forms, most powerful in proportion to other elements of +faith among the least cultivated races (and _that_ Mr. Muller will +probably allow)--among what class of cultivated peoples will it longest +hold its ground? Clearly, among the least cultivated, among the +fishermen, the shepherds of lonely districts, the peasants of outlying +lands--in short, among the _people_. Neglected by sacred poets in the +culminating period of purity in religion, it will linger among the +superstitions of the rustics. There is no real break in the continuity +of peasant life; the modern folklore is (in many points) the savage +ritual. Now Mr. Muller, when he was minimising the existence of +fetichism in the Rig Veda (the oldest collection of hymns), admitted its +existence in the Atharvana (p. 60). {241} On p. 151, we read 'the +Atharva-veda-Sanhita is a later collection, containing, besides a large +number of Rig Veda verses, _some curious relics of popular poetry +connected with charms, imprecations, and other superstitious usages_.' +The italics are mine, and are meant to emphasise this fact:--When we +leave the sages, the Rishis, and look at what is _popular_, look at what +that class believed which of savage practice has everywhere retained so +much, we are at once among the charms and the fetiches! This is +precisely what one would have expected. If the history of religion and +of mythology is to be unravelled, we must examine what the unprogressive +classes in Europe have in common with Australians, and Bushmen, and +Andaman Islanders. It is the function of the people to retain in +folklore these elements of religion, which it is the high duty of the +sage and the poet to purify away in the fire of refining thought. It is +for this very reason that _ritual_ has (though Mr. Max Muller curiously +says that it seems not to possess) an immense scientific interest. Ritual +holds on, with the tenacity of superstition, to all that has ever been +practised. Yet, when Mr. Muller wants to know about _origins_, about +actual ancient _practice_, he deliberately turns to that 'great +collection of ancient poetry' (the Rig Veda) 'which has no special +reference to sacrificial acts,' not to the Brahmanas which are full of +ritual. + +To sum up briefly:--(1) Mr. Muller's arguments against the evidence for, +and the primitiveness of, fetichism seem to demonstrate the opposite of +that which he intends them to prove. (2) His own evidence for +_primitive_ practice is chosen from the documents of a _cultivated_ +society. (3) His theory deprives that society of the very influences +which have elsewhere helped the Tribe, the Family, Rank, and Priesthoods +to grow up, and to form the backbone of social existence. + + + + +THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE FAMILY. + + +What are the original forms of the human family? Did man begin by being +monogamous or polygamous, but, in either case, the master of his own home +and the assured central point of his family relations? Or were the +unions of the sexes originally shifting and precarious, so that the +wisest child was not expected to know his own father, and family ties +were reckoned through the mother alone? Again (setting aside the +question of what was 'primitive' and 'original'), did the needs and +barbarous habits of early men lead to a scarcity of women, and hence to +polyandry (that is, the marriage of one woman to several men), with the +consequent uncertainty about male parentage? Once more, admitting that +these loose and strange relations of the sexes do prevail, or have +prevailed, among savages, is there any reason to suppose that the +stronger races, the Aryan and Semitic stocks, ever passed through this +stage of savage customs? These are the main questions debated between +what we may call the 'historical' and the 'anthropological' students of +ancient customs. + +When Sir Henry Maine observed, in 1861, that it was difficult to say what +society of men had _not been_, originally, based on the patriarchal +family, he went, of course, outside the domain of history. What occurred +in the very origin of human society is a question perhaps quite +inscrutable. Certainly, history cannot furnish the answer. Here the +anthropologist and physiologist come in with their methods, and even +those, we think, can throw but an uncertain light on the very 'origin' of +institutions, and on strictly primitive man. + +For the purposes of this discussion, we shall here re-state the chief +points at issue between the adherents of Sir Henry Maine and of Mr. +M'Lennan, between historical and anthropological inquirers. + +1. Did man _originally_ live in the patriarchal family, or did he live +in more or less modified promiscuity, with uncertainty of blood-ties, and +especially of male parentage? + +2. Did circumstances and customs at some time compel or induce man +(whatever his _original_ condition) to resort to practices which made +paternity uncertain, and so caused kinship to be reckoned through women? + +3. Granting that some races have been thus reduced to matriarchal forms +of the family--that is, to forms in which the woman is the permanent +recognised centre--is there any reason to suppose that the stronger +peoples, like the Aryans and the Semites, ever passed through a stage of +culture in which female, not male, kinship was chiefly recognised, +probably as a result of polyandry, of many husbands to one wife? + +On this third question, it will be necessary to produce much evidence of +very different sorts: evidence which, at best, can perhaps only warrant +an inference, or presumption, in favour of one or the other opinion. For +the moment, the impartial examination of testimony is more important and +practicable than the establishment of any theory. + +(1.) Did man _originally_ live in the patriarchal family, the male being +master of his female mate or mates, and of his children? On this first +point Sir Henry Maine, in his new volume, {247a} may be said to come as +near proving his case as the nature and matter of the question will +permit. Bachofen, M'Lennan, and Morgan, all started from a hypothetical +state of more or less modified sexual promiscuity. Bachofen's evidence +(which may be referred to later) was based on a great mass of legends, +myths, and travellers' tales, chiefly about early Aryan practices. He +discovered Hetarismus, as he called it, or promiscuity, among Lydians, +Etruscans, Persians, Thracians, Cyrenian nomads, Egyptians, Scythians, +Troglodytes, Nasamones, and so forth. Mr. M'Lennan's view is, perhaps, +less absolutely stated than Sir Henry Maine supposes. M'Lennan says +{247b} 'that there has been a stage in the development of the human +races, when there was no such appropriation of women to particular men; +when, in short, marriage, _as it exists among civilised nations_, was not +practised. Marriage, _in this sense_, was yet undreamt of.' Mr. +M'Lennan adds (pp. 130, 131), 'as among other gregarious animals, the +unions of the sexes were probably, in the earliest times, loose, +transitory, and, _in some degree_, promiscuous.' + +Sir Henry Maine opposes to Mr. M'Lennan's theory the statement of Mr. +Darwin: 'From all we know of the passions of all male quadrupeds, +promiscuous intercourse in a state of Nature is highly improbable.' {248} +On this first question, let us grant to Sir Henry Maine, to Mr. Darwin, +and to common sense that if the very earliest men were extremely animal +in character, their unions while they lasted were probably monogamous or +polygamous. The sexual jealousy of the male would secure that result, as +it does among many other animals. Let the first point, then, be scored +to Sir Henry Maine: let it be granted that if man was created perfect, he +lived in the monogamous family before the Fall: and that, if he was +evolved as an animal, the unchecked animal instincts would make for +monogamy or patriarchal polygamy in the strictly primitive family. + +(2.) Did circumstances and customs ever or anywhere compel or induce man +(whatever his original condition) to resort to practices which made +paternity uncertain, and so caused the absence of the patriarchal family, +kinship being reckoned through women? If this question be answered in +the affirmative, and if the sphere of action of the various causes be +made wide enough, it will not matter much to Mr. M'Lennan's theory +whether the strictly primitive family was patriarchal or not. If there +occurred a fall from the primitive family, and if that fall was extremely +general, affecting even the Aryan race, Mr. M'Lennan's adherents will be +amply satisfied. Their object is to show that the family, even in the +Aryan race, was developed through a stage of loose savage connections. If +that can be shown, they do not care much about primitive man properly so +called. Sir Henry Maine admits, as a matter of fact, that among certain +races, in certain districts, circumstances have overridden the sexual +jealousy which secures the recognition of male parentage. Where women +have been few, and where poverty has been great, jealousy has been +suppressed, even in the Venice of the eighteenth century. Sir H. Maine +says, 'The usage' (that of polyandry--many husbands to a single wife) +'seems to me one which circumstances overpowering morality and decency +might at any time call into existence. It is known to have arisen in the +native Indian army.' The question now is, what are the circumstances +that overpower morality and decency, and so produce polyandry, with its +necessary consequences, when it is a recognised institution--the absence +of the patriarchal family, and the recognition of kinship through women? +Any circumstances which cause great scarcity of women will conduce to +those results. Mr. M'Lennan's opinion was, that the chief cause of +scarcity of women has been the custom of female infanticide--of killing +little girls as bouches inutiles. Sir Henry Maine admits that 'the cause +assigned by M'Lennan is a vera causa--it is capable of producing the +effects.' {249} Mr. M'Lennan collected a very large mass of testimony to +prove the wide existence of this cause of paucity of women. Till that +evidence is published, I can only say that it was sufficient, in Mr. +M'Lennan's opinion, to demonstrate the wide prevalence of the factor +which is the mainspring of his whole system. {250a} How frightfully +female infanticide has prevailed in India, everyone may read in the +official reports of Col. M'Pherson, and other English authorities. Mr. +Fison's 'Kamilaroi and Kurnai' contains some notable, though not to my +mind convincing, arguments on the other side. Sir Henry Maine adduces +another cause of paucity of women: the wanderings of our race, and +expeditions across sea. {250b} This cause would not, however, be +important enough to alter forms of kinship, where the invaders (like the +early English in Britain) found a population which they could conquer and +whose women they could appropriate. + +Apart from any probable inferences that may be drawn from the presumed +practice of female infanticide, actual ascertained facts prove that many +races do not now live, or that recently they did not live, in the +patriarchal or modern family. They live, or did live, in polyandrous +associations. The Thibetans, the Nairs, the early inhabitants of Britain +(according to Caesar), and many other races, {251} as well as the +inhabitants of the Marquesas Islands, and the Iroquois (according to +Lafitau), practise, or have practised, polyandry. + +We now approach the third and really important problem--(3.) Is there +any reason to suppose that the stronger peoples, like the Aryans and the +Semites, ever passed through a stage of culture in which female, not +male, kinship was chiefly recognised, probably as a result of polyandry? + +Now the nature of the evidence which affords a presumption that Aryans +have all passed through Australian institutions such as polyandry, is of +extremely varied character. Much of it may undoubtedly be explained +away. But such strength as the evidence has (which we do not wish to +exaggerate) is derived from its convergence to one point--namely, the +anterior existence of polyandry and the matriarchal family among Aryans +before and after the dawn of real history. + +For the sake of distinctness we may here number the heads of the evidence +bearing on this question. We have-- + +1. The evidence of inference from the form of capture in bridal +ceremonies. + +2. The evidence from exogamy: the law which forbids marriage between +persons of the same family name. + +3. The evidence from totemism--that is, the derivation of the family +name and crest or badge, from some natural object, plant or animal. {252} +Persons bearing the name may not intermarry, nor, as a rule, may they eat +the object from which they derive their family name and from which they +claim to be descended. + +4. The evidence from the gens of Rome, or [Greek] of ancient Greece, in +connection with Totemism. + +5. The evidence from myth and legend. + +6. The evidence from direct historical statements as to the prevalence +of the matriarchal family, and inheritance through the maternal line. + +To take these various testimonies in their order, let us begin with + +(1.) The form of capture in bridal ceremonies. That this form survived +in Sparta, Crete, in Hindoo law, in the traditions of Ireland, in the +popular rustic customs of Wales, is not denied. + +If we hold, with Mr. M'Lennan, that scarcity of women (produced by female +infanticide or otherwise) is the cause of the habit of capturing wives, +we may see, in survivals of this ceremony of capture among Aryans, a +proof of early scarcity of women, and of probable polyandry. But an +opponent may argue, like Mr. J. A. Farrer in 'Primitive Manners,' that +the ceremony of capture is mainly a concession to maiden modesty among +early races. Here one may observe that the girls of savage tribes are +notoriously profligate and immodest about illicit connections. Only +honourable marriage brings a blush to the cheek of these young persons. +This is odd, but, in the present state of the question, we cannot lean on +the evidence of the ceremony of capture. We cannot demonstrate that it +is derived from a time when paucity of women made capture of brides +necessary. Thus 'honours are easy' in this first deal. + +(2.) The next indication is very curious, and requires much more +prolonged discussion. The custom of Exogamy was first noted and named by +Mr. M'Lennan. Exogamy is the prohibition of marriage within the supposed +blood-kinship, as denoted by the family name. Such marriage, among many +backward races, is reckoned incestuous, and is punishable by death. +Certain peculiarities in connection with the family name have to be noted +later. Now, Sir Henry Maine admits that exogamy, as thus defined, exists +among the Hindoos. 'A Hindoo may not marry a woman belonging to the same +gotra, all members of the gotra being theoretically supposed to have +descended from the same ancestor.' The same rule prevails in China. +'There are in China large bodies of related clansmen, each generally +bearing the same clan-name. They are exogamous; no man will marry a +woman having the same clan-name with himself.' It is admitted by Sir +Henry Maine that this wide prohibition of marriage was the early Aryan +rule, while advancing civilisation has gradually permitted marriage +within limits once forbidden. The Greek Church now (according to Mr. +M'Lennan), and the Catholic Church in the past, forbade intermarriages +'as far as relationship could be known.' The Hindoo rule appears to go +still farther, and to prohibit marriage as far as the common gotra name +seems merely to indicate relationship. + +As to the ancient Romans, Plutarch says: Formerly they did not marry +women connected with them by blood, any more than they now marry aunts or +sisters. It was long before they would even intermarry with cousins.' +Plutarch also remarks that, in times past, Romans did not marry [Greek], +and if we may render this 'women of the same gens,' the exogamous +prohibition in Rome was as complete as among the Hindoos. I do not quite +gather from Sir Henry Maine's account of the Slavonic house communities +(pp. 254, 255) whether they dislike _all_ kindred marriages, or only +marriage within the 'greater blood'--that is, within the kinship on the +male side. He says: 'The South Slavonians bring their wives into the +group, in which they are socially organised, from a considerable distance +outside. . . . Every marriage which requires an ecclesiastical +dispensation is regarded as disreputable.' + +On the whole, wide prohibitions of marriage are archaic: the widest are +savage; the narrowest are modern and civilised. Thus the Hindoo +prohibition is old, barbarous, and wide. 'The barbarous Aryan,' says Sir +Henry Maine, 'is generally exogamous. He has a most extensive table of +prohibited degrees.' Thus exogamy seems to be a survival of barbarism. +The question for us is, Can we call exogamy a survival from a period when +(owing to scarcity of women and polyandry) clear ideas of kinship were +impossible? If this can be proved, exogamous Aryans either passed +through polyandrous institutions, or borrowed a savage custom derived +from a period when ideas of kinship were obscure. + +If we only knew the origin of the prohibition to marry within the family +name all would be plain sailing. At present several theories of the +origin of exogamy are before the world. Mr. Morgan, the author of +'Ancient Society,' inclines to trace the prohibition to a great early +physiological discovery, acted on by primitive men by virtue of a contrat +social. Early man discovered that children of unsound constitutions were +born of nearly related parents. Mr. Morgan says: 'Primitive men very +early discovered the evils of close interbreeding.' Elsewhere Mr. Morgan +writes: 'Intermarriage in the gens was prohibited, to secure the benefits +of marrying out with unrelated persons.' This arrangement was 'a product +of high intelligence,' and Mr. Morgan calls it a 'reform.' + +Let us examine this very curious theory. First: Mr. Morgan supposes +early man to have made a discovery (the evils of the marriage of near +kin) which evades modern physiological science. Modern science has not +determined that the marriages of kinsfolk are pernicious. Is it credible +that savages should discover a fact which puzzles science? It may be +replied that modern care, nursing, and medical art save children of near +marriages from results which were pernicious to the children of early +man. Secondly: Mr. Morgan supposes that barbarous man (so notoriously +reckless of the morrow as he is), not only made the discovery of the +evils of interbreeding, but acted on it with promptitude and self-denial. +Thirdly: Mr. Morgan seems to require, for the enforcement of the +exogamous law, a contrat social. The larger communities meet, and divide +themselves into smaller groups, within which wedlock is forbidden. This +'social pact' is like a return to the ideas of Rousseau. Fourthly: The +hypothesis credits early men with knowledge and discrimination of near +degrees of kin, which they might well possess if they lived in +patriarchal families. But it represents that they did not act on their +knowledge. Instead of prohibiting marriage between parents and children, +cousins, nephews and aunts, uncles and nieces, they prohibited marriage +within the limit of the name of the kin. This is still the Hindoo rule, +and, if the Romans really might not at one time marry within the gens, it +was the Roman rule. Now observe, this rule fails to effect the very +purpose for which ex hypothesi it was instituted. Where the family name +goes by the male side, marriages between cousins are permitted, as in +India and China. These are the very marriages which some theorists now +denounce as pernicious. But, if the family name goes by the female side, +marriages between half-brothers and half-sisters are permitted, as in +ancient Athens and among the Hebrews of Abraham's time. Once more, the +exogamous prohibition excludes, in China, America, Africa, Australia, +persons who are in no way akin (according to our ideas) from +intermarriage. Thus Mr. Doolittle writes: {256} 'Males and females of +the same surname will never intermarry in China. Cousins who have not +the same ancestral surname may intermarry. Though the ancestors of +persons of the same surname have not known each other for thousands of +years, they may not intermarry.' The Hindoo gotra rule produces the same +effects. + +For all these reasons, and because of the improbability of the +physiological discovery, and of the moral 'reform' which enforced it; and +again, because the law is not of the sort which people acquainted with +near degrees of kinship would make; and once more, because the law fails +to effect its presumed purpose, while it does attain ends at which it +does not aim--we cannot accept Mr. Morgan's suggestion as to the origin +of exogamy. Mr. M'Lennan did not live to publish a subtle theory of the +origin of exogamy, which he had elaborated. In 'Studies in Ancient +History,' he hazarded a conjecture based on female infanticide:-- + + 'We believe the restrictions on marriage to be connected with the + practice in early times of female infanticide, which, rendering women + scarce, led at once to polyandry within the tribe, and the capturing + of women from without. . . . Hence the cruel custom which, leaving + the primitive human hordes with very few young women of their own, + occasionally with none, and in any case seriously disturbing the + balance of the sexes within the hordes, forces them to prey upon one + another for wives. Usage, induced by necessity, would in time + establish a prejudice among the tribes observing it, a prejudice + strong as a principle of religion--as every prejudice relating to + marriage is apt to be--against marrying women of their own stock.' + +Mr. M'Lennan describes his own hypothesis as 'a suggestion thrown out at +what it was worth.' {258} In his later years, as we have said, he +developed a very subtle and ingenious theory of the origin of exogamy, +still connecting it with scarcity of women, but making use of various +supposed stages and processes in the development of the law. That +speculation remains unpublished. To myself, the suggestion given in +'Studies in Ancient History' seems inadequate. I find it difficult to +conceive that the frequent habit of stealing women should indispose men +to marry the native women they had at hand. That this indisposition +should grow into a positive law, and the infringement of the law be +regarded as a capital offence, seems still more inconceivable. My own +impression is, that exogamy may be connected with some early superstition +or idea of which we have lost the touch, and which we can no longer +explain. + +Thus far, the consideration of exogamy has thrown no clear light on the +main question--the question whether the customs of civilised races +contain relics of female kinship. On Sir Henry Maine's theory of +exogamy, that Aryan custom is unconnected with female kinship, polyandry, +and scarcity of women. On Mr. M'Lennan's theory, exogamy is the result +of scarcity of women, and implies polyandry and female kinship. But +neither theory has seemed satisfactory. Yet we need not despair of +extracting some evidence from exogamy, and that evidence, on the whole, +is in favour of Mr. M'Lennan's general hypothesis. (1.) The exogamous +prohibition must have first come into force _when kinship was only +reckoned on one side of the family_. This is obvious, whether we suppose +it to have arisen in a society which reckoned by male or by female +kinship. In the former case, the law only prohibits marriage with +persons of the father's, in the second case with persons of the mother's, +family name, and these only it recognises as kindred. (2.) Our second +point is much more important. The exogamous prohibition must first have +come into force _when kinship was so little understood that it could best +be denoted by the family name_. This would be self-evident, if we could +suppose the prohibition to be intended to prevent marriages of relations. +Had the authors of the prohibition been acquainted with the nature of +near kinships, they would simply (as we do) have forbidden marriage +between persons in those degrees. The very nature of the prohibition, on +the other hand, shows that kinship was understood in a manner all unlike +our modern system. The limit of kindred was everywhere the family name: +a limit which excludes many real kinsfolk and includes many who are not +kinsfolk at all. In Australia especially, and in America, India, and +Africa, to a slighter extent, that definition of kindred by the family +name actually includes alligators, smoke, paddy melons, rain, crayfish, +sardines, and what you please. {259} Will anyone assert, then, that +people among whom the exogamous prohibition arose were organised on the +system of the patriarchal family, which permits the nature of kinship to +be readily understood at a glance? Is it not plain that the exogamous +prohibition (confessedly Aryan) must have arisen in a stage of culture +when ideas of kindred were confused, included kinship with animals and +plants, and were to us almost, if not quite, unintelligible? It is even +possible, as Mr. M'Lennan says, {260} 'that the prejudice against +marrying women of the same group may have been established _before the +facts of blood relationship had made any deep impression on the human +mind_.' How the exogamous prohibition tends to confirm this view will +next be set forth in our consideration of _Totemism_. + +The Evidence from Totemism.--Totemism is the name for the custom by which +a stock (scattered through many local tribes) claims descent from and +kindred with some plant, animal, or other natural object. This object, +of which the effigy is sometimes worn as a badge or crest, members of the +stock refuse to eat. As a general rule, marriage is prohibited between +members of the stock--between all, that is, who claim descent from the +same object and wear the same badge. The exogamous limit, therefore, is +denoted by the stock-name and crest, and kinship is kinship in the wolf, +bear, potato, or whatever other object is recognised as the original +ancestor. Finally, as a general rule, the stock-name is derived through +the mother, and where it is derived through the father there are proofs +that the custom is comparatively modern. It will be acknowledged that +this sort of kindred, which is traced to a beast, bird, or tree, which is +recognised in every person bearing the same stock-name, which is counted +through females, and which governs marriage customs, is not the sort of +kindred which would naturally arise among people regulated on the +patriarchal or monandrous family system. Totemism, however, is a +widespread institution prevailing all over the north of the American +continent, also in Peru (according to Garcilasso de la Vega); in Guiana +(the negroes have brought it from the African Gold Coast, where it is in +full force, as it also is among the Bechuanas); in India among Hos, +Garos, Kassos, and Oraons; in the South Sea Islands, where it has left +strong traces in Mangaia; in Siberia, and especially in the great island +continent of Australia. The Semitic evidences for totemism +(animal-worship, exogamy, descent claimed through females) are given by +Professor Robertson Smith, in the 'Journal of Philology,' ix. 17, 'Animal +Worship and Animal Tribes among the Arabs, and in the Old Testament.' +Many other examples of totemism might be adduced (especially from Egypt), +but we must restrict ourselves to the following questions:-- + +(1.) What light is thrown on the original form of the family by +totemism? (2.) Where we find survivals of totemism among civilised +races, may we conclude that these races (through scarcity of women) had +once been organised on other than the patriarchal model? + +As to the first question, we must remember that the origin and +determining causes of totemism are still unknown. Mr. M'Lennan's theory +of the origin of totemism has never been published. It may be said +without indiscretion that Mr. M'Lennan thought totemism arose at a period +when ideas of kinship scarcely existed at all. 'Men only thought of +marking one off from another,' as Garcilasso de la Vega says: the totem +was but a badge worn by all the persons who found themselves existing in +close relations; perhaps in the same cave or set of caves. People united +by contiguity, and by the blind sentiment of kinship not yet brought into +explicit consciousness, might mark themselves by a badge, and might +thence derive a name, and, later, might invent a myth of their descent +from the object which the badge represented. I do not know whether it +has been observed that the totems are, as a rule, objects which may be +easily drawn or tattooed, and still more easily indicated in +gesture-language. Some interesting facts will be found in the 'First +Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,' p. 458 (Washington, 1881). +Here we read how the 'Crow' tribe is indicated in sign-language by 'the +hands held out on each side, striking the air in the manner of flying.' +The Bunaks (another bird tribe) are indicated by an imitation of the cry +of the bird. In mentioning the Snakes, the hand imitates the crawling +motion of the serpent, and the fingers pointed up behind the ear denote +the Wolves. Plainly names of the totem sort are well suited to the +convenience of savages, who converse much in gesture-language. Above +all, the very nature of totemism shows that it took its present shape at +a time when men, animals, and plants were conceived of as physically +akin; when names were handed on through the female line; when exogamy was +the rule of marriage, and when the family theoretically included all +persons bearing the same family name, that is, all who claimed kindred +with the same plant, animal, or object, whether the persons are really +akin or not. These ideas and customs are not the ideas natural to men +organised in the patriarchal family. + +The second question now arises: Can we infer from survivals of totemism +among Aryans that these Aryans had once been organised on the full +totemistic principle, probably with polyandry, and certainly with female +descent? Where totemism now exists in full force, there we find exogamy +and derivation of the family name through women, the latter custom +indicating uncertainty of male parentage in the past. Are we to believe +that the same institutions have existed wherever we find survivals of +totemism? If this be granted, and if the supposed survivals of totemism +among Aryans be accepted as genuine, then the Aryans have distinctly come +through a period of kinship reckoned through women, with all that such an +institution implies. For indications that the Aryans of Greece and India +have passed through the stage of totemism, the reader may be referred to +Mr. M'Lennan's 'Worship of Plants and Animals' ('Fortnightly Review,' +1869, 1870). The evidence there adduced is not all of the same value, +and the papers are only a hasty rough sketch based on the first +testimonies that came to hand. Probably the most important 'survival' of +totemism in Greek legend is the body of stories about the amours of Zeus +in animal form. Various noble houses traced their origin to Zeus or +Apollo, who, as a bull, tortoise, serpent, swan, or ant, had seduced the +mother of the race. The mother of the Arcadians became a she-bear, like +the mother of the bear stock of the Iroquois. As we know plenty of races +all over the world who trace their descent from serpents, tortoises, +swans, and so forth, it is a fair hypothesis that the ancestors of the +Greeks once believed in the same fables. In later times the swan, +serpent, ant, or tortoise was explained as an avatar of Zeus. The +process by which an anthropomorphic god or hero succeeds to the exploits +of animals, of theriomorphic gods and heroes, is the most common in +mythology, and is illustrated by actual practice in modern India. When +the Brahmins convert a pig-worshipping tribe of aboriginals, they tell +their proselytes that the pig was an avatar of Vishnu. The same process +is found active where the Japanese have influenced the savage Ainos, and +persuaded them that their bear- or dog-father was a manifestation of a +deity. We know from Plutarch ('Theseus') that, in addition to families +claiming descent from divine animals, one Athenian [Greek], the Ioxidae, +revered an ancestral plant, the asparagus. A vaguer indication of +totemism may perhaps be detected in the ancient theriomorphic statues of +Greek gods, as the Ram-Zeus and the Horse-headed Demeter, and in the +various animals and plants which were sacred to each god and represented +as his companions. + +The hints of totemism among the ancient Irish are interesting. One hero, +Conaire, was the son of a bird, and before his birth his father (the +bird) told the woman (his mother) that the child must never eat the flesh +of fowls. 'Thy son shall be named Conaire, and that son shall not kill +birds.' {265a} The hero Cuchullain, being named after the dog, might not +eat the flesh of the dog, and came by his ruin after transgressing this +totemistic taboo. Races named after animals were common in ancient +Ireland. The red-deer and the wolves were tribes dwelling near Ossory, +and Professor Rhys, from the frequency of dog names, inclines to believe +in a dog totem in Erin. According to the ancient Irish 'Wonders of Eri,' +in the 'Book of Glendaloch,' 'the descendants of the wolf are in Ossory,' +and they could still transform themselves into wolves. {265b} As to our +Anglo-Saxon ancestors, there is little evidence beyond the fact that the +patronymic names of many of the early settlements of Billings, Arlings, +and the rest, are undeniably derived from animals and plants. The manner +in which those names are scattered locally is precisely like what results +in America, Africa, and Australia from the totemistic organisation. +{265c} In Italy the ancient custom by which animals were the leaders of +the Ver sacrum or armed migration is well known. The Piceni had for +their familiar animal or totem (if we may call it so) a woodpecker; the +Hirpini were like the 'descendants of the wolf' in Ossory, and practised +a wolf-dance in which they imitated the actions of the animal. + +Such is a summary of the evidence which shows that Aryans had once been +totemists, therefore savages, and therefore, again, had probably been in +a stage when women were scarce and each woman had many husbands. + +Evidence from the Gens or [Greek].--There is no more puzzling topic in +the history of the ancient world than the origin and nature of the +community called by the Romans the gens, and by the Greeks the [Greek]. +To the present writer it seems that no existing community of men, neither +totem kin, nor clan, nor house community, nor gotra, precisely answers to +the gens or the [Greek]. Our information about these forms of society is +slight and confused. The most essential thing to notice for the moment +is the fact that both in Greece and Rome the [Greek] and gens were +extremely ancient, so ancient that the [Greek] was decaying in Greece +when history begins, while in Rome we can distinctly see the rapid +decadence and dissolution of the gens. In the Laws of the Twelve Tables, +the gens is a powerful and respected corporation. In the time of Cicero +the nature of the gens is a matter but dimly understood. Tacitus begins +to be confused about the gentile nomenclature. In the Empire gentile law +fades away. In Greece, especially at Athens, the early political reforms +transferred power from the [Greek] to a purely local organisation, the +Deme. The Greek of historical times did not announce his [Greek] in his +name (as the Romans always did), but gave his own name, that of his +father, and that of his deme. Thus we may infer that in Greek and Roman +society the [Greek] and gens were dying, not growing, organisations. In +very early times it is probable that foreign gentes were adopted en bloc +into the Roman Commonwealth. Very probably, too, a great family, on +entering the Roman bond, may have assumed, by a fiction, the character +and name of a gens. But that Roman society in historical times, or that +Greek society, could evolve a new gens or [Greek] in a normal natural +way, seems excessively improbable. + +Keeping in mind the antique and 'obsolescent' character of the gens and +[Greek], let us examine the theories of the origin of these associations. +The Romans themselves knew very little about the matter. Cicero quotes +the dictum of Scaevola the Pontifex, according to which the gens +consisted of _all persons of the same gentile name_ who were not in any +way disqualified. {267} Thus, in America, or Australia, or Africa, all +persons bearing the same totem name belong to that totem kin. Festus +defines members of a gens as persons of the same stock and same family +name. Varro says (in illustration of the relationships of words and +cases) 'Ab AEmilio homines orti AEmilii sunt gentiles.' The two former +definitions answer to the conception of a totem kin, which is united by +its family name and belief in identity of origin. Varro adds the +element, in the Roman gens, of common descent from one male ancestor. +Such was the conception of the gens in historical times. It was in its +way an association of kinsfolk, real or supposed. According to the Laws +of the Twelve Tables the gentiles inherited the property of an intestate +man without agnates, and had the custody of lunatics in the same +circumstances. The gens had its own sacellum or chapel, and its own +sacra or religious rites. The whole gens occasionally went into mourning +when one of its members was unfortunate. It would be interesting if it +could be shown that the sacra were usually examples of ancestor-worship, +but the faint indications on the subject scarcely permit us to assert +this. + +On the whole, Sir Henry Maine strongly clings to the belief that the gens +commonly had 'a real core of agnatic consanguinity from the very first.' +But he justly recognises the principle of imitation, which induces men to +copy any fashionable institution. Whatever the real origin of the gens, +many gentes were probably copies based on the fiction of common ancestry. + +On Sir Henry Maine's system, then, the gens rather proves the constant +existence of recognised male descents among the peoples where it exists. + +The opposite theory of the gens is that to which Mr. M'Lennan inclined. +'The composition and organisation of Greek and Roman tribes and +commonwealths cannot well be explained except on the hypothesis that they +resulted from the joint operation, in early times, of exogamy, and the +system of kinship through females only.' {268} 'The gens', he adds, 'was +composed of all the persons in the tribe bearing the same name and +accounted of the same stock. Were the gentes really of different stocks, +as their names would imply and as the people believed? If so, how came +clans of different stocks to be united in the same tribe? . . . How came +a variety of such groups, of different stocks, to coalesce in a local +tribe?' These questions, Mr. M'Lennan thought, could not be answered on +the patriarchal hypothesis. His own theory, or rather his theory as +understood by the present writer, may be stated thus. In the earliest +times there were homogeneous groups, which became, totem kin. Let us say +that, in a certain district, there were groups called woodpeckers, +wolves, bears, suns, swine, each with its own little territory. These +groups were exogamous, and derived the name through the mother. Thus, in +course of time, when sun men married a wolf girl, and her children were +wolves, there would be wolves in the territory of the suns, and thus each +stock would be scattered through all the localities, just as we see in +Australia and America. Let us suppose that (as certainly is occurring in +Australia and America) paternal descent comes to be recognised in custom. +This change will not surprise Sir Henry Maine, who admits that a system +of male may alter, under stress of circumstances, to a system of female +descents. In course of time, and as knowledge and common sense advance, +the old superstition of descent from a woodpecker, a bear, a wolf, the +sun, or what not, becomes untenable. A human name is assumed by the +group which had called itself the woodpeckers or the wolves, or perhaps +by a local tribe in which several of these stocks are included. Then a +fictitious human ancestor is adopted, and perhaps even adored. Thus the +wolves might call themselves Claudii, from their chief's name, and, +giving up belief in descent from a wolf, might look back to a fancied +ancestor named Claudius. The result of these changes will be that an +exogamous totem kin, with female descent, has become a gens, with male +kinship, and only the faintest trace of exogamy. An example of somewhat +similar processes must have occurred in the Highland clans after the +introduction of Christianity, when the chief's Christian name became the +patronymic of the people who claimed kinship with him and owned his sway. + +Are there any traces at all of totemism in what we know of the Roman +gentes? Certainly the traces are very slight; perhaps they are only +visible to the eye of the intrepid anthropologist. I give them for what +they are worth, merely observing that they do tally, as far as they go, +with the totemistic theory. The reader interested in the subject may +consult the learned Streinnius's 'De Gentibus Romanis,' p. 104 (Aldus, +Venice, 1591). + +Among well-known savage totems none is more familiar than the sun. Men +claim descent from the sun, call themselves by his name, and wear his +effigy as a badge. {270} Were there suns in Rome? The Aurelian gens is +thus described on the authority of Festus Pompeius:--'The Aurelii were of +Sabine descent. The Aurelii were so named from the sun (aurum, urere, +the burning thing), because a place was set apart for them in which to +pay adoration to the sun.' Here, at least, is an odd coincidence. Among +other gentile names, the Fabii, Cornelii, Papirii, Pinarii, Cassii, are +possibly connected with plants; while wild etymology may associate +Porcii, Aquilii, and Valerii with swine and eagles. Pliny ('H. N.' +xviii. 3) gives a fantastic explanation of the vegetable names of Roman +gentes. We must remember that vegetable names are very common in +American, Indian, African, and Australian totem kin. Of sun names the +Natchez and the Incas of Peru are familiar examples. Turning from Rome +to Greece, we find the [Greek] less regarded and more decadent than the +gens. Yet, according to Grote (iii. 54) the [Greek] had--(l) sacra, 'in +honour of the same god, supposed to be the primitive ancestor.' (2) A +common burial-place. (3) Certain rights of succession to property. (4) +Obligations of mutual help and defence. (5) Mutual rights and +obligations to intermarry in certain cases. (6) Occasionally possession +of common property. + +Traces of the totem among the Greek [Greek] are, naturally, few. Almost +all the known [Greek] bore patronymics derived from personal names. But +it is not without significance that the Attic demes often adopted the +names of obsolescent [Greek], and that those names were, as Mr. Grote +says, often 'derived from the plants and shrubs which grew in their +neighbourhood.' We have already seen that at least one Attic [Greek], +the Ioxidae, revered the plant from which they derived their lineage. One +thing is certain, the totem names, and a common explanation of the totem +names in Australia, correspond with the names and Mr. Grote's explanation +of the names of the Attic demes. 'One origin of family names,' says Sir +George Grey (ii. 228), 'frequently ascribed by the natives, is that they +were derived from some vegetable or animal being common in the district +which the family inhabited.' Some writers attempt to show that the Attic +[Greek] was once exogamous and counted kin on the mother's side, by +quoting the custom which permitted a man to marry his half-sister, the +child of his father but not of his mother. They infer that this +permission is a survival from the time when a man's _father's_ children +were not reckoned as his kindred, and when kinship was counted through +mothers. Sir Henry Maine (p. 105) prefers M. Fustel De Coulanges' +theory, that the marriage of half-brothers and sisters on the father's +side was intended to save the portion of the girl to the family estate. +Proof of this may be adduced from examination of all the recorded cases +of such marriages in Athens. But the reason thus suggested would have +equally justified marriage between brothers and sisters on both sides, +and this was reckoned incest. A well-known line in Aristophanes shows +how intense was Athenian feeling about the impiety of relations with a +sister uterine. + +On the whole, the evidence which we have adduced tends to establish some +links between the ancient [Greek] and gens, and the totem kindreds of +savages. The indications are not strong, but they all point in one +direction. Considering the high civilisation of Rome and Greece at the +very dawn of history--considering the strong natural bent of these +peoples toward refinement--it is almost remarkable that even the slight +testimonies we have been considering should have survived. + +(5.) On the evidence from myth and legend we propose to lay little +stress. But, as legends were not invented by anthropologists to prove a +point, it is odd that the traditions of Athens, as preserved by Varro, +speak of a time when names were derived from the mother, and when +promiscuity prevailed. Marriage itself was instituted by Cecrops, the +serpent, just as the lizard, in Australia, is credited with this useful +invention. {273a} Similar legends among non-Aryan races, Chinese and +Egyptian, are very common. + +(6.) There remains the evidence of actual fact and custom among Aryan +peoples. The Lycians, according to Herodotus, 'have this peculiar +custom, _wherein they resemble no other men_, they derive their names +from their mothers, and not from their fathers, and through mothers +reckon their kin.' Status also was derived through the mothers. {273b} +The old writer's opinion that the custom (so common in Australia, +America, and Africa) was unique, is itself a proof of his good faith. +Bachofen (p. 390) remarks that several Lycian inscriptions give the names +of mothers only. Polybius attributes (assigning a fantastic reason) the +same custom of counting kin through mothers to the Locrians. {273c} The +British and Irish custom of deriving descents through women is well +known, {273d} and a story is told to account for the practice. The +pedigrees of the British kings show that most did not succeed to their +fathers, and the various records of early Celtic morals go to prove that +no other system of kinship than the maternal would have possessed any +value, so uncertain was fatherhood. These are but hints of the +prevalence of institutions which survived among Teutonic races in the +importance attached to the relationship of a man's sister's son. Though +no longer his legal heir, the sister's son was almost closer than any +other kinsman. + +We have now summarised and indicated the nature of the evidence which, on +the whole, inclines us to the belief of Mr. M'Lennan rather than of Sir +Henry Maine. The point to which all the testimony adduced converges, the +explanation which most readily solves all the difficulties, is the +explanation of Mr. M'Lennan. The Aryan races have very generally passed +through the stage of scarcity of women, polyandry, absence of recognised +male kinship, and recognition of kinship through women. What Sir Henry +Maine admits as the exception, we are inclined to regard as having, in a +very remote past, been the rule. No one kind of evidence--neither traces +of marriage by capture, of exogamy, of totemism, of tradition, of noted +fact among Lycians and Picts and Irish--would alone suffice to guide our +opinion in this direction. But the cumulative force of the testimony +strikes us as not inconsiderable, and it must be remembered that the +testimony has not yet been assiduously collected. + +Let us end by showing how this discussion illustrates the method of +Folklore. We have found anomalies among Aryans. We have seen the gens +an odd, decaying institution. We have seen Greek families claim descent +from various animals, said to be Zeus in disguise. We have found them +tracing kinship and deriving names from the mother. We have found stocks +with animal and vegetable names. We have found half-brothers and sisters +marrying. We have noted prohibition to marry anyone of the same family +name. All these institutions are odd, anomalous, decaying things among +Aryans, and the more civilised the Aryans the more they decay. All of +them are living, active things among savages, and, far from being +anomalous, are in precise harmony with savage notions of the world. +Surely, then, where they seem decaying and anomalous, as among Aryans, +these customs and laws are mouldering relics of ideas and practices +natural and inevitable among savages. + + + + +THE ART OF SAVAGES. {276} + + +'Avoid Coleridge, he is _useless_,' says Mr. Ruskin. Why should the +poetry of Coleridge be useful? The question may interest the critic, but +we are only concerned with Mr. Ruskin here, for one reason. His +disparagement of Coleridge as 'useless' is a survival of the belief that +art should be 'useful.' This is the savage's view of art. He imitates +nature, in dance, song, or in plastic art, for a definite practical +purpose. His dances are magical dances, his images are made for a +magical purpose, his songs are incantations. Thus the theory that art is +a disinterested expression of the imitative faculty is scarcely warranted +by the little we know of art's beginnings. We shall adopt, +provisionally, the hypothesis that the earliest art with which we are +acquainted is that of savages contemporary or extinct. Some philosophers +may tell us that all known savages are only degraded descendants of early +civilised men who have, unluckily and inexplicably, left no relics of +their civilisation. But we shall argue on the opposite theory, that the +art of Australians, for example, is really earlier in kind, more +backward, nearer the rude beginnings of things, than the art of people +who have attained to some skill in pottery, like the New Caledonians. +These, again, are much more backward, in a state really much earlier, +than the old races of Mexico and Peru; while they, in turn, show but a +few traces of advance towards the art of Egypt; and the art of Egypt, at +least after the times of the Ancient Empire, is scarcely advancing in the +direction of the flawless art of Greece. We shall be able to show how +savage art, as of the Australians, develops into barbarous art, as of the +New Zealanders; while the arts of strange civilisations, like those of +Peru and Mexico, advance one step further; and how, again, in the early +art of Greece, in the Greek art of ages prior to Pericles, there are +remains of barbaric forms which are gradually softened into beauty. But +there are necessarily breaks and solutions of continuity in the path of +progress. + +One of the oldest problems has already risen before us in connection with +the question stated--is art the gratification of the imitative faculty? +Now, among the lowest, the most untutored, the worst equipped savages of +contemporary races, art is rather decorative on the whole than imitative. +The patterns on Australian shields and clubs, the scars which they raise +on their own flesh by way of tattooing, are very rarely imitations of any +objects in nature. The Australians, like the Red Indians, like many +African and some aboriginal Indian races, Peruvians, and others, +distinguish their families by the names of various plants and animals, +from which each family boasts its descent. Thus you have a family called +Kangaroos, descended, as they fancy, from the kangaroo; another from the +cockatoo, another from the black snake, and so forth. Now, in many +quarters of the globe, this custom and this superstition, combined with +the imitative faculty in man, has produced a form of art representing the +objects from which the families claim descent. This art is a sort of +rude heraldry--probably the origin of heraldry. Thus, if a Red Indian +(say a Delaware) is of the family of the Turtle, he blazons a turtle on +his shield or coat, probably tattoos or paints his breast with a figure +of a turtle, and always has a turtle, _reversed_, designed on the pillar +above his grave when he dies, just as, in our mediaeval chronicles, the +leopards of an English king are reversed on his scutcheon opposite the +record of his death. But the Australians, to the best of my knowledge, +though they are much governed by belief in descent from animals, do not +usually blazon their crest on their flesh, nor on the trees near the +place where the dead are buried. They have not arrived at this pitch of +imitative art, though they have invented or inherited a kind of runes +which they notch on sticks, and in which they convey to each other secret +messages. The natives of the Upper Darling, however, do carve their +family crests on their shields. In place of using imitative art, the +Murri are said, I am not quite sure with what truth, to indicate the +distinction of families by arrangements of patterns, lines and dots, +tattooed on the breast and arms, and carved on the bark of trees near +places of burial. In any case, the absence of the rude imitative art of +heraldry among a race which possesses all the social conditions that +produce this art is a fact worth noticing, and itself proves that the +native art of one of the most backward races we know is not essentially +imitative. + +[Fig. 1. An Australian Shield: 278.jpg] + +Anyone who will look through a collection of Australian weapons and +utensils will be brought to this conclusion. The shields and the clubs +are elaborately worked, but almost always without any representation of +plants, animals, or the human figure. As a rule the decorations take the +simple shape of the 'herring-bone' pattern, or such other patterns as can +be produced without the aid of spirals, or curves, or circles. There is +a natural and necessary cause of this choice of decoration. The +Australians, working on hard wood, with tools made of flint, or broken +glass, or sharp shell, cannot easily produce any curved lines. Everyone +who, when a boy, carved his name on the bark of a tree, remembers the +difficulty he had with S and G, while he got on easily with letters like +M and A, which consist of straight or inclined lines. The savage artist +has the same difficulty with his rude tools in producing anything like +satisfactory curves or spirals. We engrave above (Fig. 1) a shield on +which an Australian has succeeded, with obvious difficulty, in producing +concentric ovals of irregular shape. It may be that the artist would +have produced perfect circles if he could. His failure is exactly like +that of a youthful carver of inscriptions coming to grief over his G's +and S's. Here, however (Fig. 2), we have three shields which, like the +ancient Celtic pipkin (the tallest of the three figures in Fig. 3), show +the earliest known form of savage decorative art--the forms which survive +under the names of 'chevron' and 'herring-bone.' These can be scratched +on clay with the nails, or a sharp stick, and this primeval way of +decorating pottery made without the wheel survives, with other relics of +savage art, in the western isles of Scotland. The Australian had not +even learned to make rude clay pipkins, but he decorated his shields as +the old Celts and modern old Scotch women decorated their clay pots, with +the herring-bone arrangement of incised lines. In the matter of colour +the Australians prefer white clay and red ochre, which they rub into the +chinks in the woodwork of their shields. When they are determined on an +ambush, they paint themselves all over with white, justly conceiving that +their sudden apparition in this guise will strike terror into the boldest +hearts. But arrangements in black and white of this sort scarcely +deserve the name of even rudimentary art. + +[Fig. 2. Shields: 280.jpg] + +[Fig. 3. Savage Ornamentation: 282.jpg] + +The Australians sometimes introduce crude decorative attempts at +designing the human figure, as in the pointed shield opposite (Fig. 2, +a), which, with the other Australian designs, are from Mr. Brough Smyth's +'Aborigines of Victoria.' But these ambitious efforts usually end in +failure. Though the Australians chiefly confine themselves to decorative +art, there are numbers of wall-paintings, so to speak, in the caves of +the country which prove that they, like the Bushmen, could design the +human figure in action when they pleased. Their usual preference for the +employment of patterns appears to me to be the result of the nature of +their materials. In modern art our mechanical advantages and facilities +are so great that we are always carrying the method and manner of one art +over the frontier of another. Our poetry aims at producing the effects +of music; our prose at producing the effects of poetry. Our sculpture +tries to vie with painting in the representation of action, or with lace- +making in the production of reticulated surfaces, and so forth. But the +savage, in his art, has sense enough to confine himself to the sort of +work for which his materials are fitted. Set him in the bush with no +implements and materials but a bit of broken shell and a lump of hard +wood, and he confines himself to decorative scratches. Place the black +in the large cave which Pundjel, the Australian Zeus, inhabited when on +earth (as Zeus inhabited the cave in Crete), and give the black plenty of +red and white ochre and charcoal, and he will paint the human figure in +action on the rocky walls. Later, we will return to the cave-paintings +of the Australians and the Bushmen in South Africa. At present we must +trace purely decorative art a little further. But we must remember that +there was once a race apparently in much the same social condition as the +Australians, but far more advanced and ingenious in art. The earliest +men of the European Continent, about whom we know much, the men whose +bones and whose weapons are found beneath the gravel-drift, the men who +were contemporary with the rhinoceros, mammoth, and cave-bear, were not +further advanced in material civilisation than the Australians. They +used weapons of bone, of unpolished stone, and probably of hard wood. But +the remnants of their art, the scraps of mammoth or reindeer bone in our +museums, prove that they had a most spirited style of sketching from the +life. In a collection of drawings on bone (probably designed with a +flint or a shell), drawings by palaeolithic man, in the British Museum, I +have only observed one purely decorative attempt. Even in this the +decoration resembles an effort to use the outlines of foliage for +ornamental purposes. In almost all the other cases the palaeolithic +artist has not decorated his bits of bone in the usual savage manner, but +has treated his bone as an artist treats his sketch-book, and has +scratched outlines of beasts and fishes with his sharp shell as an artist +uses his point. These ancient bones, in short, are the sketch-books of +European savages, whose untaught skill was far greater than that of the +Australians, or even of the Eskimo. When brought into contact with +Europeans, the Australian and Eskimo very quickly, even without regular +teaching, learn to draw with some spirit and skill. In the Australian +stele, or grave-pillar, which we have engraved (Fig. 4), the shapeless +figures below the men and animals are the dead, and the boilyas or +ghosts. Observe the patterns in the interstices. The artist had lived +with Europeans. In their original conditions, however, the Australians +have not attained to such free, artist-like, and unhampered use of their +rude materials as the mysterious European artists who drew the mammoth +that walked abroad amongst them. + +[Fig. 4. An Australian Stele: 283.jpg] + +We have engraved one solitary Australian attempt at drawing curved lines. +The New Zealanders, a race far more highly endowed, and, when Europeans +arrived amongst them, already far more civilised than the Australians, +had, like the Australians, no metal implements. But their stone weapons +were harder and keener, and with these they engraved the various spirals +and coils on hard wood, of which we give examples here. It is sometimes +said that New Zealand culture and art have filtered from some Asiatic +source, and that in the coils and spirals designed, as in our engravings, +on the face of the Maori chief, or on his wooden furniture, there may be +found debased Asiatic influences. {286} This is one of the questions +which we can hardly deal with here. Perhaps its solution requires more +of knowledge, anthropological and linguistic, than is at present within +the reach of any student. Assuredly the races of the earth have wandered +far, and have been wonderfully intermixed, and have left the traces of +their passage here and there on sculptured stones, and in the keeping of +the ghosts that haunt ancient grave-steads. But when two pieces of +artistic work, one civilised, one savage, resemble each other, it is +always dangerous to suppose that the resemblance bears witness to +relationship or contact between the races, or to influences imported by +one from the other. New Zealand work may be Asiatic in origin, and +debased by the effect of centuries of lower civilisation and ruder +implements. Or Asiatic ornament may be a form of art improved out of +ruder forms, like those to which the New Zealanders have already +attained. One is sometimes almost tempted to regard the favourite Maori +spiral as an imitation of the form, not unlike that of a bishop's crozier +at the top, taken by the great native ferns. Examples of resemblance, to +be accounted for by the development of a crude early idea, may be traced +most easily in the early pottery of Greece. No one says that the Greeks +borrowed from the civilised people of America. Only a few enthusiasts +say that the civilised peoples of America, especially the Peruvians, are +Aryan by race. Yet the remains of Peruvian palaces are often by no means +dissimilar in style from the 'Pelasgic' and 'Cyclopean' buildings of +gigantic stones which remain on such ancient Hellenic sites as Argos and +Mycenae. The probability is that men living in similar social +conditions, and using similar implements, have unconsciously and +unintentionally arrived at like results. + +[Fig 5. a, A Maori Design; b, Tattoo on a Maori's face: 285.jpg] + +Few people who are interested in the question can afford to visit Peru +and Mycenae and study the architecture for themselves. But anyone who is +interested in the strange identity of the human mind everywhere, and in +the necessary forms of early art, can go to the British Museum and +examine the American and early Greek pottery. Compare the Greek key +pattern and the wave pattern on Greek and Mexican vases, and compare the +bird-faces, or human faces very like those of birds, with the similar +faces on the clay pots which Dr. Schliemann dug up at Troy. The latter +are engraved in his book on Troy. Compare the so-called 'cuttle-fish' +from a Peruvian jar with the same figure on the early Greek vases, most +of which are to be found in the last of the classical vase-rooms +upstairs. Once more, compare the little clay 'whorls' of the Mexican and +Peruvian room with those which Dr. Schliemann found so numerous at +Hissarlik. The conviction becomes irresistible that all these objects, +in shape, in purpose, in character of decoration, are the same, because +the mind and the materials of men, in their early stages of civilisation +especially, are the same everywhere. You might introduce old Greek bits +of clay-work, figures or vases, into a Peruvian collection, or might +foist Mexican objects among the clay treasures of Hissarlik, and the +wisest archaeologist would be deceived. The Greek fret pattern +especially seems to be one of the earliest that men learnt to draw. The +svastika, as it is called, the cross with lines at right angles to each +limb, is found everywhere--in India, Greece, Scotland, Peru--as a natural +bit of ornament. The allegorising fancy of the Indians gave it a mystic +meaning, and the learned have built I know not what worlds of religious +theories on this 'pre-Christian cross,' which is probably a piece of +hasty decorative work, with no original mystic meaning at all. {289} +Ornaments of this sort were transferred from wood or bone to clay, almost +as soon as people learned that early art, the potter's, to which the +Australians have not attained, though it was familiar to the not distant +people of New Caledonia. The style of spirals and curves, again, once +acquired (as it was by the New Zealanders), became the favourite of some +races, especially of the Celtic. Any one who will study either the +ornaments of Mycenae, or those of any old Scotch or Irish collection, +will readily recognise in that art the development of a system of +ornament like that of the Maoris. Classical Greece, on the other hand, +followed more in the track of the ancient system of straight and slanted +lines, and we do not find in the later Greek art that love of interlacing +coils and spirals which is so remarkable among the Celts, and which is +very manifest in the ornaments of the Mycaenean hoards--that is, perhaps, +of the ancient Greek heroic age. The causes of these differences in the +development of ornament, the causes that made Celtic genius follow one +track, and pursue to its aesthetic limits one early motif, while +classical art went on a severer line, it is, perhaps, impossible at +present to ascertain. But it is plain enough that later art has done +little more than develop ideas of ornament already familiar to untutored +races. + +[Fig. 6. From a Maori's Face: 287.jpg] + +It has been shown that the art which aims at decoration is better adapted +to both the purposes and materials of savages than the art which aims at +representation. As a rule, the materials of the lower savages are their +own bodies (which they naturally desire to make beautiful for ever by +tattooing), and the hard substances of which they fashion their tools and +weapons. These hard substances, when worked on with cutting instruments +of stone or shell, are most easily adorned with straight cut lines, and +spirals are therefore found to be, on the whole, a comparatively late +form of ornament. + +[Fig. 7. Bushman Dog: 290.jpg] + +We have now to discuss the efforts of the savage to represent. Here, +again, we have to consider the purpose which animates him, and the +materials which are at his service. His pictures have a practical +purpose, and do not spring from what we are apt, perhaps too hastily, to +consider the innate love of imitation for its own sake. In modern art, +in modern times, no doubt the desire to imitate nature, by painting or +sculpture, has become almost an innate impulse, an in-born instinct. But +there must be some 'reason why' for this; and it does not seem at all +unlikely that we inherit the love, the disinterested love, of imitative +art from very remote ancestors, whose habits of imitation had a direct, +interested, and practical purpose. The member of Parliament who mimics +the crowing of a cock during debate, or the street boy who beguiles his +leisure by barking like a dog, has a disinterested pleasure in the +exercise of his skill; but advanced thinkers seem pretty well agreed that +the first men who imitated the voices of dogs, and cocks, and other +animals, did not do so merely for fun, but with the practical purpose of +indicating to their companions the approach of these creatures. Such +were the rude beginnings of human language: and whether that theory be +correct or not, there are certainly practical reasons which impel the +savage to attempt imitative art. I doubt if there are many savage races +which do not use representative art for the purposes of writing--that is, +to communicate information to persons whom they cannot reach by the +voice, and to assist the memory, which, in a savage, is perhaps not very +strong. To take examples. A savage man meets a savage maid. She does +not speak his language, nor he hers. How are they to know whether, +according to the marriage laws of their race, they are lawful mates for +each other? This important question is settled by an inspection of their +tattooed marks. If a Thlinkeet man of the Swan stock meets an Iroquois +maid of the Swan stock they cannot speak to each other, and the 'gesture +language' is cumbrous. But if both are tattooed with the swan, then the +man knows that this daughter of the swan is not for him. He could no +more marry her than Helen of Troy could have married Castor, the tamer of +horses. Both are children of the Swan, as were Helen and Castor, and +must regard each other as brother and sister. The case of the Thlinkeet +man and the Iroquois maid is extremely unlikely to occur; but I give it +as an example of the practical use among savages, of representative art. + +[Fig. 8. Red Indian Picture-Writing - The Legend of Manabozho: 293.jpg] + +Among the uses of art for conveying intelligence we notice that even the +Australians have what the Greeks would have called the [Greek], a staff +on which inscriptions, legible to the Aborigines, are engraven. I +believe, however, that the Australian [Greek] is not usually marked with +picture-writing, but with notches--even more difficult to decipher. As +an example of Red Indian picture-writing we publish a scroll from Kohl's +book on the natives of North America. This rude work of art, though the +reader may think little of it, is really a document as important in its +way as the Chaldaean clay tablets inscribed with the record of the +Deluge. The coarsely-drawn figures recall, to the artist's mind, much of +the myth of Manabozho, the Prometheus and the Deucalion, the Cain and the +Noah of the dwellers by the great lake. Manabozho was a great chief, who +had two wives that quarrelled. The two stumpy half-figures (4) represent +the wives; the mound between them is the displeasure of Manabozho. +Further on (5) you see him caught up between two trees--an unpleasant +fix, from which the wolves and squirrels refused to extricate him. The +kind of pyramid with a figure at top (8) is a mountain, on which when the +flood came, Manabozho placed his grandmother to be out of the water's +way. The somewhat similar object is Manabozho himself, on the top of his +mountain. The animals you next behold (10) were sent out by Manabozho to +ascertain how the deluge was faring, and to carry messages to his +grandmother. This scroll was drawn, probably on birch bark, by a Red Man +of literary attainments, who gave it to Kohl (in its lower right-hand +corner (11) he has pictured the event), that he might never forget the +story of the Manabozhian deluge. The Red Indians have always, as far as +European knowledge goes, been in the habit of using this picture-writing +for the purpose of retaining their legends, poems, and incantations. It +is unnecessary to say that the picture-writing of Mexico and the +hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt are derived from the same savage +processes. I must observe that the hasty indications of the figure used +in picture-writing are by no means to be regarded as measures of the Red +Men's skill in art. They can draw much better than the artist who +recorded the Manabozhian legend, when they please. + +In addition to picture-writing, Religion has fostered savage +representative art. If a man worships a lizard or a bear, he finds it +convenient to have an amulet or idol representing a bear or a lizard. If +one adores a lizard or a bear, one is likely to think that prayer and +acts of worship addressed to an image of the animal will please the +animal himself, and make him propitious. Thus the art of making little +portable figures of various worshipful beings is fostered, and the craft +of working in wood or ivory is born. As a rule, the savage is satisfied +with excessively rude representations of his gods. Objects of this +kind--rude hewn blocks of stone and wood--were the most sacred effigies +of the gods in Greece, and were kept in the dimmest recesses of the +temple. No Demeter wrought by the craft of Phidias would have appeared +so holy to the Phigalians as the strange old figure of the goddess with +the head of a mare. The earliest Greek sacred sculptures that remain are +scarcely, if at all, more advanced in art than the idols of the naked +Admiralty Islanders. But this is anticipating; in the meantime it may be +said that among the sources of savage representative art are the need of +something like writing, and ideas suggested by nascent religion. + +[Fig. 9. Bushman Wall-Painting: 295.jpg] + +The singular wall-picture (Fig. 9) from a cave in South Africa, which we +copy from the 'Cape Monthly Magazine,' probably represents a magical +ceremony. Bushmen are tempting a great water animal--a rhinoceros, or +something of that sort--to run across the land, for the purpose of +producing rain. The connection of ideas is scarcely apparent to +civilised minds, but it is not more indistinct than the connection +between carrying a bit of the rope with which a man has been hanged and +success at cards--a common French superstition. The Bushman +cave-pictures, like those of Australia, are painted in black, red, and +white. Savages, like the Assyrians and the early Greeks, and like +children, draw animals much better than the human figure. The Bushman +dog in our little engraving (Fig. 7) is all alive--almost as full of life +as the dog which accompanies the centaur Chiron, in that beautiful vase +in the British Museum which represents the fostering of Achilles. The +Bushman wall-paintings, like those of Australia, seem to prove that +savage art is capable of considerable freedom, when supplied with fitting +materials. Men seem to draw better when they have pigments and a flat +surface of rock to work upon, than when they are scratching on hard wood +with a sharp edge of a broken shell. Though the thing has little to do +with art, it may be worth mentioning, as a matter of curiosity, that the +labyrinthine Australian caves are decorated, here and there, with the +mark of a red hand. The same mysterious, or at least unexplained, red +hand is impressed on the walls of the ruined palaces and temples of +Yucatan--the work of a vanished people. + +[Fig. 10. Palaelithic art: 297.jpg] + +There is one singular fact in the history of savage art which reminds us +that savages, like civilised men, have various degrees of culture and +various artistic capacities. The oldest inhabitants of Europe who have +left any traces of their lives and handiwork must have been savages. +Their tools and weapons were not even formed of polished stone, but of +rough-hewn flint. The people who used tools of this sort must +necessarily have enjoyed but a scanty mechanical equipment, and the life +they lived in caves from which they had to drive the cave-bear, and among +snows where they stalked the reindeer and the mammoth, must have been +very rough. These earliest known Europeans, 'palaeolithic men,' as they +called, from their use of the ancient unpolished stone weapons, appear to +have inhabited the countries now known as France and England, before the +great Age of Ice. This makes their date one of incalculable antiquity; +they are removed from us by a 'dark backward and abysm of time.' The +whole Age of Ice, the dateless period of the polishers of stone weapons, +the arrival of men using weapons of bronze, the time which sufficed to +change the climate and fauna and flora of Western Europe, lie between us +and palaeolithic man. Yet in him we must recognise a skill more akin to +the spirit of modern art than is found in any other savage race. +Palaeolithic man, like other savages, decorated his weapons; but, as I +have already said, he did not usually decorate them in the common savage +manner with ornamental patterns. He scratched on bits of bone spirited +representations of all the animals whose remains are found mixed with his +own. He designed the large-headed horse of that period, and science +inclines to believe that he drew the breed correctly. His sketches of +the mammoth, the reindeer, the bear, and of many fishes, may be seen in +the British Museum, or engraved in such works as Professor Boyd Dawkins's +'Early Man in Britain.' The object from which our next illustration +(Fig. 12) was engraved represents a deer, and was a knife-handle. Eyes +at all trained in art can readily observe the wonderful spirit and +freedom of these ancient sketches. They are the rapid characteristic +work of true artists who know instinctively what to select and what to +sacrifice. + +[Fig 12. Palaeolithic art - a knife-handle: 299.jpg] + +Some learned men, Mr. Boyd Dawkins among them, believe that the Eskimo, +that stunted hunting and fishing race of the Western Arctic circle, are +descendants of the palaeolithic sketchers, and retain their artistic +qualities. Other inquirers, with Mr. Geikie and Dr. Wilson, do not +believe in this pedigree of the Eskimo. I speak not with authority, but +the submission of ignorance, and as one who has no right to an opinion +about these deep matters of geology and ethnology. But to me, Mr. +Geikie's arguments appear distinctly the more convincing, and I cannot +think it demonstrated that the Eskimo are descended from our old +palaeolithic artists. But if Mr. Boyd Dawkins is right, if the Eskimo +derive their lineage from the artists of the Dordogne, then the Eskimo +are sadly degenerated. In Mr. Dawkins's 'Early Man' is an Eskimo drawing +of a reindeer hunt, and a palaeolithic sketch of a reindeer; these (by +permission of the author and Messrs. Macmillan) we reproduce. Look at +the vigour and life of the ancient drawing--the feathering hair on the +deer's breast, his head, his horns, the very grasses at his feet, are +touched with the graver of a true artist (Fig. 14). The design is like a +hasty memorandum of Leech's. Then compare the stiff formality of the +modern Eskimo drawing (Fig. 13). It is rather like a record, a piece of +picture-writing, than a free sketch, a rapid representation of what is +most characteristic in nature. Clearly, if the Eskimo come from +palaeolithic man, they are a degenerate race as far as art is concerned. +Yet, as may be seen in Dr. Rink's books, the Eskimo show considerable +skill when they have become acquainted with European methods and models, +and they have at any rate a greater natural gift for design than the Red +Indians, of whose sacred art the Thunderbird brooding over page 298 is a +fair example. The Red Men believe in big birds which produce thunder. +Quahteaht, the Adam of Vancouver's Island, married one, and this (Fig. +11) is she. + +[Fig. 11. Red Indian art - the Thunderbird: 298.jpg] + +[Fig. 13. Eskimo Drawing - A Reindeer hunt: 300.jpg] + +[Fig. 14. Palaeolithic sketch - a reindeer: 301.jpg] + +We have tried to show how savage decorative art supplied the first ideas +of patterns which were developed in various ways by the decorative art of +advancing civilisation. The same progress might be detected in +representative art. Books, like the guide-book to ancient Greece which +Pausanias wrote before the glory had quite departed, prove that the Greek +temples were museums in which the development of art might be clearly +traced. Furthest back in the series of images of gods came things like +that large stone which was given to Cronus when he wished to swallow his +infant child Zeus, and which he afterwards vomited up with his living +progeny. This fetich-stone was preserved at Delphi. Next came wild +bulks of beast-headed gods, like the horse-headed Demeter of Phigalia, +and it seems possible enough that there was an Artemis with the head of a +she-bear. Gradually the bestial characteristics dropped, and there +appeared such rude anthropomorphic images of Apollo--more like South Sea +idols than the archer prince--as are now preserved in Athens. Next we +have the stage of semi-savage realism, which is represented by the +metopes of Selinus in Sicily, now in the British Museum, and by not a few +gems and pieces of gold work. Greek temples have fallen, and the statues +of the gods exist only in scattered fragments. But in the representative +collection of casts belonging to the Cambridge Archaeological Museum, one +may trace the career of Greek art backwards from Phidias to the rude +idol. + +'Savage realism' is the result of a desire to represent an object as it +is known to be, and not as it appears. Thus Catlin, among the Red +Indians, found that the people refused to be drawn in profile. They knew +they had two eyes, and in profile they seemed only to have one. Look at +the Selinus marbles, and you will observe that figures, of which the body +is seen in profile, have the full face turned to the spectator. Again, +the savage knows that an animal has two sides; both, he thinks, should be +represented, but he cannot foreshorten, and he finds the profile view +easiest to draw. To satisfy his need of realism he draws a beast's head +full-face, and gives to the one head two bodies drawn in profile. +Examples of this are frequent in very archaic Greek gems and gold work, +and Mr. A. S. Murray suggests (as I understand him) that the attitude of +the two famous lions, which guarded vainly Agamemnon's gate at Mycenae, +is derived from the archaic double-bodied and single-headed beast of +savage realism. Very good examples of these oddities may be found in the +'Journal of the Hellenic Society,' 1881, pl. xv. Here are double-bodied +and single headed birds, monsters, and sphinxes. We engrave (Fig. 15) +three Greek gems from the islands as examples of savagery in early Greek +art. In the oblong gem the archers are rather below the Red Indian +standard of design. The hunter figured in the first gem is almost up to +the Bushman mark. In his dress ethnologists will recognise an +arrangement now common among the natives of New Caledonia. In the third +gem the woman between two swans may be Leda, or she may represent Leto in +Delos. Observe the amazing rudeness of the design, and note the modern +waist and crinoline. The artists who engraved these gems on hard stone +had, of necessity, much better tools than any savages possess, but their +art was truly savage. To discover how Greek art climbed in a couple of +centuries from this coarse and childish work to the grace of the AEgina +marbles, and thence to the absolute freedom and perfect unapproachable +beauty of the work of Phidias, is one of the most singular problems in +the history of art. Greece learned something, no doubt, from her early +knowledge of the arts the priests of Assyria and Egypt had elaborated in +the valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile. That might account for a +swift progress from savage to formal and hieratic art; but whence sprang +the inspiration which led her so swiftly on to art that is perfectly +free, natural, and god-like? It is a mystery of race, and of a divine +gift. 'The heavenly gods have given it to mortals.' + +[Fig. 15. Archaic Greek Gems: 303.jpg] + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{3a} Compare De Cara: Essame Critico, xx. i. + +{3b} Revue de l'Hist. des Rel. ii. 136. + +{4} Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte, p. 431. + +{5} Prim. Cult. i. 394. + +{11a} A study of the contemporary stone age in Scotland will be found in +Mitchell's Past and Present. + +{11b} About twenty years ago, the widow of an Irish farmer, in Derry, +killed her deceased husband's horse. When remonstrated with by her +landlord, she said, 'Would you have my man go about on foot in the next +world?' She was quite in the savage intellectual stage. + +{12} At the solemn festival suppers, ordained for the honour of the +gods, they forget not to serve up certain dishes of young whelp's flesh. +(Pliny, H. N. xxix. 4.) + +{15} Nov. 1880. + +{18} 'Ah, once again may I plant the great fan on her corn-heap, while +she stands smiling by, Demeter of the threshing floor, with sheaves and +poppies in her hands' (Theocritus, vii. 155-157). + +{20} Odyssey, xi. 32. + +{28} Rev. de l'Hist. des Rel., vol. ii. + +{33} Pausanias, iii. 15. When the boys were being cruelly scourged, the +priestess of Artemis Orthia held an ancient barbaric wooden image of the +goddess in her hands. If the boys were spared, the image grew heavy; the +more they were tortured, the lighter grew the image. In Samoa the image +(shark's teeth) of the god Taema is consulted before battle. 'If it felt +heavy, that was a bad omen; if light, the sign was good'--the god was +pleased (Turner's Samoa, p. 55). + +[Bull-roarer: 35.jpg] + +{34} Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 268. + +{35} Fison, Journal Anthrop. Soc., Nov. 1883. + +{36a} Taylor's New Zealand, p. 181. + +{36b} This is not the view of le Pere Lafitau, a learned Jesuit +missionary in North America, who wrote (1724) a work on savage manners, +compared with the manners of heathen antiquity. Lafitau, who was greatly +struck with the resemblances between Greek and Iroquois or Carib +initiations, takes Servius's other explanation of the mystica vannus, 'an +osier vessel containing rural offerings of first fruits.' This exactly +answers, says Lafitau, to the Carib Matoutou, on which they offer sacred +cassava cakes. + +{37} The Century Magazine, May 1883. + +{39} [Greek]. Lobeck, Aglaophamus (i. p. 700). + +{40a} De Corona, p. 313. + +{40b} Savage Africa. Captain Smith, the lover of Pocahontas, mentions +the custom in his work on Virginia, pp. 245-248. + +{40c} Brough Smyth, i. 60, using evidence of Howitt, Taplin, Thomas, and +Wilhelmi. + +{41a} Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 214. + +{41b} [Greek], c. 15. + +{42} Cape Monthly Magazine, July 1874. + +{44} Wallace, Travels on the Amazon, p. 349. + +{46a} New Zealand, Taylor, pp. 119-121. Die heilige Sage der +Polynesier, Bastian, pp. 36-39. + +{46b} A crowd of similar myths, in one of which a serpent severs Heaven +and Earth, are printed in Turner's Samoa. + +{48} The translation used is Jowett's. + +{49a} Theog., 166. + +{49b} Apollodorus, i. 15. + +{50a} Primitive Culture, i. 325. + +{50b} Pauthier, Livres sacres de l'Orient, p. 19. + +{50c} Muir's Sanskrit Texts, v. 23. Aitareya Brahmana. + +{52a} Hesiod, Theog., 497. + +{52b} Paus. x. 24. + +{54a} Bleek, Bushman Folklore, pp. 6-8. + +{54b} Theal, Kaffir Folklore, pp. 161-167. + +{54c} Brough Smith, i. 432-433. + +{55a} i. 338. + +{55b} Rel. de la Nouvelle-France (1636), p. 114. + +{56} Codrington, in Journal Anthrop. Inst. Feb. 1881. There is a Breton +Marchen of a land where people had to 'bring the Dawn' daily with carts +and horses. A boy, whose sole property was a cock, sold it to the people +of this country for a large sum, and now the cock brings the dawn, with a +great saving of trouble and expense. The Marchen is a survival of the +state of mind of the Solomon Islanders. + +{58a} Selected Essays, i. 460. + +{58b} Ibid. i. 311. + +{59} Ueber Entwicklungsstufen der Mythenbildung (1874), p. 148. + +{60a} ii. 127. + +{60b} G. D. M., ii. 127, 129. + +{61a} Gr. My., i. 144. + +{61b} De Abst., ii. 202, 197. + +{61c} Rel. und Myth., ii. 3. + +{61d} Ursprung der Myth., pp. 133, 135, 139, 149. + +{62a} Contemporary Review, Sept. 1883. + +{62b} Rev. de l'Hist. rel. i. 179. + +{65} That Pururavas is regarded as a mortal man, in relations with some +sort of spiritual mistress, appears from the poem itself (v. 8, 9, 18). +The human character of Pururavas also appears in R. V. i. 31, 4. + +{66a} Selected Essays, i. 408. + +{66b} The Apsaras is an ideally beautiful fairy woman, something +'between the high gods and the lower grotesque beings,' with 'lotus eyes' +and other agreeable characteristics. A list of Apsaras known by name is +given in Meyer's Gandharven-Kentauren, p. 28. They are often regarded as +cloud-maidens by mythologists. + +{68} Selected Essays, i. p. 405. + +{69a} Cf. ruber, rufus, O. H. G. rot, rudhira, [Greek]; also Sanskrit, +ravi, sun. + +{69b} Myth. Ar. Nat., ii. 81. + +{69c} R. V. iii. 29, 3. + +{69d} The passage alluded to in Homer does not mean that dawn 'ends' the +day, but 'when the fair-tressed Dawn brought the full light of the third +day' (Od., v. 390). + +{70a} Liebrecht (Zur Volkskunde, 241) is reminded by Pururavas (in +Roth's sense of der Bruller) of loud-thundering Zeus, [Greek]. + +{70b} Herabkunft des Fetters, p. 86-89. + +{71} Liebrecht (Zur Volkskunde, p. 241) notices the reference to the +'custom of women.' But he thinks the clause a mere makeshift, introduced +late to account for a prohibition of which the real meaning had been +forgotten. The improbability of this view is indicated by the frequency +of similar prohibitions in actual custom. + +{72} Astley, Collection of Voyages, ii. 24. This is given by Bluet and +Moore on the evidence of one Job Ben Solomon, a native of Bunda in Futa. +'Though Job had a daughter by his last wife, yet he never saw her without +her veil, as having been married to her only two years.' Excellently as +this prohibition suits my theory, yet I confess I do not like Job's +security. + +{73a} Brough Smyth, i. 423. + +{73b} Bowen, Central Africa, p. 303. + +{73c} Lafitau, i. 576. + +{73d} Lubbock, Origin of Civilisation (1875), p. 75. + +{74a} Chansons Pop. Bulg., p. 172. + +{74b} Lectures on Language, Second Series, p. 41. + +{75a} J. A. Farrer, Primitive Manners, p. 202, quoting Seemann. + +{75b} Sebillot, Contes Pop. de la Haute-Bretagne, p. 183. + +{76a} Gervase of Tilbury. + +{76b} Kuhn, Herabkunft, p. 92. + +{77} Chips, ii. 251. + +{80a} Kitchi Gami, p. 105. + +{80b} The sun-frog occurs seven times in Sir G. W: Cox's Mythology of +the Aryan Peoples, and is used as an example to prove that animals in +myth are usually the sun, like Bheki, 'the sun-frog.' + +{81a} Dalton's Ethnol. of Bengal, pp. 165, 166. + +{81b} Taylor, New Zealand, p. 143. + +{82a} Liebrecht gives a Hindoo example, Zur Volkskunde, p. 239. + +{82b} Cymmrodor, iv. pt. 2. + +{82c} Prim. Cult., i. 140. + +{83a} Primitive Manners, p. 256. + +{83b} See Meyer, Gandharven-Kentauren, Benfey, Pantsch., i. 263. + +{84a} Selected Essays, i. 411. + +{84b} Callaway, p. 63. + +{84c} Ibid., p. 119. + +{87} Primitive Culture, i. 357: 'The savage sees individual stars as +animate beings, or combines star-groups into living celestial creatures, +or limbs of them, or objects connected with them.' + +{88} This formula occurs among Bushmen and Eskimo (Bleek and Rink). + +{92} The events of the flight are recorded correctly in the Gaelic +variant 'The Battle of the Birds.' (Campbell, Tales of the West +Highlands, vol. i. p. 25.) + +{93a} Ralston, Russian Folk Tales, 132; Kohler, Orient und Occident, ii. +107, 114. + +{93b} Ko ti ki, p. 36. + +{93c} Callaway, pp. 51, 53, 64, 145, 228. + +{93d} See also 'Petrosinella' in the Pentamerone, and 'The Mastermaid' +in Dasent's Tales from the Norse. + +{93e} Folk-Lore Journal, August 1883. + +{95} Poetae Minores Gr. ii. + +{96} Mythol. Ar., ii. 150. + +{97a} Gr. My., ii. 318. + +{97b} Sonne, Mond und Sterne, pp. 213, 229. + +{99a} This proves that the tale belongs to the pre-Christian cannibal +age. + +{99b} Turner's Samoa, p. 102. In this tale only the names of the +daughters are translated; they mean 'white fish' and 'dark fish.' + +{99c} Folk-Lore Journal, August 1883. + +{101} Schoolcraft, Algic Researches, ii. 94-104. + +{102a} Nature, March 14, 1884. + +{102b} The earlier part of the Jason cycle is analysed in the author's +preface to Grimm's Marchen (Bell & Sons). + +{104a} Comm. Real. i. 75. + +{104b} See Early History of the Family, infra. + +{105a} The names Totem and Totemism have been in use at least since +1792, among writers on the North American tribes. Prof. Max Muller +(Academy, Jan. 1884) says the word should be, not Totem, but Ote or Otem. +Long, an interpreter among the Indians, introduced the word Totamism in +1792. + +{105b} Christoval de Moluna (1570), p. 5. + +{105c} Cieza de Leon, p. 183. + +{105d} Idyll xv. + +{107} Sayce, Herodotos, p. 344; Herodotus, ii. 42; Wilkinson's Ancient +Egyptians (1878, ii. 475, note 2); Plutarch, De Is. et Os., 71, 72; +Athenaeus, vii. 299; Strabo, xvii. 813. + +{108a} The Mouse, according to Dalton, is still a totem among the Oraons +of Bengal. A man of the Mouse 'motherhood,' as the totem kindred is +locally styled, may not eat mice (esteemed a delicacy), nor marry a girl +who is a Mouse. + +{108b} xiii. 604. Casaub. 1620. + +{108c} There were Sminthiac feasts at Rhodes, Gela, Lesbos, and Crete +(De Witte, Revue Numismatique, N.S. iii. 3-11). + +{109a} Iliad, i. 39. + +{109b} AElian, H. A. xii. 5. + +{110a} The bas-relief is published in Paoli's Della Religione de' +Gentili, Naples, 1771, p. 9; also by Fabretti, Ad Cal. Oper. de Colum. +Trajan. p. 315. Paoli's book was written after the discovery in +Neapolitan territory of a small bronze image, hieratic in character, +representing a man with a mouse on his hand. Paoli's engraving of this +work of art, unluckily, does not enable us to determine its date or +_provenance_. The book is a mine of mouse-lore. + +{110b} Colden, History of the Five Nations, p. 15 (1727). + +{110c} Onomast., ix. 6, segm. 84, p. 1066. + +{110d} De Witte says Pollux was mistaken here. In the Revue +Numismatique, N.S. iii., De Witte publishes coins of Alexandria, the more +ancient Hamaxitus, in the Troad. The Sminthian Apollo is represented +with his bow, and the mouse on his hand. Other coins show the god with +the mouse at his foot, or show us the lyre of Apollo supported by mice. A +bronze coin in the British Museum gives Apollo with the mouse beside his +foot. + +{111a} Spanheim, ad Fl. Joseph., vi. I, p. 312. + +{111b} Della Rel., p. 174. + +{111c} Herodotus, ii. 141. + +{112a} Liebrecht (Zur Volkskunde, p. 13, quoting Journal Asiatique, 1st +series, 3, 307) finds the same myth in Chinese annals. It is not a god, +however, but the king of the rats, who appears to the distressed monarch +in his dream. Rats then gnaw the bowstrings of his enemies. The +invaders were Turks, the rescued prince a king of Khotan. The king +raised a temple, and offered sacrifice--to the rats? + +{112b} Herodotos, p. 204. + +{113a} Wilkinson, iii. 294, quoting the Ritual xxxiii.: 'Thou devourest +the abominable rat of Ra, or the sun.' + +{113b} Mr. Loftie has kindly shown me a green mouse containing the +throne-name of Thothmes III. The animals thus used as substitutes for +scarabs were also sacred, as the fish, rhinoceros, fly, all represented +in Mr. Loftie's collection. See his Essay of Scarabs, p. 27. It may be +admitted that, in a country where Cats were gods, the religion of the +Mouse must have been struggling and oppressed. + +[Illustration: 113.jpg] + +{114a} Strabo, xiii. 604. + +{114b} Eustathius on Iliad, i. 39. + +{114c} A Strange and True Relation of the Prodigious Multitude of Mice, +1670. + +{115a} Journal of Philol., xvii. p. 96. + +{115b} Leviticus xi. 29. + +{116} Samuel i. 5, 6. + +{117a} Zool. Myth, ii. 68. + +{117b} Melusine, N.S. i. + +{118a} De Iside et Osiride, lxxvi. + +{118b} This hypothesis does not maintain that totemism prevailed in +Greece during historic times. Though Plutarch mentions an Athenian +[Greek], the Ioxidae, which claimed descent from and revered asparagus, +it is probable that genuine totemism had died out of Greece many hundreds +of years before even Homer's time. But this view is not inconsistent +with the existence of survivals in religion and ritual. + +{119} Rolland, Faune populaire. + +{121} The attempt is not to explain the origin of each separate name but +only of the general habit of giving animal or human names stars. + +{125} Mr. Herbert Spencer believes that the Australians were once more +civilised than at present. But there has never been found a trace of +pottery on the Australian continent, which says little for their +civilisation in the past. + +{128} Brugsch, History of Egypt, i. 32. + +{130} Brough Smith. + +{131} Amazonian Tortoise Myths, p. 39. + +{132a} Sahagun, vii. 3. + +{132b} Grimm, D. M., Engl. transl., p. 716. + +{133} Hartt, op. cit., p. 40. + +{134a} Kaegi, Der Rig Veda, p. 217. + +{134b} Mainjo-i-Khard, 49, 22, ed. West. + +{134c} Op. cit. p. 98. + +{137} Prim. Cult., i. 357. + +{140} Lectures on Language, pp. 359, 362. + +{144} Grimm, D. M., Engl., Trans. p. 1202. + +{145} Tom Sawyer, p. 87. + +{146a} Rep. vi. 488. Dem. 10, 6. + +{146b} Journal Anthrop. Inst., Feb. 1881. + +{147a} Gregor, Folklore of North-east Counties, p, 40. + +{147b} Wars of Jews, vii. 6, 3. + +{147c} Var. Hist., 14, 27. + +{148} Max Muller, Selected Essays, ii. 622. + +{151} Myth of Kirke, p. 80. + +{152a} Turner's Samoa. + +{152b} Josephus, loc. cit. For this, and many other references, I am +indebted to Schwartz's Prahistorisch-anthropologische Studien. In most +magic herbs the learned author recognises thunder and lightning--a theory +no less plausible than Mr. Brown's. + +{152c} Lib. xxviii. + +{152d} Schoolcraft. + +{157a} Talvj, Charakteristik der Volkslieder, p. 3. + +{157b} Fauriel, Chants de la Grece moderne. + +{160} Thus Scotland scarcely produced any ballads, properly speaking, +after the Reformation. The Kirk suppressed the dances to whose motion +the ballad was sung in Scotland, as in Greece, Provence, and France. + +{161} L. Preller's Ausgewahlte Aufsatze. Greek ideas on the origin of +Man. It is curious that the myth of a gold, a silver, and a copper race +occurs in South America. See Brasseur de Bourbourg's Notes on the Popol +Vuh. + +{164a} See essay on Early History of the Family. + +{164b} This constant struggle may be, and of course by one school of +comparative mythologists will be, represented as the strife between light +and darkness, the sun's rays, and the clouds of night, and so on. M. +Castren has well pointed out that the struggle has really an historical +meaning. Even if the myth be an elementary one, its constructors must +have been in the exogamous stage of society. + +{169} Sampo _may_ be derived from a Thibetan word, meaning 'fountain of +good,' or it may possibly be connected with the Swedish Stamp, a hand- +mill. The talisman is made of all the quaint odds and ends that the +Fetichist treasures: swan's feathers, flocks of wool, and so on. + +{170} Sir G. W. Cox's Popular Romances of the Middle Ages, p. 19. + +{171} Fortnightly Review, 1869: 'The Worship of Plants and Animals.' + +{176} Mr. McLennan in the Fortnightly Review, February 1870. + +{178} M. Schmidt, Volksleben der Neugriechen, finds comparatively few +traces of the worship of Zeus, and these mainly in proverbial +expressions. + +{183} Preller, Ausgewahlte Aufsatze, p. 154. + +{184a} Tylor, Prim. Cult., ii. 156. Pinkerton, vii. 357. + +{184b} Universities Mission to Central Africa, p. 217. Prim. Cult,, ii. +156, 157. + +{186} Quoted in 'Jacob's Rod': London, n.d., a translation of La Verge +de Jacob, Lyon, 1693. + +{190} Lettres sur la Baguette, pp. 106-112. + +{200} Turner's Samoa, pp, 77, 119. + +{201} Cox, Mythol. of Aryan Races, passim. + +{202a} See examples in 'A Far-travelled Tale,' 'Cupid and Psyche,' and +'The Myth of Cronus.' + +{202b} Trubner, 1881. + +{203a} Hahn, p. 23. + +{203b} Ibid., p. 45. + +{204} Expedition, i. 166. + +{205} Herodotus, ii. + +{209} See Fetichism and the Infinite. + +{211} Sacred Books of the East, xii. 130, 131, + +{218} Lectures on Language. Second series, p. 41. + +{222} A defence of the evidence for our knowledge of savage faiths, +practices, and ideas will be found in Primitive Culture, i. 9-11. + +{223} A third reference to Pausanias I have been unable to verify. There +are several references to Greek fetich-stones in Theophrastus's account +of the Superstitious Man. A number of Greek sacred stones named by +Pausanias may be worth noticing. In Boeotia (ix. 16), the people +believed that Alcmene, mother of Heracles, was changed into a stone. The +Thespians worshipped, under the name of Eros, an unwrought stone, +[Greek], 'their most ancient sacred object' (ix. 27). The people of +Orchomenos 'paid extreme regard to certain stones,' said to have fallen +from heaven, 'or to certain figures made of stone that descended from the +sky' (ix. 38). Near Chaeronea, Rhea was said to have deceived Cronus, by +offering him, in place of Zeus, a stone wrapped in swaddling bands. This +stone, which Cronus vomited forth after having swallowed it, was seen by +Pausanias at Delphi (ix. 41). By the roadside, near the city of the +Panopeans, lay the stones out of which Prometheus made men (x. 4). The +stone swallowed in place of Zeus by his father lay at the exit from the +Delphian temple, and was anointed (compare the action of Jacob, Gen. +xxviii. 18) with oil every day. The Phocians worshipped thirty squared +stones, each named after a god (vii. xxii.). '_Among all the Greeks rude +stones were worshipped before the images of the gods_.' Among the +Troezenians a sacred stone lay in front of the temple, whereon the +Troezenian elders sat, and purified Orestes from the murder of his +mother. In Attica there was a conical stone worshipped as Apollo (i. +xliv.). Near Argos was a stone called Zeus Cappotas, on which Orestes +was said to have sat down, and so recovered peace of mind. Such are +examples of the sacred stones, the oldest worshipful objects, of Greece. + +{226} See essays on 'Apollo and the Mouse' and 'The Early History of the +Family.' + +{230} Here I may mention a case illustrating the motives of the fetich- +worshipper. My friend, Mr. J. J. Atkinson, who has for many years +studied the manners of the people of New Caledonia, asked a native _why_ +he treasured a certain fetich-stone. The man replied that, in one of the +vigils which are practised beside the corpses of deceased friends, he saw +a lizard. The lizard is a totem, a worshipful animal in New Caledonia. +The native put out his hand to touch it, when it disappeared and left a +stone in its place. This stone he therefore held sacred in the highest +degree. Here then a fetich-stone was indicated as such by a spirit in +form of a lizard. + +{233a} Much the same theory is propounded in Mr. Muller's lectures on +'The Science of Religion.' + +{233b} The idea is expressed in a well known parody of Wordsworth, about +the tree which + + 'Will grow ten times as tall as me + And live ten times as long.' + +{236} See Essay on 'The Early History of the Family.' + +{241} Bergaigne's La Religion Vedique may be consulted for Vedic +Fetichism. + +{247a} Early Law and Custom. + +{247b} Studies in Ancient History, p. 127. + +{248} Descent of Man, ii. 362. + +{249} Early Law and Custom, p. 210. + +{250a} Here I would like to point out that Mr. M'Lennan's theory was not +so hard and fast as his manner (that of a very assured believer in his +own ideas) may lead some inquirers to suppose. Sir Henry Maine writes, +that both Mr. Morgan and Mr. M'Lennan 'seem to me to think that human +society went everywhere through the same series of changes, and Mr. +M'Lennan, at any rate, expresses himself as if all those stages could be +clearly discriminated from one another, and the close of one and the +commencement of another announced with the distinctness of the clock-bell +telling the end of the hour.' On the other hand, I remember Mr. +M'Lennan's saying that, in his opinion, 'all manner of arrangements +probably went on simultaneously in different places.' In Studies in +Ancient History, p. 127, he expressly guards against the tendency 'to +assume that the progress of the various races of men from savagery has +been a uniform progress: that all the stages which any of them has gone +through have been passed in their order by all.' Still more to the point +is his remark on polyandry among the very early Greeks and other Aryans; +'it is quite consistent with my view that in all these quarters (Persia, +Sparta, Troy, Lycia, Attica, Crete, &c.) monandry, and even the patria +potestas, may have prevailed at points.' + +{250b} Early Law and Custom, p. 212. + +{251} Studies in Ancient History, pp. 140-147. + +{252} Totem is the word generally given by travellers and interpreters +for the family crests of the Red Indians. Cf. p. 105. + +{256} Domestic Manners of the Chinese, i. 99. + +{258} Fortnightly Review, June 1, 1877. + +{259} Kamilaroi and Kurnai. Natives call these objects their kin, 'of +one flesh' with them. + +{260} Studies, p. 11. + +{265a} O'Curry, Manners of Ancient Irish, l. ccclxx., quoting Trin. +Coll. Dublin MS. + +{265b} See also Elton's Origins of English History, pp. 299-301. + +{265c} Kemble's Saxons in England, p. 258. Politics of Aristotle, +Bolland and Lang, p. 99. {265d} + +{265d} Mr. Grant Allen kindly supplied me some time ago with a list of +animal and vegetable names preserved in the titles of ancient English +village settlements. Among them are: ash, birch, bear (as among the +Iroquois), oak, buck, fir, fern, sun, wolf, thorn, goat, horse, salmon +(the trout is a totem in America), swan (familiar in Australia), and +others. + +{267} 'Gentiles sunt qui inter se eodem nomine sunt. Qui ab ingeniis +oriundi sunt. Quorum majorum nemo servitutem servivit. Qui capite non +sunt deminuti.' + +{268} Studies in Ancient History, p. 212. + +{270} Fortnightly Review, October 1869: 'Archaeologia Americana,' ii. +113. + +{273a} Suidas, 3102. + +{273b} Herod., i. 173. + +{273c} Cf. Bachofen, p. 309. + +{273d} Compare the Irish Nennius, p. 127. + +{276} The illustrations in this article are for the most part copied, by +permission of Messrs. Cassell & Co., from the Magazine of Art, in which +the essay appeared. + +{286} Part of the pattern (Fig. 5, b) recurs on the New Zealand Bull- +roarer, engraved in the essay on the Bull-roarer. + +[Bull-roarer: 35.jpg] + +{289} See Schliemann's Troja, wherein is much learning and fancy about +the Aryan Svastika. + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CUSTOM AND MYTH*** + + +******* This file should be named 14080.txt or 14080.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/8/14080 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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