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diff --git a/43813-0.txt b/43813-0.txt index 799fca2..34a21c8 100644 --- a/43813-0.txt +++ b/43813-0.txt @@ -1,37 +1,4 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths and Dreams, by Edward Clodd - -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: Myths and Dreams - -Author: Edward Clodd - -Release Date: September 26, 2013 [EBook #43813] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS AND DREAMS *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43813 *** MYTHS AND DREAMS @@ -7046,360 +7013,4 @@ terms expressive of the different forms of divination is given. 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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: Myths and Dreams - -Author: Edward Clodd - -Release Date: September 26, 2013 [EBook #43813] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS AND DREAMS *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - - - - -MYTHS AND DREAMS - - - - - MYTHS AND DREAMS - - - BY EDWARD CLODD - - AUTHOR OF - 'THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD,' - 'THE STORY OF CREATION,' ETC. - - - _SECOND EDITION, REVISED_ - - - London - CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY - 1891 - - - - -TO RICHARD A. PROCTOR, B.A., - -AUTHOR OF 'THE SUN,' 'OTHER WORLDS,' ETC., EDITOR OF 'KNOWLEDGE.' - -MY DEAR PROCTOR--The best gifts of life are its friendships, and to you, -with whom friendship has ripened into fellowship, and under whose -editorial wing some of the chapters of this book had temporary shelter, I -inscribe them in their enlarged and independent form. - - Yours sincerely, - EDWARD CLODD. - - - - -PREFACE. - - -The object of this book is to present in compendious form the evidence -which myths and dreams supply as to primitive man's interpretation of his -own nature and of the external world, and more especially to indicate how -such evidence carries within itself the history of the origin and growth -of beliefs in the supernatural. - -The examples are selected chiefly from barbaric races, as furnishing the -nearest correspondences to the working of the mind in what may be called -its "eocene" stage, but examples are also cited from civilised races, as -witnessing to that continuity of ideas which is obscured by familiarity or -ignored by prejudice. - -Had more illustrations been drawn from sources alike prolific, the -evidence would have been swollen to undue dimensions without increasing -its significance; as it is, repetition has been found needful here and -there, under the difficulty of entirely detaching the arguments advanced -in the two parts of this work. - -Man's development, physical and psychical, has been fully treated by Mr. -Herbert Spencer, Dr. Tylor, and other authorities, to whom students of the -subject are permanent debtors, but that subject is so many-sided, so -far-reaching, whether in retrospect or prospect, that its subdivision is -of advantage so long as we do not permit our sense of inter-relation to be -dulled thereby. - -My own line of argument will be found to run for the most part parallel -with that of the above-named writers; there are divergences along the -route, but we reach a common terminus. - -The footnotes indicate the principal works which have been consulted in -preparing this book, but I desire to express my special thanks to Mr. -Andrew Lang for his kindness in reading the proofs, and for suggestions -which, in the main, I have been glad to adopt. - -E. C. - - ROSEMONT, TUFNELL PARK, - LONDON, _March 1885_. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PART I. - - MYTH: ITS BIRTH AND GROWTH. - - SECTION PAGE - - I. ITS PRIMITIVE MEANING 3 - - II. CONFUSION OF EARLY THOUGHT BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE - NOT LIVING 12 - - III. PERSONIFICATION OF THE POWERS OF NATURE 19 - (_a._) The Sun and Moon 19 - (_b._) The Stars 29 - (_c._) The Earth and Sky 34 - (_d._) Storm and Lightning, etc. 41 - (_e._) Light and Darkness 48 - (_f._) The Devil 53 - - IV. THE SOLAR THEORY OF MYTH 61 - - V. BELIEF IN METAMORPHOSIS INTO ANIMALS 81 - - VI. TOTEMISM: BELIEF IN DESCENT FROM ANIMAL OR PLANT 99 - - VII. SURVIVAL OF MYTH IN HISTORY 114 - - VIII. MYTH AMONG THE HEBREWS 131 - - IX. CONCLUSION 137 - - - PART II. - - DREAMS: THEIR PLACE IN THE GROWTH OF BELIEFS IN THE SUPERNATURAL. - - SECTION PAGE - - I. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SAVAGE AND CIVILISED MAN 143 - - II. LIMITATIONS OF BARBARIC LANGUAGE 148 - - III. BARBARIC CONFUSION BETWEEN NAMES AND THINGS 154 - - IV. BARBARIC BELIEF IN VIRTUE IN INANIMATE THINGS 160 - - V. BARBARIC BELIEF IN THE REALITY OF DREAMS 168 - - VI. BARBARIC THEORY OF DISEASE 174 - - VII. BARBARIC THEORY OF A SECOND SELF OR SOUL 182 - - VIII. BARBARIC PHILOSOPHY IN "PUNCHKIN" AND ALLIED STORIES 188 - - IX. BARBARIC AND CIVILISED NOTIONS OF THE SOUL'S NATURE 198 - - X. BARBARIC BELIEF IN SOULS IN BRUTES AND PLANTS AND - LIFELESS THINGS 207 - - XI. BARBARIC AND CIVILISED NOTIONS ABOUT THE SOUL'S DWELLING - PLACE 215 - - XII. CONCLUSIONS FROM THE FOREGOING 222 - - XIII. DREAMS AS OMENS AND MEDIA OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN GODS - AND MEN 236 - - INDEX 245 - - - - -I. - -MYTH: ITS BIRTH AND GROWTH. - - -"Unchecked by external truth, the mind of man has a fatal facility for -ensnaring, entrapping, and entangling itself. But, happily, happily for -the human race, some fragment of physical speculation has been built into -every false system. Here is the weak point. Its inevitable destruction -leaves a breach in the whole fabric, and through that breach the armies of -truth march in." - -Sir H. S. MAINE. - - -MYTH: ITS BIRTH AND GROWTH. - - -§ I. - -ITS PRIMITIVE MEANING. - -It is barely thirty years ago since the world was startled by the -publication of Buckle's _History of Civilisation_, with its theory that -human actions are the effect of causes as fixed and regular as those which -operate in the universe; climate, soil, food, and scenery being the chief -conditions determining progress. - -That book was a _tour de force_, not a lasting contribution to the -question of man's mental development. The publication of Darwin's -epoch-making _Origin of Species_[1] showed wherein it fell short; how the -importance of the above-named causes was exaggerated and the existence of -equally potent causes overlooked. Buckle probably had not read Herbert -Spencer's _Social Statics_, and he knew nothing of the profound revolution -in silent preparation in the quiet of Darwin's home; otherwise, his book -must have been rewritten. This would have averted the oblivion from which -not even its charm of style can rescue it. Its brilliant but defective -theories are obscured in the fuller light of that doctrine of descent with -modifications by which we learn that external circumstances do not alone -account for the widely divergent types of men, so that a superior race, in -supplanting an inferior one, will change the face and destiny of a -country, "making the solitary place to be glad, and the desert to rejoice -and blossom as the rose." Darwin has given us the clue to those subtle and -still obscure causes which bring about, stage by stage, the unseen -adaptations to requirements varying a type and securing its survival, and -which have resulted in the evolution of the manifold species of living -things. The notion of a constant relation between man and his surroundings -is therefore untenable. - -But incomplete as is Buckle's theory, and all-embracing as is Darwin's, so -far as organic life is concerned, the larger issue is raised by both, and -for most men whose judgment is worth anything it is settled. Either man is -a part of nature or he is not. If he is not, there is an end of the -matter, since the materials lie beyond human grasp, and cannot be examined -and placed in order for comparative study. Let Christian, Brahman, -Bushman, and South Sea Islander each hold fast his "form of sound words" -about man's origin. One is as good as another where all are irrational and -beyond proof. But if he is, then the inquiry concerning him may not stop -at the anatomy of his body and the assignment of his place in the -succession of life on the globe. His relation, materially, to the -simplest, shapeless specks of living matter; structurally, to the highest -and more complex organisms, is demonstrated; the natural history of him is -clear. This, however, is physical, and for us the larger question is -psychical. The theory of evolution must embrace the genesis and -development of mind, and therefore of ideas, beliefs, and speculations -about things seen and unseen. - -In the correction of our old definitions a wider meaning must be given to -the word _myth_ than that commonly found in the dictionaries. Opening any -of these at random we find myth explained as fable, as something -designedly fictitious, whether for amusement only, or to point a moral. -The larger meaning which it holds to-day includes much more than this--to -wit, the whole area of intellectual products which lie beyond the historic -horizon and overlap it, effacing on nearer view the lines of separation. -For the myth, as fable only, has no place for the crude fancies and -grotesque imaginings of barbarous races of the present day, and of races -at low levels of culture in the remote past. And so long as it was looked -upon as the vagrant of fancy, with no serious meaning at the heart of it, -and as corresponding to no yearning of man after the truth of things, -sober treatment of it was impossible. But now that myth, with its prolific -offspring, legend and tradition, is seen to be a necessary travailing -through which the mind of man passed in its slow progress towards -certitude, the study and comparison of its manifold, yet, at the centre, -allied forms, and of the conditions out of which they arose, takes rank -among the serious inquiries of our time. - -Not that the inquiry is a new one. The limits of this book forbid detailed -references to the successive stages of that inquiry--in other words, to -the pre-Christian, patristic, and pseudo-scientific theories of myth which -remained unchallenged, or varied only in non-essential features, till the -rise of comparative mythology. But apology for such omission here is the -less needful, since the list of ancient and modern vagaries would have the -monotony of a catalogue. However unlike on the surface, they are -fundamentally the same, being the products of non-critical ages, and one -and all vitiated by assumptions concerning gods and men which are to us as -"old wives' fables." - -In short, between these empirical theories and the scientific method of -inquiry into the meaning of myth there can be no relation. Because, for -the assigning of its due place in the order of man's mental and spiritual -development to myth, there is needed that knowledge concerning his origin, -concerning the conditions out of which he has emerged, and concerning the -mythologies of lower races and their survival in unsuspected forms in the -higher races, which was not only beyond reach, but also beyond conception, -until this century. - -Except, therefore, as curiosities of literature, we may dismiss the -Lemprière of our school-days, and with him "Causabon"-Bryant and his -symbolism of the ark and traces of the Flood in everything. Their keys, -Arkite and Ophite, fit no lock, and with them we must, in all respect be -it added, dismiss Mr. Gladstone, with his visions of the Messiah in -Apollo, and of the Logos in Athênê. - -The main design of this book is to show that in what is for convenience -called _myth_ lie the germs of philosophy, theology, and science, the -beginnings of all knowledge that man has attained or ever will attain, and -therefore that in myth we have his serious endeavour to interpret the -meaning of his surroundings and of his own actions and feelings. In its -unbroken sequence we have the explanation of his most cherished and now, -for the most part, discredited beliefs, the persistence of which makes it -essential and instructive not to deal with the primitive myth apart from -its later and more complex phases. Myth was the product of man's emotion -and imagination, acted upon by his surroundings, and it carries the traces -of its origin in its more developed forms, as the ancestral history of the -higher organisms is embodied in their embryos. Man wondered before he -reasoned. Awe and fear are quick to express themselves in rudimentary -worship; hence the myth was at the outset a theology, and the gradations -from personifying to deifying are too faint to be traced. Thus blended, -the one as inevitable outcome of the other, they cannot well be treated -separately, as if the myth were earth-born and the theology heaven-sent. -And to treat them as one is to invade no province of religion, which is -quite other than speculation about gods. The awe and reverence which the -fathomless mystery of the universe awakens, which steal within us unbidden -as the morning light, and unbroken on the prism of analysis; the -conviction, deepening as we peer, that there is a Power beyond humanity, -and upon which humanity depends; the feeling that life is in harmony with -the Divine order when it moves in disinterested service of our kind--these -theology can neither create nor destroy, neither verify nor disprove. They -can be bound within no formula that man or church has invented, but -undefined - - "Are yet the fountain life of all our day, - Are yet a master light of all our seeing." - -At what epoch in man's history we are to place the development of the -myth-making faculty must remain undetermined. It is of course coincident -with the dawn of thought. We cannot credit the nameless savage of the -Ancient Stone Age with it. If he had brains and leisure enough to make -guesses about things, he has left us no witness of the fact. His relics, -and those of his successors to a period which is but as yesterday in the -history of our kind, are material only; and not until we possess the -symbols of his thought, whether in language or rude picture, do we get an -inkling of the meaning which the universe had for him, in the details of -his pitiless daily life, in the shapes and motions of surrounding -objects, and in the majesty of the heavens above him. Even then the -thought is more or less crystallised, and if we would watch it in the -fluent form we must have a keen eye for the like process going on among -savages yet untouched by the Time-spirit, although higher in the scale -than the Papuans and hill tribes of the Vindhya. Although we cannot so far -lull our faculty of thought as to realise the mental vacuity of the -savage, we may, from survivals nowadays, lead up to reasonable guesses of -savage ways of looking at things in bygone ages, and the more so when we -can detect relics of these among the ignorant and superstitious of modern -times. - -What meaning, then, had man's surroundings to him, when eye and ear could -be diverted from prior claims of the body, and he could repose from -watching for his prey, and from listening to the approach of wild beast or -enemy? He had the advantage, from greater demand for their exercise, in -keener senses of sight, hearing, smell, and touch, than we enjoy; nor did -he fail to take in facts in plenty. But there was this vital defect and -difference, that in his brains every fact was pigeon-holed, charged with -its own narrow meaning only, as in small minds among ourselves we find -place given to inane peddling details, and no advance made to general and -wide conception of things. In sharpest contrast to the poet's utterance: - - "Nothing in this world is single, - All things by a law divine - In one another's being mingle," - -every fact is unrelated to every other fact, and therefore interpreted -wrongly. - -Man, in his first outlook upon nature, was altogether ignorant of the -character of the forces by which he was environed; ignorant of that -unvarying relation between effect and cause which it needed the experience -of ages and the generalisations therefrom to apprehend, and to express as -"laws of nature." He had not even the intellectual resource of later times -in inventing miracle to explain where the necessary relation between -events seemed broken or absent. - -His first attitude was that of wonder, mingled with fear--fear as -instinctive as the dread of the brute for him. The sole measure of things -was himself, consequently everything that moved or that had power of -movement did so because it was alive. A personal life and will was -attributed to sun, moon, clouds, river, waterfall, ocean, and tree, and -the varying phenomena of the sky at dawn or noonday, at gray eve or -black-clouded night, were the manifestation of the controlling life that -dwelt in all. In a thousand different forms this conception was expressed. -The thunder was the roar of a mighty beast; the lightning a serpent -darting at its prey, an angry eye flashing, the storm demon's outshot -forked tongue; the rainbow a thirsty monster; the waterspout a long-tailed -dragon. This was not a pretty or powerful conceit, not imagery, but an -explanation. The men who thus spoke of these phenomena meant precisely -what they said. What does the savage know about heat, light, sound, -electricity, and the other modes of motion through which the -Proteus-force beyond our ken is manifest? How many persons who have -enjoyed a "liberal" education can give correct answers, if asked off-hand, -explaining how glaciers are born of the sunshine, and why two sounds, -travelling in opposite directions at equal velocities, interfere and cause -silence? The percentage of young men, hailing from schools of renown, who -give the most ludicrous replies when asked the cause of day and night, and -the distance of the earth from the sun, is by no means small. - -Whilst the primary causes determining the production of myths are uniform, -the secondary causes, due in the main to different physical surroundings, -vary, bringing about unlikeness in subject and detail. Nevertheless, in -grouping the several classes of myths, those are obviously to be placed -prominently which embrace explanations of the origin of things, from sun -and star to man and insect, involving ideas about the powers to whom all -things are attributed. But in this book no exhaustive treatment is -possible, only some indication of the general lines along which the -myth-making faculty has advanced, and for this purpose a few illustrations -of barbaric mental confusion between the living and the not living are -chosen at the outset. They will, moreover, prepare us for the large -element of the irrational present in barbaric myth, and supply a key to -the survival of this in the mythologies of civilised races. - - -§ II. - -CONFUSION OF EARLY THOUGHT BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE NOT LIVING. - -In selecting from the literature of savage mythology the material -overburdens us by its richness. Much of it is old, and, like refuse-heaps -in our mining districts once cast aside as rubbish but now made to yield -products of value, has, after long neglect, been found to contain elements -of worth, which patience and insight have extracted from its travellers' -tales and quaint speculations. That for which it was most prized in the -days of our fathers is now of small account; that within it which they -passed by we secure as of lasting worth. Much of that literature is, -however, new, for the impetus which has in our time been given to the -rescue and preservation of archaic forms has reached this, and a host of -accomplished collectors have secured rich specimens of relics which, in -the lands of their discovery, have still the authority of the past, -unimpaired by the critical exposure of the present. - -The subject itself is, moreover, so wide reaching, bringing the ancient -and the modern into hitherto unsuspected relation, showing how in customs -and beliefs, to us unmeaning and irrational, there lurk the degraded -representations of old philosophies, and in what seems to us burlesque, -the survivals of man's most serious thought. - -One feels this difficulty of choice and this temptation to digress in -treating of the confusion inherent in the savage mind between things -living and not living, arising from superficial analogies and its -attribution of life and power to lifeless things. The North American -Indians prefer a hook that has caught a big fish to the handful of hooks -that have never been tried, and they never lay two nets together lest they -should be jealous of each other. The Bushmen thought that the traveller -Chapman's big waggon was the mother of his smaller ones; and the natives -of Tahiti sowed in the ground some iron nails given them by Captain Cook, -expecting to obtain young ones. When that ill-fated discoverer's ship was -sighted by the New Zealanders they thought it was a whale with wings. The -king of the Coussa Kaffirs having broken off a piece of the anchor of a -stranded ship soon afterwards died, upon which all the Kaffirs made a -point of saluting the anchor very respectfully whenever they went near it, -regarding it as a vindictive being. But perhaps one of the most striking -and amusing illustrations is that quoted by Sir John Lubbock from the -_Smithsonian Reports_ concerning an Indian who had been sent by a -missionary to a colleague with four loaves of bread, accompanied by a -letter stating their number. The Indian ate some of the bread, and his -theft was, of course, found out. He was sent on a second errand with a -similar batch of bread and a letter, and repeated the theft, but took the -precaution to hide the letter under a stone while he was eating the -loaves, so that it might not see him! As the individual is a type of the -race, so in the child's nature we find analogy of the mental attitude of -the savage ready to hand. To the child everything is alive. With what -timidity and wonder he first touches a watch, with its moving hands and -clicking works; with what genuine anger he beats the door against which he -has knocked his head, whips the rocking-horse that has thrown him, then -kisses and strokes it the next moment in token of forgiveness and -affection. - - "As children of weak age - Lend life to the dumb stones - Whereon to vent their rage, - And bend their little fists, and rate - the senseless ground."[2] - -Even among civilised adults, as Mr. Grote remarks, "the force of momentary -passion will often suffice to supersede the acquired habit, and an -intelligent man may be impelled in a moment of agonising pain to kick or -beat the lifeless object from which he has suffered." The mental condition -which causes the wild native of Brazil to bite the stone he stumbled over -may, as Dr. Tylor has pointed out in his invaluable _Primitive Culture_, -be traced along the course of history not merely in impulsive habit, but -in formally enacted law. If among barbarous peoples we find, for example, -the relatives of a man killed by a fall from a tree taking their revenge -by cutting the tree down and scattering it in chips, we find a continuity -of idea in the action of the court of justice held at the Prytaneum in -Athens to try any inanimate object, such as an axe, or a piece of wood or -stone, which has caused the death of any one without proved human agency, -and which, if condemned, was cast in solemn form beyond the border. "The -spirit of this remarkable procedure reappears in the old English law, -repealed only in the present reign, whereby not only a beast that kills a -man, but a cart-wheel that runs over him, or a tree that falls on him and -kills him, is deodand or given to God, _i.e._ forfeited and sold for the -poor." Among ancient legal proceedings at Laon we read of animals -condemned to the gallows for the crime of murder, and of swarms of -caterpillars which infected certain districts being admonished by the -Courts of Troyes in 1516 to take themselves off within a given number of -days, on pain of being declared accursed and excommunicated.[3] - -Barbaric confusion in the existence of transferable qualities in things, -as when the New Zealander swallows his dead enemy's eye that he may see -farther, or gives his child pebbles to make it stony and pitiless of -heart; and as when the Abipone eats tiger's flesh to increase his courage, -has its survival in the old wives' notion that the eye-bright flower, -which resembles the eye, is good for diseases of that organ, in the -mediæval remedy for curing a sword wound by nursing the weapon that caused -it, and in the old adage, "Take a hair of the dog that bit you." As -illustrating this, Dr. Dennys[4] tells a story of a missionary in China -whose big dog would now and again slightly bite children as he passed -through the villages. In such a case the mother would run after him and -beg for a hair from the dog's tail, which would be put to the part bitten, -or when the missionary would say jocosely, "Oh! take a hair from the dog -yourself," the woman would decline, and ask him to spit in her hand, which -itself witnesses to the widespread belief in the mystical properties of -saliva.[5] Among ourselves this survives, degraded enough, in the cabmen's -and boatmen's habit of spitting on the fare paid them. _Treacle_ (Greek -_theriake_, from _therion_, a name given to the viper) witnesses to the -old-world superstition that viper's flesh is an antidote to the viper's -bite. Philips, in his _World of Words_, defines treacle as a "physical -compound made of vipers and other ingredients," and this medicament was a -favourite against all poisons. The word then became applied to any -confection or sweet syrup, and finally and solely to the syrup of -molasses. - -The practice of burning or hanging in effigy, by which a crowd expresses -its feelings towards an unpopular person, is a relic of the old belief in -a real and sympathetic connection between a man and his image; a belief -extant among the unlettered in by-places of civilised countries. When we -hear of North American tribes making images of their foes, whose lives -they expect to shorten by piercing those images with their arrows, we -remember that these barbarous folk have their representatives among us in -the Devonshire peasant, who hangs in his chimney a pig's heart stuck all -over with thorn-prickles, so that the heart of his enemy may likewise be -pierced. The custom among the Dyaks of Borneo of making a wax figure of -the foe, so that his body may waste away as the wax is melted, will remind -the admirers of Dante Rossetti how he finds in a kindred mediæval -superstition the subject of his poem "Sister Helen," while they who prefer -the authority of sober prose may turn to that storehouse of the curious, -Brand's _Popular Antiquities_. Brand quotes from King James, who, in his -_Dæmonology_, book ii. chap. 5, tells us that "the devil teacheth how to -make pictures of wax or clay, that by roasting thereof the persons that -they bear the name of may be continually melted or dried away by continual -sickness;" and also cites Andrews, the author of a _Continuation of -Henry's Great Britain_, who, speaking of the death of Ferdinand, Earl of -Derby, by poison, in the reign of Elizabeth, says, "The credulity of the -age attributed his death to witchcraft. The disease was odd, and operated -as a perpetual emetic; and a waxen image, with hair like that of the -unfortunate earl, found in his chamber, reduced every suspicion to -certainty." A century and half before this the Duchess of Gloucester did -penance for conspiring with certain necromancers against the life of Henry -VI. by melting a waxen image of him, while, as hinging the centuries -together, "only recently a _corp cré_, or clay image, stuck full of birds' -claws, bones, pins, and similar objects, was found in one of the -Inverness-shire rivers. It was a fetish which, as it dissolved away by the -action of the stream, was supposed to involve the 'wearing away' of the -person it was intended to represent."[6] The passage from practices born -of such beliefs to the use of charms as protectives against the -evil-disposed and those in league with the devil, and as cures for divers -diseases, is obvious. Upon this it is not needful to dwell; the -superstitious man is on the same plane as the savage, but, save in rare -instances, without such excuse for remaining, as Bishop Hall puts it, with -"old wives and starres as his counsellors, charms as his physicians, and a -little hallowed wax as his antidote for all evils." - -But we have travelled in brief space a long way from our picture of man, -weaving out of streams and breezes and the sunshine his crude philosophy -of personal life and will controlling all, to the peasant of to-day, his -intellectual lineal descendant, with his belief in signs and wonders, his -forecast of fate and future by omens, by dreams, and by such pregnant -occurrences as the spilling of salt, the howling of dogs, and changes of -the moon; in short, by the great mass of superstitions which yet more or -less influence the intelligent, terrorise the ignorant, and delight the -student of human development. - - -§ III. - -PERSONIFICATION OF THE POWERS OF NATURE. - -(_a._) _The Sun and Moon._ - -A good deal hinges upon the evidences in savage myth-making of the -personification of the powers of nature. Obviously, the richest and most -suggestive material would be supplied by the striking phenomena of the -heavens, chiefly in sunrise and sunset, in moon, star, star-group and -meteor, cloud and storm, and, next in importance, by the strange and -terrible among phenomena on earth, whether in the restless waters, the -unquiet trees, the grotesquely-shaped rocks, and the fear inspired in man -by creatures more powerful than himself. Through the whole range of the -lower culture, sun, moon, and constellations are spoken of as living -creatures, often as ancestors, heroes, and benefactors who have departed -to the country above, to heaven, the _heaved_, up-lifted land. The Tongans -of the South Pacific say that two ancestors quarrelled respecting the -parentage of the first-born of the woman Papa, each claiming the child as -his own. No King Solomon appears to have been concerned in the dispute, -although at last the infant was cut in two. Vatea, the husband of Papa, -took the upper part as his share, and forthwith squeezed it into a ball -and tossed it into the heavens, where it became the sun. Tonga-iti -sullenly allowed the lower half to remain a day or two on the ground, -but, seeing the brightness of Vatea's half, he compressed his share into a -ball and tossed it into the dark sky, during the absence of the sun in the -nether world. Thus originated the moon, whose paleness is owing to the -blood having all drained out of Tonga-iti's half as it lay upon the -ground. Mr. Gill, from whose valuable collection of southern myth this is -quoted, says that it seems to have its origin in the allegory of an -alternating embrace of the fair Earth by Day and Night. But despite the -explanations, more or less strained, which some schools of comparative -mythologists find for every myth, the savage is not a conscious weaver of -allegories, or an embryo Cabalist, and we shall find ourselves more in -accord with the laws of his intellectual growth if, instead of delving for -recondite and subtle meanings in his simple-sounding explanations of -things, we take the meaning to be that which lies on the surface. More on -this, however, anon. Among the Red races one tribe thought that sun, moon, -and stars were men and women who went into the sea every night and swam -out by the east. The Bushmen say that the sun was once a man who shed -light from his body, but only for a short distance, until some children -threw him into the sky while he slept, and thus he shines upon the wide -earth. The Australians say that all was darkness around them till one of -their many ancestors, who still shine from the stars, shedding good and -evil, threw, in pity for them, an emu's egg into space, when it became the -sun. Among the Manacicas of Brazil, the sun was their culture-hero, -virgin-born, and their jugglers, who claimed power to fly through the air, -said that his luminous figure, as that of a man, could be seen by them, -although too dazzling for common mortals. - -The sun has been stayed in his course in other places than Gibeon, -although by mechanical means of which Joshua appears to have been -independent. Among the many exploits of Maui, abounding in Polynesian -myth, are those of his capture of the sun. He had, like Prometheus, -snatched fire from heaven for mortals, and his next task was to cure Ra, -the sun-god, of his trick of setting before the day's work was done. So -Maui plaited thick ropes of cocoa-nut fibre, and taking them to the -opening through which Ra climbed up from the nether world, he laid a -slip-noose for him, placing the other ropes at intervals along his path. -Lying in wait as Ra neared, he pulled the first rope, but the noose only -caught Ra's feet. Nor could Maui stop him until he reached the sixth rope, -when he was caught round the neck and pulled so tightly by Maui that he -had to come to terms, and agree to slacken his pace for the future. Maui, -however, took the precaution to keep the ropes on him, and they may still -be seen hanging from the sun at dawn and eve. In Tahitian myth Maui is a -priest, who, in building a house which must be finished by daylight, -seizes the sun by its rays and binds it to a tree till the house is built. -In North American myth a boy had snared the sun, and there was no light on -the earth. So the beasts held council who should undertake the perilous -task of cutting the cord, when the dormouse, then the biggest among them, -volunteered. And it succeeded, but so scorched was it by the heat that it -was shrivelled to the smallest of creatures. Such a group of myths is not -easy of explanation; but when we find the sun regarded as an ancestor, and -as one bound, mill-horse like, to a certain course, the notion of his -control and check would arise, and the sun-catchers take their place in -tradition among those who have deserved well of their race. It is one -among numberless aspects under which the doings of the sun and of other -objects in nature are depicted as the doings of mortals, and the crude -conceptions of the Ojibwas and the Samoans find their parallel in the -mythologies of our Aryan ancestors. Only in the former we see the mighty -one shorn of his dignity, with noose round his neck or chains on either -side; whilst in the latter we see him as Herakles, with majesty -unimpaired, carrying out the twelve tasks imposed by Eurystheus, and thus -winning for himself a place among the immortals. - -The names given to the sun in mythology are as manifold as his aspects and -influences, and as the moods of the untutored minds that endowed him with -the complex and contrary qualities which make up the nature of man. _Him_, -we say, not _it_, thus preserving in our common speech a relic not only of -the universal personification of things, but of their division into sex. - -The origin of gender is most obscure, but its investment of both animate -and inanimate things with sexual qualities shows it to be a product of -the mythopoeic stage of man's progress, and demands some reference in -these pages. The languages of savages are in a constant state of flux, -even the most abiding terms, as numerals and personal pronouns, being -replaced by others in a few years. And the changes undergone by civilised -speech have so rubbed away and obscured its primitive forms that, look -where he may, the poverty of the old materials embarrasses the inquirer. -If the similar endings to such undoubtedly early words as father, mother, -brother, sister, in our own and other related languages, notably Sanskrit, -afford any clue, it goes rather to show that gender was a later feature -than one might think. But there is no uniformity in the matter. It seems -pretty clear that in the early forms of our Indo-European speech there -were two genders only, masculine and feminine. The assignment of certain -things conceived of as sexless to neither gender, _neutrius generis_, is -of later origin. Some of the languages derived from Latin, and, to name -one of a different family, the Hebrew, have no neuter gender, whilst -others, as the ancient Turkish and Finnish, have no grammatical gender. In -our own, under the organic changes incident to its absorption of Norman -and other foreign elements, gender has practically disappeared (although -ships and nations are still spoken of as feminine), the pronouns _he_, -_she_, _it_, being its representatives. Such a gain is apparent when we -take up the study of the ancestral Anglo-Saxon, with its masculine, -feminine, and neuter nouns, or of our allied German with its perplexities -of sex, as, _e.g._, its masculine spoon, its feminine fork, and its neuter -knife. Turning for a moment to such slight aid as barbaric speech gives, -we find in the languages of the hill tribes of South India a curious -distinction made; rational beings, as gods and men, being grouped in a -"high-caste or major gender," and living animals and lifeless things in a -"casteless or minor gender." The languages of some North American and -South African tribes make a distinction into animate and inanimate gender; -but as non-living things, the sun, the thunder, the lightning, are -regarded as persons, they are classed in the animate gender. - -Further research into the radicals of so relatively fixed a language as -Chinese, and into more mobile languages related to it, may, perhaps, -enlighten the present ignorance; but one thing is certain, that language -was "once the scene of an immense personification," and has thereby added -vitality to myth. Analogies and conceptions apparent to barbaric man, and -in no way occurring to us, caused him to attribute sexual qualities not -only to dead as to living things, but to their several parts, as well as, -in the course of time, to intellectual and abstract terms. Speaking -broadly, things in which were manifest size and qualities, as strength, -independence, governing or controlling power, usually attaching to the -male, were classed as masculine; whilst those in which the gentler and -more subordinate features were apparent were classed as feminine. Of -course marked exceptions to this will at once occur to us, as, _e.g._, in -certain savage and civilised languages, where the sun is feminine and the -moon is masculine, but in the main the division holds good. The big is -male and the small is female. The Dyaks of Borneo call a heavy downpour of -rain a _he_ rain; and, if so strength-imparting a thing as bread is to be -classed as either masculine or feminine, we must agree with the negro who, -in answer to his master's question, "Sambo, where's the bread?" replied, -"De bread, massa? him lib in de pantry." The mediæval Persians are said to -have distinguished between male and female even in such things as food and -cloth, air and water, and prescribed their proper use accordingly; while, -as Dr. Tylor, from whom the above is quoted, adds, "even we, with our -blunted mythologic sense, cannot give an individual name to a lifeless -object, such as a boat or a weapon, without in the very act imagining for -it something of a personal nature." - -But we must not stay longer in these attractive byways of philology, -however warranted the digression may be, and must return to the -many-titled sun. - -Whilst in the more elaborate mythologies of classic peoples we find him -addressed in exalted terms which are still the metaphors of poetry, we are -nearer the rough material out of which all myth is shaped when among races -who speak of sun, moon, and stars as father, mother, and children, and who -mean exactly what they say. We may find similar relationships in the solar -and lunar deities of Egyptian and classic myth, but profound moral -elements have entered into these and dissolved the material. We are face -to face with the awful and abiding questions personified in Osiris and -Isis, in Oedipus and Jocaste, where for us the sunlight pales and the -storm clouds are dispersed before the dazzling mysteries of human life and -destiny. - -No such matters confront us when in Indian myth we read that the moon is -the sun's sister, an aged, pale-faced woman, who in kindness led to her -brother two of the tribe who had sprung through a chasm in the sky to the -pleasant moonlit land. Neither do they in Australian myth, which shows -that the dwellers on Olympus had no monopoly of conjugal faithlessness. -For in it Mityan, the moon, is a native cat, who fell in love with -somebody else's wife, and has been driven to wander ever since. Among the -Bushmen, the moon has incurred the sun's anger, and is hacked smaller and -smaller by him, till, begging for mercy, a respite is given. But as soon -as he grows larger the sun hacks him again. In Slavonic myth the sun -cleaves him through for loving the morning star. The Indians of the far -west say that, when the moon is full, evil spirits begin nibbling at it, -and eat a portion every night till it is all gone; then a great spirit -makes a new moon, and, weary with his toil, falls asleep, when the bad -spirits renew their attack. Another not uncommon group of myths is that -which speaks of sun and moon as borne across the heavens on the backs of -ancestors, as in Greek myth Atlas supports the world, or as in ceaseless -flight, dogged by some pursuer, moon-dog, or "sun-wolf," as parhelion is -called in Swedish. The group of kindred myths to which eclipses gave rise, -when the cloud-dragon or serpent tries to swallow sun or moon, and for a -time succeeds, is too well known to need other than passing reference -here. - -A widespread body of myth has its source in the patches on the moon's -face. In the Samoan Islands these are said to be a woman, a child, and a -mallet. A woman was once hammering out paper-cloth, and seeing the moon -rise, looking like a great bread-fruit, she asked it to come down and let -her child eat a piece of it. But the moon was very angry at the idea of -being eaten, and gobbled up the woman, child, and mallet, and there they -are to this day. The Selish Indians of North-Western America say that the -little wolf was in love with the toad, and pursued her one moonlight -night, till, as a last chance, she made a desperate spring on to the face -of the moon, and there she is still. People in the East see the figure of -a hare in the patches, and both in Buddhist Jâtakas and Mongolian myth -that animal is carried by the moon. In Greenland myth the moon was in love -with his sister, and stole in the dark to caress her. She, wishing to find -out who her lover was, blackened her hands so that the marks might be left -on him, which accounts for the spots. The Khasias of the Himâlaya say that -the moon falls in love every month with his mother-in-law, who, like a -well-conducted matron, throws ashes in his face. Grimm quotes a mediæval -myth that the moon is Mary Magdalene, and the spots her tears of -repentance, whilst in Chaucer's _Testament of Cressida_ the moon is Lady -Cynthia.-- - - "On her brest a chorl paintid ful even, - _Bering a bush of thornis on his bake_, - Which for his _theft_ might clime no ner the heven." - -Comparing these with more familiar myths, we have our own man in the moon, -who is said to be the culprit found by Moses gathering sticks on the -Sabbath, although his place of banishment is a popular addition to the -Scripture narrative. According to the German legend he was a scoffer who -did the same heinous offence on a Sunday, and was given the alternative of -being scorched in the sun or frozen in the moon. The Frisians say that he -stole cabbages, the load of which he bears on his back. He does not appear -as a member of the criminal classes in China, his function being that of -celestial matchmaker, who ties together future couples with an invisible -silken cord which breaks not during life. In Icelandic myth the two -children familiar to us as Jack and Jill were kidnapped by the moon, and -there they stand to this day with bucket on pole across their shoulders, -falling away one after the other as the moon wanes,--a phase described in -the couplet:-- - - "Jack fell down and broke his crown, - And Jill came tumbling after." - -Mr. Baring Gould, whose essay on this subject in his _Curious Myths of the -Middle Ages_ gives a convenient summary of current legends, contends that -Jack and Jill are the Hjuki and Bil of the _Edda_, and signify the waxing -and waning of the moon, their bucket indicating the dependence of rainfall -on her phases--a superstition extant among us yet. - -The group of customs observed amongst both barbaric and civilised peoples -at the changes of the moon, customs which are meaningless except as relics -of lunar worship, belong to the passage of mythology into religion, of -personifying into deifying. - -(_b._) _The Stars._ - -In the great body of nature-myth the stars are prominent members. In their -multitude; their sublime repose in upper calms above the turmoil of the -elements; their varying brilliancy, "one star differing from another star -in glory"; their tremulous light; their scattered positions, which lend -themselves to every vagary of the constellation-maker; their slow -procession, varied only by sweeping comet and meteor, or falling showers -of shooting stars; they lead the imagination into gentler ways than do the -vaster bodies of the most ancient heavens. Nor, although we may compute -their number, weigh their volume, in a few instances reckon their -distance, and, capturing the light that has come beating through space for -unnumbered years, make it reveal the secret of their structure, is the -imagination less moved by the clear heavens at night, or the feeling of -awe and reverence blunted before that "mighty sum of things for ever -speaking." - -In barbaric myth the stars are spoken of as young suns, the children of -the sun and moon, but more often as men who have lived on the earth, -translated without seeing death. The single stars are individual chiefs or -heroes; the constellations are groups of men or animals. To the natives of -Australia the brilliant Jupiter is a chief among the others; and the stars -in Orion's belt and scabbard are young men dancing a corroboree, the -Pleiades being girls playing to them. The Kasirs of Bengal say that the -stars are men who climbed to the top of a tree, and were left in the -branches by the trunk being cut away. To the Eskimos the stars in Orion -are seal-hunters who have missed their way home. And in German folk-lore -they are spoken of as the mowers, because, as Grimm says, "they stand in a -row like mowers in a meadow." In North American myth two of the bright -stars are twins who have left a home where they were harshly treated, and -leapt into the sky, whither their parents followed them and ceaselessly -chase them. In Greek myth the faintest star of the seven Pleiades is -Merope, whose light was dimmed because she alone among her sisters married -a mortal. The New Zealanders say that those stars are seven chiefs who -fell in battle, and of whom only one eye of each is now visible. In Norse -myth Odin having slain a giant, plucks out his eyes and flings them up to -the sky, where they become two stars. In German star-lore the small star -just above the middle one in the shaft of Charles's Wain, is a waggoner -who, having given our Saviour a lift, was offered the kingdom of heaven -for his reward, but who said he would sooner be driving from east to west -to all eternity, and whose desire was granted--a curious contrast to the -wandering Jew, cursed to move unresting over the earth until the day of -judgment, because he refused to let Jesus, weary with the weight of the -cross, rest for a moment on his doorstep. The Housatonic Indians say that -the stars in Charles's Wain are men hunting a bear, and that the chase -lasts from spring to autumn, when the bear is wounded and its dripping -blood turns the leaves of the trees red. With this may be cited the myth -that the red clouds at morn and eve are the blood of the slain in battle. -In the Northern Lights the Greenlanders see the spirits of the departed -dancing, the brighter the flashes of the Aurora the greater the merriment, -whilst the Dacotas say of the meteors that they are spirits flying through -the air. - -Of the Milky Way--so called because Hêrê, indignant at the bantling -Herakles being put to her breast, spilt her milk along the sky (the solar -mythologers say that the "red cow of evening passes during the night -across the sky scattering her milk")--the Ottawas say that it was caused -by a turtle swimming along the bottom of the sky and stirring up the mud. -According to the Patagonians it is the track along which the departed -tribesmen hunt ostriches, the clouds being their feathers; in African myth -it is some wood-ashes long ago thrown up into the sky by a girl, that her -people might be able to see their way home at night; in Eastern myth it -is chaff dropped by a thief in his hurried flight. - -The idea of a land beyond the sky--be it the happy hunting-ground of the -Indian, or the Paradise of Islam, or the new Jerusalem of the -Apocalypse--would not fail to arise, and in both the Milky Way and the -Rainbow barbaric fancy sees the ladders and bridges whereby the departed -pass from earth to heaven. So we find in the lower and higher culture -alike the beautiful conceptions of the _chemin des ames_, the Red man's -road of the dead to their home in the sun; the ancient Roman path of, or -to, the gods; the road of the birds, in both Lithuanian and Finnish myth, -because the winged spirits flit thither to the free and happy land. In -prosaic contrast to all this, it is curious to find among ourselves the -Milky Way described as Watling Street! That famous road, which ran from -Richborough through Canterbury and London to Chester, now gives its name -to a narrow bustling street of Manchester warehousemen in the City. But -who the Wætlingas were--whether giants, gods, or men--and why their name -was transferred from Britain to the sky, we do not know,[7] although the -fact is plainly enough set down in old writers, foremost among whom is -Chaucer. In his _House of Fame_[8] he says:-- - - "Lo, there, quod he, cast up thine eye, - se yondir, to, the galaxie, - the whiche men clepe the Milky Way, - for it is white, and some parfay - ycallin it han Watlingestrete." - -To the savage the rainbow is a living monster, a serpent seeking whom it -may devour, coming to earth to slake its unquenchable thirst, and preying -on the unwary. But in more poetic myth, its mighty many-coloured arch -touching, as it seems to do, the earth itself, is a road to glory. In the -_Edda_ it is the three-coloured bridge Bifröst, "the quivering track" over -which the gods walk, and of which the red is fire, so that the -Frost-giants may not cross it. In Persian myth it is Chinvad, the "bridge -of the gatherer," flung across the gloomy depths between this world and -the home of the blessed; in Islam it is El-Sirat, the bridge thin as a -hair and sharp as a scimitar, stretching from this world to the next; -among the Greeks it was Iris, the messenger from Zeus to men, charged with -tidings of war and tempest; to the Finns it was the bow of Tiernes, the -god of thunder; whilst to the Jew it was the messenger of grace from the -Eternal, who did set "his bow in the clouds" as the promise that never -again should the world be destroyed by flood. Such belief in the heavens -as the field of activities profoundly affecting the fortunes of mankind, -and in the stars as influencing their destinies, has been persistent in -the human mind. The delusions of the astrologer are embalmed in language, -as when, forgetful of a belief shared not only by sober theologians, but -by Tycho Brahe and Kepler, we speak of "disaster," and of our friends as -"jovial," "saturnine," or "mercurial." But the illusions of the savage or -semi-civilised abide as an animating part of many a faith, undisturbed by -a science which has swept the skies and found no angels there, and whose -keen analysis separates for ever the ancient belief in a connection -between the planets and man's fate. For convenience' sake, we retain on -our celestial maps and globes the men and monsters pictured by barbaric -fancy in the star-positions and clusters, noting these as interesting -examples of survival. Yet we are the willing dupes of illusions nebulous -as these, and, charm he never so wisely, the Time-spirit fails to -disenchant us. - -(_c._) _The Earth and Sky._ - -If the sun and moon are the parents of the stars, the heavens and the -earth are the parents of all living things. Of this widely-found myth, one -of the most striking specimens occurs among the Maoris. From Rangi, the -heaven, and Papa, the earth, sprang all living things; but earth and sky -clave together, and darkness rested on them and their children, who -debated whether they should rend them asunder or slay them. Then -Tane-mahuta, father of forests, reasoned that it was better to rend them, -so that the heaven might become a stranger, and the earth remain as their -nursing-mother. One after another they strove to do this, but in vain, -until Tane-mahuta, with giant strength and strain, pressed down the earth -and thrust upward the heaven. But one of his brothers, father of wind and -storm, who had not agreed to this parting of his parents, followed Rangi -into the sky, and thence sent forth his progeny, "the mighty winds, the -fierce squalls, the clouds dense and dark, wildly drifting, wildly -hunting," himself rushing on his foe, snapping the huge trees that barred -his path, and strewing their trunks and branches on the ground, while the -sea was lashed into high-crested waves, and all the creatures therein -affrighted. The fish darted hither and thither, but the reptiles fled into -the forests, causing quarrel between Tangaroa, the ocean-god, and -Tane-mahuta for giving them shelter. So the brothers fought, the ocean-god -wrecking the canoes and sweeping houses and trees beneath the waters, and -had not Papa hidden the gods of the tilled food and the wild within her -bosom, they would have perished. Wars of revenge followed quickly one upon -the other; the storm-god's anger was not soon appeased; so that the -devastation of the earth was well-nigh complete. But, at last, light arose -and quiet ensued, and the dry land appeared. Rangi and Papa, parted for -ever, quarrelled no more, but helped the one the other, and "man stood -erect and unbroken on his mother Earth." - -The myth of Cronus will at once occur to the reader. Heaven (Uranus) and -Earth (Gaea) were husband and wife, and their many children all hated -their father for concealing them between the hollows of their mother's -breasts, so that they were shut out from light. Gaea sided with them and -provided Cronus, the youngest, with an iron sickle wherewith he unmanned -Uranus and separated him from Gaea. Cronus married his sister Rhea, and, -at the advice of his parents, swallowed his children one by one as they -were born, lest they grew up and usurped his place among the Immortals. -But when Zeus was born, and Cronus asked for the child, Rhea deceived him -by giving him a stone wrapped in swaddling bands. When Zeus grew up he -gave his father an emetic, whereupon the children were all disgorged, and -with them the stone, which became a sacred object at Delphi. There is no -such being as Cronus in Sanskrit, but what may be called the Vedic variant -of the myth is that in which Dyaus (Heaven) and Prithivî (Earth), were -once joined and subsequently separated. - -In China we find a legend of "a person called Puangku, who is said to have -separated the heaven and the earth, they formerly being pressed down close -together," and, as one might expect, such a transparent nature-myth of the -rending asunder of the world and sky is widespread. - -The solar mythologists were perplexed at its presence among the refined -and cultured Greeks. "How can we imagine that a few generations before the -time of Solon the highest notions of the Godhead among the Greeks were -adequately expressed by the story of Uranus maimed by Cronus, of Cronus -eating his own children, swallowing a stone, and vomiting out alive his -own progeny. Among the lowest tribes of Africa and America we hardly find -anything more hideous and revolting." So the moral character of the Greeks -and the exclusive comparative method of Professor Max Müller and his -adherents were vindicated by the discovery that as Cronus means time, the -apparently repulsive myth simply means that time swallows up the days -which spring from it; "and," remarks Sir G. W. Cox in his _Manual of -Mythology_, "the old phrase meant simply this and nothing more, although -before the people came to Greece they had forgotten its meaning."[9] -Cronus is a more than usually troublesome _crux_ to the etymologists. - -Here, as elsewhere, "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life;" and -we may turn to the fundamental idea resident in the myth. The savage, in -the presence of recurring light and darkness, of the clouds lifting and -dispersing before the sunrise, has his legend of a time when this was not -so, but when heaven and earth were closed-in one upon the other till some -hero thrust them apart. And, to his rude intelligence, the conception of -night as a devouring monster, might easily "start the notion of other -swallowing and disgorging beings." In brief, to quote Mr. Andrew Lang, -"just as the New Zealander 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 their parents."[10] - -The beliefs of the ancient Finns, as described in the _Kalevala_, in the -world as a divided egg, of which the white is the ocean, the yolk the sun, -the arched shell the sky, and the darker portions the clouds; and of the -Polynesians that the universe is the hollow of a vast cocoa-nut shell, at -the tapering bottom of which is the root of all things, are to us so -grotesque that it is not easy to regard them as explanations seriously -invented by the human mind. Yet these, together with the notions of the -two halves of the shell of Brahma's egg, and of the two calabashes which -form the heaven and the earth in African myth, find their correspondences -in the widespread conception of the over-arching firmament as a hard and -solid thing,[11] with holes (or windows[12]) to let the rain through, with -gates through which angels descend,[13] or through which prophets peer -into celestial mysteries;[14] a firmament outside which other people live, -as instanced by the Polynesian term for strangers, "papalangi," or -"heaven-bursters." In Esthonian myth Ilmarine hammers steel into a vault -which he strained like a tent over the earth, nailing thereon the silver -stars and moon, and suspending the sun from the roof of the tent with -machinery to lift it up and let it down. The like achievement is recorded -of Ilmarinen in the _Kalevala_, the cosmogony of which corresponds to that -of the Esthonian _Kalevipöeg_. - -These are the less refined forms of myths which have held their ground -from pre-scientific times till now, and the rude analogies of which are -justified by the appearances of things as presented by the senses. Man's -intellectual history is the history of his escape from the illusions of -the senses, it is the slow and often tardily accepted discovery that -nature is quite other than that which it seems to be. And this variance -between appearances and realities remained hidden until the intellect -challenged the report about phenomena which the sense-perceptions brought. -For in the ages when feeling was dominant, and the judgment scarce -awakened, the simple explanations in venerable legends sung by bard or -told by aged crone--legends to which age had given sanctity which finally -placed them among the world's sacred literatures--were received without -doubt or question. But, as belief in causality spread, men were not -content to rest in the naïve explanations of an uncritical age. What man -had guessed about nature gave place to what nature had to say about -herself, and with the classifying of experience science had its birth. - -Meanwhile, until this quite recent stage in man's progress was reached, -the senses told their blundering tale of an earth flat and fixed, with -sun, moon, and stars as its ministering servants, while gods or beasts -upbore it, and mighty pillars supported the massive firmament In Hindu -myth the tortoise which upholds the earth rests upon an elephant, whose -legs _reach all the way down_! In Bogotà the culture-god Bochica punishes -a lesser and offending deity by compelling him to sustain the part of -Atlas, and it is in shifting his burden from shoulder to shoulder that -earthquakes are caused. The natives of Celebes say that these are due to -the world-supporting Hog as he rubs himself against a tree; the -Thascaltecs that they occur when the deities who hold up the world relieve -one another; the Japanese think that they are caused by huge dragons -wriggling underground, an idea probably confirmed by the discovery of -monster fossil bones. In Algonquin myth the mighty man Earthquake "can -pass along under the ground, and make all things shake and tremble by his -power." - -As the myths about earth-bearers prevail in the regions of earthquakes, so -do those about subterranean beings in the neighbourhood of volcanoes. The -superstitions which mountainous countries especially foster are -intensified when the mountains themselves cast forth their awful and -devastating progeny, "red ruin" and the other children born of them. Man -in his dread, "caring in no wise for the external world, except as it -influenced his own destiny; honouring the lightning because it could -strike him, the sea because it could drown him,"[15] could do naught else -than people them with maleficent beings, and conceive of their -sulphur-exhaling mouths as the jaws of a bottomless pit. - -(_d._) _Storm and Lightning, etc._ - -If in freeing ourselves from the tyranny of the "solar" theory we shackled -ourselves with some other, we should certainly prefer that which is known -as the "meteorological," and which, in the person of Kuhn and other -supporters, finds a more rational and persistent source of myth in -phenomena which are fitful and startling, such as hurricane and tempest, -earthquake and volcanic outburst. Sunrises and sunsets happen with a -regularity which failed to excite any strong emotion or stimulate -curiosity, and the remotest ancestor of the primitive Aryan soon shook off -the habit--if, indeed, he ever acquired it--of going to bed in fear and -trembling lest the sun should not come back again. Nature, in her softer -aspects and her gracious bounties, in the spring-time with its promise, -the summer with its glory, the autumn with its gifts, has moved the heart -of man to song and festival and procession; as, by contrast, the frosts -that nipped the early buds and the fierce heat that withered the -approaching harvest gave occasion for plaintive ditty and sombre ceremony. -It is in the fierce play and passionate outbursts of the elements, in the -storm, the lightning, and the thunder, that the feelings are aroused and -that the terror-stricken fancy sees the strife of wrathful deities, or -depicts their dire work amongst men. Hence, all the world over, the -storm-god and the wind-god have played a mighty part. - -To the savage, the wind, blowing as it listeth, its whence and whither -unknown, itself invisible, yet the sweep and force of its power manifest -and felt, must have ranked amongst the most striking phenomena. And, as -will be seen hereafter, the correspondences between wind and breath, and -the connection between breath and life, added their quota of mystery in -man's effort to account for the impalpable element. Of this -personification of the elements the following Ojibway folk-tale, cited by -Dorman, gives poetic illustration:--"There were spirits from all parts of -the country. Some came with crashing steps and roaring voice, who directed -the whirlwinds which were in the habit of raging about the neighbouring -country. Then glided in gently a sweet little spirit, which blew the -summer gale. Then came in the old sand-spirit, who blew the sand-squalls -in the sand-buttes toward the west. He was a great speech-maker, and shook -the lodge with his deep-throated voice, as he addressed the spirits of the -cataracts and waterfalls, and those of the islands who wore beautiful -green blankets." - -In the legends of the Quiches, the mysterious creative power is Hurakan -(whence _hurricane_), among the Choctaws the original word for Deity is -Hushtoli, the storm-wind, and in Peru to kiss the air was the commonest -and simplest sign of adoration of the collective divinities. The -Guayacuans of South America, when a storm arose and there was much thunder -or wind, all went out in troops, as it were to battle, shaking their clubs -in the air, shooting flights of arrows in that direction whence the storm -came.[16] - -The Araucanians thought that gales and thunderstorms were the battles -fought between the spirits of the dead and their foes. - -Turning to the literatures of higher races, we find in the prose _Edda_, -when Gangler asks whence comes the wind, that Ha answers him: "Thou must -know that at the northernmost point in the heavens sits a giant, - - "In the guise of an eagle; - And the winds, it is said, - Rush down on the earth - From his outspreading pinions." - -In Finnish myth the north wind Pulmri, father of the frost, is sometimes -imaged as an eagle. - -"The Indians believe in a great bird called by them _Wochowsen_ or -_Wuchowsen_, meaning Wind-Blow or the Wind-Blower, who lives far to the -north, and sits upon a great rock at the end of the sky. And it is because -whenever he moves his wings the wind blows they of old times called him -that." And in another Algonquin myth: "Ga-oh is the Spirit of the Winds. -He moves the winds, but he is chained to a rock. The winds trouble him, -and he tries very hard to get free. When he struggles the winds are -forced away from him, and they blow upon the earth. Sometimes he suffers -terrible pain, and then his struggles are violent. This makes the winds -wild, and they do damage on the earth. Then he feels better and goes to -sleep, and the winds become quiet also."[17] - -In the _Veda_ the Maruts or Storm-gods, to whom many of the hymns are -addressed, "make the rocks to tremble and tear asunder the kings of the -forest," like Hermes in his violence and like Boreas in his rage. Whether -or no they become in Scandinavian legend the grim and fearful Ogres -swiftly sailing in their cloud-ships, we may see in them the "crushers" -and "grinders,"[18] as their name imports, the types of northern deities -like Odin, long degraded into the Wild Huntsman and his phantom crew, -whose uncouth yells the peasant hears in the midnight air.[19] Among the -Aztecs Cuculkan, the bird-serpent, was a personification of the wind, -especially of the east wind, as bringer of the rain. It was at one of his -shrines, to which pilgrimages were made from great distances, that the -Spaniards first saw to their surprise a cross surmounting the temple of -this god of the wind, whence arose a legend that the Apostle Thomas had -evangelised America. But, in fact, the pagan cross of Central America and -Mexico was the symbol of the four cardinal points. - -In his valuable book on the _Myths of the Red Race_ Dr. Brinton has -brought together a mass of evidence in support of a theory that the -sanctity in which the number four is held by the American races is due to -the adoration of the cardinal points, which are identified with the four -winds, who in hero-myths are the four ancestors of the human race. The -illustrations with which the argument is supported are numerous and -valuable, but the argument itself is made to rest too strongly on an -assumed primitive symbolism, whereas it suffices to show how the early -notion of the flat world, as also square, would lead to the myth of the -four winds blowing from the four corners, a myth often illustrated in -ancient maps with an angel at each corner from whose mouth the wind -issues. The official title of the Incas was "Lord of the four quarters of -the earth," and the number appears in all sorts of combinations, but the -theory may be pushed to extremes in compelling every fact to square with -it.[20] As the illustrations given above show, we are some steps nearer to -the primitive myth when we find the wind conceived of as a mighty bird, -which indeed is in both old and new world mythology a common symbol of -thunder and lightning also. On this matter Dr. Brinton's remarks bear -quoting. - - Like the wind the bird sweeps through the aërial spaces, sings in the - forests, and rustles on its course; like the cloud it floats in - mid-air, and casts its shadow on the earth; like the lightning it - darts from heaven to earth to strike its unsuspecting prey. These - tropes were truths to savage nations, and led on by that law of - language which forced them to conceive everything as animate or - inanimate, itself the product of a deeper law of thought which urges - us to ascribe life to whatever has motion, they found no animal so - appropriate for their purpose here as the bird. Therefore the - Algonquins say that birds always make the winds, that they create the - waterspouts, and that the clouds are the spreading and agitation of - their wings; the Navajos that at each cardinal point stands a white - swan, who is the spirit of the blasts; so also the Dakotas frequently - explain the thunder as the sound of the cloud-bird flapping his wings; - the lightning as the fire that flashes from his tracks, like the - sparks which the buffalo scatters when he scours over a stony plain. - -Estimates differ much as to the size of the Thunder-Bird. In one tradition -an Indian found its nest, and secured a feather which was above two -hundred feet long, while in another tradition the bird is said to be no -bigger than one's little finger. But among the Western Indians he is an -immense eagle. "When this aërial monster flaps his wings loud peals of -thunder roll over the prairie; when he winks his eye it lightens; when he -wags his tail the waters of the lake which he carries on his back overflow -and produce rain." Mixcoatl, the Mexican Cloud-Serpent, as well as Jove, -carries his bundle of arrows or thunderbolts, which in the hand of Thor -are represented by his mighty club or hammer. The old and universal belief -that stones were hurled by the Thunder-God is not so far-fetched as we, in -our pride of science, might think, for the flints which are mistaken for -thunderbolts, and which become objects of adoration as well as charms, -produce a flash when struck by the lightning. In the lightning flash man -would see the descent of fire from heaven for his needs. That he should -regard it, like water, as a living creature, with power to hurt or help -him, is in keeping with attribution of life to all that moved. Its -apparent connection with the great source of heat would foster the feeling -which expressed itself in fire-worship, with its curious survivals to -modern times. No element was more calculated to excite awe in its seeming -unrelation to the objects which produced it. Once secured, to guard it -from extinction or theft was a serious duty, and everything from which it -issued, trees as its hiding-place, since it came from the wood when -rubbed, stones also, since sparks shot from them when struck, were held -sacred. In the manifold myths about its origin one feature is common, that -its seed was stolen, the chief agents (probably as the messengers between -earth and sky) being birds, or men assuming the form of birds. The Sioux -Indians say that their first ancestor procured his fire from the sparks -which a panther struck from the rocks as he bounded up a hill. But of -examples from the lower culture, forerunners of the Zeus-defying -Prometheus, Mr. Gill's _Myths of the South Pacific_ supplies one which may -be taken as a sample of the rest. Maui, a famous South Sea hero, finding -some cooked food in a basket brought by Buataranga from the nether world, -and relishing it more than raw food, determines to steal the fire, and -flying to the Buataranga's realm frightens the fire-god by threats and -blows into revealing the secret. Then wresting the fire-sticks from him he -sets the under-world in flames, and returns with his prize to the -upper-world; thenceforth "all the dwellers there used fire-sticks, and -enjoyed the luxuries of light and of cooked food." - -(_e._) _Light and Darkness._ - -As in the conflict raging in the sky during gale or tempest, when the -light and the darkness alternately prevail, the barbaric mind sees war -waged between the heroes of the spirit-land who have carried their -unsettled blood feuds thither, so in many myths the lightning is no -comrade of the thunder, but its foe, the battle of bird with serpent. The -resemblance of the lightning flash to the sharp, sudden, zigzag movements -of the serpent, a creature so mysterious to barbaric man in its unlikeness -to the beasts of the field, accounts for a myth the influence of which as -a terrorising agent on human conduct is in course of rapid decay. Its -importance in the history of belief in the supernatural is too -far-reaching to be passed over, and in tracing its course it is necessary -to show its connection with the group of storm-myths and sun-myths of the -Aryan race in the battles between Indra and Vritra, Ormuzd and Ahriman, -Thor and Midgard, Hercules and Cacus, Apollo and Pythôn, and St. George -and the Dragon. - -All the Aryan nations have among their legends, often exalted into epic -themes, the story of a battle between a hero and a monster. In each case -the hero conquers, and releases treasures, or in some way renders succour -to man, through his victory. In Hindu myth this battle is fought between -Indra and Vritra. - -Indra, one of the Vedic gods, comes, according to Professor Max Müller, -from the same root as the Sanskrit _indu_, drop, sap, but the etymology is -doubtful. What is not doubtful is that he is the god of the bright sky, -and although, like the other gods invoked in the hymns of the _Rig-Veda_, -a departmental or tribal deity, he is a sort of _primus inter pares_, of -whose many titles, Vritrahan or "Vritra-slayer" is the pre-eminent one. -The benefits showered by him upon mortals caused the attribution of moral -qualities to him, and he was adored as "lord of the virtues," while the -juice of the sacred soma plant was offered in his honour, for which reason -he is also called Somapâ or "soma-drinker." It is his struggle with Vritra -which is a constant theme of the Vedic hymns, the burden of which remind -us of the praises offered in the Psalms to Yahweh as a man of war, as -mighty in battle. "The gods do not reach thee, nor men, thou overcomest -all creatures in strength.... Thou thunderer, hast shattered with thy bolt -the broad and massive cloud into fragments, and has sent down the waters -that were confined in it to flow at will; verily thou alone possessest all -power." The primitive physical meaning of the myth is clear. Indra is the -sun-god, armed with spears and arrows, for such did the solar rays -sometimes appear to barbaric fancy. The rain-clouds are imprisoned in -dungeons or caverns by Vritra, the "enveloper," the thief, serpent, wolf, -wild boar, as he is severally styled in the _Rig-Veda_. Indra attacks him, -hurls his darts at him, they pierce the cloud-caverns, the waters are -released, and drop upon the earth as rain. - -This explanation, which has many parallels in savage myth, is -self-consistent as fitting into crude philosophy of personal life and -volition in sun and cloud, and is fraught with deep truth of meaning in -regions like the Punjaub, where drought brought famine in its train. - -The Aryans were a pastoral people, their wealth being in flocks and -herds.[21] The cow yielded milk for the household; her dung fertilised the -soil; her young multiplied the wealth of the family at an ever-increasing -rate, and she naturally became the symbol of fruitfulness and prosperity, -ultimately an object of veneration; while, for the functions which the -bull performed, he was the type of strength. The Aryan's enemy was he who -stole or injured the cattle; the Aryan's friend was he who saved them from -the robber's clutch. - -Intellectually, the Aryan tribes were, speaking broadly, in the mythopoeic -stage, and the personification of phenomena was rife among them. Their -barbaric fancy, as kindred myths all the world over testify, would find -ample play in the fleeting and varied scenery of the cloud-flecked -heavens, suggestive, as this would be, of bodies celestial and bodies -terrestrial. To these children of the plain the heavens were a vast, wide -expanse, over which roamed supra-mundane beasts, the two most prominent -figures in their mythical zoology being the cow and the bull. The sun, -giver of blessed light, was the bull of majesty and strength; the white -clouds were cows, from whose swelling udders dropped the milk of -heaven--the blessed rain. But there were dark clouds also, clouds of night -and clouds of storm, and within these lurked the monster-robber; into them -he lured the herds, and withheld both light and rain from the children of -men. To the sun-god, therefore, who smote the thief-dragon, Vritra, with -his shaft, and set free the imprisoned cows, went up the shout of praise, -the song of gratitude. This myth survives in many legends of the Aryan -race, and their family likeness is unmistakable. In its Latin guise it -appears as Hercules[22] and Cacus, although the preciseness of detail -narrated by Virgil, Livy, and other writers, has given it quasi-historical -rank. Hercules, after his victory over Geryon, stops to rest by the Tiber, -and while he is sleeping the three-headed monster, Cacus, steals some of -his cattle, dragging them by their tails into his cavern in Mons -Avertinus. Their bellowing awakens Hercules, who attacks the cavern, from -the mouth of which Cacus vomits flames, and roars as in thunder. But the -hero slays him and frees the cattle, a victory which the earlier Romans -celebrated with solemn rites at the Ara Maxima. In Greek myth the most -familiar examples are the struggles between the sun-god, Apollo, and the -storm-dragon, Pythôn, and the deliverance of the Princess Andromeda by -Perseus from the sea-monster sent by Poseidôn to ravage the land. In the -northern group we have the battle of Siegfried with the Niflungs, or -Niblungs, and of Sigurd with the dragon Fafnir, who guards golden -treasures; while, in the _Edda_, Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymir, -and catches the demon Loki, whose foul brood are Hell, the wolf Fenri, and -the Earth-girdling Serpent. Amongst ourselves, Beowulf, hero of the poem -of that name, attacks the dragon or fire-drake Grendel, who, with his -troll-mother, haunts a gloomy marsh-land. Thence he stole forth at night -to seize sleeping champions, taking them to his dwelling-place to devour -them, and this in such numbers that scarce a man was left. One pale night, -Beowulf awaited the coming of the monster, and, gripping him tightly, -snapped his limbs asunder, so that he died. - -These brief illustrations would hardly be complete without some reference -to our national saint. Opinions differ as to his merits, Gibbon -stigmatising him as a fraudulent army contractor,[23] while the researches -of M. Ganneau seek to establish his relation to the Egyptian Horus and -Typhon. Be this as it may, the stirring old legend tells how George of -Cappadocia delivered the city of Silene from a dragon dwelling in a lake -hard by. Nothing that the people could give him satisfied his insatiate -maw, and in their despair they cast lots who among their dearest ones -should be flung to the dread beast. The lot fell to the king's daughter, -and she went unflinchingly, like Jephthah's daughter, to her fate. But on -the road the hero learns her sad errand, and bidding her fear not, he, -making sign of the cross, brandishes his lance, attacks and transfixes the -dragon, and leading him into Silene, beheads him in sight of all the -people, who, with their king, are baptized to the glory of Him who made -St. George the victor.[24] - -(_f._) _The Devil._ - -While, however, the myth of Indra and Vritra has in its western variants -remained for the most part a battle between heroes and dragons, the moral -element rarely obscuring the physical features, it gave rise among the -Iranians or ancient Persians to a definite theology, the strange fortunes -of which have, as remarked above, profoundly affected Christendom. - -Although in the Vedic hymns the features of the primitive nature-myth -reappear again and again, Indra himself boasting, "I slew Vritra, O -Maruts, with might, having grown strong with my own vigour; I who hold the -thunderbolt in my arms, I have made these all-brilliant waters to flow -freely for man," we find an approach in them to some conception of that -spiritual conflict of which the physical conflict was so complete a -symbol. Indra as victor, is an object of adoration and invested with -purity and goodness; Vritra, as the enemy of men, is an object of dread, -and invested with malice and evil. - -But while in the Zend-Avesta, the Scriptures of the old Iranian religion, -the struggle between Thraetaôna and the three-headed serpent Azhi-Dahâka -(in which names are recognisable the Traitana and Ahi of the _Veda_ and -the Feridun and Zohak of Persian epic) is narrated, the moral idea is -dominant throughout. The theme is not the attack of the sun-god to recover -stolen milch cows from the dragon's cave, but the battle between Ormuzd, -the Spirit of Light, and Ahriman, the Spirit of Darkness. The one seeks to -mar the earth which the other has made. Into the fair paradise, -Airayana-Vaêjô, "a delightful spot," as the Avesta calls it, "with good -waters and trees," and into other smiling lands which Ormuzd has blessed, -Ahriman sends "a mighty serpent ... strong, deadly frost ... buzzing -insects, and poisonous plants ... toil and poverty," and, worse than all, -"the curse of unbelief."[25] Between these two spiritual powers and their -armies of good and bad angels the battle rages for supremacy in the -universe, for possession of the citadel of Mansoul. - -Early in the history of the Asiatic Aryan tribes there had arisen a -quarrel between the Brahmanic and Iranian divisions. The latter had -become a quiet-loving, agricultural people, while the former remained -marauding nomads, attacking and harassing their neighbours. In their -plundering inroads they invoked the aid of spells and sacrifices, offering -the sacred soma-juice to their gods, and nerving themselves for the fray -by deep draughts of the intoxicating stuff. Not only they, but their gods -as well, thereby became objects of hatred to the peaceful Iranians, who -foreswore all worship of freebooter's deities, and transformed these -_devas_ of the old religion into demons. That religion, as common to the -Indo-European race, was polytheistic, a worship of deities each ruling -over some department of nature, but a worship exalting now one, now -another god, be it Indra, or Varuna, or Agni, according to the indications -of the deity's supremacy, or according to the mood of the worshipper. As -remarked by Jacob Grimm, "the idea of the devil is foreign to all -primitive religions," obviously because in all primitive thought evil and -good are alike regarded as the work of deities. In the Old Testament, -Yahweh is spoken of as the author of both;[26] the angels, whether charged -with weal or woe, are his messengers. In the _Iliad_ Zeus dispenses -both:-- - - "Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood, - The source of evil one, the other good; - From thence the cup of mortal man he fills, - Blessings to these, to those distribute ills, - To most, he mingles both,"[27] - -and 'tis a far cry from this to the loftier conception of Euripides: "If -the gods do evil, then are they no gods." So there was a monotheistic--or, -as Professor Max Müller terms it, a henotheistic--element in the Vedic -religion which in the Iranian religion, and this mainly through the -teaching of the great thinker and reformer Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), was -largely diffused. In his endeavour to solve the old problem of reconciling -sin and misery with omnipotent goodness, he supposes "two primeval -causes," one of which produced the "reality," or good mind; the other the -"non-reality," or evil mind. Behind these was developed belief in a -philosophical abstraction, "uncreate time," of which each was the product; -but such doctrines were too subtle for the popular grasp, and, wrapped in -the old mythological garb, they appeared in concrete form as dualism. -Vritra survived in Ahriman, who, like him, is represented as a serpent; -and in Ormuzd we have the phonetic descendant of Ahura-mazda. - -Now, it was with this dualism, this transformed survival of the sun and -cloud myth, that the Jews came into association during their memorable -exile in Babylon. Prior to that time their theology, as hinted above, had -no devil in it. But in that belief in spirits which they held in common -with all semi-civilised races, as a heritage from barbarous ancestors, -there were the elements out of which such a personality might be readily -evolved. Their _satan_, or "accuser," as that word means, is no prince of -the demons, like the Beelzebul of later times; no dragon or old serpent, -as of the Apocalypse, defying Omnipotence and deceiving the whole world; -but a kind of detective who, by direction of Yahweh, has his eye on -suspects, and who is sent to test their fidelity. In all his missions he -acts as the intelligent and loyal servant of Yahweh. But although -therefore not regarded as bad himself, the character and functions with -which he was credited made easy the transition from such theories about -him to theories of him as inherently evil, as the enemy of goodness, and, -therefore, of God. He who, like Vritra, was an object of dread, came to be -regarded as the incarnation of evil, the author and abettor of things -harmful to man. Persian dualism gave concrete form to this conception, and -from the time of the Exile we find Satan as the Jewish Ahriman, the -antagonist of God. Not he alone, for "the angels that kept not their first -estate" were the ministers of his evil designs, creatures so numerous that -every one has 10,000 at his right hand and 1000 at his left hand, and -because they rule chiefly at night no man should greet another lest he -salute a demon. They haunt lonely spots, often assume the shape of beasts, -and it is their presence in the bodies of men and women which is the cause -of madness and other diseases.[28] - -From the period when the Apocryphal books, especially those having traces -of Persian influence, were written,[29] this doctrine of an arch-fiend -with his army of demons received increasing impetus. It passed on without -check into the Christian religion, and wherever this spread the heathen -gods, like the _devas_ of Brahmanism among the Iranians, were degraded -into demons, and swelled the vast crowd of evil spirits let loose to -torment and ruin mankind. - -This doctrine of demonology, it should be remembered, was but the -elaborated form of ancestral belief in spirits referred to above. In the -Christian system it was associated with that belief in magic which has its -roots in fetishism, and from the two arose belief in witchcraft. The -universal belief in demons in early and mediæval times supplied an easy -explanation of disasters and diseases; the sorcerers and charm-workers, -the wizards and enchanters, had passed into the service of the devil. For -power to work their spite and malevolence they had bartered their souls to -him, and sealed the bargain with their blood. It was enough for the -ignorant and frightened sufferers to accuse some poor, misshapen, -squinting old woman of casting on them the evil eye, or of appearing in -the form of a cat, to secure her trial by torture and her condemnation to -an unpitied death. The spread of popular terror led to the issue of Papal -bulls and to the passing of statutes in England and in other countries -against witchcraft, and it was not until late in the eighteenth century -that the laws against that imaginary crime were repealed. - -There is no sadder chapter in the annals of this tearful world than this -ghastly story of witch-finding and witch-burning. Sprenger computes that -during the Christian epoch no less than _nine millions_ of persons, mostly -women of the poorer classes, were burned; victims of the survival into -relatively civilised times of an illusion which had its source in -primitive thought. It was an illusion which had the authority of Scripture -on its side;[30] the Church had no hesitation concerning it; such men as -Luther, Sir Thomas Browne, and Wesley never doubted it; the evidence of -the bewitched was supported by honest witnesses; and judges disposed to -mercy and humanity had no qualms in passing the dread sentence of the law -on the condemned.[31] - -And although it exists not to-day, save in by-places where gross darkness -lurks, it was not destroyed by argument, by disproof, by direct assault, -but only through the quiet growth and diffusion of the scientific spirit, -before which it has dispersed. It could not live in an atmosphere thus -purified, an atmosphere charged with belief in unchanging causation and in -a definite order unbroken by caprice or fitfulness, whether in the sweep -of a planet or the pulsations of a human heart. - -Of course the antecedents of the arch-fiend himself could not fail to be -the subject of curious inquiry in the time when his existence was no -matter of doubt. The old theologians scraped together enough material -about him from the sacred books of the Jews and Christians to construct an -elaborate biography of him; but in this they would seem to have explained -too much in certain directions and not enough in others, thus provoking a -reaction which ultimately discredited their painful research. Their -genealogy of him was carried farther back than they intended or desired, -for the popular notions credited him with both a mother and grandmother. -Their theory of his fall from heaven gave rise to the droll conception of -his lameness and to the legends of which the "devil on two sticks" is a -type. Their infusion of foreign element into his nature aided his -pictorial presentment in motley form and garb, as seen in the old -miracle-plays. To Vedic descriptions of Vritra's darkness may perchance be -traced his murkiness and blackness; to Greek satyr and German -forest-sprite his goat-like body, his horns, his cloven hoofs, his tail; -to Thor his red beard; to dwarfs and goblins his red cloak and nodding -plume; to theories of transformation of men and spirits into animals his -manifold metamorphoses, as black cat, wolf, hellhound, and the like. - -But his description was his doom; it was by a natural sequence that the -legends of mediæval times present him, not, with the Scotch theologians, -as a scholar and a swindler, disguising himself as a parson, but as -gullible and stupid, as over-reaching himself and as befooled by mortals. -And, like the Trolls of Scandinavian folk-lore who burst at sunrise, it -needed only the full light thrown upon his origin and development by the -researches of comparative mythologists to dissipate this creation of man's -fears and fancies into the vaporous atmosphere where he had his birth. - - -§ IV. - -THE SOLAR THEORY OF MYTH. - -The cogency of the evidence concerning the development of belief in Satan -out of light-and-darkness myths is generally admitted, but it is of a kind -that must not be pushed too far. For the phases of Nature are manifold; -manifold also is the life of man; and we must not lend a too willing ear -to theories which refer the crude explanations of an unscientific age, -when the whole universe is Wonderland, to one source. _Cave hominem unius -libri_, says the adage, and we may apply it, not only to the man of one -book, but also to the man of one idea, in whom the sense of proportion is -lacking, and who sees only that for which he looks. Here such caution is -introduced as needful of exercise against the comparative mythologists -who, not content with showing--as abundant evidence warrants--that myth -has its germs in the investment of the powers of nature with personal life -and consciousness, contend that the great epics of our own and kindred -races are, from their broadest features to minutest detail, but -nature-myths obscured and transformed. - -Certain scholars, notably Professor Max Müller, Sir G. W. Cox, and -Professor de Gubernatis, as interpreters of the myths of the Indo-European -peoples, and Dr. Goldziher, as an interpreter of Hebrew myth and cognate -forms, maintain that the names given in the mythopoeic age to the sun, the -moon, and the changing scenery of the heaven as the fleeting forms and -myriad shades passed over its face, lost their original signification -wholly or partially, and came to be regarded as the names of veritable -deities and men, whose actions and adventures are the disguised -descriptions of the sweep of the thunder-charged clouds and of the victory -of the hero-god over their light-engulfing forces. But it is better to -state the theory in the words of its exponents, and for that purpose a -couple of extracts from Sir George Cox's _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_ -will suffice. - - In the spontaneous utterances of thoughts awakened by outward - phenomena, we have the source of myths which must be regarded as - _primary_. But it is obvious that such myths would be produced only so - long as the words employed were used in their original meaning. If - once the meaning of the word were either in part or wholly forgotten, - the creation of a new personality under this name would become - inevitable, and the change would be rendered both more certain and - more rapid by the very wealth of words which were lavished on the - sights and objects which most impressed their imagination. A thousand - phrases would be used to describe the action of a beneficent or - consuming sun, of the gentle or awful night, of the playful or furious - wind; and every word or phrase become the germ of a new story as soon - as the mind lost its hold on the original force of the name. Thus, in - the polyonymy (by which term Sir George Cox means the giving of - several names to one object), which was the result of the earliest - form of human thought, we have the germ of the great epics of later - times, and of the countless legends which make up the rich stores of - mythical tradition ... and the legends so framed constitute the class - of _secondary_ myths (p. 42). - - Henceforth the words which had denoted the sun and moon would denote - not merely living things but living persons.... Every word would - become an attribute, and all ideas, once grouped round a single - object, would branch off into distinct personifications. The sun had - been the lord of light, the driver of the chariot of the day; he had - toiled and laboured for the sons of men, and sunk down to rest, after - a hard battle, in the evening. But now the lord of light would be - Phoibos Apollôn, while Helios would remain enthroned in his fiery - chariot, and his toils and labours and death-struggles would be - transferred to Heraklês. The violet clouds which greet his rising and - his setting would now be represented by herds of cows which feed in - earthly pastures. There would be other expressions which would still - remain as floating phrases, not attached to any definite deities. - These would gradually be converted into incidents in the life of - heroes, and be woven at length into systematic variations. Finally, - these gods and heroes, and the incidents of their mythical career, - would receive each "a local habitation and a name." These would remain - as genuine history when the origin and meaning of the words had been - either wholly or in part forgotten (p. 51). - -Such is the "solar myth" theory. "We can hardly," as Mr. Matthew Arnold -says, "now look up at the sun without having the sensations of a moth," -and if occasion has not been given to the adversary to blaspheme, he has -been supplied with ample material for banter and ridicule. Some of the -happiest illustrations of this are made by Mr. Foster in his amusing and -really informing essay on "Nature Myths in Nursery Rhymes," reprinted in -_Leisure Readings_,[32] an essay which it seems the immaculate critics -took _au sérieux_! With a little exercise of one's invention, given also -ability to parody, it will be found that many noted events, as well as the -lives of the chief actors in them, yield results comforting to the solar -mythologists. Not only the _Volsungs_ and the _Iliad_, but the story of -the Crusades and of the conquest of Mexico; not only Arthur and Baldr, but -Cæsar and Bonaparte, may be readily resolved, as Professor Tyndall says we -all shall be, "like streaks of morning cloud, into the infinite azure of -the past." Dupuis, in his researches into the connection between astronomy -and mythology, had suggested that Jesus was the sun, and the twelve -apostles the zodiacal signs; and Goldziher, analysing the records of a -remote period, maintains the same concerning Jacob and his twelve sons. M. -Senart has satisfied himself that Gotama, the Buddha, is a sun-myth. -Archbishop Whately, to confound the sceptics, ingeniously disproved the -existence of Bonaparte; and a French ecclesiastic has, by witty -etymological analogies, shown that Napoleon is cognate with Apollo, the -sun, and his mother Letitia identical with Leto, the mother of Apollo; -that his _personnel_ of twelve marshals were the signs of the zodiac; that -his retreat from Moscow was a fiery setting, and that his emergence from -Elba, to rule for twelve months, and then be banished to St. Helena, is -the sun rising out of the eastern waters to set in the western ocean after -twelve hours' reign in the sky. But upon this solar theory let us cite -what Dr. Tylor, whose soberness of judgment renders him a valuable guide -along the zigzag path of human progress, says: "The close and deep -analogies between the life of nature and the life of man have been for -ages dwelt upon by poets and philosophers, who, in simile or in argument, -have told of light and darkness, of calm and tempest, of birth, growth, -change, decay, dissolution, renewal. But no one-sided interpretation can -be permitted to absorb into a single theory such endless many-sided -correspondences as these. Rash inferences which, on the strength of mere -resemblance, derive episodes of myth from episodes of nature, must be -regarded with utter mistrust, for the student who has no more stringent -criterion than this for his myths of sun and sky and dawn, will find them -wherever it pleases him to seek them." - -The investigations of comparative mythologists, more particularly in this -country and Germany, have thrown such valuable light on the history of -ideas, that it will be instructive to learn what excited the inquiry. The -researches of Niebuhr and his school into the credibility of early history -made manifest that the only authority on which the chroniclers relied was -tradition. To them--children of an uncritical age--that tradition was -venerable with the lapse of time, and binding as a revelation from the -gods. To us the charm and interest of it lie in detecting within it the -ancient deposit of a mythopoeic period, and in deciphering from it what -manner of men they must have been among whom such explanation of the -beginnings had credence. And in such an inquiry nothing can be "common or -unclean," nothing too trivial or puerile for analysis; for where the most -grotesque and impossible are found, there we are nearer to the conditions -of which we would know more. - -The serious endeavour to get at the fact underlying the fabulous was -extended to the great body of mythology which had not been incorporated -into history, and the interpretations of which satisfied only those who -suggested them. As hinted already, the Greeks had sought out the meaning -of their myths, with here and there a glimpse of the truth gained; but -this was confined to the philosophers and poets. Euhêmeros degraded them -into dull chronicle, making Heraklês a thief who carried off a crop of -oranges; Jove a king crushing rebellion; Atlas an astronomer; Pythôn a -freebooter; Æolus a weather-wise seaman, and so on. Plutarch tried to -"restore" them, but only defaced them, and after centuries of neglect they -were discovered by Lord Bacon to be allegories with a moral. Then Banier -and Lemprière emptied out of them what little life Euhêmeros had left, and -the believers in Hebrew as the original speech of mankind saw in them the -fragments of a universal primitive revelation! Even Professor Max Müller -is so upset by the many loathsome and revolting stories in a mythology -current in the land of Lykurgos and Solon, such as the marriage of his -mother Jocasta by Oedipus, and the swallowing of his own children by -Cronus, that he inquires (as if he half believed it possible) whether -there was not "a period of temporary insanity through which the human mind -had to pass," and a degradation from lovely metaphor to coarse fact which -only a "disease of language," or the confusion arising from the forgotten -meanings of words, explains. There is no need, however, for assumptions of -this or of any other kind. This is best shown by a summary of facts which -led, more or less directly, to the formulation of the solar theory. - -Some fifty years ago a good many idle speculations, products of a reverent -and uncurbed fancy concerning Hebrew as the primitive speech of mankind, -were laid to rest when the sober guess of Schlegel as to the connection of -the leading languages of Europe and those of India and Persia, was -converted into certainty by Bopp, Jacob Grimm, Schleicher, and later -scholars. - -By the application of the comparative method to philology, _i.e._ the -interpretation of any set of facts by comparison with corresponding facts, -due allowance being made for differences which Grimm's law (see _infra_) -explains, the relation of Greek, Latin, Slavonic, Teutonic, and Keltic to -one another and to Indian and Persian, and their consequent descent from a -common parent language, was proved. To this group the term Aryan (from a -Sanskrit word cognate with the root _ar_, our English word _ear_, to -plough), is given, a term which ancient records show was applied by the -Asiatic Aryans to themselves as the lords of the soil, the dominant race. -The names Indo-Germanic, and, more appropriately as roughly defining the -peoples included thereunder, Indo-European, have been suggested in its -stead, but Aryan, as the more convenient term, has come into general use. - -The survival of grammatical forms common to the Aryan ancestors, and the -likeness between words necessary for daily use, evidenced to one parent -primitive speech, and, passing from words to the ideas and things which -they connoted, philologists were able to infer what manner of men these -Aryans were, and under what conditions they dwelt. In the enthusiasm -excited by so brilliant a discovery the soberest scholars were apt to -over-colour their accurately-outlined picture of old Aryan life; to read -modern meanings into the ancient words. But, making good allowance for -this, the sketch which was presented in Max Müller's famous paper on -_Comparative Mythology_[33] remains a credit to scholarship in its vivid -generalisations from immaterial data. - -Professor Max Müller, in agreement with Pictet and others, placed the -original settlement of the Aryans as probably in the region between the -Hindu Kush Mountains and the Caspian Sea. But the opinion of later -scholars of cooler judgment leans to Europe rather than to Asia as the -primitive home of the Aryan tribes. The scanty hints which survive point -to a larger acquaintance with European flora and fauna than with Asiatic; -to a southward course, whilst silent about westward migration; the -movement of races inclines from less genial to more genial zones; the -traditions of certain branches, as the Greeks, tell of them as -autochthones, or born on the soil where they are found; and the judgment -of experts is decisive as to the greater nearness of the European -languages to the original speech as contrasted with Sanskrit and Iranian. -These are the principal reasons adduced in support of the theory of a -European origin. Benfey places the old Aryan home in the neighbourhood of -the Black Sea, Schrader and Geiger in Middle Germany, Karl Penka in -Scandinavia. But in speculating on the exact habitation of congeries of -tribes requiring vast tracts of country for support, no rigid boundaries -can be fixed, and there is room for the play of both theories, the more so -as theories they must remain.[34] - -At the back of this unsettled question lies the interesting subject of the -civilisation of pre-Aryan races on the European-Asiatic Continent. In the -Newer Stone Age this continent was inhabited by races of short stature, -with long and narrow skulls, and probably dark complexions, races whom the -Aryans, a tall, round-skulled, fair-complexioned race, conquered, and with -whom they so largely intermingled that the varieties of fair and dark -people in Europe at this day, speaking an Aryan language, are past finding -out. Indeed, there are probably no unmixed races throughout Europe and -Asia; the conquering race imposed its language on the conquered, and thus -is explained the community of speech without community of race which must -be recognised in the composite European peoples. - -With this qualification the kinship of the Aryan-language-speaking peoples -is demonstrated, and the like kind of evidence by which this is proved has -been applied to establish the identity of their mythologies, legends, and -folk-tales. The meaning of the proper names of these once determined, the -key to the meaning of the myth or tale was clear; because, it is -contended, the names contain the germs or oldest surviving part. This is -to make the last first; but the result, as already shown in the Aryan -light-and-darkness myths, has been to bring out a few striking -correspondences in Greek and Vedic names, although by no means so intimate -and frequent as the solar mythologists assume. The uniform behaviour of -the untutored mind before like phenomena to which barbaric myth witnesses -prepares us for general correspondences, but not in such details as we -find in the Aryan group. On what theory these, notably in the case of the -folk-tales, are to be accounted for, it is not easy to say, for the mode -of their diffusion from India to Iceland is obscure. But the fact abides -that nursery stories told in Norway and Tyrol, in Scotland and the Deccan, -are identical. After allowing for local colouring and for changes incident -to the lapse of time, they are the variants of stories presumably related -in the Aryan fatherland at a period historically remote, and, moreover, -are told in words which are phonetically akin. Their resemblances in -minor incident and detail are not easily explained by theories of -borrowing, for apparently no trace of intercourse between the Asiatic -Aryans and the Aryans of extreme Western Europe occurs until after the -domiciling of the stories where we find them. Nor did they with such close -resemblances as appear between the German Faithful John and the Hindu Rama -and Luxman; between our own Cinderella, the German Aschenpüttel and the -Hindu Sodewa Bai, spring native from their respective soils.[35] And there -is just that unlikeness in certain details which might be expected from -the different positions and products of the several Aryan lands. They -explain, for example, the absence from Scandinavian folk-tale of creatures -like the elephant, the giant, ape, and turtle, which figure in the -Brahmanic. - -When we turn to the great Aryan epics, the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_; the -_Volsungs_; the _Nibelungs_; _King Arthur and his Round Table_; the -_Ramâyanâ_ and the _Mahâ Bhâratâ_; the _Shah Nameh_, and so forth, we find -similarities of incident and episode which point to a common derivation -from old Aryan myth. That common synonyms occur in cognate languages is to -be expected, but so far as the names and the characteristics of the heroes -and heroines are concerned, the phonetic identity is proven in a far less -number of cases than the solar mythologists, working on their too -exclusive method, argue. The key which for them unlocks the meaning of -every Aryan myth is Sanskrit. In tracing the history of the Indo-European -family of speech, it served as the starting-point, because it has more -than any other member preserved the roots and suffixes, if not in their -oldest, still in their most accessible form. And in tracing the course of -Indo-European mythology, it is in the Vedic texts, chiefly the most -ancient, the _Rig-Veda_, that we find the materials for comparative study, -since in these venerable hymns of a Bible older than our own are preserved -the earliest recorded forms of that mythology. That is to say, we have not -in any European branch of Aryan speech any documentary relic of the age of -the _Rig-Veda_, otherwise we might find ourselves in possession of more -ancient relics of that speech. So that although the value of Sanskrit as -the guide without which knowledge of the Aryan mother-tongue would have -remained vague, indeed have been beyond reach, cannot be over-estimated, -we must not accept as of universal worth what is local and special in -it.[36] - -The phonetic kinship and actual identity which comparative philologists -have sought to establish between the proper names of gods and heroes of -the Greek and Vedic mythologies (for the inquiry has been chiefly -restricted to these two), is based on the collection of rules by which we -can at once tell what sounds in one language correspond to those of its -kindred tongues, called, after its discoverer, "Grimm's Law." This law -gave the quietus to theories of common origin and variation of words based -on specious resemblances (theories satirised by Dean Swift in his -derivation of _ostler_ from _oatstealer_), and introduced a scientific -method into etymological study. - -The varying pronunciation of certain words among the Aryan-speaking -peoples which were common to them was discovered by Grimm to be constant; -for example, a Greek _th_ answers to an English _d_, and, _vice versâ_, a -German _s_ or _z_ to an English _t_, and so forth, so that by comparing -these altered forms the common form from which they spring is reached. - -At what fluent period in the history of the Aryan languages these changes -of one sound into another were induced is unknown, nor are their precise -causes easy of ascertainment, being referable to physical influences, -climatal and local, which in the course of time brought about changes in -the organs of speech, such, for example, as make our _th_ so difficult of -pronunciation to a German, in whose language _d_ takes its place, as -_drei_ for _three_, _durstig_ for _thirsty_, _dein_ for _thine_, etc. We -may note tendencies to variation in children of the same household, their -prattle often affording striking illustration of Grimm's law, and it is -easy to see that among semi-civilised and isolated tribes, where no check -upon the variations is imposed, they would tend to become fixed and give -rise to new dialects. - -Tracing the operation of that law in the changes in proper names in Greek -and Vedic mythology, their correlation is proved in a few important -instances. The Greek _Zeus_, the Latin _Deus_ (whence French _Dieu_ and -our _deity_, and also _deuce_), the Lithuanian _Diewas_, and the Sanskrit -_Dyaus_ all come from an old Aryan root, _div_ or _dyu_, meaning "to -shine." The Sanskrit _dyu_, as a noun means "sky" or "day," and in the -_Veda Dyaus_ is the bright sky or heaven. _Varuna_, the noblest figure in -the Vedic religion, the "enveloper" or all-surrounding heaven, is cognate -with the Greek _Ouranos_ or _Uranus_, the common root being _var_, "to -veil" or "cover." Agni, the fire-god, to whom the larger number of hymns -occur in the _Veda_, is related to the Latin _ignis_, fire, and so forth. - -The heavens and the earth and all that in them is are the raw material on -which man works, and the comparative philologists have established exactly -what might have been predicated, the nature-origin of the Greek, Vedic, -and other Aryan myths. They might well have rested content with this -confirmation which their method gives to results arrived at by other -methods, and not weakened or discredited it by applying it all round to -every leading name in Aryan myth. For this has only revealed the -fundamental differences among themselves as to the etymologies and -meanings of such names. But not satisfied with the demonstration that the -majestic epics have their germs in the phenomena of the natural world, and -the course of the day and year, they strain the evidence by contending -that "there is absolutely nothing left for further analysis in the -stories;" that their "resemblances in detail defy the influences of -climate and scenery;"[37] that every incident has its birth in the journey -of the sun, the death of the dawn, the theft of the twilight by the powers -of darkness, evidence which, in Sir George Cox's words, "not long hence -will probably be regarded as excessive." - -They are nature-myths; but, and in this is the secret of their enduring -life, they are much more than that. The impetus that has shaped them as we -now know them came from other forces than clouds and storms. - -Without such caution as these remarks are designed to supply, any reader -of the _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_ would conclude that the -philological method had proved the meteorological origin of every epic and -folk-tale among the Indo-European peoples. He would learn that, in a way -rudely analogous to the supernatural guidance of the Christian Church, the -several Aryan tribes had received from the fathers of the race an -unvarying canon of interpretation of the primitive myths, a canon -seemingly preserved with the jealous veneration with which the Jew -regarded the _Thorah_, and the Brahman the _Veda_. He would also learn -that the details of Norse and classic myth can be traced to the _Veda_, -that these details, not of incident alone, but of thought and expression, -survived unimpaired by time and untouched by circumstance, whilst, strange -to say, the more prominent names and the leading characters became -obscured in their meaning. Strange indeed, and not true. For what are the -facts? - -Long before the hymns of the _Rig-Veda_ existed as we know them (and they -have remained an inviolate sacred text since 600 B.C., when every verse, -word, and syllable were counted) the Aryan tribes had swarmed from their -parent hive across boundless steppes and over winding mountain passes, -some to the westward limits of Europe, others southward into Hindustan. -Among the slender intellectual capital of which they stood possessed was -the common mythology of their savage ancestors, in which, as we have seen, -sun and moon, storm and thunder-cloud, and all other natural phenomena, -were credited with personal life and will. But that mythology had -certainly advanced beyond the crude primitive form and entered the heroic -stage, wherein the powers of nature were half human, half divine. Their -language had passed into the inflective or highest stage, and had -undergone such changes that the relationship between its several groups -and their origin from one mother-tongue was obscured, and remained so -until laid bare in our day. In short, the Aryan tribes had attained no -mean state of civilisation, some being more advanced than the others, -according as external circumstances helped or hindered, and one by one -they passed from the condition of semi-civilised nomads to become fathers -and founders of nations that abide to this day. - -These being the facts to which language itself bears witness, how was it -possible for their mythologies, _i.e._ their stock of notions about -things, to remain unaffected and secure of transmission without organic -change? The myths, unfixed in literary form, yielded themselves with ease -as vehicles of new ideas; their ancient meaning, already faded, paled -before the all-absorbing significance of present facts. These were more -potent realities than the kisses of the dawn; the human and the personal, -in its struggles, of mightier interest than the battle of rosy morn or -purple eve with the sons of thunder; and Homer's music would long since -have died away were Achilles' "baneful wrath" but a passively-told tale of -the sun's grief for the loss of the morning. - -In brief, the complex and varying influences which have transformed the -primitive myth are the important factors which the solar theorists have -omitted in their attempted solution of the problem. They have forgotten -the part which, to borrow a term from astronomy, "personal equation" has -played. They have not examined myth in the light of the long history of -the race; and the new elements which it took into itself, while never -wholly ridding itself of the old, have escaped them. They have secured a -mechanical unity, whereas, by combination of the historical with their own -method, they might have secured a vital unity. - -To all which classic myth itself bears record. The Greeks were of Aryan -stock, but the time of their settlement is unknown. The period between -this and the Homeric age was, however, long enough to admit of their -advance to the state of a nation rejoicing in the fulness of intellectual -life. They remembered not from what rock they were hewn, from what pit -they were digged. The nature-gods of their remote ancestors had long since -changed their meteorological character, and appeared in the likeness of -men, or, at least, played very human pranks on Olympus. In the _Veda_ the -primitive nature-myth, although exalted and purified, is persistent; under -one name or another it is still the ceaseless battle between the darkness -and the light; Dyaus was still the bright sky, the cattle of Siva were -still the clouds. But the Greek of Homer's time, and his congener in the -far north, had forgotten all that; the war in heaven was transferred to -the strife of gods and men on the shores of the Hellespont and by the -bleak seaboard of the Baltic. Their gods and goddesses, improved by age -and experience, put off their physical and put on the ethical; the -heaven-father became king of gods and men, source of order, law, and -justice; the sun and the dawn, Apollo and Athênê, became wisdom, skill, -and guardianship incarnate. And the story of human vicissitudes found in -solar myth that "pattern of things in the heavens" which conformed to its -design. - -Thus Homer, in whose day the old nature-myth had become confused with the -vague traditions of veritable deeds of kings and heroes but dimly -remembered, touched it as with heavenly fire unquenchable. The siege of -Troy, so say the solar mythologists, "is a repetition of the daily siege -of the east by the solar powers that every evening are robbed of their -highest treasures in the west." It is surely a truer instinct which, -recognising the physical framework of the great epics, feels that the -vitality which inheres in them is due to whatever of human experience, -joy, and sorrow is the burden of their immortal song. As to the repulsive -features of Greek myth, one can neither share the distress of the solar -theorists nor feel their difficulties. Both are self-created, and are -aggravated by suggestions, serious or otherwise, of "periods of temporary -insanity through which the human mind had to pass," as the rude health of -childhood is checked by whooping-cough and measles. They are explained by -the persistence with which the lower out of which man has emerged asserts -itself, as primary rocks pierce through and overlap later strata. - -The ancestors of the Aryans were savages in the remote past, and the "old -Adam" was never entirely cast out; indeed it is with us still. There are -superstitions and credulities in our midst, in drawing-rooms as well as -gipsy camps, quite as gross in nature, if less coarse in guise, as those -extant among the Greeks. The future historian of our time, as he turns -over the piles of our newspapers, will find contrasts of ignorance and -culture as startling as any existing in the land of Homer, of Archimedes, -and Aristotle. Spirit-rapping and belief in the "evil eye" have their cult -among us, although Professor Huxley's _Hume_ can be bought for two -shillings, and knowledge has free course. And it certainly accords best -with all that we have learnt as to the mode of human progress to believe -that the old lived into the new, than that the old had been cast out, but -had gained re-entry, making the last state of the Greeks to be worse than -the first. - -In this matter the Vedic hymns do not help us much. The conditions under -which they took the form that insured their transmission are _ipso facto_ -as of yesterday, compared with the period during which man's endeavour was -made to get at that meaning of his surroundings wherein is found the germ -of myth throughout the world. They are the products of a relatively -highly-civilised time; the conception of sky and dawn as living persons -has passed out of its primitive simplicity; these heavenly powers have -become complex deities; there is much confounding of persons, the same god -called by one or many names. The thought is that of an age when moral -problems have presented themselves for solution, and the references to -social matters indicate a settled state of things far removed from the -fisher and the hunter stage. Nevertheless there lurk within these sacred -writings survivals of the lower culture, traces of coarse rites, bloody -sacrifices, of repulsive myths of the gods, and of cosmogonies familiar to -the student of barbaric myth and legend. - -Enough has been said to show that the extreme and one-sided -interpretations of the solar mythologists are due to a one-sided method. -The philological has yielded splendid results; this the solar theorists -have done; the historical yields results equally rich and fertile; this -they have left undone. Language has given us the key to the kinship -between the several members of the great body of Aryan myths; the study of -the historical evolution of myths, the comparison of these, without regard -to affinity of speech, will give us the key to the kinship between savage -interpretation of phenomena all the world over. The mythology of Greek and -Bushman, of Kaffir and Scandinavian, of the Red man and the Hindu, springs -from the like mental condition. It is the uniform and necessary product of -the human mind in the childhood of the race. - - -§ V. - -BELIEF IN METAMORPHOSIS INTO ANIMALS. - -The belief that human beings could change themselves into animals has been -already alluded to, but in view of its large place in the history of -illusions, some further reference is needful. - -Superstitions which now excite a smile, or which seem beneath notice, were -no sudden phenomena, appearing now and again at the beck and call of -wilful deceivers of their kind. That they survive at all, like organisms, -atrophied or degenerate, which have seen "better days," is evidence of -remote antiquity and persistence. Every seeming vagary of the mind had -serious importance, and answered to some real need of man as a sober -attempt to read the riddle of the earth, and get at its inmost secret. - -So with this belief. It is the outcome of that early thought of man which -conceived a common nature and fellowship between himself and brutes, a -conception based on rude analogies between his own and other forms of -life, as also between himself and things without life, but having motion, -be they waterspouts or rivers, trees or clouds, especially these last, -when the wind, in violent surging and with howling voice, drove them -across the sky. Where he blindly, timidly groped, we walk as in the light, -and with love that casts out fear. Where rough resemblances suggested to -him like mental states and actions in man and brute, the science of our -time has, under the comparative method, converted the guess into a -certainty; not to the confirmation of his conclusions, but to the proof of -identity of structure and function, to the demonstrating of a common -origin, however now impassable the chasm that separates us from the lower -animals. - -The belief in man's power to change his form and nature is obviously -nearly connected with the widespread doctrine of metempsychosis, or the -passing of the soul at death into one or a series of animals, generally -types of the dead man's character, as where the timid enter the body of a -hare, the gluttonous that of a swine or vulture. - - "Fills with fresh energy another form, - And towers an elephant or glides a worm; - Swims as an eagle in the eye of noon, - Or wails a screech-owl to the deaf, cold moon, - Or haunts the brakes where serpents hiss and glare, - Or hums, a glittering insect, in the air." - -But while in transmigration the soul returns not to the body which it had -left, transformation was only for a time, occurring at stated periods, and -effected by the will of the transformed, or by the aid of sorcery or -magic, or sometimes imposed by the gods as a punishment for impious -defiance and sin. - -Other causes, less remote, aided the spread of a belief to which the mind -was already inclined. Among these were the hallucinations of men who -believed themselves changed into beasts, and who, retreating to caves and -forests, issued thence howling and foaming, ravening for blood and -slaughter; hallucinations which afflicted not only single persons, as in -the case of Nebuchadnezzar, whose milder monomania (he, himself, saying in -the famous prize poem:-- - - "As he ate the unwonted food, - 'It may be wholesome, but it is not good'"), - -rather resembled that of the daughters of Prætus, who believed themselves -cows, but which also spread as virulent epidemic among whole classes. It -is related that, in 1600, multitudes were attacked by the disease known as -lycanthropy, or wolf-madness (from Greek, _lukos_, a wolf, and -_anthropos_, a man), and that they herded and hunted in packs, destroying -and eating children, and keeping in their mountain fastnesses a cannibal -or devil's sabbath, like the nocturnal meetings of witches and demons -known as the Witches' Sabbath. Hundreds of them were executed on their own -confession, but some time elapsed before the frightful epidemic, and the -panic which it caused, passed away. Besides such delusions, history down -to our own time records instances where a morbid innate craving for blood, -leading sometimes to cannibalism, has shown itself. Mr. Baring-Gould, in -his _Book of Werewolves_, cites a case from Gall of a Dutch priest who had -such a desire to kill and to see killed that he became chaplain to a -regiment for the sake of witnessing the slaughter in battle. But still -more ghastly are the notorious cases of Elizabeth, a Hungarian lady of -title, who inveigled girls into her castle and murdered them, that she -might bathe her body in human blood to enhance her beauty; and of the -Maréchal de Retz who, cursed with the abnormal desire to murder children, -allured them with promises of dainties into his kitchen, and killed them, -inhaling the odour of their blood with delight, and then burned their -bodies in the huge fireplace in the room devoted to these horrors. When -the deed was done the Maréchal would lie prostrate with grief, "would toss -weeping and praying on a bed, or recite fervent prayers and litanies on -his knees, only to rise with irresistible craving to repeat the crime." - -Such instances as the foregoing, whether of delusion or morbid desire to -destroy, are among secondary causes; they may contribute, but they do not -create, being inadequate to account for the world-wide existence of -transformation myths. The animals which are the supposed subject of these -vary with the habitat, but are always those which have inspired most -dread from their ferocity. In Abyssinia we find the man-hyæna; in South -Africa, the man-lion; in India, the man-tiger; in Northern Europe, the -man-bear; and in other parts of Europe the man-wolf, or werewolf (from -A.-S. _wer_, a man). - -Among the many survivals of primitive thought in the Greek mythology, -which are the only key to its coarser features, this of belief in -transformation occurs, and, indeed, along the whole line of human -development it appears and re-appears in forms more or less vivid and -tragic. The gods of the south, as of the north, came down in the likeness -of beasts and birds, as well as of men, and among the references to these -myths in classic writers, Ovid, in the _Metamorphoses_, tells the story of -Zeus visiting Lykaon, king of Arcadia, who placed a dish of human flesh -before the god to test thereby his omniscience. Zeus detected the trick, -and punished the king by changing him into a wolf, so that his desire -might be towards the food which he had impiously offered to his god. - - "In vain he attempted to speak; from that very instant - His jaws were bespluttered with foam, and only he thirsted - For blood, as he raged amongst flocks and panted for slaughter. - His vesture was changed into hair, his limbs became crooked. - A wolf--he retains yet large traces of his ancient expression, - Hoary he is as afore, his countenance rabid, - His eyes glitter savagely still, the picture of fury." - -But we may pass from this and such-like tales of the ancients to the grim -realities of the belief in mediæval times. - -If wolves abounded, much more did the werewolf abound. According to Olaus -Magnus, the sufferings which the inhabitants of Prussia and neighbouring -nations endured from wolves were trivial compared with the ravages wrought -by men turned into wolves. On the feast of the Nativity, these monsters -were said to assemble and then disperse in companies to kill and plunder. -Attacking lonely houses, they devoured all the human beings and every -other animal found therein. "They burst into the beer-cellars and there -they empty the tuns of beer or mead, and pile up the empty casks one above -another in the middle of the cellar, thus showing their difference from -natural wolves." In Scandinavia it was believed that some men had a second -skin out of which they could slip and appear in the shape of a beast. -Perhaps the phrase "to jump out of one's skin" is a relic of this notion. -The Romans believed that the werewolf simply effected the change by -turning his skin inside out, hence the term "versipellis," or -"skin-changer." So in mediæval times it was said that the wolf's skin was -under the human, and the unhappy suspects were hacked and tortured for -signs of such hairy growth. Sometimes the change was induced, it is said, -by putting on a girdle of human skin round the waist; sometimes by the use -of magical ointment. Whatever the animal whose shape a man took could do, -that he could do, plus such power as he possessed in virtue of his -manhood or acquired by sorcery, his eyes remaining as the only features by -which he could be recognised. If he was not changed himself, some charm -was wrought on the eyes of onlookers whereby they could see him only in -the shape which he was supposed to assume. The genuine monomaniacs aided -such an illusion. The poor demented one who conceived himself a dog or a -wolf, who barked, and snapped, and foamed at the mouth, and bit savagely -at the flesh of others, was soon clothed by a terror-stricken fancy in the -skin of either brute, and believed to have the canine or lupine appetite -in addition to his human cunning. The imagination thus projects in visible -form the spectres of its creation; the eye in this, as in so much else, -sees the thing for which it looks. Some solid foundation for the belief -would, however, exist in the custom among warriors of dressing themselves -in the skins of beasts to add to their ferocious appearance. And it was -amidst such that the remarkable form of mania in Northern Europe known as -the Berserkr rage ("bear-sark" or "bear-skin" wearer) arose. Working -themselves by the aid of strong drink or drugs and contagious excitement -into a frenzy, these freebooters of the Northland sallied forth to break -the backbones and cleave the skulls of quiet folk and unwary travellers. -As with flashing eyes and foaming mouth they yelled and danced, seemingly -endowed with magic power to resist assault by sword or club, they aroused -in the hysterically disposed a like madness, which led to terrible crimes, -and which died away only as the killing of one's fellows became less the -business of life. History supplies many examples of strange mental -epidemics which sped through towns and provinces in mediæval times. They -were induced by religious enthusiasm and other extreme and harmful forms -of mental stimulation, the most notorious being the great St. Vitus' -dance, and the procession of Flagellants, to which in their mad orgies the -hysterical ceremonies of barbarous tribes correspond. Of that tendency -towards imitation which these freaks of erratic and unbalanced minds -foster Dr. Carpenter[38] quotes an illustration from Zimmerman. A nun in a -large convent in France began to mew like a cat, and shortly afterwards -other nuns also mewed. At last all the nuns mewed every day at a given -time and for several hours together. And this cat's concert was only -stopped by the military arriving and threatening to whip the nuns. - -During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the belief in men-beasts -reached its maximum, and met with no tender treatment at the hands of a -church whose founder had manifested such soothing pity towards the -"possessed" of Galilee and Judæa. That church had a cut-and-dried -explanation of the whole thing, and applied a sharp and pitiless remedy. -If the devil, with countless myrmidons at his command, was "going to and -fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it," what limit could be put -to his ingenuity and arts? Could he not as easily change a man into a wolf -or a bear as a woman into a cat? and had not each secured this by a -compact with him, the foe of God and His Church? The evidence in support -of the one was as clear and cogent as in support of the other; hence -werewolf hunting and burning became as Christian a duty and as paying a -profession as witch-smelling and torturing. Any cruelty was justified by -its perpetrators when the object in view was the vindication of the -majesty of God; and not until the advancing intelligence of men recoiled -against the popular explanations of witchcraft and lycanthropy were the -laws against both repealed. - -Those explanations were survivals of savage mental philosophy blended with -a crude theology. To the savage, all diseases are the work of evil -spirits. If a man hurts himself against a stone, the demon in the stone is -the cause. If the man falls suddenly ill, writhes or shrieks in his pain, -the spirit which has smuggled itself in with the food or the drink or the -breath is twisting or tearing him; if he has a fit, the spirit has flung -him; if he is in the frenzy of hysteria, the spirit within him is laughing -in fiendish glee. And when the man suddenly loses his reason, goes, as -people say, "out of his mind," acts and looks no longer like his former -self, still more does this seem the work of an evil agent within him. It -is kindred with the old belief that the sickly and ugly infant had been -left in the cradle by the witch in place of the child stolen by her before -its baptism.[39] And the thing to do is to find some mode of conjuring or -frightening or forcing the demon out of the man, just as it became a -sacred duty to watch over the newly-born until the sign of the cross had -been made on its forehead, and the regenerating water sprinkled over it. - -"Presbyter is but old priest writ large." And the theory of demoniacal -agency was but the savage theory in a more elaborate guise. To theologians -and jurists it was a sufficing explanation; it fitted in with the current -notions of the government of the universe, and there was no need to frame -any other. Body and mind were to them as separate entities as they are to -the savage and the ignorant. Each regarded the soul as independent of the -body, and framed his theories of occasional absence therefrom accordingly. -But science has taught us to know ourselves not as dual, but as one. She -lays her finger on the subtle, intricate framework of man's nervous -system, and finds in the derangement of this the secret of those delusions -and illusions which have been so prolific in agony and suffering. She -makes clear how the yielding to morbid tendencies can still foster -delusions, which, if no longer the subject of pains and penalties in the -body politic, are themselves ministers of vengeance in the body where they -arise. And in the recognition of a fundamental unity between the physical -and the mental, in the healthy working of the one as dependent on the -wholesome care of the other, she finds not only the remedy against mental -derangement and all forms of harmful excitement, but also the prevention -which is better than cure. - -Traditions of transformation of men into beasts are not confined to the -Old world.[40] In Dr. Rink's _Tales of the Eskimo_ there are numerous -stories both of men and women who have assumed animal form at will, as -also incidental references to the belief in stories such as that telling -how an Eskimo got inside a walrus skin, so that he might lead the life of -that creature. And among the Red races, that rough analogy which led to -the animal being credited with life and consciousness akin to the human, -still expresses itself in thought and act. If even now it is matter of -popular belief in the wilds of Norway that Finns and Lapps, who from -remote times have passed as skilful witches and wizards, can at pleasure -assume the shape of bears, the common saying, according to Sir George -Dasent, about an unusually daring and savage beast being, "that can be no -Christian bear," we may not be surprised that lower races still ascribe -power of interchange to man and brute. The werewolf superstition is extant -among the North-Western Indians, but free from those diabolical features -which characterised it in mediæval times among ourselves. It takes its -place in barbaric myth generally, and although it may have repellent or -cruel elements, it was never blended with belief in the demoniacal. The -Ahts say that men go into the mountains to seek their manitou (that is, -the personal deity, generally the first animal seen by a native in the -dream produced by his fasting on reaching manhood), and, mixing with -wolves, are after a time changed into these creatures. Although the -illustration bears more upon what has to be said concerning the barbaric -belief in animal-ancestors, it has some reference to the matter in hand to -cite the custom among the Tonkanays, a wild and unruly tribe in Texas, of -celebrating their origin by a grand annual dance. One of them, naked as he -was born, is buried in the earth, then the others, clothed in wolf-skins, -walk over him, sniff around him, howl in wolfish style, and then dig him -up with their nails.[41] The leading wolf solemnly places a bow and arrow -in his hands, and, to his inquiry as to what he must do for a living, -advises him "to do as the wolves do--rob, kill, and rove from place to -place, never cultivating the soil." Dr. Brinton, in quoting the above from -Schoolcraft, refers to a similar custom among the ancient dwellers on -Mount Soracte. - -As in past times among ourselves, so in times present among races such as -the foregoing, their wizards and shamans are believed to have power to -turn themselves as they choose into beasts, birds, or reptiles. By -whatever name these professional impostors are known, whether as -medicine-men, or, as in Cherokee, by the high-sounding title of -"possessors of the divine fire," they have traded, and wherever credulity -or darkest ignorance abide, still trade on the fears and fancies of their -fellows by disguising themselves in voice and gait and covering of the -animal which they pretend to be. Among races believing in transformation -such tricks have free course, and the more dexterous the sorcerer who -could play bear's antics in a bear's skin proved himself in throwing off -the disguise and appearing suddenly as a man, the greater his success, and -the more firmly grounded the belief. - -The whole subject, although presented here only in the barest outline, -would not be fitly dismissed without some reference to the survival of the -primitive belief in men-animals in the world-wide stories known as -beast-fables, in which animals act and talk like human beings. When to us -all nature was Wonderland, and the four-footed, the birds, and the fishes, -among our play-fellows; when in fireside tale and rhyme they spoke our -language and lived that free life which we then shared and can never share -again, the feeling of kinship to which the old fables gave expression may -have checked many a wanton act, and, if we learned it not fully then, we -may have taken the lesson to heart since-- - - "Never to blend our pleasure or our pride - With sorrow of the meanest thing that lives." - -And then those _Fables_ of Æsop, even with the tedious drawback of the -"moral," as powder beneath the jam, did they not lighten for us in -school-days the dark passages through our Valpy (for the omniscient Dr. -William Smith was not then the tyro's dread), and again give us communion -with the fowl of the air and the beast of the field? Now our mature -thought may interest itself in following the beast-myths to the source -whence Babrius and Phædrus, knowing not its springhead and antiquity, drew -their vivid presentments of the living world, and find in the storied East -the well-spring that fed the imagination of youngsters thousands of years -ago. Such tales have not fallen in the East to the low level which they -have reached here, because they yet accord in some degree with extant -superstitions in India, whereas in Europe they find little or nothing to -which they correspond. With some authorities the Egyptians have the credit -of first inventing the beast-fable, but among them, as among every other -advanced race, such stories are the remains of an earlier deposit; relics -of a primitive philosophy in which wisdom and skill and cunning are no -monopoly of man's. The fondness of the negro races, whose traditions are -not limited to South and Central Africa, for such fables is well known, as -witness the tales of which "Uncle Remus" is a type, and it is strikingly -illustrated in the history of the Vai tribe, who having, partly through -contact with whites, elaborated a system of writing, made the beast-fable -their earliest essay in composition.[42] - -The evidence in support of the common ancestry of the languages spoken by -the leading peoples in Europe, and by such important historical races in -Asia as the Hindu and the Persian, has been already summarised. That -evidence, it was remarked, is considered corroborative not only of the -common origin of the myths on which the framework of the great -Indo-European epics rests, but also of the possession by the several clans -of a common stock of folk-lore and folk-tale, in which, of course, the -beast-fables are included, these being the relics in didactic or humorous -guise of that serious philosophy concerning the community of life in man -and brute amongst the barbaric ancestors of the Indo-Europeans, upon which -stress enough has been laid. - -Even if the common origin be disproved, the evidence would be shifted -merely from local to general foundations, because the uniform attitude of -mind before the same phenomena would have further confirmation; but the -resemblances are too minute in detail to be explained by a theory of -independent creation of the tales where we now find them. The likenesses -are many, the unlikenesses are few, being the result of local colouring, -historical fact blended with the fiction, popular belief, and -superstition, all affected by the skill of the professional story-teller. -As in the numerous variants of the familiar Cinderella, Beauty and the -Beast, Punchkin, and the like, the same fairy prince or princess, the same -wicked magician and clever versatile Boots, peep through, disclosing the -near relationship of Hindu nursery tales to the folk-tales of Norway and -the Highlands, of Iceland and Ceylon, of Persia and Serbia, of Russia and -the lands washed by the Mediterranean. - -In the venerable collection of _Buddhist Birth Stories_, now in course of -translation by Dr. Rhys Davids,[43] and to which is prefaced an -interesting introduction on the source and migration of folk-tales, we are -face to face with many a fable familiar to us in the _Æsop_ of our -school-days. There is the story of the Ass in the Lion's Skin, not in -which, as Æsop has it, the beast dressed himself, but which the hawker put -on him to frighten the thieves who would steal his goods. Left one day to -browse in a field whilst his master refreshed himself at an inn, some -watchmen saw him, and, raising hue and cry, brought out the villagers, -armed with their rude implements. The ass, fearing death, made a noise -like an ass, and was killed. Long might he, adds the ancient moral-- - - "Clad in a lion's skin - Have fed on the barley green; - But he brayed! - And that moment he came to ruin." - -The variants of this old fable are found in mediæval, in French, German, -Indian, and Turkish folk-lore, as are also those of the tortoise who lost -his life through "much speaking." Desiring to emigrate, two ducks agreed -to carry him, he seizing hold of a stick which they held between their -beaks. As they passed over a village the people shouted and jeered, -whereupon the irate tortoise called out: "What business is it of yours?" -and, of course, thereby let go the stick and, falling down, split in two. -Therefore-- - - "Speak wise words not out of season; - You see how, by talking overmuch, - The tortoise fell." - -In _Æsop_ the tortoise asks an eagle to teach him to fly; in Chinese -folk-lore he is carried by geese. - -Jacob Grimm's researches concerning the famous mediæval fable of "Reynard -the Fox" revealed the ancient and scattered materials out of which that -wonderful satire was woven, and there is no feature of the story which -reappears more often in Eastern and Western folk-lore than that cunning of -the animal which has been for the lampooner and the satirist the type of -self-seeking monk and ecclesiastic. When Chanticleer proudly takes an -airing with his family, he meets master Reynard, who tells him he has -become a "religious," and shows him his beads, and his missal, and his -hair shirt, adding, in a voice "that was childlike and bland," that he had -vowed never to eat flesh. Then he went off singing his Credo, and slunk -behind a hawthorn. Chanticleer, thus thrown off his guard, continues his -airing, and the astute hypocrite, darting from his ambush, seizes the -plump hen Coppel. So in Indian folk-tale a wolf living near the Ganges is -cut off from food by the surrounding water. He decides to keep holy day, -and the god Sakka, knowing his lupine weakness, resolves to have some fun -with him, and turns himself into a wild goat "Aha!" says the wolf, "I'll -keep the fast another day," and springing up he tried to seize the goat, -who skipped about so that he could not be taken. So Lupus gives it up, and -says as his solatium: "After all, I've not broken my vow." - -The Chinese have a story of a tiger who desired to eat a fox, but the -latter claimed exemption as being superior to the other animals, adding -that if the tiger doubted his word he could easily judge for himself. So -the two set forth, and, of course, every animal fled at sight of the -tiger, who, too stupid to see how he had been gulled, conceived high -respect for the fox, and spared his life. - -Sometimes the tables are turned. Chanticleer gets his head out of -Reynard's mouth by making him answer the farmer, and in the valuable -collection of Hottentot tales which the late Dr. Bleek, with some warrant, -called _Reynard in South Africa_, the cock makes the jackal say his -prayers, and flies off while the outwitted beast folds his hands and shuts -his eyes. - -But further quotations must be resisted; enough if it is made clearer that -the beast-fable is the lineal descendant of barbaric conceptions of a life -shared in common by man and brute, and another link thus added to the -lengthening chain of the continuity of human history. - - -§ VI. - -TOTEMISM: BELIEF IN DESCENT FROM ANIMAL OR PLANT. - -In addition to the beliefs in the transformation of men into animals and -in the transmigration of souls into the bodies of animals, we find among -barbarous peoples a belief which is probably the parent of one and -certainly nearly related to both, namely, in descent from the animal or -plant, more often the former, whose name they bear. Its connection with -transmigration is seen in the belief of the Moquis of Arizona, that after -death they live in the form of their totemic animal, those of the deer -family becoming deer, and so on through the several gentes. The belief -survives in its most primitive and vivid forms among two races, the -aborigines of Australia and the North American Indians. The word -"totemism," given to it both in its religious and social aspects, is -derived from the Algonquin "dodaim" or "dodhaim," meaning "clanmark." -Among the Australians the word "kobong," meaning "friend" or "protector," -is the generic term for the animal or plant by which they are known. It is -somewhat akin in significance to the Indian words "manitou," "oki," etc., -comprehending "the manifestations of the unseen world, yet conveying no -sense of personal unity," which are commonly translated by the misleading -word "medicine;" hence "medicine-men." - -The family name, or second name borne by all the tribes in lineal descent, -and which corresponds to our surname, _i.e._ _super nomen_, or -"over-name," is derived from names of beasts, birds, plants, etc., around -which traditions of their transformation into men linger. Sir George -Grey[44] says that there is a mysterious connection between a native and -his kobong. It is his protecting angel, like the "daimôn" of Socrates, -like the "genius" of the early Italian. "If it is an animal, he will not -kill one of the species to which it belongs, should he find it asleep, and -he always kills it reluctantly and never without affording it a chance of -escape. The family belief is that some one individual of the species is -their dearest friend, to kill whom would be a great crime," as, in Hindu -belief, when a Rajah was said to have entered at death into the body of a -fish, a "close time" was at once decreed. Among the Indian tribes we find -well-nigh the whole fauna and flora represented, their totems being the -Bear, Turtle, Deer, Snake, Eagle, Pike, Corn, Tobacco, etc. Like the -Australians, these tribes regarded themselves as being of the breed of -their particular animal-totem, and avoided hunting, slaying, and eating -(of which more presently) the creature under whose form the ancestor was -thought to be manifest. The Chippeways carried their respect even farther. -Deriving their origin from the dog, they at one time refrained from -employing their supposed canine ancestors in dragging their sledges. The -Bechuana and other people of South Africa will avoid eating their -tribe-animal or wearing its skin. The same prohibitions are found among -tribes in Northern Asia, and the Vogulitzi of Siberia, when they have -killed a bear, address it formally, maintaining "that the blame is to be -laid on the arrows and iron, which were made and forged by the Russians!" -Among the Delawares the Tortoise gens claimed supremacy over the others, -because their ancestor, who had become a fabled monster in their -mythology, bore their world on his back. The California Indians are in -interesting agreement with Lord Monboddo when, in claiming descent from -the prairie wolf, they account for the loss of their tails by the habit of -sitting, which, in course of time, wore them down to the stump! The -Kickapoos say their ancestors had tails, and that when they lost them the -"impudent fox sent every morning to ask how their tails were, and the bear -shook his fat sides at the joke." The Patagonians are said to have a -number of animal deities, creators of the several tribes, some being of -the caste of the guanaco and others of the ostrich. In short, the group of -beliefs and practices found among races in the lower stages of culture -point to a widespread common attitude towards the mystery of life around -them. In speaking of totemism among the Red races Dr. Brinton thinks that -the free use of animate symbols to express abstract ideas, which he finds -so frequent, is the source of a confusion which has led to their claiming -literal descent from wild beasts. But the barbaric mind bristles with -contradictions and mutually destructive conceptions; nothing is too -wonderful, too _bizarre_, for its acceptance, and the belief in actual -animal descent is not the most remarkable or far-fetched among the -articles of its creed. - -The subject of totemism is full of interest both on its religious and -social side:-- - -On its religious side it has given rise, or, if this be not conceded, -impetus, to that worship of animals which assuredly had its source in the -attribution of mysterious power through some spirit within them, making -them deity incarnate. - -On its social side it has led to prohibitions which are inwoven among the -customs and prejudices of civilised communities. But, before speaking of -these prohibitions, the barbaric mode of reckoning descent should be -noticed. - -The family name borne by most Australian tribes is perpetuated by the -children, whether boys or girls, taking their mother's name. Precisely the -same custom is found among some American Indians, the children of both -sexes being of the mother's clan. Among the Moquis of Arizona all the -members of each gens trace descent from a common ancestor; they are -regarded as brothers and sisters.[45] Now, the family, as we define it, -does not exist in savage communities, nor, as Mr. McLennan says in his -very remarkable work on _Primitive Marriage_, had "the earliest human -groups any idea of kinship, ... the physical root of which could be -discerned only through observation and reflection." Where the relations -of the sexes were confused and promiscuous, the oldest system in which the -idea of blood-ties was expressed was a system of kinship through the -mother. The habits of the "much-married" primitive men made mistake about -any one's mother less likely than mistake about his father; and, if in -civilised times it is, as the saying goes, a wise child that knows its own -father, he was, in barbarous times, a wise father who knew his own child. -Examples tracing the kinship through females, father and offspring being -never of the same clan, abound in both ancient and modern authorities, and -perhaps the most amusing one that can be given is found in Dr. Morgan's -_Systems of Consanguinity_. He says that the "natives of the province of -Keang-se are celebrated among the natives of the other Chinese provinces -for the mode or form used by them in address, namely, 'Laon peaon,' which, -freely translated, means, 'Oh, you old fellow, brother mine by some of the -ramifications of female relationship!'"[46] - -The prohibitions arising out of or confirmed by totemism are two: 1. -Against intermarriage between those of the same name or crest. 2. Against -the eating of the totem by any member of the tribe called after it. - -1. Among both Australians and Indians a man is forbidden to marry in his -own clan, _i.e._ any woman of his own surname or badge, no matter where -she was born or however distantly related to him. The Navajoes of Arizona -say that if they married in their own clan "their bones would dry up and -they would die." - -Were this practice of "Exogamy," as marriage outside the totem-kin is -called, limited to one or two places, it might be classed among -exceptional local customs based on a tradition, say, of some heated -blood-feud between the tribes. But its prevalence among savage or -semi-savage races all the world over points to reasons the nature of which -is still a _crux_ to the anthropologists. The late Mr. McLennan, whose -opinion on such a matter is entitled to the most weight, connects it with -the custom of female infanticide, which, rendering women scarce, led at -once to polyandry, or one female to several males, within the tribe, and -to the capturing of women from other tribes. This last-named practice -strengthens Mr. McLennan's theory. He cites numerous instances from past -and present barbarous races, and traces its embodiment in formal code -until we come to the mock relics of the custom in modern times, as, for -example, the harmless "survival" in bride-lifting, that is, stealing, as -in the word "cattle-lifting." - -Connected with this custom is the equally prevailing one which forbids -intercourse between relations, as especially between a couple and their -fathers and mothers-in-law, and which also forbids mentioning their names. -So far as the aversion which the savage has to telling his own name, or -uttering that of any person (especially of the dead) or thing feared by -him is concerned, the reason is not far to seek. It lies in that -confusion between names and things which marks all primitive thinking. The -savage, who shrinks from having his likeness taken in the fear that a part -of himself is being carried away thereby, regards his name as something -through which he may be harmed. So he will use all sorts of roundabout -phrases to avoid saying it, and even change it that he may elude his foes, -and puzzle or cheat Death when he comes to look for him. But why a -son-in-law should not see the face of his mother-in-law, for so it is -among the Navajoes, (where the offender would, they say, go blind), the -Aranaks of South America, the Caribs and other tribes of more northern -regions, the Fijians, Sumatrans, Dyaks, the natives of Australia, the -Zulus, in brief, along the range of the lower culture, is a question to -which no satisfactory answer has been given, and to which reference is -here made because of its connection with totemism. - -2. That the animal which is the totem of the tribe should not be eaten, -even where men did not hesitate to eat men of another totem, is a custom -for which it is less hard to account. The division of flesh into two -classes of forbidden and permitted, of clean and unclean, with the -resulting artificial liking or repulsion for food which custom arising out -of that division has brought about, is probably referable to old beliefs -in the inherent sacredness of certain animals. The Indians of Charlotte -Island never eat crows, because they believe in crow-ancestors, and they -smear themselves with black paint in memory of that tradition; the -Dacotahs would neither kill nor eat their totems, and if necessity compels -these and like barbarians to break the law, the meal is preceded by -profuse apologies and religious ceremonies over the slain. Although the -aborigines of Victoria, who are to be ranked among the lowest savages -extant, devour the most loathsome things, worms, slugs, and vermin, they -have a classification of meats to be eaten or avoided. A Kumite is deeply -grieved when hunger compels him to eat anything which bears his name, but -he may satisfy his hunger with anything that is Krokee. The abstention of -the Brahmans from meat, the pseudo-revealed injunction to the Hebrews -against certain flesh-foods (has that against pork its origin in the -forgotten tradition of descent from a boar?), need no detailing here. But, -as parallels, some restrictions amongst the ancient dwellers in these -islands are of value. It was, according to Cæsar,[47] a crime to eat the -domestic fowl, or goose, or hare, and to this day the last-named is an -object of disgust in certain parts of Russia and Brittany. The oldest -Welsh laws contain several allusions to the magical character of the hare, -which was thought to change its sex every month or year, and to be the -companion of the witches, who often assumed its shape.[48] The revulsion -against horse-flesh as food may have its origin in the sacredness of the -white horses, which, as Tacitus remarks,[49] were kept by the Germans at -the public cost in groves holy to the gods, whose secrets they knew, and -whose decrees regarding mortals their neighings interpreted. That this -animal was a clan-totem among our forefathers there can be no doubt, and -the proofs are with us in the white horses carved in outline on the chalk -hills of Berkshire and the west, as in the names and crests of clan -descendants. - -The totem is not only the clan-name indicating descent from a common -ancestor. It is also the clan-symbol, badge, or crest. Where the tribes -among whom it is found are still in the picture-writing stage, _i.e._ when -the idea is expressed by a portrait of the thing itself instead of by some -sound-sign--a stage in writing corresponding to the primitive stage in -language, when words were imitative--there we find the rude hieroglyphic -of the totem a means of intercourse between different tribes, as well as -with whites. A striking example of the use of such totemic symbols occurs -in a petition sent by some Western Indian tribes to the United States -Congress for the right to fish in certain small lakes near Lake Superior. - -The leading clan is represented by a picture of the crane; then follow -three martens, as totems of three tribes; then the bear, the man-fish, and -the cat-fish, also totems. From the eye and heart of each of the animals -runs a line connecting them with the eye and heart of the crane, to show -that they are all of one mind, and the eye of the crane has also a line -connecting it with the lakes on which the tribes have their eyes, and -another line running towards Congress. - -In the barbaric custom of painting or carving the totem on oars, on the -bows and sides of canoes, on weapons, on pillars in the front of houses, -and on the houses themselves; in tattooing it on various parts of the body -(in the latter case, in some instances, together with pictures of -exploits; so that the man carries on his person an illustrated history of -his own life) we have the remote and forgotten origin of heraldic emblems. -The symbols of civilised nations, as, _e.g._ the Imperial eagle, which so -many states of ancient and modern renown have chosen; the crests of -families of rank, with their fabulous monsters, as the cherub, the Greek -_gryps_, surviving in the griffin, the dragon, the unicorn, which, born of -rude fancy or terrified imagination, are now carved on the entrance-gates -to the houses of the great; the armorial bearings on carriages; the crest -engraven on ring or embossed on writing-paper, these are the lineal -descendants of the totem; and the Indians, who could see no difference -between their system of manitous and those of the white people, with their -spread-eagle or their lion-rampant, made a shrewd guess that would not -occur to many a _parvenu_ applying at the Heralds' College for a crest. -The continuity is traceable in the custom of the Mexicans and other -civilised nations of painting the totemic animals on their banners, flags, -crests, and other insignia; and it would seem that we have in the totem -the key to the mystery of those huge animal-shaped mounds which abound on -the North American continent. - -The arbitrary selection in the "ages of chivalry" of such arms as pleased -the knightly fancy or ministered to its pride, or, as was often the case, -resembled the name in sound, together with the ignorance then and till -recently existing as to the origin of crests, and also the discredit into -which a seemingly meaningless vanity had fallen, have made it difficult to -trace the survival of the totem in the crests even of that numerous -company of the Upper Ten who claim descent from warriors who came over -with the Conqueror. But there is no doubt that an inquiry conducted on the -lines suggested above, and not led into by-paths by false analogies, would -yield matter of interest and value. It would add to the evidence of that -common semi-civilised stage out of which we have risen. Such names as the -Horsings, the Wylfings, the Derings, the Ravens, the Griffins, perhaps -hold within themselves traces of the totem name of the horse, wolf, deer, -raven, and that "animal fantasticall," the griffin. In Scotland we find -the clan Chattan, or the wild cat; in Ireland "the men of Osory were -called by a name signifying the wild red deer." On the other hand such -names may have been given merely as nicknames (_i.e._ ekename or the -_added_ name, from _eke_, "also," or "to augment"), suggested by the -physical or mental likeness to the thing after which they are called. - -But it is time to turn to the religious significance of the totem, as -shown among races worshipping the animal which is their supposed ancestor. - -At first glance this seems strong argument in support of Mr. Herbert -Spencer's theory that all forms of religion, and all myth, have their -origin in ancestor worship. The mysterious power of stimulation, of -excitation to frenzy, or of healing and soothing, or of poisoning, which -certain plants possess, has been attributed to indwelling spirits, which, -as Mr. Spencer contends, are regarded as human and ancestral. Very many -illustrations of this occur, as, _e.g._ the worship of the Soma plant, and -its promotion as a deity among the Aryans; the use of tobacco in religious -ceremonies among the tribes of both Americas; whilst now and again we find -trees and plants as totems. The Moquis have a totem-kin called the -tobacco-plant, and also one called the seed-grass. One of the Peruvian -Incas was called after the native name of the tobacco-plant; and among the -Ojibways the buffalo grass was carried as a charm, and its god said to -cause madness. - -In Algonquin myth "there is a spirit for the corn, another for beans, -another for squashes. They are sisters, and are very kind to each other. -There are spirits in the water, in fire, in all the trees and berries, in -herbs and in tobacco, in the grass." - -The worship of animals is on Mr. Spencer's theory explained as due to the -giving of a nickname of some beast or bird to a remote ancestor, the -belief arising in course of time that such animal was the actual -progenitor, hence its worship. We call a man a bear, a pig, or a vampire, -in symbolic phrase, and the figure of speech remains a figure of speech -with us. But the savage loses the metaphor, and it crystallises into hard -matter-of-fact. So the traditions have grown, and Black Eagle, Strong -Buffalo, Big Owl, Tortoise, etc., take the shape of actual forefathers of -the tribe bearing their name and crest. According to the same theory the -adoration of sun, moon, and mountains, etc., is due to a like source. Some -famous chief was called the Sun; the metaphor was forgotten; the personal -and concrete, as the more easily apprehended, remained; hence worship of -the powers of nature "is a form of ancestor-worship, which has lost in a -still greater degree the character of the original."[50] - -The objection raised in these pages to the extreme application of the -solar theory applies with equal force to Mr. Spencer's limitation of the -origin of myth and religion to one source. Having cleared Scylla, we must -not dash against Charybdis. Religion has its origin neither in fear of -ghosts, as Mr. Spencer's theory assumes, nor in a perception of the -Infinite inherent in man, as Professor Max Müller holds. Rather does it -lie in man's sense of vague wonder in the presence of powers whose force -he cannot measure, and his expressions towards which are manifold. There -is underlying unity, but there are, to quote St. Paul, "diversities of -operation." There is just that surface unlikeness which one might expect -from the different physical conditions and their resulting variety of -subtle influences surrounding various races; influences shaping for them -their gods, their upper and nether worlds; influences of climate and soil -which made the hell of volcanic countries an abyss of sulphurous stifling -smoke and everlasting fire, and the hell of cold climates a place of -deathly frost; which gave to the giant-gods of northern zones their rugged -awfulness, and to the goddesses of the sunny south their soft and stately -grace. The theory of ancestor-worship as the basis of every form of -religion does not allow sufficient play for the vagaries in which the same -thing will be dressed by the barbaric fear and fancy, nor for the -imagination as a creative force in the primitive mind even at the lowest -at which we know it. And, of course, beneath that lowest lies a lower -never to be fathomed. We are apt to talk of primitive man as if his -representatives were with us in the black fellows who are at the bottom of -the scale, forgetting that during unnumbered ages he was a brute in -everything but the capacity by which at last the ape and tiger were -subdued within him. Of the beginnings of his _thought_ we can know -nothing, but the fantastic forms in which it is first manifest compel us -to regard him as a being whose feelings were uncurbed by reason. That -ancestor-worship is one mode among others of man's attitude towards the -awe-begetting, mystery-inspiring universe, none can deny. That his -earliest temples, as defined sacred spots, were tombs; that he prayed to -his dead dear ones, or his dead feared ones, as the case may be, is -admitted. From its strong personal character, ancestor-worship was, -without doubt, one of the earliest expressions of man's attitude before -the world which his fancy filled with spirits. It flourishes among -barbarous races to-day; it was the prominent feature of the old Aryan -religion; it has entered into Christian practice in the worship of saints, -and perhaps the only feature of religion which the modern Frenchman has -retained is the _culte des morts_. That it was a part of the belief of the -Emperor Napoleon III. the following extract from his will shows:--"We must -remember that those we love look down upon us from heaven and protect us. -It is the soul of my great Uncle which has always guided and supported me. -Thus will it be with my son also if he proves worthy of his name." - -But the worship of ancestors is not primal. The comparatively late -recognition of kinship by savages, among whom some rude form of religion -existed, tells against it as the earliest mode of worship. Moreover, -Nature is bigger than man, and this he was not slow to feel. Even if it be -conceded that sun-myth and sun-worship once arose through the nicknaming -of an ancestor as the Sun, we must take into account the force of that -imagination which enabled the unconscious myth-maker, or creed-maker, to -credit the moving orbs of heaven with personal life and will. The faculty -which could do that might well express itself in awe-struck forms without -intruding the ancestral ghost. Further, the records of the classic -religions, themselves preserving many traces of a primitive -nature-worship, point to an adoration of the great and bountiful, as well -as to a sense of the maleficent and fateful, in earth and heaven which -seem prior to the more concrete worship of forefathers and chieftains. - -If for the worship of these last we substitute a general worship of -spirits, there seems little left on which to differ. As aids to the -explanation of the belief in animal ancestors and their subsequent -deification and worship, as of the lion, the bull, the serpent, etc., we -have always present in the barbaric mind the tendency to credit living -things, and indeed lifeless, but moving ones, with a passion, a will, and -a power to help or harm immeasurably greater than man's. This is part and -parcel of that belief in spirits everywhere which is the key to savage -philosophy, and the growth of which is fostered by such secondary causes -as the worship of ancestors. - - -§ VII. - -SURVIVAL OF MYTH IN HISTORY. - -For proofs of the emergence of the higher out of the lower in philosophy -and religion, to say nothing of less exalted matters, whether the -beast-fable or the nursery rhyme, as holding barbaric thought in solution, -examples have necessarily been drawn from the mythology of past and -present savage races. But these are too remote in time or standpoint to -stir other than a languid interest in the reader's mind; their purpose is -served when they are cited and classified as specimens. Not thus is it -with examples drawn nearer home from sources at which our young thirst for -the stirring and romantic was slaked. When we learn that famous names and -striking episodes are in some rare instances only transformed and -personified natural phenomena, or, as occurring everywhere, possibly -variants of a common legend, the far-reaching influence of primitive -thought comes to us in more vivid and exciting form. And although one -takes in hand this work of disenchantment in no eager fashion, the loss is -more seeming than real. Whether the particular tale of bravery, of -selflessness, of faithfulness, has truth of detail, matters little -compared with the fact that its reception the wide world over witnesses to -human belief, even at low levels, in the qualities which have given man -empire over himself and ever raised the moral standard of the race. -Moreover, in times like these, when criticism is testing without fear or -favour the trustworthiness of records of the past, whether of Jew or -Gentile, the knowledge of the legendary origin of events woven into sober -history prepares us to recognise how the imagination has fed the stream of -tradition, itself no mean tributary of that larger stream of history, the -purity of which is now subject of analysis. As a familiar and interesting -example let us take the story of William Tell. - -Everybody has heard how, in the year 1307 (or, as some say, 1296) Gessler, -Vogt (or Governor) of the Emperor Albert of Hapsburg, set a hat on a pole -as symbol of the Imperial power, and ordered every one who passed by to do -obeisance to it; and how a mountaineer named Wilhelm Tell, who hated -Gessler and the tyranny which the symbol expressed, passed by without -saluting the hat, and was at once seized and brought before Gessler, who -ordered that as punishment Tell should shoot an apple off the head of his -own son. As resistance was vain, the apple was placed on the boy's head, -when Tell bent his bow, and the arrow, piercing the apple, fell with it to -the ground. Gessler saw that Tell, before shooting, had stuck a second -arrow in his belt, and, asking the reason, received this for answer: "It -was for you; had I shot my child, know that this would have pierced your -heart." - -Now, this story first occurs in the chronicle of Melchior Russ, who wrote -at the end of the fifteenth century, _i.e._ about one hundred and seventy -years after its reputed occurrence. The absence of any reference to it in -contemporary records caused doubt to be thrown upon it three centuries -ago. Guillimann, the author of a work on Swiss antiquities, published in -1598, calls it a fable, but subscribes to the current belief in it because -the tale is so popular! The race to which he belonged is not yet extinct. -A century and a half later a more fearless sceptic, who said that the -story was of Danish origin, was condemned by the Canton of Uri to be burnt -alive, and in the well-timed absence of the offender his book was ordered -to be burnt by the common hangman. But the truth is great, and prevails. -G. von Wyss, the Swiss historian, has pointed out that the name of Wilhelm -Tell does not occur even once in the history of the three cantons, neither -is there any trace that a Vogt named Gessler ever served the house of -Hapsburg there. Moreover, the legend does not correspond to any fact of a -period of oppression of the Swiss at the hands of their Austrian rulers. - -"There exist in contemporary records no instances of wanton outrage and -insolence on the Hapsburg side. It was the object of that power to obtain -political ascendancy, not to indulge its representatives in lust or wanton -insult," and, where records of disputes between particular persons occur, -"the symptoms of violence, as is natural enough, appear rather on the side -of the Swiss than on that of the aggrandising Imperial house."[51] - -Candour, however, requires that the "evidence" in support of the legend -should be stated. There is the fountain on the supposed site of the -lime-tree in the market-place at Altdorf by which young Tell stood, as -well as the colossal plaster statue of the hero himself which confronts us -as we enter the quaint village. But more than this, the veritable -cross-bow itself is preserved in the arsenal at Zurich! - -However, although the little Tell's chapel, as restored, was opened with -a national _fête_, in the presence of two members of the Federal Council, -in June 1883,[52] the Swiss now admit in their school-teaching that the -story of the _Apfelschusz_ is legendary. - -Freudenberger, who earned his death-sentence for affirming that the story -came from Denmark, was on the right track, for the following variant of it -is given by Saxo Grammaticus, a Danish writer of the twelfth century, who -puts it as happening in the year 950:-- - - Nor ought what follows to be enveloped in silence. Palnatoki, for some - time in the body-guard of King Harold (Harold Gormson, or Bluetooth), - had made his bravery odious to many of his fellow-soldiers by the zeal - with which he surpassed them. One day, when he had drunk too much, he - boasted that he was so skilled a bowman that he could hit the smallest - apple, set on the top of a stick some way off, at the first shot, - which boast reached the ears of the king. This monarch's wickedness - soon turned the confidence of the father to the peril of the son, for - he commanded that this dearest pledge of his life should stand in - place of the stick, adding a threat that if Palnatoki did not at his - first shot strike off the apple, he should with his head pay the - penalty of making an empty boast. This command forced him to attempt - more than he had promised, and what he _had_ said, reported by - slanderous tongues, bound him to accomplish what he had _not_ said. - Yet did not his sterling courage, though caught in the snare of - slander, suffer him to lay aside his firmness of heart. As soon as the - boy was led forth Palnatoki warned him to await the speeding of the - arrow with calm ears and unbent head, lest by any slight movement of - the body he should frustrate the archer's well-tried skill. He then - made him stand with his back towards him, lest he should be scared at - the sight of the arrow. Then he drew three arrows from his quiver, and - with the first that he fitted to the string he struck the apple. When - the king asked him why he had taken more than one arrow from his - quiver, when he was to be allowed to make but one trial with his bow, - he made answer, "That I might avenge on thee the swerving of the first - by the points of the others, lest perchance my innocence might have - been punished, while your violence escaped scot-free."[53] - -Going farther northward we find tales corresponding in their main features -to the above, in the Icelandic _Saga_, the Vilkina; in the Norse _Saga_ of -Saint Olaf or Thidrik; and in the story of Harold, son of Sigurd. In the -Olaf _Saga_ it is said that the saint or king, desiring the conversion of -a brave heathen named Eindridi, competed with him in various athletic -sports, swam with him, wrestled with him, and then shot with him. Olaf -then dared Eindridi to strike a writing-tablet from off his son's head -with an arrow, and bade two men bind the eyes of the child and hold the -napkin so that the boy might not move when he heard the whizz of the -arrow. Olaf aimed first, and the arrow grazed the lad's head. Eindridi -then prepared to shoot, but the mother of the boy interfered and persuaded -the king to abandon this dangerous test of skill. The story adds that had -the boy been injured Eindridi would have revenged himself on the king.[54] - -Somewhat like this, as from the locality might be expected, is the Faröe -Isles variant. King Harold challenges Geyti, son of Aslak, and, vexed at -being beaten in a swimming match, bids Geyti shoot a hazel-nut from off -his brother's head. He consents, and the king witnesses the feat, when -Geyti - - "Shot the little nut away, - Nor hurt the lad a hair." - -Next day Harold sends for the archer, and says:-- - - "List thee, Geyti, Aslak's son, - And truly tell to me, - Wherefore hadst thou arrows twain - In the wood yestreen with thee?" - -To which Geyti answers:-- - - "Therefore had I arrows twain - Yestreen in the wood with me, - Had I but hurt my brother dear - The other had pierced thee." - -With ourselves it is the burden of the ballad of William of Cloudeslee, -where the brave archer says:-- - - "I have a sonne seven years old; - Hee is to me full deere; - I will tye him to a stake-- - All shall see him that bee here-- - And lay an apple upon his head, - And goe six paces him froe; - And I myself with a broad arroe - Shall cleave the apple in towe." - -In the _Malleus Maleficarum_ Puncher, a magician on the Upper Rhine, is -required to shoot a coin from off a lad's head; while, travelling -eastwards as far as Persia, we find the Tell myth as an incident in the -poem _Mantic Ultraïr_, a work of the twelfth century. - -Thus far the variants of the legend found among Aryan peoples have been -summarised, and it is tempting to base upon this diffusion of a common -incident a theory of its origin among the ancestors of the Swiss and the -Norseman, the Persian and the Icelander. But it is found among non-Aryans -also. The ethnologist, Castrén, whose researches in Finland have secured a -valuable mass of fast-perishing materials, obtained this tale in the -village of Ultuwa. "A fight took place between some freebooters and the -inhabitants of the village of Alajärai. The robbers plundered every house, -and carried off amongst their captives an old man. As they proceeded with -their spoils along the strand of the lake a lad of twelve years old -appeared from among the reeds on the opposite bank, armed with a bow and -amply provided with arrows; he threatened to shoot down the captors unless -the old man, his father, was restored to him. The robbers mockingly -replied that the aged man would be given to him if he could shoot an apple -off his head. The boy accepted the challenge, pierced the apple and freed -his father." Among a people in close contact with an Aryan race as the -Finns are in contact with both Swedes and Russians, the main incident of -the Tell story may easily have been woven into their native tales. But in -reference to other non-Aryan races Sir George Dasent, who has treated of -the diffusion of the Tell story very fully in the Introduction to his -_Popular Tales from the Norse_ (a reprint of which would be a boon to -students of folk-lore), says that it is common to the Turks and -Mongolians, and a legend of the wild Samoyedes, who never heard of Tell or -saw a book in their lives, relates it, chapter and verse, of one of their -marksmen. What shall we say, then, but that the story of this bold -mastershot was prominent amongst many tribes and races, and that it only -crystallised itself round the great name of Tell by that process of -attraction which invariably leads a grateful people to throw such mythic -wreaths, such garlands of bold deeds of precious memory, around the brow -of its darling champion. Of course the solar mythologists see in Tell the -sun or cloud deity; in his bow the storm-cloud or the iris; and in his -arrows the sun-rays or lightning darts. - -This is a question which we may leave to the champions concerned to -settle. Apart from the evidence of the survival of legend in history, and -the lesson of caution in accepting any ancient record as gospel which we -should learn therefrom, it is the human element in the venerable tale -which interests us most. - -Remote in time, far away in place, as is its origin, it moves us yet. The -ennobling qualities incarnated in some hero (whether he be real or ideal -matters not) meet with admiring response in the primitive listeners to the -story, else it would have been speedily forgotten. Thus does it retain for -us witness to the underlying oneness of the human heart beneath all -surface differences. - -Widespread as a myth may be, it takes depth of root according to the more -or less congenial soil where it is dropped. That about Tell found -favourable home in the uplands and the free air of Switzerland; with us S. -George, falling on times of chivalry, had abiding place, as also, less -rugged of type than the Swiss marksman, had Arthur, the "Blameless King," -who, if he ever existed, is smothered in overgrowth of legends both native -and imported. - -For such cycle of tales as gathered round the name of Arthur, and on which -our youthhood was nourished, is as mythical as the wolf that suckled -Romulus and Remus. Modern criticism and research have thoroughly sifted -the legendary from the true, and if the past remains vague and shadowy, we -at least know how far the horizon of certainty extends. The criticism has -made short work of the romancing chronicles which so long did duty for -sober history, and has shown that no accurate knowledge of the sequence of -events is obtainable until late in the period of the English invasions. -Save in scattered hints here and there, we are quite in the dark as to the -condition of this island during the Roman occupation, whilst for anything -that is known of times prior to this, called for convenience -"pre-historic," we are dependent upon unwritten records preserved in tombs -and mounds. The information gathered from these has given us some clue to -what manner of men they were who confronted the first Aryan immigrants, -and, enriched by researches of the ethnologist and philologist, enabled us -to trace the movements of races westwards, until we find old and new -commingled as one English-speaking folk. - -All or any of which could not be known to the earlier chroniclers. When -Geoffry of Monmouth set forth the glory and renown of Arthur and his Court -he recorded and embellished traditions six hundred years old, without -thought of weighing the evidence or questioning the credibility of the -transmitters. Whether there was a king of that name who ruled over the -Silures, and around whom the remnant of brave Kelts rallied in their final -struggle against the invading hordes, and who, wounded in battle, died at -Glastonbury, and was buried, or rather sleeps, as the legend has it, in -the Vale of Avilion, "hath been," as Milton says, "doubted heretofore, and -may again, with good reason, for the Monk of Malmesbury and others, whose -credit hath swayed most with the learned sort, we may well perceive to -have known no more of this Arthur nor of his doings than we now -living."[55] - -In the group of legends both of the Old and New World, which, the solar -theorists tell us, symbolise the long sleep of winter before the sweet -awakening of the spring, Arthur of course has place. "Men said he was not -dead, but by the will of our Lord Jesus Christ was in another place, and -men say that he will come again ... that there is written on his tomb this -verse: - - 'Hic jacet Arthurus rex quondam, Rexque futurus.'" - -So Charlemagne reposes beneath the Untersberg, waiting for the appointed -time to rise and do battle with anti-Christ; Tell slumbers ready-panoplied -to save Switzerland when danger threatens; the hero-deity of the -Algonquins, when he left the earth, promised to return, but has not, -wherefore he is called Glooskap, or the Liar; St. John sleeps at Ephesus -till the last days are at hand; and the Church militant awaits the return -of her Lord at the Second Advent. - -The comparative mythologists say that Arthur is a myth, pure and simple, a -variant of Sigurd and Perseus; the winning of his famous sword but a -repetition of the story of the Teutonic and Greek heroes; the gift of -Guinevere as fatal to him as Helen to Menelaus; his knights but -reproductions of the Achaian hosts--much of which may be true; but the -romance corresponded to some probable event; it fitted in with the -national traditions. There were struggles between the Kelts and subsequent -invaders--Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes. There were brave chieftains who -led forlorn hopes or fought to the death in their fastnesses. There were, -in the numerous tribal divisions, petty kings and queens ruling over mimic -courts, with retinues of knights bent on chivalrous, unselfish service. -These were the nuclei of stories which were the early annals of the tribe, -the glad theme of bards and minstrels, and from which a long line of poets -to the latest singer of the _Idylls of the King_ have drawn the materials -of their epics. The fascination which such a cycle of tales had for the -people, especially in days when the ballad was history and poetry and all -literature rolled into one, was so strong, that the Church wisely imported -an element which gave loftier meaning to the knightly life, and infused -religious ardour into the camp and court. To the stories of Tristram and -Gawayne, already woven into the old romance, she added the half-Christian, -half-pagan, legend of the knights who left the feast at the Round Table to -travel across land and sea that they might free the enslaved, remove the -spell from the enchanted, and deliver fair women from the monsters of -tyranny and lust, setting forth on what in her eyes was a nobler quest--to -seek and look upon the San Graal, or Holy Vessel used by Jesus at the Last -Supper, and into which Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood and water -that streamed from the side of the crucified Jesus. This mystic cup, in -which we have probably a sacrificial relic of the old British religion -imported into the Christian incident with which it blended so well, -floated, according to Arthurian legend, suddenly into the presence of the -King and his Round Table knights at Camelot as they sat at supper, and was -as suddenly borne away, to be henceforth the coveted object of knightly -endeavour. Only the baptized could hope to behold it; to the unchaste it -was veiled: hence only they among the knights who were pure in heart and -life vowed to go in quest of the San Graal, and return not until they had -seen it. So to Sir Galahad, the "just and faithful," Tennyson sings how -the sacred cup appeared-- - - "Sometimes on lonely mountain meres - I find a magic bark; - I leap on board: no helmsman steers: - I float till all is dark. - A gentle sound, an awful light! - Three angels bear the holy Grail: - With folded feet, in stoles of white, - On sleeping wings they sail. - Ah, blessed vision! blood of God! - My spirit beats her mortal bars, - As down dark tides the glory slides, - And, star-like, mingles with the stars." - -Whilst in such legends as the Arthurian group the grain of truth, if it -exists, is so embedded as to be out of reach, there are others concerning -actual personages, notably Cyrus and Charlemagne, not to quote other names -from both "profane" and sacred history, in which the fable can be -separated from the fact without difficulty. Enough is known of the life -and times of such men to detach the certain from the doubtful, as, _e.g._, -when Charlemagne is spoken of as a Frenchman and as a Crusader before -there was a French nation, or the idea of Crusades had entered the heads -of most Christian kings; and as in the legends of the infancy of Cyrus, -which are of a type related to like legends of the wonderful round the -early years of the famous. - -This, however, by the way. Leaving illustration of the fabulous in heroic -story, it will be interesting to trace it through such a tale of pathos -and domestic life as the well-known one of Llewellyn and his faithful -hound, Gellert. - -Whose emotions have not been stirred by the story of Llewellyn the Great -going out hunting, and missing his favourite dog; of his return, to be -greeted by the creature with more than usual pleasure in his eye, but with -jaws besmeared with blood; of the anxiety with which Llewellyn rushed into -the house, to find the cradle where had lain his beautiful boy upset, and -the ground around it soaked with blood; of his thereupon killing the dog, -and then seeing the child lying unharmed beneath the cradle, and sleeping -by the side of a dead wolf, from whose ravenous maw the faithful Gellert -had delivered it? Most of us, in our visits to North Wales, have stood by -Gellert's grave at Beddgelert, little suspecting that the affecting story -occurs in the folk-lore of nearly every Aryan people, and of several -non-Aryan races, as the Egyptians and Chinese. - -Probably it comes to us as many other tales have come, through collections -like the well-known _Gesta Romanorum_, compiled by mediæval monks for -popular entertainment. In the version given in that book the knight who -corresponds to Llewellyn, after slaying his dog, discovers that it had -saved his child from a serpent, and thereupon breaks his sword and departs -on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. But the monks were no inventors of such -tales; they recorded those that came to them through the pilgrims, -students, traders, and warriors who travelled from west to east and from -east to west in the Middle Ages, and it is in the native home of fable and -imagery the storied Orient, that we must seek for the earliest forms of -the Gellert legend. In the _Panchatantra_, the oldest and most celebrated -Sanskrit fable-book, the story takes this form:--An infirm child is left -by its mother while she goes to fetch water, and she charges the father, -who is a Brahman, to watch over it. But he leaves the house to collect -alms, and soon after this a snake crawls towards the child. In the house -was an ichneumon, a creature often cherished as a house pet, who sprang at -the snake and throttled it. When the mother came back, the ichneumon went -gladly to meet her, his jaws and face smeared with the snake's blood. The -horrified mother, thinking it had killed her child, threw her water-jar at -it, and killed it; then seeing the child safe beside the mangled body of -the snake, she beat her breast and face with grief, and scolded her -husband for leaving the house. - -We find the same story, with the slight difference that the animal is an -otter, in a later Sanskrit collection, the _Hitopadesa_, but we can track -it to that fertile source of classic and mediæval fable, the Buddhist -_Jâtakas_, or _Birth Stories_, a very ancient collection of fables, which, -professing to have been told by the Buddha, narrates his exploits in the -550 births through which he passed before attaining Buddhahood. In the -_Vinaya Pitaka_ of the Chinese Buddhist collection, which, according to -Mr. Beal, dates from the fifth century A.D., and is translated from -original scriptures supposed to have existed near the time of Asoka's -council in the third century B.C., we have the earliest extant form of -the tale. That in the _Panchatantra_ is obviously borrowed from it, the -differences being in unimportant detail, as, for example, the nakula, or -mongoose, is killed by the Brahman on his return home, the wife having -neglected to take the child with her as bidden by him. He is filled with -sorrow, and then a Deva continues the strain:-- - - "Let there be due thought and consideration, - Give not way to hasty impulse, - By forgetting the claims of true friendship - You may heedlessly injure a kind heart (person) - As the Brahman killed the nakula." - -The several versions of the story which could be cited from German, -Russian, Persian, and other Aryan folk-lore, would merely present certain -variations due to local colouring and to the inventiveness of the -narrators or transcribers; and, omitting these, it will suffice to give -the Egyptian variant or corresponding form, in which the tragical has -given place to the amusing, save, perhaps, in the opinion of the Wali. -This luckless person "once smashed a pot full of herbs which a cook had -prepared. The exasperated cook thrashed the well-intentioned but -unfortunate Wali within an inch of his life, and when he returned, -exhausted with his efforts at belabouring the man, he discovered among the -herbs a poisonous snake." - -In pointing to the venerable Buddhist _Birth Stories_ as the earliest -extant source of Aryan fables, it should be added that these were with the -Buddha and his disciples the favourite vehicle of carrying to the hearts -of men those lessons of gentleness and tenderness towards all living -things which are a distinctive feature of that non-persecuting religion. - - -§ VIII. - -MYTH AMONG THE HEBREWS. - -With the important exception of reference to the change effected in the -Jewish doctrine of spirits, and its resulting influence on Christian -theology, by the transformation of the mythical Ahriman of the old Persian -religion into the archfiend Satan, but slight allusion has been made in -these pages to the myths and legends of the Semitic race. Under this term, -borrowed from the current belief in their descent from Shem, are included -extant and extinct people, the Assyrians, Chaldeans or Babylonians, -Phoenicians, Arabs, Syrians, Jews, and Ethiopians. - -The mythology of the Aryan nations has had the advantage of the most -scholarly criticism, and the light which this has thrown upon the racial -connection of peoples between whom all superficial likeness had long -disappeared, as well as upon the early condition of their common -ancestors, is of the greatest value as aid to our knowledge of the mode of -man's intellectual and spiritual growth. And the comparisons made between -the older and cruder forms underlying the elaborated myth and the myths of -semi-barbarous races have supported conclusions concerning man's -primitive state identical with those deduced from the material relics of -the Ancient and Newer Stone Ages, namely, that the savage races of to-day -represent not a degradation to which man has sunk, but a condition out of -which all races above the savage have, through much tribulation, emerged. -An important exception to this has, however, been claimed on behalf of at -least one branch of the Semitic race--namely, the Hebrews or Jews. This -claim has rested on their assumed selection by the Deity for a definite -purpose in the ordering and directing of human affairs; but no assumption -of supernatural origin can screen the documents of disputed authorship and -uncertain meaning on which that claim is based from the investigation -applied to all ancient records; nor can the materials elude dissection -because hitherto regarded as organic parts of revelation. The real -difficulties are in the structure of the language and in the scantiness of -the material as contrasted with the flexile and copious mythology of the -Aryan race. And the investigation has been in some degree checked by the -mistaken dicta of authorities such as M. Renan and the late Baron Bunsen; -the former contending that "the Semites never had a mythology," and the -latter (although any statement of his carries far less weight) that "it is -the grand, momentous, and fortunate self-denial of Judaism to possess -none." - -But, independently of the refusal of the student of history to admit that -exceptional place has been accorded of direct Divine purpose to any -particular race, the discoveries of literatures much older than the -Hebrew, and in which legends akin to those in the earlier books of the Old -Testament are found, together with the proofs of historical connection -between the peoples having these common legends, have given the refutation -to the distinctive character of the Semitic race claimed by M. Renan. That -a people dwelling for centuries, as the Hebrews did, in a land which was -the common highway between the great nations of antiquity; a people -subject to vicissitudes bringing them, as the pipkin between iron pots, -into collision and subject relations to Egyptians, Persians, and other -powerful folk, should remain uninfluenced in their intellectual -speculations and religious beliefs, would indeed be a greater miracle than -that which makes their literature inspired in every word and vowel-point. -The remarkable collection of cuneiform inscriptions (so called from their -wedge-like shape: Latin, _cuneus_, a wedge) on the baked clay cylinders -and tablets of the vast libraries of Babylon and Nineveh, has brought out -one striking fact, namely, that the Semitic civilisation, venerable as -that is, was the product of, or at least, greatly influenced by, the -culture of a non-Semitic people called the Akkadians, from a word meaning -"highlanders." These more ancient dwellers in the Euphrates valley and -uplands were not only non-Semitic but non-Aryan, and probably racially -connected with the complex group of peoples embracing the -Tatar-Mongolians, the distinguishing features of whose religion are -Shamanistic, with belief in magic in its manifold forms. "In Babylonia, -under the non-Semitic Akkadian rule, the dominant creed was the fetish -worship, with all its ritual of magic and witchcraft; and when the Semites -conquered the country, the old learning of the land became the property of -the priests and astrologers, and the Akkadian language the Latin of the -Empire."[56] - -It was during the memorable period of the Exile that the historical -records of the Jews underwent revision, and from that time dates the -incorporation into them of legends and traditions which, invested with a -purity and majesty distinctively Hebrew, were borrowed from the -Babylonians, although primarily Akkadian. They are here, as elsewhere, the -product of the childhood of the race, when it speculates and invents, -framing its theory of the beginnings, their when and how; when it prattles -of the Golden Age, which seems to lie behind, in the fond and not extinct -delusion that "the old is better;" when it frames its fairy tales, weird -or winsome, in explanation of the uncommon, the unknown, and the -bewildering. - -The Babylonian origin of the early biblical stories is now generally -admitted, although the dogmas based upon certain of them still retard the -acceptance of this result of modern inquiry in some quarters. That -reluctance is suggestively illustrated in Dr. Wm. Smith's _Dictionary of -the Bible_, where, turning to the heading "Deluge," the reader is referred -to "Flood" and thence to "Noah!" - -So much for the legendary; but the analysis of the more strictly mythical, -the names of culture-ancestors and heroes, sons of Anak and of God, -scattered over the Pentateuch, is not so easy a matter. The most important -work in this direction has been attempted by Dr. Goldziher,[57] but even -his scholarship has failed to convince sympathetic readers that Abraham -and Isaac are sun-myths, and that the twelve sons of Jacob are the -zodiacal signs! Under the Professor's etymological solvent the personality -of the patriarchs disappears, and the charming idylls and pastorals of old -Eastern life become but phases of the sun and the weather. The Hebrew, -like the Aryan myth-maker, speaks of the relations of day and night, of -gray morning and sunrise, of red sunset and the darkness of night, as of -love and union, or strife and pursuit, or gloomy desire and coy evasion. -Abh-râm is the High or Heaven-Father (from _râm_, "to be high") with his -numberless host of descendants. Yis-châk, commonly called Isaac, denotes -"he who laughs," and so the Laughing one, whom the High Father intends to -slay, is the smiling day or the smiling sunset, which gets the worst of -the contest with the night sky, and disappears. Sarah signifies princess, -or the moon, the queen who rules over the great army glittering amidst the -darkness. The expulsion of Hagar (derived from a root _hajara_, meaning -"to fly," and yielding the word hijrâ or "flight," whence the Mohammadan -Hegira) is the Semitic variant of that inexhaustible theme of all -mythology, the battle of Day and Night; Hagar flying before the inconstant -sun and the jealous moon. And so on through the whole range of leading -characters in Hebrew history; Cain and Abel, in which Dr. Goldziher, to -whom they are the sun and dark sky, overlooks the more likely explanation -of the story as a quarrel between nomads and tillers of the soil; -Jephthah, in which the sun-god kills at mid-day the dawn, his own -offspring; Samson, or more correctly Shimshôn, from the Hebrew word for -sun, the incidents of whose life, as expounded by Professor Steinthal,[58] -are more clearly typical of the labours of the sun; Jonah and the fish, a -story long ago connected with the myth of Herakles and Hêsionê; "as on -occasion of the storm the dragon or serpent swallows the sun, so when he -sets he is swallowed by a mighty fish, waiting for him at the bottom of -the sea. Then when he appears again on the horizon, he is spat out on the -shore by the sea-monster."[59] - -These bare references must suffice to show that there is in Hebrew -literature a large body of material which must undergo the sifting and the -criticism already applied with success to Indo-European and non-Aryan -myth. This done, the Semitic race will contribute its share of evidence in -support of those conditions under which it has been the main purpose of -this book to show that myth has its birth and growth. - - -§ IX. - -CONCLUSION. - -The multitude of subjects traversed in the foregoing sections has -compelled presentment in so concise a form that any attempt to gather into -a few sentences the sum of things said would be as a digest of a digest, -and it is, therefore, better to briefly emphasise the conclusions to which -the gathered evidence points. It was remarked at the outset, when -insisting on the serious meaning which lies at the heart of myths, that -they have their origin in the endeavour of barbaric man to explain his -surroundings. The mass of fact brought together illustrates and confirms -this view, and has thereby tended to raise what was once looked upon as -fantastic, curious, and lawless, to the level of a subject demanding sober -treatment and examination on strictly scientific methods. - -Archbishop Trench, in his _Study of Words_, quotes Emerson's happy -characterisation of language as fossil poetry and fossil history: "Just as -in some fossil, curious and beautiful shapes of vegetable or animal life, -the graceful fern, or the finely-vertebrated lizard, such as have been -extinct for thousands of years, are permanently bound up with the stone, -so in words are beautiful thoughts and images, the imagination and the -feeling of past ages, of men long since in their graves, of men whose very -names have perished, preserved and made safe for ever." In like manner we -may speak of myths as fossil ethics and fossil theology, but, with more -appositeness, as embryonic ethics and theology, since they contain -potentially all the philosophies and theologies "that man did ever find." - -And to the student of the history of humanity who rejoices in the sure -foundation on which, tested in manifold ways, the convictions of the -highest and noblest of the race rest, the value of myth is increased in -its being a natural outgrowth of the mind when, having advanced to the -point at which curiosity concerning the causes of surrounding things -arises, it frames its crude explanations. For not that which man claims to -have received as a message from the gods, as a revelation from heaven, but -that which he has learned by experience often painful and bitter, and -which succeeding generations have either verified or improved upon, or -disproved altogether, is, in the long run, of any worth. Through it alone, -as we follow the changes wrought in the process from guess to certainty, -can we determine what was the intellectual stage of man in his mental -infancy, and how far it finds correspondences in the intellectual stage of -existing barbaric races. - -Thus, the study of myth is nothing less than the study of the mental and -spiritual history of mankind. It is a branch of that larger, vaster -science of evolution which so occupies our thoughts to-day, and with it -the philosopher and the theologian must reckon. The evidence which it -brings from the living and dead mythologies of every race is in accord -with that furnished by their more tangible relics, that the history of -mankind is a history of slow but sure advance from a lower to a higher; of -ascent, although with oft backslidings. It confirms a momentous canon of -modern science, that the laws of evolution in the spiritual world are as -determinable as they are in the physical. To this we, for the enrichment -of our life and helpful service of our kind, do well to give heed. -Wherever we now turn eye or ear the unity of things is manifest, and their -unbroken harmony heard. With the theory of evolution in our hands as the -master-key, the immense array of facts that seemed to lie unrelated and -discrete are seen to be interrelated and in necessary dependence--"a -mighty sum of things for ever speaking." That undisturbed relation of -cause and effect which science has revealed and confirmed extends -backwards as well as reaches forwards; its continuity involves the -inclusion of man as a part of nature, and the study of his development as -one in which both the biologist and the mythologist engage towards a -common end. - - - - -II. - -DREAMS: THEIR PLACE IN THE GROWTH OF BELIEFS IN THE SUPERNATURAL. - - -"The physical world is made up of atoms and ether, and there is no room -for ghosts." - -W. K. CLIFFORD. - - -"If ghos'es want me to believe in 'em, let 'em leave off skulking i' the -dark and i' lone places--let 'em come where there's company and candles." - -GEORGE ELIOT. - - -DREAMS: THEIR PLACE IN THE GROWTH OF BELIEFS IN THE SUPERNATURAL. - - -§ I. - -DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SAVAGE AND CIVILISED MAN. - -The evidence as to pre-historic man's material furniture and surroundings, -which was first gathered from and restricted to ancient river valleys and -bone caverns of Great Britain, France, and Belgium, is no longer isolated. -It is supported by evidence which has been collected from every part of -the globe inhabited in past or present times, and its uniform character -has enabled us to determine what lies beyond an horizon which within the -last half century was bounded by the hazy line of myth and tradition. So -rigid seemed the limit defining man's knowledge of his past that some -forty years ago even the Geological Society of London recorded with barest -reference the unearthing of relics witnessing to his presence in Britain -hundreds of thousands of years ago. The canon was closed, and no one -ventured to add to the sayings of the book. But the discoveries which had -disproved belief in the earth's supremacy in the universe, and in its -creation in six days, led the way to researches into the history of the -life upon its surface, and especially of that which, in the language of -ancient writ, was "made in the image of God." When the long-forbidding -line, imaginary as the equator and lacking its convenience, was crossed, -there was found the evidence of the conditions under which man emerged -from a state quite other than that which had formed the burden of legends -sacred with the hoariness of time. Those conditions, it is well-nigh -needless to remind the reader, accord with that theory which holds man to -be no specially-created being, started on this earth, fully equipped, -Minerva-like, with all ripeness of wisdom and loftiness of soul, but the -last and long result of an ever-ascending series of organisms ranging from -the lowest, shapeless, nerveless specks to _homo sapiens_, "the foremost -in the files of time." Evolution is advance from the simple to the -complex. The most primitive forms reach maturity in a shorter time than -the higher forms, and fulfil their purpose quicker, and this doctrine -applies not only in relation to man and the inferior creatures, but as -between the several races of man himself. Herein the differences, which -are determined by size, still more by increase in complexity, of -brain-stuff, are greater than between the lowest man and the highest -animals--that is to say, the savage and civilised man are farther apart -than the savage and the anthropoid ape. The cranial capacity of the -modern Englishman surpasses that of the non-Aryan inhabitant of India by a -difference of sixty-eight cubic inches, while between this non-Aryan skull -and the skull of the gorilla the difference in capacity is but eleven -inches,[60] and if we were to take into account the differences in -structural complexity, as indicated by the creasing and furrowing of the -brain surface, the contrast would be still more striking. - -The brains of the earliest known races, the men of the Ancient Stone Age, -ape-like savages who fought with woolly-haired elephants, cave-lions, and -cave-bears, amidst the forests and on the slopes of the valleys and hills -where London now stands, and who in the dawn of human intelligence, -applying means to ends, came off victorious, were doubtless much nearer to -the chimpanzee with his thirty-five cubic inches than to the Papuan with -his fifty-five cubic inches. Indeed, we need not travel beyond this age -or island; it suffices to compare the brain quality of the rustic, -thinking of "maistly nowt," with that of the highest minds amongst us, as -evidence of the enormous diversity between wild and cultivated stocks of -mankind. - -Unless we are so enchained to fond delusions as to place man in a kingdom -by himself, and deny in the sympathetic, moral, and intellectual faculties -in brutes the germs of those capacities which, existing in a pre-human -ancestry, have flowered in the noblest and wisest of our race, we may find -in such differences as are shown to occur between civilised and primitive -man further evidence of the enormous time since the latter appeared. For -unnumbered ages man--then physically hardly distinguishable from apes--may -have remained stationary. Certainly the relics from the Drift show no -advance: given no change in the conditions, the species do not vary, and -man, once adapted to his surroundings, changed only as these changed. But, -obscure as are the causes, there came a period when conditions arose -inducing some variation, no matter how slight, in brain development, which -was of more need than any variation in the rest of the body, and when an -impetus was given which, leaving the latter but slightly affected, -quickened the former, so that man passed from the highest animality to the -lowest humanity. Slowly, in the course of a struggle not yet ended, "the -ape and tiger" were subdued within him, and those social conditions -induced to which are due that progress which ever draws him nearer to the -angels. - -The discussion of this in detail lies outside the limits of these pages. -Here, after briefly noting on what lines it must run, we are concerned -with man at that far later stage in his development when the physical and -material evidence respecting his bodily development gives place to the -psychical and immaterial evidence respecting his mental development. -Chipped flints, flakes, and scrapers of the Drift are indispensable -witnesses to his primitive state, but during the long ages that he was -making shift with them he remains within the boundaries of the zoological; -he is more geological than human. Gleams of the soul within that will one -day be responsive to grace of form and harmony of colour appear in the -rude portraits of mammoth, reindeer, urus, whale, and man himself, -scratched on ivory and horn. Indications of germinal ideas about an -after-life are present in the contents of tumuli with the skeletons in -defined positions, and with weapons presumably for the use of the departed -in the happy hunting-grounds. In these last we are nearing the historic -period, for a vast interval exists between the tomb-building races and the -men of the Reindeer Period, yet even then the ages are many before man had -so advanced as to bequeath the intangible relics of his thought, -disclosing what answer he had beat out for himself to the riddle of the -earth and the mysteries of life and death. Although the story of his -intellectual and spiritual development is a broken one, of the earlier -chapters of which we have no record, enough survives to induce and -strengthen the conviction that in this, as in aught else, there is no -real disconnection. In the shaping of the rudest pointed flint-tool and -weapon there are the germs of the highest mechanical art; in the -discordant war-whoop of the savage the latent strains of the -"Marseillaise," as, quoting Tennyson, in the eggs of the nightingale -sleeps the music of the moon. If we cannot get so near to the elemental -forms of thought as we could wish, we must lay hold of the lowest extant, -and trace in these the connection to be sought between the barbaric and -civilised mind. We must have understanding of the mental condition of -races, still on low levels of culture, and if the result is to show that -many highly-elaborated beliefs among advanced peoples are but barbaric -philosophies "writ large," the conception of an underlying unity between -all nations of men that do dwell, or have dwelt, on the face of the earth, -will receive additional proof. - - -§ II. - -LIMITATIONS OF BARBARIC LANGUAGE. - -Illustrations of the low intellectual stage of some extant races not quite -at the bottom of the scale, drawn from simple matters, will make clearer -how they will interpret matters of a more complex order, and interpret -them only in one way. - -Of the beginning of thought we can know nothing. For numberless ages man -was marked out from the animals most nearly allied to him by that power -of more readily adapting means to ends which gave him mastery over nature. -Through that dim and dateless time he thought without knowing that he -thought. "His senses made him conversant only with things externally -existing and with his own body, and he transcended his senses only far -enough to draw concrete inferences respecting the action of these -things."[61] He is human only when the thought reaches us through -articulate speech. Language, as a means of communication between him and -his fellows, denotes the existence of the social state, the play of the -social evolution which gives the impetus to ideas. Language is the outcome -of man's social needs and nature; he speaks not so much because he thinks -and feels as because he must perforce tell his thoughts and feelings to -others. And by the richness or poverty of his speech we may assess the -richness or poverty of his ideas, since language cannot transcend the -thought of which it is the vehicle. - -By what tones and gestures, by what signs and grimaces, the beginnings of -speech were made, we know not. Countless processions of races appeared and -vanished before language had reached a stage when the elements of which -words are built up could be separated, and the reason which governed the -choice of this and that sound or symbol discovered. Now and again, when a -correspondence is found between the roots of terms in use amongst the -higher races and the names given by lower races to the same thing, we get -nearer primitive thought, the correspondence being not always in sound or -spelling, which may be delusive, but in physical or sensible meaning. It -would be a wholesome corrective of theories concerning the origin of -languages to which many are yet wedded to show that terms not only for -things material and concrete, but also for things immaterial and abstract, -are of purely physical origin, _i.e._ have been chosen from their analogy -to something real. But the consideration of such matters lies outside the -purpose of this work. - -Language proves the limited range of ideas among barbaric peoples in the -absence of their capacity to generalise. They have a word for every -familiar thing, sound, and colour, but no word for animal, plant, sound, -or colour as abstract terms. It is the concrete, the special shape and -feature and action of a thing, which strike the senses at the outset; to -strip it of these accidents, as we call them, and merge it in the general, -and realise its relation to what is common to the class to which it -belongs, is an effort of which the untutored mind is incapable. Many of -the northern non-Aryan tribes, as among the Mongols, have names for the -smallest rivulet, but no word for river; names for each finger, but no -word for finger. The Society Islanders have a separate name for the tails -of various animals, but no name for tail. The Mohicans have verbs for -every kind of cutting, but no verb "to cut." The Australians and other -southern aborigines have no generic term for tree, neither have the -Malays, yet they have words for the several parts, the root, stem, twig, -etc. When the Tasmanians wished to express qualities of things, as hard, -soft, warm, long, round, they would say for hard, "like a stone"; for -tall, "long legs"; for round, "like the moon," and so on. Certain -hill-tribes of India give names to sunshine, candle, and flames of fire, -but "light" is a high abstraction which they are unable to grasp. Some of -the Red Race languages have separate verbs for "I wish to eat meat," or "I -wish to eat soup," but no verb for "I wish." Of course, the verb "to be," -which, as Adam Smith remarked long ago, is the most abstract and -metaphysical of all words, and therefore of no early coinage, is absent -from a large number of barbaric languages. Abstract though it be, it is, -as Professor Whitney points out, made up of the relics of several verbs -which once had, like all elements and parts of speech, a distinct physical -meaning. As in "be" and "been" the idea of "growing" is contained, so in -"am," "art," "is," and "are," the idea of "sitting" (or, as some think, of -"breathing") is embodied. As an example of its absence, the Abipones -cannot say "I am an Abipone," only "I Abipone." Turning to another class -of illustration, we have proof what a far cry it is from the savage to the -Senior Wrangler in the powerlessness of the former to count beyond his -fingers; indeed, he cannot always count as far as that, any number beyond -two bewildering him. One of the best stories to the point is given in Mr. -Galton's _Tropical South Africa_. - -"When the Dammaras wish to express four they take to their fingers, which -are to them as formidable instruments of calculation as a sliding rule is -to an English schoolboy. They puzzle very much after five, because no -spare hand remains to grasp and secure the fingers that are required for -units. Yet they seldom lose oxen; the way in which they discover the loss -of one is not by the number of the herd being diminished, but by the -absence of a face they know. When bartering is going on, each sheep must -be paid for separately. Thus, suppose two sticks of tobacco to be the rate -of exchange for one sheep, it would sorely puzzle a Dammara to take two -sheep and give him four sticks. I have done so, and seen a man put two of -the sticks apart, and take a sight over them at one of the sheep he was -about to sell. Having satisfied himself that that one was honestly paid -for, and finding to his surprise that exactly two sticks remained in hand -to settle the account for the other sheep, he would be afflicted with -doubts; the transaction seemed to come out too "pat" to be correct, and he -would refer back to the first couple of sticks; and then his mind got hazy -and confused, and wandered from one sheep to the other, and he broke off -the transaction until two sticks were put into his hand and one sheep -driven away, and then the other two sticks given him and the second sheep -driven away. Once while I watched a Dammara floundering hopelessly in a -calculation on one side of me, I observed Dinah, my spaniel, equally -embarrassed on the other. She was overlooking half a dozen of her new-born -puppies, which had been removed two or three times from her, and her -anxiety was excessive, as she tried to find out if they were all present, -or if any were still missing. She kept puzzling and running her eyes over -them, backwards and forwards, but could not satisfy herself. She evidently -had a vague notion of counting, but the figure was too large for her -brain. Taking the two as they stood, dog and Dammara, the comparison -reflected no great honour on the man." - -Dr. Rae says that if an Eskimo is asked the number of his children he is -generally puzzled. After counting some time on his fingers he will -probably consult his wife, and the two often differ, even though they may -not have more than four or five in family. Of the languages of the -Australian savages, who are the lowest extant, examined by Mr. Crawfurd, -thirty were found to have no number beyond four, all beyond this being -spoken of as "many," whilst the Brazilian Indians got confused in trying -to reckon beyond three. The list of such cases might be largely extended, -and although exceptions occur where savages are found with a fairly wide -range of numbers, notably where barter prevails, the larger proportion of -uncivilised people are bewildered at any effort to count beyond three or -five. The fingers have, in most cases, determined the limits, for men -counted on these before they gave words to the numbers, the words being at -last borrowed from the fingers, as in our "five," which is cognate with -the Greek "pente," and the Persian "pendji" (said to be derived from the -word for "hand"), and "digits," from Latin "digitus," a finger. This -limited power of numeration thus shown to be possessed by the savage -justifies the statement that he is nearer to the ape than to the average -civilised man, nearer, as the extract from Mr. Galton shows, to the -spaniel than to the mathematician. What conception of the succession of -time, still less of it as a confluence of the eternities, can he have -whose feeble brain cannot grasp a to-morrow! And yet the difference is not -one of kind, but of degree, which separates the aborigines of Victoria or -Papua from the astronomer who is led by certain irregularities in the -motion of a planet to calculate the position of the disturbing cause, and -thereby to discover it nearly a thousand million miles beyond in the -planet Neptune. - - -§ III. - -BARBARIC CONFUSION BETWEEN NAMES AND THINGS. - -Races which have names for different kinds of oaks, but none for an oak, -still less for a tree, and who cannot count beyond their fingers, may be -expected to have hazy notions concerning the objective and subjective; or, -to put these in terms less technical, concerning that which belongs to the -object of thought, and that which is to be referred to the thinking -subject. Although primitive religion and philosophy are too nearly allied -to admit of sharp definitions, the former may be said, if the slang is -allowed, to be one of funk, and the latter one of fog. There are those -amongst us who say that the terrorism which lies at the base of the one -and the mist which is an element of the other, linger yet in extant belief -and metaphysics. What man cannot understand he fears; and in all primary -beliefs the powers around which seem to him so wayward are baleful, to be -appeased by sacrifice or foiled by sorcery. And the confusion which reigns -in his cosmos extends to his notion of what is in the mind and what is out -of it. He cannot distinguish between an illusion and a reality, between a -substance and its image or shadow; and it needs only some bodily ailment, -as indigestion through gorging, or delirium through starving, to give to -spectres of diseased or morbid origin, airy nothings, a substantive -existence, a local habitation, and a name. - -The tangle between things and their symbols is well illustrated in the -barbaric notion that the name of a man is an integral part of himself, and -that to reveal it is to put the owner in the power of another. An Indian -asked Kane whether his wish to know his name arose from a desire to steal -it; the Araucanians would not allow their names to be told to strangers, -lest these should be used in sorcery. So with the Indians of British -Columbia; and among the Ojibways husbands and wives never told each -other's names, the children being warned against repeating their own names -lest they stop growing. Dobrizhoffer says that the Abipones of Paraguay -had the like superstition. They would knock at his door at night, and when -asked who was there, no answer would come, through dread of uttering their -names. Mr. im Thurn tells us that, although the Indians of British Guiana -have an intricate system of names, it is "of little use, in that owners -have a very strong objection to telling or using them, apparently on the -ground that the name is part of the man, and that he who knows it has part -of the owner of that name in his power." In Borneo the name of a sickly -child is changed, to deceive the evil spirits that have tormented it; the -Lapps change the baptismal name of a child for the same reason; and among -the Abipones, the Fuegians, the Lenguas of Brazil, the North-West Indians, -and other tribes at corresponding low levels, when any member died the -relatives would change their names to elude Death when he should come to -look for them, as well as give their children horrid names to frighten the -bad spirits away. All over the barbaric world we find a great horror of -naming the dead, lest the ghost appear. An aged Indian of Lake Michigan -explained why tales of the spirits were told only in winter, by saying -that when the deep snow is on the ground the voices of those repeating -their names are muffled; but that in summer the slightest mention of them -must be avoided, lest the spirits be offended. Among the Californian -tribes the name of the departed spoken inadvertently caused a shudder to -pass over all those present. Among the Iroquois the name of a dead man -could not be used again in the lifetime of his oldest surviving son -without the consent of the latter, and the Australians believe that a dead -man's ghost creeps into the liver of the impious wretch who has dared to -utter his name. Dr. Lang tried to get the name of a relative who had been -killed from an Australian. "He told me who the lad's father was, who was -his brother, what he was like, how he walked, how he held his tomahawk in -his left hand instead of his right, and who were his companions; but the -dreaded name never escaped his lips, and I believe no promises or threats -could have induced him to utter it." Dorman gives a pathetic illustration -of this superstition in the Shawnee myth of Yellow Sky. "She was a -daughter of the tribe, and had dreams which told her she was created for -an unheard-of mission. There was a mystery about her being, and none could -comprehend the meaning of her evening songs. The paths leading to her -father's lodge were more beaten than those to any other. On one condition -alone at last she consented to become a wife, namely, that he who wedded -her should never mention her name. If he did, she warned him that a sad -calamity would befall him, and he would for ever thereafter regret his -thoughtlessness. After a time Yellow Sky sickened and died, and her last -words were that her husband might never breathe her name. For five summers -he lived in solitude, but, alas, one day as he was by the grave of his -dead wife, an Indian asked him whose it was, and in forgetfulness he -uttered the forbidden name. He fell to the earth in great pain, and as -darkness settled round about him a change came over him. Next morning, -near the grave of Yellow Sky a large buck was quietly feeding. It was the -unhappy husband." - -The original meaning has dropped out of the current saying, "Talk of the -devil and you'll see his horns," but savage philosophy recovers it for us. -And the shrinking from naming persons is still more marked as we ascend -the scale of principalities and powers. In the South Sea Islands not only -are the names of chiefs tabooed, but also words and syllables resembling -those names in sound. The Tahitians have a custom called _Te pi_, which -consists in avoiding in daily language those words which form a part or -the whole of the names of the king and royal family, and in inventing new -terms in their place. The king's name being _Tu fetu_, "star," had to be -changed into _fetia_, and _tui_, "to strike," became _tiai_. In New -Zealand knives were called _nekra_, because a chief's name was _Maripi_, -or "knife." It is, Professor Max Müller aptly remarks, as if with the -accession of Queen Victoria either the word _victory_ had been tabooed -altogether, or only part of it, as _tori_, so as to make it high treason -to speak of _Tories_ during her reign. The secret name of Pocahontas was -Matokas, which was concealed from the English through superstitious fear; -and in the mythical story of "Hiawatha" the same metonymic practice -occurs, his real name being Tarenyawagon. A survival of the dislike to -calling exalted temporal, and also spiritual, beings by their names, -probably lies at the root of the Jews' unwillingness to use the name of -Yahweh (commonly and incorrectly spelt Jehovah[62]), and in the name -"Allah," which is an epithet or title of the Mohammadan deity, and not the -"great name"; whilst the concealment by the Romans of the name of the -tutelary deity of their city was fostered by their practice, when -besieging any place, to invoke the treacherous aid of its protecting god -by offering him a high place in their Pantheon. And in the title of -Eumenidês, or the "gracious ones," given to the Furies by the Greeks, may -be noted a survival of the verbal bribes by which the thing feared was -"squared." For example, the Finnish hunters called the bear "the apple of -the forest," "the beautiful honey-claw," "the pride of the thicket"; the -Laplander speaks of it as "the old man with the fur coat"; in Annam the -natives call the tiger "grandfather," or "lord"; and the Dyaks of Borneo -speak of the small-pox as "the chief," or "jungle leaves." - -The confusion between ideas and objects which these examples illustrate is -shared by us, although in a remote degree. If the initials of any -well-known name are transposed, for example, let W. E. Gladstone be -printed E. W. Gladstone; or if some familiar name is altered, for example, -let John Bright be misprinted James Bright, it is curious to note how for -a moment the identity is obscured in one's mind. Another personality, -indistinct and bewildering, rises before us, showing how we have come to -link together a man and his name even to the details of his initials. That -which we feel momentarily the uncivilised feels constantly. He cannot -think of himself, of his squaw, of his children, or of his -fellow-tribesmen, apart from names which are more significant to him than -ours are to us. With us the reason which governed selection is forgotten -or obscured, the physical features and conditions no longer correspond to -ancestral names; but with barbarous peoples those features and conditions -are more apparent. Besides which, children are often named by the -medicine-man, and the name is thus endowed with a charm which may roughly -be analogous to the halo round a name confirmed by baptism to one simply -recorded in the office of a Registrar of Births. - - -§ IV. - -BARBARIC BELIEF IN VIRTUE IN INANIMATE THINGS. - -The artificial divisions which man in his pride of birth made between the -several classes of phenomena in the inorganic world, and also between the -inorganic and the organic, are being swept away before the larger -knowledge and insight of our time. Indeed, it would seem that the surest -test we can apply to the worth of any kind of knowledge is whether it adds -to or takes from our growing conception of unity. If it does the former, -we cannot overthrow it; if it does the latter, then is it science "falsely -so called." - -That notable doctrine known as the correlation of physical forces, or the -convertibility into one another of heat, light, electricity, chemical -affinity, etc., each being a mode of manifestation of an unknown energy -which "lives through all life, extends through all extent," has its -counterpart in the correlation of spiritual forces. Varied as are the -modes of expression of these, that variety is on the surface only. Deep -down lies the one source that feeds them, the one heart to whose existence -their pulsations witness. All primitive philosophies, all religions "that -man did ever find," are but as the refractions of the same light dispersed -through different media; are the result of the speculations of the same -subject, allowances being made for local and non-essential differences -upon like objects. And, therefore, in treating of the nature and -limitations of man's early thought concerning his surroundings, whether -these be the broad earth bathed in the sunshine or swathed in the -darkness, or the sounds that come from unseen agents, the sight of -spectral visitants of whom he cannot have touch, and out of which are -built up his theories of the invisible world, the reader may find -reference to the same conditions which were shown in former pages to give -birth and sustenance to primitive myth. The same fantastic conclusions, -drawn from rude analyses and associations, and from seeming connections of -cause and effect, the same bewildering entanglement between things which -we know can have nothing in common, meet us; and the same scientific -method by which we determine the necessary place of each in the advance of -man to truth through illusion is applied. - -The illustrations of the vital connection which the savage assumes between -himself and his name show how easy is the passage from belief in life -inhering in everything to belief in it as capable of power for good or -evil. This can be shown by illustrations from more tangible things than -names. The savage who is afraid to utter these also shrinks from having -his likeness taken, in the feeling that some part of him is transferred, -and at the mercy of the sorcerer and enemy. The Malemutes of North America -refused to risk their lives before a photographic apparatus. They said -that those who had their likenesses had their spirit, and they would not -let these pass into the keeping of those who might use them as instruments -of torment. Catlin relates that he caused great commotion among the Sioux -by drawing one of their chiefs in profile. "Why was half his face left -out?" they asked; "Mahtocheega was never ashamed to look a white man in -the face." The chief himself did not take offence, but Shouka the Dog -taunted him, saying: "The Englishman knows that you are but half a man; he -has painted but one-half of your face, and knows that the rest is good -for nothing." This led to a quarrel, and in the end Mahtocheega was shot, -the fatal bullet tearing away just that part of the face which Catlin had -not drawn! He had to make his escape, and the matter was not settled till -both Shouka and his brother had been killed in revenge for Mahtocheega's -death. The Yanktons accused Catlin of causing a scarcity of buffaloes by -putting a great many of them in his book, and refused to let him take -their portraits. So with the Araucanians, who ran away if any attempt was -made to sketch them. Among such races we find great care exercised lest -cuttings of hair, parings of nails, saliva, refuse of food, water in which -they had washed, etc., should fall into unfriendly or mistrusted hands. -The South Sea Island chiefs had servants following them with spittoons, -that the saliva might be buried in some hidden place. Among the -Polynesians any one who fell ill attributed it to some sorcerer, who had -got hold of refuse from the sick and was burning it, and the quiet of the -night was often broken by the blowing of shell-trumpets, as signals for -the sorcerer to stop until the gifts on their way to appease him could -arrive. The idea is common both to Eskimo and Indian that so long as a -fragment of a body remains unburnt, the being, man or beast, may, by -magic, be revived from it. As with the name or the portrait, whoever -possessed a part of the material substance possessed a part of the -spiritual, and in this world-wide belief in a sympathetic connection -between things living and not living lies the whole philosophy of -sorcery, of charms, amulets, spells, and the general doctrine of luck -surviving through the successive stages of culture to this day. And he who -would prevent anything from his person getting into hostile hands, -naturally sought after things in which coveted qualities were believed to -dwell, and avoided those of a reverse nature. So we find tiger's flesh -eaten to give courage, and the eyes of owls swallowed to give good sight -in the dark. The Kaffirs prepare a powder made of the dried flesh of -various wild beasts, the leopard, tiger, elephant, snake, etc., so as to -absorb the several virtues of these creatures. The Tyrolese hunter wears -his tuft of eagle's down to gain long sight and daring, and the Red Indian -strings bears claws round his neck to get Bruin's savage courage. The -customs of scalping and, in some measure, of cannibalism, may be referred -to the same notion, for the Red man will risk his life to prevent a -tribesman's scalp being captured by the foe, and the New Zealander will -swallow the eyes of his slain enemy to improve his sight. In Greenland "a -slain man is said to have power to avenge himself upon the murderer by -_rushing into him_, which can only be prevented by eating a piece of his -liver."[63] When a whaler died the Eskimos distributed portions of his -dried body among his friends, and rubbed the points of their lances with -them, it being held that a weapon thus charmed would pierce a vital part -in a whale, where another would fail. Sometimes the body was laid in a -cave, and, before starting for the chase, the whalers would assemble, and, -carrying it to a stream, plunge it in, and then drink the water. When the -heroic Jesuit Brébeuf was tortured by the Iroquois, they were so -astonished at his endurance that they laid open his breast and came in a -crowd to drink the blood of so valiant a foe, thinking to imbibe with it -some portion of his courage, while a chief tore out his heart and devoured -it. - -Cannibalism, it may be remarked, _en passant_, is also found to have a -religious significance, on the supposition, which has unsuspected survival -among advanced races, that eating the body and drinking the blood -communicates the spirit of the victim to the consumer. It is not always -the most savage races who practise it; for example, the Australians, -despite the scarcity of large animals for food supply, rarely ate the -flesh of man, whilst the New Zealanders, who rank far above them, and had -not the like excuse, were systematic feeders on human flesh. - -As examples of a reverse kind, but witnessing to the play of like beliefs -in qualities passing from brutes and lifeless things, we find some races -avoiding oil, lest the game slip through their fingers, abstaining from -the flesh of deer, lest it engenders timidity, and from that of pigs and -of tortoises lest the eater has very small eyes. Dr. Tylor gives an -apposite illustration of a kindred superstition in the Hessian lad who -thinks that he may escape the conscription by carrying a baby-girl's cap -in his pocket as a symbolical way of repudiating manhood. So the thief of -our London slums hopes to evade the police by carrying a piece of coal or -slate in his pocket for luck. Among ourselves there was an old medical -saw, "Hare-flesh engendereth melancholy bloude," and in Swift's _Polite -Conversation_ we have this reason assigned by Lady Answerall when asked to -eat it; whilst faith is not yet extinct in the "Doctrine of Signatures," -or the notion that the appearance of a plant indicates the disease for -which it is a remedy, as the "eye-bright," the black purple spot on the -corolla of which was said to show that it was good for weak eyes. In -referring to the mandrake superstition (a plant whose roots are said to -rudely resemble the human form) as illustration of the "recognised -principles in magic that things like each other, however superficially, -affect each other in a mystic way and possess identical properties," Mr. -Andrew Lang quotes a Melanesian belief that 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.[64] - -Brand remarks[65] that the custom of giving infants coral to help in -cutting the teeth is said to be a survival of an old belief in it as an -amulet; and in English, Sicilian, and West Indian folk-lore, we find the -belief that it changes colour in sympathy with the pale or healthy look of -the wearer. An old Latin author says,[66] "It putteth of lightenynge, -whirle-wynde, tempeste, and storms fro shyppes and houses that it is in." - -We are each of us hundreds of thousands of years old, and although our -customs and beliefs have a far less venerable antiquity, their sources lie -not less in primitive thought. Like the survival of the ancient Roman -workman's "casula" or "little house" or "shelter" in the chasuble of the -priest; like the use of stone knives in circumcision long after the -discovery of metals; the general tends to become special; the common, its -primitive need or service forgotten, to become sacred. Sometimes the early -idea abides; the Crees, who carry about the bones of the dead carefully -wrapped up as a fetish; the Caribs, who think such relics can answer -questions; the Xomanes, who drink the powdered bones in water, that they -may receive the spirit; the Algonquins, whose god Manobozho turned bits of -his own flesh or his wife's into raccoons for food; the Iroquois cited -above; represent the barbarous ancestry of higher races, whether of the -Bacchanalians described by Arnobius,[67] who thought that the fulness of -the divine majesty was imparted to them when they tore and ate the -struggling rams with mouths dripping with gore, or of the faithful who -receive nutriment through the symbols of the Cross. And the prayers of -savage and civilised have this in common, that some advantage is thereby -sought by the utterer; their sacrifices are alike the giving up of one's -goods or one's self to a deity who may be appeased or bribed thereby; -their fastings are cultivated as inducing the abnormal states in which -their old men dream dreams and their young men see visions of spirits -appearing as angels ascending and descending between earth and the abode -of the blest. Baptisms are the ancient lustrations, which water, as the -cleansing element, suggested; and the eastward position, over which -priests and ecclesiastics have fought, is the undoubted relic of worship -of the rising sun. - -In short, there is no rite or ceremony yet practised and revered amongst -us which is not the lineal descendant of barbaric thought and usage, -expressing a need which, were men less the slaves of custom and indolence, -would long since have found loftier form than in genuflexion before shrine -and reliquary. By an exercise of imagination not possible but for these -being a felicitous "gesture language" of the cries of human souls, a mass -of heathen and pagan rites have been transformed into those of the -Christian faith. That they have come to be mistaken for the ideas -symbolised, that with the loftiest spiritual teaching there should remain -commingled belief in miraculous power in fragments (mostly spurious) of -dead men and their clothes; only shows the persistency of that notion of a -vital connection between the lifeless and the living which this section -has sought to illustrate. - - -§ V. - -BARBARIC BELIEF IN THE REALITY OF DREAMS. - -The confusion in the barbaric mind between the objective and the -subjective, and between the name and the person or thing, which has been -illustrated in the foregoing pages, will enable us to see more clearly how -the like confusion must enter into the interpretation of such occult and -compound phenomena as dreams, and all their kind. - -They supply the conditions for exciting and sustaining that feeling of -mystery which attends man's endeavour to get at the meaning of his -surroundings. The phantasies which have defiled through the brain in -coherent order, or danced in mazy whirl about its sinuous passages when -complete sleep was lacking, leave their footprints on the memory, and they -are strong of head and heart, true pepticians, like the countryman cited -by Carlyle, who, "for his part, had no system," whose composure on awaking -is not affected by the harmonious or discordant, the pleasant or -disagreeable, illusions which have made up their dreams. In the felicitous -words of Lucretius, "When sleep has chained down our limbs in sweet -slumber, and the whole body is sunk in profound repose, yet then we seem -to ourselves to be awake and to be moving our limbs, and amid the thick -darkness of night we think we see the sun and the daylight; and though in -a confined room, we seem to be passing to new climates, seas, rivers, -mountains, and to be crossing plains on foot, and to hear voices, though -the austere silence of night prevails all round, and to be uttering -speech, though quite silent. Many are the other things of this marvellous -sort we see, which all seek to shake, as it were, the credit of the -senses: quite in vain, since the greatest part of these cases cheat us on -account of the mental suppositions which we add of ourselves, taking those -things as seen which have not been seen by the senses. For nothing is -harder than to separate manifest facts from doubtful, which the mind -without hesitation adds on of itself."[68] - -While for us dreams fill an empty moment in the telling, albeit now and -again nurturing such remains of superstition as cling to the majority of -people, they are to the untrained intelligence, unable to distinguish fact -from fiction, or to follow any sequence of ideas, as solid as the -experiences of waking moments. As a Zulu, well expressing the limits of -savage thought, said to Bishop Callaway, "Our knowledge does not urge us -to search out the roots of it, we do not try to see them, if any one -thinks ever so little, he soon gives it up, and passes on to what he sees -with his eyes; and he does not understand the real state of even what he -sees." Nor does his language clear the confusion within when he tells what -he has seen and heard and felt, where he has been and what he has done, -for the speech cannot transcend the thought, and therefore can represent -neither to himself nor to his hearers the difference between the illusions -of the night and the realities of the day. The dead relatives and friends -who appear in dreams and live their old life, with whom he joins in the -battle, the chase, and the feast, the foes with whom he struggles, the -wild beasts from whom he flees, or in whose clutches he feels himself, and -with shrieks awakens his squaw, the long distances he travels to sunnier -climes lit by a light that never was on land or sea, are all real, and no -"baseless fabric of a vision." That now and again he should have walked in -his sleep would confirm the seeming reality; still more so would the -intensified form of dreaming called "nightmare,"[69] when hideous spectres -sit upon the breast, stopping breath and paralysing motion, and to which -is largely due the creation of the vast army of nocturnal demons that fill -the folk-lore of the world, and that, under infinite variety of repellent -form, have had place in the hierarchy of religions. - -Dreams are in the main referred by the savage either to the entrance into -him of some outside spirit, as among the Fijians, who believe that the -spirit of a living man will leave the body to trouble sleeping folk, or to -the real doings of himself. - -When the Greenlander dreams of hunting, or fishing, or courting, he -believes that the soul quits the body; the Dyaks of Borneo think that -during sleep the soul sometimes remains in the body or travels far away, -being endowed, whether present or absent, with conditions which in waking -moments are lacking. Wherever we find a low state of mental development -the like belief exists. In Mr. im Thurn's elaborate work on the _Indians -of Guiana_ we have corroborative evidence, the more valuable because of -its freshness. He tells us that the dreams which come to the Indian are to -him as real as any of the events of his waking life. To him dream-acts -and waking-acts differ only in one respect--namely, that the former are -done only by the spirit, the latter are done by the spirit in its body. -Seeing other men asleep, and afterwards hearing from them the things which -they suppose themselves to have done when asleep, the Indian has no -difficulty in reconciling that which he hears with the fact that the -bodies of the sleepers were in his sight and motionless throughout the -time of supposed action, because he never questions that the spirits, -leaving the sleepers, played their part in dream-adventures. Mr. im Thurn -illustrates the complete belief of the Indian in the unbroken continuity -of his dream-life and waking-life by incidents which came under his own -notice, and which are quoted as serving the present argument better than -any theorising. - - One morning when it was important to me to get away from a camp on the - Essequibo River, at which I had been detained for some days by the - illness of some of my Indian companions, I found that one of the - invalids, a young Macusi, though better in health, was so enraged - against me that he refused to stir, for he declared that, with great - want of consideration for his weak health, I had taken him out during - the night and had made him haul the canoe up a series of difficult - cataracts. Nothing could persuade him that this was but a dream, and - it was some time before he was so far pacified as to throw himself - sulkily into the bottom of the canoe. At that time we were all - suffering from a great scarcity of food, and, hunger having its usual - effect in producing vivid dreams, similar events frequently occurred. - More than once the men declared in the morning that some absent man, - whom they named, had come during the night, and had beaten, or - otherwise maltreated them; and they insisted on much rubbing of the - bruised parts of their bodies. Another instance was amusing. In the - middle of one night I was awakened by an Arawak named Sam, the captain - or head-man of the Indians who were with me, only to be told the - bewildering words, "George speak me very bad, boss; you cut his bits!" - It was some time before I could collect my senses sufficiently to - remember that "bits," or fourpenny-pieces, are the units in which, - among Creoles and semi-civilised Indians, calculation of money, and - consequently of wages, is made; that to cut bits means to reduce the - number of bits or wages given; and to understand that Captain Sam, - having dreamed that his subordinate George had spoken insolently to - him, the former, with a fine sense of the dignity of his office, now - insisted that the culprit should be punished in real life. One more - incident, of which the same Sam was the hero, may be told for the sake - of the humour, though it did not happen within my personal experience, - but was told me by a friend. This friend, in whose employ Sam was at - the time, told his man, as they sat round the fire one night, of the - Zulu or some other African war which was then in progress, and in so - doing inadvertently made frequent use of the expression, "to punish - the niggers." That night, after all in camp had been asleep for some - time, they were raised by loud cries for help. Sam, who was one of the - most powerful Indians I ever saw, was "punishing a nigger" who - happened to be one of the party; with one hand he had firmly grasped - the back of the breeches-band of the black man, and had twisted this - round so tightly that the poor wretch was almost cut in two. Sam - sturdily maintained that he had received orders from his master for - this outrageous conduct, and on inquiry it turned out that he had - dreamed this.[70] - -Taking an illustration from nearer home, although from a more remote time, -we have in the Scandinavian _Vatnsdæla Saga_ a curious account of three -Finns who were shut up in a hut for three nights, and ordered by -Ingimund, a Norwegian chief, to visit Iceland, and inform him of the line -of the country where he was to settle. Their bodies became rigid, and they -sent their souls on their errand, and, on their awaking at the end of -three days, gave an accurate account of the Vatnsdæl, in which Ingimund -ultimately dwelt. No wonder that in mediæval times, when witches swept the -air and harried the cattle, swooning and other forms of insensibility were -adduced in support of the theory of soul-absence, or that we find among -savages--as the Tajals of the Luzon islands--objections to waking a -sleeper lest the soul happens to be out of the body. As a corollary to -this belief in soul-absence, fear arises lest it be prolonged to the peril -of the owner, and hence a rough and ready theory of the cause of disease -is framed, for savages rarely die in their beds. - - -§ VI. - -BARBARIC THEORY OF DISEASE. - -That disease is a derangement of functions interrupting their natural -action, and carrying attendant pain as its indication, could not enter the -head of the uncivilised: and, indeed, among ourselves a cold or a fever is -commonly thought of as an entity in the body which has stolen in, and, -having been caught, must be somehow expelled. With the universal primitive -belief in spiritual agencies everywhere inhaled with the breath or -swallowed with the food or drink, all diseases were regarded as their -work, whether, as remarked above, through absence of the rightful spirit -or subtle entrance of some hostile one. If these be the causes to which -sicknesses are due, obviously the only cure is to get rid of them, and -hence the sorcerer and the medicine-man find their services in request in -casting out the demon by force, or enticing him by cajolery, or in -bringing back the truant soul. - -To the savage mind no other explanation of illness is possible than that -it is due to the exit of one's own spirit or to the intrusion of a -stronger one, whether of revengeful man or animal. An old Dakota, whose -son had sore eyes, said that nearly thirty years before, when the latter -was a boy, he fastened a pin to a stick and speared a minnow with it, and -it was strange that after so long a time the fish should come to seek -revenge. When an Indian is attacked by any wild beast he believes that the -avenging Kenaima has transferred his spirit to the animal which seizes -him, and if he has even a toothache, of which more presently, then the -Kenaima has insinuated himself in the shape of a worm. The tribal chief -among the Brazilian natives acts as doctor, and when he visits the sick he -asks what animal the patient has offended, and if no cure is effected, the -convenient explanation is at hand that the right animal has not been -found. At the death of Iron Arms, a noted North American Indian warrior, -it was said that he died because the doctor made a mistake, thinking that -a prairie-dog had entered him, when it was a mud-hen. In the weird -mythology of the Finns the third daughter of the ruler of Tuonela, the -underworld, sits on a rock rising from hell-river, beneath which the -spirits of all diseases are shut up. As she whirls the rock round like a -millstone the spirits escape and go on their torturing errand to mortals. -The more abnormal and striking phases of disease manifest when a man is -writhing under intense agony, as if torn and twisted by some fiendish -living thing, or when in delirium he raves and starts, or when thrown down -in epilepsy he struggles convulsively, or when he shivers in an ague, or -when in more violent forms of madness he seems endowed with superhuman -strength; the various symptoms attending hysteria; each and all support -that theory of spirit-influence which survives among advanced races in -referring disease to supernatural causes. For the ancient theories of a -divine government under which disease is the expression of the anger of -the gods, and medicine the token of their healing mercy, and the current -notions that any epidemic or pestilence is a visitation of God, are -identical in character, however improved in feature, with the barbaric -belief illustrated above; and in the ages when belief in the devil as one -walking to and fro upon the earth was rampant, he especially was regarded -as bringer of both bane and antidote. "He may," says an old writer, -"inflict diseases, which is an effect he may occasion _applicando activa -passivis_ (by applying actives to passives), and by the same means he may -likewise cure ... and not only may he cure diseases laid on by himself, as -Wierus observes, but even natural diseases, since he knows the natural -causes and the origin of even those better than the physicians can, who -are not present when diseases are contracted, and who, _being younger than -he_, must have less experience."[71] In Lancashire folk-lore "casting out -the ague" was but another name for "casting out the devil"; in the Arabic -language the words for epilepsy and possession by demons are the same; and -in such phrases as a man being "beside himself," "transported," "out of -his mind," or in the converse, as when it is said in the parable of the -prodigal son, "he came to himself"; in the words "ecstasy," which means a -displacement or removal of the soul, and "catalepsy," a seizing of the -body by some external power, we have language preserving the primitive -ideas of an intruding or departing spirit. Such minor actions as gaping -and sneezing confirm the belief. The philosophy of the latter, as Mr. Gill -remarks in his _Myths and Songs of the South Pacific_, is that the spirit -having gone travelling about, its return to the body is naturally attended -with some difficulty and excitement, occasioning a tingling and enlivening -sensation all over the body. And the like explanation lies at the root of -the mass of customs attendant on sneezing, and of the superstitions -generated by it, which extend through the world. - -Williams tells us that among the Fijians, when any one faints or dies, -their spirit, it is said, may sometimes be brought back by calling after -it, and occasionally the ludicrous scene is witnessed of a stout man lying -at full length and bawling out lustily for the return of his soul. So in -China, when a child is lying dangerously ill, its mother will go outside -into the garden and call its name, in the hope of bringing back the -wandering spirit. But for all the ills that flesh is heir to, from -hiccupping to madness, from toothache to broken limbs, the patient seldom -dares to doctor himself; neither the etiquette of the ordained -medicine-man nor the orthodox therapeutics favour that show of -independence. The methods adopted by the faculty vary in detail, but they -are ruled by a single assumption. When a Chinaman is dying, and the soul -is believed to be already out of the body, a relative holds up his coat on -a bamboo stick, and a Taoist priest seeks by incantations to bring back -the truant soul so that it may re-enter the sick man. Among the Six -Nations the Indians sought to discover the intruder by gathering a -quantity of ashes and scattering them in the cabin where the sick person -was lying. A similar recipe for tracking demons is given in the _Talmud_; -but, as more nearly bearing on the Indian practice, a Polish custom -mentioned by Grimm[72] may be quoted. When the white folk torment a sick -man a friend walks round him carrying a sieveful of ashes on his back, and -lets the ashes run out till the floor round the bed is covered with them. -The next morning all the lines in the ashes are counted, and the result -told to a wise woman, who prescribes accordingly. - -A favourite mode of treatment is blowing upon or sucking the diseased -organ, and deception is no infrequent resort when the sorcerer secretes -thorns or fishbones, beetles or worms, in his mouth, and then pretends -that he has extracted them. Cranz says that the Eskimo old women appear to -suck from a swollen leg scraps of leather or a parcel of hair which they -have previously crammed into their mouths, and in Australia the same dodge -is practised, when the sorcerer makes believe that he has drawn out a -piece of bone from the affected part. That toothache is due to a worm is a -belief which exists throughout Europe and Asia, and from the Orkneys to -New Zealand. Shakspere refers to it in _Much Ado about Nothing_, Act III. -Scene ii.-- - - _Don Pedro._ What! sigh for the toothache? - - _Leonata._ Where is but a humour or a worm; - -and instances are current of this superstition being acted upon in rural -districts, whilst in China the itinerant dentist conceals a worm in the -stick which he applies to the aching tooth, and on the stick being gently -tapped, the worm wriggles out to the satisfaction of the sufferer. But -among barbaric races the treatment of disease is ordinarily the reverse of -soothing. Here and there the virtues of some plant have been discovered by -accident, and, whilst exalted into a deity in its native home, it has -become, like cinchona, a priceless boon to the fever-stricken all over the -world; but, speaking broadly, the medicine-man is no Melampus, winning -the secret of their healing balm from herb and tree. Nor has he much faith -in magic or charm compared to his faith in noise, in incantations, with -their accompanying hideous grimaces and gestures, and their deafening -yells with clang of instrument to drown the sufferer's groans and chase -away the demon. Not unfrequently, when the patient is kept without food so -as to starve out the indwelling enemy, or when the body is pommelled and -squeezed to force him out, the remedy helps the disease! An illustration -or two from a great mass at command must suffice. Among the Mapuches the -sorcerer adopts the canonical howls and grimaces. Making himself as -horrible-looking as he can, he begins beating a drum and working himself -into a frenzy until he falls to the ground with his breast working -convulsively. As soon as he falls, a number of young men outside the hut, -who are there to help him in frightening the disease-bringing spirit out -of the patient, add their defiant yells, and dash at full speed, with -lighted torches, against the hut. If this does not succeed, and the -patient dies, the result is attributed to witchcraft. When a Pawnee chief -had some ribs and an arm broken, the medicine-men danced round him, and -raised their voices from murmurous chants to howls, accompanying the music -by blows upon the wounded man's breast to banish the bad spirit. In olden -time this rough-and-tumble business of blows, to which immersion was -added, was applied to lunatics in these islands. And, in fact, until some -local paper narrates a current superstition, we seldom awaken to the fact -how widely the theological explanation of diseases and the empirical -choice of remedies still obtains, each being survivals of barbaric theory -and practice. - -The savage who has more faith, as a curative, in plants that grow on -burial-places, and the Christian, who ascribed special healing power to -turf and dew from a saint's grave,[73] differ no whit in kind; and so -ingrained was the medicinal belief in virtue inhering in fragments of the -dead, that not even the satire of "Reynard the Fox," telling how the wolf -was cured of his earache, and the hare of his fever, the moment that they -lay down on the grave of the martyred hen, could give quietus to the -notion that grated skulls and sacramental shillings were specifics for the -healing of the faithful. - -This reference to like practices reminds us how belief in the action of -invisible agencies has passed into the practice of confession among -advanced races outside Christendom, as in Mexico and Peru. The Roman -Catholic priests were not less astonished at finding this in vogue on -their arrival in South America than the good Father Huc when, on reaching -Tibet, he found shaven monks wearing rosaries, worshipping relics, using -holy water, and a grand Lama decked in mitre, cope, and cross.[74] But, as -the Italian proverb has it, the world is one country, and "we have all -one human heart," so that the confessional has the like explanation in -east as in west. If the disease be the work of an offended deity or of an -avenging spirit, let the wrong-doer admit his fault, and trust to him who -is credited with influence with the unseen to exorcise the intruder. - - -§ VII. - -BARBARIC THEORY OF A SECOND SELF OR SOUL. - -In thus far illustrating the confusion inherent in the barbaric mind -between what is and what is not external to itself, the explanation given -of matters still dividing philosophers into opposite camps has been hardly -indicated. The uniformity of this confusion among the lower intelligence -in every zone and age might surprise us, and we should be in bondage to -the theory which explains it by assumption of primal intuitions of the -race, were we not rejoicing in the freedom of the truth of the doctrine of -the descent, or ascent, of man from an ape-like ancestry, and the -resulting slow development of his psychical faculties, involving his -accounting for motion in things around by the like personal life and will -of which he is conscious in himself, and for his regarding the world of -great and small alike as the home and haunt of spirits. - -For the assumption underlying the savage explanation of such things as -dreams and diseases involves a larger assumption--namely, that the spirit -which acts thus arbitrarily, playing this game of hide-and-seek, now, as -it were, caught up into Paradise, and now dodging its owner and worrying -its enemy on earth--is, to quote Mr. Spencer's appropriate term, a man's -_other self_. It is, at least, what the scientists call a working -hypothesis; it is the only possible explanation which the uncultivated -mind can give of what it has not the power to see is a subjective -phenomenon. Odd and out-of-the-way events have happened to the dreamer; he -has been to strange places and seen strange doings, but waking up, he -knows that he is in the same wigwam where he laid down to sleep, and can -be convinced by his squaw that he has not moved therefrom all night. -Therefore it is the other self, this phantom-soul, which has been away for -a time, seeing and taking part in things both new and old. We civilised -folk, as Dr. Wendell Holmes remarks, not rarely find our personality -doubled in our dreams, and do battle with ourselves, unconscious that we -are our own antagonists. Dr. Johnson dreamed that he had a contest with an -opponent and got the worst of it; of course, he found the argument for -both! Tartini heard the devil play a wonderful sonata, and lay entranced -by the arch-fiend's execution. On waking he seized his violin, and -although he could not reproduce the actual succession of notes, he -recovered sufficient impressions to compose his celebrated "Devil's -Sonata." Obviously the devil was no other than Tartini. - -Thus the philosopher, to whom dreaming merely indicates a certain amount -of uncontrolled mental activity, may satisfy himself; not thus can the -savage, who cannot even think that he thinks, and to whom the phenomena of -shadows, reflection, and echoes bring confirming evidence of the existence -of his mysterious double. What else than a veritable entity can his shadow -be to him? Its intangibility feeds his awe and wonder, and increases his -bewilderment; its actions, ever corresponding with his own, make it, even -more than its outline, a part of himself, the loss of which may be -serious. Only when the light is withdrawn or intercepted does the shadow -cease to accompany, precede, or follow him, and to lengthen, shorten, or -distort itself; whilst not he alone, but all things above and around, have -this phantom attendant. The Choctaws believed that each man has an outside -shadow, _shilombish_, and an inside shadow, _shilup_, both of which -survive his decease. Among the Fijians a man's shadow is called the dark -spirit, which goes to the unseen world, while the other spirit, which is -his likeness reflected in water or a mirror, stays near the place where he -dies. The Basutos are careful, when walking by a river, not to let their -shadow fall on the water, lest a crocodile seize it, and harm the owner. -Among the Algonquin Indians sickness is accounted for by the patient's -shadow being unsettled or detached from the body; the Zulus say that a -corpse cannot cast a shadow, and in the barbaric belief that its loss is -baleful, we have the germ of the mediæval legends of shadowless men and of -tales of which Chamisso's story of Peter Schlemihl is a type. The New -England tribes called the soul _chemung_, the shadow, and in the Quiche -and Eskimo languages, as also in the several dialects of Costa Rica, the -same word expresses both ideas; while civilised speech indicates community -of thought in the _skia_ of the Greeks, the _manes_ or _umbra_ of the -Romans, and the _shade_ of our own tongue. Still more complete in the -mimicry is the reflection of the body in water or mirror, the image -repeating every gesture and adopting every colour, whilst in the echoes -which forest and hillside fling back, the savage hears confirmation of his -belief in the other self, as well as in the nearness of the spirits of the -dead. The Sonora Indians say that departed souls dwell among the caves and -nooks of the cliffs, and that the echoes are their voices, and in South -Pacific myth echo is the first and parent fairy, to whom at Marquesas -divine honours are still paid as the giver of food, and as she who "speaks -to the worshippers out of the rocks." In Greek myth she is punished by -Juno for diverting her attention whilst Jupiter flirts with the nymphs, -and at last, pining in grief at her unrequited love for Narcissus, there -remains nothing but her voice. - -But what, in primitive conception, is the more specific nature of the -other self, and how does it make the passage from within to without, and -_vice versâ_? Very early in man's history he must have wondered at the -difference between a waking and a sleeping person, a living and a dead -one, and sought wherein this consisted. There lay the body in the repose, -more or less broken, of sleep, or in the undisturbed repose of the -unawakening sleep; in the latter case, with nothing tangible or visible -gone, but that which was once "quick" and warm, which had spoken, moved, -smiled, or frowned but a little while before, and which still came in -dream or vision, was now cold and still. - -It should here be remarked, in passing, that many savage races do not -believe in death as a natural event, but regard it as differing from sleep -only in the length of time that the spirit is absent from the body. No -matter what any one's age may be, if his death is not caused by wounds, it -is attributed to magic, and the search for the sorcerer becomes a family -duty, like the vendetta for other injuries. The widespread myths which -account for death have as their underlying idea the infraction of some law -or custom, for which the offender pays the extreme penalty. And that -personification of it which pervades barbaric thought, whilst undergoing -many changes of form, yet retains its hold in popular conception as well -as in poetry. Pictured as the messenger of Deity, as the awful angel who -sought the rebellious and impious, or who, in mission of tenderness, bore -the soul to its home in the bosom of the Eternal, it was transformed and -degraded by the grotesque fancy of a later time into a grim and dancing -skeleton whetting his sickle for ingathering of the young and fair to -their doom, or into the grinning skull and crossbones of Christian -headstones. So when the maiden Proserpine is plucking the spring flowers, -"crocuses and roses and fair violets," in the Elysian fields, Hades, -regent of hell, regardless of her cries, carries her off to his invisible -realm. - -But to resume. Whilst shadows, reflections, and echoes, one and all, -seemed to satisfy the uncivilised mind as to the existence of the other -self, they gave no key to its nature, to what it is like. Obviously the -difference between death and life lay in some unsubstantial or -semi-substantial thing. Perhaps, thought some races, it lies in the blood, -with the unchecked outflow of which death ensues, and the idea of this -connection has not been confined to barbaric peoples. Perhaps, thought -other races, it lies in the heart, which, say the Basutos, has gone out of -any one dead, but has returned when the sick have recovered. Among the -Greeks some philosophers held that it was fire, which was extinct when the -fuel of life was burnt out, or water, which would evaporate away. But, as -language shows, it is with the _breath_ that the other self of the savage -and the vital principle of the philosopher has been most widely -identified. For it is the cessation of breathing which would in the -long-run be noted as the unfailing accompaniment of death; and the -condensing vapour, as it was exhaled, would confirm the existing theories -of a shadowy and gaseous-like soul. In this, as the illustrations to be -adduced from various languages will evidence, the continuity of idea which -travels along the whole line of barbaric and learned speculation is -unbroken. - - -§ VIII. - -BARBARIC PHILOSOPHY IN "PUNCHKIN" AND ALLIED STORIES. - -As bearing upon the barbaric belief in the soul leaving the body at -pleasure, there is a remarkable group of stories, the central idea of -which is the dwelling apart of the soul or heart, as the seat of life, in -some secret place, in an egg, or a necklace, or a flower, the good or evil -fortunes of the soul involving those of the body. To this group the name -of "Punchkin," the title of one of the older specimens, may conveniently -be given. In Miss Frere's _Old Deccan Days_ it takes the following form. - -A Rajah has seven daughters, and his wife dying when they were quite -children, he marries the widow of his prime minister. Her cruelty to his -children made them run off to a jungle, where seven neighbouring princes, -who were out hunting, found them, and each took one of them to wife. After -a time they again went hunting, and did not come back. So when the son of -the youngest princess, who had also been enchanted away, grew up, he set -out in search of his mother and father and uncles, and at last discovered -that the seven princes had been turned into stone by the magician -Punchkin, who had shut up the princess in a tower because she would not -marry him. Recognising her son, she plotted with him to feign agreement to -marry Punchkin if he would tell her where the secret of his life was -hidden. Overjoyed at her yielding to his wish, the magician told her that -it was true that he was not as others. - - "Far, far away, hundreds of thousands of miles from this, there lies a - desolate country covered with thick jungle. In the midst of the jungle - grows a circle of palm-trees, and in the centre of the circle stand - six chattees full of water, piled one above another; below the sixth - chattee is a small cage which contains a little green parrot; on the - life of the parrot depends my life, and if the parrot is killed I must - die. But," he added, "this was not possible, because thousands of - genii surround the palm-trees, and kill all who approach the place." - -The princess told her son this, and he set forth on his journey. On the -way he rescued some young eagles from a serpent, and the grateful birds -carried him until they reached the jungle, where, the genii being overcome -with sleep by the heat, the eaglets swooped down. "Down jumped the prince; -in an instant he had overthrown the chattees full of water and seized the -parrot, which he rolled up in his cloak," then mounted again into the air -and was carried back to Punchkin's palace. Punchkin was dismayed to see -the parrot in the prince's hands, and asked him to name any price he -willed for it, whereupon the prince demanded the restoration of his father -and his uncles to life. This was done; then he insisted on Punchkin doing -the like to "all whom he had thus imprisoned," when, at the waving of the -magician's wand, the whole garden became suddenly alive. - -"Give me my parrot!" cried Punchkin. Then the boy took hold of the -parrot, and tore off one of his wings; and as he did so the magician's -right arm fell off. He then pulled off the parrot's second wing, and -Punchkin's left arm fell off; then he pulled off the bird's legs, and down -fell the magician's right leg and left leg. Nothing remained of him save -the limbless body and the head; but still he rolled his eyes, and cried, -"Give me my parrot!" "Take your parrot, then," cried the boy, and with -that he wrung the bird's neck, and threw it at the magician, and as he did -so, Punchkin's head twisted round, and, with a fearful groan, he died. Of -course, all the rest "lived very happily ever afterwards," as they do in -the plays and the novels. - -In the stories of _Chundum Rajah_, and of _Sodewa Bai_, the Hindu -Cinderella, the heroine's soul is contained in a string of golden beads. -When the Ranee, jealous of her husband's love for Sodewa Bai, asked her -why she always wore the same beads, she replies: "I was born with them -round my neck, and the wise men told my father and mother that they -contained my soul, and that if any one else wore them I should die." -Whereupon the Ranee instructed her servant to steal the beads from the -princess when she slept; then she died, but her body did not decay, and in -the end she was restored to life by the recovery of her necklace. In the -Bengali tale, _Life's Secret_, a Rajah's favourite wife gives birth -miraculously to a boy, whose soul is bound up in a necklace in the stomach -of a boal-fish. In both instances the ornaments are stolen, and while -they are worn by the thieves, prince and princess alike are lifeless, -whilst with the recovery of the beads life returned to each. A not unlike -idea occurs in the story, _Truth's Triumph_. The children of a village -beauty, whom the Rajah had married, are changed into mango trees, to save -them from the fury of the jealous Ranee, until the time of danger was -past. - -In Miss Stokes' collection of _Indian Fairy Tales_, we have variants -corresponding more closely to _Punchkin_. In _Brave Hirálálbásá_, a -Rakshas (the common name for demon) is induced to reveal the secret of his -life. He says, "Sixteen miles from here is a tree, round it are tigers and -bears and other animals, on the top of it is a large flat snake, on the -head of which is a bird in a cage, and my soul is in that bird." By -enchantment Hirálálbásá reached the tree and secured the cage. He pulled -the bird's limbs off, and the Rakshas' arms and legs fell off; then he -wrung its neck, and the Rakshas fell dead. And in the tale of _The Demon -and the King's Son_, from the same collection, the prince falls in love -with the monster's daughter, who is dead during the day and alive in the -night. The prince asks what she would do, if whilst she is dead, her -father were to be killed? She tells him it is impossible for any one to -kill her father, for his life is in a _mainá_ (starling), which is in a -nest in a tree on the other side of the sea, and if, she adds, any one in -killing the bird spilt the blood on the ground, a hundred demons would be -born from it. The prince reached the other side, and taking the _mainá_, -proceeded to kill it, but first wrapt it in his handkerchief, that no -blood might be spilt. The demon, who was far away, knew that the bird was -caught, and he set out at once to avert his doom. The story ends, like the -preceding one, with the dismemberment of the bird, and the consequent -death of the demon. - -The nearest approach to tales similar to these in the _Buddhist -Birth-stories_, is in one or two isolated cases, when the Karma of a human -being is spoken of as immediately transferred to an animal. - -In _Tales from the Norse_ the one in most striking correspondence with the -Punchkin group is that of _The giant who had no heart in his body_. The -monster turns six princes and their wives into stone, whereupon the -seventh and only surviving son, Boots, sets out to avenge their fate. On -his journey he saves the lives of a raven, a salmon, and a wolf, and the -wolf, having eaten his horse, compensates Boots by carrying him to the -giant's castle, where the lovely princess who is to be his bride is -confined. She promises to find out where the giant keeps his heart, and by -blandishments and divers arts known to the fair sex both before and since -the time of Delilah, she worms out the secret. He tells her that "far, far -away in a lake lies an island; on that island stands a church; in that -church is a well; in that well swims a duck; in that duck is an egg; and -in that egg lies my heart, you darling!" Boots, taking fond farewell of -the princess, rides on the wolf's back to the island. Then the raven he -had befriended flies to the steeple and fetches the key of the church; the -salmon, in like return for kindness, brings him the egg from the well -where the duck had dropped it. - - Then the wolf told him to squeeze the egg, and as soon as ever he did - so, the giant screamed out. "Squeeze it again," said the wolf; and - when the prince did so, the giant screamed still more piteously, and - begged and prayed so prettily to be spared, saying he would do all - that the prince wished if he would only not squeeze his heart in two. - "Tell him if he will restore to life again your six brothers and their - brides, you will spare his life," said the wolf. Yes, the giant was - ready to do that, and he turned the six brothers into kings' sons - again, and their brides into kings' daughters. "Now squeeze the egg in - two," said the wolf. With questionable morality, doing evil that good - might come, Boots squeezed the egg to pieces, and the giant burst at - once. - -Asbjörnsen's _New Series_ gives a variant in which a Troll who has seized -a princess tells her that he and all his companions will burst, as did the -heartless giant, when there passes above them "the grain of sand that lies -under the ninth tongue in the ninth head" of a certain dragon. The grain -of sand is found and passed over them, when the Troll and all his brood -are destroyed. In the Gaelic stories, for which we are indebted to the -skill of an early worker in this field, the late Mr. J. F. Campbell, that -of the _Young King of Easaidh Ruadh_ locates the secret thus: "There is a -great flagstone underneath the threshold. There is a wether under the -flagstone. There is a duck in the wether's belly, and an egg in the duck, -in the egg is my soul." In the _Sea-Maiden_ there is a "great beast with -three heads, which cannot be killed until an egg is broken which is in the -mouth of a trout, which springs out of a crow, which flies out of a hind, -which lives on an island in the middle of the loch." - -In his valuable collection of _Russian Folk-Tales_, which is enriched by -comparative notes, Mr. Ralston supplies some interesting variants of -Punchkin. Koshchei, called "the immortal or deathless," is merely one of -the many incarnations of the dark spirit which takes so many monstrous -shapes in folk-tales. Sometimes his death, that is, the object with which -his life is indissolubly connected, does exist within his body. In one -story he carries off a queen, for whom her three sons, one after another, -go in search. Prince Ivan, the youngest, at last discovers where his -mother dwells, and she at the approach of Koshchei hides her son away. The -monster sniffs the blood of a Russian, and inquires if her son has not -been with her. She assures him it is only the Russian air in his nostrils. -Then after talking to him affectionately on one thing and another, she -asks where his death is, and he tells her that, "under an oak is a casket, -in the casket is a hare, in the hare is a duck, in the duck an egg, in the -egg is my death." Prince Ivan found the egg, and reached his mother's -house with it. Presently Koshchei flew in and said, "Phoo, phoo; no -Russian bone can the ear hear or the eye see, but there's a smell of -Russia here." Then Prince Ivan came out from his hiding place, and, -holding up the egg, said, "There is your death, oh Koshchei!" then he -smashed it, and Koshchei fell dead. In another story Koshchei is killed by -a blow on the forehead from the mysterious egg. Mr. Ralston also quotes a -Transylvanian Saxon story concerning a witch's life, which is a light -burning in an egg inside a duck that swims on a pond inside a mountain, -and she dies when the light is put out. In the Bohemian story of the -_Sun-horse_ a warlock's strength lies in an egg in a duck, which is within -a stag under a tree. A seer finds the egg and sucks it. Then the warlock -becomes as weak as a child, "for all his strength had passed into the -seer." - -In Servian folk-tale the strength of a baleful being who had stolen a -princess lies in a bird which is inside the heart of a fox, and when the -bird was taken out of the heart and set on fire, that moment the -wife-stealer falls down dead, and the prince regains his bride. From the -same source we have the tale of the _Golden-haired Twins_, with an -incident akin to that in Punchkin. When the king's stepmother buries the -twins whom she had stolen, there spring from the spot where they lie trees -with golden leaves and blossoms. The king's admiration of them aroused her -jealousy, and she had them cut down, but eventually his golden-haired -princes are restored to him. - -Thus far the illustrations have been drawn solely from the folk-tales of -the widespread Indo-European races, but they are not confined to these. -From non-Aryan sources we have the Tatar story of the demon-giant who -kept his soul in a twelve-headed snake carried in a bag on his horse's -back. The hero finds out the secret, kills the snake, and the giant dies. -In one of the Samoyed tales a man had no heart in his body, and could -recover it only on restoring to life a woman whom he had killed. Then the -man said to his wife, "Go to the place where the dead lies; there you will -find a purse, in that purse is her soul; shake the purse over her bones, -and she will come to life." The wife did as she was ordered, and the woman -revived, whereupon her son dashed the heart to the ground, and the man -died.[75] - -More elaborate than these are the tales from _The Thousand and One -Nights_. In _Seyf-el-Mulook_ the jinnee's soul is enclosed in the crop of -a sparrow, and the sparrow is imprisoned in a small box, and this is in -seven other boxes which are put into seven chests; these are enclosed in a -coffer of marble that is sunk in the ocean surrounding the world. By the -aid of Suleyman's seal-ring Seyf-el-Mulook raises the coffer, and -extricating the sparrow, strangles it, whereupon the jinnee's body is -converted into a heap of black ashes. In some tales not included by -Galland or Lane, which Mr. Kirby has translated and edited under the title -of the _New Arabian Nights_, we have a variant of the above under the -title of _Joadar of Cairo and Mahmood of Tunis_. Joadar is bent on -releasing his enchanted betrothed, which he does by also strangling a -sparrow, the ogre being simultaneously dissolved into a heap of ashes. - -The most venerable illustration of the leading idea in the Punchkin group -is however found, though in more subtle form, in the Egyptian tale of the -_Two Brothers_. This is of great value on account of its high antiquity, -and, moreover, specially interesting as recording an incident similar to -that narrated in the life of Joseph. It is contained in the D'Orbiney -papyrus preserved in the Bibliothèque Impériale, the date being about the -fourteenth or fifteenth century B.C. - -There were two brothers, Anepou and Satou, joined as one in love and -labour. One day Satou was sent to fetch seed-corn from Anepou's house, -where he found his brother's wife adorning her hair. She urged him to stay -with her, but he refused, promising, however, to keep her wickedness -secret. When Anepou returned at even, she, being afraid, "made herself to -seem as a woman that had suffered violence," and told him exactly the -reverse of what had happened. Anepou's wrath was kindled against Satou, -and he went out to slay him; but Satou called on Phra to save him, and the -god placed a river between the brothers, so that when day dawned Anepou -might hear the truth. At sunrise Satou tells his story, and, mutilating -himself, he says that he will leave Anepou and go to the valley of the -cedar, in the cones of which he will deposit his heart, "so that if the -tree be cut his heart will fall to the earth, and he must die." - -For us the value of these folk-tales lies in the relics of barbaric -notions concerning the nature of man and his relation to external things -which they preserve. They have amused our youth-hood; they may instruct -our manhood. But if we go to the solar mythologists for their -interpretation, we shall learn from Sir G. W. Cox that the "magician -Punchkin and the heartless giant are only other forms of the Panis who -steal bright treasures from the gleaming west," that "Balna herself is -Helen shut up in Ilion ... the eagles the bright clouds,"[76] and from -Professor de Gubernatis that the duck is the dawn and the egg the sun. - -These venerable tales have a larger, richer meaning than this, expressive -of the wonder deep-seated in the heart of man. Like the "drusy" cavity in -granite rock which, when broken open, reveals beautiful prisms of topaz -and beryl, the folk-tales disclose under analysis that thought, now -crystallised, which confuses ideas and objects, illusions and realities, -substances and shadows. - - -§ IX. - -BARBARIC AND CIVILISED NOTIONS OF THE SOUL'S NATURE. - -In proof of the closing remarks in § VII., that the breath has given the -chief name to the soul, we find the Western Australians using the same -word, _waug_, for "breath, spirit, soul"; in Java the word _nawa_ is used -for "health, life, soul"; in the Dakota tongue _niya_ is literally -"breath," figuratively "life"; in Netela _piuts_ is "breath" and "soul"; -in Eskimo _silla_ means "air" and "wind," and is also the word that -conveys the highest idea of the world as a whole, and of the reasoning -faculty. The supreme existence they call _Sillam Innua_, Owner of the Air, -or of the All; in the Yakama tongue of Oregon _wkrisha_ signifies "there -is wind," _wkrishwit_, "life"; with the Aztecs _ehecatl_ expressed "air, -life, and the soul," and, personified in their myths, it was said to have -been born of the breath of Tezcatlipoca, their highest divinity, who -himself is often called Yoalliehecatl, the Wind of Night.[77] This -identity of wind with breath, of breath with spirit, and thence of spirit -with the Great Spirit, which - - "Sees God in clouds, and hears Him in the wind," - -has further illustration in the legends of the Quiches, in which the -unknown creative power is Hurakan, a name familiar to us under the form -_hurricane_, and in our own sacred records, where the advent of the Holy -Spirit is described "as of a rushing mighty wind." In the Mohawk language -_atonritz_, the "soul," is from _atonrion_, "to breathe"; whilst, as -showing the analogy between the effects of restricted sense and restricted -civilisation, Dr. Tylor quotes the case of a girl who was a deaf-mute as -well as blind, and who, when telling a dream in gesture language, said: -"I thought God took away my breath to heaven." Among the higher languages -the same evidence abides. - - "The spirit doth but mean the breath." - -That word _spirit_ is derived from a verb _spirare_, which means "to draw -breath." _Animus_, "the mind," is cognate with _anima_, "air"; in Irish, -which belongs to the same family of speech as Latin, namely, the Aryan or -Indo-European, we have _anal_, "breath," and _anam_, "life," or "soul"; -and in Sanskrit we find the root _an_, to "blow" or "breathe," whence -_anila_, "wind," and in Greek _anemos_, with the like meaning. In -Hampole's _Ayenbite of Inwyt_, _i.e._ "Prick or Remorse of Conscience," a -poem of the fourteenth century, we find _ande_ or "breath" used as "soul." - - "Thus sall ilka saul other se (_i.e._ in the other world) - For nan of tham may feled be - Na mar than here a man, ande may - When it passes fra his mouthe away."[78] - -The Greek _psyche_, _pneuma_, and _thymos_, each meaning "soul" and -"spirit," are from roots expressing the wind or breath. In Slavonic the -root _du_ has developed the meaning of breath into that of soul or spirit, -and the dialect of the gipsies has _duk_ with the meanings of breath, -spirit, ghost. That word _ghost_, the German _geist_, the Dutch _geest_, -from a root meaning "to blow with violence," is connected with _gust_, -_gas_, _geyser_; in Scandinavian, _glösor_, "to pour forth." In non-Aryan -languages, as the Finnish, _far_ means "soul, breath, spirit, wind"; -_henki_, "spirit, person, breath, air"; the Hebrew _nephesh_, "breath," -has also the meanings of "life, soul, mind"; and _ruach_ and _neshamah_, -to which the Arabic _nefs_ and _ruh_ correspond, pass from meaning -"breath" to "spirit." The legend of man's creation records that he became -a living soul through God breathing into his nostrils "the breath of -life," and concerning this the Psalmist says of all that live, "Thou -takest away their breath, they die, and return unto the dust." As a final -illustration, the Egyptian _kneph_ has the alternative meanings of "life" -and "breath."[79] - -When we pass from names to descriptions, we find the same underlying idea -of the ethereal nature of spirit. The natives of Nicaragua, California, -and other countries remote from these, agree in describing the other self -as air or breeze, which passes in and out through the mouth and nostrils. -The Tongans conceived it as the aëriform part of the body, related to it -as the perfume to the flower. The Greenlanders describe it as pale and -soft, as without flesh and bone, so that he who tries to seize it grasps -nothing. The Lapps say that the ghosts are invisible to all but the -Shamans. The Congo negroes leave the house of the dead unswept for a year, -lest the dust should injure the delicate substance of the ghost; and the -German peasants have a saying that a door should not be slammed, lest a -soul gets pinched in it. In some parts of Northern Europe, when the -wind-god, Odin, rides the sky with his furious spectral host, the peasants -open the windows of every sick-room that the soul of the dying may have -free exit to join the wild chase; whilst both here and in France it is -still no uncommon practice to open doors and windows that the soul may -depart quickly. Dr. Tylor[80] cites a passage from Hampole, in which the -author speaks of the intenser suffering which the soul undergoes in -purgatory by reason of its delicate organisation. - - "The soul is more tendre and nesche (soft) - Than the bodi that hath bones and fleysche; - Thanne the soul that is so tendere of kinde, - Mote nedis hure penaunce hardere-y-finde, - Than eni bodi that evere on live was," - -a doctrine clearly due to Patristic theories of incorporeal souls. And a -modern poet, Dante Rossetti, in his _Blessed Damozel_, when he describes -her as leaning out from the gold bar of heaven and looking down towards -the earth, that "spins like a fretful midge," whence she awaits the coming -of her lover, depicts the souls mounting up to God as passing by her "like -thin flames." The Greeks and, following them, the Romans, conceived the -soul as of thin, impalpable texture, as exhaled with the dying breath, or, -as in Homer, rushing out through the wound that causes the warrior's -death. In the metaphysical Arabian romance of Yokdhan, the hero seeks the -source of life and thought, and discovers in one of the cavities of the -heart a bluish vapour, which was the living soul. Among the Hebrews it was -of shadowy nature, with echoless motion, haunting a ghostly realm: - - "It is a land of shadows; yea, the land - Itself is but a shadow, and the race - That dwell therein are voices, forms of forms." - -Such conceptions are but little varied; and, to this day, the intelligence -of the major number of people who think about the thing at all presents -the departing soul as something vaporous, as a little white cloud. - -In keeping with such ideas, the belief in transfer of spirit expresses -itself. Algonquin women who desired to become mothers flocked to the couch -of those about to die, in hope that the vital principle as it passed from -the body would enter theirs. Among the Seminoles of Florida, when a woman -died in childbirth, the infant was held over her face to receive her -parting spirit, and thus acquire strength and knowledge for its future -use. So among the Tákahlis, the priest is accustomed to lay his hand on -the head of the nearest relative of the deceased, and to blow into him the -soul of the departed, which is supposed to come to life in his next -child.[81] - -In Harland and Wilkinson's _Lancashire Folk-lore_ it is related that while -a well-known witch lay dying, "she must needs, before she could 'shuffle -off this mortal coil,' transfer her _familiar spirit_ to some trusty -successor. An intimate acquaintance from a neighbouring township was -consequently sent for in all haste, and on her arrival was immediately -closeted with her dying friend. What passed between them has never fully -transpired, but it is asserted that at the close of the interview this -associate _received the witch's last breath into her mouth, and with it -her familiar spirit_. The powers for good or evil of the dreaded woman -were thus transferred to her companion, and on passing along the road from -Burnley to Blackburn we can point out a farmhouse at no great distance, -with whose thrifty matron no neighbouring farmer will yet dare to -quarrel." When a Roman lay at the point of death, his nearest relative -inhaled the last breath; in New Testament story, the risen Jesus breathes -on His disciples, that they may receive the Holy Spirit, and the form thus -adopted in conferring supernatural grace is still used in the rites and -ceremonies of the Catholic Church. - -Speculation about the other self could not, however, stop at identifying -it with a man's breath or shadow, or with regarding it as absolutely -impalpable. These nebulous and gaseous theories necessarily condensed, as -it were, into theories of semi-substantiality still charged with ethereal -conceptions, but giving embodiment to the soul to account for the -appearances of both dead and living in dreams, when their persons were -clasped, their forms and features seen, and their voices heard. - -Such theories involve a kind of continuity of identity, and often take the -form of belief in the soul as a replica of the body, and as suffering -corresponding mutilation. When the native Australian has slain his foe, he -cuts off his right thumb, so as to prevent him from throwing a shadowy -spear; the Chinese dread of decapitation, lest their spirits are headless, -is well known; but a more telling illustration is that cited by Dr. Tylor, -from Waitz, of the West Indian planter, whose slaves sought refuge from -the lash and toil in suicide. But he was too cunning for them; he cut off -the heads and hands of the corpses, that the survivors might see that not -even death could save them from a taskmaster who could maim their souls in -the next world. Among advanced nations the same conceptions survived. -Achilles, resting by the shore, sees the dead Patroclus in a dream. "Ay -me, there remaineth then, even in the house of Hades, a spirit and phantom -of the dead, albeit the life be not anywise therein; for all night long -hath the ghost of hapless Patroclus stood over me, wailing and making -moan, and wondrous like his living self it seemed."[82] Virgil portrays -Æneas, and Homer describes Ulysses, as recognising their old comrades -when they enter the "viewless shades," where the dwellers continue the -tasks of their earthly life. In Hebrew legend Saul recognises the shade of -Samuel when the magic spell of the Witch of Endor evokes it, although the -grave of the old "judge" was sixty miles away. The monarch-shades of -"Sheol" hail with derision the entrance of the King of Babylon among them. -In New Testament narrative the risen Jesus is alternately material and -spiritual, now passing through closed doors, and now submitting his -wound-prints to the touch of the doubter. In _Hamlet_ the ghost is as "the -air, invulnerable," yet "like a king" ... - - "... that fair and warlike form - In which the majesty of buried Denmark - Did sometimes march." - -Notions of material punishments and rewards involved notions of a material -soul, even pending its reunion with the body at the general resurrection. -The angels are depicted as weighing souls in a literal balance, while -devils clinging to the scales endeavour to disturb the equilibrium.[83] In -some frescoes of the fourteenth century, on the walls of the Campo Santo, -at Pisa, illustrations of these notions abound; the soul is portrayed as a -sexless child rising out of the mouth of the corpse, and eagerly awaited -as the crown of rejoicing of the angels, or as the lawful prey of the -demons. After this it is amusing to learn that extreme tests of the -weight of ghosts are now and then forthcoming,[84] from the assertion of a -Basuto divine that the late queen had been bestriding his shoulders, and -he never felt such a weight in his life, to the alleged modern -spiritualistic reckoning of the weight of a human soul at from three to -four ounces! And do not spirit-photographs adorn the albums of the -credulous? - - -§ X. - -BARBARIC BELIEF IN SOULS IN BRUTES AND PLANTS AND LIFELESS THINGS. - -More graceful is the conception which makes the soul spring up as a flower -or cleave the air as a bird. It is, of course, the purified survival of -the primitive thought which did not limit its belief in an indwelling -spirit to man, but extended it to brutes and plants, and even to lifeless -things. For the lower creatures manifested the phenomena from which the -belief in spirits in higher creatures was inferred. They moved and -breathed, their life ceased with their breath; they cast shadows and -reflections; their cries, which to the savage seemed so like human -speech,[85] awakened echoes; and they appeared in dreams. Among the -western tribes of North America the phantoms of all animals are supposed -to go to the happy beasts' grounds, and in Assam the ghosts of those slain -become the property of the hunter who kills them; whilst the custom of -begging pardon of the animal before or after despatching it, as among the -Red Indians, who even put the pipe of peace in the dead creature's mouth, -further evidences to barbarian belief in beast-souls. Although the belief -in the immortality of brutes has now no place in serious philosophy, it -has been a favourite doctrine from the Kamchadales, who believe in the -after-life of flies and bugs, to the eminent naturalist Agassiz, who -advocates the doctrine in his _Essay on Classification_; and in a list of -4977 books on the nature and future of the soul given in Mr. Alger's -elaborate critical history of the subject, nearly 200 deal with the -after-life of animals. The advocates have often felt the difficulty of -granting this after-life to man and denying it to creatures to which he -stands so closely related in ultimate community of origin; but science, -while it finds links of sympathy with the ideas of rude races respecting -the common life of all that moves, and presents evidence in support of the -common destiny, lends no support to the doctrine of the immortality of -oysters. The custom of apologising to doomed brutes is practised in regard -to plants. If they exhibit the phenomena of life in a lesser degree, -enough are shown to justify the accrediting of them with souls. Besides -flinging wavy shadows and reflections (and it cannot be too often enforced -that to the barbaric intelligence motion is a prime sign of life), they -are not voiceless. Murmurs are heard in their leaves; sounds echo from -their hollow trunks, or tremble, Æolian-like, through their branches; and -in their juices are the sources of repose or frenzy. - -"The Ojibways believed that trees had souls, and in pagan times they -seldom cut down green or living trees, for they thought it put them to -pain. They pretended to hear the wailing of the trees when they suffered -in this way. On account of these noises, real or imaginary, trees have had -spirits assigned them, and worship offered to them. A mountain-ash, in the -vicinity of South Ste. Marie, which made a noise, had offerings piled up -around it. If a tree should emit from its hollow trunk or branches a sound -during a calm state of the atmosphere, or should any one fancy such -sounds, the tree would be at once reported, and soon come to be regarded -as the residence of some local god."[86] As expressed in Greek myth, -purified in this case from grosser elements, we have the Dryades, who were -believed to die together with the trees in which their life had begun to -be, and in which they had dwelt. As expressed in folk-lore and its poetic -forms, it is in the growth or blossoming of flowers, or the intertwining -of branches, that the idea survives. In the ballad of "Fair Margaret and -Sweet William"-- - - "Out of her brest there sprang a _rose_, - And out of his a _briar_; - They grew till they grew unto the church-top, - And there they tyed in a true lover's knot;"[87] - -in the story of "Tristram and Ysonde," "from his grave there grew an -eglantine which twined about the statue, a marvel for all men to see; and, -though three times they cut it down, it grew again, and ever wound its -arms about the image of the fair Ysonde;"[88] while the conception often -lends itself to the poet's thoughts, from Laertes' words over Ophelia:-- - - "Lay her i' the earth, - And from her fair and unpolluted flesh - May violets spring," - -to Tennyson's - - "And from his ashes may be made - The violet of his native land." - -In Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_ a number of illustrations are supplied of -the vagaries of popular imagination, which picture the soul as a bird -flying out of a dead person's mouth, and, as a cognate example from rude -culture, we find a belief among the Powhatans that "a certain small wood -bird received the souls of their princes at death, and they religiously -refrained from doing it harm; while the Aztecs and various other nations -thought that all good people, as a reward of merit, were metamorphosed at -the close of life into feathered songsters of the grove, and in this form -passed a certain term in the umbrageous bowers of Paradise."[89] But many -pages might be filled with examples of varying conceptions of the soul, -the major number of which (for the idea of it as a mouse, snake, etc., -must not be forgotten) have as their nucleus its ethereal nature and -freedom from the limitations of solid earth, although round that nucleus -gather some more concrete ideas for the mind, desiring something more -substantial than symbols, to grasp. The belief that inanimate things as -well as animals and plants have a dual being is not so obvious at first -sight, and yet, given the reasons for the latter, there are as good -grounds, because like in kind, for the former. The Algonquins told Father -Charlevoix that "since hatchets and kettles have shadows, as well as men -and women, it follows that these shadows must pass along with human -shadows into the spirit-land." When the tools or weapons are injured or -done with, their souls must cross the water to the Great Village, where -the sun sets. Besides, spears and pots and pans, as well as men and dogs, -appear in dreams; they throw shadows and images in the water, they give -forth a sound when struck, and, as the Fijians also argue, "if an animal -or plant die, its soul goes to Bolotoo; if a stone or anything else is -broken, it has its reward there; nay, has equal good luck with men and -hogs and yams. If an axe or a chisel is worn out or broken up, away flies -its soul for the service of the gods." Logically, the savage who believes -that in the other world - - "The hunter still the deer pursues, - The hunter and the deer a shade," - -must put in the hands of the one a shadow spear. So when an Ojibway -chief, after a four days' trance, gave an account of his visit to the land -of shadows, he told of the hosts whom he had met travelling there laden -with pipes and kettles and weapons. These primitive ideas explain, once -and for all, matters which have too often been explained by fanciful -theories, or cited as evidences of the benighted condition of those places -which on missionary maps of the world are painted black. They disclose the -reason why food and utensils and weapons were broken and buried with the -dead; why fires were lighted round the grave; why animals were slain on -the death of a chief; why the Greenlanders, when a child dies, bury a dog -with him, because the dog, they say, is able to find his way anywhere; why -North American Indian mothers in pathetic custom drop their milk on the -lips of the dead child; and why, what seemed so inexplicable to the early -missionaries to the East, ignorant of the practice of widow-sacrifice -among the ancient peoples of the West, as the Gauls, Teutons, and others, -wives and slaves were burned on the funeral pyre. Among the Mexicans -sometimes a very rich man would even have his chaplain slaughtered, that -he might not be deprived of his support in the other world. - -In their initial stage all these gifts are made, all these rites -performed, for the supposed need of the dead. Every one had his _manes_, -which followed him into the next world, and, lacking which, he would be as -poor as if in this world he had lacked it. The spiritual counterpart of -the offerings was consumed by his spirit, just as the old deities were -thought to enjoy the sweet-smelling savour of the burnt sacrifices; the -fires were kindled that the soul might not grope about in darkness. So the -obolus was put into the mouth of the dead, that its _manes_ might be -payment to Charon for the ferry of the Styx, as money is put in the -corpse's hand or mouth among the German and Irish peasants to this day; so -the warrior's horse was slain at his tomb and the armour laid therein, -that he might enter Valhalla riding, and clothed with the tokens of his -right to the abode reserved for those who had fallen in battle. - -Any explanation of customs like the foregoing, persistent as they are in -kind, however varying in expression, is defective which does not take into -account what large part the emotions play in all that is connected with -death, and how they infuse such customs with vitality. The bereaved refuse -to believe that those whom they have lost have no more concern in the -interests of life once common and dear to both. As among the Dakotas, when -a mother feels a pain at her breast, they say that her dead child is -thinking of her. The place where the body lies becomes the connecting link -between it and the soul which is still the solicitude and care, or, it may -be, the dread of the living; succouring and protecting, or, on the other -hand, avenging. - -The element of dread undoubtedly comes into play early. The awe which we -feel in the presence of death, or in passing in the dark through a -churchyard, takes in the savage the form of terror. The behaviour of the -ghost in dreams, its ability to do what men still in the flesh cannot do, -quicken the belief in occult power, and the desire to propitiate it. Among -the Lapps red-hot stones are cast behind the coffins of the dead, and -their graves fenced round to prevent their return to earth. The articles -placed in the grave as gifts for the dead become sacrifices laid on the -altar to appease malignant spirits; the mound or tomb becomes a temple, -and awe passes by easy degrees into worship. The prevalence in one form or -another of ancestor-worship has, as remarked already, led Mr. Spencer to -the conclusion that it is the rudimentary form of all religions; even sun, -moon, volcano, river, etc., being feared and adored because they were -believed to be the dwelling-places of ancestral ghosts. The facts are -against this theory. It is to the larger, the more impressive phenomena of -the natural world, the sun in noontide strength and splendour, the -lightning and the thunder, that we must look for the primary causes which -awakened the fear, the wonder, and the adoration in which lie the germs of -the highest religions. Such causes are not only sufficient, but more -operative on the undeveloped intelligence than the belief in ancestral -spirits of the mountain and the sea, which involves a more complex mental -action.[90] The one is contributory, but subordinate, to the other. It is, -as M. Réville remarks, "the phenomena of nature regarded as animated and -conscious that wake and stimulate the religious sentiments, and become -the objects of the adoration of man.... If nature-worship, with the -animism that it engenders,[91] shapes the first law to which nascent -religion submits in the human race, anthropomorphism furnishes the second, -disengaging itself ever more and more completely from the zoomorphism -which generally serves as an intermediary. This is so _everywhere_."[92] - - -§ XI. - -BARBARIC AND CIVILISED NOTIONS ABOUT THE SOUL'S DWELLING-PLACE. - -The existence of the ghost-soul or other self being unquestioned, the -inquiry follows, where does it dwell? Like the trolls of Norse myth, who -burst at sunrise, the flitting spirit vanishes in the light and comes with -the darkness; but what places does it haunt when the quiet of the night is -unbroken by its intrusion, and where are they? - -The answers to these are as varied as the vagaries of rude imagination -permit. We must not expect to find any theories of the soul's prolonged -after-existence among races who have but a dim remembrance of yesterday, -and but a hazy conception of a to-morrow. Neither, among such, any -theories of the soul abiding in a place of reward or punishment, as the -result of things done in the body. Speaking of the heaven of the Red man, -Dr. Brinton remarks that "nowhere was any well-defined doctrine that moral -turpitude was judged and punished in the next world. No contrast is -discoverable between a place of torment and a realm of joy; at the worst -but a negative castigation awaited the liar, the coward, or the niggard." -Ideas of a devil and a hell are altogether absent from the barbaric mind, -since it is obvious that any theory of retribution could arise only when -man's moral nature had so developed as to awaken questions about the -government of the universe, and to call another world into existence to -redress the wrongs and balance the injustices of this. His earliest -queries were concerned with the whereabouts of the soul more than with its -destiny, and it was, and still is, among the lower races, thought of as -haunting its old abode or the burial-place of its body, and as acting very -much as it had acted when in the flesh. The shade of the Algonquin hunter -chases the spirits of the beaver and the elk with the spirits of his bow -and arrow, and stalks on the spirits of his snow-shoes over the spirit of -the snow. Among the Costa Ricans the spirits of the dead are supposed to -remain near their bodies for a year, and the explorer Swan relates that -when he was with the North-Western Indians he was not allowed to attend a -funeral, lest he offended the spirits hovering round; whilst the Indians -of North America often destroy or abandon the dwellings of the dead, the -object being to prevent the ghost from returning, or to leave it free so -to do. But it is needless to multiply illustrations of a belief which has -been persistent in the human mind from the dawn of speculation about the -future of the soul to the present day. The barbarians who think that the -spirits of the dead move and have their being near the living, join them -on their journeys, and sit down, unseen visitants, at their feasts (to be -driven off, as among the Eskimos, by blowing the breath), are one with the -multitudes of folks in Europe and America who, sorrowing over their dead, -think of them as ministering with unfelt hands, and as keenly interested -in their concerns. - - "We meet them at the doorway, on the stair, - Along the passages they come and go, - Impalpable impressions on the air, - A sense of something moving to and fro." - -The Ojibway, who detects their tiny voices in the insect's hum, and thinks -of them as sheltering themselves from the rain by thousands in a flower, -as sporting by myriads on a sunbeam, is one with the Schoolmen who -speculated on the number of angels that could dance on a needle's point, -and with Milton in his poetic rendering of the belief of his time, that - - "Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth - Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep." - -The Hottentot who avoids a dead man's hut lest the ghost be within, is one -with the believers in haunted houses, in banshees, wraiths, and spectres. -Such as he should not be excluded as "corresponding members" of the -Society for Psychical Research in the invitations[93] which its committee -issues to folks who have seen apparitions, and slept, or tried to sleep, -in the dreaded chamber of some moated hall of mystery. - -If we look in vain for any consistency of idea or logical relation in -barbaric notions, our wonder ceases at the absence of these when we note -the conflicting conceptions entertained among intelligent people. But the -underlying thought is identical. The examples given in a foregoing section -on the belief in the passage of the soul into other human bodies, into -animals and stones, strengthened as this is by the likeness in mind and -body between children and dead relatives, by the human expression noted on -many a brute, by the human shape of many a stone, show how the theory of -the soul as nigh at hand finds many-sided support. In this belief, too, -lie the germs of theories of successive transmigrations elaborated in the -faiths of advanced races, when the defects of body and character were -explained as the effects of sin committed in a former existence. - -Next in order of conception appears to be that of the soul as living an -independent existence, an improved edition of the present, in an under or -upper world, into which the dead pass without distinction of caste or -worth. - -The things dreamed about respecting the land of spirits and their -occupations are woven of the materials of daily life. Whether to the -sleeping barbarian in his wigwam, or to the seer banished in Patmos; -whether to the Indian travelling in his dreams to the happy -hunting-ground, or to the apostle caught up in trance into paradise; -earth, and earth alone, supplies the materials out of which man everywhere -has shaped his heaven. Her dinted and furrowed surface; valleys and -mountain-tops; islands sleeping in summer seas, or fretted by winter -storms; cities walled and battlemented; glories of sunrise and sunset; -gave variety enough for play of the cherished hopes and imaginings of men. -If we collect any group of barbaric fancies, we find, speaking broadly, -that a large proportion have pictured the home of souls as in the west, -towards the land of the setting sun. Seen from many a standpoint to sink -beneath river, lake, or ocean, which for untutored man enclosed his world, -it led to the myth of waters of death dividing earth from heaven, which -the soul, often at perilous risk, must cross. Such was the Ginnunga-gap of -the Vikings; the nine seas and a half across which travellers to Manala, -the under-world of the Finns, must voyage; the great water of the Red -Indians; the Vaitarani of the Brahmans; the Stygian stream of the Greeks; -and the Jordan of the Christians, that flows between us and the Celestial -City, "where the surges cease to roll." The sinking of the sun below the -horizon obviously led to belief in an under-world, whither the ghosts -went. Barbaric notions are full of this, and the lower culture out of -which their beliefs arose is evidenced in the Orcus of the Romans, the -Hades of the Greeks, the Helheim of the Norsemen, the Sheol of the -Hebrews, and the Amenti of the Egyptians, the solar features of which last -are clearly traceable in their doctrine. Among the Hebrews, Sheol -(translated, curiously enough, thirty-one times as "grave," and thirty-one -times as "hell," in our Authorised Version) was a vast cavernous space in -which the shades of good and bad alike wandered--"the small and great are -there, and the servant is free from his master." It is akin in character -to the Greek Hades, where they "wander mid shadows and shade, and wail by -impassable streams." As ideas of a Divine rule of the world grew, its -manifestations in justice were looked for, and the mystery of iniquity, -the wicked "flourishing like a green bay tree," led to the conception of a -future state, in which Lazarus and Dives would change places. Sheol thus -became, on the one hand, a land of delight and repose for the faithful, -and, on the other hand, one of punishment for the wicked. - -Persian, and still older, influences had largely leavened Hebrew -conceptions, and local conditions in Judea added pungent elements. The -Valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna, "the place where lie the corpses of those -who have sinned against Jehovah, where their worm shall not die, neither -their fire be quenched;" the dreary volcanic region around the Dead Sea, -with its legend of doomed cities, supplied their imagery of hell with its -lake of fire and brimstone. And, as the belief travelled westward, it fell -into congenial soil. The sulphurous stench around Lacus Avernus, the smoke -of Vesuvius, Stromboli, and Etna, wreathed themselves round the hell of -Christianity and the under-world of barbaric myth; and from Talmudic -writer to classic poet, to Dante and to Milton, the imagination exhausted -the material of the horrible to describe the several tortures of the -damned. The hell of our northern forefathers remained below the flat -earth, but the cold, misty Niflheim melted away before the fiery perdition -of Christian dogma. And, in the region bordering thereon, the _limbus -patrum_, the _limbus infantum_, etc., we have the survival of belief in -separate hells characteristic of the Oriental religions, and of the -sub-divisions of the lower world in more rudimentary religions. - -Beyond the narrow horizon which bounded the world of the ancients, lay the -imaginary land of the immortals, the Blessed, the Happy, the Fortunate -Isles. But as that horizon enlarged, the Elysian Fields and Banquet Halls -were transferred to an upper sphere. In the wonder aroused by the -firmament above, with its solid-looking vault across which sun, stars, -and clouds traversed; in the place it plays in dreams of barbarian and -patriarch, when the sleeper is carried thither; in its brightness of -noonday glory as contrasted with the dark sun-set under-world, we may find -some of the materials of which the theory of an upper world, a heaven -("the heaved") is made up. There the barbarian places his paradise to -which the rainbow and the Milky Way are roads; there he meets his kindred, -and lives where cold, disease, and age are not, but everlasting summer and -summer fruits. There, too, for the conceptions of advanced races are drawn -from the same sources, the civilised peoples of Europe and America have -placed their heaven. And, save in refinement of detail incident to -intellectual growth, there is nothing to choose between the earlier and -the later; the same gross delights, the same earth-born ideas are there, -whether we enter the Norseman's Valhalla, the Moslem's Paradise, or the -Christian's New Jerusalem. - - -§ XII. - -CONCLUSIONS FROM THE FOREGOING. - -It would exceed the limits and purport of this book to follow the -extension of the belief in spirits to its extreme range; in other words, -to belief in controlling spirits in inanimate objects, which were advanced -_pari passu_ with man's advancing conceptions to place and rank as the -higher gods of polytheism. Such belief, as already indicated, is the -outcome of that primitive philosophy which invests the elements above and -the earth beneath with departmental deities, until, through successive -stages of dualism, the idea of a Supreme Deity is reached, and the -approach is thus made towards a conception of the unity and unvarying -order of nature. Deferring reference to the part played by dreams as media -of communication between heaven and earth, and as warnings of coming -events, let us summarise the evidence which has been gathered, and ask -whether it warrants the conclusions drawn from it in the present work. - -It has been shown that races have existed, and exist still, at so low a -level that their scanty stock of words has to be supplemented by gestures, -rendering converse in the dark next to impossible. Such people are -bewildered by any effort to count beyond their fingers; they have no idea -of the relation of things, or of their differences; they have no power of -generalisation by which to merge the accidental in the essential. They -believe that their names and likenesses are integral parts of themselves, -and that they can be bewitched or harmed through them at the hands of any -one who knows the one or has obtained the other. As an important result of -their confusion between the objective and the subjective, we find a vivid -and remarkable belief in the reality of their dreams. The events which -make up these are explained only on the theory that if the body did not -move from its sleeping place, something related to it did, and that the -people, both living and dead, who appeared in dream and vision, did in -very presence come. The puzzle is solved by the theory of a second self -which can leave the body and return to it. For the savage knows nothing of -_mind_. The belief in this other self is strengthened (possibly more or -less created) by its appearance in shadow or reflection, in mocking echo, -in various diseases, especially fits, when the sufferer is torn by an -indwelling foe, and writhes as if in his merciless grasp. The belief in -such a ghost-soul, as to the form and ethereal nature of which all kinds -of theories are started, is extended to animals and lifeless things, since -like evidence of its existence is supplied by them. The fire that destroys -his hut, the wind that blows it down, the lightning that darts from the -clouds and strikes his fellow-man dead beside him, the rain-storm that -floods his fields, the swollen river that sweeps away his store of -food--these and every other force manifest in nature add their weight to -the inferences which rude man has drawn. The phenomena which have -accounted for the vigour of life and the prostration of disease account -for the motion of things in heaven above and the earth beneath, and the -barbaric mind thus enlarges its belief in a twofold existence in man to a -far-reaching doctrine of spirits everywhere. Step by step, from ghost-soul -flitting round the wigwam to the great spirits indwelling in the powers of -nature, the belief in supernatural beings with physical qualities arises, -until the moral element comes in, and they appear as good and evil gods -contending for the mastery of the universe. Passing by details as to the -whereabouts of the other self and its doings and destiny in the other -world which the dream involves, and following the order of ideas on -scientific lines, two queries arise:-- - -1. Does the evidence before us suffice to warrant the conclusions drawn -from it as to the serious and permanent part which dreams have played in -the origin and growth of primitive belief in spirits; in short, of belief -in supernatural agencies from past to present times? In this place the -answer is brief. Of course the antecedent conditions of man's developed -emotional nature, and of the universe of great and small, which is the -field of its exercise, are taken for granted. - -The general animistic interpretation which man gives to phenomena at the -outset expressed itself in the particular conceptions of souls everywhere, -of which dreams and such-like things supplied the raw material. If they -did not, what did? Denying this, we must fall back on a theory of -intuition or on revelation. As to the former, it begs the whole question; -as to the latter, can that which is itself the subject of periodical -revision be an infallible authority on anything? - -If dreams, apparitions, shadows, and the like, are sufficing causes, then, -in obedience to the Law of Parsimony (as it is termed in logic), we need -not invoke the play of higher causes when lower ones are found competent -to account for the effects. If it seems to some that the base is too -narrow, the foundation too weak for the superstructure, and that our -metaphysics and our beliefs regarding the invisible rest upon something -wider and stronger than the illusions of a remote savage ancestry, the -facts of man's history may be adduced as witness to his continuous passage -into truth through illusions; to the vast revolutions and readjustments -made in his correction of the first impressions of the senses. There is -not a belief of the past, from the notions of savages about their dreams -and ghost-world to those of more advanced races about their spirit-realms -and its occupants, to which this does not apply. In the more delicate -observations of the astronomer he must, when estimating the position of -any celestial body, take into account its apparent displacement through -the refractive properties of the atmosphere, and must also allow for -defects of perception in himself due to what is called "personal -equation." And in ascertaining our place in the scale of being, as well as -in seeking for the grounds of belief concerning our own nature, we have to -take into account the refracting media of dense ignorance and prejudice -through which these beliefs have come, and to allow for the confirming -error due to personal equation--fond desire. The result will be the -vanishing of illusions involving momentous changes in psychology, ethics, -and theology. Instead of groping among mental phenomena for explanations -of themselves, they will be analysed by the methods already indicated. -Instead of resting the authority for moral injunctions on innate ideas of -right and wrong, and on inspired statutes and standards, it will rest on -the accredited, because verifiable, experience of man. Instead of finding -incentives to, or restraints on, conduct by operating on men's hope of -future reward, or fear of hell as "hangman's whip to keep the wretch in -order," they will be supplied by an ever-widening sense of duty, quickened -by love and loyalty to a supreme order, in obedience to which the ultimate -happiness of humanity in the life that is will be secured. - -In this, and not in theories of an hereafter whose origin and persistence -are explained, will man find his satisfaction, and the springs of motive -to whatever is ennobling, lovely, and of good report. With the poet, who, -laying bare the sources of the unrest of his time, has led us to the -secret of its peace, he will ask-- - - "Is it so small a thing - To have enjoyed the sun, - To have lived light in the spring, - To have loved, to have thought, to have done, - To have advanced true friends, and beat down baffling foes-- - That we should feign a bliss - Of doubtful future date, - And while we dream on this, - Lose all our present state, - And relegate to worlds yet distant our repose?"[94] - -2. Does the theory of evolution in its application to the development of -the spiritual nature of man, and to the origin and growth of ideas, find -any breach of continuity? In its inclusion of him as a part of nature, in -accounting for his derivation from pre-human ancestry by a process of -natural selection, and in its proofs of his unbroken development from the -embryo to adult life, it embraces the growth and development of mind and -all that mind connotes. In the words of Professor Huxley, "As there is an -anatomy of the body, so there is an anatomy of the mind; the psychologist -dissects mental phenomena into elementary states of consciousness, as the -anatomist resolves limbs into tissues, and tissues into cells. The one -traces the development of complex organs from simple rudiments; the other -follows the building up of complex conceptions out of simpler constituents -of thought. As the physiologist inquires into the way in which the -so-called 'functions' of the body are performed, so the psychologist -studies the so-called 'faculties' of the mind. Even a cursory attention to -the ways and works of the lower animals suggests a comparative anatomy and -physiology of the mind; and the doctrine of evolution presses for -application as much in the one field as in the other."[95] - -Any coherent explanation of the operations of nature was impossible while -man had no conception or knowledge of the interplay of its several parts. -Now, by the doctrine of continuity, not only are present changes referred -to unvarying causes, but the past is interpreted by the processes going on -under our eyes. We can as easily calculate eclipses backward as forward; -we can learn in present formations of the earth's crust the history of the -deposition of the most ancient strata; we read in a rounded granite pebble -the story of epochs, the fire that fused its organic or inorganic -particles, the water that rubbed and rolled it; we reconstruct from a few -bones the ancestry of obscure forms, and find in the fragments the missing -links that connect species now so varied. And the like method is applied -to man in his _tout ensemble_. His development is not arbitrary; what he -is is the expansion of germs of what he was. - -Till these latter days he has, on the warrant of legends now of worth only -as witnesses to his crude ideas, presumed on an isolated place in -creation, and excepted his race from an inquiry made concerning every -creature beneath him. The pride of birth has hindered his admission of -lineal connection between the beliefs of cultured races and the beliefs of -savages, and pseudo-scientific writers still confuse issues by assuming -distinctions between races to whom spiritual truths have been revealed and -races from whom these truths have been withheld. But the only tenable -distinction to be drawn nowadays is between the scientific and -pre-scientific age in the history of any given race. - -In these times, when many run to and fro, and knowledge is increased, we -forget how recent are the tremendous changes wrought by the science that-- - - "Reaches forth her arms - To feel from world to world, and charms - Her secret from the latest moon." - -Dulled by familiarity, we forget how operative these changes are upon -opinions which have been--save now and again by voices speedily -silenced--unquestioned during centuries. It is, in truth, another world to -that in which our forefathers lived. Even in science itself the revolution -wrought by discoveries within the last fifty years is enormous. Our old -standard authorities, especially in astronomy and geology, are now of -value only as historical indices to the progress of those sciences, while -in the domain of life itself the distinctions between plant and animal, -assumed under the terms Botany and Zoology, are effaced and made one under -the term Biology. Sir James Paget, in a profoundly interesting address on -_Science and Theology_, has pointed out that it was once thought profane -to speak of life as in any kind of relation or alliance with chemical -affinities manifest in lifeless matter; now, the correlation of all the -forces of matter is a doctrine which investigation more and more confirms. -It was believed--many believe it still--that an impassable chasm separates -the inorganic from the organic, the latter being attained only through -operations of a "vital force" external to matter. That chasm is imaginary. -Even the supposed difference between plants and animals in the existence -in the latter of a stomach by which to digest and change nutritive -substances, vanishes before the experiments on carnivorous plants. And not -only do the observations of Mr. Darwin go far to show the existence of a -nervous system in plants, but examination of crystals shows that a "truly -elemental pathology must be studied in them after mechanical injuries or -other disturbing forces." And is man, "the roof and crown of things," to -witness to diversity amidst this unity? - -If we hesitate to believe that our metaphysics have been evolved from -savage philosophy, that our accepted opinions concerning man's nature and -destiny are but the improved and purified speculations of the past, we -must remember what long years had elapsed before the spirit of science -arose and breathed its air of freedom on the human mind. The Christian -religion wrought no change in the attitude of man towards the natural -world; it remained as full of mystery and miracle to the pagan after his -conversion as before it. When that religion was planted in foreign soil it -had, as the condition of its thriving, to be nourished by the alien -juices. It had to take into itself what it found there, and it found very -much in common. Although it displaced and degraded the _Dii majores_ of -other faiths, it had its own elaborated order of principalities and -powers; it had as real a belief in demons and goblins as any pagan; and it -was, therefore, simply a question of baptizing and rechristening the -ghost-world of heathendom, substituting angels for swan-maidens and elves, -devils for demons, and retaining unchanged the army of evil agencies, who -as witches and wraiths swarmed in the night and wrought havoc on soul and -body. - -The doctrine of continuity admits no exceptions; it has no "favoured -nation" clause for man. Its teaching is of order, not confusion; of -gradual development, not spasmodic advance; of banishment of all -catastrophic theories in the interpretation of the history of man as of -nature. In its exposition nothing is "common or unclean;" nothing too -trivial for notice in study of the growth of language, of law, of social -customs and institutions, of religion, or of aught else comprised in the -story of our race. The nursery rhyme and the "wise saw" embody the serious -belief of past times; ceremonial rites and priestly vestments preserve the -significance and sacredness gathering round the common when it becomes -specialised. And in this belief in spiritual powers and agencies within -and without, the line uniting the lower and the higher culture is -unbroken. Nor can it be otherwise, if it be conceded that the sources of -man's knowledge do not transcend his experience, and that within the -limits of this we have to look for the origin of all beliefs, from the -crudest animism to the most ennobling conceptions of the Eternal. - - "This world is the nurse of all we know, - This world is the mother of all we feel." - -And yet we find this denied by professed scientists, whose minds are -built, as it were, in water-tight compartments. The theistic philosopher, -trembling at the bogey of human automatism, creates an Ego, "an entity -wherein man's nobility essentially consists, which does not depend for its -existence on any play of physical or vital forces, but which makes these -forces subservient to its determinations."[96] The biologist, shrinking -from the application of the theory of evolution to the descent of man, -argues that "his animality is distinct in nature from his rationality, -though inseparably joined during life in one common personality." His body -"was derived from pre-existing materials, and therefore, only derivatively -created; that is, by the operation of secondary laws." His soul, on the -other hand, was created in quite a different way, not by any pre-existing -means external to God Himself, but by the direct action of the Almighty -symbolised by the term "breathing."[97] As this compound nature of man is -defended in a scientific treatise, the question that leaps to the lips is, -When did the inoculating action take place?--in the embryonic stage, or at -birth, or at the first awakenings of the moral sense? - -Readers of that eccentric book, _The Unseen Universe_, published some -eight years ago, may remember that the authors built up a spiritual body -whose home lay beyond the visible cosmos.[98] Their argument was to the -following effect:--Just as light is held to result from vibrations of the -ether set in motion by self-luminous or light-reflecting bodies, so every -thought occasions molecular action in the brain, which gives rise to -vibrations of the ether. While the effect of a portion of our mental -activity is to leave a permanent record on the matter of the brain, and -thus constitute an organ of memory, the effect of the remaining portion is -to set up thought-waves across the ether, and to construct by these means, -in some part of the unseen universe, what may be called our "spiritual -body." By this process there is being gradually built up, as the resultant -of our present activities, our future selves; and when we die our -consciousness is in some mysterious way transferred to the spiritual body, -and thus the continuity of identity is secured. - - "Eternal form shall still divide - Th' eternal soul from all beside." - -We may well quote the ancient words: "If they do these things in a green -tree, what shall be done in the dry?" The physicists, who thus locate the -soul in limitless space, and call it vibrations; the mathematician, who -said it must be extension; and the musician, who said, like Aristoxenus, -that it was harmony; the Cartesian philosopher, who locates it in the -pineal gland; the Costa Rican, who places it in the liver; the Tongans, -who make it co-extensive with the body; and the Swedenborgians, who assume -an underlying, inner self pervading the whole frame--these have met -together, the lower and the higher culture have kissed each other. - -The tripartite division of man by the Rabbis, the Platonists, the -Paulinists, the Chinese, the mediæval theories of vegetal, sensitive, and -rational souls; what are these but the "other self" of savage philosophy -writ large? Plato's number is found among the Sioux: of their three souls -one goes to a cold place, another to a warm place, and the third stays to -guard the body. Washington Matthews, in his _Ethnology and Philology of -the Hidatsa Indians_, says:--"It is believed by some of the Hidatsa that -every human being has four souls in one. They account for the phenomena of -gradual death, when the extremities are apparently dead while -consciousness remains, by supposing the four souls to depart, one after -another, at different times. When dissolution is complete, they say that -all the souls are gone, and have joined together again outside the body. I -have heard a Minsutaree quietly discussing this doctrine with an -Assinneboine, who believed in only one soul to each body." - -Let it not be thought that because science explains the earth-born origin -of some of man's loftiest hopes, she makes claim to have spoken the last -word, and forbids utterance from any other quarter. The theologian is not -less free to assume such miraculous intervention in man's development as -marks him nearer to the angel than to the ape, only his assumptions lie -beyond the scope of scientific inquiry. And it should be noted that whilst -science takes away, she gives with no niggard hand, so that the loss is -more seeming than real. - -When belief in the earth's central and supreme place in the universe was -surrendered at the bidding of astronomy, there was compensation in the -revelation of a universe to which thought can fix no limits. And if man -is bidden to surrender belief in his difference in kind from other living -creatures, he will be given the conception of a collective humanity whose -duties and destiny he shares. That conception will not be the destruction, -but the enlargement, of the field of the emotions, and, in contrasting the -evanescence of the individual with the permanence of the race, he may find -a profounder meaning in the familiar words-- - - "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, - And our little life is rounded with a sleep." - - -§ XIII. - -DREAMS AS OMENS AND MEDIA OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN GODS AND MEN. - -Reference has now to be made to the part played by dreams as supposed -channels of communication between heaven and earth; as portents, omens, -etc. The common belief among the nations of antiquity that they were sent -by the gods, and the like belief lurking in the minds of the superstitious -to this day, are the scarcely-altered survivals of barbaric confusion -respecting them. - -When man had advanced from the earlier stages of undefined wonder and -bewilderment concerning the powers around and above him to anthropomorphic -conceptions of them, _i.e._ to making them in his own image, the events of -his dreams were striking confirmation of his notions about the constant -intervention of spiritual beings, gods, chiefs, and ancestors, in the -affairs of life. That personal life and will with which the rude -intelligence invests the objects of its awe; waving trees, swirling -waters, drifting clouds, whirling winds, stately march of sun and star, -seemed especially manifest in dreams and visions. In their unrelated and -bewildering, or, on the other hand, their surpassingly clear, incidents, -the powers indwelling in all things seemed to come nearer than in the less -sensational occurrences of the day, uttering their monitions, or making -known their will. They were the media by which this and that thing was -commanded or forbidden, or by which guidance and counsel and knowledge of -the future were given. To induce them, therefore, became a constant -effort. The discovery that fasting is a certain method of procuring them -is one reason of its prevalence in the lower culture. Amongst all the -indigenous races of North America abstinence has been practised as a chief -means of securing supernatural inspiration. The Redskin, to become a -sorcerer or to secure a revelation from his _totem_, or the Eskimo, to -become _Angekok_, will endure the most severe privations. - -It is believed that whatever is seen in the first dream thus produced by -fasting becomes the manitou, or guardian spirit of life, corresponding to -the "daimon" of Socrates. And whoever by much fasting is favoured with -dreams, and cultivates the art of explaining them as bearing on the -future, becomes the feared and consulted "medicine man" of his tribe. His -_kee-keé-wins_, or records, are finally shown to the old people, who meet -together and consult upon them. They in the end give their approval, and -declare that he is gifted as a prophet, is inspired with wisdom, and is -fit to lead in the councils of the people.[99] - -Very slender data were needed for the conclusions first drawn from dreams; -let the death of a friend or foe be the incident, and the event happen; -let a hunting-path fill the half-torpid fancy, and a day's fasting follow; -let the mother of a young sportsman dream that she saw a bear in a certain -place, and the son, guided by her account, find the bear where indicated, -and kill it; the arbitrary relation is set up forthwith. As Lord Bacon -says, "Men mark the hits, but not the misses," and a thousand dreams -unfulfilled count as nothing against one dream fulfilled. Out of that is -shaped, as dream-lore shows, a canon of interpretation by which whole -races will explain their dreams, never staying, when experience happens to -confirm it, to wonder that the correspondences are not more frequent than -they are. Where the arbitrary act was wrought, the isolated or conflicting -influences manifest, there deity or demon was working. So the passage from -the crude interpretation of his dreams by the barbarian to the formal -elaboration of the dream-oracle is obvious. It was only one of many modes -by which the gods were thought to hold converse with man, and by which -their will was divined. It was one phase of that many-sided belief in -power for good or evil inhering in everything, and which led man to see -omens in the common events of life, in births, in the objects any one met -in a journey or saw in the sky; to divine the future by numbers, by the -lines in the hand, by the song and flight of birds (lurking in the word -_augury_), by the entrails of sacrificed men and animals.[100] Sometimes -the god sends the message through a spiritual being, an angel (literally -"messenger"); sometimes he, himself, speaks in vision, but more often -through the symbolism of both familiar and unfamiliar things. To interpret -this is a serious science, and skill and shrewdness applied therein with -success were passports to high place and royal favour. In this we have the -familiar illustrations of Joseph and Daniel, and, indeed, we need not -travel beyond the books of the Old Testament for abundant and varied -examples of the importance attached to dreams and visions, and of the -place accorded to dreams,[101] an importance undiminished until we come to -the literature of the centuries just before Christ. For example, in the -Book of Jesus the Son of Sirac, we read-- - - "Vain and deceitful hopes befit the senseless man, - And dreams make fools rejoice, - Like one who grasps at a shadow and chases the wind, - Is he who puts trust in dreams."[102] - -In the belief that through dreams and oracles Yahweh made known his will, -the influence of older beliefs and their literature is apparent. Among the -Accadians, a pre-Semitic race in Babylonia, there existed a mass of -treatises on magic and divination by dreams and visions, and both from -this and from Egyptian sources, blended with survivals from their barbaric -past, the Hebrews largely drew. - -In this, too, "there is nothing new under the sun." Homer, painting the -vividness and agonising incompleteness of the passing visions, affirms -that dreams from Jove proceed, although sometimes to deceive men; Plato -assigns prophetic character to the images seen in them; Aristotle sees a -divination concerning some things in dreams which is not incredible; the -answer to oracles was sought in them, as when the worshipper slept in a -temple on the skin of a sacrificed ram, and learned his destiny through -the dream that came. The Stoics argued that if the gods love and care for -men and are all-knowing, they will tell their purposes to men in sleep. -Cicero attaches high importance to the faculty of interpreting them; their -phenomena, like those of oracles and predictions, should, he contends, be -explained just as the grammarians and the commentators explain the -poets.[103] - -With the influence of these beliefs in the air, and with the -legend-visions of Scripture as authority, the divine origin of dreams -became a doctrine of the Christian Church. Tertullian says that "we -receive dreams from God, there being no man so foolish as never to have -known any dreams come true," and in his _De Anima_ reference is made to a -host of writers of dream treatises. For the most part they are but names; -their treatises have perished, but enough remains for the perusal of the -curious regarding ancient rules of interpretation and the particular -significance of certain dreams. The current views of dreams in classic -antiquity are believed to be partly embodied in the [Greek: Oneirokritika] -of Artemidorus of Ephesus, who flourished about the middle of the second -century, and who reduces dream interpretation to a body of elaborate -rules, while amongst Christian writers Synesius of Cyrene, who lived two -centuries later, holds a corresponding place. - -Both classic and patristic writers supply copious details concerning the -classes into which dreams were divided, and which have some curious -correspondences among the Oriental nations, as well as in our dream-lore, -_e.g._, when Artemidorus says that he who dreams he hath lost a tooth -shall lose a friend, we may compare with this a quotation which Brand -gives from the _Sapho and Phao_ of Lily, a playwright of the time of -Elizabeth. "Dreams have their trueth. Dreams are but dotings, which come -either by things we see in the day or meates that we eat, and so the -common-sense preferring it to be the imaginative. 'I dreamed,' says -Ismena, 'mine eyetooth was loose, and that I thrust it out with my -tongue.' 'It foretelleth,' replies Mileta, 'the loss of a friend; and I -ever thought thee so full of prattle that thou wouldst thrust out the best -friend with thy tatling.'" - -It is, however, needless to quote from Artemidorus and others of their -kin. They do but furnish samples of the ingenuity applied to profitless -speculations on matters which were fundamental then, and around which the -mind played unchecked and unchallenged. Moreover, the subtle distinctions -made between dreams in former times were slowly effaced, or sank to their -proper level in the gossip of chap books--our European _kee-keé-wins_. But -the belief in the dream as having a serious meaning, and in the spectral -appearances in visions as real existences, remained as strong as in any -barbarian or pagan. In an atmosphere charged with the supernatural, -apparitions and the like were matters of course, the particular form of -the illusion to which the senses testified being in harmony with the ideas -of the age. The devil does not appear to Greek or Roman, but he sorely -troubled the saints, unless their nerves were, like Luther's, strong -enough to overmaster him. Luther speaks of him as coming into his cell, -and making a great noise behind the stove, and of his walking in the -cloister above his cell at night; "but as I knew it was the devil," he -says, "I paid no attention to him, and went to sleep." Sceptics now and -again arose protesting against the current belief, but they were as a -voice crying in the desert. One Henry Cornelius Agrippa, in the fifteenth -century, a man born out of due time, says, "To this delusion not a few -great philosophers have given not a little credit, especially Democritus, -Aristotle, Sincsius, etc., so far building on examples of dreams, which -some accident hath made to be true, that thence they endeavour to persuade -men that there are no dreams but what are real." - -His words have not yet lost their purport. For the credulity of man, the -persistence with which he clings to the shadow of the supernatural after -having surrendered the substance, seem almost a constant quantity, varying -only in form. Unteachable by experience, fools still pay their guineas to -mediums to rap out inane messages from the departed, and send postage -stamps to the Astronomer Royal, asking him to "work the planets" for them, -and secure them luck in love and law-suits. Nor is there any cure for this -but in wise culture of the mind, wise correction, and wholesome control of -the emotions. "By faithfully intending the mind to the realities of -nature," as Bacon has it, and by living and working among men in a -healthy, sympathetic way, exaggeration of a particular line of thought or -feeling is prevented, and the balance of the faculties best preserved. -For, adds Dr. Maudsley, in pregnant and well-chosen words, "there are not -two worlds--a world of nature and a world of human nature--standing over -against one another in a sort of antagonism, but one world of nature, in -the orderly evolution of which human nature has its subordinate part. -Delusions and hallucinations may be described as discordant notes in the -grand harmony. It should, then, be every man's steadfast aim, as a part of -nature--his patient work--to cultivate such entire sincerity of relations -with it; so to think, feel, and act always in intimate unison with it; to -be so completely one with it in life, that when the summons comes to -surrender his mortal part to absorption into it, he does so, not -fearfully, as to an enemy who has vanquished him, but trustfully, as to a -mother who, when the day's task is done, bids him lie down to sleep." - - - - -INDEX. - - - Abipone, 15, 151, 156. - - Abraham, 135. - - Accadians, 134, 240. - - Æsop, 96. - - Agassiz, 208. - - Agni, 74. - - Agrippa, Cornelius, 243. - - Ahriman, 54. - - Alger, 208. - - Algonquins, 40, 43, 46, 91, 99, 110, 125, 167, 184, 203, 211, 216. - - Allah, 159. - - Ancestors, sun and moon as, 19. - worship of, 110, 112, 214. - - Ancient Stone Age, 8. - - Animal, descent from, 99. - worship, 110. - - Animals, transformation into, 81. - virtue in flesh of, 164. - souls in, 207. - - Apollo, 52. - - Arabian folk-tales, 196. - notion of soul, 202. - - Araucanians, 43, 163. - - Arnobius, 167. - - Arnold, Matthew, 14, 227. - - Art, primitive, 147. - - Artemidorus, 241. - - Arthur, King, 123. - - Aryan epics, 71. - - Aryan folk-tales, 70, 95. - languages, 67. - myths, 51, 76. - - Aryans, primitive home of, 69. - - Astrology, 33. - - Australians, 20, 26, 30, 99, 103, 150, 153, 157, 165, 179, 198, 205. - - Aztecs, 44, 199, 210. - - - Barbaric belief in dreams, 168-174. - belief in souls in brutes, etc., 207-213. - belief in virtue in lifeless things, 12, 160-168, 181. - confusion about names, 154-159. - cures for disease, 179. - dread of portrait-taking, 162. - language, 150. - notions of soul's abode, 215-222. - theory of disease, 174, 182. - theory of a soul, 182-187. - theory of soul's nature, 198-206. - - Baring Gould, 28, 84. - - Basutos, 184. - - Beast-fables, 94, 98. - - Beowulf, 52. - - Berserkr, 87. - - Bifröst, 33. - - Bird, soul as, 210. - wind as, 43-45. - - Body, soul apart from, 188. - soul as replica of, 205. - - Bohemian folk-tale, 195. - - Bonaparte, 64. - - Brain of man and ape, 144. - - Brand, 17, 166, 241. - - Brazilian Indians, 153, 156, 175. - - Breath, soul as, 187, 198 ff. - - Brébeuf, 165. - - Brinton, 45, 92, 101, 210. - - Brutes, souls in, 207. - - Bryant, 7. - - Buckle, 3. - - Buddha, 64. - - Buddhist fables (_see_ Jâtakas). - - Bunsen, 132. - - Bushmen, 13, 20, 26. - - - Cæsar, 106. - - Callaway, Bishop, 170. - - Campbell, J. F., 193. - - Cannibalism, 165. - - Cardinal points, symbol of, 44. - - Caribs, 167. - - Carpenter, Dr., 88, 232. - - Catlin, 162. - - Charlemagne, 125. - - Charles's Wain, 30. - - Charms, philosophy of, 164. - - Chasuble, 167. - - Chaucer, 28, 32. - - Child and savage, 14. - - Chimpanzee, brain of, 145. - - Chinese myth, 16, 36. - - Choctaws, 42, 184. - - Christian heaven, 220. - religion, 231. - - Cicero, 240. - - Civilised theories of soul's nature, 198, 203. - - Clan-totems, 107, 109. - - Cloud-serpent, 46. - - Clouds as cows, 51. - - Confession, 181. - - Congo Negroes, 202. - - Continuity, doctrine of, 228, 231. - - Coral, 166. - - Costa Ricans, 216, 234. - - Counting, savage, 153. - - Cox, Sir G. W., 37, 62, 75, 198. - - Crest, totem as, 108. - - Cronus, 35, 37. - - Cross as wind symbol, 44. - - _Custom and Myth_, 38. - - - Dakotas, 31, 46, 106, 175, 199, 213. - - Dammaras, 151. - - Darwin, 3, 230. - - Dasent, 91, 121. - - Dead, burial of food with, 212. - road of the, 32. - - Death, savage notion of, 186. - - Demons, 58, 178. - - Dennys, 15. - - Deodand, 15. - - Devil, 53, 56, 60. - as disease-bringer, 176. - - Disease, savage theory of, 89, 174 ff. - savage remedies for, 179. - - Doctrine of signatures, 166. - - Dorman, 42, 157, 209. - - Dragons, battles with, 52. - - Dreams as source of belief in soul, 183, 225. - - Dreams, duality in, 183. - savage belief in reality of, 168-174. - omens from, 236-242. - - Dyaks, 17, 25, 159, 171. - - Dyaus, 36, 74. - - - Earth as source of heaven-theories, 219. - - Earth-bearers, 40. - - Echo, soul as, 185. - - _Edda_, 15, 29, 33, 43, 52. - - Effigy, burning in, 16. - - Egg, world as, 38. - - Ego, the, 232. - - Egyptian folk-tale, 197. - - Epics, Aryan, 71. - - Epidemic delusions, 88. - - Eskimos, 30, 91, 153, 163, 179, 199, 217, 237. - - Esthonian myth, 39. - - Euhêmeros, 66. - - Eumenidês, 159. - - Evolution, 144. - of mind, 5, 228. - - Exile, Jewish, 134. - - Exogamy, 104. - - Eye-bright, 15, 166. - - - Fasting, 237. - - Fijians, 171, 177, 184, 211. - - Fingers in counting, 153. - - Finnish myth, 16, 32, 38, 43, 45, 121, 176, 196, 219. - - Finns, 159, 173. - - Fire myths, 47. - - Food, forbidden, 105. - - Foster, Thomas, 63. - - Frisian moon myth, 28. - - - Gaea, 35. - - Galton, 151. - - Gellert myth, 128. - - Gender, origin of, 22. - - _Gesta Romanorum_, 128. - - Giant with no heart in his body, 192. - - Gill, W. W., 20, 47, 177. - - Gladstone, W. E., 7. - - Gods, revelation from, through dreams, 239. - - Goldziher, 62, 64, 135. - - Greek myth, 33, 77. - notion of soul, 202. - - Greenlanders, 27, 164, 171, 201, 212. - - Grimm, 27, 30, 32, 55, 97, 178, 181, 201, 209, 210. - - Grimm's Law, 73. - - Grote, 14. - - - Hades, 220. - - Hall, Bishop, 18. - - Heaven, 19. - imagery of, 221. - and earth, myths of, 34. - - Hebrew myth, 33, 39, 64, 131-136. - notion of soul, 206. - - Hell, 220. - - Heraklês, 22, 31, 51, 63, 136. - - Hêrê, 31. - - Hiawatha, 158. - - Hidatsa Indians, 235. - - History, myth in, 114. - - _Hitopadesa_, 129. - - Holmes, 183. - - Homer, 240. - - Hottentot, 217. - - Huc, Father, 181. - - Hurricane, 199. - - Huxley, 145, 228. - - - Icelandic moon myth, 28. - - Iliad, 55, 64, 205. - - Ilmarine, 39. - - Im Thurn, 156, 171, 207. - - Inanimate things, criminality of, 15. - sex in, 24. - souls in, 211. - - Incas, 45. - - _Indian Fairy Tales_, 191. - - Indians, Columbian, 155. - Housatonic, 31. - North American, 13, 17, 21, 26, 30, 151, 156, 162, 164, 175, 199, 207, - 212, 216, 219, 235, 237. - of Guiana, 156, 171. - Selish, 27. - Western, 46, 107. - - Indra, 49, 53. - - Iroquois, 156, 165, 167. - - Isaac, 135. - - Islam, 33. - - - Jack and Jill, 28. - - Japanese myth, 40. - - Jâtakas, 27, 96, 129, 192. - - Jehovah, 159. - - Johnson, Dr., 183. - - Jonah, 136. - - - Kaffirs, 13, 164. - - _Kalevala_, 38. - - _Kalevipöeg_, 39. - - Kane, Dr., 155. - - Kasirs, 30. - - Kenaima, 175. - - Khasias moon myth, 27. - - Kinship, primitive, 102. - - Kirby, 196. - - Kuhn, 41. - - - Lancashire folk-lore, 177, 204. - - Lang, Andrew, 37, 166, 205. - - Lang, Dr., 157. - - Language, personification of, 24. - physical base of, 150. - primitive, 149. - - Languages, savage, 23. - limitations of, 150. - - Lapps, 156, 159, 201. - - Leland, 44. - - Lightning myths, 47. - - Lithuanian, 32. - - Living and not living, savage confusion between, 12, 160-168, 181. - - Llewellyn myth, 128. - - Lucretius, 169. - - Luther, 242. - - Lycanthropy, 83. - - Lyell, 145. - - - Malays, 150. - - Man, mental development of, 147, 228. - primitive interpretation of nature by, 10. - relation of, to nature, 4, 228. - savage and civilised, 144. - - Manacicas, 20. - - _Manes_, 212. - - Maoris, 34. - - Mapuches, 180. - - Marriage, primitive, 103. - - Maruts, 44, 53. - - Matthews, Washington, 235. - - Maudsley, Dr., 243. - - Maui, sun-catcher, 21. - fire-bringer, 47. - - M'Lennan, 102, 104. - - Medicine-men, 92, 99, 237. - - Melanesian, 166. - - Men-beasts, 86. - - Metamorphosis, 81. - - Metempsychosis, 82. - - Mexicans, 212. - - Milky Way, 31, 222. - - Mind, evolution of, 5, 228. - - Mivart, 233. - - Mohawk, 199. - - Mohicans, 150. - - Mongolian moon myth, 27. - - Mongols, 150. - - Moon, as mother, 25. - as sun's sister, 26. - man in the, 28. - myths, 10, 19, 20. - patches, 27. - - Moquis, 99, 102, 110. - - Müller, Max, 37, 49, 56, 62, 66, 68, 111, 158. - - Multiple souls, 234. - - Myth in history, 114. - origin of, 17. - primitive meaning of, 3, 10. - serious meaning in, 7. - solar theory of, 61-81. - value of study of, 138. - - Myths of Creation, 38. - earth-bearers, 40. - fire-stealers, 47. - heaven and earth, 34. - lightning, 47. - Milky Way, 31. - moon, 20, 27. - Northern Lights, 31. - rainbow, 32, 33. - stars, 30. - sun, 19, 21. - swallowing, 36. - wind, 42-45. - - - Names, savage dread of, 104. - savage confusion about, 154-159. - - Napoleon III., will of, 113. - - New Zealanders, 13, 15, 30, 158, 164. - - Niebuhr, 65. - - Nightmare, 171. - - Non-Aryan, brain of, 144. - races, languages of, 201. - - _Norse, Tales from the_, 192. - - Northern Lights, 31. - - - Odin, 30, 44, 202. - - Ogres, 44. - - Ojibways, 42, 110, 155, 209, 212, 217. - - _Old Deccan Days_, 188. - - Omens, dreams as, 236-242. - - Oracles, 240. - - Origin of gender, 22. - moon, 20. - myth, 7. - religion, 111. - sun, 19. - - Orion, 30. - - Ormuzd, 54. - - Other self, barbaric theory of, 183. - conceived as breath, 187, 199. - passage from within to without, 185. - - Ottawas, 31. - - Ouranos, 74. - - Ovid, 85. - - - Paget, Sir J., 230. - - _Panchatantra_, 129. - - Papa, 19, 34. - - Papuan, brain of, 145. - - Patagonians, 31. - - Persians, 25, 33, 57. - - Picture-writing, 107. - - Plant, descent from, 99. - - Plants, souls in, 208. - - Pleiades, 30. - - Pocahontas, 158. - - Polynesians, 38, 163. - - Prithivî, 36. - - Prytaneum, 15. - - Psychical Research, Society of, 217. - - Punchkin, 188 ff. - - - Quiches, 42, 199. - - - Ra, 21. - - Rae, Dr., 153. - - Rain, gender in, 25. - - Rainbow, 32. - - Ralston, 194. - - Rangi, 34. - - Religion, origin of, 111. - - Rénan, 132. - - Réville, 214. - - Reynard the fox, 97, 181. - - _Rig-Veda_, 44, 49, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80. - - Rink, Dr., 165. - - Road of the dead, 32. - - Roman notion of soul, 202. - - Rossetti, 17, 202. - - _Russian Folk-Tales_, 194. - - - St. George, 53. - - Saliva, virtue in, 16, 163. - - Samoan moon myth, 27. - - Samoyed folk-tale, 196. - - Samson, myth of, 137. - - San Graal, 126. - - Sanskrit, 72. - - Satan, 57. - - Savage and civilised man, 144. - belief in dreams, 168-174. - confusion between living and not living, 13, 160-168. - confusion between names and things, 105, 155. - cures for disease, 179. - interpretation of nature, 10. - languages, 23, 150. - mode of counting, 152. - theory of disease, 89, 174-182. - theory of soul, 182-187. - theory of soul's abode, 215-222. - theory of soul's nature, 198-207. - - Science, progress of, 230. - - Seminoles, 203. - - Semitic languages, 159. - myth, 132. - - Senses, illusions of the, 39, 226. - - Servian folk-tale, 195. - - Shadow, soul as, 184. - - Shawnee name myth, 157. - - Sheol, 206, 220. - - Sioux, 47, 162. - - Skulls, capacity of, 145. - - Slavonic sun myth, 26. - - Sleeping heroes, 124. - - Smith, Adam, 151. - - Sneezing, 177. - - Society Islanders, 150. - - Solar theory of myth, 61-81. - - Sonora Indians, 185. - - Sorcerers, 163. - - Soul, absence in disease, 178. - absence in dreams, 171. - as breath, 187, 199 ff. - as shadow, etc., 184. - barbaric theory of, 182-187, 225, 234. - dwelling-place of, 215-222. - in brutes, plants, etc., 207. - occupation of, 216. - tales of, apart from body, 188 ff. - theories of nature of, 198-207, 234. - transfer of, 203. - weight of, 207. - - South Sea Islanders, 158, 163, 185. - - Spencer, Herbert, 110, 149, 183, 214. - - Spirit as breath, 200. - - Spirits, offerings to, 213 (see also Soul). - - Star myths, 30. - - Stars as persons, 20, 25. - - Storm-gods, 44. - - Sun as ancestor, 19, 20. - as father, 25. - capture of, 21. - myths, 10, 19, 51. - - Swedenborgians, 234. - - Swift, Dean, 73, 166. - - - Taboo of names, 158. - - Tacitus, 16, 106. - - Tahitians, 158. - - Tákahlis, 203. - - _Talmud_, 178. - - Tasmanians, 150. - - Tatar folk-tale, 196. - - Tell myth, 116 ff. - - Tertullian, 241. - - Thor, 46, 52, 60. - - Thunder-bird, 46. - - To be, the verb, 151. - - Tools, primitive, 147. - - Toothache, 175, 179. - - Totemism, 99, 102, 237. - - Totems as badge, 107. - as crest, 108. - Red Indian, 100. - worship of, 110. - - Tongans, 19, 201, 234. - - Tonkanays, 92. - - Transformation, 85, 91. - - Treacle, 16. - - Tree, criminality of, 15. - - Trees, soul in, 209. - - Trench, Archbishop, 137. - - Troyes, Courts of, 15. - - Tylor, 14, 25, 65, 165, 199, 202, 205, 207. - - Tyrolese, 164. - - - Underworld, 220. - - _Unseen Universe_, 233. - - Uranus, 35. - - - Varuna, 74. - - Vatea, 19. - - _Vatnsdæla Saga_, 173. - - _Veda_ (see _Rig-Veda_). - - _Vinaya Pitaka_, 129. - - Vritra, 49, 53, 60. - - - Waitz, 205. - - Wandering Jew, 31. - - Water between earth and heaven, 219. - - Watling Street, 32. - - Werewolves, 84, 86, 91. - - West, soul abode in, 219. - - Whitney, 151. - - Wind, myths of, 42-45. - soul as, 199. - - Witchcraft, 58. - - Witches, 83, 91. - - World as egg, 38. - - Worship of ancestors, 110, 214. - - - Xomanes, 167. - - - Yahweh, 55, 57, 159. - - - _Zend-Avesta_, 54. - - Zeus, 33, 36, 55, 74, 85. - - Zoroaster, 56. - - Zulu, 170, 184. - - -THE END. - - -_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Buckle's work appeared in 1857, Darwin's in 1859. - -[2] Matthew Arnold, _Empedocles on Etna_. - -[3] Countess Cesaresco's _Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs_, p. 183. - -[4] _The Folk-Lore of China_, p. 52. - -[5] Mark vii. 33, John ix. 6. Cf. Tacitus, _Hist._ iv. 81--"A certain man -of the Alexandrian populace afflicted with wasted eyes kept imploring the -prince to deign to spatter saliva on his cheek and eyeballs." In Finnish -myth the demon Hiisi forms a huge snake from the spittle of a -fellow-demon. Cf. also Thomson's _Masai Land_, pp. 288-290. - -[6] Henderson's _Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties_, p. 229; cf. Horace, -_Sat._ i. 8, 30; Frazer's _Golden Bough_, i. 9; Scot's _Discoverie of -Witchcraft_, p. 208. - -[7] Grimm, _T. M._, 356, 357. - -[8] II. 427. - -[9] Page xvi. - -[10] _Custom and Myth_, pp. 49, 50. While these sheets are passing through -the press I am glad to take occasion to commend Mr. Lang's scholarly and -fascinating book to the reader. As an explanation of the survival of crude -and irrational elements in the myths of civilised races, it is a book to -be reckoned with by the advocates of the solar theory. - -[11] "And said the gods, let there be a hammered plate in the midst of the -waters, and let it be dividing between waters and waters." Gen. i. 6. The -verb from which the substantive is derived signifies, among other -meanings, "to beat out into thin plates." - -[12] Gen. viii. 2. - -[13] Gen. xxviii. 17. - -[14] Ezek. i. 1. - -[15] _Modern Painters_, iii. 154. - -[16] Dorman's _Primitive Superstitions_, p. 350. - -[17] Leland's _Algonquin Legends_, pp. 111, 204. - -[18] From Sans. _mar_, to "grind." Ares and Mars come from the same root. - -[19] _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iv. sc. 4. - -[20] In Finnish myth the dwarfs punish with pimples and ringworm those who -enter new houses without bowing to the four corners. - -[21] Both "pecuniary" and "fee" are, as established by Grimm's law, from -_pecu_. Latin _pecu-a_, pl. _pecus_, "cattle"; Sanskrit _paçu_, "cattle," -from _pac_, to fasten (that which is tied up, _i.e._ domestic cattle). Cf. -Skeats' _Etymol. Dict._ _in loc._ A.S. _feoh_ is cognate with German -_vich_, and the ideas these express occur in _ktema_, the Greek word for -"property," which Grimm derives from the verb _keto_, "to feed cattle." - -[22] Not the same as the Greek Heraklês. The similarity of name led the -Romans to identify their Hercules, who was a god of boundaries, like -Jupiter Terminus, with the Greek hero. _Cacus_ is not cognate with Greek -_kakos_, bad, but was originally _Cæcius_, the "blinder" or "darkener." - -[23] _Decline and Fall_, iii. 171; Emerson's _English Traits_, p. 123. - -[24] See Ralston's _Russian Folk-Tales_, p. 347, for similar Bulgarian -legend about St. George. - -[25] Haug's _Essays on the Parsis_, tr. Vendidâd, pp. 225 ff. - -[26] Cf. Isaiah xlv. 7, 1 Kings xxii. 21-23, Amos iii. 6. - -[27] _Iliad_, Book xxiv. 663 ff., and cf. Lang's tr., p. 494. - -[28] _Vide_ my _Jesus of Nazareth_, p. 144. - -[29] Notably _Tobit_ and _Baruch_, and cf. _Book of Wisdom_, ii. 24, for -earliest indications of the belief. The Asmodeus of _Tobit_, iii. 8 and -17, appears to be the Aeshmô dâevô of the Zend-Avesta. - -[30] Exodus xxii. 18. - -[31] For details of witch trials in this island cf. Mrs. Lynn Linton's -_Witch Stories_, passim. - -[32] _Knowledge Library._ - -[33] Vide _Chips_, ii. 1-146. - -[34] Cf. Professor Keane's Appendix to Sir A. C. Ramsay's _Europe_, p. 557 - -[35] Cf. "Little Saddlehurst" in Mr. Geldart's _Folk-Lore of Modern -Greece_, p. 27. - -[36] Cf. on this matter Whitney's _Oriental and Linguistic Studies_, p. -203. - -[37] _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, i. 108. - -[38] _Mental Physiology_, p. 315. - -[39] Spenser says-- - - "Such, men do _changelings_ call, so changed by fairies' theft." - -[40] An Algonquin legend begins: "In old times, in the beginning of -things, men were as animals and animals as men; how this was, no one -knows."--Leland's _Algonquin Legends_, p. 31. - -[41] And cf. Bourke's _Snake Dance of the Moquis_, passim. - -[42] Cf. Mahaffy's _Prolegomena to Ancient History_, p. 392. - -[43] Vol. i., Trübner and Co. See for some valuable illustrations from -early English and other sources an article by Rev. Dr. Morris, in -_Contemp. Rev._, May 1881, and the _Folk-Lore Journal_, 1884-85, for -translations of Jâtakas, also by Dr. Morris. - -[44] _Travels in N.W. and W. Australia_, ii. 229. - -[45] Bourke's _Snake Dance of the Moquis_, p. 136. - -[46] Cf. Art. "Family," _Encyclopædia Britannica_. - -[47] _De Bell. Gall._, v. c. 12. - -[48] _Elton's Origins of English History_, p. 297. - -[49] _Germania_, ix. 10. - -[50] _Principles of Sociology_, p. 413. - -[51] _Edinburgh Review_, Jan. 1869, p. 134. Article on Rilliet's "Origines -de la Confédération Suisse: Histoire et Légende." - -[52] _Times'_ telegram from Geneva, June 25, 1883. - -[53] Book x. p. 166. Cf. Baring Gould's _Curious Myths_, p. 117, and -Fiske's _Myths and Myth-makers_, p. 4. - -[54] Baring Gould, p. 119. - -[55] Cf. Prof. Rhys's _Arthurian Legend_, _passim_. - -[56] _Academy_, Nov. 17, 1877, p. 472. - -[57] _Mythology among the Hebrews, and its Historical Development_ -(London: Longmans), 1877. - -[58] _Goldziher_, p. 392 ff. - -[59] _Ibid._, p. 103. - -[60] The following paragraph from Professor Huxley's _Observations on the -Human Skulls of Engis and Neanderthal_ is extracted from Lyell's -_Antiquity of Man_, p. 89 (4th edition). - -"The most capacious healthy European skull yet measured had a capacity of -114 cubic inches, the smallest (as estimated by weight of brain) about 55 -cubic inches, while, according to Professor Schaaffhausen, some Hindu -skulls have as small a capacity as about 46 cubic inches (27 oz. of -water). The largest cranium of any gorilla yet measured contained 34.5 -cubic inches." - -Commenting on this paper Sir Charles Lyell remarks that "it is admitted -that the differences in character between the brain of the highest races -of man and that of the lowest, though less in degree, are of the same -order as those which separate the human from the Simian brain," and that -the statements of both Professor Huxley and Dr. Morton show "that the -range of size or capacity between the highest and lowest human brain is -greater than that between the highest Simian and the lowest human brain." - -[61] Spencer's _Principles of Sociology_, p. 147. - -[62] The peculiar feature of the Semitic languages is that the consonants -are everything and the vowels nothing, every word consisting, in the first -instance, merely of three consonants, which form, so to speak, the soul of -the idea to be expressed by that word. And as in ancient times the -consonants only were written, the name Jehovah appeared as JHVH. Its exact -pronunciation is utterly lost, and such veneration gathered round it, that -when the Jews came to it they substituted some other name--usually Adonai. -Afterwards, when vowels were added to the Hebrew text, those in Adonai, or -its phonetic form Edona, were inserted between the letters of the sacred -name, and thus JHVH was written Jehovah. - -[63] Rink's _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, p. 45. - -[64] Vide _Custom and Myth_; Art. "Moly and Mandragora," p. 146. - -[65] _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 85. - -[66] Dyers _Folk-Lore_, p. 179. - -[67] Arnobius _adv. Gentes._, v. 19. - -[68] _De rerum Natura_, Book iv. 453-468. - -[69] According to Professor Skeat, from A.S. _niht_, night; _mara_, lit. -"a crusher," from Aryan root, MAR, to crush. Cf. _Etymol. Dict._ - -[70] _Among the Indians of Guiana_, pp. 344-346. - -[71] W. G. Black: _Folk-Medicine_, p. 13. - -[72] _Teut. Mythol._, 1165. - -[73] Cf. Grimm, _Teut. Mythol._ 1177. - -[74] "Voilà autant de rapports que les Bouddhistes ont avec nous," adds -the traveller, for hinting at which analogies between Buddhists and -Catholics the Pope put his book on the Index. - -[75] In a Finnish legend, which is the subject of Southey's "Donica," a -maiden of that name moves about seemingly alive after her death in virtue -of a parchment as magic spell, which is fastened to her wrist, until a -sorcerer finds out the secret of the connection and unfastens the -parchment, when the counterfeit life departs. - -[76] _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, i. 140. - -[77] Brinton's _Myths of the New World_, p. 51 (second edition). - -[78] I am indebted to the Rev. Richard Morris for this reference. - -[79] Jacob Grimm remarks that whilst the more palpable breath, as spirit, -is masculine, the living, life-giving soul is treated as a delicate -feminine essence. _Soul_ is the Icelandic _sála_, German _seele_, Gothic -_saiwala_, akin to _saivs_, which means "the sea." _Saivs_ is from a root, -_si_, or _siv_, the Greek _seio_, to shake, and this choice of the word -_saivala_ may indicate that the ancient Teutons conceived of the soul "as -a sea within, heaving up and down with every breath, and reflecting heaven -and earth on the mirror of the deep."--_T. M._ p. 826. - -[80] _Prim. Culture_, i. 412. - -[81] _Brinton_, p. 271. - -[82] _Iliad_, xxiii. 103 (trans. Lang and others). - -[83] Cf. Lecky's _History of Rationalism_, i. 340. - -[84] _Prim. Culture_, i. 411. See _Soul Shapes_ (Fisher Unwin, 1890). - -[85] "To the ear of the savage, animals certainly seem even to talk. This -fact is universally evident, and ought to be fully realised."--Im Thurn's -_Guiana_, p. 351. - -[86] _Dorman_, pp. 287, 288. - -[87] Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_, p. 827. - -[88] Cox and Jones, _Popular Romances_, p. 139. - -[89] _Brinton_, p. 107. - -[90] Cf. _Ante_, pp. 110-114. - -[91] More correctly, "that engenders it." - -[92] _Hibbert Lectures_, 1884, pp. 39, 40. - -[93] The Society's advertisement is as follows:-- - -"THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE, APPARITIONS, etc.--The Society for Psychical -Research will be grateful for any good evidence bearing on such phenomena -as thought-reading, clairvoyance, presentiments, and dreams, noted at the -time of occurrence and afterwards confirmed; unexplained disturbances in -places supposed to be haunted; apparitions at the moment of death or -otherwise; and of such other abnormal events as may seem to fall under -somewhat the same categories. Communications to be addressed to E. Gurney, -14 Dean's Yard, S.W.; or to F. W. H. Myers, Leckhampton House, Cambridge. -Applications for information or for membership to be addressed to the -Secretary, at the Society's Offices, 14 Dean's Yard, S.W." - -[94] Matthew Arnold, _Empedocles on Etna_. - -[95] _Hume_, p. 50. - -[96] Dr. Carpenter's _Mental Physiology_, p. 27. - -[97] St. Geo. Mivart's _Genesis of Species_, p. 325. In the second edition -of this work Professor Mivart cites with satisfaction the authority of S. -Thomas Aquinas and of Cardinal Newman on the matter! - -[98] For criticism of this pseudo-scientific theory see Professor -Clifford's brilliant paper in _Lectures and Essays_, i. 228, ff.; and a -review of "The Unseen Universe" by the present writer, _Fraser's Mag._, -Jan. 1876. - -[99] The following Mohammadan recipe for summoning spirits is given in -Klunzinger's _Upper Egypt_. "Fast seven days in a lonely place, and take -incense with you, such as benzoin, aloeswood, mastic, and odoriferous wood -from Soudan, and read the chapter 1001 times (from the Koran) in the seven -days--a certain number of readings, namely, for every day one of the five -daily prayers. That is the secret, and you will see indescribable wonders; -drums will be beaten beside you, and flags hoisted over your head, and you -will see spirits full of light and of beautiful and benign aspect."--(P. -386). - -[100] In Roget's _Thesaurus_, sect. 511, a curious and instructive list of -terms expressive of the different forms of divination is given. - -[101] Numb. xii. 6; 1 Sam. xxviii. 6, 15, etc. - -[102] Chap. xxxiv. - -[103] Cf. _Ency. Brit._, Art. "Dreams." - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - -Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. - -The original text contains letters with diacritical marks that are not -represented in this text version. - -The original text includes Greek characters that have been replaced with -transliterations in this text version. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths and Dreams, by Edward Clodd - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS AND DREAMS *** - -***** This file should be named 43813-8.txt or 43813-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/8/1/43813/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - -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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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: Myths and Dreams - -Author: Edward Clodd - -Release Date: September 26, 2013 [EBook #43813] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS AND DREAMS *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - - +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43813 ***</div> <p class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></p> @@ -7182,385 +7143,7 @@ terms expressive of the different forms of divination is given.</p> <p><a name='f_103' id='f_103' href='#fna_103'>[103]</a> Cf. <i>Ency. Brit.</i>, Art. “Dreams.â€</p> - - - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths and Dreams, by Edward Clodd - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS AND DREAMS *** - -***** This file should be named 43813-h.htm or 43813-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/8/1/43813/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - -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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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: Myths and Dreams - -Author: Edward Clodd - -Release Date: September 26, 2013 [EBook #43813] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS AND DREAMS *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - - - - -MYTHS AND DREAMS - - - - - MYTHS AND DREAMS - - - BY EDWARD CLODD - - AUTHOR OF - 'THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD,' - 'THE STORY OF CREATION,' ETC. - - - _SECOND EDITION, REVISED_ - - - London - CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY - 1891 - - - - -TO RICHARD A. PROCTOR, B.A., - -AUTHOR OF 'THE SUN,' 'OTHER WORLDS,' ETC., EDITOR OF 'KNOWLEDGE.' - -MY DEAR PROCTOR--The best gifts of life are its friendships, and to you, -with whom friendship has ripened into fellowship, and under whose -editorial wing some of the chapters of this book had temporary shelter, I -inscribe them in their enlarged and independent form. - - Yours sincerely, - EDWARD CLODD. - - - - -PREFACE. - - -The object of this book is to present in compendious form the evidence -which myths and dreams supply as to primitive man's interpretation of his -own nature and of the external world, and more especially to indicate how -such evidence carries within itself the history of the origin and growth -of beliefs in the supernatural. - -The examples are selected chiefly from barbaric races, as furnishing the -nearest correspondences to the working of the mind in what may be called -its "eocene" stage, but examples are also cited from civilised races, as -witnessing to that continuity of ideas which is obscured by familiarity or -ignored by prejudice. - -Had more illustrations been drawn from sources alike prolific, the -evidence would have been swollen to undue dimensions without increasing -its significance; as it is, repetition has been found needful here and -there, under the difficulty of entirely detaching the arguments advanced -in the two parts of this work. - -Man's development, physical and psychical, has been fully treated by Mr. -Herbert Spencer, Dr. Tylor, and other authorities, to whom students of the -subject are permanent debtors, but that subject is so many-sided, so -far-reaching, whether in retrospect or prospect, that its subdivision is -of advantage so long as we do not permit our sense of inter-relation to be -dulled thereby. - -My own line of argument will be found to run for the most part parallel -with that of the above-named writers; there are divergences along the -route, but we reach a common terminus. - -The footnotes indicate the principal works which have been consulted in -preparing this book, but I desire to express my special thanks to Mr. -Andrew Lang for his kindness in reading the proofs, and for suggestions -which, in the main, I have been glad to adopt. - -E. C. - - ROSEMONT, TUFNELL PARK, - LONDON, _March 1885_. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PART I. - - MYTH: ITS BIRTH AND GROWTH. - - SECTION PAGE - - I. ITS PRIMITIVE MEANING 3 - - II. CONFUSION OF EARLY THOUGHT BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE - NOT LIVING 12 - - III. PERSONIFICATION OF THE POWERS OF NATURE 19 - (_a._) The Sun and Moon 19 - (_b._) The Stars 29 - (_c._) The Earth and Sky 34 - (_d._) Storm and Lightning, etc. 41 - (_e._) Light and Darkness 48 - (_f._) The Devil 53 - - IV. THE SOLAR THEORY OF MYTH 61 - - V. BELIEF IN METAMORPHOSIS INTO ANIMALS 81 - - VI. TOTEMISM: BELIEF IN DESCENT FROM ANIMAL OR PLANT 99 - - VII. SURVIVAL OF MYTH IN HISTORY 114 - - VIII. MYTH AMONG THE HEBREWS 131 - - IX. CONCLUSION 137 - - - PART II. - - DREAMS: THEIR PLACE IN THE GROWTH OF BELIEFS IN THE SUPERNATURAL. - - SECTION PAGE - - I. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SAVAGE AND CIVILISED MAN 143 - - II. LIMITATIONS OF BARBARIC LANGUAGE 148 - - III. BARBARIC CONFUSION BETWEEN NAMES AND THINGS 154 - - IV. BARBARIC BELIEF IN VIRTUE IN INANIMATE THINGS 160 - - V. BARBARIC BELIEF IN THE REALITY OF DREAMS 168 - - VI. BARBARIC THEORY OF DISEASE 174 - - VII. BARBARIC THEORY OF A SECOND SELF OR SOUL 182 - - VIII. BARBARIC PHILOSOPHY IN "PUNCHKIN" AND ALLIED STORIES 188 - - IX. BARBARIC AND CIVILISED NOTIONS OF THE SOUL'S NATURE 198 - - X. BARBARIC BELIEF IN SOULS IN BRUTES AND PLANTS AND - LIFELESS THINGS 207 - - XI. BARBARIC AND CIVILISED NOTIONS ABOUT THE SOUL'S DWELLING - PLACE 215 - - XII. CONCLUSIONS FROM THE FOREGOING 222 - - XIII. DREAMS AS OMENS AND MEDIA OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN GODS - AND MEN 236 - - INDEX 245 - - - - -I. - -MYTH: ITS BIRTH AND GROWTH. - - -"Unchecked by external truth, the mind of man has a fatal facility for -ensnaring, entrapping, and entangling itself. But, happily, happily for -the human race, some fragment of physical speculation has been built into -every false system. Here is the weak point. Its inevitable destruction -leaves a breach in the whole fabric, and through that breach the armies of -truth march in." - -Sir H. S. MAINE. - - -MYTH: ITS BIRTH AND GROWTH. - - -Sec. I. - -ITS PRIMITIVE MEANING. - -It is barely thirty years ago since the world was startled by the -publication of Buckle's _History of Civilisation_, with its theory that -human actions are the effect of causes as fixed and regular as those which -operate in the universe; climate, soil, food, and scenery being the chief -conditions determining progress. - -That book was a _tour de force_, not a lasting contribution to the -question of man's mental development. The publication of Darwin's -epoch-making _Origin of Species_[1] showed wherein it fell short; how the -importance of the above-named causes was exaggerated and the existence of -equally potent causes overlooked. Buckle probably had not read Herbert -Spencer's _Social Statics_, and he knew nothing of the profound revolution -in silent preparation in the quiet of Darwin's home; otherwise, his book -must have been rewritten. This would have averted the oblivion from which -not even its charm of style can rescue it. Its brilliant but defective -theories are obscured in the fuller light of that doctrine of descent with -modifications by which we learn that external circumstances do not alone -account for the widely divergent types of men, so that a superior race, in -supplanting an inferior one, will change the face and destiny of a -country, "making the solitary place to be glad, and the desert to rejoice -and blossom as the rose." Darwin has given us the clue to those subtle and -still obscure causes which bring about, stage by stage, the unseen -adaptations to requirements varying a type and securing its survival, and -which have resulted in the evolution of the manifold species of living -things. The notion of a constant relation between man and his surroundings -is therefore untenable. - -But incomplete as is Buckle's theory, and all-embracing as is Darwin's, so -far as organic life is concerned, the larger issue is raised by both, and -for most men whose judgment is worth anything it is settled. Either man is -a part of nature or he is not. If he is not, there is an end of the -matter, since the materials lie beyond human grasp, and cannot be examined -and placed in order for comparative study. Let Christian, Brahman, -Bushman, and South Sea Islander each hold fast his "form of sound words" -about man's origin. One is as good as another where all are irrational and -beyond proof. But if he is, then the inquiry concerning him may not stop -at the anatomy of his body and the assignment of his place in the -succession of life on the globe. His relation, materially, to the -simplest, shapeless specks of living matter; structurally, to the highest -and more complex organisms, is demonstrated; the natural history of him is -clear. This, however, is physical, and for us the larger question is -psychical. The theory of evolution must embrace the genesis and -development of mind, and therefore of ideas, beliefs, and speculations -about things seen and unseen. - -In the correction of our old definitions a wider meaning must be given to -the word _myth_ than that commonly found in the dictionaries. Opening any -of these at random we find myth explained as fable, as something -designedly fictitious, whether for amusement only, or to point a moral. -The larger meaning which it holds to-day includes much more than this--to -wit, the whole area of intellectual products which lie beyond the historic -horizon and overlap it, effacing on nearer view the lines of separation. -For the myth, as fable only, has no place for the crude fancies and -grotesque imaginings of barbarous races of the present day, and of races -at low levels of culture in the remote past. And so long as it was looked -upon as the vagrant of fancy, with no serious meaning at the heart of it, -and as corresponding to no yearning of man after the truth of things, -sober treatment of it was impossible. But now that myth, with its prolific -offspring, legend and tradition, is seen to be a necessary travailing -through which the mind of man passed in its slow progress towards -certitude, the study and comparison of its manifold, yet, at the centre, -allied forms, and of the conditions out of which they arose, takes rank -among the serious inquiries of our time. - -Not that the inquiry is a new one. The limits of this book forbid detailed -references to the successive stages of that inquiry--in other words, to -the pre-Christian, patristic, and pseudo-scientific theories of myth which -remained unchallenged, or varied only in non-essential features, till the -rise of comparative mythology. But apology for such omission here is the -less needful, since the list of ancient and modern vagaries would have the -monotony of a catalogue. However unlike on the surface, they are -fundamentally the same, being the products of non-critical ages, and one -and all vitiated by assumptions concerning gods and men which are to us as -"old wives' fables." - -In short, between these empirical theories and the scientific method of -inquiry into the meaning of myth there can be no relation. Because, for -the assigning of its due place in the order of man's mental and spiritual -development to myth, there is needed that knowledge concerning his origin, -concerning the conditions out of which he has emerged, and concerning the -mythologies of lower races and their survival in unsuspected forms in the -higher races, which was not only beyond reach, but also beyond conception, -until this century. - -Except, therefore, as curiosities of literature, we may dismiss the -Lempriere of our school-days, and with him "Causabon"-Bryant and his -symbolism of the ark and traces of the Flood in everything. Their keys, -Arkite and Ophite, fit no lock, and with them we must, in all respect be -it added, dismiss Mr. Gladstone, with his visions of the Messiah in -Apollo, and of the Logos in Athene. - -The main design of this book is to show that in what is for convenience -called _myth_ lie the germs of philosophy, theology, and science, the -beginnings of all knowledge that man has attained or ever will attain, and -therefore that in myth we have his serious endeavour to interpret the -meaning of his surroundings and of his own actions and feelings. In its -unbroken sequence we have the explanation of his most cherished and now, -for the most part, discredited beliefs, the persistence of which makes it -essential and instructive not to deal with the primitive myth apart from -its later and more complex phases. Myth was the product of man's emotion -and imagination, acted upon by his surroundings, and it carries the traces -of its origin in its more developed forms, as the ancestral history of the -higher organisms is embodied in their embryos. Man wondered before he -reasoned. Awe and fear are quick to express themselves in rudimentary -worship; hence the myth was at the outset a theology, and the gradations -from personifying to deifying are too faint to be traced. Thus blended, -the one as inevitable outcome of the other, they cannot well be treated -separately, as if the myth were earth-born and the theology heaven-sent. -And to treat them as one is to invade no province of religion, which is -quite other than speculation about gods. The awe and reverence which the -fathomless mystery of the universe awakens, which steal within us unbidden -as the morning light, and unbroken on the prism of analysis; the -conviction, deepening as we peer, that there is a Power beyond humanity, -and upon which humanity depends; the feeling that life is in harmony with -the Divine order when it moves in disinterested service of our kind--these -theology can neither create nor destroy, neither verify nor disprove. They -can be bound within no formula that man or church has invented, but -undefined - - "Are yet the fountain life of all our day, - Are yet a master light of all our seeing." - -At what epoch in man's history we are to place the development of the -myth-making faculty must remain undetermined. It is of course coincident -with the dawn of thought. We cannot credit the nameless savage of the -Ancient Stone Age with it. If he had brains and leisure enough to make -guesses about things, he has left us no witness of the fact. His relics, -and those of his successors to a period which is but as yesterday in the -history of our kind, are material only; and not until we possess the -symbols of his thought, whether in language or rude picture, do we get an -inkling of the meaning which the universe had for him, in the details of -his pitiless daily life, in the shapes and motions of surrounding -objects, and in the majesty of the heavens above him. Even then the -thought is more or less crystallised, and if we would watch it in the -fluent form we must have a keen eye for the like process going on among -savages yet untouched by the Time-spirit, although higher in the scale -than the Papuans and hill tribes of the Vindhya. Although we cannot so far -lull our faculty of thought as to realise the mental vacuity of the -savage, we may, from survivals nowadays, lead up to reasonable guesses of -savage ways of looking at things in bygone ages, and the more so when we -can detect relics of these among the ignorant and superstitious of modern -times. - -What meaning, then, had man's surroundings to him, when eye and ear could -be diverted from prior claims of the body, and he could repose from -watching for his prey, and from listening to the approach of wild beast or -enemy? He had the advantage, from greater demand for their exercise, in -keener senses of sight, hearing, smell, and touch, than we enjoy; nor did -he fail to take in facts in plenty. But there was this vital defect and -difference, that in his brains every fact was pigeon-holed, charged with -its own narrow meaning only, as in small minds among ourselves we find -place given to inane peddling details, and no advance made to general and -wide conception of things. In sharpest contrast to the poet's utterance: - - "Nothing in this world is single, - All things by a law divine - In one another's being mingle," - -every fact is unrelated to every other fact, and therefore interpreted -wrongly. - -Man, in his first outlook upon nature, was altogether ignorant of the -character of the forces by which he was environed; ignorant of that -unvarying relation between effect and cause which it needed the experience -of ages and the generalisations therefrom to apprehend, and to express as -"laws of nature." He had not even the intellectual resource of later times -in inventing miracle to explain where the necessary relation between -events seemed broken or absent. - -His first attitude was that of wonder, mingled with fear--fear as -instinctive as the dread of the brute for him. The sole measure of things -was himself, consequently everything that moved or that had power of -movement did so because it was alive. A personal life and will was -attributed to sun, moon, clouds, river, waterfall, ocean, and tree, and -the varying phenomena of the sky at dawn or noonday, at gray eve or -black-clouded night, were the manifestation of the controlling life that -dwelt in all. In a thousand different forms this conception was expressed. -The thunder was the roar of a mighty beast; the lightning a serpent -darting at its prey, an angry eye flashing, the storm demon's outshot -forked tongue; the rainbow a thirsty monster; the waterspout a long-tailed -dragon. This was not a pretty or powerful conceit, not imagery, but an -explanation. The men who thus spoke of these phenomena meant precisely -what they said. What does the savage know about heat, light, sound, -electricity, and the other modes of motion through which the -Proteus-force beyond our ken is manifest? How many persons who have -enjoyed a "liberal" education can give correct answers, if asked off-hand, -explaining how glaciers are born of the sunshine, and why two sounds, -travelling in opposite directions at equal velocities, interfere and cause -silence? The percentage of young men, hailing from schools of renown, who -give the most ludicrous replies when asked the cause of day and night, and -the distance of the earth from the sun, is by no means small. - -Whilst the primary causes determining the production of myths are uniform, -the secondary causes, due in the main to different physical surroundings, -vary, bringing about unlikeness in subject and detail. Nevertheless, in -grouping the several classes of myths, those are obviously to be placed -prominently which embrace explanations of the origin of things, from sun -and star to man and insect, involving ideas about the powers to whom all -things are attributed. But in this book no exhaustive treatment is -possible, only some indication of the general lines along which the -myth-making faculty has advanced, and for this purpose a few illustrations -of barbaric mental confusion between the living and the not living are -chosen at the outset. They will, moreover, prepare us for the large -element of the irrational present in barbaric myth, and supply a key to -the survival of this in the mythologies of civilised races. - - -Sec. II. - -CONFUSION OF EARLY THOUGHT BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE NOT LIVING. - -In selecting from the literature of savage mythology the material -overburdens us by its richness. Much of it is old, and, like refuse-heaps -in our mining districts once cast aside as rubbish but now made to yield -products of value, has, after long neglect, been found to contain elements -of worth, which patience and insight have extracted from its travellers' -tales and quaint speculations. That for which it was most prized in the -days of our fathers is now of small account; that within it which they -passed by we secure as of lasting worth. Much of that literature is, -however, new, for the impetus which has in our time been given to the -rescue and preservation of archaic forms has reached this, and a host of -accomplished collectors have secured rich specimens of relics which, in -the lands of their discovery, have still the authority of the past, -unimpaired by the critical exposure of the present. - -The subject itself is, moreover, so wide reaching, bringing the ancient -and the modern into hitherto unsuspected relation, showing how in customs -and beliefs, to us unmeaning and irrational, there lurk the degraded -representations of old philosophies, and in what seems to us burlesque, -the survivals of man's most serious thought. - -One feels this difficulty of choice and this temptation to digress in -treating of the confusion inherent in the savage mind between things -living and not living, arising from superficial analogies and its -attribution of life and power to lifeless things. The North American -Indians prefer a hook that has caught a big fish to the handful of hooks -that have never been tried, and they never lay two nets together lest they -should be jealous of each other. The Bushmen thought that the traveller -Chapman's big waggon was the mother of his smaller ones; and the natives -of Tahiti sowed in the ground some iron nails given them by Captain Cook, -expecting to obtain young ones. When that ill-fated discoverer's ship was -sighted by the New Zealanders they thought it was a whale with wings. The -king of the Coussa Kaffirs having broken off a piece of the anchor of a -stranded ship soon afterwards died, upon which all the Kaffirs made a -point of saluting the anchor very respectfully whenever they went near it, -regarding it as a vindictive being. But perhaps one of the most striking -and amusing illustrations is that quoted by Sir John Lubbock from the -_Smithsonian Reports_ concerning an Indian who had been sent by a -missionary to a colleague with four loaves of bread, accompanied by a -letter stating their number. The Indian ate some of the bread, and his -theft was, of course, found out. He was sent on a second errand with a -similar batch of bread and a letter, and repeated the theft, but took the -precaution to hide the letter under a stone while he was eating the -loaves, so that it might not see him! As the individual is a type of the -race, so in the child's nature we find analogy of the mental attitude of -the savage ready to hand. To the child everything is alive. With what -timidity and wonder he first touches a watch, with its moving hands and -clicking works; with what genuine anger he beats the door against which he -has knocked his head, whips the rocking-horse that has thrown him, then -kisses and strokes it the next moment in token of forgiveness and -affection. - - "As children of weak age - Lend life to the dumb stones - Whereon to vent their rage, - And bend their little fists, and rate - the senseless ground."[2] - -Even among civilised adults, as Mr. Grote remarks, "the force of momentary -passion will often suffice to supersede the acquired habit, and an -intelligent man may be impelled in a moment of agonising pain to kick or -beat the lifeless object from which he has suffered." The mental condition -which causes the wild native of Brazil to bite the stone he stumbled over -may, as Dr. Tylor has pointed out in his invaluable _Primitive Culture_, -be traced along the course of history not merely in impulsive habit, but -in formally enacted law. If among barbarous peoples we find, for example, -the relatives of a man killed by a fall from a tree taking their revenge -by cutting the tree down and scattering it in chips, we find a continuity -of idea in the action of the court of justice held at the Prytaneum in -Athens to try any inanimate object, such as an axe, or a piece of wood or -stone, which has caused the death of any one without proved human agency, -and which, if condemned, was cast in solemn form beyond the border. "The -spirit of this remarkable procedure reappears in the old English law, -repealed only in the present reign, whereby not only a beast that kills a -man, but a cart-wheel that runs over him, or a tree that falls on him and -kills him, is deodand or given to God, _i.e._ forfeited and sold for the -poor." Among ancient legal proceedings at Laon we read of animals -condemned to the gallows for the crime of murder, and of swarms of -caterpillars which infected certain districts being admonished by the -Courts of Troyes in 1516 to take themselves off within a given number of -days, on pain of being declared accursed and excommunicated.[3] - -Barbaric confusion in the existence of transferable qualities in things, -as when the New Zealander swallows his dead enemy's eye that he may see -farther, or gives his child pebbles to make it stony and pitiless of -heart; and as when the Abipone eats tiger's flesh to increase his courage, -has its survival in the old wives' notion that the eye-bright flower, -which resembles the eye, is good for diseases of that organ, in the -mediaeval remedy for curing a sword wound by nursing the weapon that caused -it, and in the old adage, "Take a hair of the dog that bit you." As -illustrating this, Dr. Dennys[4] tells a story of a missionary in China -whose big dog would now and again slightly bite children as he passed -through the villages. In such a case the mother would run after him and -beg for a hair from the dog's tail, which would be put to the part bitten, -or when the missionary would say jocosely, "Oh! take a hair from the dog -yourself," the woman would decline, and ask him to spit in her hand, which -itself witnesses to the widespread belief in the mystical properties of -saliva.[5] Among ourselves this survives, degraded enough, in the cabmen's -and boatmen's habit of spitting on the fare paid them. _Treacle_ (Greek -_theriake_, from _therion_, a name given to the viper) witnesses to the -old-world superstition that viper's flesh is an antidote to the viper's -bite. Philips, in his _World of Words_, defines treacle as a "physical -compound made of vipers and other ingredients," and this medicament was a -favourite against all poisons. The word then became applied to any -confection or sweet syrup, and finally and solely to the syrup of -molasses. - -The practice of burning or hanging in effigy, by which a crowd expresses -its feelings towards an unpopular person, is a relic of the old belief in -a real and sympathetic connection between a man and his image; a belief -extant among the unlettered in by-places of civilised countries. When we -hear of North American tribes making images of their foes, whose lives -they expect to shorten by piercing those images with their arrows, we -remember that these barbarous folk have their representatives among us in -the Devonshire peasant, who hangs in his chimney a pig's heart stuck all -over with thorn-prickles, so that the heart of his enemy may likewise be -pierced. The custom among the Dyaks of Borneo of making a wax figure of -the foe, so that his body may waste away as the wax is melted, will remind -the admirers of Dante Rossetti how he finds in a kindred mediaeval -superstition the subject of his poem "Sister Helen," while they who prefer -the authority of sober prose may turn to that storehouse of the curious, -Brand's _Popular Antiquities_. Brand quotes from King James, who, in his -_Daemonology_, book ii. chap. 5, tells us that "the devil teacheth how to -make pictures of wax or clay, that by roasting thereof the persons that -they bear the name of may be continually melted or dried away by continual -sickness;" and also cites Andrews, the author of a _Continuation of -Henry's Great Britain_, who, speaking of the death of Ferdinand, Earl of -Derby, by poison, in the reign of Elizabeth, says, "The credulity of the -age attributed his death to witchcraft. The disease was odd, and operated -as a perpetual emetic; and a waxen image, with hair like that of the -unfortunate earl, found in his chamber, reduced every suspicion to -certainty." A century and half before this the Duchess of Gloucester did -penance for conspiring with certain necromancers against the life of Henry -VI. by melting a waxen image of him, while, as hinging the centuries -together, "only recently a _corp cre_, or clay image, stuck full of birds' -claws, bones, pins, and similar objects, was found in one of the -Inverness-shire rivers. It was a fetish which, as it dissolved away by the -action of the stream, was supposed to involve the 'wearing away' of the -person it was intended to represent."[6] The passage from practices born -of such beliefs to the use of charms as protectives against the -evil-disposed and those in league with the devil, and as cures for divers -diseases, is obvious. Upon this it is not needful to dwell; the -superstitious man is on the same plane as the savage, but, save in rare -instances, without such excuse for remaining, as Bishop Hall puts it, with -"old wives and starres as his counsellors, charms as his physicians, and a -little hallowed wax as his antidote for all evils." - -But we have travelled in brief space a long way from our picture of man, -weaving out of streams and breezes and the sunshine his crude philosophy -of personal life and will controlling all, to the peasant of to-day, his -intellectual lineal descendant, with his belief in signs and wonders, his -forecast of fate and future by omens, by dreams, and by such pregnant -occurrences as the spilling of salt, the howling of dogs, and changes of -the moon; in short, by the great mass of superstitions which yet more or -less influence the intelligent, terrorise the ignorant, and delight the -student of human development. - - -Sec. III. - -PERSONIFICATION OF THE POWERS OF NATURE. - -(_a._) _The Sun and Moon._ - -A good deal hinges upon the evidences in savage myth-making of the -personification of the powers of nature. Obviously, the richest and most -suggestive material would be supplied by the striking phenomena of the -heavens, chiefly in sunrise and sunset, in moon, star, star-group and -meteor, cloud and storm, and, next in importance, by the strange and -terrible among phenomena on earth, whether in the restless waters, the -unquiet trees, the grotesquely-shaped rocks, and the fear inspired in man -by creatures more powerful than himself. Through the whole range of the -lower culture, sun, moon, and constellations are spoken of as living -creatures, often as ancestors, heroes, and benefactors who have departed -to the country above, to heaven, the _heaved_, up-lifted land. The Tongans -of the South Pacific say that two ancestors quarrelled respecting the -parentage of the first-born of the woman Papa, each claiming the child as -his own. No King Solomon appears to have been concerned in the dispute, -although at last the infant was cut in two. Vatea, the husband of Papa, -took the upper part as his share, and forthwith squeezed it into a ball -and tossed it into the heavens, where it became the sun. Tonga-iti -sullenly allowed the lower half to remain a day or two on the ground, -but, seeing the brightness of Vatea's half, he compressed his share into a -ball and tossed it into the dark sky, during the absence of the sun in the -nether world. Thus originated the moon, whose paleness is owing to the -blood having all drained out of Tonga-iti's half as it lay upon the -ground. Mr. Gill, from whose valuable collection of southern myth this is -quoted, says that it seems to have its origin in the allegory of an -alternating embrace of the fair Earth by Day and Night. But despite the -explanations, more or less strained, which some schools of comparative -mythologists find for every myth, the savage is not a conscious weaver of -allegories, or an embryo Cabalist, and we shall find ourselves more in -accord with the laws of his intellectual growth if, instead of delving for -recondite and subtle meanings in his simple-sounding explanations of -things, we take the meaning to be that which lies on the surface. More on -this, however, anon. Among the Red races one tribe thought that sun, moon, -and stars were men and women who went into the sea every night and swam -out by the east. The Bushmen say that the sun was once a man who shed -light from his body, but only for a short distance, until some children -threw him into the sky while he slept, and thus he shines upon the wide -earth. The Australians say that all was darkness around them till one of -their many ancestors, who still shine from the stars, shedding good and -evil, threw, in pity for them, an emu's egg into space, when it became the -sun. Among the Manacicas of Brazil, the sun was their culture-hero, -virgin-born, and their jugglers, who claimed power to fly through the air, -said that his luminous figure, as that of a man, could be seen by them, -although too dazzling for common mortals. - -The sun has been stayed in his course in other places than Gibeon, -although by mechanical means of which Joshua appears to have been -independent. Among the many exploits of Maui, abounding in Polynesian -myth, are those of his capture of the sun. He had, like Prometheus, -snatched fire from heaven for mortals, and his next task was to cure Ra, -the sun-god, of his trick of setting before the day's work was done. So -Maui plaited thick ropes of cocoa-nut fibre, and taking them to the -opening through which Ra climbed up from the nether world, he laid a -slip-noose for him, placing the other ropes at intervals along his path. -Lying in wait as Ra neared, he pulled the first rope, but the noose only -caught Ra's feet. Nor could Maui stop him until he reached the sixth rope, -when he was caught round the neck and pulled so tightly by Maui that he -had to come to terms, and agree to slacken his pace for the future. Maui, -however, took the precaution to keep the ropes on him, and they may still -be seen hanging from the sun at dawn and eve. In Tahitian myth Maui is a -priest, who, in building a house which must be finished by daylight, -seizes the sun by its rays and binds it to a tree till the house is built. -In North American myth a boy had snared the sun, and there was no light on -the earth. So the beasts held council who should undertake the perilous -task of cutting the cord, when the dormouse, then the biggest among them, -volunteered. And it succeeded, but so scorched was it by the heat that it -was shrivelled to the smallest of creatures. Such a group of myths is not -easy of explanation; but when we find the sun regarded as an ancestor, and -as one bound, mill-horse like, to a certain course, the notion of his -control and check would arise, and the sun-catchers take their place in -tradition among those who have deserved well of their race. It is one -among numberless aspects under which the doings of the sun and of other -objects in nature are depicted as the doings of mortals, and the crude -conceptions of the Ojibwas and the Samoans find their parallel in the -mythologies of our Aryan ancestors. Only in the former we see the mighty -one shorn of his dignity, with noose round his neck or chains on either -side; whilst in the latter we see him as Herakles, with majesty -unimpaired, carrying out the twelve tasks imposed by Eurystheus, and thus -winning for himself a place among the immortals. - -The names given to the sun in mythology are as manifold as his aspects and -influences, and as the moods of the untutored minds that endowed him with -the complex and contrary qualities which make up the nature of man. _Him_, -we say, not _it_, thus preserving in our common speech a relic not only of -the universal personification of things, but of their division into sex. - -The origin of gender is most obscure, but its investment of both animate -and inanimate things with sexual qualities shows it to be a product of -the mythopoeic stage of man's progress, and demands some reference in -these pages. The languages of savages are in a constant state of flux, -even the most abiding terms, as numerals and personal pronouns, being -replaced by others in a few years. And the changes undergone by civilised -speech have so rubbed away and obscured its primitive forms that, look -where he may, the poverty of the old materials embarrasses the inquirer. -If the similar endings to such undoubtedly early words as father, mother, -brother, sister, in our own and other related languages, notably Sanskrit, -afford any clue, it goes rather to show that gender was a later feature -than one might think. But there is no uniformity in the matter. It seems -pretty clear that in the early forms of our Indo-European speech there -were two genders only, masculine and feminine. The assignment of certain -things conceived of as sexless to neither gender, _neutrius generis_, is -of later origin. Some of the languages derived from Latin, and, to name -one of a different family, the Hebrew, have no neuter gender, whilst -others, as the ancient Turkish and Finnish, have no grammatical gender. In -our own, under the organic changes incident to its absorption of Norman -and other foreign elements, gender has practically disappeared (although -ships and nations are still spoken of as feminine), the pronouns _he_, -_she_, _it_, being its representatives. Such a gain is apparent when we -take up the study of the ancestral Anglo-Saxon, with its masculine, -feminine, and neuter nouns, or of our allied German with its perplexities -of sex, as, _e.g._, its masculine spoon, its feminine fork, and its neuter -knife. Turning for a moment to such slight aid as barbaric speech gives, -we find in the languages of the hill tribes of South India a curious -distinction made; rational beings, as gods and men, being grouped in a -"high-caste or major gender," and living animals and lifeless things in a -"casteless or minor gender." The languages of some North American and -South African tribes make a distinction into animate and inanimate gender; -but as non-living things, the sun, the thunder, the lightning, are -regarded as persons, they are classed in the animate gender. - -Further research into the radicals of so relatively fixed a language as -Chinese, and into more mobile languages related to it, may, perhaps, -enlighten the present ignorance; but one thing is certain, that language -was "once the scene of an immense personification," and has thereby added -vitality to myth. Analogies and conceptions apparent to barbaric man, and -in no way occurring to us, caused him to attribute sexual qualities not -only to dead as to living things, but to their several parts, as well as, -in the course of time, to intellectual and abstract terms. Speaking -broadly, things in which were manifest size and qualities, as strength, -independence, governing or controlling power, usually attaching to the -male, were classed as masculine; whilst those in which the gentler and -more subordinate features were apparent were classed as feminine. Of -course marked exceptions to this will at once occur to us, as, _e.g._, in -certain savage and civilised languages, where the sun is feminine and the -moon is masculine, but in the main the division holds good. The big is -male and the small is female. The Dyaks of Borneo call a heavy downpour of -rain a _he_ rain; and, if so strength-imparting a thing as bread is to be -classed as either masculine or feminine, we must agree with the negro who, -in answer to his master's question, "Sambo, where's the bread?" replied, -"De bread, massa? him lib in de pantry." The mediaeval Persians are said to -have distinguished between male and female even in such things as food and -cloth, air and water, and prescribed their proper use accordingly; while, -as Dr. Tylor, from whom the above is quoted, adds, "even we, with our -blunted mythologic sense, cannot give an individual name to a lifeless -object, such as a boat or a weapon, without in the very act imagining for -it something of a personal nature." - -But we must not stay longer in these attractive byways of philology, -however warranted the digression may be, and must return to the -many-titled sun. - -Whilst in the more elaborate mythologies of classic peoples we find him -addressed in exalted terms which are still the metaphors of poetry, we are -nearer the rough material out of which all myth is shaped when among races -who speak of sun, moon, and stars as father, mother, and children, and who -mean exactly what they say. We may find similar relationships in the solar -and lunar deities of Egyptian and classic myth, but profound moral -elements have entered into these and dissolved the material. We are face -to face with the awful and abiding questions personified in Osiris and -Isis, in Oedipus and Jocaste, where for us the sunlight pales and the -storm clouds are dispersed before the dazzling mysteries of human life and -destiny. - -No such matters confront us when in Indian myth we read that the moon is -the sun's sister, an aged, pale-faced woman, who in kindness led to her -brother two of the tribe who had sprung through a chasm in the sky to the -pleasant moonlit land. Neither do they in Australian myth, which shows -that the dwellers on Olympus had no monopoly of conjugal faithlessness. -For in it Mityan, the moon, is a native cat, who fell in love with -somebody else's wife, and has been driven to wander ever since. Among the -Bushmen, the moon has incurred the sun's anger, and is hacked smaller and -smaller by him, till, begging for mercy, a respite is given. But as soon -as he grows larger the sun hacks him again. In Slavonic myth the sun -cleaves him through for loving the morning star. The Indians of the far -west say that, when the moon is full, evil spirits begin nibbling at it, -and eat a portion every night till it is all gone; then a great spirit -makes a new moon, and, weary with his toil, falls asleep, when the bad -spirits renew their attack. Another not uncommon group of myths is that -which speaks of sun and moon as borne across the heavens on the backs of -ancestors, as in Greek myth Atlas supports the world, or as in ceaseless -flight, dogged by some pursuer, moon-dog, or "sun-wolf," as parhelion is -called in Swedish. The group of kindred myths to which eclipses gave rise, -when the cloud-dragon or serpent tries to swallow sun or moon, and for a -time succeeds, is too well known to need other than passing reference -here. - -A widespread body of myth has its source in the patches on the moon's -face. In the Samoan Islands these are said to be a woman, a child, and a -mallet. A woman was once hammering out paper-cloth, and seeing the moon -rise, looking like a great bread-fruit, she asked it to come down and let -her child eat a piece of it. But the moon was very angry at the idea of -being eaten, and gobbled up the woman, child, and mallet, and there they -are to this day. The Selish Indians of North-Western America say that the -little wolf was in love with the toad, and pursued her one moonlight -night, till, as a last chance, she made a desperate spring on to the face -of the moon, and there she is still. People in the East see the figure of -a hare in the patches, and both in Buddhist Jatakas and Mongolian myth -that animal is carried by the moon. In Greenland myth the moon was in love -with his sister, and stole in the dark to caress her. She, wishing to find -out who her lover was, blackened her hands so that the marks might be left -on him, which accounts for the spots. The Khasias of the Himalaya say that -the moon falls in love every month with his mother-in-law, who, like a -well-conducted matron, throws ashes in his face. Grimm quotes a mediaeval -myth that the moon is Mary Magdalene, and the spots her tears of -repentance, whilst in Chaucer's _Testament of Cressida_ the moon is Lady -Cynthia.-- - - "On her brest a chorl paintid ful even, - _Bering a bush of thornis on his bake_, - Which for his _theft_ might clime no ner the heven." - -Comparing these with more familiar myths, we have our own man in the moon, -who is said to be the culprit found by Moses gathering sticks on the -Sabbath, although his place of banishment is a popular addition to the -Scripture narrative. According to the German legend he was a scoffer who -did the same heinous offence on a Sunday, and was given the alternative of -being scorched in the sun or frozen in the moon. The Frisians say that he -stole cabbages, the load of which he bears on his back. He does not appear -as a member of the criminal classes in China, his function being that of -celestial matchmaker, who ties together future couples with an invisible -silken cord which breaks not during life. In Icelandic myth the two -children familiar to us as Jack and Jill were kidnapped by the moon, and -there they stand to this day with bucket on pole across their shoulders, -falling away one after the other as the moon wanes,--a phase described in -the couplet:-- - - "Jack fell down and broke his crown, - And Jill came tumbling after." - -Mr. Baring Gould, whose essay on this subject in his _Curious Myths of the -Middle Ages_ gives a convenient summary of current legends, contends that -Jack and Jill are the Hjuki and Bil of the _Edda_, and signify the waxing -and waning of the moon, their bucket indicating the dependence of rainfall -on her phases--a superstition extant among us yet. - -The group of customs observed amongst both barbaric and civilised peoples -at the changes of the moon, customs which are meaningless except as relics -of lunar worship, belong to the passage of mythology into religion, of -personifying into deifying. - -(_b._) _The Stars._ - -In the great body of nature-myth the stars are prominent members. In their -multitude; their sublime repose in upper calms above the turmoil of the -elements; their varying brilliancy, "one star differing from another star -in glory"; their tremulous light; their scattered positions, which lend -themselves to every vagary of the constellation-maker; their slow -procession, varied only by sweeping comet and meteor, or falling showers -of shooting stars; they lead the imagination into gentler ways than do the -vaster bodies of the most ancient heavens. Nor, although we may compute -their number, weigh their volume, in a few instances reckon their -distance, and, capturing the light that has come beating through space for -unnumbered years, make it reveal the secret of their structure, is the -imagination less moved by the clear heavens at night, or the feeling of -awe and reverence blunted before that "mighty sum of things for ever -speaking." - -In barbaric myth the stars are spoken of as young suns, the children of -the sun and moon, but more often as men who have lived on the earth, -translated without seeing death. The single stars are individual chiefs or -heroes; the constellations are groups of men or animals. To the natives of -Australia the brilliant Jupiter is a chief among the others; and the stars -in Orion's belt and scabbard are young men dancing a corroboree, the -Pleiades being girls playing to them. The Kasirs of Bengal say that the -stars are men who climbed to the top of a tree, and were left in the -branches by the trunk being cut away. To the Eskimos the stars in Orion -are seal-hunters who have missed their way home. And in German folk-lore -they are spoken of as the mowers, because, as Grimm says, "they stand in a -row like mowers in a meadow." In North American myth two of the bright -stars are twins who have left a home where they were harshly treated, and -leapt into the sky, whither their parents followed them and ceaselessly -chase them. In Greek myth the faintest star of the seven Pleiades is -Merope, whose light was dimmed because she alone among her sisters married -a mortal. The New Zealanders say that those stars are seven chiefs who -fell in battle, and of whom only one eye of each is now visible. In Norse -myth Odin having slain a giant, plucks out his eyes and flings them up to -the sky, where they become two stars. In German star-lore the small star -just above the middle one in the shaft of Charles's Wain, is a waggoner -who, having given our Saviour a lift, was offered the kingdom of heaven -for his reward, but who said he would sooner be driving from east to west -to all eternity, and whose desire was granted--a curious contrast to the -wandering Jew, cursed to move unresting over the earth until the day of -judgment, because he refused to let Jesus, weary with the weight of the -cross, rest for a moment on his doorstep. The Housatonic Indians say that -the stars in Charles's Wain are men hunting a bear, and that the chase -lasts from spring to autumn, when the bear is wounded and its dripping -blood turns the leaves of the trees red. With this may be cited the myth -that the red clouds at morn and eve are the blood of the slain in battle. -In the Northern Lights the Greenlanders see the spirits of the departed -dancing, the brighter the flashes of the Aurora the greater the merriment, -whilst the Dacotas say of the meteors that they are spirits flying through -the air. - -Of the Milky Way--so called because Here, indignant at the bantling -Herakles being put to her breast, spilt her milk along the sky (the solar -mythologers say that the "red cow of evening passes during the night -across the sky scattering her milk")--the Ottawas say that it was caused -by a turtle swimming along the bottom of the sky and stirring up the mud. -According to the Patagonians it is the track along which the departed -tribesmen hunt ostriches, the clouds being their feathers; in African myth -it is some wood-ashes long ago thrown up into the sky by a girl, that her -people might be able to see their way home at night; in Eastern myth it -is chaff dropped by a thief in his hurried flight. - -The idea of a land beyond the sky--be it the happy hunting-ground of the -Indian, or the Paradise of Islam, or the new Jerusalem of the -Apocalypse--would not fail to arise, and in both the Milky Way and the -Rainbow barbaric fancy sees the ladders and bridges whereby the departed -pass from earth to heaven. So we find in the lower and higher culture -alike the beautiful conceptions of the _chemin des ames_, the Red man's -road of the dead to their home in the sun; the ancient Roman path of, or -to, the gods; the road of the birds, in both Lithuanian and Finnish myth, -because the winged spirits flit thither to the free and happy land. In -prosaic contrast to all this, it is curious to find among ourselves the -Milky Way described as Watling Street! That famous road, which ran from -Richborough through Canterbury and London to Chester, now gives its name -to a narrow bustling street of Manchester warehousemen in the City. But -who the Waetlingas were--whether giants, gods, or men--and why their name -was transferred from Britain to the sky, we do not know,[7] although the -fact is plainly enough set down in old writers, foremost among whom is -Chaucer. In his _House of Fame_[8] he says:-- - - "Lo, there, quod he, cast up thine eye, - se yondir, to, the galaxie, - the whiche men clepe the Milky Way, - for it is white, and some parfay - ycallin it han Watlingestrete." - -To the savage the rainbow is a living monster, a serpent seeking whom it -may devour, coming to earth to slake its unquenchable thirst, and preying -on the unwary. But in more poetic myth, its mighty many-coloured arch -touching, as it seems to do, the earth itself, is a road to glory. In the -_Edda_ it is the three-coloured bridge Bifroest, "the quivering track" over -which the gods walk, and of which the red is fire, so that the -Frost-giants may not cross it. In Persian myth it is Chinvad, the "bridge -of the gatherer," flung across the gloomy depths between this world and -the home of the blessed; in Islam it is El-Sirat, the bridge thin as a -hair and sharp as a scimitar, stretching from this world to the next; -among the Greeks it was Iris, the messenger from Zeus to men, charged with -tidings of war and tempest; to the Finns it was the bow of Tiernes, the -god of thunder; whilst to the Jew it was the messenger of grace from the -Eternal, who did set "his bow in the clouds" as the promise that never -again should the world be destroyed by flood. Such belief in the heavens -as the field of activities profoundly affecting the fortunes of mankind, -and in the stars as influencing their destinies, has been persistent in -the human mind. The delusions of the astrologer are embalmed in language, -as when, forgetful of a belief shared not only by sober theologians, but -by Tycho Brahe and Kepler, we speak of "disaster," and of our friends as -"jovial," "saturnine," or "mercurial." But the illusions of the savage or -semi-civilised abide as an animating part of many a faith, undisturbed by -a science which has swept the skies and found no angels there, and whose -keen analysis separates for ever the ancient belief in a connection -between the planets and man's fate. For convenience' sake, we retain on -our celestial maps and globes the men and monsters pictured by barbaric -fancy in the star-positions and clusters, noting these as interesting -examples of survival. Yet we are the willing dupes of illusions nebulous -as these, and, charm he never so wisely, the Time-spirit fails to -disenchant us. - -(_c._) _The Earth and Sky._ - -If the sun and moon are the parents of the stars, the heavens and the -earth are the parents of all living things. Of this widely-found myth, one -of the most striking specimens occurs among the Maoris. From Rangi, the -heaven, and Papa, the earth, sprang all living things; but earth and sky -clave together, and darkness rested on them and their children, who -debated whether they should rend them asunder or slay them. Then -Tane-mahuta, father of forests, reasoned that it was better to rend them, -so that the heaven might become a stranger, and the earth remain as their -nursing-mother. One after another they strove to do this, but in vain, -until Tane-mahuta, with giant strength and strain, pressed down the earth -and thrust upward the heaven. But one of his brothers, father of wind and -storm, who had not agreed to this parting of his parents, followed Rangi -into the sky, and thence sent forth his progeny, "the mighty winds, the -fierce squalls, the clouds dense and dark, wildly drifting, wildly -hunting," himself rushing on his foe, snapping the huge trees that barred -his path, and strewing their trunks and branches on the ground, while the -sea was lashed into high-crested waves, and all the creatures therein -affrighted. The fish darted hither and thither, but the reptiles fled into -the forests, causing quarrel between Tangaroa, the ocean-god, and -Tane-mahuta for giving them shelter. So the brothers fought, the ocean-god -wrecking the canoes and sweeping houses and trees beneath the waters, and -had not Papa hidden the gods of the tilled food and the wild within her -bosom, they would have perished. Wars of revenge followed quickly one upon -the other; the storm-god's anger was not soon appeased; so that the -devastation of the earth was well-nigh complete. But, at last, light arose -and quiet ensued, and the dry land appeared. Rangi and Papa, parted for -ever, quarrelled no more, but helped the one the other, and "man stood -erect and unbroken on his mother Earth." - -The myth of Cronus will at once occur to the reader. Heaven (Uranus) and -Earth (Gaea) were husband and wife, and their many children all hated -their father for concealing them between the hollows of their mother's -breasts, so that they were shut out from light. Gaea sided with them and -provided Cronus, the youngest, with an iron sickle wherewith he unmanned -Uranus and separated him from Gaea. Cronus married his sister Rhea, and, -at the advice of his parents, swallowed his children one by one as they -were born, lest they grew up and usurped his place among the Immortals. -But when Zeus was born, and Cronus asked for the child, Rhea deceived him -by giving him a stone wrapped in swaddling bands. When Zeus grew up he -gave his father an emetic, whereupon the children were all disgorged, and -with them the stone, which became a sacred object at Delphi. There is no -such being as Cronus in Sanskrit, but what may be called the Vedic variant -of the myth is that in which Dyaus (Heaven) and Prithivi (Earth), were -once joined and subsequently separated. - -In China we find a legend of "a person called Puangku, who is said to have -separated the heaven and the earth, they formerly being pressed down close -together," and, as one might expect, such a transparent nature-myth of the -rending asunder of the world and sky is widespread. - -The solar mythologists were perplexed at its presence among the refined -and cultured Greeks. "How can we imagine that a few generations before the -time of Solon the highest notions of the Godhead among the Greeks were -adequately expressed by the story of Uranus maimed by Cronus, of Cronus -eating his own children, swallowing a stone, and vomiting out alive his -own progeny. Among the lowest tribes of Africa and America we hardly find -anything more hideous and revolting." So the moral character of the Greeks -and the exclusive comparative method of Professor Max Mueller and his -adherents were vindicated by the discovery that as Cronus means time, the -apparently repulsive myth simply means that time swallows up the days -which spring from it; "and," remarks Sir G. W. Cox in his _Manual of -Mythology_, "the old phrase meant simply this and nothing more, although -before the people came to Greece they had forgotten its meaning."[9] -Cronus is a more than usually troublesome _crux_ to the etymologists. - -Here, as elsewhere, "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life;" and -we may turn to the fundamental idea resident in the myth. The savage, in -the presence of recurring light and darkness, of the clouds lifting and -dispersing before the sunrise, has his legend of a time when this was not -so, but when heaven and earth were closed-in one upon the other till some -hero thrust them apart. And, to his rude intelligence, the conception of -night as a devouring monster, might easily "start the notion of other -swallowing and disgorging beings." In brief, to quote Mr. Andrew Lang, -"just as the New Zealander 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 their parents."[10] - -The beliefs of the ancient Finns, as described in the _Kalevala_, in the -world as a divided egg, of which the white is the ocean, the yolk the sun, -the arched shell the sky, and the darker portions the clouds; and of the -Polynesians that the universe is the hollow of a vast cocoa-nut shell, at -the tapering bottom of which is the root of all things, are to us so -grotesque that it is not easy to regard them as explanations seriously -invented by the human mind. Yet these, together with the notions of the -two halves of the shell of Brahma's egg, and of the two calabashes which -form the heaven and the earth in African myth, find their correspondences -in the widespread conception of the over-arching firmament as a hard and -solid thing,[11] with holes (or windows[12]) to let the rain through, with -gates through which angels descend,[13] or through which prophets peer -into celestial mysteries;[14] a firmament outside which other people live, -as instanced by the Polynesian term for strangers, "papalangi," or -"heaven-bursters." In Esthonian myth Ilmarine hammers steel into a vault -which he strained like a tent over the earth, nailing thereon the silver -stars and moon, and suspending the sun from the roof of the tent with -machinery to lift it up and let it down. The like achievement is recorded -of Ilmarinen in the _Kalevala_, the cosmogony of which corresponds to that -of the Esthonian _Kalevipoeeg_. - -These are the less refined forms of myths which have held their ground -from pre-scientific times till now, and the rude analogies of which are -justified by the appearances of things as presented by the senses. Man's -intellectual history is the history of his escape from the illusions of -the senses, it is the slow and often tardily accepted discovery that -nature is quite other than that which it seems to be. And this variance -between appearances and realities remained hidden until the intellect -challenged the report about phenomena which the sense-perceptions brought. -For in the ages when feeling was dominant, and the judgment scarce -awakened, the simple explanations in venerable legends sung by bard or -told by aged crone--legends to which age had given sanctity which finally -placed them among the world's sacred literatures--were received without -doubt or question. But, as belief in causality spread, men were not -content to rest in the naive explanations of an uncritical age. What man -had guessed about nature gave place to what nature had to say about -herself, and with the classifying of experience science had its birth. - -Meanwhile, until this quite recent stage in man's progress was reached, -the senses told their blundering tale of an earth flat and fixed, with -sun, moon, and stars as its ministering servants, while gods or beasts -upbore it, and mighty pillars supported the massive firmament In Hindu -myth the tortoise which upholds the earth rests upon an elephant, whose -legs _reach all the way down_! In Bogota the culture-god Bochica punishes -a lesser and offending deity by compelling him to sustain the part of -Atlas, and it is in shifting his burden from shoulder to shoulder that -earthquakes are caused. The natives of Celebes say that these are due to -the world-supporting Hog as he rubs himself against a tree; the -Thascaltecs that they occur when the deities who hold up the world relieve -one another; the Japanese think that they are caused by huge dragons -wriggling underground, an idea probably confirmed by the discovery of -monster fossil bones. In Algonquin myth the mighty man Earthquake "can -pass along under the ground, and make all things shake and tremble by his -power." - -As the myths about earth-bearers prevail in the regions of earthquakes, so -do those about subterranean beings in the neighbourhood of volcanoes. The -superstitions which mountainous countries especially foster are -intensified when the mountains themselves cast forth their awful and -devastating progeny, "red ruin" and the other children born of them. Man -in his dread, "caring in no wise for the external world, except as it -influenced his own destiny; honouring the lightning because it could -strike him, the sea because it could drown him,"[15] could do naught else -than people them with maleficent beings, and conceive of their -sulphur-exhaling mouths as the jaws of a bottomless pit. - -(_d._) _Storm and Lightning, etc._ - -If in freeing ourselves from the tyranny of the "solar" theory we shackled -ourselves with some other, we should certainly prefer that which is known -as the "meteorological," and which, in the person of Kuhn and other -supporters, finds a more rational and persistent source of myth in -phenomena which are fitful and startling, such as hurricane and tempest, -earthquake and volcanic outburst. Sunrises and sunsets happen with a -regularity which failed to excite any strong emotion or stimulate -curiosity, and the remotest ancestor of the primitive Aryan soon shook off -the habit--if, indeed, he ever acquired it--of going to bed in fear and -trembling lest the sun should not come back again. Nature, in her softer -aspects and her gracious bounties, in the spring-time with its promise, -the summer with its glory, the autumn with its gifts, has moved the heart -of man to song and festival and procession; as, by contrast, the frosts -that nipped the early buds and the fierce heat that withered the -approaching harvest gave occasion for plaintive ditty and sombre ceremony. -It is in the fierce play and passionate outbursts of the elements, in the -storm, the lightning, and the thunder, that the feelings are aroused and -that the terror-stricken fancy sees the strife of wrathful deities, or -depicts their dire work amongst men. Hence, all the world over, the -storm-god and the wind-god have played a mighty part. - -To the savage, the wind, blowing as it listeth, its whence and whither -unknown, itself invisible, yet the sweep and force of its power manifest -and felt, must have ranked amongst the most striking phenomena. And, as -will be seen hereafter, the correspondences between wind and breath, and -the connection between breath and life, added their quota of mystery in -man's effort to account for the impalpable element. Of this -personification of the elements the following Ojibway folk-tale, cited by -Dorman, gives poetic illustration:--"There were spirits from all parts of -the country. Some came with crashing steps and roaring voice, who directed -the whirlwinds which were in the habit of raging about the neighbouring -country. Then glided in gently a sweet little spirit, which blew the -summer gale. Then came in the old sand-spirit, who blew the sand-squalls -in the sand-buttes toward the west. He was a great speech-maker, and shook -the lodge with his deep-throated voice, as he addressed the spirits of the -cataracts and waterfalls, and those of the islands who wore beautiful -green blankets." - -In the legends of the Quiches, the mysterious creative power is Hurakan -(whence _hurricane_), among the Choctaws the original word for Deity is -Hushtoli, the storm-wind, and in Peru to kiss the air was the commonest -and simplest sign of adoration of the collective divinities. The -Guayacuans of South America, when a storm arose and there was much thunder -or wind, all went out in troops, as it were to battle, shaking their clubs -in the air, shooting flights of arrows in that direction whence the storm -came.[16] - -The Araucanians thought that gales and thunderstorms were the battles -fought between the spirits of the dead and their foes. - -Turning to the literatures of higher races, we find in the prose _Edda_, -when Gangler asks whence comes the wind, that Ha answers him: "Thou must -know that at the northernmost point in the heavens sits a giant, - - "In the guise of an eagle; - And the winds, it is said, - Rush down on the earth - From his outspreading pinions." - -In Finnish myth the north wind Pulmri, father of the frost, is sometimes -imaged as an eagle. - -"The Indians believe in a great bird called by them _Wochowsen_ or -_Wuchowsen_, meaning Wind-Blow or the Wind-Blower, who lives far to the -north, and sits upon a great rock at the end of the sky. And it is because -whenever he moves his wings the wind blows they of old times called him -that." And in another Algonquin myth: "Ga-oh is the Spirit of the Winds. -He moves the winds, but he is chained to a rock. The winds trouble him, -and he tries very hard to get free. When he struggles the winds are -forced away from him, and they blow upon the earth. Sometimes he suffers -terrible pain, and then his struggles are violent. This makes the winds -wild, and they do damage on the earth. Then he feels better and goes to -sleep, and the winds become quiet also."[17] - -In the _Veda_ the Maruts or Storm-gods, to whom many of the hymns are -addressed, "make the rocks to tremble and tear asunder the kings of the -forest," like Hermes in his violence and like Boreas in his rage. Whether -or no they become in Scandinavian legend the grim and fearful Ogres -swiftly sailing in their cloud-ships, we may see in them the "crushers" -and "grinders,"[18] as their name imports, the types of northern deities -like Odin, long degraded into the Wild Huntsman and his phantom crew, -whose uncouth yells the peasant hears in the midnight air.[19] Among the -Aztecs Cuculkan, the bird-serpent, was a personification of the wind, -especially of the east wind, as bringer of the rain. It was at one of his -shrines, to which pilgrimages were made from great distances, that the -Spaniards first saw to their surprise a cross surmounting the temple of -this god of the wind, whence arose a legend that the Apostle Thomas had -evangelised America. But, in fact, the pagan cross of Central America and -Mexico was the symbol of the four cardinal points. - -In his valuable book on the _Myths of the Red Race_ Dr. Brinton has -brought together a mass of evidence in support of a theory that the -sanctity in which the number four is held by the American races is due to -the adoration of the cardinal points, which are identified with the four -winds, who in hero-myths are the four ancestors of the human race. The -illustrations with which the argument is supported are numerous and -valuable, but the argument itself is made to rest too strongly on an -assumed primitive symbolism, whereas it suffices to show how the early -notion of the flat world, as also square, would lead to the myth of the -four winds blowing from the four corners, a myth often illustrated in -ancient maps with an angel at each corner from whose mouth the wind -issues. The official title of the Incas was "Lord of the four quarters of -the earth," and the number appears in all sorts of combinations, but the -theory may be pushed to extremes in compelling every fact to square with -it.[20] As the illustrations given above show, we are some steps nearer to -the primitive myth when we find the wind conceived of as a mighty bird, -which indeed is in both old and new world mythology a common symbol of -thunder and lightning also. On this matter Dr. Brinton's remarks bear -quoting. - - Like the wind the bird sweeps through the aerial spaces, sings in the - forests, and rustles on its course; like the cloud it floats in - mid-air, and casts its shadow on the earth; like the lightning it - darts from heaven to earth to strike its unsuspecting prey. These - tropes were truths to savage nations, and led on by that law of - language which forced them to conceive everything as animate or - inanimate, itself the product of a deeper law of thought which urges - us to ascribe life to whatever has motion, they found no animal so - appropriate for their purpose here as the bird. Therefore the - Algonquins say that birds always make the winds, that they create the - waterspouts, and that the clouds are the spreading and agitation of - their wings; the Navajos that at each cardinal point stands a white - swan, who is the spirit of the blasts; so also the Dakotas frequently - explain the thunder as the sound of the cloud-bird flapping his wings; - the lightning as the fire that flashes from his tracks, like the - sparks which the buffalo scatters when he scours over a stony plain. - -Estimates differ much as to the size of the Thunder-Bird. In one tradition -an Indian found its nest, and secured a feather which was above two -hundred feet long, while in another tradition the bird is said to be no -bigger than one's little finger. But among the Western Indians he is an -immense eagle. "When this aerial monster flaps his wings loud peals of -thunder roll over the prairie; when he winks his eye it lightens; when he -wags his tail the waters of the lake which he carries on his back overflow -and produce rain." Mixcoatl, the Mexican Cloud-Serpent, as well as Jove, -carries his bundle of arrows or thunderbolts, which in the hand of Thor -are represented by his mighty club or hammer. The old and universal belief -that stones were hurled by the Thunder-God is not so far-fetched as we, in -our pride of science, might think, for the flints which are mistaken for -thunderbolts, and which become objects of adoration as well as charms, -produce a flash when struck by the lightning. In the lightning flash man -would see the descent of fire from heaven for his needs. That he should -regard it, like water, as a living creature, with power to hurt or help -him, is in keeping with attribution of life to all that moved. Its -apparent connection with the great source of heat would foster the feeling -which expressed itself in fire-worship, with its curious survivals to -modern times. No element was more calculated to excite awe in its seeming -unrelation to the objects which produced it. Once secured, to guard it -from extinction or theft was a serious duty, and everything from which it -issued, trees as its hiding-place, since it came from the wood when -rubbed, stones also, since sparks shot from them when struck, were held -sacred. In the manifold myths about its origin one feature is common, that -its seed was stolen, the chief agents (probably as the messengers between -earth and sky) being birds, or men assuming the form of birds. The Sioux -Indians say that their first ancestor procured his fire from the sparks -which a panther struck from the rocks as he bounded up a hill. But of -examples from the lower culture, forerunners of the Zeus-defying -Prometheus, Mr. Gill's _Myths of the South Pacific_ supplies one which may -be taken as a sample of the rest. Maui, a famous South Sea hero, finding -some cooked food in a basket brought by Buataranga from the nether world, -and relishing it more than raw food, determines to steal the fire, and -flying to the Buataranga's realm frightens the fire-god by threats and -blows into revealing the secret. Then wresting the fire-sticks from him he -sets the under-world in flames, and returns with his prize to the -upper-world; thenceforth "all the dwellers there used fire-sticks, and -enjoyed the luxuries of light and of cooked food." - -(_e._) _Light and Darkness._ - -As in the conflict raging in the sky during gale or tempest, when the -light and the darkness alternately prevail, the barbaric mind sees war -waged between the heroes of the spirit-land who have carried their -unsettled blood feuds thither, so in many myths the lightning is no -comrade of the thunder, but its foe, the battle of bird with serpent. The -resemblance of the lightning flash to the sharp, sudden, zigzag movements -of the serpent, a creature so mysterious to barbaric man in its unlikeness -to the beasts of the field, accounts for a myth the influence of which as -a terrorising agent on human conduct is in course of rapid decay. Its -importance in the history of belief in the supernatural is too -far-reaching to be passed over, and in tracing its course it is necessary -to show its connection with the group of storm-myths and sun-myths of the -Aryan race in the battles between Indra and Vritra, Ormuzd and Ahriman, -Thor and Midgard, Hercules and Cacus, Apollo and Python, and St. George -and the Dragon. - -All the Aryan nations have among their legends, often exalted into epic -themes, the story of a battle between a hero and a monster. In each case -the hero conquers, and releases treasures, or in some way renders succour -to man, through his victory. In Hindu myth this battle is fought between -Indra and Vritra. - -Indra, one of the Vedic gods, comes, according to Professor Max Mueller, -from the same root as the Sanskrit _indu_, drop, sap, but the etymology is -doubtful. What is not doubtful is that he is the god of the bright sky, -and although, like the other gods invoked in the hymns of the _Rig-Veda_, -a departmental or tribal deity, he is a sort of _primus inter pares_, of -whose many titles, Vritrahan or "Vritra-slayer" is the pre-eminent one. -The benefits showered by him upon mortals caused the attribution of moral -qualities to him, and he was adored as "lord of the virtues," while the -juice of the sacred soma plant was offered in his honour, for which reason -he is also called Somapa or "soma-drinker." It is his struggle with Vritra -which is a constant theme of the Vedic hymns, the burden of which remind -us of the praises offered in the Psalms to Yahweh as a man of war, as -mighty in battle. "The gods do not reach thee, nor men, thou overcomest -all creatures in strength.... Thou thunderer, hast shattered with thy bolt -the broad and massive cloud into fragments, and has sent down the waters -that were confined in it to flow at will; verily thou alone possessest all -power." The primitive physical meaning of the myth is clear. Indra is the -sun-god, armed with spears and arrows, for such did the solar rays -sometimes appear to barbaric fancy. The rain-clouds are imprisoned in -dungeons or caverns by Vritra, the "enveloper," the thief, serpent, wolf, -wild boar, as he is severally styled in the _Rig-Veda_. Indra attacks him, -hurls his darts at him, they pierce the cloud-caverns, the waters are -released, and drop upon the earth as rain. - -This explanation, which has many parallels in savage myth, is -self-consistent as fitting into crude philosophy of personal life and -volition in sun and cloud, and is fraught with deep truth of meaning in -regions like the Punjaub, where drought brought famine in its train. - -The Aryans were a pastoral people, their wealth being in flocks and -herds.[21] The cow yielded milk for the household; her dung fertilised the -soil; her young multiplied the wealth of the family at an ever-increasing -rate, and she naturally became the symbol of fruitfulness and prosperity, -ultimately an object of veneration; while, for the functions which the -bull performed, he was the type of strength. The Aryan's enemy was he who -stole or injured the cattle; the Aryan's friend was he who saved them from -the robber's clutch. - -Intellectually, the Aryan tribes were, speaking broadly, in the mythopoeic -stage, and the personification of phenomena was rife among them. Their -barbaric fancy, as kindred myths all the world over testify, would find -ample play in the fleeting and varied scenery of the cloud-flecked -heavens, suggestive, as this would be, of bodies celestial and bodies -terrestrial. To these children of the plain the heavens were a vast, wide -expanse, over which roamed supra-mundane beasts, the two most prominent -figures in their mythical zoology being the cow and the bull. The sun, -giver of blessed light, was the bull of majesty and strength; the white -clouds were cows, from whose swelling udders dropped the milk of -heaven--the blessed rain. But there were dark clouds also, clouds of night -and clouds of storm, and within these lurked the monster-robber; into them -he lured the herds, and withheld both light and rain from the children of -men. To the sun-god, therefore, who smote the thief-dragon, Vritra, with -his shaft, and set free the imprisoned cows, went up the shout of praise, -the song of gratitude. This myth survives in many legends of the Aryan -race, and their family likeness is unmistakable. In its Latin guise it -appears as Hercules[22] and Cacus, although the preciseness of detail -narrated by Virgil, Livy, and other writers, has given it quasi-historical -rank. Hercules, after his victory over Geryon, stops to rest by the Tiber, -and while he is sleeping the three-headed monster, Cacus, steals some of -his cattle, dragging them by their tails into his cavern in Mons -Avertinus. Their bellowing awakens Hercules, who attacks the cavern, from -the mouth of which Cacus vomits flames, and roars as in thunder. But the -hero slays him and frees the cattle, a victory which the earlier Romans -celebrated with solemn rites at the Ara Maxima. In Greek myth the most -familiar examples are the struggles between the sun-god, Apollo, and the -storm-dragon, Python, and the deliverance of the Princess Andromeda by -Perseus from the sea-monster sent by Poseidon to ravage the land. In the -northern group we have the battle of Siegfried with the Niflungs, or -Niblungs, and of Sigurd with the dragon Fafnir, who guards golden -treasures; while, in the _Edda_, Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymir, -and catches the demon Loki, whose foul brood are Hell, the wolf Fenri, and -the Earth-girdling Serpent. Amongst ourselves, Beowulf, hero of the poem -of that name, attacks the dragon or fire-drake Grendel, who, with his -troll-mother, haunts a gloomy marsh-land. Thence he stole forth at night -to seize sleeping champions, taking them to his dwelling-place to devour -them, and this in such numbers that scarce a man was left. One pale night, -Beowulf awaited the coming of the monster, and, gripping him tightly, -snapped his limbs asunder, so that he died. - -These brief illustrations would hardly be complete without some reference -to our national saint. Opinions differ as to his merits, Gibbon -stigmatising him as a fraudulent army contractor,[23] while the researches -of M. Ganneau seek to establish his relation to the Egyptian Horus and -Typhon. Be this as it may, the stirring old legend tells how George of -Cappadocia delivered the city of Silene from a dragon dwelling in a lake -hard by. Nothing that the people could give him satisfied his insatiate -maw, and in their despair they cast lots who among their dearest ones -should be flung to the dread beast. The lot fell to the king's daughter, -and she went unflinchingly, like Jephthah's daughter, to her fate. But on -the road the hero learns her sad errand, and bidding her fear not, he, -making sign of the cross, brandishes his lance, attacks and transfixes the -dragon, and leading him into Silene, beheads him in sight of all the -people, who, with their king, are baptized to the glory of Him who made -St. George the victor.[24] - -(_f._) _The Devil._ - -While, however, the myth of Indra and Vritra has in its western variants -remained for the most part a battle between heroes and dragons, the moral -element rarely obscuring the physical features, it gave rise among the -Iranians or ancient Persians to a definite theology, the strange fortunes -of which have, as remarked above, profoundly affected Christendom. - -Although in the Vedic hymns the features of the primitive nature-myth -reappear again and again, Indra himself boasting, "I slew Vritra, O -Maruts, with might, having grown strong with my own vigour; I who hold the -thunderbolt in my arms, I have made these all-brilliant waters to flow -freely for man," we find an approach in them to some conception of that -spiritual conflict of which the physical conflict was so complete a -symbol. Indra as victor, is an object of adoration and invested with -purity and goodness; Vritra, as the enemy of men, is an object of dread, -and invested with malice and evil. - -But while in the Zend-Avesta, the Scriptures of the old Iranian religion, -the struggle between Thraetaona and the three-headed serpent Azhi-Dahaka -(in which names are recognisable the Traitana and Ahi of the _Veda_ and -the Feridun and Zohak of Persian epic) is narrated, the moral idea is -dominant throughout. The theme is not the attack of the sun-god to recover -stolen milch cows from the dragon's cave, but the battle between Ormuzd, -the Spirit of Light, and Ahriman, the Spirit of Darkness. The one seeks to -mar the earth which the other has made. Into the fair paradise, -Airayana-Vaejo, "a delightful spot," as the Avesta calls it, "with good -waters and trees," and into other smiling lands which Ormuzd has blessed, -Ahriman sends "a mighty serpent ... strong, deadly frost ... buzzing -insects, and poisonous plants ... toil and poverty," and, worse than all, -"the curse of unbelief."[25] Between these two spiritual powers and their -armies of good and bad angels the battle rages for supremacy in the -universe, for possession of the citadel of Mansoul. - -Early in the history of the Asiatic Aryan tribes there had arisen a -quarrel between the Brahmanic and Iranian divisions. The latter had -become a quiet-loving, agricultural people, while the former remained -marauding nomads, attacking and harassing their neighbours. In their -plundering inroads they invoked the aid of spells and sacrifices, offering -the sacred soma-juice to their gods, and nerving themselves for the fray -by deep draughts of the intoxicating stuff. Not only they, but their gods -as well, thereby became objects of hatred to the peaceful Iranians, who -foreswore all worship of freebooter's deities, and transformed these -_devas_ of the old religion into demons. That religion, as common to the -Indo-European race, was polytheistic, a worship of deities each ruling -over some department of nature, but a worship exalting now one, now -another god, be it Indra, or Varuna, or Agni, according to the indications -of the deity's supremacy, or according to the mood of the worshipper. As -remarked by Jacob Grimm, "the idea of the devil is foreign to all -primitive religions," obviously because in all primitive thought evil and -good are alike regarded as the work of deities. In the Old Testament, -Yahweh is spoken of as the author of both;[26] the angels, whether charged -with weal or woe, are his messengers. In the _Iliad_ Zeus dispenses -both:-- - - "Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood, - The source of evil one, the other good; - From thence the cup of mortal man he fills, - Blessings to these, to those distribute ills, - To most, he mingles both,"[27] - -and 'tis a far cry from this to the loftier conception of Euripides: "If -the gods do evil, then are they no gods." So there was a monotheistic--or, -as Professor Max Mueller terms it, a henotheistic--element in the Vedic -religion which in the Iranian religion, and this mainly through the -teaching of the great thinker and reformer Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), was -largely diffused. In his endeavour to solve the old problem of reconciling -sin and misery with omnipotent goodness, he supposes "two primeval -causes," one of which produced the "reality," or good mind; the other the -"non-reality," or evil mind. Behind these was developed belief in a -philosophical abstraction, "uncreate time," of which each was the product; -but such doctrines were too subtle for the popular grasp, and, wrapped in -the old mythological garb, they appeared in concrete form as dualism. -Vritra survived in Ahriman, who, like him, is represented as a serpent; -and in Ormuzd we have the phonetic descendant of Ahura-mazda. - -Now, it was with this dualism, this transformed survival of the sun and -cloud myth, that the Jews came into association during their memorable -exile in Babylon. Prior to that time their theology, as hinted above, had -no devil in it. But in that belief in spirits which they held in common -with all semi-civilised races, as a heritage from barbarous ancestors, -there were the elements out of which such a personality might be readily -evolved. Their _satan_, or "accuser," as that word means, is no prince of -the demons, like the Beelzebul of later times; no dragon or old serpent, -as of the Apocalypse, defying Omnipotence and deceiving the whole world; -but a kind of detective who, by direction of Yahweh, has his eye on -suspects, and who is sent to test their fidelity. In all his missions he -acts as the intelligent and loyal servant of Yahweh. But although -therefore not regarded as bad himself, the character and functions with -which he was credited made easy the transition from such theories about -him to theories of him as inherently evil, as the enemy of goodness, and, -therefore, of God. He who, like Vritra, was an object of dread, came to be -regarded as the incarnation of evil, the author and abettor of things -harmful to man. Persian dualism gave concrete form to this conception, and -from the time of the Exile we find Satan as the Jewish Ahriman, the -antagonist of God. Not he alone, for "the angels that kept not their first -estate" were the ministers of his evil designs, creatures so numerous that -every one has 10,000 at his right hand and 1000 at his left hand, and -because they rule chiefly at night no man should greet another lest he -salute a demon. They haunt lonely spots, often assume the shape of beasts, -and it is their presence in the bodies of men and women which is the cause -of madness and other diseases.[28] - -From the period when the Apocryphal books, especially those having traces -of Persian influence, were written,[29] this doctrine of an arch-fiend -with his army of demons received increasing impetus. It passed on without -check into the Christian religion, and wherever this spread the heathen -gods, like the _devas_ of Brahmanism among the Iranians, were degraded -into demons, and swelled the vast crowd of evil spirits let loose to -torment and ruin mankind. - -This doctrine of demonology, it should be remembered, was but the -elaborated form of ancestral belief in spirits referred to above. In the -Christian system it was associated with that belief in magic which has its -roots in fetishism, and from the two arose belief in witchcraft. The -universal belief in demons in early and mediaeval times supplied an easy -explanation of disasters and diseases; the sorcerers and charm-workers, -the wizards and enchanters, had passed into the service of the devil. For -power to work their spite and malevolence they had bartered their souls to -him, and sealed the bargain with their blood. It was enough for the -ignorant and frightened sufferers to accuse some poor, misshapen, -squinting old woman of casting on them the evil eye, or of appearing in -the form of a cat, to secure her trial by torture and her condemnation to -an unpitied death. The spread of popular terror led to the issue of Papal -bulls and to the passing of statutes in England and in other countries -against witchcraft, and it was not until late in the eighteenth century -that the laws against that imaginary crime were repealed. - -There is no sadder chapter in the annals of this tearful world than this -ghastly story of witch-finding and witch-burning. Sprenger computes that -during the Christian epoch no less than _nine millions_ of persons, mostly -women of the poorer classes, were burned; victims of the survival into -relatively civilised times of an illusion which had its source in -primitive thought. It was an illusion which had the authority of Scripture -on its side;[30] the Church had no hesitation concerning it; such men as -Luther, Sir Thomas Browne, and Wesley never doubted it; the evidence of -the bewitched was supported by honest witnesses; and judges disposed to -mercy and humanity had no qualms in passing the dread sentence of the law -on the condemned.[31] - -And although it exists not to-day, save in by-places where gross darkness -lurks, it was not destroyed by argument, by disproof, by direct assault, -but only through the quiet growth and diffusion of the scientific spirit, -before which it has dispersed. It could not live in an atmosphere thus -purified, an atmosphere charged with belief in unchanging causation and in -a definite order unbroken by caprice or fitfulness, whether in the sweep -of a planet or the pulsations of a human heart. - -Of course the antecedents of the arch-fiend himself could not fail to be -the subject of curious inquiry in the time when his existence was no -matter of doubt. The old theologians scraped together enough material -about him from the sacred books of the Jews and Christians to construct an -elaborate biography of him; but in this they would seem to have explained -too much in certain directions and not enough in others, thus provoking a -reaction which ultimately discredited their painful research. Their -genealogy of him was carried farther back than they intended or desired, -for the popular notions credited him with both a mother and grandmother. -Their theory of his fall from heaven gave rise to the droll conception of -his lameness and to the legends of which the "devil on two sticks" is a -type. Their infusion of foreign element into his nature aided his -pictorial presentment in motley form and garb, as seen in the old -miracle-plays. To Vedic descriptions of Vritra's darkness may perchance be -traced his murkiness and blackness; to Greek satyr and German -forest-sprite his goat-like body, his horns, his cloven hoofs, his tail; -to Thor his red beard; to dwarfs and goblins his red cloak and nodding -plume; to theories of transformation of men and spirits into animals his -manifold metamorphoses, as black cat, wolf, hellhound, and the like. - -But his description was his doom; it was by a natural sequence that the -legends of mediaeval times present him, not, with the Scotch theologians, -as a scholar and a swindler, disguising himself as a parson, but as -gullible and stupid, as over-reaching himself and as befooled by mortals. -And, like the Trolls of Scandinavian folk-lore who burst at sunrise, it -needed only the full light thrown upon his origin and development by the -researches of comparative mythologists to dissipate this creation of man's -fears and fancies into the vaporous atmosphere where he had his birth. - - -Sec. IV. - -THE SOLAR THEORY OF MYTH. - -The cogency of the evidence concerning the development of belief in Satan -out of light-and-darkness myths is generally admitted, but it is of a kind -that must not be pushed too far. For the phases of Nature are manifold; -manifold also is the life of man; and we must not lend a too willing ear -to theories which refer the crude explanations of an unscientific age, -when the whole universe is Wonderland, to one source. _Cave hominem unius -libri_, says the adage, and we may apply it, not only to the man of one -book, but also to the man of one idea, in whom the sense of proportion is -lacking, and who sees only that for which he looks. Here such caution is -introduced as needful of exercise against the comparative mythologists -who, not content with showing--as abundant evidence warrants--that myth -has its germs in the investment of the powers of nature with personal life -and consciousness, contend that the great epics of our own and kindred -races are, from their broadest features to minutest detail, but -nature-myths obscured and transformed. - -Certain scholars, notably Professor Max Mueller, Sir G. W. Cox, and -Professor de Gubernatis, as interpreters of the myths of the Indo-European -peoples, and Dr. Goldziher, as an interpreter of Hebrew myth and cognate -forms, maintain that the names given in the mythopoeic age to the sun, the -moon, and the changing scenery of the heaven as the fleeting forms and -myriad shades passed over its face, lost their original signification -wholly or partially, and came to be regarded as the names of veritable -deities and men, whose actions and adventures are the disguised -descriptions of the sweep of the thunder-charged clouds and of the victory -of the hero-god over their light-engulfing forces. But it is better to -state the theory in the words of its exponents, and for that purpose a -couple of extracts from Sir George Cox's _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_ -will suffice. - - In the spontaneous utterances of thoughts awakened by outward - phenomena, we have the source of myths which must be regarded as - _primary_. But it is obvious that such myths would be produced only so - long as the words employed were used in their original meaning. If - once the meaning of the word were either in part or wholly forgotten, - the creation of a new personality under this name would become - inevitable, and the change would be rendered both more certain and - more rapid by the very wealth of words which were lavished on the - sights and objects which most impressed their imagination. A thousand - phrases would be used to describe the action of a beneficent or - consuming sun, of the gentle or awful night, of the playful or furious - wind; and every word or phrase become the germ of a new story as soon - as the mind lost its hold on the original force of the name. Thus, in - the polyonymy (by which term Sir George Cox means the giving of - several names to one object), which was the result of the earliest - form of human thought, we have the germ of the great epics of later - times, and of the countless legends which make up the rich stores of - mythical tradition ... and the legends so framed constitute the class - of _secondary_ myths (p. 42). - - Henceforth the words which had denoted the sun and moon would denote - not merely living things but living persons.... Every word would - become an attribute, and all ideas, once grouped round a single - object, would branch off into distinct personifications. The sun had - been the lord of light, the driver of the chariot of the day; he had - toiled and laboured for the sons of men, and sunk down to rest, after - a hard battle, in the evening. But now the lord of light would be - Phoibos Apollon, while Helios would remain enthroned in his fiery - chariot, and his toils and labours and death-struggles would be - transferred to Herakles. The violet clouds which greet his rising and - his setting would now be represented by herds of cows which feed in - earthly pastures. There would be other expressions which would still - remain as floating phrases, not attached to any definite deities. - These would gradually be converted into incidents in the life of - heroes, and be woven at length into systematic variations. Finally, - these gods and heroes, and the incidents of their mythical career, - would receive each "a local habitation and a name." These would remain - as genuine history when the origin and meaning of the words had been - either wholly or in part forgotten (p. 51). - -Such is the "solar myth" theory. "We can hardly," as Mr. Matthew Arnold -says, "now look up at the sun without having the sensations of a moth," -and if occasion has not been given to the adversary to blaspheme, he has -been supplied with ample material for banter and ridicule. Some of the -happiest illustrations of this are made by Mr. Foster in his amusing and -really informing essay on "Nature Myths in Nursery Rhymes," reprinted in -_Leisure Readings_,[32] an essay which it seems the immaculate critics -took _au serieux_! With a little exercise of one's invention, given also -ability to parody, it will be found that many noted events, as well as the -lives of the chief actors in them, yield results comforting to the solar -mythologists. Not only the _Volsungs_ and the _Iliad_, but the story of -the Crusades and of the conquest of Mexico; not only Arthur and Baldr, but -Caesar and Bonaparte, may be readily resolved, as Professor Tyndall says we -all shall be, "like streaks of morning cloud, into the infinite azure of -the past." Dupuis, in his researches into the connection between astronomy -and mythology, had suggested that Jesus was the sun, and the twelve -apostles the zodiacal signs; and Goldziher, analysing the records of a -remote period, maintains the same concerning Jacob and his twelve sons. M. -Senart has satisfied himself that Gotama, the Buddha, is a sun-myth. -Archbishop Whately, to confound the sceptics, ingeniously disproved the -existence of Bonaparte; and a French ecclesiastic has, by witty -etymological analogies, shown that Napoleon is cognate with Apollo, the -sun, and his mother Letitia identical with Leto, the mother of Apollo; -that his _personnel_ of twelve marshals were the signs of the zodiac; that -his retreat from Moscow was a fiery setting, and that his emergence from -Elba, to rule for twelve months, and then be banished to St. Helena, is -the sun rising out of the eastern waters to set in the western ocean after -twelve hours' reign in the sky. But upon this solar theory let us cite -what Dr. Tylor, whose soberness of judgment renders him a valuable guide -along the zigzag path of human progress, says: "The close and deep -analogies between the life of nature and the life of man have been for -ages dwelt upon by poets and philosophers, who, in simile or in argument, -have told of light and darkness, of calm and tempest, of birth, growth, -change, decay, dissolution, renewal. But no one-sided interpretation can -be permitted to absorb into a single theory such endless many-sided -correspondences as these. Rash inferences which, on the strength of mere -resemblance, derive episodes of myth from episodes of nature, must be -regarded with utter mistrust, for the student who has no more stringent -criterion than this for his myths of sun and sky and dawn, will find them -wherever it pleases him to seek them." - -The investigations of comparative mythologists, more particularly in this -country and Germany, have thrown such valuable light on the history of -ideas, that it will be instructive to learn what excited the inquiry. The -researches of Niebuhr and his school into the credibility of early history -made manifest that the only authority on which the chroniclers relied was -tradition. To them--children of an uncritical age--that tradition was -venerable with the lapse of time, and binding as a revelation from the -gods. To us the charm and interest of it lie in detecting within it the -ancient deposit of a mythopoeic period, and in deciphering from it what -manner of men they must have been among whom such explanation of the -beginnings had credence. And in such an inquiry nothing can be "common or -unclean," nothing too trivial or puerile for analysis; for where the most -grotesque and impossible are found, there we are nearer to the conditions -of which we would know more. - -The serious endeavour to get at the fact underlying the fabulous was -extended to the great body of mythology which had not been incorporated -into history, and the interpretations of which satisfied only those who -suggested them. As hinted already, the Greeks had sought out the meaning -of their myths, with here and there a glimpse of the truth gained; but -this was confined to the philosophers and poets. Euhemeros degraded them -into dull chronicle, making Herakles a thief who carried off a crop of -oranges; Jove a king crushing rebellion; Atlas an astronomer; Python a -freebooter; AEolus a weather-wise seaman, and so on. Plutarch tried to -"restore" them, but only defaced them, and after centuries of neglect they -were discovered by Lord Bacon to be allegories with a moral. Then Banier -and Lempriere emptied out of them what little life Euhemeros had left, and -the believers in Hebrew as the original speech of mankind saw in them the -fragments of a universal primitive revelation! Even Professor Max Mueller -is so upset by the many loathsome and revolting stories in a mythology -current in the land of Lykurgos and Solon, such as the marriage of his -mother Jocasta by Oedipus, and the swallowing of his own children by -Cronus, that he inquires (as if he half believed it possible) whether -there was not "a period of temporary insanity through which the human mind -had to pass," and a degradation from lovely metaphor to coarse fact which -only a "disease of language," or the confusion arising from the forgotten -meanings of words, explains. There is no need, however, for assumptions of -this or of any other kind. This is best shown by a summary of facts which -led, more or less directly, to the formulation of the solar theory. - -Some fifty years ago a good many idle speculations, products of a reverent -and uncurbed fancy concerning Hebrew as the primitive speech of mankind, -were laid to rest when the sober guess of Schlegel as to the connection of -the leading languages of Europe and those of India and Persia, was -converted into certainty by Bopp, Jacob Grimm, Schleicher, and later -scholars. - -By the application of the comparative method to philology, _i.e._ the -interpretation of any set of facts by comparison with corresponding facts, -due allowance being made for differences which Grimm's law (see _infra_) -explains, the relation of Greek, Latin, Slavonic, Teutonic, and Keltic to -one another and to Indian and Persian, and their consequent descent from a -common parent language, was proved. To this group the term Aryan (from a -Sanskrit word cognate with the root _ar_, our English word _ear_, to -plough), is given, a term which ancient records show was applied by the -Asiatic Aryans to themselves as the lords of the soil, the dominant race. -The names Indo-Germanic, and, more appropriately as roughly defining the -peoples included thereunder, Indo-European, have been suggested in its -stead, but Aryan, as the more convenient term, has come into general use. - -The survival of grammatical forms common to the Aryan ancestors, and the -likeness between words necessary for daily use, evidenced to one parent -primitive speech, and, passing from words to the ideas and things which -they connoted, philologists were able to infer what manner of men these -Aryans were, and under what conditions they dwelt. In the enthusiasm -excited by so brilliant a discovery the soberest scholars were apt to -over-colour their accurately-outlined picture of old Aryan life; to read -modern meanings into the ancient words. But, making good allowance for -this, the sketch which was presented in Max Mueller's famous paper on -_Comparative Mythology_[33] remains a credit to scholarship in its vivid -generalisations from immaterial data. - -Professor Max Mueller, in agreement with Pictet and others, placed the -original settlement of the Aryans as probably in the region between the -Hindu Kush Mountains and the Caspian Sea. But the opinion of later -scholars of cooler judgment leans to Europe rather than to Asia as the -primitive home of the Aryan tribes. The scanty hints which survive point -to a larger acquaintance with European flora and fauna than with Asiatic; -to a southward course, whilst silent about westward migration; the -movement of races inclines from less genial to more genial zones; the -traditions of certain branches, as the Greeks, tell of them as -autochthones, or born on the soil where they are found; and the judgment -of experts is decisive as to the greater nearness of the European -languages to the original speech as contrasted with Sanskrit and Iranian. -These are the principal reasons adduced in support of the theory of a -European origin. Benfey places the old Aryan home in the neighbourhood of -the Black Sea, Schrader and Geiger in Middle Germany, Karl Penka in -Scandinavia. But in speculating on the exact habitation of congeries of -tribes requiring vast tracts of country for support, no rigid boundaries -can be fixed, and there is room for the play of both theories, the more so -as theories they must remain.[34] - -At the back of this unsettled question lies the interesting subject of the -civilisation of pre-Aryan races on the European-Asiatic Continent. In the -Newer Stone Age this continent was inhabited by races of short stature, -with long and narrow skulls, and probably dark complexions, races whom the -Aryans, a tall, round-skulled, fair-complexioned race, conquered, and with -whom they so largely intermingled that the varieties of fair and dark -people in Europe at this day, speaking an Aryan language, are past finding -out. Indeed, there are probably no unmixed races throughout Europe and -Asia; the conquering race imposed its language on the conquered, and thus -is explained the community of speech without community of race which must -be recognised in the composite European peoples. - -With this qualification the kinship of the Aryan-language-speaking peoples -is demonstrated, and the like kind of evidence by which this is proved has -been applied to establish the identity of their mythologies, legends, and -folk-tales. The meaning of the proper names of these once determined, the -key to the meaning of the myth or tale was clear; because, it is -contended, the names contain the germs or oldest surviving part. This is -to make the last first; but the result, as already shown in the Aryan -light-and-darkness myths, has been to bring out a few striking -correspondences in Greek and Vedic names, although by no means so intimate -and frequent as the solar mythologists assume. The uniform behaviour of -the untutored mind before like phenomena to which barbaric myth witnesses -prepares us for general correspondences, but not in such details as we -find in the Aryan group. On what theory these, notably in the case of the -folk-tales, are to be accounted for, it is not easy to say, for the mode -of their diffusion from India to Iceland is obscure. But the fact abides -that nursery stories told in Norway and Tyrol, in Scotland and the Deccan, -are identical. After allowing for local colouring and for changes incident -to the lapse of time, they are the variants of stories presumably related -in the Aryan fatherland at a period historically remote, and, moreover, -are told in words which are phonetically akin. Their resemblances in -minor incident and detail are not easily explained by theories of -borrowing, for apparently no trace of intercourse between the Asiatic -Aryans and the Aryans of extreme Western Europe occurs until after the -domiciling of the stories where we find them. Nor did they with such close -resemblances as appear between the German Faithful John and the Hindu Rama -and Luxman; between our own Cinderella, the German Aschenpuettel and the -Hindu Sodewa Bai, spring native from their respective soils.[35] And there -is just that unlikeness in certain details which might be expected from -the different positions and products of the several Aryan lands. They -explain, for example, the absence from Scandinavian folk-tale of creatures -like the elephant, the giant, ape, and turtle, which figure in the -Brahmanic. - -When we turn to the great Aryan epics, the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_; the -_Volsungs_; the _Nibelungs_; _King Arthur and his Round Table_; the -_Ramayana_ and the _Maha Bharata_; the _Shah Nameh_, and so forth, we find -similarities of incident and episode which point to a common derivation -from old Aryan myth. That common synonyms occur in cognate languages is to -be expected, but so far as the names and the characteristics of the heroes -and heroines are concerned, the phonetic identity is proven in a far less -number of cases than the solar mythologists, working on their too -exclusive method, argue. The key which for them unlocks the meaning of -every Aryan myth is Sanskrit. In tracing the history of the Indo-European -family of speech, it served as the starting-point, because it has more -than any other member preserved the roots and suffixes, if not in their -oldest, still in their most accessible form. And in tracing the course of -Indo-European mythology, it is in the Vedic texts, chiefly the most -ancient, the _Rig-Veda_, that we find the materials for comparative study, -since in these venerable hymns of a Bible older than our own are preserved -the earliest recorded forms of that mythology. That is to say, we have not -in any European branch of Aryan speech any documentary relic of the age of -the _Rig-Veda_, otherwise we might find ourselves in possession of more -ancient relics of that speech. So that although the value of Sanskrit as -the guide without which knowledge of the Aryan mother-tongue would have -remained vague, indeed have been beyond reach, cannot be over-estimated, -we must not accept as of universal worth what is local and special in -it.[36] - -The phonetic kinship and actual identity which comparative philologists -have sought to establish between the proper names of gods and heroes of -the Greek and Vedic mythologies (for the inquiry has been chiefly -restricted to these two), is based on the collection of rules by which we -can at once tell what sounds in one language correspond to those of its -kindred tongues, called, after its discoverer, "Grimm's Law." This law -gave the quietus to theories of common origin and variation of words based -on specious resemblances (theories satirised by Dean Swift in his -derivation of _ostler_ from _oatstealer_), and introduced a scientific -method into etymological study. - -The varying pronunciation of certain words among the Aryan-speaking -peoples which were common to them was discovered by Grimm to be constant; -for example, a Greek _th_ answers to an English _d_, and, _vice versa_, a -German _s_ or _z_ to an English _t_, and so forth, so that by comparing -these altered forms the common form from which they spring is reached. - -At what fluent period in the history of the Aryan languages these changes -of one sound into another were induced is unknown, nor are their precise -causes easy of ascertainment, being referable to physical influences, -climatal and local, which in the course of time brought about changes in -the organs of speech, such, for example, as make our _th_ so difficult of -pronunciation to a German, in whose language _d_ takes its place, as -_drei_ for _three_, _durstig_ for _thirsty_, _dein_ for _thine_, etc. We -may note tendencies to variation in children of the same household, their -prattle often affording striking illustration of Grimm's law, and it is -easy to see that among semi-civilised and isolated tribes, where no check -upon the variations is imposed, they would tend to become fixed and give -rise to new dialects. - -Tracing the operation of that law in the changes in proper names in Greek -and Vedic mythology, their correlation is proved in a few important -instances. The Greek _Zeus_, the Latin _Deus_ (whence French _Dieu_ and -our _deity_, and also _deuce_), the Lithuanian _Diewas_, and the Sanskrit -_Dyaus_ all come from an old Aryan root, _div_ or _dyu_, meaning "to -shine." The Sanskrit _dyu_, as a noun means "sky" or "day," and in the -_Veda Dyaus_ is the bright sky or heaven. _Varuna_, the noblest figure in -the Vedic religion, the "enveloper" or all-surrounding heaven, is cognate -with the Greek _Ouranos_ or _Uranus_, the common root being _var_, "to -veil" or "cover." Agni, the fire-god, to whom the larger number of hymns -occur in the _Veda_, is related to the Latin _ignis_, fire, and so forth. - -The heavens and the earth and all that in them is are the raw material on -which man works, and the comparative philologists have established exactly -what might have been predicated, the nature-origin of the Greek, Vedic, -and other Aryan myths. They might well have rested content with this -confirmation which their method gives to results arrived at by other -methods, and not weakened or discredited it by applying it all round to -every leading name in Aryan myth. For this has only revealed the -fundamental differences among themselves as to the etymologies and -meanings of such names. But not satisfied with the demonstration that the -majestic epics have their germs in the phenomena of the natural world, and -the course of the day and year, they strain the evidence by contending -that "there is absolutely nothing left for further analysis in the -stories;" that their "resemblances in detail defy the influences of -climate and scenery;"[37] that every incident has its birth in the journey -of the sun, the death of the dawn, the theft of the twilight by the powers -of darkness, evidence which, in Sir George Cox's words, "not long hence -will probably be regarded as excessive." - -They are nature-myths; but, and in this is the secret of their enduring -life, they are much more than that. The impetus that has shaped them as we -now know them came from other forces than clouds and storms. - -Without such caution as these remarks are designed to supply, any reader -of the _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_ would conclude that the -philological method had proved the meteorological origin of every epic and -folk-tale among the Indo-European peoples. He would learn that, in a way -rudely analogous to the supernatural guidance of the Christian Church, the -several Aryan tribes had received from the fathers of the race an -unvarying canon of interpretation of the primitive myths, a canon -seemingly preserved with the jealous veneration with which the Jew -regarded the _Thorah_, and the Brahman the _Veda_. He would also learn -that the details of Norse and classic myth can be traced to the _Veda_, -that these details, not of incident alone, but of thought and expression, -survived unimpaired by time and untouched by circumstance, whilst, strange -to say, the more prominent names and the leading characters became -obscured in their meaning. Strange indeed, and not true. For what are the -facts? - -Long before the hymns of the _Rig-Veda_ existed as we know them (and they -have remained an inviolate sacred text since 600 B.C., when every verse, -word, and syllable were counted) the Aryan tribes had swarmed from their -parent hive across boundless steppes and over winding mountain passes, -some to the westward limits of Europe, others southward into Hindustan. -Among the slender intellectual capital of which they stood possessed was -the common mythology of their savage ancestors, in which, as we have seen, -sun and moon, storm and thunder-cloud, and all other natural phenomena, -were credited with personal life and will. But that mythology had -certainly advanced beyond the crude primitive form and entered the heroic -stage, wherein the powers of nature were half human, half divine. Their -language had passed into the inflective or highest stage, and had -undergone such changes that the relationship between its several groups -and their origin from one mother-tongue was obscured, and remained so -until laid bare in our day. In short, the Aryan tribes had attained no -mean state of civilisation, some being more advanced than the others, -according as external circumstances helped or hindered, and one by one -they passed from the condition of semi-civilised nomads to become fathers -and founders of nations that abide to this day. - -These being the facts to which language itself bears witness, how was it -possible for their mythologies, _i.e._ their stock of notions about -things, to remain unaffected and secure of transmission without organic -change? The myths, unfixed in literary form, yielded themselves with ease -as vehicles of new ideas; their ancient meaning, already faded, paled -before the all-absorbing significance of present facts. These were more -potent realities than the kisses of the dawn; the human and the personal, -in its struggles, of mightier interest than the battle of rosy morn or -purple eve with the sons of thunder; and Homer's music would long since -have died away were Achilles' "baneful wrath" but a passively-told tale of -the sun's grief for the loss of the morning. - -In brief, the complex and varying influences which have transformed the -primitive myth are the important factors which the solar theorists have -omitted in their attempted solution of the problem. They have forgotten -the part which, to borrow a term from astronomy, "personal equation" has -played. They have not examined myth in the light of the long history of -the race; and the new elements which it took into itself, while never -wholly ridding itself of the old, have escaped them. They have secured a -mechanical unity, whereas, by combination of the historical with their own -method, they might have secured a vital unity. - -To all which classic myth itself bears record. The Greeks were of Aryan -stock, but the time of their settlement is unknown. The period between -this and the Homeric age was, however, long enough to admit of their -advance to the state of a nation rejoicing in the fulness of intellectual -life. They remembered not from what rock they were hewn, from what pit -they were digged. The nature-gods of their remote ancestors had long since -changed their meteorological character, and appeared in the likeness of -men, or, at least, played very human pranks on Olympus. In the _Veda_ the -primitive nature-myth, although exalted and purified, is persistent; under -one name or another it is still the ceaseless battle between the darkness -and the light; Dyaus was still the bright sky, the cattle of Siva were -still the clouds. But the Greek of Homer's time, and his congener in the -far north, had forgotten all that; the war in heaven was transferred to -the strife of gods and men on the shores of the Hellespont and by the -bleak seaboard of the Baltic. Their gods and goddesses, improved by age -and experience, put off their physical and put on the ethical; the -heaven-father became king of gods and men, source of order, law, and -justice; the sun and the dawn, Apollo and Athene, became wisdom, skill, -and guardianship incarnate. And the story of human vicissitudes found in -solar myth that "pattern of things in the heavens" which conformed to its -design. - -Thus Homer, in whose day the old nature-myth had become confused with the -vague traditions of veritable deeds of kings and heroes but dimly -remembered, touched it as with heavenly fire unquenchable. The siege of -Troy, so say the solar mythologists, "is a repetition of the daily siege -of the east by the solar powers that every evening are robbed of their -highest treasures in the west." It is surely a truer instinct which, -recognising the physical framework of the great epics, feels that the -vitality which inheres in them is due to whatever of human experience, -joy, and sorrow is the burden of their immortal song. As to the repulsive -features of Greek myth, one can neither share the distress of the solar -theorists nor feel their difficulties. Both are self-created, and are -aggravated by suggestions, serious or otherwise, of "periods of temporary -insanity through which the human mind had to pass," as the rude health of -childhood is checked by whooping-cough and measles. They are explained by -the persistence with which the lower out of which man has emerged asserts -itself, as primary rocks pierce through and overlap later strata. - -The ancestors of the Aryans were savages in the remote past, and the "old -Adam" was never entirely cast out; indeed it is with us still. There are -superstitions and credulities in our midst, in drawing-rooms as well as -gipsy camps, quite as gross in nature, if less coarse in guise, as those -extant among the Greeks. The future historian of our time, as he turns -over the piles of our newspapers, will find contrasts of ignorance and -culture as startling as any existing in the land of Homer, of Archimedes, -and Aristotle. Spirit-rapping and belief in the "evil eye" have their cult -among us, although Professor Huxley's _Hume_ can be bought for two -shillings, and knowledge has free course. And it certainly accords best -with all that we have learnt as to the mode of human progress to believe -that the old lived into the new, than that the old had been cast out, but -had gained re-entry, making the last state of the Greeks to be worse than -the first. - -In this matter the Vedic hymns do not help us much. The conditions under -which they took the form that insured their transmission are _ipso facto_ -as of yesterday, compared with the period during which man's endeavour was -made to get at that meaning of his surroundings wherein is found the germ -of myth throughout the world. They are the products of a relatively -highly-civilised time; the conception of sky and dawn as living persons -has passed out of its primitive simplicity; these heavenly powers have -become complex deities; there is much confounding of persons, the same god -called by one or many names. The thought is that of an age when moral -problems have presented themselves for solution, and the references to -social matters indicate a settled state of things far removed from the -fisher and the hunter stage. Nevertheless there lurk within these sacred -writings survivals of the lower culture, traces of coarse rites, bloody -sacrifices, of repulsive myths of the gods, and of cosmogonies familiar to -the student of barbaric myth and legend. - -Enough has been said to show that the extreme and one-sided -interpretations of the solar mythologists are due to a one-sided method. -The philological has yielded splendid results; this the solar theorists -have done; the historical yields results equally rich and fertile; this -they have left undone. Language has given us the key to the kinship -between the several members of the great body of Aryan myths; the study of -the historical evolution of myths, the comparison of these, without regard -to affinity of speech, will give us the key to the kinship between savage -interpretation of phenomena all the world over. The mythology of Greek and -Bushman, of Kaffir and Scandinavian, of the Red man and the Hindu, springs -from the like mental condition. It is the uniform and necessary product of -the human mind in the childhood of the race. - - -Sec. V. - -BELIEF IN METAMORPHOSIS INTO ANIMALS. - -The belief that human beings could change themselves into animals has been -already alluded to, but in view of its large place in the history of -illusions, some further reference is needful. - -Superstitions which now excite a smile, or which seem beneath notice, were -no sudden phenomena, appearing now and again at the beck and call of -wilful deceivers of their kind. That they survive at all, like organisms, -atrophied or degenerate, which have seen "better days," is evidence of -remote antiquity and persistence. Every seeming vagary of the mind had -serious importance, and answered to some real need of man as a sober -attempt to read the riddle of the earth, and get at its inmost secret. - -So with this belief. It is the outcome of that early thought of man which -conceived a common nature and fellowship between himself and brutes, a -conception based on rude analogies between his own and other forms of -life, as also between himself and things without life, but having motion, -be they waterspouts or rivers, trees or clouds, especially these last, -when the wind, in violent surging and with howling voice, drove them -across the sky. Where he blindly, timidly groped, we walk as in the light, -and with love that casts out fear. Where rough resemblances suggested to -him like mental states and actions in man and brute, the science of our -time has, under the comparative method, converted the guess into a -certainty; not to the confirmation of his conclusions, but to the proof of -identity of structure and function, to the demonstrating of a common -origin, however now impassable the chasm that separates us from the lower -animals. - -The belief in man's power to change his form and nature is obviously -nearly connected with the widespread doctrine of metempsychosis, or the -passing of the soul at death into one or a series of animals, generally -types of the dead man's character, as where the timid enter the body of a -hare, the gluttonous that of a swine or vulture. - - "Fills with fresh energy another form, - And towers an elephant or glides a worm; - Swims as an eagle in the eye of noon, - Or wails a screech-owl to the deaf, cold moon, - Or haunts the brakes where serpents hiss and glare, - Or hums, a glittering insect, in the air." - -But while in transmigration the soul returns not to the body which it had -left, transformation was only for a time, occurring at stated periods, and -effected by the will of the transformed, or by the aid of sorcery or -magic, or sometimes imposed by the gods as a punishment for impious -defiance and sin. - -Other causes, less remote, aided the spread of a belief to which the mind -was already inclined. Among these were the hallucinations of men who -believed themselves changed into beasts, and who, retreating to caves and -forests, issued thence howling and foaming, ravening for blood and -slaughter; hallucinations which afflicted not only single persons, as in -the case of Nebuchadnezzar, whose milder monomania (he, himself, saying in -the famous prize poem:-- - - "As he ate the unwonted food, - 'It may be wholesome, but it is not good'"), - -rather resembled that of the daughters of Praetus, who believed themselves -cows, but which also spread as virulent epidemic among whole classes. It -is related that, in 1600, multitudes were attacked by the disease known as -lycanthropy, or wolf-madness (from Greek, _lukos_, a wolf, and -_anthropos_, a man), and that they herded and hunted in packs, destroying -and eating children, and keeping in their mountain fastnesses a cannibal -or devil's sabbath, like the nocturnal meetings of witches and demons -known as the Witches' Sabbath. Hundreds of them were executed on their own -confession, but some time elapsed before the frightful epidemic, and the -panic which it caused, passed away. Besides such delusions, history down -to our own time records instances where a morbid innate craving for blood, -leading sometimes to cannibalism, has shown itself. Mr. Baring-Gould, in -his _Book of Werewolves_, cites a case from Gall of a Dutch priest who had -such a desire to kill and to see killed that he became chaplain to a -regiment for the sake of witnessing the slaughter in battle. But still -more ghastly are the notorious cases of Elizabeth, a Hungarian lady of -title, who inveigled girls into her castle and murdered them, that she -might bathe her body in human blood to enhance her beauty; and of the -Marechal de Retz who, cursed with the abnormal desire to murder children, -allured them with promises of dainties into his kitchen, and killed them, -inhaling the odour of their blood with delight, and then burned their -bodies in the huge fireplace in the room devoted to these horrors. When -the deed was done the Marechal would lie prostrate with grief, "would toss -weeping and praying on a bed, or recite fervent prayers and litanies on -his knees, only to rise with irresistible craving to repeat the crime." - -Such instances as the foregoing, whether of delusion or morbid desire to -destroy, are among secondary causes; they may contribute, but they do not -create, being inadequate to account for the world-wide existence of -transformation myths. The animals which are the supposed subject of these -vary with the habitat, but are always those which have inspired most -dread from their ferocity. In Abyssinia we find the man-hyaena; in South -Africa, the man-lion; in India, the man-tiger; in Northern Europe, the -man-bear; and in other parts of Europe the man-wolf, or werewolf (from -A.-S. _wer_, a man). - -Among the many survivals of primitive thought in the Greek mythology, -which are the only key to its coarser features, this of belief in -transformation occurs, and, indeed, along the whole line of human -development it appears and re-appears in forms more or less vivid and -tragic. The gods of the south, as of the north, came down in the likeness -of beasts and birds, as well as of men, and among the references to these -myths in classic writers, Ovid, in the _Metamorphoses_, tells the story of -Zeus visiting Lykaon, king of Arcadia, who placed a dish of human flesh -before the god to test thereby his omniscience. Zeus detected the trick, -and punished the king by changing him into a wolf, so that his desire -might be towards the food which he had impiously offered to his god. - - "In vain he attempted to speak; from that very instant - His jaws were bespluttered with foam, and only he thirsted - For blood, as he raged amongst flocks and panted for slaughter. - His vesture was changed into hair, his limbs became crooked. - A wolf--he retains yet large traces of his ancient expression, - Hoary he is as afore, his countenance rabid, - His eyes glitter savagely still, the picture of fury." - -But we may pass from this and such-like tales of the ancients to the grim -realities of the belief in mediaeval times. - -If wolves abounded, much more did the werewolf abound. According to Olaus -Magnus, the sufferings which the inhabitants of Prussia and neighbouring -nations endured from wolves were trivial compared with the ravages wrought -by men turned into wolves. On the feast of the Nativity, these monsters -were said to assemble and then disperse in companies to kill and plunder. -Attacking lonely houses, they devoured all the human beings and every -other animal found therein. "They burst into the beer-cellars and there -they empty the tuns of beer or mead, and pile up the empty casks one above -another in the middle of the cellar, thus showing their difference from -natural wolves." In Scandinavia it was believed that some men had a second -skin out of which they could slip and appear in the shape of a beast. -Perhaps the phrase "to jump out of one's skin" is a relic of this notion. -The Romans believed that the werewolf simply effected the change by -turning his skin inside out, hence the term "versipellis," or -"skin-changer." So in mediaeval times it was said that the wolf's skin was -under the human, and the unhappy suspects were hacked and tortured for -signs of such hairy growth. Sometimes the change was induced, it is said, -by putting on a girdle of human skin round the waist; sometimes by the use -of magical ointment. Whatever the animal whose shape a man took could do, -that he could do, plus such power as he possessed in virtue of his -manhood or acquired by sorcery, his eyes remaining as the only features by -which he could be recognised. If he was not changed himself, some charm -was wrought on the eyes of onlookers whereby they could see him only in -the shape which he was supposed to assume. The genuine monomaniacs aided -such an illusion. The poor demented one who conceived himself a dog or a -wolf, who barked, and snapped, and foamed at the mouth, and bit savagely -at the flesh of others, was soon clothed by a terror-stricken fancy in the -skin of either brute, and believed to have the canine or lupine appetite -in addition to his human cunning. The imagination thus projects in visible -form the spectres of its creation; the eye in this, as in so much else, -sees the thing for which it looks. Some solid foundation for the belief -would, however, exist in the custom among warriors of dressing themselves -in the skins of beasts to add to their ferocious appearance. And it was -amidst such that the remarkable form of mania in Northern Europe known as -the Berserkr rage ("bear-sark" or "bear-skin" wearer) arose. Working -themselves by the aid of strong drink or drugs and contagious excitement -into a frenzy, these freebooters of the Northland sallied forth to break -the backbones and cleave the skulls of quiet folk and unwary travellers. -As with flashing eyes and foaming mouth they yelled and danced, seemingly -endowed with magic power to resist assault by sword or club, they aroused -in the hysterically disposed a like madness, which led to terrible crimes, -and which died away only as the killing of one's fellows became less the -business of life. History supplies many examples of strange mental -epidemics which sped through towns and provinces in mediaeval times. They -were induced by religious enthusiasm and other extreme and harmful forms -of mental stimulation, the most notorious being the great St. Vitus' -dance, and the procession of Flagellants, to which in their mad orgies the -hysterical ceremonies of barbarous tribes correspond. Of that tendency -towards imitation which these freaks of erratic and unbalanced minds -foster Dr. Carpenter[38] quotes an illustration from Zimmerman. A nun in a -large convent in France began to mew like a cat, and shortly afterwards -other nuns also mewed. At last all the nuns mewed every day at a given -time and for several hours together. And this cat's concert was only -stopped by the military arriving and threatening to whip the nuns. - -During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the belief in men-beasts -reached its maximum, and met with no tender treatment at the hands of a -church whose founder had manifested such soothing pity towards the -"possessed" of Galilee and Judaea. That church had a cut-and-dried -explanation of the whole thing, and applied a sharp and pitiless remedy. -If the devil, with countless myrmidons at his command, was "going to and -fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it," what limit could be put -to his ingenuity and arts? Could he not as easily change a man into a wolf -or a bear as a woman into a cat? and had not each secured this by a -compact with him, the foe of God and His Church? The evidence in support -of the one was as clear and cogent as in support of the other; hence -werewolf hunting and burning became as Christian a duty and as paying a -profession as witch-smelling and torturing. Any cruelty was justified by -its perpetrators when the object in view was the vindication of the -majesty of God; and not until the advancing intelligence of men recoiled -against the popular explanations of witchcraft and lycanthropy were the -laws against both repealed. - -Those explanations were survivals of savage mental philosophy blended with -a crude theology. To the savage, all diseases are the work of evil -spirits. If a man hurts himself against a stone, the demon in the stone is -the cause. If the man falls suddenly ill, writhes or shrieks in his pain, -the spirit which has smuggled itself in with the food or the drink or the -breath is twisting or tearing him; if he has a fit, the spirit has flung -him; if he is in the frenzy of hysteria, the spirit within him is laughing -in fiendish glee. And when the man suddenly loses his reason, goes, as -people say, "out of his mind," acts and looks no longer like his former -self, still more does this seem the work of an evil agent within him. It -is kindred with the old belief that the sickly and ugly infant had been -left in the cradle by the witch in place of the child stolen by her before -its baptism.[39] And the thing to do is to find some mode of conjuring or -frightening or forcing the demon out of the man, just as it became a -sacred duty to watch over the newly-born until the sign of the cross had -been made on its forehead, and the regenerating water sprinkled over it. - -"Presbyter is but old priest writ large." And the theory of demoniacal -agency was but the savage theory in a more elaborate guise. To theologians -and jurists it was a sufficing explanation; it fitted in with the current -notions of the government of the universe, and there was no need to frame -any other. Body and mind were to them as separate entities as they are to -the savage and the ignorant. Each regarded the soul as independent of the -body, and framed his theories of occasional absence therefrom accordingly. -But science has taught us to know ourselves not as dual, but as one. She -lays her finger on the subtle, intricate framework of man's nervous -system, and finds in the derangement of this the secret of those delusions -and illusions which have been so prolific in agony and suffering. She -makes clear how the yielding to morbid tendencies can still foster -delusions, which, if no longer the subject of pains and penalties in the -body politic, are themselves ministers of vengeance in the body where they -arise. And in the recognition of a fundamental unity between the physical -and the mental, in the healthy working of the one as dependent on the -wholesome care of the other, she finds not only the remedy against mental -derangement and all forms of harmful excitement, but also the prevention -which is better than cure. - -Traditions of transformation of men into beasts are not confined to the -Old world.[40] In Dr. Rink's _Tales of the Eskimo_ there are numerous -stories both of men and women who have assumed animal form at will, as -also incidental references to the belief in stories such as that telling -how an Eskimo got inside a walrus skin, so that he might lead the life of -that creature. And among the Red races, that rough analogy which led to -the animal being credited with life and consciousness akin to the human, -still expresses itself in thought and act. If even now it is matter of -popular belief in the wilds of Norway that Finns and Lapps, who from -remote times have passed as skilful witches and wizards, can at pleasure -assume the shape of bears, the common saying, according to Sir George -Dasent, about an unusually daring and savage beast being, "that can be no -Christian bear," we may not be surprised that lower races still ascribe -power of interchange to man and brute. The werewolf superstition is extant -among the North-Western Indians, but free from those diabolical features -which characterised it in mediaeval times among ourselves. It takes its -place in barbaric myth generally, and although it may have repellent or -cruel elements, it was never blended with belief in the demoniacal. The -Ahts say that men go into the mountains to seek their manitou (that is, -the personal deity, generally the first animal seen by a native in the -dream produced by his fasting on reaching manhood), and, mixing with -wolves, are after a time changed into these creatures. Although the -illustration bears more upon what has to be said concerning the barbaric -belief in animal-ancestors, it has some reference to the matter in hand to -cite the custom among the Tonkanays, a wild and unruly tribe in Texas, of -celebrating their origin by a grand annual dance. One of them, naked as he -was born, is buried in the earth, then the others, clothed in wolf-skins, -walk over him, sniff around him, howl in wolfish style, and then dig him -up with their nails.[41] The leading wolf solemnly places a bow and arrow -in his hands, and, to his inquiry as to what he must do for a living, -advises him "to do as the wolves do--rob, kill, and rove from place to -place, never cultivating the soil." Dr. Brinton, in quoting the above from -Schoolcraft, refers to a similar custom among the ancient dwellers on -Mount Soracte. - -As in past times among ourselves, so in times present among races such as -the foregoing, their wizards and shamans are believed to have power to -turn themselves as they choose into beasts, birds, or reptiles. By -whatever name these professional impostors are known, whether as -medicine-men, or, as in Cherokee, by the high-sounding title of -"possessors of the divine fire," they have traded, and wherever credulity -or darkest ignorance abide, still trade on the fears and fancies of their -fellows by disguising themselves in voice and gait and covering of the -animal which they pretend to be. Among races believing in transformation -such tricks have free course, and the more dexterous the sorcerer who -could play bear's antics in a bear's skin proved himself in throwing off -the disguise and appearing suddenly as a man, the greater his success, and -the more firmly grounded the belief. - -The whole subject, although presented here only in the barest outline, -would not be fitly dismissed without some reference to the survival of the -primitive belief in men-animals in the world-wide stories known as -beast-fables, in which animals act and talk like human beings. When to us -all nature was Wonderland, and the four-footed, the birds, and the fishes, -among our play-fellows; when in fireside tale and rhyme they spoke our -language and lived that free life which we then shared and can never share -again, the feeling of kinship to which the old fables gave expression may -have checked many a wanton act, and, if we learned it not fully then, we -may have taken the lesson to heart since-- - - "Never to blend our pleasure or our pride - With sorrow of the meanest thing that lives." - -And then those _Fables_ of AEsop, even with the tedious drawback of the -"moral," as powder beneath the jam, did they not lighten for us in -school-days the dark passages through our Valpy (for the omniscient Dr. -William Smith was not then the tyro's dread), and again give us communion -with the fowl of the air and the beast of the field? Now our mature -thought may interest itself in following the beast-myths to the source -whence Babrius and Phaedrus, knowing not its springhead and antiquity, drew -their vivid presentments of the living world, and find in the storied East -the well-spring that fed the imagination of youngsters thousands of years -ago. Such tales have not fallen in the East to the low level which they -have reached here, because they yet accord in some degree with extant -superstitions in India, whereas in Europe they find little or nothing to -which they correspond. With some authorities the Egyptians have the credit -of first inventing the beast-fable, but among them, as among every other -advanced race, such stories are the remains of an earlier deposit; relics -of a primitive philosophy in which wisdom and skill and cunning are no -monopoly of man's. The fondness of the negro races, whose traditions are -not limited to South and Central Africa, for such fables is well known, as -witness the tales of which "Uncle Remus" is a type, and it is strikingly -illustrated in the history of the Vai tribe, who having, partly through -contact with whites, elaborated a system of writing, made the beast-fable -their earliest essay in composition.[42] - -The evidence in support of the common ancestry of the languages spoken by -the leading peoples in Europe, and by such important historical races in -Asia as the Hindu and the Persian, has been already summarised. That -evidence, it was remarked, is considered corroborative not only of the -common origin of the myths on which the framework of the great -Indo-European epics rests, but also of the possession by the several clans -of a common stock of folk-lore and folk-tale, in which, of course, the -beast-fables are included, these being the relics in didactic or humorous -guise of that serious philosophy concerning the community of life in man -and brute amongst the barbaric ancestors of the Indo-Europeans, upon which -stress enough has been laid. - -Even if the common origin be disproved, the evidence would be shifted -merely from local to general foundations, because the uniform attitude of -mind before the same phenomena would have further confirmation; but the -resemblances are too minute in detail to be explained by a theory of -independent creation of the tales where we now find them. The likenesses -are many, the unlikenesses are few, being the result of local colouring, -historical fact blended with the fiction, popular belief, and -superstition, all affected by the skill of the professional story-teller. -As in the numerous variants of the familiar Cinderella, Beauty and the -Beast, Punchkin, and the like, the same fairy prince or princess, the same -wicked magician and clever versatile Boots, peep through, disclosing the -near relationship of Hindu nursery tales to the folk-tales of Norway and -the Highlands, of Iceland and Ceylon, of Persia and Serbia, of Russia and -the lands washed by the Mediterranean. - -In the venerable collection of _Buddhist Birth Stories_, now in course of -translation by Dr. Rhys Davids,[43] and to which is prefaced an -interesting introduction on the source and migration of folk-tales, we are -face to face with many a fable familiar to us in the _AEsop_ of our -school-days. There is the story of the Ass in the Lion's Skin, not in -which, as AEsop has it, the beast dressed himself, but which the hawker put -on him to frighten the thieves who would steal his goods. Left one day to -browse in a field whilst his master refreshed himself at an inn, some -watchmen saw him, and, raising hue and cry, brought out the villagers, -armed with their rude implements. The ass, fearing death, made a noise -like an ass, and was killed. Long might he, adds the ancient moral-- - - "Clad in a lion's skin - Have fed on the barley green; - But he brayed! - And that moment he came to ruin." - -The variants of this old fable are found in mediaeval, in French, German, -Indian, and Turkish folk-lore, as are also those of the tortoise who lost -his life through "much speaking." Desiring to emigrate, two ducks agreed -to carry him, he seizing hold of a stick which they held between their -beaks. As they passed over a village the people shouted and jeered, -whereupon the irate tortoise called out: "What business is it of yours?" -and, of course, thereby let go the stick and, falling down, split in two. -Therefore-- - - "Speak wise words not out of season; - You see how, by talking overmuch, - The tortoise fell." - -In _AEsop_ the tortoise asks an eagle to teach him to fly; in Chinese -folk-lore he is carried by geese. - -Jacob Grimm's researches concerning the famous mediaeval fable of "Reynard -the Fox" revealed the ancient and scattered materials out of which that -wonderful satire was woven, and there is no feature of the story which -reappears more often in Eastern and Western folk-lore than that cunning of -the animal which has been for the lampooner and the satirist the type of -self-seeking monk and ecclesiastic. When Chanticleer proudly takes an -airing with his family, he meets master Reynard, who tells him he has -become a "religious," and shows him his beads, and his missal, and his -hair shirt, adding, in a voice "that was childlike and bland," that he had -vowed never to eat flesh. Then he went off singing his Credo, and slunk -behind a hawthorn. Chanticleer, thus thrown off his guard, continues his -airing, and the astute hypocrite, darting from his ambush, seizes the -plump hen Coppel. So in Indian folk-tale a wolf living near the Ganges is -cut off from food by the surrounding water. He decides to keep holy day, -and the god Sakka, knowing his lupine weakness, resolves to have some fun -with him, and turns himself into a wild goat "Aha!" says the wolf, "I'll -keep the fast another day," and springing up he tried to seize the goat, -who skipped about so that he could not be taken. So Lupus gives it up, and -says as his solatium: "After all, I've not broken my vow." - -The Chinese have a story of a tiger who desired to eat a fox, but the -latter claimed exemption as being superior to the other animals, adding -that if the tiger doubted his word he could easily judge for himself. So -the two set forth, and, of course, every animal fled at sight of the -tiger, who, too stupid to see how he had been gulled, conceived high -respect for the fox, and spared his life. - -Sometimes the tables are turned. Chanticleer gets his head out of -Reynard's mouth by making him answer the farmer, and in the valuable -collection of Hottentot tales which the late Dr. Bleek, with some warrant, -called _Reynard in South Africa_, the cock makes the jackal say his -prayers, and flies off while the outwitted beast folds his hands and shuts -his eyes. - -But further quotations must be resisted; enough if it is made clearer that -the beast-fable is the lineal descendant of barbaric conceptions of a life -shared in common by man and brute, and another link thus added to the -lengthening chain of the continuity of human history. - - -Sec. VI. - -TOTEMISM: BELIEF IN DESCENT FROM ANIMAL OR PLANT. - -In addition to the beliefs in the transformation of men into animals and -in the transmigration of souls into the bodies of animals, we find among -barbarous peoples a belief which is probably the parent of one and -certainly nearly related to both, namely, in descent from the animal or -plant, more often the former, whose name they bear. Its connection with -transmigration is seen in the belief of the Moquis of Arizona, that after -death they live in the form of their totemic animal, those of the deer -family becoming deer, and so on through the several gentes. The belief -survives in its most primitive and vivid forms among two races, the -aborigines of Australia and the North American Indians. The word -"totemism," given to it both in its religious and social aspects, is -derived from the Algonquin "dodaim" or "dodhaim," meaning "clanmark." -Among the Australians the word "kobong," meaning "friend" or "protector," -is the generic term for the animal or plant by which they are known. It is -somewhat akin in significance to the Indian words "manitou," "oki," etc., -comprehending "the manifestations of the unseen world, yet conveying no -sense of personal unity," which are commonly translated by the misleading -word "medicine;" hence "medicine-men." - -The family name, or second name borne by all the tribes in lineal descent, -and which corresponds to our surname, _i.e._ _super nomen_, or -"over-name," is derived from names of beasts, birds, plants, etc., around -which traditions of their transformation into men linger. Sir George -Grey[44] says that there is a mysterious connection between a native and -his kobong. It is his protecting angel, like the "daimon" of Socrates, -like the "genius" of the early Italian. "If it is an animal, he will not -kill one of the species to which it belongs, should he find it asleep, and -he always kills it reluctantly and never without affording it a chance of -escape. The family belief is that some one individual of the species is -their dearest friend, to kill whom would be a great crime," as, in Hindu -belief, when a Rajah was said to have entered at death into the body of a -fish, a "close time" was at once decreed. Among the Indian tribes we find -well-nigh the whole fauna and flora represented, their totems being the -Bear, Turtle, Deer, Snake, Eagle, Pike, Corn, Tobacco, etc. Like the -Australians, these tribes regarded themselves as being of the breed of -their particular animal-totem, and avoided hunting, slaying, and eating -(of which more presently) the creature under whose form the ancestor was -thought to be manifest. The Chippeways carried their respect even farther. -Deriving their origin from the dog, they at one time refrained from -employing their supposed canine ancestors in dragging their sledges. The -Bechuana and other people of South Africa will avoid eating their -tribe-animal or wearing its skin. The same prohibitions are found among -tribes in Northern Asia, and the Vogulitzi of Siberia, when they have -killed a bear, address it formally, maintaining "that the blame is to be -laid on the arrows and iron, which were made and forged by the Russians!" -Among the Delawares the Tortoise gens claimed supremacy over the others, -because their ancestor, who had become a fabled monster in their -mythology, bore their world on his back. The California Indians are in -interesting agreement with Lord Monboddo when, in claiming descent from -the prairie wolf, they account for the loss of their tails by the habit of -sitting, which, in course of time, wore them down to the stump! The -Kickapoos say their ancestors had tails, and that when they lost them the -"impudent fox sent every morning to ask how their tails were, and the bear -shook his fat sides at the joke." The Patagonians are said to have a -number of animal deities, creators of the several tribes, some being of -the caste of the guanaco and others of the ostrich. In short, the group of -beliefs and practices found among races in the lower stages of culture -point to a widespread common attitude towards the mystery of life around -them. In speaking of totemism among the Red races Dr. Brinton thinks that -the free use of animate symbols to express abstract ideas, which he finds -so frequent, is the source of a confusion which has led to their claiming -literal descent from wild beasts. But the barbaric mind bristles with -contradictions and mutually destructive conceptions; nothing is too -wonderful, too _bizarre_, for its acceptance, and the belief in actual -animal descent is not the most remarkable or far-fetched among the -articles of its creed. - -The subject of totemism is full of interest both on its religious and -social side:-- - -On its religious side it has given rise, or, if this be not conceded, -impetus, to that worship of animals which assuredly had its source in the -attribution of mysterious power through some spirit within them, making -them deity incarnate. - -On its social side it has led to prohibitions which are inwoven among the -customs and prejudices of civilised communities. But, before speaking of -these prohibitions, the barbaric mode of reckoning descent should be -noticed. - -The family name borne by most Australian tribes is perpetuated by the -children, whether boys or girls, taking their mother's name. Precisely the -same custom is found among some American Indians, the children of both -sexes being of the mother's clan. Among the Moquis of Arizona all the -members of each gens trace descent from a common ancestor; they are -regarded as brothers and sisters.[45] Now, the family, as we define it, -does not exist in savage communities, nor, as Mr. McLennan says in his -very remarkable work on _Primitive Marriage_, had "the earliest human -groups any idea of kinship, ... the physical root of which could be -discerned only through observation and reflection." Where the relations -of the sexes were confused and promiscuous, the oldest system in which the -idea of blood-ties was expressed was a system of kinship through the -mother. The habits of the "much-married" primitive men made mistake about -any one's mother less likely than mistake about his father; and, if in -civilised times it is, as the saying goes, a wise child that knows its own -father, he was, in barbarous times, a wise father who knew his own child. -Examples tracing the kinship through females, father and offspring being -never of the same clan, abound in both ancient and modern authorities, and -perhaps the most amusing one that can be given is found in Dr. Morgan's -_Systems of Consanguinity_. He says that the "natives of the province of -Keang-se are celebrated among the natives of the other Chinese provinces -for the mode or form used by them in address, namely, 'Laon peaon,' which, -freely translated, means, 'Oh, you old fellow, brother mine by some of the -ramifications of female relationship!'"[46] - -The prohibitions arising out of or confirmed by totemism are two: 1. -Against intermarriage between those of the same name or crest. 2. Against -the eating of the totem by any member of the tribe called after it. - -1. Among both Australians and Indians a man is forbidden to marry in his -own clan, _i.e._ any woman of his own surname or badge, no matter where -she was born or however distantly related to him. The Navajoes of Arizona -say that if they married in their own clan "their bones would dry up and -they would die." - -Were this practice of "Exogamy," as marriage outside the totem-kin is -called, limited to one or two places, it might be classed among -exceptional local customs based on a tradition, say, of some heated -blood-feud between the tribes. But its prevalence among savage or -semi-savage races all the world over points to reasons the nature of which -is still a _crux_ to the anthropologists. The late Mr. McLennan, whose -opinion on such a matter is entitled to the most weight, connects it with -the custom of female infanticide, which, rendering women scarce, led at -once to polyandry, or one female to several males, within the tribe, and -to the capturing of women from other tribes. This last-named practice -strengthens Mr. McLennan's theory. He cites numerous instances from past -and present barbarous races, and traces its embodiment in formal code -until we come to the mock relics of the custom in modern times, as, for -example, the harmless "survival" in bride-lifting, that is, stealing, as -in the word "cattle-lifting." - -Connected with this custom is the equally prevailing one which forbids -intercourse between relations, as especially between a couple and their -fathers and mothers-in-law, and which also forbids mentioning their names. -So far as the aversion which the savage has to telling his own name, or -uttering that of any person (especially of the dead) or thing feared by -him is concerned, the reason is not far to seek. It lies in that -confusion between names and things which marks all primitive thinking. The -savage, who shrinks from having his likeness taken in the fear that a part -of himself is being carried away thereby, regards his name as something -through which he may be harmed. So he will use all sorts of roundabout -phrases to avoid saying it, and even change it that he may elude his foes, -and puzzle or cheat Death when he comes to look for him. But why a -son-in-law should not see the face of his mother-in-law, for so it is -among the Navajoes, (where the offender would, they say, go blind), the -Aranaks of South America, the Caribs and other tribes of more northern -regions, the Fijians, Sumatrans, Dyaks, the natives of Australia, the -Zulus, in brief, along the range of the lower culture, is a question to -which no satisfactory answer has been given, and to which reference is -here made because of its connection with totemism. - -2. That the animal which is the totem of the tribe should not be eaten, -even where men did not hesitate to eat men of another totem, is a custom -for which it is less hard to account. The division of flesh into two -classes of forbidden and permitted, of clean and unclean, with the -resulting artificial liking or repulsion for food which custom arising out -of that division has brought about, is probably referable to old beliefs -in the inherent sacredness of certain animals. The Indians of Charlotte -Island never eat crows, because they believe in crow-ancestors, and they -smear themselves with black paint in memory of that tradition; the -Dacotahs would neither kill nor eat their totems, and if necessity compels -these and like barbarians to break the law, the meal is preceded by -profuse apologies and religious ceremonies over the slain. Although the -aborigines of Victoria, who are to be ranked among the lowest savages -extant, devour the most loathsome things, worms, slugs, and vermin, they -have a classification of meats to be eaten or avoided. A Kumite is deeply -grieved when hunger compels him to eat anything which bears his name, but -he may satisfy his hunger with anything that is Krokee. The abstention of -the Brahmans from meat, the pseudo-revealed injunction to the Hebrews -against certain flesh-foods (has that against pork its origin in the -forgotten tradition of descent from a boar?), need no detailing here. But, -as parallels, some restrictions amongst the ancient dwellers in these -islands are of value. It was, according to Caesar,[47] a crime to eat the -domestic fowl, or goose, or hare, and to this day the last-named is an -object of disgust in certain parts of Russia and Brittany. The oldest -Welsh laws contain several allusions to the magical character of the hare, -which was thought to change its sex every month or year, and to be the -companion of the witches, who often assumed its shape.[48] The revulsion -against horse-flesh as food may have its origin in the sacredness of the -white horses, which, as Tacitus remarks,[49] were kept by the Germans at -the public cost in groves holy to the gods, whose secrets they knew, and -whose decrees regarding mortals their neighings interpreted. That this -animal was a clan-totem among our forefathers there can be no doubt, and -the proofs are with us in the white horses carved in outline on the chalk -hills of Berkshire and the west, as in the names and crests of clan -descendants. - -The totem is not only the clan-name indicating descent from a common -ancestor. It is also the clan-symbol, badge, or crest. Where the tribes -among whom it is found are still in the picture-writing stage, _i.e._ when -the idea is expressed by a portrait of the thing itself instead of by some -sound-sign--a stage in writing corresponding to the primitive stage in -language, when words were imitative--there we find the rude hieroglyphic -of the totem a means of intercourse between different tribes, as well as -with whites. A striking example of the use of such totemic symbols occurs -in a petition sent by some Western Indian tribes to the United States -Congress for the right to fish in certain small lakes near Lake Superior. - -The leading clan is represented by a picture of the crane; then follow -three martens, as totems of three tribes; then the bear, the man-fish, and -the cat-fish, also totems. From the eye and heart of each of the animals -runs a line connecting them with the eye and heart of the crane, to show -that they are all of one mind, and the eye of the crane has also a line -connecting it with the lakes on which the tribes have their eyes, and -another line running towards Congress. - -In the barbaric custom of painting or carving the totem on oars, on the -bows and sides of canoes, on weapons, on pillars in the front of houses, -and on the houses themselves; in tattooing it on various parts of the body -(in the latter case, in some instances, together with pictures of -exploits; so that the man carries on his person an illustrated history of -his own life) we have the remote and forgotten origin of heraldic emblems. -The symbols of civilised nations, as, _e.g._ the Imperial eagle, which so -many states of ancient and modern renown have chosen; the crests of -families of rank, with their fabulous monsters, as the cherub, the Greek -_gryps_, surviving in the griffin, the dragon, the unicorn, which, born of -rude fancy or terrified imagination, are now carved on the entrance-gates -to the houses of the great; the armorial bearings on carriages; the crest -engraven on ring or embossed on writing-paper, these are the lineal -descendants of the totem; and the Indians, who could see no difference -between their system of manitous and those of the white people, with their -spread-eagle or their lion-rampant, made a shrewd guess that would not -occur to many a _parvenu_ applying at the Heralds' College for a crest. -The continuity is traceable in the custom of the Mexicans and other -civilised nations of painting the totemic animals on their banners, flags, -crests, and other insignia; and it would seem that we have in the totem -the key to the mystery of those huge animal-shaped mounds which abound on -the North American continent. - -The arbitrary selection in the "ages of chivalry" of such arms as pleased -the knightly fancy or ministered to its pride, or, as was often the case, -resembled the name in sound, together with the ignorance then and till -recently existing as to the origin of crests, and also the discredit into -which a seemingly meaningless vanity had fallen, have made it difficult to -trace the survival of the totem in the crests even of that numerous -company of the Upper Ten who claim descent from warriors who came over -with the Conqueror. But there is no doubt that an inquiry conducted on the -lines suggested above, and not led into by-paths by false analogies, would -yield matter of interest and value. It would add to the evidence of that -common semi-civilised stage out of which we have risen. Such names as the -Horsings, the Wylfings, the Derings, the Ravens, the Griffins, perhaps -hold within themselves traces of the totem name of the horse, wolf, deer, -raven, and that "animal fantasticall," the griffin. In Scotland we find -the clan Chattan, or the wild cat; in Ireland "the men of Osory were -called by a name signifying the wild red deer." On the other hand such -names may have been given merely as nicknames (_i.e._ ekename or the -_added_ name, from _eke_, "also," or "to augment"), suggested by the -physical or mental likeness to the thing after which they are called. - -But it is time to turn to the religious significance of the totem, as -shown among races worshipping the animal which is their supposed ancestor. - -At first glance this seems strong argument in support of Mr. Herbert -Spencer's theory that all forms of religion, and all myth, have their -origin in ancestor worship. The mysterious power of stimulation, of -excitation to frenzy, or of healing and soothing, or of poisoning, which -certain plants possess, has been attributed to indwelling spirits, which, -as Mr. Spencer contends, are regarded as human and ancestral. Very many -illustrations of this occur, as, _e.g._ the worship of the Soma plant, and -its promotion as a deity among the Aryans; the use of tobacco in religious -ceremonies among the tribes of both Americas; whilst now and again we find -trees and plants as totems. The Moquis have a totem-kin called the -tobacco-plant, and also one called the seed-grass. One of the Peruvian -Incas was called after the native name of the tobacco-plant; and among the -Ojibways the buffalo grass was carried as a charm, and its god said to -cause madness. - -In Algonquin myth "there is a spirit for the corn, another for beans, -another for squashes. They are sisters, and are very kind to each other. -There are spirits in the water, in fire, in all the trees and berries, in -herbs and in tobacco, in the grass." - -The worship of animals is on Mr. Spencer's theory explained as due to the -giving of a nickname of some beast or bird to a remote ancestor, the -belief arising in course of time that such animal was the actual -progenitor, hence its worship. We call a man a bear, a pig, or a vampire, -in symbolic phrase, and the figure of speech remains a figure of speech -with us. But the savage loses the metaphor, and it crystallises into hard -matter-of-fact. So the traditions have grown, and Black Eagle, Strong -Buffalo, Big Owl, Tortoise, etc., take the shape of actual forefathers of -the tribe bearing their name and crest. According to the same theory the -adoration of sun, moon, and mountains, etc., is due to a like source. Some -famous chief was called the Sun; the metaphor was forgotten; the personal -and concrete, as the more easily apprehended, remained; hence worship of -the powers of nature "is a form of ancestor-worship, which has lost in a -still greater degree the character of the original."[50] - -The objection raised in these pages to the extreme application of the -solar theory applies with equal force to Mr. Spencer's limitation of the -origin of myth and religion to one source. Having cleared Scylla, we must -not dash against Charybdis. Religion has its origin neither in fear of -ghosts, as Mr. Spencer's theory assumes, nor in a perception of the -Infinite inherent in man, as Professor Max Mueller holds. Rather does it -lie in man's sense of vague wonder in the presence of powers whose force -he cannot measure, and his expressions towards which are manifold. There -is underlying unity, but there are, to quote St. Paul, "diversities of -operation." There is just that surface unlikeness which one might expect -from the different physical conditions and their resulting variety of -subtle influences surrounding various races; influences shaping for them -their gods, their upper and nether worlds; influences of climate and soil -which made the hell of volcanic countries an abyss of sulphurous stifling -smoke and everlasting fire, and the hell of cold climates a place of -deathly frost; which gave to the giant-gods of northern zones their rugged -awfulness, and to the goddesses of the sunny south their soft and stately -grace. The theory of ancestor-worship as the basis of every form of -religion does not allow sufficient play for the vagaries in which the same -thing will be dressed by the barbaric fear and fancy, nor for the -imagination as a creative force in the primitive mind even at the lowest -at which we know it. And, of course, beneath that lowest lies a lower -never to be fathomed. We are apt to talk of primitive man as if his -representatives were with us in the black fellows who are at the bottom of -the scale, forgetting that during unnumbered ages he was a brute in -everything but the capacity by which at last the ape and tiger were -subdued within him. Of the beginnings of his _thought_ we can know -nothing, but the fantastic forms in which it is first manifest compel us -to regard him as a being whose feelings were uncurbed by reason. That -ancestor-worship is one mode among others of man's attitude towards the -awe-begetting, mystery-inspiring universe, none can deny. That his -earliest temples, as defined sacred spots, were tombs; that he prayed to -his dead dear ones, or his dead feared ones, as the case may be, is -admitted. From its strong personal character, ancestor-worship was, -without doubt, one of the earliest expressions of man's attitude before -the world which his fancy filled with spirits. It flourishes among -barbarous races to-day; it was the prominent feature of the old Aryan -religion; it has entered into Christian practice in the worship of saints, -and perhaps the only feature of religion which the modern Frenchman has -retained is the _culte des morts_. That it was a part of the belief of the -Emperor Napoleon III. the following extract from his will shows:--"We must -remember that those we love look down upon us from heaven and protect us. -It is the soul of my great Uncle which has always guided and supported me. -Thus will it be with my son also if he proves worthy of his name." - -But the worship of ancestors is not primal. The comparatively late -recognition of kinship by savages, among whom some rude form of religion -existed, tells against it as the earliest mode of worship. Moreover, -Nature is bigger than man, and this he was not slow to feel. Even if it be -conceded that sun-myth and sun-worship once arose through the nicknaming -of an ancestor as the Sun, we must take into account the force of that -imagination which enabled the unconscious myth-maker, or creed-maker, to -credit the moving orbs of heaven with personal life and will. The faculty -which could do that might well express itself in awe-struck forms without -intruding the ancestral ghost. Further, the records of the classic -religions, themselves preserving many traces of a primitive -nature-worship, point to an adoration of the great and bountiful, as well -as to a sense of the maleficent and fateful, in earth and heaven which -seem prior to the more concrete worship of forefathers and chieftains. - -If for the worship of these last we substitute a general worship of -spirits, there seems little left on which to differ. As aids to the -explanation of the belief in animal ancestors and their subsequent -deification and worship, as of the lion, the bull, the serpent, etc., we -have always present in the barbaric mind the tendency to credit living -things, and indeed lifeless, but moving ones, with a passion, a will, and -a power to help or harm immeasurably greater than man's. This is part and -parcel of that belief in spirits everywhere which is the key to savage -philosophy, and the growth of which is fostered by such secondary causes -as the worship of ancestors. - - -Sec. VII. - -SURVIVAL OF MYTH IN HISTORY. - -For proofs of the emergence of the higher out of the lower in philosophy -and religion, to say nothing of less exalted matters, whether the -beast-fable or the nursery rhyme, as holding barbaric thought in solution, -examples have necessarily been drawn from the mythology of past and -present savage races. But these are too remote in time or standpoint to -stir other than a languid interest in the reader's mind; their purpose is -served when they are cited and classified as specimens. Not thus is it -with examples drawn nearer home from sources at which our young thirst for -the stirring and romantic was slaked. When we learn that famous names and -striking episodes are in some rare instances only transformed and -personified natural phenomena, or, as occurring everywhere, possibly -variants of a common legend, the far-reaching influence of primitive -thought comes to us in more vivid and exciting form. And although one -takes in hand this work of disenchantment in no eager fashion, the loss is -more seeming than real. Whether the particular tale of bravery, of -selflessness, of faithfulness, has truth of detail, matters little -compared with the fact that its reception the wide world over witnesses to -human belief, even at low levels, in the qualities which have given man -empire over himself and ever raised the moral standard of the race. -Moreover, in times like these, when criticism is testing without fear or -favour the trustworthiness of records of the past, whether of Jew or -Gentile, the knowledge of the legendary origin of events woven into sober -history prepares us to recognise how the imagination has fed the stream of -tradition, itself no mean tributary of that larger stream of history, the -purity of which is now subject of analysis. As a familiar and interesting -example let us take the story of William Tell. - -Everybody has heard how, in the year 1307 (or, as some say, 1296) Gessler, -Vogt (or Governor) of the Emperor Albert of Hapsburg, set a hat on a pole -as symbol of the Imperial power, and ordered every one who passed by to do -obeisance to it; and how a mountaineer named Wilhelm Tell, who hated -Gessler and the tyranny which the symbol expressed, passed by without -saluting the hat, and was at once seized and brought before Gessler, who -ordered that as punishment Tell should shoot an apple off the head of his -own son. As resistance was vain, the apple was placed on the boy's head, -when Tell bent his bow, and the arrow, piercing the apple, fell with it to -the ground. Gessler saw that Tell, before shooting, had stuck a second -arrow in his belt, and, asking the reason, received this for answer: "It -was for you; had I shot my child, know that this would have pierced your -heart." - -Now, this story first occurs in the chronicle of Melchior Russ, who wrote -at the end of the fifteenth century, _i.e._ about one hundred and seventy -years after its reputed occurrence. The absence of any reference to it in -contemporary records caused doubt to be thrown upon it three centuries -ago. Guillimann, the author of a work on Swiss antiquities, published in -1598, calls it a fable, but subscribes to the current belief in it because -the tale is so popular! The race to which he belonged is not yet extinct. -A century and a half later a more fearless sceptic, who said that the -story was of Danish origin, was condemned by the Canton of Uri to be burnt -alive, and in the well-timed absence of the offender his book was ordered -to be burnt by the common hangman. But the truth is great, and prevails. -G. von Wyss, the Swiss historian, has pointed out that the name of Wilhelm -Tell does not occur even once in the history of the three cantons, neither -is there any trace that a Vogt named Gessler ever served the house of -Hapsburg there. Moreover, the legend does not correspond to any fact of a -period of oppression of the Swiss at the hands of their Austrian rulers. - -"There exist in contemporary records no instances of wanton outrage and -insolence on the Hapsburg side. It was the object of that power to obtain -political ascendancy, not to indulge its representatives in lust or wanton -insult," and, where records of disputes between particular persons occur, -"the symptoms of violence, as is natural enough, appear rather on the side -of the Swiss than on that of the aggrandising Imperial house."[51] - -Candour, however, requires that the "evidence" in support of the legend -should be stated. There is the fountain on the supposed site of the -lime-tree in the market-place at Altdorf by which young Tell stood, as -well as the colossal plaster statue of the hero himself which confronts us -as we enter the quaint village. But more than this, the veritable -cross-bow itself is preserved in the arsenal at Zurich! - -However, although the little Tell's chapel, as restored, was opened with -a national _fete_, in the presence of two members of the Federal Council, -in June 1883,[52] the Swiss now admit in their school-teaching that the -story of the _Apfelschusz_ is legendary. - -Freudenberger, who earned his death-sentence for affirming that the story -came from Denmark, was on the right track, for the following variant of it -is given by Saxo Grammaticus, a Danish writer of the twelfth century, who -puts it as happening in the year 950:-- - - Nor ought what follows to be enveloped in silence. Palnatoki, for some - time in the body-guard of King Harold (Harold Gormson, or Bluetooth), - had made his bravery odious to many of his fellow-soldiers by the zeal - with which he surpassed them. One day, when he had drunk too much, he - boasted that he was so skilled a bowman that he could hit the smallest - apple, set on the top of a stick some way off, at the first shot, - which boast reached the ears of the king. This monarch's wickedness - soon turned the confidence of the father to the peril of the son, for - he commanded that this dearest pledge of his life should stand in - place of the stick, adding a threat that if Palnatoki did not at his - first shot strike off the apple, he should with his head pay the - penalty of making an empty boast. This command forced him to attempt - more than he had promised, and what he _had_ said, reported by - slanderous tongues, bound him to accomplish what he had _not_ said. - Yet did not his sterling courage, though caught in the snare of - slander, suffer him to lay aside his firmness of heart. As soon as the - boy was led forth Palnatoki warned him to await the speeding of the - arrow with calm ears and unbent head, lest by any slight movement of - the body he should frustrate the archer's well-tried skill. He then - made him stand with his back towards him, lest he should be scared at - the sight of the arrow. Then he drew three arrows from his quiver, and - with the first that he fitted to the string he struck the apple. When - the king asked him why he had taken more than one arrow from his - quiver, when he was to be allowed to make but one trial with his bow, - he made answer, "That I might avenge on thee the swerving of the first - by the points of the others, lest perchance my innocence might have - been punished, while your violence escaped scot-free."[53] - -Going farther northward we find tales corresponding in their main features -to the above, in the Icelandic _Saga_, the Vilkina; in the Norse _Saga_ of -Saint Olaf or Thidrik; and in the story of Harold, son of Sigurd. In the -Olaf _Saga_ it is said that the saint or king, desiring the conversion of -a brave heathen named Eindridi, competed with him in various athletic -sports, swam with him, wrestled with him, and then shot with him. Olaf -then dared Eindridi to strike a writing-tablet from off his son's head -with an arrow, and bade two men bind the eyes of the child and hold the -napkin so that the boy might not move when he heard the whizz of the -arrow. Olaf aimed first, and the arrow grazed the lad's head. Eindridi -then prepared to shoot, but the mother of the boy interfered and persuaded -the king to abandon this dangerous test of skill. The story adds that had -the boy been injured Eindridi would have revenged himself on the king.[54] - -Somewhat like this, as from the locality might be expected, is the Faroee -Isles variant. King Harold challenges Geyti, son of Aslak, and, vexed at -being beaten in a swimming match, bids Geyti shoot a hazel-nut from off -his brother's head. He consents, and the king witnesses the feat, when -Geyti - - "Shot the little nut away, - Nor hurt the lad a hair." - -Next day Harold sends for the archer, and says:-- - - "List thee, Geyti, Aslak's son, - And truly tell to me, - Wherefore hadst thou arrows twain - In the wood yestreen with thee?" - -To which Geyti answers:-- - - "Therefore had I arrows twain - Yestreen in the wood with me, - Had I but hurt my brother dear - The other had pierced thee." - -With ourselves it is the burden of the ballad of William of Cloudeslee, -where the brave archer says:-- - - "I have a sonne seven years old; - Hee is to me full deere; - I will tye him to a stake-- - All shall see him that bee here-- - And lay an apple upon his head, - And goe six paces him froe; - And I myself with a broad arroe - Shall cleave the apple in towe." - -In the _Malleus Maleficarum_ Puncher, a magician on the Upper Rhine, is -required to shoot a coin from off a lad's head; while, travelling -eastwards as far as Persia, we find the Tell myth as an incident in the -poem _Mantic Ultrair_, a work of the twelfth century. - -Thus far the variants of the legend found among Aryan peoples have been -summarised, and it is tempting to base upon this diffusion of a common -incident a theory of its origin among the ancestors of the Swiss and the -Norseman, the Persian and the Icelander. But it is found among non-Aryans -also. The ethnologist, Castren, whose researches in Finland have secured a -valuable mass of fast-perishing materials, obtained this tale in the -village of Ultuwa. "A fight took place between some freebooters and the -inhabitants of the village of Alajaerai. The robbers plundered every house, -and carried off amongst their captives an old man. As they proceeded with -their spoils along the strand of the lake a lad of twelve years old -appeared from among the reeds on the opposite bank, armed with a bow and -amply provided with arrows; he threatened to shoot down the captors unless -the old man, his father, was restored to him. The robbers mockingly -replied that the aged man would be given to him if he could shoot an apple -off his head. The boy accepted the challenge, pierced the apple and freed -his father." Among a people in close contact with an Aryan race as the -Finns are in contact with both Swedes and Russians, the main incident of -the Tell story may easily have been woven into their native tales. But in -reference to other non-Aryan races Sir George Dasent, who has treated of -the diffusion of the Tell story very fully in the Introduction to his -_Popular Tales from the Norse_ (a reprint of which would be a boon to -students of folk-lore), says that it is common to the Turks and -Mongolians, and a legend of the wild Samoyedes, who never heard of Tell or -saw a book in their lives, relates it, chapter and verse, of one of their -marksmen. What shall we say, then, but that the story of this bold -mastershot was prominent amongst many tribes and races, and that it only -crystallised itself round the great name of Tell by that process of -attraction which invariably leads a grateful people to throw such mythic -wreaths, such garlands of bold deeds of precious memory, around the brow -of its darling champion. Of course the solar mythologists see in Tell the -sun or cloud deity; in his bow the storm-cloud or the iris; and in his -arrows the sun-rays or lightning darts. - -This is a question which we may leave to the champions concerned to -settle. Apart from the evidence of the survival of legend in history, and -the lesson of caution in accepting any ancient record as gospel which we -should learn therefrom, it is the human element in the venerable tale -which interests us most. - -Remote in time, far away in place, as is its origin, it moves us yet. The -ennobling qualities incarnated in some hero (whether he be real or ideal -matters not) meet with admiring response in the primitive listeners to the -story, else it would have been speedily forgotten. Thus does it retain for -us witness to the underlying oneness of the human heart beneath all -surface differences. - -Widespread as a myth may be, it takes depth of root according to the more -or less congenial soil where it is dropped. That about Tell found -favourable home in the uplands and the free air of Switzerland; with us S. -George, falling on times of chivalry, had abiding place, as also, less -rugged of type than the Swiss marksman, had Arthur, the "Blameless King," -who, if he ever existed, is smothered in overgrowth of legends both native -and imported. - -For such cycle of tales as gathered round the name of Arthur, and on which -our youthhood was nourished, is as mythical as the wolf that suckled -Romulus and Remus. Modern criticism and research have thoroughly sifted -the legendary from the true, and if the past remains vague and shadowy, we -at least know how far the horizon of certainty extends. The criticism has -made short work of the romancing chronicles which so long did duty for -sober history, and has shown that no accurate knowledge of the sequence of -events is obtainable until late in the period of the English invasions. -Save in scattered hints here and there, we are quite in the dark as to the -condition of this island during the Roman occupation, whilst for anything -that is known of times prior to this, called for convenience -"pre-historic," we are dependent upon unwritten records preserved in tombs -and mounds. The information gathered from these has given us some clue to -what manner of men they were who confronted the first Aryan immigrants, -and, enriched by researches of the ethnologist and philologist, enabled us -to trace the movements of races westwards, until we find old and new -commingled as one English-speaking folk. - -All or any of which could not be known to the earlier chroniclers. When -Geoffry of Monmouth set forth the glory and renown of Arthur and his Court -he recorded and embellished traditions six hundred years old, without -thought of weighing the evidence or questioning the credibility of the -transmitters. Whether there was a king of that name who ruled over the -Silures, and around whom the remnant of brave Kelts rallied in their final -struggle against the invading hordes, and who, wounded in battle, died at -Glastonbury, and was buried, or rather sleeps, as the legend has it, in -the Vale of Avilion, "hath been," as Milton says, "doubted heretofore, and -may again, with good reason, for the Monk of Malmesbury and others, whose -credit hath swayed most with the learned sort, we may well perceive to -have known no more of this Arthur nor of his doings than we now -living."[55] - -In the group of legends both of the Old and New World, which, the solar -theorists tell us, symbolise the long sleep of winter before the sweet -awakening of the spring, Arthur of course has place. "Men said he was not -dead, but by the will of our Lord Jesus Christ was in another place, and -men say that he will come again ... that there is written on his tomb this -verse: - - 'Hic jacet Arthurus rex quondam, Rexque futurus.'" - -So Charlemagne reposes beneath the Untersberg, waiting for the appointed -time to rise and do battle with anti-Christ; Tell slumbers ready-panoplied -to save Switzerland when danger threatens; the hero-deity of the -Algonquins, when he left the earth, promised to return, but has not, -wherefore he is called Glooskap, or the Liar; St. John sleeps at Ephesus -till the last days are at hand; and the Church militant awaits the return -of her Lord at the Second Advent. - -The comparative mythologists say that Arthur is a myth, pure and simple, a -variant of Sigurd and Perseus; the winning of his famous sword but a -repetition of the story of the Teutonic and Greek heroes; the gift of -Guinevere as fatal to him as Helen to Menelaus; his knights but -reproductions of the Achaian hosts--much of which may be true; but the -romance corresponded to some probable event; it fitted in with the -national traditions. There were struggles between the Kelts and subsequent -invaders--Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes. There were brave chieftains who -led forlorn hopes or fought to the death in their fastnesses. There were, -in the numerous tribal divisions, petty kings and queens ruling over mimic -courts, with retinues of knights bent on chivalrous, unselfish service. -These were the nuclei of stories which were the early annals of the tribe, -the glad theme of bards and minstrels, and from which a long line of poets -to the latest singer of the _Idylls of the King_ have drawn the materials -of their epics. The fascination which such a cycle of tales had for the -people, especially in days when the ballad was history and poetry and all -literature rolled into one, was so strong, that the Church wisely imported -an element which gave loftier meaning to the knightly life, and infused -religious ardour into the camp and court. To the stories of Tristram and -Gawayne, already woven into the old romance, she added the half-Christian, -half-pagan, legend of the knights who left the feast at the Round Table to -travel across land and sea that they might free the enslaved, remove the -spell from the enchanted, and deliver fair women from the monsters of -tyranny and lust, setting forth on what in her eyes was a nobler quest--to -seek and look upon the San Graal, or Holy Vessel used by Jesus at the Last -Supper, and into which Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood and water -that streamed from the side of the crucified Jesus. This mystic cup, in -which we have probably a sacrificial relic of the old British religion -imported into the Christian incident with which it blended so well, -floated, according to Arthurian legend, suddenly into the presence of the -King and his Round Table knights at Camelot as they sat at supper, and was -as suddenly borne away, to be henceforth the coveted object of knightly -endeavour. Only the baptized could hope to behold it; to the unchaste it -was veiled: hence only they among the knights who were pure in heart and -life vowed to go in quest of the San Graal, and return not until they had -seen it. So to Sir Galahad, the "just and faithful," Tennyson sings how -the sacred cup appeared-- - - "Sometimes on lonely mountain meres - I find a magic bark; - I leap on board: no helmsman steers: - I float till all is dark. - A gentle sound, an awful light! - Three angels bear the holy Grail: - With folded feet, in stoles of white, - On sleeping wings they sail. - Ah, blessed vision! blood of God! - My spirit beats her mortal bars, - As down dark tides the glory slides, - And, star-like, mingles with the stars." - -Whilst in such legends as the Arthurian group the grain of truth, if it -exists, is so embedded as to be out of reach, there are others concerning -actual personages, notably Cyrus and Charlemagne, not to quote other names -from both "profane" and sacred history, in which the fable can be -separated from the fact without difficulty. Enough is known of the life -and times of such men to detach the certain from the doubtful, as, _e.g._, -when Charlemagne is spoken of as a Frenchman and as a Crusader before -there was a French nation, or the idea of Crusades had entered the heads -of most Christian kings; and as in the legends of the infancy of Cyrus, -which are of a type related to like legends of the wonderful round the -early years of the famous. - -This, however, by the way. Leaving illustration of the fabulous in heroic -story, it will be interesting to trace it through such a tale of pathos -and domestic life as the well-known one of Llewellyn and his faithful -hound, Gellert. - -Whose emotions have not been stirred by the story of Llewellyn the Great -going out hunting, and missing his favourite dog; of his return, to be -greeted by the creature with more than usual pleasure in his eye, but with -jaws besmeared with blood; of the anxiety with which Llewellyn rushed into -the house, to find the cradle where had lain his beautiful boy upset, and -the ground around it soaked with blood; of his thereupon killing the dog, -and then seeing the child lying unharmed beneath the cradle, and sleeping -by the side of a dead wolf, from whose ravenous maw the faithful Gellert -had delivered it? Most of us, in our visits to North Wales, have stood by -Gellert's grave at Beddgelert, little suspecting that the affecting story -occurs in the folk-lore of nearly every Aryan people, and of several -non-Aryan races, as the Egyptians and Chinese. - -Probably it comes to us as many other tales have come, through collections -like the well-known _Gesta Romanorum_, compiled by mediaeval monks for -popular entertainment. In the version given in that book the knight who -corresponds to Llewellyn, after slaying his dog, discovers that it had -saved his child from a serpent, and thereupon breaks his sword and departs -on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. But the monks were no inventors of such -tales; they recorded those that came to them through the pilgrims, -students, traders, and warriors who travelled from west to east and from -east to west in the Middle Ages, and it is in the native home of fable and -imagery the storied Orient, that we must seek for the earliest forms of -the Gellert legend. In the _Panchatantra_, the oldest and most celebrated -Sanskrit fable-book, the story takes this form:--An infirm child is left -by its mother while she goes to fetch water, and she charges the father, -who is a Brahman, to watch over it. But he leaves the house to collect -alms, and soon after this a snake crawls towards the child. In the house -was an ichneumon, a creature often cherished as a house pet, who sprang at -the snake and throttled it. When the mother came back, the ichneumon went -gladly to meet her, his jaws and face smeared with the snake's blood. The -horrified mother, thinking it had killed her child, threw her water-jar at -it, and killed it; then seeing the child safe beside the mangled body of -the snake, she beat her breast and face with grief, and scolded her -husband for leaving the house. - -We find the same story, with the slight difference that the animal is an -otter, in a later Sanskrit collection, the _Hitopadesa_, but we can track -it to that fertile source of classic and mediaeval fable, the Buddhist -_Jatakas_, or _Birth Stories_, a very ancient collection of fables, which, -professing to have been told by the Buddha, narrates his exploits in the -550 births through which he passed before attaining Buddhahood. In the -_Vinaya Pitaka_ of the Chinese Buddhist collection, which, according to -Mr. Beal, dates from the fifth century A.D., and is translated from -original scriptures supposed to have existed near the time of Asoka's -council in the third century B.C., we have the earliest extant form of -the tale. That in the _Panchatantra_ is obviously borrowed from it, the -differences being in unimportant detail, as, for example, the nakula, or -mongoose, is killed by the Brahman on his return home, the wife having -neglected to take the child with her as bidden by him. He is filled with -sorrow, and then a Deva continues the strain:-- - - "Let there be due thought and consideration, - Give not way to hasty impulse, - By forgetting the claims of true friendship - You may heedlessly injure a kind heart (person) - As the Brahman killed the nakula." - -The several versions of the story which could be cited from German, -Russian, Persian, and other Aryan folk-lore, would merely present certain -variations due to local colouring and to the inventiveness of the -narrators or transcribers; and, omitting these, it will suffice to give -the Egyptian variant or corresponding form, in which the tragical has -given place to the amusing, save, perhaps, in the opinion of the Wali. -This luckless person "once smashed a pot full of herbs which a cook had -prepared. The exasperated cook thrashed the well-intentioned but -unfortunate Wali within an inch of his life, and when he returned, -exhausted with his efforts at belabouring the man, he discovered among the -herbs a poisonous snake." - -In pointing to the venerable Buddhist _Birth Stories_ as the earliest -extant source of Aryan fables, it should be added that these were with the -Buddha and his disciples the favourite vehicle of carrying to the hearts -of men those lessons of gentleness and tenderness towards all living -things which are a distinctive feature of that non-persecuting religion. - - -Sec. VIII. - -MYTH AMONG THE HEBREWS. - -With the important exception of reference to the change effected in the -Jewish doctrine of spirits, and its resulting influence on Christian -theology, by the transformation of the mythical Ahriman of the old Persian -religion into the archfiend Satan, but slight allusion has been made in -these pages to the myths and legends of the Semitic race. Under this term, -borrowed from the current belief in their descent from Shem, are included -extant and extinct people, the Assyrians, Chaldeans or Babylonians, -Phoenicians, Arabs, Syrians, Jews, and Ethiopians. - -The mythology of the Aryan nations has had the advantage of the most -scholarly criticism, and the light which this has thrown upon the racial -connection of peoples between whom all superficial likeness had long -disappeared, as well as upon the early condition of their common -ancestors, is of the greatest value as aid to our knowledge of the mode of -man's intellectual and spiritual growth. And the comparisons made between -the older and cruder forms underlying the elaborated myth and the myths of -semi-barbarous races have supported conclusions concerning man's -primitive state identical with those deduced from the material relics of -the Ancient and Newer Stone Ages, namely, that the savage races of to-day -represent not a degradation to which man has sunk, but a condition out of -which all races above the savage have, through much tribulation, emerged. -An important exception to this has, however, been claimed on behalf of at -least one branch of the Semitic race--namely, the Hebrews or Jews. This -claim has rested on their assumed selection by the Deity for a definite -purpose in the ordering and directing of human affairs; but no assumption -of supernatural origin can screen the documents of disputed authorship and -uncertain meaning on which that claim is based from the investigation -applied to all ancient records; nor can the materials elude dissection -because hitherto regarded as organic parts of revelation. The real -difficulties are in the structure of the language and in the scantiness of -the material as contrasted with the flexile and copious mythology of the -Aryan race. And the investigation has been in some degree checked by the -mistaken dicta of authorities such as M. Renan and the late Baron Bunsen; -the former contending that "the Semites never had a mythology," and the -latter (although any statement of his carries far less weight) that "it is -the grand, momentous, and fortunate self-denial of Judaism to possess -none." - -But, independently of the refusal of the student of history to admit that -exceptional place has been accorded of direct Divine purpose to any -particular race, the discoveries of literatures much older than the -Hebrew, and in which legends akin to those in the earlier books of the Old -Testament are found, together with the proofs of historical connection -between the peoples having these common legends, have given the refutation -to the distinctive character of the Semitic race claimed by M. Renan. That -a people dwelling for centuries, as the Hebrews did, in a land which was -the common highway between the great nations of antiquity; a people -subject to vicissitudes bringing them, as the pipkin between iron pots, -into collision and subject relations to Egyptians, Persians, and other -powerful folk, should remain uninfluenced in their intellectual -speculations and religious beliefs, would indeed be a greater miracle than -that which makes their literature inspired in every word and vowel-point. -The remarkable collection of cuneiform inscriptions (so called from their -wedge-like shape: Latin, _cuneus_, a wedge) on the baked clay cylinders -and tablets of the vast libraries of Babylon and Nineveh, has brought out -one striking fact, namely, that the Semitic civilisation, venerable as -that is, was the product of, or at least, greatly influenced by, the -culture of a non-Semitic people called the Akkadians, from a word meaning -"highlanders." These more ancient dwellers in the Euphrates valley and -uplands were not only non-Semitic but non-Aryan, and probably racially -connected with the complex group of peoples embracing the -Tatar-Mongolians, the distinguishing features of whose religion are -Shamanistic, with belief in magic in its manifold forms. "In Babylonia, -under the non-Semitic Akkadian rule, the dominant creed was the fetish -worship, with all its ritual of magic and witchcraft; and when the Semites -conquered the country, the old learning of the land became the property of -the priests and astrologers, and the Akkadian language the Latin of the -Empire."[56] - -It was during the memorable period of the Exile that the historical -records of the Jews underwent revision, and from that time dates the -incorporation into them of legends and traditions which, invested with a -purity and majesty distinctively Hebrew, were borrowed from the -Babylonians, although primarily Akkadian. They are here, as elsewhere, the -product of the childhood of the race, when it speculates and invents, -framing its theory of the beginnings, their when and how; when it prattles -of the Golden Age, which seems to lie behind, in the fond and not extinct -delusion that "the old is better;" when it frames its fairy tales, weird -or winsome, in explanation of the uncommon, the unknown, and the -bewildering. - -The Babylonian origin of the early biblical stories is now generally -admitted, although the dogmas based upon certain of them still retard the -acceptance of this result of modern inquiry in some quarters. That -reluctance is suggestively illustrated in Dr. Wm. Smith's _Dictionary of -the Bible_, where, turning to the heading "Deluge," the reader is referred -to "Flood" and thence to "Noah!" - -So much for the legendary; but the analysis of the more strictly mythical, -the names of culture-ancestors and heroes, sons of Anak and of God, -scattered over the Pentateuch, is not so easy a matter. The most important -work in this direction has been attempted by Dr. Goldziher,[57] but even -his scholarship has failed to convince sympathetic readers that Abraham -and Isaac are sun-myths, and that the twelve sons of Jacob are the -zodiacal signs! Under the Professor's etymological solvent the personality -of the patriarchs disappears, and the charming idylls and pastorals of old -Eastern life become but phases of the sun and the weather. The Hebrew, -like the Aryan myth-maker, speaks of the relations of day and night, of -gray morning and sunrise, of red sunset and the darkness of night, as of -love and union, or strife and pursuit, or gloomy desire and coy evasion. -Abh-ram is the High or Heaven-Father (from _ram_, "to be high") with his -numberless host of descendants. Yis-chak, commonly called Isaac, denotes -"he who laughs," and so the Laughing one, whom the High Father intends to -slay, is the smiling day or the smiling sunset, which gets the worst of -the contest with the night sky, and disappears. Sarah signifies princess, -or the moon, the queen who rules over the great army glittering amidst the -darkness. The expulsion of Hagar (derived from a root _hajara_, meaning -"to fly," and yielding the word hijra or "flight," whence the Mohammadan -Hegira) is the Semitic variant of that inexhaustible theme of all -mythology, the battle of Day and Night; Hagar flying before the inconstant -sun and the jealous moon. And so on through the whole range of leading -characters in Hebrew history; Cain and Abel, in which Dr. Goldziher, to -whom they are the sun and dark sky, overlooks the more likely explanation -of the story as a quarrel between nomads and tillers of the soil; -Jephthah, in which the sun-god kills at mid-day the dawn, his own -offspring; Samson, or more correctly Shimshon, from the Hebrew word for -sun, the incidents of whose life, as expounded by Professor Steinthal,[58] -are more clearly typical of the labours of the sun; Jonah and the fish, a -story long ago connected with the myth of Herakles and Hesione; "as on -occasion of the storm the dragon or serpent swallows the sun, so when he -sets he is swallowed by a mighty fish, waiting for him at the bottom of -the sea. Then when he appears again on the horizon, he is spat out on the -shore by the sea-monster."[59] - -These bare references must suffice to show that there is in Hebrew -literature a large body of material which must undergo the sifting and the -criticism already applied with success to Indo-European and non-Aryan -myth. This done, the Semitic race will contribute its share of evidence in -support of those conditions under which it has been the main purpose of -this book to show that myth has its birth and growth. - - -Sec. IX. - -CONCLUSION. - -The multitude of subjects traversed in the foregoing sections has -compelled presentment in so concise a form that any attempt to gather into -a few sentences the sum of things said would be as a digest of a digest, -and it is, therefore, better to briefly emphasise the conclusions to which -the gathered evidence points. It was remarked at the outset, when -insisting on the serious meaning which lies at the heart of myths, that -they have their origin in the endeavour of barbaric man to explain his -surroundings. The mass of fact brought together illustrates and confirms -this view, and has thereby tended to raise what was once looked upon as -fantastic, curious, and lawless, to the level of a subject demanding sober -treatment and examination on strictly scientific methods. - -Archbishop Trench, in his _Study of Words_, quotes Emerson's happy -characterisation of language as fossil poetry and fossil history: "Just as -in some fossil, curious and beautiful shapes of vegetable or animal life, -the graceful fern, or the finely-vertebrated lizard, such as have been -extinct for thousands of years, are permanently bound up with the stone, -so in words are beautiful thoughts and images, the imagination and the -feeling of past ages, of men long since in their graves, of men whose very -names have perished, preserved and made safe for ever." In like manner we -may speak of myths as fossil ethics and fossil theology, but, with more -appositeness, as embryonic ethics and theology, since they contain -potentially all the philosophies and theologies "that man did ever find." - -And to the student of the history of humanity who rejoices in the sure -foundation on which, tested in manifold ways, the convictions of the -highest and noblest of the race rest, the value of myth is increased in -its being a natural outgrowth of the mind when, having advanced to the -point at which curiosity concerning the causes of surrounding things -arises, it frames its crude explanations. For not that which man claims to -have received as a message from the gods, as a revelation from heaven, but -that which he has learned by experience often painful and bitter, and -which succeeding generations have either verified or improved upon, or -disproved altogether, is, in the long run, of any worth. Through it alone, -as we follow the changes wrought in the process from guess to certainty, -can we determine what was the intellectual stage of man in his mental -infancy, and how far it finds correspondences in the intellectual stage of -existing barbaric races. - -Thus, the study of myth is nothing less than the study of the mental and -spiritual history of mankind. It is a branch of that larger, vaster -science of evolution which so occupies our thoughts to-day, and with it -the philosopher and the theologian must reckon. The evidence which it -brings from the living and dead mythologies of every race is in accord -with that furnished by their more tangible relics, that the history of -mankind is a history of slow but sure advance from a lower to a higher; of -ascent, although with oft backslidings. It confirms a momentous canon of -modern science, that the laws of evolution in the spiritual world are as -determinable as they are in the physical. To this we, for the enrichment -of our life and helpful service of our kind, do well to give heed. -Wherever we now turn eye or ear the unity of things is manifest, and their -unbroken harmony heard. With the theory of evolution in our hands as the -master-key, the immense array of facts that seemed to lie unrelated and -discrete are seen to be interrelated and in necessary dependence--"a -mighty sum of things for ever speaking." That undisturbed relation of -cause and effect which science has revealed and confirmed extends -backwards as well as reaches forwards; its continuity involves the -inclusion of man as a part of nature, and the study of his development as -one in which both the biologist and the mythologist engage towards a -common end. - - - - -II. - -DREAMS: THEIR PLACE IN THE GROWTH OF BELIEFS IN THE SUPERNATURAL. - - -"The physical world is made up of atoms and ether, and there is no room -for ghosts." - -W. K. CLIFFORD. - - -"If ghos'es want me to believe in 'em, let 'em leave off skulking i' the -dark and i' lone places--let 'em come where there's company and candles." - -GEORGE ELIOT. - - -DREAMS: THEIR PLACE IN THE GROWTH OF BELIEFS IN THE SUPERNATURAL. - - -Sec. I. - -DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SAVAGE AND CIVILISED MAN. - -The evidence as to pre-historic man's material furniture and surroundings, -which was first gathered from and restricted to ancient river valleys and -bone caverns of Great Britain, France, and Belgium, is no longer isolated. -It is supported by evidence which has been collected from every part of -the globe inhabited in past or present times, and its uniform character -has enabled us to determine what lies beyond an horizon which within the -last half century was bounded by the hazy line of myth and tradition. So -rigid seemed the limit defining man's knowledge of his past that some -forty years ago even the Geological Society of London recorded with barest -reference the unearthing of relics witnessing to his presence in Britain -hundreds of thousands of years ago. The canon was closed, and no one -ventured to add to the sayings of the book. But the discoveries which had -disproved belief in the earth's supremacy in the universe, and in its -creation in six days, led the way to researches into the history of the -life upon its surface, and especially of that which, in the language of -ancient writ, was "made in the image of God." When the long-forbidding -line, imaginary as the equator and lacking its convenience, was crossed, -there was found the evidence of the conditions under which man emerged -from a state quite other than that which had formed the burden of legends -sacred with the hoariness of time. Those conditions, it is well-nigh -needless to remind the reader, accord with that theory which holds man to -be no specially-created being, started on this earth, fully equipped, -Minerva-like, with all ripeness of wisdom and loftiness of soul, but the -last and long result of an ever-ascending series of organisms ranging from -the lowest, shapeless, nerveless specks to _homo sapiens_, "the foremost -in the files of time." Evolution is advance from the simple to the -complex. The most primitive forms reach maturity in a shorter time than -the higher forms, and fulfil their purpose quicker, and this doctrine -applies not only in relation to man and the inferior creatures, but as -between the several races of man himself. Herein the differences, which -are determined by size, still more by increase in complexity, of -brain-stuff, are greater than between the lowest man and the highest -animals--that is to say, the savage and civilised man are farther apart -than the savage and the anthropoid ape. The cranial capacity of the -modern Englishman surpasses that of the non-Aryan inhabitant of India by a -difference of sixty-eight cubic inches, while between this non-Aryan skull -and the skull of the gorilla the difference in capacity is but eleven -inches,[60] and if we were to take into account the differences in -structural complexity, as indicated by the creasing and furrowing of the -brain surface, the contrast would be still more striking. - -The brains of the earliest known races, the men of the Ancient Stone Age, -ape-like savages who fought with woolly-haired elephants, cave-lions, and -cave-bears, amidst the forests and on the slopes of the valleys and hills -where London now stands, and who in the dawn of human intelligence, -applying means to ends, came off victorious, were doubtless much nearer to -the chimpanzee with his thirty-five cubic inches than to the Papuan with -his fifty-five cubic inches. Indeed, we need not travel beyond this age -or island; it suffices to compare the brain quality of the rustic, -thinking of "maistly nowt," with that of the highest minds amongst us, as -evidence of the enormous diversity between wild and cultivated stocks of -mankind. - -Unless we are so enchained to fond delusions as to place man in a kingdom -by himself, and deny in the sympathetic, moral, and intellectual faculties -in brutes the germs of those capacities which, existing in a pre-human -ancestry, have flowered in the noblest and wisest of our race, we may find -in such differences as are shown to occur between civilised and primitive -man further evidence of the enormous time since the latter appeared. For -unnumbered ages man--then physically hardly distinguishable from apes--may -have remained stationary. Certainly the relics from the Drift show no -advance: given no change in the conditions, the species do not vary, and -man, once adapted to his surroundings, changed only as these changed. But, -obscure as are the causes, there came a period when conditions arose -inducing some variation, no matter how slight, in brain development, which -was of more need than any variation in the rest of the body, and when an -impetus was given which, leaving the latter but slightly affected, -quickened the former, so that man passed from the highest animality to the -lowest humanity. Slowly, in the course of a struggle not yet ended, "the -ape and tiger" were subdued within him, and those social conditions -induced to which are due that progress which ever draws him nearer to the -angels. - -The discussion of this in detail lies outside the limits of these pages. -Here, after briefly noting on what lines it must run, we are concerned -with man at that far later stage in his development when the physical and -material evidence respecting his bodily development gives place to the -psychical and immaterial evidence respecting his mental development. -Chipped flints, flakes, and scrapers of the Drift are indispensable -witnesses to his primitive state, but during the long ages that he was -making shift with them he remains within the boundaries of the zoological; -he is more geological than human. Gleams of the soul within that will one -day be responsive to grace of form and harmony of colour appear in the -rude portraits of mammoth, reindeer, urus, whale, and man himself, -scratched on ivory and horn. Indications of germinal ideas about an -after-life are present in the contents of tumuli with the skeletons in -defined positions, and with weapons presumably for the use of the departed -in the happy hunting-grounds. In these last we are nearing the historic -period, for a vast interval exists between the tomb-building races and the -men of the Reindeer Period, yet even then the ages are many before man had -so advanced as to bequeath the intangible relics of his thought, -disclosing what answer he had beat out for himself to the riddle of the -earth and the mysteries of life and death. Although the story of his -intellectual and spiritual development is a broken one, of the earlier -chapters of which we have no record, enough survives to induce and -strengthen the conviction that in this, as in aught else, there is no -real disconnection. In the shaping of the rudest pointed flint-tool and -weapon there are the germs of the highest mechanical art; in the -discordant war-whoop of the savage the latent strains of the -"Marseillaise," as, quoting Tennyson, in the eggs of the nightingale -sleeps the music of the moon. If we cannot get so near to the elemental -forms of thought as we could wish, we must lay hold of the lowest extant, -and trace in these the connection to be sought between the barbaric and -civilised mind. We must have understanding of the mental condition of -races, still on low levels of culture, and if the result is to show that -many highly-elaborated beliefs among advanced peoples are but barbaric -philosophies "writ large," the conception of an underlying unity between -all nations of men that do dwell, or have dwelt, on the face of the earth, -will receive additional proof. - - -Sec. II. - -LIMITATIONS OF BARBARIC LANGUAGE. - -Illustrations of the low intellectual stage of some extant races not quite -at the bottom of the scale, drawn from simple matters, will make clearer -how they will interpret matters of a more complex order, and interpret -them only in one way. - -Of the beginning of thought we can know nothing. For numberless ages man -was marked out from the animals most nearly allied to him by that power -of more readily adapting means to ends which gave him mastery over nature. -Through that dim and dateless time he thought without knowing that he -thought. "His senses made him conversant only with things externally -existing and with his own body, and he transcended his senses only far -enough to draw concrete inferences respecting the action of these -things."[61] He is human only when the thought reaches us through -articulate speech. Language, as a means of communication between him and -his fellows, denotes the existence of the social state, the play of the -social evolution which gives the impetus to ideas. Language is the outcome -of man's social needs and nature; he speaks not so much because he thinks -and feels as because he must perforce tell his thoughts and feelings to -others. And by the richness or poverty of his speech we may assess the -richness or poverty of his ideas, since language cannot transcend the -thought of which it is the vehicle. - -By what tones and gestures, by what signs and grimaces, the beginnings of -speech were made, we know not. Countless processions of races appeared and -vanished before language had reached a stage when the elements of which -words are built up could be separated, and the reason which governed the -choice of this and that sound or symbol discovered. Now and again, when a -correspondence is found between the roots of terms in use amongst the -higher races and the names given by lower races to the same thing, we get -nearer primitive thought, the correspondence being not always in sound or -spelling, which may be delusive, but in physical or sensible meaning. It -would be a wholesome corrective of theories concerning the origin of -languages to which many are yet wedded to show that terms not only for -things material and concrete, but also for things immaterial and abstract, -are of purely physical origin, _i.e._ have been chosen from their analogy -to something real. But the consideration of such matters lies outside the -purpose of this work. - -Language proves the limited range of ideas among barbaric peoples in the -absence of their capacity to generalise. They have a word for every -familiar thing, sound, and colour, but no word for animal, plant, sound, -or colour as abstract terms. It is the concrete, the special shape and -feature and action of a thing, which strike the senses at the outset; to -strip it of these accidents, as we call them, and merge it in the general, -and realise its relation to what is common to the class to which it -belongs, is an effort of which the untutored mind is incapable. Many of -the northern non-Aryan tribes, as among the Mongols, have names for the -smallest rivulet, but no word for river; names for each finger, but no -word for finger. The Society Islanders have a separate name for the tails -of various animals, but no name for tail. The Mohicans have verbs for -every kind of cutting, but no verb "to cut." The Australians and other -southern aborigines have no generic term for tree, neither have the -Malays, yet they have words for the several parts, the root, stem, twig, -etc. When the Tasmanians wished to express qualities of things, as hard, -soft, warm, long, round, they would say for hard, "like a stone"; for -tall, "long legs"; for round, "like the moon," and so on. Certain -hill-tribes of India give names to sunshine, candle, and flames of fire, -but "light" is a high abstraction which they are unable to grasp. Some of -the Red Race languages have separate verbs for "I wish to eat meat," or "I -wish to eat soup," but no verb for "I wish." Of course, the verb "to be," -which, as Adam Smith remarked long ago, is the most abstract and -metaphysical of all words, and therefore of no early coinage, is absent -from a large number of barbaric languages. Abstract though it be, it is, -as Professor Whitney points out, made up of the relics of several verbs -which once had, like all elements and parts of speech, a distinct physical -meaning. As in "be" and "been" the idea of "growing" is contained, so in -"am," "art," "is," and "are," the idea of "sitting" (or, as some think, of -"breathing") is embodied. As an example of its absence, the Abipones -cannot say "I am an Abipone," only "I Abipone." Turning to another class -of illustration, we have proof what a far cry it is from the savage to the -Senior Wrangler in the powerlessness of the former to count beyond his -fingers; indeed, he cannot always count as far as that, any number beyond -two bewildering him. One of the best stories to the point is given in Mr. -Galton's _Tropical South Africa_. - -"When the Dammaras wish to express four they take to their fingers, which -are to them as formidable instruments of calculation as a sliding rule is -to an English schoolboy. They puzzle very much after five, because no -spare hand remains to grasp and secure the fingers that are required for -units. Yet they seldom lose oxen; the way in which they discover the loss -of one is not by the number of the herd being diminished, but by the -absence of a face they know. When bartering is going on, each sheep must -be paid for separately. Thus, suppose two sticks of tobacco to be the rate -of exchange for one sheep, it would sorely puzzle a Dammara to take two -sheep and give him four sticks. I have done so, and seen a man put two of -the sticks apart, and take a sight over them at one of the sheep he was -about to sell. Having satisfied himself that that one was honestly paid -for, and finding to his surprise that exactly two sticks remained in hand -to settle the account for the other sheep, he would be afflicted with -doubts; the transaction seemed to come out too "pat" to be correct, and he -would refer back to the first couple of sticks; and then his mind got hazy -and confused, and wandered from one sheep to the other, and he broke off -the transaction until two sticks were put into his hand and one sheep -driven away, and then the other two sticks given him and the second sheep -driven away. Once while I watched a Dammara floundering hopelessly in a -calculation on one side of me, I observed Dinah, my spaniel, equally -embarrassed on the other. She was overlooking half a dozen of her new-born -puppies, which had been removed two or three times from her, and her -anxiety was excessive, as she tried to find out if they were all present, -or if any were still missing. She kept puzzling and running her eyes over -them, backwards and forwards, but could not satisfy herself. She evidently -had a vague notion of counting, but the figure was too large for her -brain. Taking the two as they stood, dog and Dammara, the comparison -reflected no great honour on the man." - -Dr. Rae says that if an Eskimo is asked the number of his children he is -generally puzzled. After counting some time on his fingers he will -probably consult his wife, and the two often differ, even though they may -not have more than four or five in family. Of the languages of the -Australian savages, who are the lowest extant, examined by Mr. Crawfurd, -thirty were found to have no number beyond four, all beyond this being -spoken of as "many," whilst the Brazilian Indians got confused in trying -to reckon beyond three. The list of such cases might be largely extended, -and although exceptions occur where savages are found with a fairly wide -range of numbers, notably where barter prevails, the larger proportion of -uncivilised people are bewildered at any effort to count beyond three or -five. The fingers have, in most cases, determined the limits, for men -counted on these before they gave words to the numbers, the words being at -last borrowed from the fingers, as in our "five," which is cognate with -the Greek "pente," and the Persian "pendji" (said to be derived from the -word for "hand"), and "digits," from Latin "digitus," a finger. This -limited power of numeration thus shown to be possessed by the savage -justifies the statement that he is nearer to the ape than to the average -civilised man, nearer, as the extract from Mr. Galton shows, to the -spaniel than to the mathematician. What conception of the succession of -time, still less of it as a confluence of the eternities, can he have -whose feeble brain cannot grasp a to-morrow! And yet the difference is not -one of kind, but of degree, which separates the aborigines of Victoria or -Papua from the astronomer who is led by certain irregularities in the -motion of a planet to calculate the position of the disturbing cause, and -thereby to discover it nearly a thousand million miles beyond in the -planet Neptune. - - -Sec. III. - -BARBARIC CONFUSION BETWEEN NAMES AND THINGS. - -Races which have names for different kinds of oaks, but none for an oak, -still less for a tree, and who cannot count beyond their fingers, may be -expected to have hazy notions concerning the objective and subjective; or, -to put these in terms less technical, concerning that which belongs to the -object of thought, and that which is to be referred to the thinking -subject. Although primitive religion and philosophy are too nearly allied -to admit of sharp definitions, the former may be said, if the slang is -allowed, to be one of funk, and the latter one of fog. There are those -amongst us who say that the terrorism which lies at the base of the one -and the mist which is an element of the other, linger yet in extant belief -and metaphysics. What man cannot understand he fears; and in all primary -beliefs the powers around which seem to him so wayward are baleful, to be -appeased by sacrifice or foiled by sorcery. And the confusion which reigns -in his cosmos extends to his notion of what is in the mind and what is out -of it. He cannot distinguish between an illusion and a reality, between a -substance and its image or shadow; and it needs only some bodily ailment, -as indigestion through gorging, or delirium through starving, to give to -spectres of diseased or morbid origin, airy nothings, a substantive -existence, a local habitation, and a name. - -The tangle between things and their symbols is well illustrated in the -barbaric notion that the name of a man is an integral part of himself, and -that to reveal it is to put the owner in the power of another. An Indian -asked Kane whether his wish to know his name arose from a desire to steal -it; the Araucanians would not allow their names to be told to strangers, -lest these should be used in sorcery. So with the Indians of British -Columbia; and among the Ojibways husbands and wives never told each -other's names, the children being warned against repeating their own names -lest they stop growing. Dobrizhoffer says that the Abipones of Paraguay -had the like superstition. They would knock at his door at night, and when -asked who was there, no answer would come, through dread of uttering their -names. Mr. im Thurn tells us that, although the Indians of British Guiana -have an intricate system of names, it is "of little use, in that owners -have a very strong objection to telling or using them, apparently on the -ground that the name is part of the man, and that he who knows it has part -of the owner of that name in his power." In Borneo the name of a sickly -child is changed, to deceive the evil spirits that have tormented it; the -Lapps change the baptismal name of a child for the same reason; and among -the Abipones, the Fuegians, the Lenguas of Brazil, the North-West Indians, -and other tribes at corresponding low levels, when any member died the -relatives would change their names to elude Death when he should come to -look for them, as well as give their children horrid names to frighten the -bad spirits away. All over the barbaric world we find a great horror of -naming the dead, lest the ghost appear. An aged Indian of Lake Michigan -explained why tales of the spirits were told only in winter, by saying -that when the deep snow is on the ground the voices of those repeating -their names are muffled; but that in summer the slightest mention of them -must be avoided, lest the spirits be offended. Among the Californian -tribes the name of the departed spoken inadvertently caused a shudder to -pass over all those present. Among the Iroquois the name of a dead man -could not be used again in the lifetime of his oldest surviving son -without the consent of the latter, and the Australians believe that a dead -man's ghost creeps into the liver of the impious wretch who has dared to -utter his name. Dr. Lang tried to get the name of a relative who had been -killed from an Australian. "He told me who the lad's father was, who was -his brother, what he was like, how he walked, how he held his tomahawk in -his left hand instead of his right, and who were his companions; but the -dreaded name never escaped his lips, and I believe no promises or threats -could have induced him to utter it." Dorman gives a pathetic illustration -of this superstition in the Shawnee myth of Yellow Sky. "She was a -daughter of the tribe, and had dreams which told her she was created for -an unheard-of mission. There was a mystery about her being, and none could -comprehend the meaning of her evening songs. The paths leading to her -father's lodge were more beaten than those to any other. On one condition -alone at last she consented to become a wife, namely, that he who wedded -her should never mention her name. If he did, she warned him that a sad -calamity would befall him, and he would for ever thereafter regret his -thoughtlessness. After a time Yellow Sky sickened and died, and her last -words were that her husband might never breathe her name. For five summers -he lived in solitude, but, alas, one day as he was by the grave of his -dead wife, an Indian asked him whose it was, and in forgetfulness he -uttered the forbidden name. He fell to the earth in great pain, and as -darkness settled round about him a change came over him. Next morning, -near the grave of Yellow Sky a large buck was quietly feeding. It was the -unhappy husband." - -The original meaning has dropped out of the current saying, "Talk of the -devil and you'll see his horns," but savage philosophy recovers it for us. -And the shrinking from naming persons is still more marked as we ascend -the scale of principalities and powers. In the South Sea Islands not only -are the names of chiefs tabooed, but also words and syllables resembling -those names in sound. The Tahitians have a custom called _Te pi_, which -consists in avoiding in daily language those words which form a part or -the whole of the names of the king and royal family, and in inventing new -terms in their place. The king's name being _Tu fetu_, "star," had to be -changed into _fetia_, and _tui_, "to strike," became _tiai_. In New -Zealand knives were called _nekra_, because a chief's name was _Maripi_, -or "knife." It is, Professor Max Mueller aptly remarks, as if with the -accession of Queen Victoria either the word _victory_ had been tabooed -altogether, or only part of it, as _tori_, so as to make it high treason -to speak of _Tories_ during her reign. The secret name of Pocahontas was -Matokas, which was concealed from the English through superstitious fear; -and in the mythical story of "Hiawatha" the same metonymic practice -occurs, his real name being Tarenyawagon. A survival of the dislike to -calling exalted temporal, and also spiritual, beings by their names, -probably lies at the root of the Jews' unwillingness to use the name of -Yahweh (commonly and incorrectly spelt Jehovah[62]), and in the name -"Allah," which is an epithet or title of the Mohammadan deity, and not the -"great name"; whilst the concealment by the Romans of the name of the -tutelary deity of their city was fostered by their practice, when -besieging any place, to invoke the treacherous aid of its protecting god -by offering him a high place in their Pantheon. And in the title of -Eumenides, or the "gracious ones," given to the Furies by the Greeks, may -be noted a survival of the verbal bribes by which the thing feared was -"squared." For example, the Finnish hunters called the bear "the apple of -the forest," "the beautiful honey-claw," "the pride of the thicket"; the -Laplander speaks of it as "the old man with the fur coat"; in Annam the -natives call the tiger "grandfather," or "lord"; and the Dyaks of Borneo -speak of the small-pox as "the chief," or "jungle leaves." - -The confusion between ideas and objects which these examples illustrate is -shared by us, although in a remote degree. If the initials of any -well-known name are transposed, for example, let W. E. Gladstone be -printed E. W. Gladstone; or if some familiar name is altered, for example, -let John Bright be misprinted James Bright, it is curious to note how for -a moment the identity is obscured in one's mind. Another personality, -indistinct and bewildering, rises before us, showing how we have come to -link together a man and his name even to the details of his initials. That -which we feel momentarily the uncivilised feels constantly. He cannot -think of himself, of his squaw, of his children, or of his -fellow-tribesmen, apart from names which are more significant to him than -ours are to us. With us the reason which governed selection is forgotten -or obscured, the physical features and conditions no longer correspond to -ancestral names; but with barbarous peoples those features and conditions -are more apparent. Besides which, children are often named by the -medicine-man, and the name is thus endowed with a charm which may roughly -be analogous to the halo round a name confirmed by baptism to one simply -recorded in the office of a Registrar of Births. - - -Sec. IV. - -BARBARIC BELIEF IN VIRTUE IN INANIMATE THINGS. - -The artificial divisions which man in his pride of birth made between the -several classes of phenomena in the inorganic world, and also between the -inorganic and the organic, are being swept away before the larger -knowledge and insight of our time. Indeed, it would seem that the surest -test we can apply to the worth of any kind of knowledge is whether it adds -to or takes from our growing conception of unity. If it does the former, -we cannot overthrow it; if it does the latter, then is it science "falsely -so called." - -That notable doctrine known as the correlation of physical forces, or the -convertibility into one another of heat, light, electricity, chemical -affinity, etc., each being a mode of manifestation of an unknown energy -which "lives through all life, extends through all extent," has its -counterpart in the correlation of spiritual forces. Varied as are the -modes of expression of these, that variety is on the surface only. Deep -down lies the one source that feeds them, the one heart to whose existence -their pulsations witness. All primitive philosophies, all religions "that -man did ever find," are but as the refractions of the same light dispersed -through different media; are the result of the speculations of the same -subject, allowances being made for local and non-essential differences -upon like objects. And, therefore, in treating of the nature and -limitations of man's early thought concerning his surroundings, whether -these be the broad earth bathed in the sunshine or swathed in the -darkness, or the sounds that come from unseen agents, the sight of -spectral visitants of whom he cannot have touch, and out of which are -built up his theories of the invisible world, the reader may find -reference to the same conditions which were shown in former pages to give -birth and sustenance to primitive myth. The same fantastic conclusions, -drawn from rude analyses and associations, and from seeming connections of -cause and effect, the same bewildering entanglement between things which -we know can have nothing in common, meet us; and the same scientific -method by which we determine the necessary place of each in the advance of -man to truth through illusion is applied. - -The illustrations of the vital connection which the savage assumes between -himself and his name show how easy is the passage from belief in life -inhering in everything to belief in it as capable of power for good or -evil. This can be shown by illustrations from more tangible things than -names. The savage who is afraid to utter these also shrinks from having -his likeness taken, in the feeling that some part of him is transferred, -and at the mercy of the sorcerer and enemy. The Malemutes of North America -refused to risk their lives before a photographic apparatus. They said -that those who had their likenesses had their spirit, and they would not -let these pass into the keeping of those who might use them as instruments -of torment. Catlin relates that he caused great commotion among the Sioux -by drawing one of their chiefs in profile. "Why was half his face left -out?" they asked; "Mahtocheega was never ashamed to look a white man in -the face." The chief himself did not take offence, but Shouka the Dog -taunted him, saying: "The Englishman knows that you are but half a man; he -has painted but one-half of your face, and knows that the rest is good -for nothing." This led to a quarrel, and in the end Mahtocheega was shot, -the fatal bullet tearing away just that part of the face which Catlin had -not drawn! He had to make his escape, and the matter was not settled till -both Shouka and his brother had been killed in revenge for Mahtocheega's -death. The Yanktons accused Catlin of causing a scarcity of buffaloes by -putting a great many of them in his book, and refused to let him take -their portraits. So with the Araucanians, who ran away if any attempt was -made to sketch them. Among such races we find great care exercised lest -cuttings of hair, parings of nails, saliva, refuse of food, water in which -they had washed, etc., should fall into unfriendly or mistrusted hands. -The South Sea Island chiefs had servants following them with spittoons, -that the saliva might be buried in some hidden place. Among the -Polynesians any one who fell ill attributed it to some sorcerer, who had -got hold of refuse from the sick and was burning it, and the quiet of the -night was often broken by the blowing of shell-trumpets, as signals for -the sorcerer to stop until the gifts on their way to appease him could -arrive. The idea is common both to Eskimo and Indian that so long as a -fragment of a body remains unburnt, the being, man or beast, may, by -magic, be revived from it. As with the name or the portrait, whoever -possessed a part of the material substance possessed a part of the -spiritual, and in this world-wide belief in a sympathetic connection -between things living and not living lies the whole philosophy of -sorcery, of charms, amulets, spells, and the general doctrine of luck -surviving through the successive stages of culture to this day. And he who -would prevent anything from his person getting into hostile hands, -naturally sought after things in which coveted qualities were believed to -dwell, and avoided those of a reverse nature. So we find tiger's flesh -eaten to give courage, and the eyes of owls swallowed to give good sight -in the dark. The Kaffirs prepare a powder made of the dried flesh of -various wild beasts, the leopard, tiger, elephant, snake, etc., so as to -absorb the several virtues of these creatures. The Tyrolese hunter wears -his tuft of eagle's down to gain long sight and daring, and the Red Indian -strings bears claws round his neck to get Bruin's savage courage. The -customs of scalping and, in some measure, of cannibalism, may be referred -to the same notion, for the Red man will risk his life to prevent a -tribesman's scalp being captured by the foe, and the New Zealander will -swallow the eyes of his slain enemy to improve his sight. In Greenland "a -slain man is said to have power to avenge himself upon the murderer by -_rushing into him_, which can only be prevented by eating a piece of his -liver."[63] When a whaler died the Eskimos distributed portions of his -dried body among his friends, and rubbed the points of their lances with -them, it being held that a weapon thus charmed would pierce a vital part -in a whale, where another would fail. Sometimes the body was laid in a -cave, and, before starting for the chase, the whalers would assemble, and, -carrying it to a stream, plunge it in, and then drink the water. When the -heroic Jesuit Brebeuf was tortured by the Iroquois, they were so -astonished at his endurance that they laid open his breast and came in a -crowd to drink the blood of so valiant a foe, thinking to imbibe with it -some portion of his courage, while a chief tore out his heart and devoured -it. - -Cannibalism, it may be remarked, _en passant_, is also found to have a -religious significance, on the supposition, which has unsuspected survival -among advanced races, that eating the body and drinking the blood -communicates the spirit of the victim to the consumer. It is not always -the most savage races who practise it; for example, the Australians, -despite the scarcity of large animals for food supply, rarely ate the -flesh of man, whilst the New Zealanders, who rank far above them, and had -not the like excuse, were systematic feeders on human flesh. - -As examples of a reverse kind, but witnessing to the play of like beliefs -in qualities passing from brutes and lifeless things, we find some races -avoiding oil, lest the game slip through their fingers, abstaining from -the flesh of deer, lest it engenders timidity, and from that of pigs and -of tortoises lest the eater has very small eyes. Dr. Tylor gives an -apposite illustration of a kindred superstition in the Hessian lad who -thinks that he may escape the conscription by carrying a baby-girl's cap -in his pocket as a symbolical way of repudiating manhood. So the thief of -our London slums hopes to evade the police by carrying a piece of coal or -slate in his pocket for luck. Among ourselves there was an old medical -saw, "Hare-flesh engendereth melancholy bloude," and in Swift's _Polite -Conversation_ we have this reason assigned by Lady Answerall when asked to -eat it; whilst faith is not yet extinct in the "Doctrine of Signatures," -or the notion that the appearance of a plant indicates the disease for -which it is a remedy, as the "eye-bright," the black purple spot on the -corolla of which was said to show that it was good for weak eyes. In -referring to the mandrake superstition (a plant whose roots are said to -rudely resemble the human form) as illustration of the "recognised -principles in magic that things like each other, however superficially, -affect each other in a mystic way and possess identical properties," Mr. -Andrew Lang quotes a Melanesian belief that 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.[64] - -Brand remarks[65] that the custom of giving infants coral to help in -cutting the teeth is said to be a survival of an old belief in it as an -amulet; and in English, Sicilian, and West Indian folk-lore, we find the -belief that it changes colour in sympathy with the pale or healthy look of -the wearer. An old Latin author says,[66] "It putteth of lightenynge, -whirle-wynde, tempeste, and storms fro shyppes and houses that it is in." - -We are each of us hundreds of thousands of years old, and although our -customs and beliefs have a far less venerable antiquity, their sources lie -not less in primitive thought. Like the survival of the ancient Roman -workman's "casula" or "little house" or "shelter" in the chasuble of the -priest; like the use of stone knives in circumcision long after the -discovery of metals; the general tends to become special; the common, its -primitive need or service forgotten, to become sacred. Sometimes the early -idea abides; the Crees, who carry about the bones of the dead carefully -wrapped up as a fetish; the Caribs, who think such relics can answer -questions; the Xomanes, who drink the powdered bones in water, that they -may receive the spirit; the Algonquins, whose god Manobozho turned bits of -his own flesh or his wife's into raccoons for food; the Iroquois cited -above; represent the barbarous ancestry of higher races, whether of the -Bacchanalians described by Arnobius,[67] who thought that the fulness of -the divine majesty was imparted to them when they tore and ate the -struggling rams with mouths dripping with gore, or of the faithful who -receive nutriment through the symbols of the Cross. And the prayers of -savage and civilised have this in common, that some advantage is thereby -sought by the utterer; their sacrifices are alike the giving up of one's -goods or one's self to a deity who may be appeased or bribed thereby; -their fastings are cultivated as inducing the abnormal states in which -their old men dream dreams and their young men see visions of spirits -appearing as angels ascending and descending between earth and the abode -of the blest. Baptisms are the ancient lustrations, which water, as the -cleansing element, suggested; and the eastward position, over which -priests and ecclesiastics have fought, is the undoubted relic of worship -of the rising sun. - -In short, there is no rite or ceremony yet practised and revered amongst -us which is not the lineal descendant of barbaric thought and usage, -expressing a need which, were men less the slaves of custom and indolence, -would long since have found loftier form than in genuflexion before shrine -and reliquary. By an exercise of imagination not possible but for these -being a felicitous "gesture language" of the cries of human souls, a mass -of heathen and pagan rites have been transformed into those of the -Christian faith. That they have come to be mistaken for the ideas -symbolised, that with the loftiest spiritual teaching there should remain -commingled belief in miraculous power in fragments (mostly spurious) of -dead men and their clothes; only shows the persistency of that notion of a -vital connection between the lifeless and the living which this section -has sought to illustrate. - - -Sec. V. - -BARBARIC BELIEF IN THE REALITY OF DREAMS. - -The confusion in the barbaric mind between the objective and the -subjective, and between the name and the person or thing, which has been -illustrated in the foregoing pages, will enable us to see more clearly how -the like confusion must enter into the interpretation of such occult and -compound phenomena as dreams, and all their kind. - -They supply the conditions for exciting and sustaining that feeling of -mystery which attends man's endeavour to get at the meaning of his -surroundings. The phantasies which have defiled through the brain in -coherent order, or danced in mazy whirl about its sinuous passages when -complete sleep was lacking, leave their footprints on the memory, and they -are strong of head and heart, true pepticians, like the countryman cited -by Carlyle, who, "for his part, had no system," whose composure on awaking -is not affected by the harmonious or discordant, the pleasant or -disagreeable, illusions which have made up their dreams. In the felicitous -words of Lucretius, "When sleep has chained down our limbs in sweet -slumber, and the whole body is sunk in profound repose, yet then we seem -to ourselves to be awake and to be moving our limbs, and amid the thick -darkness of night we think we see the sun and the daylight; and though in -a confined room, we seem to be passing to new climates, seas, rivers, -mountains, and to be crossing plains on foot, and to hear voices, though -the austere silence of night prevails all round, and to be uttering -speech, though quite silent. Many are the other things of this marvellous -sort we see, which all seek to shake, as it were, the credit of the -senses: quite in vain, since the greatest part of these cases cheat us on -account of the mental suppositions which we add of ourselves, taking those -things as seen which have not been seen by the senses. For nothing is -harder than to separate manifest facts from doubtful, which the mind -without hesitation adds on of itself."[68] - -While for us dreams fill an empty moment in the telling, albeit now and -again nurturing such remains of superstition as cling to the majority of -people, they are to the untrained intelligence, unable to distinguish fact -from fiction, or to follow any sequence of ideas, as solid as the -experiences of waking moments. As a Zulu, well expressing the limits of -savage thought, said to Bishop Callaway, "Our knowledge does not urge us -to search out the roots of it, we do not try to see them, if any one -thinks ever so little, he soon gives it up, and passes on to what he sees -with his eyes; and he does not understand the real state of even what he -sees." Nor does his language clear the confusion within when he tells what -he has seen and heard and felt, where he has been and what he has done, -for the speech cannot transcend the thought, and therefore can represent -neither to himself nor to his hearers the difference between the illusions -of the night and the realities of the day. The dead relatives and friends -who appear in dreams and live their old life, with whom he joins in the -battle, the chase, and the feast, the foes with whom he struggles, the -wild beasts from whom he flees, or in whose clutches he feels himself, and -with shrieks awakens his squaw, the long distances he travels to sunnier -climes lit by a light that never was on land or sea, are all real, and no -"baseless fabric of a vision." That now and again he should have walked in -his sleep would confirm the seeming reality; still more so would the -intensified form of dreaming called "nightmare,"[69] when hideous spectres -sit upon the breast, stopping breath and paralysing motion, and to which -is largely due the creation of the vast army of nocturnal demons that fill -the folk-lore of the world, and that, under infinite variety of repellent -form, have had place in the hierarchy of religions. - -Dreams are in the main referred by the savage either to the entrance into -him of some outside spirit, as among the Fijians, who believe that the -spirit of a living man will leave the body to trouble sleeping folk, or to -the real doings of himself. - -When the Greenlander dreams of hunting, or fishing, or courting, he -believes that the soul quits the body; the Dyaks of Borneo think that -during sleep the soul sometimes remains in the body or travels far away, -being endowed, whether present or absent, with conditions which in waking -moments are lacking. Wherever we find a low state of mental development -the like belief exists. In Mr. im Thurn's elaborate work on the _Indians -of Guiana_ we have corroborative evidence, the more valuable because of -its freshness. He tells us that the dreams which come to the Indian are to -him as real as any of the events of his waking life. To him dream-acts -and waking-acts differ only in one respect--namely, that the former are -done only by the spirit, the latter are done by the spirit in its body. -Seeing other men asleep, and afterwards hearing from them the things which -they suppose themselves to have done when asleep, the Indian has no -difficulty in reconciling that which he hears with the fact that the -bodies of the sleepers were in his sight and motionless throughout the -time of supposed action, because he never questions that the spirits, -leaving the sleepers, played their part in dream-adventures. Mr. im Thurn -illustrates the complete belief of the Indian in the unbroken continuity -of his dream-life and waking-life by incidents which came under his own -notice, and which are quoted as serving the present argument better than -any theorising. - - One morning when it was important to me to get away from a camp on the - Essequibo River, at which I had been detained for some days by the - illness of some of my Indian companions, I found that one of the - invalids, a young Macusi, though better in health, was so enraged - against me that he refused to stir, for he declared that, with great - want of consideration for his weak health, I had taken him out during - the night and had made him haul the canoe up a series of difficult - cataracts. Nothing could persuade him that this was but a dream, and - it was some time before he was so far pacified as to throw himself - sulkily into the bottom of the canoe. At that time we were all - suffering from a great scarcity of food, and, hunger having its usual - effect in producing vivid dreams, similar events frequently occurred. - More than once the men declared in the morning that some absent man, - whom they named, had come during the night, and had beaten, or - otherwise maltreated them; and they insisted on much rubbing of the - bruised parts of their bodies. Another instance was amusing. In the - middle of one night I was awakened by an Arawak named Sam, the captain - or head-man of the Indians who were with me, only to be told the - bewildering words, "George speak me very bad, boss; you cut his bits!" - It was some time before I could collect my senses sufficiently to - remember that "bits," or fourpenny-pieces, are the units in which, - among Creoles and semi-civilised Indians, calculation of money, and - consequently of wages, is made; that to cut bits means to reduce the - number of bits or wages given; and to understand that Captain Sam, - having dreamed that his subordinate George had spoken insolently to - him, the former, with a fine sense of the dignity of his office, now - insisted that the culprit should be punished in real life. One more - incident, of which the same Sam was the hero, may be told for the sake - of the humour, though it did not happen within my personal experience, - but was told me by a friend. This friend, in whose employ Sam was at - the time, told his man, as they sat round the fire one night, of the - Zulu or some other African war which was then in progress, and in so - doing inadvertently made frequent use of the expression, "to punish - the niggers." That night, after all in camp had been asleep for some - time, they were raised by loud cries for help. Sam, who was one of the - most powerful Indians I ever saw, was "punishing a nigger" who - happened to be one of the party; with one hand he had firmly grasped - the back of the breeches-band of the black man, and had twisted this - round so tightly that the poor wretch was almost cut in two. Sam - sturdily maintained that he had received orders from his master for - this outrageous conduct, and on inquiry it turned out that he had - dreamed this.[70] - -Taking an illustration from nearer home, although from a more remote time, -we have in the Scandinavian _Vatnsdaela Saga_ a curious account of three -Finns who were shut up in a hut for three nights, and ordered by -Ingimund, a Norwegian chief, to visit Iceland, and inform him of the line -of the country where he was to settle. Their bodies became rigid, and they -sent their souls on their errand, and, on their awaking at the end of -three days, gave an accurate account of the Vatnsdael, in which Ingimund -ultimately dwelt. No wonder that in mediaeval times, when witches swept the -air and harried the cattle, swooning and other forms of insensibility were -adduced in support of the theory of soul-absence, or that we find among -savages--as the Tajals of the Luzon islands--objections to waking a -sleeper lest the soul happens to be out of the body. As a corollary to -this belief in soul-absence, fear arises lest it be prolonged to the peril -of the owner, and hence a rough and ready theory of the cause of disease -is framed, for savages rarely die in their beds. - - -Sec. VI. - -BARBARIC THEORY OF DISEASE. - -That disease is a derangement of functions interrupting their natural -action, and carrying attendant pain as its indication, could not enter the -head of the uncivilised: and, indeed, among ourselves a cold or a fever is -commonly thought of as an entity in the body which has stolen in, and, -having been caught, must be somehow expelled. With the universal primitive -belief in spiritual agencies everywhere inhaled with the breath or -swallowed with the food or drink, all diseases were regarded as their -work, whether, as remarked above, through absence of the rightful spirit -or subtle entrance of some hostile one. If these be the causes to which -sicknesses are due, obviously the only cure is to get rid of them, and -hence the sorcerer and the medicine-man find their services in request in -casting out the demon by force, or enticing him by cajolery, or in -bringing back the truant soul. - -To the savage mind no other explanation of illness is possible than that -it is due to the exit of one's own spirit or to the intrusion of a -stronger one, whether of revengeful man or animal. An old Dakota, whose -son had sore eyes, said that nearly thirty years before, when the latter -was a boy, he fastened a pin to a stick and speared a minnow with it, and -it was strange that after so long a time the fish should come to seek -revenge. When an Indian is attacked by any wild beast he believes that the -avenging Kenaima has transferred his spirit to the animal which seizes -him, and if he has even a toothache, of which more presently, then the -Kenaima has insinuated himself in the shape of a worm. The tribal chief -among the Brazilian natives acts as doctor, and when he visits the sick he -asks what animal the patient has offended, and if no cure is effected, the -convenient explanation is at hand that the right animal has not been -found. At the death of Iron Arms, a noted North American Indian warrior, -it was said that he died because the doctor made a mistake, thinking that -a prairie-dog had entered him, when it was a mud-hen. In the weird -mythology of the Finns the third daughter of the ruler of Tuonela, the -underworld, sits on a rock rising from hell-river, beneath which the -spirits of all diseases are shut up. As she whirls the rock round like a -millstone the spirits escape and go on their torturing errand to mortals. -The more abnormal and striking phases of disease manifest when a man is -writhing under intense agony, as if torn and twisted by some fiendish -living thing, or when in delirium he raves and starts, or when thrown down -in epilepsy he struggles convulsively, or when he shivers in an ague, or -when in more violent forms of madness he seems endowed with superhuman -strength; the various symptoms attending hysteria; each and all support -that theory of spirit-influence which survives among advanced races in -referring disease to supernatural causes. For the ancient theories of a -divine government under which disease is the expression of the anger of -the gods, and medicine the token of their healing mercy, and the current -notions that any epidemic or pestilence is a visitation of God, are -identical in character, however improved in feature, with the barbaric -belief illustrated above; and in the ages when belief in the devil as one -walking to and fro upon the earth was rampant, he especially was regarded -as bringer of both bane and antidote. "He may," says an old writer, -"inflict diseases, which is an effect he may occasion _applicando activa -passivis_ (by applying actives to passives), and by the same means he may -likewise cure ... and not only may he cure diseases laid on by himself, as -Wierus observes, but even natural diseases, since he knows the natural -causes and the origin of even those better than the physicians can, who -are not present when diseases are contracted, and who, _being younger than -he_, must have less experience."[71] In Lancashire folk-lore "casting out -the ague" was but another name for "casting out the devil"; in the Arabic -language the words for epilepsy and possession by demons are the same; and -in such phrases as a man being "beside himself," "transported," "out of -his mind," or in the converse, as when it is said in the parable of the -prodigal son, "he came to himself"; in the words "ecstasy," which means a -displacement or removal of the soul, and "catalepsy," a seizing of the -body by some external power, we have language preserving the primitive -ideas of an intruding or departing spirit. Such minor actions as gaping -and sneezing confirm the belief. The philosophy of the latter, as Mr. Gill -remarks in his _Myths and Songs of the South Pacific_, is that the spirit -having gone travelling about, its return to the body is naturally attended -with some difficulty and excitement, occasioning a tingling and enlivening -sensation all over the body. And the like explanation lies at the root of -the mass of customs attendant on sneezing, and of the superstitions -generated by it, which extend through the world. - -Williams tells us that among the Fijians, when any one faints or dies, -their spirit, it is said, may sometimes be brought back by calling after -it, and occasionally the ludicrous scene is witnessed of a stout man lying -at full length and bawling out lustily for the return of his soul. So in -China, when a child is lying dangerously ill, its mother will go outside -into the garden and call its name, in the hope of bringing back the -wandering spirit. But for all the ills that flesh is heir to, from -hiccupping to madness, from toothache to broken limbs, the patient seldom -dares to doctor himself; neither the etiquette of the ordained -medicine-man nor the orthodox therapeutics favour that show of -independence. The methods adopted by the faculty vary in detail, but they -are ruled by a single assumption. When a Chinaman is dying, and the soul -is believed to be already out of the body, a relative holds up his coat on -a bamboo stick, and a Taoist priest seeks by incantations to bring back -the truant soul so that it may re-enter the sick man. Among the Six -Nations the Indians sought to discover the intruder by gathering a -quantity of ashes and scattering them in the cabin where the sick person -was lying. A similar recipe for tracking demons is given in the _Talmud_; -but, as more nearly bearing on the Indian practice, a Polish custom -mentioned by Grimm[72] may be quoted. When the white folk torment a sick -man a friend walks round him carrying a sieveful of ashes on his back, and -lets the ashes run out till the floor round the bed is covered with them. -The next morning all the lines in the ashes are counted, and the result -told to a wise woman, who prescribes accordingly. - -A favourite mode of treatment is blowing upon or sucking the diseased -organ, and deception is no infrequent resort when the sorcerer secretes -thorns or fishbones, beetles or worms, in his mouth, and then pretends -that he has extracted them. Cranz says that the Eskimo old women appear to -suck from a swollen leg scraps of leather or a parcel of hair which they -have previously crammed into their mouths, and in Australia the same dodge -is practised, when the sorcerer makes believe that he has drawn out a -piece of bone from the affected part. That toothache is due to a worm is a -belief which exists throughout Europe and Asia, and from the Orkneys to -New Zealand. Shakspere refers to it in _Much Ado about Nothing_, Act III. -Scene ii.-- - - _Don Pedro._ What! sigh for the toothache? - - _Leonata._ Where is but a humour or a worm; - -and instances are current of this superstition being acted upon in rural -districts, whilst in China the itinerant dentist conceals a worm in the -stick which he applies to the aching tooth, and on the stick being gently -tapped, the worm wriggles out to the satisfaction of the sufferer. But -among barbaric races the treatment of disease is ordinarily the reverse of -soothing. Here and there the virtues of some plant have been discovered by -accident, and, whilst exalted into a deity in its native home, it has -become, like cinchona, a priceless boon to the fever-stricken all over the -world; but, speaking broadly, the medicine-man is no Melampus, winning -the secret of their healing balm from herb and tree. Nor has he much faith -in magic or charm compared to his faith in noise, in incantations, with -their accompanying hideous grimaces and gestures, and their deafening -yells with clang of instrument to drown the sufferer's groans and chase -away the demon. Not unfrequently, when the patient is kept without food so -as to starve out the indwelling enemy, or when the body is pommelled and -squeezed to force him out, the remedy helps the disease! An illustration -or two from a great mass at command must suffice. Among the Mapuches the -sorcerer adopts the canonical howls and grimaces. Making himself as -horrible-looking as he can, he begins beating a drum and working himself -into a frenzy until he falls to the ground with his breast working -convulsively. As soon as he falls, a number of young men outside the hut, -who are there to help him in frightening the disease-bringing spirit out -of the patient, add their defiant yells, and dash at full speed, with -lighted torches, against the hut. If this does not succeed, and the -patient dies, the result is attributed to witchcraft. When a Pawnee chief -had some ribs and an arm broken, the medicine-men danced round him, and -raised their voices from murmurous chants to howls, accompanying the music -by blows upon the wounded man's breast to banish the bad spirit. In olden -time this rough-and-tumble business of blows, to which immersion was -added, was applied to lunatics in these islands. And, in fact, until some -local paper narrates a current superstition, we seldom awaken to the fact -how widely the theological explanation of diseases and the empirical -choice of remedies still obtains, each being survivals of barbaric theory -and practice. - -The savage who has more faith, as a curative, in plants that grow on -burial-places, and the Christian, who ascribed special healing power to -turf and dew from a saint's grave,[73] differ no whit in kind; and so -ingrained was the medicinal belief in virtue inhering in fragments of the -dead, that not even the satire of "Reynard the Fox," telling how the wolf -was cured of his earache, and the hare of his fever, the moment that they -lay down on the grave of the martyred hen, could give quietus to the -notion that grated skulls and sacramental shillings were specifics for the -healing of the faithful. - -This reference to like practices reminds us how belief in the action of -invisible agencies has passed into the practice of confession among -advanced races outside Christendom, as in Mexico and Peru. The Roman -Catholic priests were not less astonished at finding this in vogue on -their arrival in South America than the good Father Huc when, on reaching -Tibet, he found shaven monks wearing rosaries, worshipping relics, using -holy water, and a grand Lama decked in mitre, cope, and cross.[74] But, as -the Italian proverb has it, the world is one country, and "we have all -one human heart," so that the confessional has the like explanation in -east as in west. If the disease be the work of an offended deity or of an -avenging spirit, let the wrong-doer admit his fault, and trust to him who -is credited with influence with the unseen to exorcise the intruder. - - -Sec. VII. - -BARBARIC THEORY OF A SECOND SELF OR SOUL. - -In thus far illustrating the confusion inherent in the barbaric mind -between what is and what is not external to itself, the explanation given -of matters still dividing philosophers into opposite camps has been hardly -indicated. The uniformity of this confusion among the lower intelligence -in every zone and age might surprise us, and we should be in bondage to -the theory which explains it by assumption of primal intuitions of the -race, were we not rejoicing in the freedom of the truth of the doctrine of -the descent, or ascent, of man from an ape-like ancestry, and the -resulting slow development of his psychical faculties, involving his -accounting for motion in things around by the like personal life and will -of which he is conscious in himself, and for his regarding the world of -great and small alike as the home and haunt of spirits. - -For the assumption underlying the savage explanation of such things as -dreams and diseases involves a larger assumption--namely, that the spirit -which acts thus arbitrarily, playing this game of hide-and-seek, now, as -it were, caught up into Paradise, and now dodging its owner and worrying -its enemy on earth--is, to quote Mr. Spencer's appropriate term, a man's -_other self_. It is, at least, what the scientists call a working -hypothesis; it is the only possible explanation which the uncultivated -mind can give of what it has not the power to see is a subjective -phenomenon. Odd and out-of-the-way events have happened to the dreamer; he -has been to strange places and seen strange doings, but waking up, he -knows that he is in the same wigwam where he laid down to sleep, and can -be convinced by his squaw that he has not moved therefrom all night. -Therefore it is the other self, this phantom-soul, which has been away for -a time, seeing and taking part in things both new and old. We civilised -folk, as Dr. Wendell Holmes remarks, not rarely find our personality -doubled in our dreams, and do battle with ourselves, unconscious that we -are our own antagonists. Dr. Johnson dreamed that he had a contest with an -opponent and got the worst of it; of course, he found the argument for -both! Tartini heard the devil play a wonderful sonata, and lay entranced -by the arch-fiend's execution. On waking he seized his violin, and -although he could not reproduce the actual succession of notes, he -recovered sufficient impressions to compose his celebrated "Devil's -Sonata." Obviously the devil was no other than Tartini. - -Thus the philosopher, to whom dreaming merely indicates a certain amount -of uncontrolled mental activity, may satisfy himself; not thus can the -savage, who cannot even think that he thinks, and to whom the phenomena of -shadows, reflection, and echoes bring confirming evidence of the existence -of his mysterious double. What else than a veritable entity can his shadow -be to him? Its intangibility feeds his awe and wonder, and increases his -bewilderment; its actions, ever corresponding with his own, make it, even -more than its outline, a part of himself, the loss of which may be -serious. Only when the light is withdrawn or intercepted does the shadow -cease to accompany, precede, or follow him, and to lengthen, shorten, or -distort itself; whilst not he alone, but all things above and around, have -this phantom attendant. The Choctaws believed that each man has an outside -shadow, _shilombish_, and an inside shadow, _shilup_, both of which -survive his decease. Among the Fijians a man's shadow is called the dark -spirit, which goes to the unseen world, while the other spirit, which is -his likeness reflected in water or a mirror, stays near the place where he -dies. The Basutos are careful, when walking by a river, not to let their -shadow fall on the water, lest a crocodile seize it, and harm the owner. -Among the Algonquin Indians sickness is accounted for by the patient's -shadow being unsettled or detached from the body; the Zulus say that a -corpse cannot cast a shadow, and in the barbaric belief that its loss is -baleful, we have the germ of the mediaeval legends of shadowless men and of -tales of which Chamisso's story of Peter Schlemihl is a type. The New -England tribes called the soul _chemung_, the shadow, and in the Quiche -and Eskimo languages, as also in the several dialects of Costa Rica, the -same word expresses both ideas; while civilised speech indicates community -of thought in the _skia_ of the Greeks, the _manes_ or _umbra_ of the -Romans, and the _shade_ of our own tongue. Still more complete in the -mimicry is the reflection of the body in water or mirror, the image -repeating every gesture and adopting every colour, whilst in the echoes -which forest and hillside fling back, the savage hears confirmation of his -belief in the other self, as well as in the nearness of the spirits of the -dead. The Sonora Indians say that departed souls dwell among the caves and -nooks of the cliffs, and that the echoes are their voices, and in South -Pacific myth echo is the first and parent fairy, to whom at Marquesas -divine honours are still paid as the giver of food, and as she who "speaks -to the worshippers out of the rocks." In Greek myth she is punished by -Juno for diverting her attention whilst Jupiter flirts with the nymphs, -and at last, pining in grief at her unrequited love for Narcissus, there -remains nothing but her voice. - -But what, in primitive conception, is the more specific nature of the -other self, and how does it make the passage from within to without, and -_vice versa_? Very early in man's history he must have wondered at the -difference between a waking and a sleeping person, a living and a dead -one, and sought wherein this consisted. There lay the body in the repose, -more or less broken, of sleep, or in the undisturbed repose of the -unawakening sleep; in the latter case, with nothing tangible or visible -gone, but that which was once "quick" and warm, which had spoken, moved, -smiled, or frowned but a little while before, and which still came in -dream or vision, was now cold and still. - -It should here be remarked, in passing, that many savage races do not -believe in death as a natural event, but regard it as differing from sleep -only in the length of time that the spirit is absent from the body. No -matter what any one's age may be, if his death is not caused by wounds, it -is attributed to magic, and the search for the sorcerer becomes a family -duty, like the vendetta for other injuries. The widespread myths which -account for death have as their underlying idea the infraction of some law -or custom, for which the offender pays the extreme penalty. And that -personification of it which pervades barbaric thought, whilst undergoing -many changes of form, yet retains its hold in popular conception as well -as in poetry. Pictured as the messenger of Deity, as the awful angel who -sought the rebellious and impious, or who, in mission of tenderness, bore -the soul to its home in the bosom of the Eternal, it was transformed and -degraded by the grotesque fancy of a later time into a grim and dancing -skeleton whetting his sickle for ingathering of the young and fair to -their doom, or into the grinning skull and crossbones of Christian -headstones. So when the maiden Proserpine is plucking the spring flowers, -"crocuses and roses and fair violets," in the Elysian fields, Hades, -regent of hell, regardless of her cries, carries her off to his invisible -realm. - -But to resume. Whilst shadows, reflections, and echoes, one and all, -seemed to satisfy the uncivilised mind as to the existence of the other -self, they gave no key to its nature, to what it is like. Obviously the -difference between death and life lay in some unsubstantial or -semi-substantial thing. Perhaps, thought some races, it lies in the blood, -with the unchecked outflow of which death ensues, and the idea of this -connection has not been confined to barbaric peoples. Perhaps, thought -other races, it lies in the heart, which, say the Basutos, has gone out of -any one dead, but has returned when the sick have recovered. Among the -Greeks some philosophers held that it was fire, which was extinct when the -fuel of life was burnt out, or water, which would evaporate away. But, as -language shows, it is with the _breath_ that the other self of the savage -and the vital principle of the philosopher has been most widely -identified. For it is the cessation of breathing which would in the -long-run be noted as the unfailing accompaniment of death; and the -condensing vapour, as it was exhaled, would confirm the existing theories -of a shadowy and gaseous-like soul. In this, as the illustrations to be -adduced from various languages will evidence, the continuity of idea which -travels along the whole line of barbaric and learned speculation is -unbroken. - - -Sec. VIII. - -BARBARIC PHILOSOPHY IN "PUNCHKIN" AND ALLIED STORIES. - -As bearing upon the barbaric belief in the soul leaving the body at -pleasure, there is a remarkable group of stories, the central idea of -which is the dwelling apart of the soul or heart, as the seat of life, in -some secret place, in an egg, or a necklace, or a flower, the good or evil -fortunes of the soul involving those of the body. To this group the name -of "Punchkin," the title of one of the older specimens, may conveniently -be given. In Miss Frere's _Old Deccan Days_ it takes the following form. - -A Rajah has seven daughters, and his wife dying when they were quite -children, he marries the widow of his prime minister. Her cruelty to his -children made them run off to a jungle, where seven neighbouring princes, -who were out hunting, found them, and each took one of them to wife. After -a time they again went hunting, and did not come back. So when the son of -the youngest princess, who had also been enchanted away, grew up, he set -out in search of his mother and father and uncles, and at last discovered -that the seven princes had been turned into stone by the magician -Punchkin, who had shut up the princess in a tower because she would not -marry him. Recognising her son, she plotted with him to feign agreement to -marry Punchkin if he would tell her where the secret of his life was -hidden. Overjoyed at her yielding to his wish, the magician told her that -it was true that he was not as others. - - "Far, far away, hundreds of thousands of miles from this, there lies a - desolate country covered with thick jungle. In the midst of the jungle - grows a circle of palm-trees, and in the centre of the circle stand - six chattees full of water, piled one above another; below the sixth - chattee is a small cage which contains a little green parrot; on the - life of the parrot depends my life, and if the parrot is killed I must - die. But," he added, "this was not possible, because thousands of - genii surround the palm-trees, and kill all who approach the place." - -The princess told her son this, and he set forth on his journey. On the -way he rescued some young eagles from a serpent, and the grateful birds -carried him until they reached the jungle, where, the genii being overcome -with sleep by the heat, the eaglets swooped down. "Down jumped the prince; -in an instant he had overthrown the chattees full of water and seized the -parrot, which he rolled up in his cloak," then mounted again into the air -and was carried back to Punchkin's palace. Punchkin was dismayed to see -the parrot in the prince's hands, and asked him to name any price he -willed for it, whereupon the prince demanded the restoration of his father -and his uncles to life. This was done; then he insisted on Punchkin doing -the like to "all whom he had thus imprisoned," when, at the waving of the -magician's wand, the whole garden became suddenly alive. - -"Give me my parrot!" cried Punchkin. Then the boy took hold of the -parrot, and tore off one of his wings; and as he did so the magician's -right arm fell off. He then pulled off the parrot's second wing, and -Punchkin's left arm fell off; then he pulled off the bird's legs, and down -fell the magician's right leg and left leg. Nothing remained of him save -the limbless body and the head; but still he rolled his eyes, and cried, -"Give me my parrot!" "Take your parrot, then," cried the boy, and with -that he wrung the bird's neck, and threw it at the magician, and as he did -so, Punchkin's head twisted round, and, with a fearful groan, he died. Of -course, all the rest "lived very happily ever afterwards," as they do in -the plays and the novels. - -In the stories of _Chundum Rajah_, and of _Sodewa Bai_, the Hindu -Cinderella, the heroine's soul is contained in a string of golden beads. -When the Ranee, jealous of her husband's love for Sodewa Bai, asked her -why she always wore the same beads, she replies: "I was born with them -round my neck, and the wise men told my father and mother that they -contained my soul, and that if any one else wore them I should die." -Whereupon the Ranee instructed her servant to steal the beads from the -princess when she slept; then she died, but her body did not decay, and in -the end she was restored to life by the recovery of her necklace. In the -Bengali tale, _Life's Secret_, a Rajah's favourite wife gives birth -miraculously to a boy, whose soul is bound up in a necklace in the stomach -of a boal-fish. In both instances the ornaments are stolen, and while -they are worn by the thieves, prince and princess alike are lifeless, -whilst with the recovery of the beads life returned to each. A not unlike -idea occurs in the story, _Truth's Triumph_. The children of a village -beauty, whom the Rajah had married, are changed into mango trees, to save -them from the fury of the jealous Ranee, until the time of danger was -past. - -In Miss Stokes' collection of _Indian Fairy Tales_, we have variants -corresponding more closely to _Punchkin_. In _Brave Hiralalbasa_, a -Rakshas (the common name for demon) is induced to reveal the secret of his -life. He says, "Sixteen miles from here is a tree, round it are tigers and -bears and other animals, on the top of it is a large flat snake, on the -head of which is a bird in a cage, and my soul is in that bird." By -enchantment Hiralalbasa reached the tree and secured the cage. He pulled -the bird's limbs off, and the Rakshas' arms and legs fell off; then he -wrung its neck, and the Rakshas fell dead. And in the tale of _The Demon -and the King's Son_, from the same collection, the prince falls in love -with the monster's daughter, who is dead during the day and alive in the -night. The prince asks what she would do, if whilst she is dead, her -father were to be killed? She tells him it is impossible for any one to -kill her father, for his life is in a _maina_ (starling), which is in a -nest in a tree on the other side of the sea, and if, she adds, any one in -killing the bird spilt the blood on the ground, a hundred demons would be -born from it. The prince reached the other side, and taking the _maina_, -proceeded to kill it, but first wrapt it in his handkerchief, that no -blood might be spilt. The demon, who was far away, knew that the bird was -caught, and he set out at once to avert his doom. The story ends, like the -preceding one, with the dismemberment of the bird, and the consequent -death of the demon. - -The nearest approach to tales similar to these in the _Buddhist -Birth-stories_, is in one or two isolated cases, when the Karma of a human -being is spoken of as immediately transferred to an animal. - -In _Tales from the Norse_ the one in most striking correspondence with the -Punchkin group is that of _The giant who had no heart in his body_. The -monster turns six princes and their wives into stone, whereupon the -seventh and only surviving son, Boots, sets out to avenge their fate. On -his journey he saves the lives of a raven, a salmon, and a wolf, and the -wolf, having eaten his horse, compensates Boots by carrying him to the -giant's castle, where the lovely princess who is to be his bride is -confined. She promises to find out where the giant keeps his heart, and by -blandishments and divers arts known to the fair sex both before and since -the time of Delilah, she worms out the secret. He tells her that "far, far -away in a lake lies an island; on that island stands a church; in that -church is a well; in that well swims a duck; in that duck is an egg; and -in that egg lies my heart, you darling!" Boots, taking fond farewell of -the princess, rides on the wolf's back to the island. Then the raven he -had befriended flies to the steeple and fetches the key of the church; the -salmon, in like return for kindness, brings him the egg from the well -where the duck had dropped it. - - Then the wolf told him to squeeze the egg, and as soon as ever he did - so, the giant screamed out. "Squeeze it again," said the wolf; and - when the prince did so, the giant screamed still more piteously, and - begged and prayed so prettily to be spared, saying he would do all - that the prince wished if he would only not squeeze his heart in two. - "Tell him if he will restore to life again your six brothers and their - brides, you will spare his life," said the wolf. Yes, the giant was - ready to do that, and he turned the six brothers into kings' sons - again, and their brides into kings' daughters. "Now squeeze the egg in - two," said the wolf. With questionable morality, doing evil that good - might come, Boots squeezed the egg to pieces, and the giant burst at - once. - -Asbjoernsen's _New Series_ gives a variant in which a Troll who has seized -a princess tells her that he and all his companions will burst, as did the -heartless giant, when there passes above them "the grain of sand that lies -under the ninth tongue in the ninth head" of a certain dragon. The grain -of sand is found and passed over them, when the Troll and all his brood -are destroyed. In the Gaelic stories, for which we are indebted to the -skill of an early worker in this field, the late Mr. J. F. Campbell, that -of the _Young King of Easaidh Ruadh_ locates the secret thus: "There is a -great flagstone underneath the threshold. There is a wether under the -flagstone. There is a duck in the wether's belly, and an egg in the duck, -in the egg is my soul." In the _Sea-Maiden_ there is a "great beast with -three heads, which cannot be killed until an egg is broken which is in the -mouth of a trout, which springs out of a crow, which flies out of a hind, -which lives on an island in the middle of the loch." - -In his valuable collection of _Russian Folk-Tales_, which is enriched by -comparative notes, Mr. Ralston supplies some interesting variants of -Punchkin. Koshchei, called "the immortal or deathless," is merely one of -the many incarnations of the dark spirit which takes so many monstrous -shapes in folk-tales. Sometimes his death, that is, the object with which -his life is indissolubly connected, does exist within his body. In one -story he carries off a queen, for whom her three sons, one after another, -go in search. Prince Ivan, the youngest, at last discovers where his -mother dwells, and she at the approach of Koshchei hides her son away. The -monster sniffs the blood of a Russian, and inquires if her son has not -been with her. She assures him it is only the Russian air in his nostrils. -Then after talking to him affectionately on one thing and another, she -asks where his death is, and he tells her that, "under an oak is a casket, -in the casket is a hare, in the hare is a duck, in the duck an egg, in the -egg is my death." Prince Ivan found the egg, and reached his mother's -house with it. Presently Koshchei flew in and said, "Phoo, phoo; no -Russian bone can the ear hear or the eye see, but there's a smell of -Russia here." Then Prince Ivan came out from his hiding place, and, -holding up the egg, said, "There is your death, oh Koshchei!" then he -smashed it, and Koshchei fell dead. In another story Koshchei is killed by -a blow on the forehead from the mysterious egg. Mr. Ralston also quotes a -Transylvanian Saxon story concerning a witch's life, which is a light -burning in an egg inside a duck that swims on a pond inside a mountain, -and she dies when the light is put out. In the Bohemian story of the -_Sun-horse_ a warlock's strength lies in an egg in a duck, which is within -a stag under a tree. A seer finds the egg and sucks it. Then the warlock -becomes as weak as a child, "for all his strength had passed into the -seer." - -In Servian folk-tale the strength of a baleful being who had stolen a -princess lies in a bird which is inside the heart of a fox, and when the -bird was taken out of the heart and set on fire, that moment the -wife-stealer falls down dead, and the prince regains his bride. From the -same source we have the tale of the _Golden-haired Twins_, with an -incident akin to that in Punchkin. When the king's stepmother buries the -twins whom she had stolen, there spring from the spot where they lie trees -with golden leaves and blossoms. The king's admiration of them aroused her -jealousy, and she had them cut down, but eventually his golden-haired -princes are restored to him. - -Thus far the illustrations have been drawn solely from the folk-tales of -the widespread Indo-European races, but they are not confined to these. -From non-Aryan sources we have the Tatar story of the demon-giant who -kept his soul in a twelve-headed snake carried in a bag on his horse's -back. The hero finds out the secret, kills the snake, and the giant dies. -In one of the Samoyed tales a man had no heart in his body, and could -recover it only on restoring to life a woman whom he had killed. Then the -man said to his wife, "Go to the place where the dead lies; there you will -find a purse, in that purse is her soul; shake the purse over her bones, -and she will come to life." The wife did as she was ordered, and the woman -revived, whereupon her son dashed the heart to the ground, and the man -died.[75] - -More elaborate than these are the tales from _The Thousand and One -Nights_. In _Seyf-el-Mulook_ the jinnee's soul is enclosed in the crop of -a sparrow, and the sparrow is imprisoned in a small box, and this is in -seven other boxes which are put into seven chests; these are enclosed in a -coffer of marble that is sunk in the ocean surrounding the world. By the -aid of Suleyman's seal-ring Seyf-el-Mulook raises the coffer, and -extricating the sparrow, strangles it, whereupon the jinnee's body is -converted into a heap of black ashes. In some tales not included by -Galland or Lane, which Mr. Kirby has translated and edited under the title -of the _New Arabian Nights_, we have a variant of the above under the -title of _Joadar of Cairo and Mahmood of Tunis_. Joadar is bent on -releasing his enchanted betrothed, which he does by also strangling a -sparrow, the ogre being simultaneously dissolved into a heap of ashes. - -The most venerable illustration of the leading idea in the Punchkin group -is however found, though in more subtle form, in the Egyptian tale of the -_Two Brothers_. This is of great value on account of its high antiquity, -and, moreover, specially interesting as recording an incident similar to -that narrated in the life of Joseph. It is contained in the D'Orbiney -papyrus preserved in the Bibliotheque Imperiale, the date being about the -fourteenth or fifteenth century B.C. - -There were two brothers, Anepou and Satou, joined as one in love and -labour. One day Satou was sent to fetch seed-corn from Anepou's house, -where he found his brother's wife adorning her hair. She urged him to stay -with her, but he refused, promising, however, to keep her wickedness -secret. When Anepou returned at even, she, being afraid, "made herself to -seem as a woman that had suffered violence," and told him exactly the -reverse of what had happened. Anepou's wrath was kindled against Satou, -and he went out to slay him; but Satou called on Phra to save him, and the -god placed a river between the brothers, so that when day dawned Anepou -might hear the truth. At sunrise Satou tells his story, and, mutilating -himself, he says that he will leave Anepou and go to the valley of the -cedar, in the cones of which he will deposit his heart, "so that if the -tree be cut his heart will fall to the earth, and he must die." - -For us the value of these folk-tales lies in the relics of barbaric -notions concerning the nature of man and his relation to external things -which they preserve. They have amused our youth-hood; they may instruct -our manhood. But if we go to the solar mythologists for their -interpretation, we shall learn from Sir G. W. Cox that the "magician -Punchkin and the heartless giant are only other forms of the Panis who -steal bright treasures from the gleaming west," that "Balna herself is -Helen shut up in Ilion ... the eagles the bright clouds,"[76] and from -Professor de Gubernatis that the duck is the dawn and the egg the sun. - -These venerable tales have a larger, richer meaning than this, expressive -of the wonder deep-seated in the heart of man. Like the "drusy" cavity in -granite rock which, when broken open, reveals beautiful prisms of topaz -and beryl, the folk-tales disclose under analysis that thought, now -crystallised, which confuses ideas and objects, illusions and realities, -substances and shadows. - - -Sec. IX. - -BARBARIC AND CIVILISED NOTIONS OF THE SOUL'S NATURE. - -In proof of the closing remarks in Sec. VII., that the breath has given the -chief name to the soul, we find the Western Australians using the same -word, _waug_, for "breath, spirit, soul"; in Java the word _nawa_ is used -for "health, life, soul"; in the Dakota tongue _niya_ is literally -"breath," figuratively "life"; in Netela _piuts_ is "breath" and "soul"; -in Eskimo _silla_ means "air" and "wind," and is also the word that -conveys the highest idea of the world as a whole, and of the reasoning -faculty. The supreme existence they call _Sillam Innua_, Owner of the Air, -or of the All; in the Yakama tongue of Oregon _wkrisha_ signifies "there -is wind," _wkrishwit_, "life"; with the Aztecs _ehecatl_ expressed "air, -life, and the soul," and, personified in their myths, it was said to have -been born of the breath of Tezcatlipoca, their highest divinity, who -himself is often called Yoalliehecatl, the Wind of Night.[77] This -identity of wind with breath, of breath with spirit, and thence of spirit -with the Great Spirit, which - - "Sees God in clouds, and hears Him in the wind," - -has further illustration in the legends of the Quiches, in which the -unknown creative power is Hurakan, a name familiar to us under the form -_hurricane_, and in our own sacred records, where the advent of the Holy -Spirit is described "as of a rushing mighty wind." In the Mohawk language -_atonritz_, the "soul," is from _atonrion_, "to breathe"; whilst, as -showing the analogy between the effects of restricted sense and restricted -civilisation, Dr. Tylor quotes the case of a girl who was a deaf-mute as -well as blind, and who, when telling a dream in gesture language, said: -"I thought God took away my breath to heaven." Among the higher languages -the same evidence abides. - - "The spirit doth but mean the breath." - -That word _spirit_ is derived from a verb _spirare_, which means "to draw -breath." _Animus_, "the mind," is cognate with _anima_, "air"; in Irish, -which belongs to the same family of speech as Latin, namely, the Aryan or -Indo-European, we have _anal_, "breath," and _anam_, "life," or "soul"; -and in Sanskrit we find the root _an_, to "blow" or "breathe," whence -_anila_, "wind," and in Greek _anemos_, with the like meaning. In -Hampole's _Ayenbite of Inwyt_, _i.e._ "Prick or Remorse of Conscience," a -poem of the fourteenth century, we find _ande_ or "breath" used as "soul." - - "Thus sall ilka saul other se (_i.e._ in the other world) - For nan of tham may feled be - Na mar than here a man, ande may - When it passes fra his mouthe away."[78] - -The Greek _psyche_, _pneuma_, and _thymos_, each meaning "soul" and -"spirit," are from roots expressing the wind or breath. In Slavonic the -root _du_ has developed the meaning of breath into that of soul or spirit, -and the dialect of the gipsies has _duk_ with the meanings of breath, -spirit, ghost. That word _ghost_, the German _geist_, the Dutch _geest_, -from a root meaning "to blow with violence," is connected with _gust_, -_gas_, _geyser_; in Scandinavian, _gloesor_, "to pour forth." In non-Aryan -languages, as the Finnish, _far_ means "soul, breath, spirit, wind"; -_henki_, "spirit, person, breath, air"; the Hebrew _nephesh_, "breath," -has also the meanings of "life, soul, mind"; and _ruach_ and _neshamah_, -to which the Arabic _nefs_ and _ruh_ correspond, pass from meaning -"breath" to "spirit." The legend of man's creation records that he became -a living soul through God breathing into his nostrils "the breath of -life," and concerning this the Psalmist says of all that live, "Thou -takest away their breath, they die, and return unto the dust." As a final -illustration, the Egyptian _kneph_ has the alternative meanings of "life" -and "breath."[79] - -When we pass from names to descriptions, we find the same underlying idea -of the ethereal nature of spirit. The natives of Nicaragua, California, -and other countries remote from these, agree in describing the other self -as air or breeze, which passes in and out through the mouth and nostrils. -The Tongans conceived it as the aeriform part of the body, related to it -as the perfume to the flower. The Greenlanders describe it as pale and -soft, as without flesh and bone, so that he who tries to seize it grasps -nothing. The Lapps say that the ghosts are invisible to all but the -Shamans. The Congo negroes leave the house of the dead unswept for a year, -lest the dust should injure the delicate substance of the ghost; and the -German peasants have a saying that a door should not be slammed, lest a -soul gets pinched in it. In some parts of Northern Europe, when the -wind-god, Odin, rides the sky with his furious spectral host, the peasants -open the windows of every sick-room that the soul of the dying may have -free exit to join the wild chase; whilst both here and in France it is -still no uncommon practice to open doors and windows that the soul may -depart quickly. Dr. Tylor[80] cites a passage from Hampole, in which the -author speaks of the intenser suffering which the soul undergoes in -purgatory by reason of its delicate organisation. - - "The soul is more tendre and nesche (soft) - Than the bodi that hath bones and fleysche; - Thanne the soul that is so tendere of kinde, - Mote nedis hure penaunce hardere-y-finde, - Than eni bodi that evere on live was," - -a doctrine clearly due to Patristic theories of incorporeal souls. And a -modern poet, Dante Rossetti, in his _Blessed Damozel_, when he describes -her as leaning out from the gold bar of heaven and looking down towards -the earth, that "spins like a fretful midge," whence she awaits the coming -of her lover, depicts the souls mounting up to God as passing by her "like -thin flames." The Greeks and, following them, the Romans, conceived the -soul as of thin, impalpable texture, as exhaled with the dying breath, or, -as in Homer, rushing out through the wound that causes the warrior's -death. In the metaphysical Arabian romance of Yokdhan, the hero seeks the -source of life and thought, and discovers in one of the cavities of the -heart a bluish vapour, which was the living soul. Among the Hebrews it was -of shadowy nature, with echoless motion, haunting a ghostly realm: - - "It is a land of shadows; yea, the land - Itself is but a shadow, and the race - That dwell therein are voices, forms of forms." - -Such conceptions are but little varied; and, to this day, the intelligence -of the major number of people who think about the thing at all presents -the departing soul as something vaporous, as a little white cloud. - -In keeping with such ideas, the belief in transfer of spirit expresses -itself. Algonquin women who desired to become mothers flocked to the couch -of those about to die, in hope that the vital principle as it passed from -the body would enter theirs. Among the Seminoles of Florida, when a woman -died in childbirth, the infant was held over her face to receive her -parting spirit, and thus acquire strength and knowledge for its future -use. So among the Takahlis, the priest is accustomed to lay his hand on -the head of the nearest relative of the deceased, and to blow into him the -soul of the departed, which is supposed to come to life in his next -child.[81] - -In Harland and Wilkinson's _Lancashire Folk-lore_ it is related that while -a well-known witch lay dying, "she must needs, before she could 'shuffle -off this mortal coil,' transfer her _familiar spirit_ to some trusty -successor. An intimate acquaintance from a neighbouring township was -consequently sent for in all haste, and on her arrival was immediately -closeted with her dying friend. What passed between them has never fully -transpired, but it is asserted that at the close of the interview this -associate _received the witch's last breath into her mouth, and with it -her familiar spirit_. The powers for good or evil of the dreaded woman -were thus transferred to her companion, and on passing along the road from -Burnley to Blackburn we can point out a farmhouse at no great distance, -with whose thrifty matron no neighbouring farmer will yet dare to -quarrel." When a Roman lay at the point of death, his nearest relative -inhaled the last breath; in New Testament story, the risen Jesus breathes -on His disciples, that they may receive the Holy Spirit, and the form thus -adopted in conferring supernatural grace is still used in the rites and -ceremonies of the Catholic Church. - -Speculation about the other self could not, however, stop at identifying -it with a man's breath or shadow, or with regarding it as absolutely -impalpable. These nebulous and gaseous theories necessarily condensed, as -it were, into theories of semi-substantiality still charged with ethereal -conceptions, but giving embodiment to the soul to account for the -appearances of both dead and living in dreams, when their persons were -clasped, their forms and features seen, and their voices heard. - -Such theories involve a kind of continuity of identity, and often take the -form of belief in the soul as a replica of the body, and as suffering -corresponding mutilation. When the native Australian has slain his foe, he -cuts off his right thumb, so as to prevent him from throwing a shadowy -spear; the Chinese dread of decapitation, lest their spirits are headless, -is well known; but a more telling illustration is that cited by Dr. Tylor, -from Waitz, of the West Indian planter, whose slaves sought refuge from -the lash and toil in suicide. But he was too cunning for them; he cut off -the heads and hands of the corpses, that the survivors might see that not -even death could save them from a taskmaster who could maim their souls in -the next world. Among advanced nations the same conceptions survived. -Achilles, resting by the shore, sees the dead Patroclus in a dream. "Ay -me, there remaineth then, even in the house of Hades, a spirit and phantom -of the dead, albeit the life be not anywise therein; for all night long -hath the ghost of hapless Patroclus stood over me, wailing and making -moan, and wondrous like his living self it seemed."[82] Virgil portrays -AEneas, and Homer describes Ulysses, as recognising their old comrades -when they enter the "viewless shades," where the dwellers continue the -tasks of their earthly life. In Hebrew legend Saul recognises the shade of -Samuel when the magic spell of the Witch of Endor evokes it, although the -grave of the old "judge" was sixty miles away. The monarch-shades of -"Sheol" hail with derision the entrance of the King of Babylon among them. -In New Testament narrative the risen Jesus is alternately material and -spiritual, now passing through closed doors, and now submitting his -wound-prints to the touch of the doubter. In _Hamlet_ the ghost is as "the -air, invulnerable," yet "like a king" ... - - "... that fair and warlike form - In which the majesty of buried Denmark - Did sometimes march." - -Notions of material punishments and rewards involved notions of a material -soul, even pending its reunion with the body at the general resurrection. -The angels are depicted as weighing souls in a literal balance, while -devils clinging to the scales endeavour to disturb the equilibrium.[83] In -some frescoes of the fourteenth century, on the walls of the Campo Santo, -at Pisa, illustrations of these notions abound; the soul is portrayed as a -sexless child rising out of the mouth of the corpse, and eagerly awaited -as the crown of rejoicing of the angels, or as the lawful prey of the -demons. After this it is amusing to learn that extreme tests of the -weight of ghosts are now and then forthcoming,[84] from the assertion of a -Basuto divine that the late queen had been bestriding his shoulders, and -he never felt such a weight in his life, to the alleged modern -spiritualistic reckoning of the weight of a human soul at from three to -four ounces! And do not spirit-photographs adorn the albums of the -credulous? - - -Sec. X. - -BARBARIC BELIEF IN SOULS IN BRUTES AND PLANTS AND LIFELESS THINGS. - -More graceful is the conception which makes the soul spring up as a flower -or cleave the air as a bird. It is, of course, the purified survival of -the primitive thought which did not limit its belief in an indwelling -spirit to man, but extended it to brutes and plants, and even to lifeless -things. For the lower creatures manifested the phenomena from which the -belief in spirits in higher creatures was inferred. They moved and -breathed, their life ceased with their breath; they cast shadows and -reflections; their cries, which to the savage seemed so like human -speech,[85] awakened echoes; and they appeared in dreams. Among the -western tribes of North America the phantoms of all animals are supposed -to go to the happy beasts' grounds, and in Assam the ghosts of those slain -become the property of the hunter who kills them; whilst the custom of -begging pardon of the animal before or after despatching it, as among the -Red Indians, who even put the pipe of peace in the dead creature's mouth, -further evidences to barbarian belief in beast-souls. Although the belief -in the immortality of brutes has now no place in serious philosophy, it -has been a favourite doctrine from the Kamchadales, who believe in the -after-life of flies and bugs, to the eminent naturalist Agassiz, who -advocates the doctrine in his _Essay on Classification_; and in a list of -4977 books on the nature and future of the soul given in Mr. Alger's -elaborate critical history of the subject, nearly 200 deal with the -after-life of animals. The advocates have often felt the difficulty of -granting this after-life to man and denying it to creatures to which he -stands so closely related in ultimate community of origin; but science, -while it finds links of sympathy with the ideas of rude races respecting -the common life of all that moves, and presents evidence in support of the -common destiny, lends no support to the doctrine of the immortality of -oysters. The custom of apologising to doomed brutes is practised in regard -to plants. If they exhibit the phenomena of life in a lesser degree, -enough are shown to justify the accrediting of them with souls. Besides -flinging wavy shadows and reflections (and it cannot be too often enforced -that to the barbaric intelligence motion is a prime sign of life), they -are not voiceless. Murmurs are heard in their leaves; sounds echo from -their hollow trunks, or tremble, AEolian-like, through their branches; and -in their juices are the sources of repose or frenzy. - -"The Ojibways believed that trees had souls, and in pagan times they -seldom cut down green or living trees, for they thought it put them to -pain. They pretended to hear the wailing of the trees when they suffered -in this way. On account of these noises, real or imaginary, trees have had -spirits assigned them, and worship offered to them. A mountain-ash, in the -vicinity of South Ste. Marie, which made a noise, had offerings piled up -around it. If a tree should emit from its hollow trunk or branches a sound -during a calm state of the atmosphere, or should any one fancy such -sounds, the tree would be at once reported, and soon come to be regarded -as the residence of some local god."[86] As expressed in Greek myth, -purified in this case from grosser elements, we have the Dryades, who were -believed to die together with the trees in which their life had begun to -be, and in which they had dwelt. As expressed in folk-lore and its poetic -forms, it is in the growth or blossoming of flowers, or the intertwining -of branches, that the idea survives. In the ballad of "Fair Margaret and -Sweet William"-- - - "Out of her brest there sprang a _rose_, - And out of his a _briar_; - They grew till they grew unto the church-top, - And there they tyed in a true lover's knot;"[87] - -in the story of "Tristram and Ysonde," "from his grave there grew an -eglantine which twined about the statue, a marvel for all men to see; and, -though three times they cut it down, it grew again, and ever wound its -arms about the image of the fair Ysonde;"[88] while the conception often -lends itself to the poet's thoughts, from Laertes' words over Ophelia:-- - - "Lay her i' the earth, - And from her fair and unpolluted flesh - May violets spring," - -to Tennyson's - - "And from his ashes may be made - The violet of his native land." - -In Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_ a number of illustrations are supplied of -the vagaries of popular imagination, which picture the soul as a bird -flying out of a dead person's mouth, and, as a cognate example from rude -culture, we find a belief among the Powhatans that "a certain small wood -bird received the souls of their princes at death, and they religiously -refrained from doing it harm; while the Aztecs and various other nations -thought that all good people, as a reward of merit, were metamorphosed at -the close of life into feathered songsters of the grove, and in this form -passed a certain term in the umbrageous bowers of Paradise."[89] But many -pages might be filled with examples of varying conceptions of the soul, -the major number of which (for the idea of it as a mouse, snake, etc., -must not be forgotten) have as their nucleus its ethereal nature and -freedom from the limitations of solid earth, although round that nucleus -gather some more concrete ideas for the mind, desiring something more -substantial than symbols, to grasp. The belief that inanimate things as -well as animals and plants have a dual being is not so obvious at first -sight, and yet, given the reasons for the latter, there are as good -grounds, because like in kind, for the former. The Algonquins told Father -Charlevoix that "since hatchets and kettles have shadows, as well as men -and women, it follows that these shadows must pass along with human -shadows into the spirit-land." When the tools or weapons are injured or -done with, their souls must cross the water to the Great Village, where -the sun sets. Besides, spears and pots and pans, as well as men and dogs, -appear in dreams; they throw shadows and images in the water, they give -forth a sound when struck, and, as the Fijians also argue, "if an animal -or plant die, its soul goes to Bolotoo; if a stone or anything else is -broken, it has its reward there; nay, has equal good luck with men and -hogs and yams. If an axe or a chisel is worn out or broken up, away flies -its soul for the service of the gods." Logically, the savage who believes -that in the other world - - "The hunter still the deer pursues, - The hunter and the deer a shade," - -must put in the hands of the one a shadow spear. So when an Ojibway -chief, after a four days' trance, gave an account of his visit to the land -of shadows, he told of the hosts whom he had met travelling there laden -with pipes and kettles and weapons. These primitive ideas explain, once -and for all, matters which have too often been explained by fanciful -theories, or cited as evidences of the benighted condition of those places -which on missionary maps of the world are painted black. They disclose the -reason why food and utensils and weapons were broken and buried with the -dead; why fires were lighted round the grave; why animals were slain on -the death of a chief; why the Greenlanders, when a child dies, bury a dog -with him, because the dog, they say, is able to find his way anywhere; why -North American Indian mothers in pathetic custom drop their milk on the -lips of the dead child; and why, what seemed so inexplicable to the early -missionaries to the East, ignorant of the practice of widow-sacrifice -among the ancient peoples of the West, as the Gauls, Teutons, and others, -wives and slaves were burned on the funeral pyre. Among the Mexicans -sometimes a very rich man would even have his chaplain slaughtered, that -he might not be deprived of his support in the other world. - -In their initial stage all these gifts are made, all these rites -performed, for the supposed need of the dead. Every one had his _manes_, -which followed him into the next world, and, lacking which, he would be as -poor as if in this world he had lacked it. The spiritual counterpart of -the offerings was consumed by his spirit, just as the old deities were -thought to enjoy the sweet-smelling savour of the burnt sacrifices; the -fires were kindled that the soul might not grope about in darkness. So the -obolus was put into the mouth of the dead, that its _manes_ might be -payment to Charon for the ferry of the Styx, as money is put in the -corpse's hand or mouth among the German and Irish peasants to this day; so -the warrior's horse was slain at his tomb and the armour laid therein, -that he might enter Valhalla riding, and clothed with the tokens of his -right to the abode reserved for those who had fallen in battle. - -Any explanation of customs like the foregoing, persistent as they are in -kind, however varying in expression, is defective which does not take into -account what large part the emotions play in all that is connected with -death, and how they infuse such customs with vitality. The bereaved refuse -to believe that those whom they have lost have no more concern in the -interests of life once common and dear to both. As among the Dakotas, when -a mother feels a pain at her breast, they say that her dead child is -thinking of her. The place where the body lies becomes the connecting link -between it and the soul which is still the solicitude and care, or, it may -be, the dread of the living; succouring and protecting, or, on the other -hand, avenging. - -The element of dread undoubtedly comes into play early. The awe which we -feel in the presence of death, or in passing in the dark through a -churchyard, takes in the savage the form of terror. The behaviour of the -ghost in dreams, its ability to do what men still in the flesh cannot do, -quicken the belief in occult power, and the desire to propitiate it. Among -the Lapps red-hot stones are cast behind the coffins of the dead, and -their graves fenced round to prevent their return to earth. The articles -placed in the grave as gifts for the dead become sacrifices laid on the -altar to appease malignant spirits; the mound or tomb becomes a temple, -and awe passes by easy degrees into worship. The prevalence in one form or -another of ancestor-worship has, as remarked already, led Mr. Spencer to -the conclusion that it is the rudimentary form of all religions; even sun, -moon, volcano, river, etc., being feared and adored because they were -believed to be the dwelling-places of ancestral ghosts. The facts are -against this theory. It is to the larger, the more impressive phenomena of -the natural world, the sun in noontide strength and splendour, the -lightning and the thunder, that we must look for the primary causes which -awakened the fear, the wonder, and the adoration in which lie the germs of -the highest religions. Such causes are not only sufficient, but more -operative on the undeveloped intelligence than the belief in ancestral -spirits of the mountain and the sea, which involves a more complex mental -action.[90] The one is contributory, but subordinate, to the other. It is, -as M. Reville remarks, "the phenomena of nature regarded as animated and -conscious that wake and stimulate the religious sentiments, and become -the objects of the adoration of man.... If nature-worship, with the -animism that it engenders,[91] shapes the first law to which nascent -religion submits in the human race, anthropomorphism furnishes the second, -disengaging itself ever more and more completely from the zoomorphism -which generally serves as an intermediary. This is so _everywhere_."[92] - - -Sec. XI. - -BARBARIC AND CIVILISED NOTIONS ABOUT THE SOUL'S DWELLING-PLACE. - -The existence of the ghost-soul or other self being unquestioned, the -inquiry follows, where does it dwell? Like the trolls of Norse myth, who -burst at sunrise, the flitting spirit vanishes in the light and comes with -the darkness; but what places does it haunt when the quiet of the night is -unbroken by its intrusion, and where are they? - -The answers to these are as varied as the vagaries of rude imagination -permit. We must not expect to find any theories of the soul's prolonged -after-existence among races who have but a dim remembrance of yesterday, -and but a hazy conception of a to-morrow. Neither, among such, any -theories of the soul abiding in a place of reward or punishment, as the -result of things done in the body. Speaking of the heaven of the Red man, -Dr. Brinton remarks that "nowhere was any well-defined doctrine that moral -turpitude was judged and punished in the next world. No contrast is -discoverable between a place of torment and a realm of joy; at the worst -but a negative castigation awaited the liar, the coward, or the niggard." -Ideas of a devil and a hell are altogether absent from the barbaric mind, -since it is obvious that any theory of retribution could arise only when -man's moral nature had so developed as to awaken questions about the -government of the universe, and to call another world into existence to -redress the wrongs and balance the injustices of this. His earliest -queries were concerned with the whereabouts of the soul more than with its -destiny, and it was, and still is, among the lower races, thought of as -haunting its old abode or the burial-place of its body, and as acting very -much as it had acted when in the flesh. The shade of the Algonquin hunter -chases the spirits of the beaver and the elk with the spirits of his bow -and arrow, and stalks on the spirits of his snow-shoes over the spirit of -the snow. Among the Costa Ricans the spirits of the dead are supposed to -remain near their bodies for a year, and the explorer Swan relates that -when he was with the North-Western Indians he was not allowed to attend a -funeral, lest he offended the spirits hovering round; whilst the Indians -of North America often destroy or abandon the dwellings of the dead, the -object being to prevent the ghost from returning, or to leave it free so -to do. But it is needless to multiply illustrations of a belief which has -been persistent in the human mind from the dawn of speculation about the -future of the soul to the present day. The barbarians who think that the -spirits of the dead move and have their being near the living, join them -on their journeys, and sit down, unseen visitants, at their feasts (to be -driven off, as among the Eskimos, by blowing the breath), are one with the -multitudes of folks in Europe and America who, sorrowing over their dead, -think of them as ministering with unfelt hands, and as keenly interested -in their concerns. - - "We meet them at the doorway, on the stair, - Along the passages they come and go, - Impalpable impressions on the air, - A sense of something moving to and fro." - -The Ojibway, who detects their tiny voices in the insect's hum, and thinks -of them as sheltering themselves from the rain by thousands in a flower, -as sporting by myriads on a sunbeam, is one with the Schoolmen who -speculated on the number of angels that could dance on a needle's point, -and with Milton in his poetic rendering of the belief of his time, that - - "Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth - Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep." - -The Hottentot who avoids a dead man's hut lest the ghost be within, is one -with the believers in haunted houses, in banshees, wraiths, and spectres. -Such as he should not be excluded as "corresponding members" of the -Society for Psychical Research in the invitations[93] which its committee -issues to folks who have seen apparitions, and slept, or tried to sleep, -in the dreaded chamber of some moated hall of mystery. - -If we look in vain for any consistency of idea or logical relation in -barbaric notions, our wonder ceases at the absence of these when we note -the conflicting conceptions entertained among intelligent people. But the -underlying thought is identical. The examples given in a foregoing section -on the belief in the passage of the soul into other human bodies, into -animals and stones, strengthened as this is by the likeness in mind and -body between children and dead relatives, by the human expression noted on -many a brute, by the human shape of many a stone, show how the theory of -the soul as nigh at hand finds many-sided support. In this belief, too, -lie the germs of theories of successive transmigrations elaborated in the -faiths of advanced races, when the defects of body and character were -explained as the effects of sin committed in a former existence. - -Next in order of conception appears to be that of the soul as living an -independent existence, an improved edition of the present, in an under or -upper world, into which the dead pass without distinction of caste or -worth. - -The things dreamed about respecting the land of spirits and their -occupations are woven of the materials of daily life. Whether to the -sleeping barbarian in his wigwam, or to the seer banished in Patmos; -whether to the Indian travelling in his dreams to the happy -hunting-ground, or to the apostle caught up in trance into paradise; -earth, and earth alone, supplies the materials out of which man everywhere -has shaped his heaven. Her dinted and furrowed surface; valleys and -mountain-tops; islands sleeping in summer seas, or fretted by winter -storms; cities walled and battlemented; glories of sunrise and sunset; -gave variety enough for play of the cherished hopes and imaginings of men. -If we collect any group of barbaric fancies, we find, speaking broadly, -that a large proportion have pictured the home of souls as in the west, -towards the land of the setting sun. Seen from many a standpoint to sink -beneath river, lake, or ocean, which for untutored man enclosed his world, -it led to the myth of waters of death dividing earth from heaven, which -the soul, often at perilous risk, must cross. Such was the Ginnunga-gap of -the Vikings; the nine seas and a half across which travellers to Manala, -the under-world of the Finns, must voyage; the great water of the Red -Indians; the Vaitarani of the Brahmans; the Stygian stream of the Greeks; -and the Jordan of the Christians, that flows between us and the Celestial -City, "where the surges cease to roll." The sinking of the sun below the -horizon obviously led to belief in an under-world, whither the ghosts -went. Barbaric notions are full of this, and the lower culture out of -which their beliefs arose is evidenced in the Orcus of the Romans, the -Hades of the Greeks, the Helheim of the Norsemen, the Sheol of the -Hebrews, and the Amenti of the Egyptians, the solar features of which last -are clearly traceable in their doctrine. Among the Hebrews, Sheol -(translated, curiously enough, thirty-one times as "grave," and thirty-one -times as "hell," in our Authorised Version) was a vast cavernous space in -which the shades of good and bad alike wandered--"the small and great are -there, and the servant is free from his master." It is akin in character -to the Greek Hades, where they "wander mid shadows and shade, and wail by -impassable streams." As ideas of a Divine rule of the world grew, its -manifestations in justice were looked for, and the mystery of iniquity, -the wicked "flourishing like a green bay tree," led to the conception of a -future state, in which Lazarus and Dives would change places. Sheol thus -became, on the one hand, a land of delight and repose for the faithful, -and, on the other hand, one of punishment for the wicked. - -Persian, and still older, influences had largely leavened Hebrew -conceptions, and local conditions in Judea added pungent elements. The -Valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna, "the place where lie the corpses of those -who have sinned against Jehovah, where their worm shall not die, neither -their fire be quenched;" the dreary volcanic region around the Dead Sea, -with its legend of doomed cities, supplied their imagery of hell with its -lake of fire and brimstone. And, as the belief travelled westward, it fell -into congenial soil. The sulphurous stench around Lacus Avernus, the smoke -of Vesuvius, Stromboli, and Etna, wreathed themselves round the hell of -Christianity and the under-world of barbaric myth; and from Talmudic -writer to classic poet, to Dante and to Milton, the imagination exhausted -the material of the horrible to describe the several tortures of the -damned. The hell of our northern forefathers remained below the flat -earth, but the cold, misty Niflheim melted away before the fiery perdition -of Christian dogma. And, in the region bordering thereon, the _limbus -patrum_, the _limbus infantum_, etc., we have the survival of belief in -separate hells characteristic of the Oriental religions, and of the -sub-divisions of the lower world in more rudimentary religions. - -Beyond the narrow horizon which bounded the world of the ancients, lay the -imaginary land of the immortals, the Blessed, the Happy, the Fortunate -Isles. But as that horizon enlarged, the Elysian Fields and Banquet Halls -were transferred to an upper sphere. In the wonder aroused by the -firmament above, with its solid-looking vault across which sun, stars, -and clouds traversed; in the place it plays in dreams of barbarian and -patriarch, when the sleeper is carried thither; in its brightness of -noonday glory as contrasted with the dark sun-set under-world, we may find -some of the materials of which the theory of an upper world, a heaven -("the heaved") is made up. There the barbarian places his paradise to -which the rainbow and the Milky Way are roads; there he meets his kindred, -and lives where cold, disease, and age are not, but everlasting summer and -summer fruits. There, too, for the conceptions of advanced races are drawn -from the same sources, the civilised peoples of Europe and America have -placed their heaven. And, save in refinement of detail incident to -intellectual growth, there is nothing to choose between the earlier and -the later; the same gross delights, the same earth-born ideas are there, -whether we enter the Norseman's Valhalla, the Moslem's Paradise, or the -Christian's New Jerusalem. - - -Sec. XII. - -CONCLUSIONS FROM THE FOREGOING. - -It would exceed the limits and purport of this book to follow the -extension of the belief in spirits to its extreme range; in other words, -to belief in controlling spirits in inanimate objects, which were advanced -_pari passu_ with man's advancing conceptions to place and rank as the -higher gods of polytheism. Such belief, as already indicated, is the -outcome of that primitive philosophy which invests the elements above and -the earth beneath with departmental deities, until, through successive -stages of dualism, the idea of a Supreme Deity is reached, and the -approach is thus made towards a conception of the unity and unvarying -order of nature. Deferring reference to the part played by dreams as media -of communication between heaven and earth, and as warnings of coming -events, let us summarise the evidence which has been gathered, and ask -whether it warrants the conclusions drawn from it in the present work. - -It has been shown that races have existed, and exist still, at so low a -level that their scanty stock of words has to be supplemented by gestures, -rendering converse in the dark next to impossible. Such people are -bewildered by any effort to count beyond their fingers; they have no idea -of the relation of things, or of their differences; they have no power of -generalisation by which to merge the accidental in the essential. They -believe that their names and likenesses are integral parts of themselves, -and that they can be bewitched or harmed through them at the hands of any -one who knows the one or has obtained the other. As an important result of -their confusion between the objective and the subjective, we find a vivid -and remarkable belief in the reality of their dreams. The events which -make up these are explained only on the theory that if the body did not -move from its sleeping place, something related to it did, and that the -people, both living and dead, who appeared in dream and vision, did in -very presence come. The puzzle is solved by the theory of a second self -which can leave the body and return to it. For the savage knows nothing of -_mind_. The belief in this other self is strengthened (possibly more or -less created) by its appearance in shadow or reflection, in mocking echo, -in various diseases, especially fits, when the sufferer is torn by an -indwelling foe, and writhes as if in his merciless grasp. The belief in -such a ghost-soul, as to the form and ethereal nature of which all kinds -of theories are started, is extended to animals and lifeless things, since -like evidence of its existence is supplied by them. The fire that destroys -his hut, the wind that blows it down, the lightning that darts from the -clouds and strikes his fellow-man dead beside him, the rain-storm that -floods his fields, the swollen river that sweeps away his store of -food--these and every other force manifest in nature add their weight to -the inferences which rude man has drawn. The phenomena which have -accounted for the vigour of life and the prostration of disease account -for the motion of things in heaven above and the earth beneath, and the -barbaric mind thus enlarges its belief in a twofold existence in man to a -far-reaching doctrine of spirits everywhere. Step by step, from ghost-soul -flitting round the wigwam to the great spirits indwelling in the powers of -nature, the belief in supernatural beings with physical qualities arises, -until the moral element comes in, and they appear as good and evil gods -contending for the mastery of the universe. Passing by details as to the -whereabouts of the other self and its doings and destiny in the other -world which the dream involves, and following the order of ideas on -scientific lines, two queries arise:-- - -1. Does the evidence before us suffice to warrant the conclusions drawn -from it as to the serious and permanent part which dreams have played in -the origin and growth of primitive belief in spirits; in short, of belief -in supernatural agencies from past to present times? In this place the -answer is brief. Of course the antecedent conditions of man's developed -emotional nature, and of the universe of great and small, which is the -field of its exercise, are taken for granted. - -The general animistic interpretation which man gives to phenomena at the -outset expressed itself in the particular conceptions of souls everywhere, -of which dreams and such-like things supplied the raw material. If they -did not, what did? Denying this, we must fall back on a theory of -intuition or on revelation. As to the former, it begs the whole question; -as to the latter, can that which is itself the subject of periodical -revision be an infallible authority on anything? - -If dreams, apparitions, shadows, and the like, are sufficing causes, then, -in obedience to the Law of Parsimony (as it is termed in logic), we need -not invoke the play of higher causes when lower ones are found competent -to account for the effects. If it seems to some that the base is too -narrow, the foundation too weak for the superstructure, and that our -metaphysics and our beliefs regarding the invisible rest upon something -wider and stronger than the illusions of a remote savage ancestry, the -facts of man's history may be adduced as witness to his continuous passage -into truth through illusions; to the vast revolutions and readjustments -made in his correction of the first impressions of the senses. There is -not a belief of the past, from the notions of savages about their dreams -and ghost-world to those of more advanced races about their spirit-realms -and its occupants, to which this does not apply. In the more delicate -observations of the astronomer he must, when estimating the position of -any celestial body, take into account its apparent displacement through -the refractive properties of the atmosphere, and must also allow for -defects of perception in himself due to what is called "personal -equation." And in ascertaining our place in the scale of being, as well as -in seeking for the grounds of belief concerning our own nature, we have to -take into account the refracting media of dense ignorance and prejudice -through which these beliefs have come, and to allow for the confirming -error due to personal equation--fond desire. The result will be the -vanishing of illusions involving momentous changes in psychology, ethics, -and theology. Instead of groping among mental phenomena for explanations -of themselves, they will be analysed by the methods already indicated. -Instead of resting the authority for moral injunctions on innate ideas of -right and wrong, and on inspired statutes and standards, it will rest on -the accredited, because verifiable, experience of man. Instead of finding -incentives to, or restraints on, conduct by operating on men's hope of -future reward, or fear of hell as "hangman's whip to keep the wretch in -order," they will be supplied by an ever-widening sense of duty, quickened -by love and loyalty to a supreme order, in obedience to which the ultimate -happiness of humanity in the life that is will be secured. - -In this, and not in theories of an hereafter whose origin and persistence -are explained, will man find his satisfaction, and the springs of motive -to whatever is ennobling, lovely, and of good report. With the poet, who, -laying bare the sources of the unrest of his time, has led us to the -secret of its peace, he will ask-- - - "Is it so small a thing - To have enjoyed the sun, - To have lived light in the spring, - To have loved, to have thought, to have done, - To have advanced true friends, and beat down baffling foes-- - That we should feign a bliss - Of doubtful future date, - And while we dream on this, - Lose all our present state, - And relegate to worlds yet distant our repose?"[94] - -2. Does the theory of evolution in its application to the development of -the spiritual nature of man, and to the origin and growth of ideas, find -any breach of continuity? In its inclusion of him as a part of nature, in -accounting for his derivation from pre-human ancestry by a process of -natural selection, and in its proofs of his unbroken development from the -embryo to adult life, it embraces the growth and development of mind and -all that mind connotes. In the words of Professor Huxley, "As there is an -anatomy of the body, so there is an anatomy of the mind; the psychologist -dissects mental phenomena into elementary states of consciousness, as the -anatomist resolves limbs into tissues, and tissues into cells. The one -traces the development of complex organs from simple rudiments; the other -follows the building up of complex conceptions out of simpler constituents -of thought. As the physiologist inquires into the way in which the -so-called 'functions' of the body are performed, so the psychologist -studies the so-called 'faculties' of the mind. Even a cursory attention to -the ways and works of the lower animals suggests a comparative anatomy and -physiology of the mind; and the doctrine of evolution presses for -application as much in the one field as in the other."[95] - -Any coherent explanation of the operations of nature was impossible while -man had no conception or knowledge of the interplay of its several parts. -Now, by the doctrine of continuity, not only are present changes referred -to unvarying causes, but the past is interpreted by the processes going on -under our eyes. We can as easily calculate eclipses backward as forward; -we can learn in present formations of the earth's crust the history of the -deposition of the most ancient strata; we read in a rounded granite pebble -the story of epochs, the fire that fused its organic or inorganic -particles, the water that rubbed and rolled it; we reconstruct from a few -bones the ancestry of obscure forms, and find in the fragments the missing -links that connect species now so varied. And the like method is applied -to man in his _tout ensemble_. His development is not arbitrary; what he -is is the expansion of germs of what he was. - -Till these latter days he has, on the warrant of legends now of worth only -as witnesses to his crude ideas, presumed on an isolated place in -creation, and excepted his race from an inquiry made concerning every -creature beneath him. The pride of birth has hindered his admission of -lineal connection between the beliefs of cultured races and the beliefs of -savages, and pseudo-scientific writers still confuse issues by assuming -distinctions between races to whom spiritual truths have been revealed and -races from whom these truths have been withheld. But the only tenable -distinction to be drawn nowadays is between the scientific and -pre-scientific age in the history of any given race. - -In these times, when many run to and fro, and knowledge is increased, we -forget how recent are the tremendous changes wrought by the science that-- - - "Reaches forth her arms - To feel from world to world, and charms - Her secret from the latest moon." - -Dulled by familiarity, we forget how operative these changes are upon -opinions which have been--save now and again by voices speedily -silenced--unquestioned during centuries. It is, in truth, another world to -that in which our forefathers lived. Even in science itself the revolution -wrought by discoveries within the last fifty years is enormous. Our old -standard authorities, especially in astronomy and geology, are now of -value only as historical indices to the progress of those sciences, while -in the domain of life itself the distinctions between plant and animal, -assumed under the terms Botany and Zoology, are effaced and made one under -the term Biology. Sir James Paget, in a profoundly interesting address on -_Science and Theology_, has pointed out that it was once thought profane -to speak of life as in any kind of relation or alliance with chemical -affinities manifest in lifeless matter; now, the correlation of all the -forces of matter is a doctrine which investigation more and more confirms. -It was believed--many believe it still--that an impassable chasm separates -the inorganic from the organic, the latter being attained only through -operations of a "vital force" external to matter. That chasm is imaginary. -Even the supposed difference between plants and animals in the existence -in the latter of a stomach by which to digest and change nutritive -substances, vanishes before the experiments on carnivorous plants. And not -only do the observations of Mr. Darwin go far to show the existence of a -nervous system in plants, but examination of crystals shows that a "truly -elemental pathology must be studied in them after mechanical injuries or -other disturbing forces." And is man, "the roof and crown of things," to -witness to diversity amidst this unity? - -If we hesitate to believe that our metaphysics have been evolved from -savage philosophy, that our accepted opinions concerning man's nature and -destiny are but the improved and purified speculations of the past, we -must remember what long years had elapsed before the spirit of science -arose and breathed its air of freedom on the human mind. The Christian -religion wrought no change in the attitude of man towards the natural -world; it remained as full of mystery and miracle to the pagan after his -conversion as before it. When that religion was planted in foreign soil it -had, as the condition of its thriving, to be nourished by the alien -juices. It had to take into itself what it found there, and it found very -much in common. Although it displaced and degraded the _Dii majores_ of -other faiths, it had its own elaborated order of principalities and -powers; it had as real a belief in demons and goblins as any pagan; and it -was, therefore, simply a question of baptizing and rechristening the -ghost-world of heathendom, substituting angels for swan-maidens and elves, -devils for demons, and retaining unchanged the army of evil agencies, who -as witches and wraiths swarmed in the night and wrought havoc on soul and -body. - -The doctrine of continuity admits no exceptions; it has no "favoured -nation" clause for man. Its teaching is of order, not confusion; of -gradual development, not spasmodic advance; of banishment of all -catastrophic theories in the interpretation of the history of man as of -nature. In its exposition nothing is "common or unclean;" nothing too -trivial for notice in study of the growth of language, of law, of social -customs and institutions, of religion, or of aught else comprised in the -story of our race. The nursery rhyme and the "wise saw" embody the serious -belief of past times; ceremonial rites and priestly vestments preserve the -significance and sacredness gathering round the common when it becomes -specialised. And in this belief in spiritual powers and agencies within -and without, the line uniting the lower and the higher culture is -unbroken. Nor can it be otherwise, if it be conceded that the sources of -man's knowledge do not transcend his experience, and that within the -limits of this we have to look for the origin of all beliefs, from the -crudest animism to the most ennobling conceptions of the Eternal. - - "This world is the nurse of all we know, - This world is the mother of all we feel." - -And yet we find this denied by professed scientists, whose minds are -built, as it were, in water-tight compartments. The theistic philosopher, -trembling at the bogey of human automatism, creates an Ego, "an entity -wherein man's nobility essentially consists, which does not depend for its -existence on any play of physical or vital forces, but which makes these -forces subservient to its determinations."[96] The biologist, shrinking -from the application of the theory of evolution to the descent of man, -argues that "his animality is distinct in nature from his rationality, -though inseparably joined during life in one common personality." His body -"was derived from pre-existing materials, and therefore, only derivatively -created; that is, by the operation of secondary laws." His soul, on the -other hand, was created in quite a different way, not by any pre-existing -means external to God Himself, but by the direct action of the Almighty -symbolised by the term "breathing."[97] As this compound nature of man is -defended in a scientific treatise, the question that leaps to the lips is, -When did the inoculating action take place?--in the embryonic stage, or at -birth, or at the first awakenings of the moral sense? - -Readers of that eccentric book, _The Unseen Universe_, published some -eight years ago, may remember that the authors built up a spiritual body -whose home lay beyond the visible cosmos.[98] Their argument was to the -following effect:--Just as light is held to result from vibrations of the -ether set in motion by self-luminous or light-reflecting bodies, so every -thought occasions molecular action in the brain, which gives rise to -vibrations of the ether. While the effect of a portion of our mental -activity is to leave a permanent record on the matter of the brain, and -thus constitute an organ of memory, the effect of the remaining portion is -to set up thought-waves across the ether, and to construct by these means, -in some part of the unseen universe, what may be called our "spiritual -body." By this process there is being gradually built up, as the resultant -of our present activities, our future selves; and when we die our -consciousness is in some mysterious way transferred to the spiritual body, -and thus the continuity of identity is secured. - - "Eternal form shall still divide - Th' eternal soul from all beside." - -We may well quote the ancient words: "If they do these things in a green -tree, what shall be done in the dry?" The physicists, who thus locate the -soul in limitless space, and call it vibrations; the mathematician, who -said it must be extension; and the musician, who said, like Aristoxenus, -that it was harmony; the Cartesian philosopher, who locates it in the -pineal gland; the Costa Rican, who places it in the liver; the Tongans, -who make it co-extensive with the body; and the Swedenborgians, who assume -an underlying, inner self pervading the whole frame--these have met -together, the lower and the higher culture have kissed each other. - -The tripartite division of man by the Rabbis, the Platonists, the -Paulinists, the Chinese, the mediaeval theories of vegetal, sensitive, and -rational souls; what are these but the "other self" of savage philosophy -writ large? Plato's number is found among the Sioux: of their three souls -one goes to a cold place, another to a warm place, and the third stays to -guard the body. Washington Matthews, in his _Ethnology and Philology of -the Hidatsa Indians_, says:--"It is believed by some of the Hidatsa that -every human being has four souls in one. They account for the phenomena of -gradual death, when the extremities are apparently dead while -consciousness remains, by supposing the four souls to depart, one after -another, at different times. When dissolution is complete, they say that -all the souls are gone, and have joined together again outside the body. I -have heard a Minsutaree quietly discussing this doctrine with an -Assinneboine, who believed in only one soul to each body." - -Let it not be thought that because science explains the earth-born origin -of some of man's loftiest hopes, she makes claim to have spoken the last -word, and forbids utterance from any other quarter. The theologian is not -less free to assume such miraculous intervention in man's development as -marks him nearer to the angel than to the ape, only his assumptions lie -beyond the scope of scientific inquiry. And it should be noted that whilst -science takes away, she gives with no niggard hand, so that the loss is -more seeming than real. - -When belief in the earth's central and supreme place in the universe was -surrendered at the bidding of astronomy, there was compensation in the -revelation of a universe to which thought can fix no limits. And if man -is bidden to surrender belief in his difference in kind from other living -creatures, he will be given the conception of a collective humanity whose -duties and destiny he shares. That conception will not be the destruction, -but the enlargement, of the field of the emotions, and, in contrasting the -evanescence of the individual with the permanence of the race, he may find -a profounder meaning in the familiar words-- - - "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, - And our little life is rounded with a sleep." - - -Sec. XIII. - -DREAMS AS OMENS AND MEDIA OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN GODS AND MEN. - -Reference has now to be made to the part played by dreams as supposed -channels of communication between heaven and earth; as portents, omens, -etc. The common belief among the nations of antiquity that they were sent -by the gods, and the like belief lurking in the minds of the superstitious -to this day, are the scarcely-altered survivals of barbaric confusion -respecting them. - -When man had advanced from the earlier stages of undefined wonder and -bewilderment concerning the powers around and above him to anthropomorphic -conceptions of them, _i.e._ to making them in his own image, the events of -his dreams were striking confirmation of his notions about the constant -intervention of spiritual beings, gods, chiefs, and ancestors, in the -affairs of life. That personal life and will with which the rude -intelligence invests the objects of its awe; waving trees, swirling -waters, drifting clouds, whirling winds, stately march of sun and star, -seemed especially manifest in dreams and visions. In their unrelated and -bewildering, or, on the other hand, their surpassingly clear, incidents, -the powers indwelling in all things seemed to come nearer than in the less -sensational occurrences of the day, uttering their monitions, or making -known their will. They were the media by which this and that thing was -commanded or forbidden, or by which guidance and counsel and knowledge of -the future were given. To induce them, therefore, became a constant -effort. The discovery that fasting is a certain method of procuring them -is one reason of its prevalence in the lower culture. Amongst all the -indigenous races of North America abstinence has been practised as a chief -means of securing supernatural inspiration. The Redskin, to become a -sorcerer or to secure a revelation from his _totem_, or the Eskimo, to -become _Angekok_, will endure the most severe privations. - -It is believed that whatever is seen in the first dream thus produced by -fasting becomes the manitou, or guardian spirit of life, corresponding to -the "daimon" of Socrates. And whoever by much fasting is favoured with -dreams, and cultivates the art of explaining them as bearing on the -future, becomes the feared and consulted "medicine man" of his tribe. His -_kee-kee-wins_, or records, are finally shown to the old people, who meet -together and consult upon them. They in the end give their approval, and -declare that he is gifted as a prophet, is inspired with wisdom, and is -fit to lead in the councils of the people.[99] - -Very slender data were needed for the conclusions first drawn from dreams; -let the death of a friend or foe be the incident, and the event happen; -let a hunting-path fill the half-torpid fancy, and a day's fasting follow; -let the mother of a young sportsman dream that she saw a bear in a certain -place, and the son, guided by her account, find the bear where indicated, -and kill it; the arbitrary relation is set up forthwith. As Lord Bacon -says, "Men mark the hits, but not the misses," and a thousand dreams -unfulfilled count as nothing against one dream fulfilled. Out of that is -shaped, as dream-lore shows, a canon of interpretation by which whole -races will explain their dreams, never staying, when experience happens to -confirm it, to wonder that the correspondences are not more frequent than -they are. Where the arbitrary act was wrought, the isolated or conflicting -influences manifest, there deity or demon was working. So the passage from -the crude interpretation of his dreams by the barbarian to the formal -elaboration of the dream-oracle is obvious. It was only one of many modes -by which the gods were thought to hold converse with man, and by which -their will was divined. It was one phase of that many-sided belief in -power for good or evil inhering in everything, and which led man to see -omens in the common events of life, in births, in the objects any one met -in a journey or saw in the sky; to divine the future by numbers, by the -lines in the hand, by the song and flight of birds (lurking in the word -_augury_), by the entrails of sacrificed men and animals.[100] Sometimes -the god sends the message through a spiritual being, an angel (literally -"messenger"); sometimes he, himself, speaks in vision, but more often -through the symbolism of both familiar and unfamiliar things. To interpret -this is a serious science, and skill and shrewdness applied therein with -success were passports to high place and royal favour. In this we have the -familiar illustrations of Joseph and Daniel, and, indeed, we need not -travel beyond the books of the Old Testament for abundant and varied -examples of the importance attached to dreams and visions, and of the -place accorded to dreams,[101] an importance undiminished until we come to -the literature of the centuries just before Christ. For example, in the -Book of Jesus the Son of Sirac, we read-- - - "Vain and deceitful hopes befit the senseless man, - And dreams make fools rejoice, - Like one who grasps at a shadow and chases the wind, - Is he who puts trust in dreams."[102] - -In the belief that through dreams and oracles Yahweh made known his will, -the influence of older beliefs and their literature is apparent. Among the -Accadians, a pre-Semitic race in Babylonia, there existed a mass of -treatises on magic and divination by dreams and visions, and both from -this and from Egyptian sources, blended with survivals from their barbaric -past, the Hebrews largely drew. - -In this, too, "there is nothing new under the sun." Homer, painting the -vividness and agonising incompleteness of the passing visions, affirms -that dreams from Jove proceed, although sometimes to deceive men; Plato -assigns prophetic character to the images seen in them; Aristotle sees a -divination concerning some things in dreams which is not incredible; the -answer to oracles was sought in them, as when the worshipper slept in a -temple on the skin of a sacrificed ram, and learned his destiny through -the dream that came. The Stoics argued that if the gods love and care for -men and are all-knowing, they will tell their purposes to men in sleep. -Cicero attaches high importance to the faculty of interpreting them; their -phenomena, like those of oracles and predictions, should, he contends, be -explained just as the grammarians and the commentators explain the -poets.[103] - -With the influence of these beliefs in the air, and with the -legend-visions of Scripture as authority, the divine origin of dreams -became a doctrine of the Christian Church. Tertullian says that "we -receive dreams from God, there being no man so foolish as never to have -known any dreams come true," and in his _De Anima_ reference is made to a -host of writers of dream treatises. For the most part they are but names; -their treatises have perished, but enough remains for the perusal of the -curious regarding ancient rules of interpretation and the particular -significance of certain dreams. The current views of dreams in classic -antiquity are believed to be partly embodied in the [Greek: Oneirokritika] -of Artemidorus of Ephesus, who flourished about the middle of the second -century, and who reduces dream interpretation to a body of elaborate -rules, while amongst Christian writers Synesius of Cyrene, who lived two -centuries later, holds a corresponding place. - -Both classic and patristic writers supply copious details concerning the -classes into which dreams were divided, and which have some curious -correspondences among the Oriental nations, as well as in our dream-lore, -_e.g._, when Artemidorus says that he who dreams he hath lost a tooth -shall lose a friend, we may compare with this a quotation which Brand -gives from the _Sapho and Phao_ of Lily, a playwright of the time of -Elizabeth. "Dreams have their trueth. Dreams are but dotings, which come -either by things we see in the day or meates that we eat, and so the -common-sense preferring it to be the imaginative. 'I dreamed,' says -Ismena, 'mine eyetooth was loose, and that I thrust it out with my -tongue.' 'It foretelleth,' replies Mileta, 'the loss of a friend; and I -ever thought thee so full of prattle that thou wouldst thrust out the best -friend with thy tatling.'" - -It is, however, needless to quote from Artemidorus and others of their -kin. They do but furnish samples of the ingenuity applied to profitless -speculations on matters which were fundamental then, and around which the -mind played unchecked and unchallenged. Moreover, the subtle distinctions -made between dreams in former times were slowly effaced, or sank to their -proper level in the gossip of chap books--our European _kee-kee-wins_. But -the belief in the dream as having a serious meaning, and in the spectral -appearances in visions as real existences, remained as strong as in any -barbarian or pagan. In an atmosphere charged with the supernatural, -apparitions and the like were matters of course, the particular form of -the illusion to which the senses testified being in harmony with the ideas -of the age. The devil does not appear to Greek or Roman, but he sorely -troubled the saints, unless their nerves were, like Luther's, strong -enough to overmaster him. Luther speaks of him as coming into his cell, -and making a great noise behind the stove, and of his walking in the -cloister above his cell at night; "but as I knew it was the devil," he -says, "I paid no attention to him, and went to sleep." Sceptics now and -again arose protesting against the current belief, but they were as a -voice crying in the desert. One Henry Cornelius Agrippa, in the fifteenth -century, a man born out of due time, says, "To this delusion not a few -great philosophers have given not a little credit, especially Democritus, -Aristotle, Sincsius, etc., so far building on examples of dreams, which -some accident hath made to be true, that thence they endeavour to persuade -men that there are no dreams but what are real." - -His words have not yet lost their purport. For the credulity of man, the -persistence with which he clings to the shadow of the supernatural after -having surrendered the substance, seem almost a constant quantity, varying -only in form. Unteachable by experience, fools still pay their guineas to -mediums to rap out inane messages from the departed, and send postage -stamps to the Astronomer Royal, asking him to "work the planets" for them, -and secure them luck in love and law-suits. Nor is there any cure for this -but in wise culture of the mind, wise correction, and wholesome control of -the emotions. "By faithfully intending the mind to the realities of -nature," as Bacon has it, and by living and working among men in a -healthy, sympathetic way, exaggeration of a particular line of thought or -feeling is prevented, and the balance of the faculties best preserved. -For, adds Dr. Maudsley, in pregnant and well-chosen words, "there are not -two worlds--a world of nature and a world of human nature--standing over -against one another in a sort of antagonism, but one world of nature, in -the orderly evolution of which human nature has its subordinate part. -Delusions and hallucinations may be described as discordant notes in the -grand harmony. It should, then, be every man's steadfast aim, as a part of -nature--his patient work--to cultivate such entire sincerity of relations -with it; so to think, feel, and act always in intimate unison with it; to -be so completely one with it in life, that when the summons comes to -surrender his mortal part to absorption into it, he does so, not -fearfully, as to an enemy who has vanquished him, but trustfully, as to a -mother who, when the day's task is done, bids him lie down to sleep." - - - - -INDEX. - - - Abipone, 15, 151, 156. - - Abraham, 135. - - Accadians, 134, 240. - - AEsop, 96. - - Agassiz, 208. - - Agni, 74. - - Agrippa, Cornelius, 243. - - Ahriman, 54. - - Alger, 208. - - Algonquins, 40, 43, 46, 91, 99, 110, 125, 167, 184, 203, 211, 216. - - Allah, 159. - - Ancestors, sun and moon as, 19. - worship of, 110, 112, 214. - - Ancient Stone Age, 8. - - Animal, descent from, 99. - worship, 110. - - Animals, transformation into, 81. - virtue in flesh of, 164. - souls in, 207. - - Apollo, 52. - - Arabian folk-tales, 196. - notion of soul, 202. - - Araucanians, 43, 163. - - Arnobius, 167. - - Arnold, Matthew, 14, 227. - - Art, primitive, 147. - - Artemidorus, 241. - - Arthur, King, 123. - - Aryan epics, 71. - - Aryan folk-tales, 70, 95. - languages, 67. - myths, 51, 76. - - Aryans, primitive home of, 69. - - Astrology, 33. - - Australians, 20, 26, 30, 99, 103, 150, 153, 157, 165, 179, 198, 205. - - Aztecs, 44, 199, 210. - - - Barbaric belief in dreams, 168-174. - belief in souls in brutes, etc., 207-213. - belief in virtue in lifeless things, 12, 160-168, 181. - confusion about names, 154-159. - cures for disease, 179. - dread of portrait-taking, 162. - language, 150. - notions of soul's abode, 215-222. - theory of disease, 174, 182. - theory of a soul, 182-187. - theory of soul's nature, 198-206. - - Baring Gould, 28, 84. - - Basutos, 184. - - Beast-fables, 94, 98. - - Beowulf, 52. - - Berserkr, 87. - - Bifroest, 33. - - Bird, soul as, 210. - wind as, 43-45. - - Body, soul apart from, 188. - soul as replica of, 205. - - Bohemian folk-tale, 195. - - Bonaparte, 64. - - Brain of man and ape, 144. - - Brand, 17, 166, 241. - - Brazilian Indians, 153, 156, 175. - - Breath, soul as, 187, 198 ff. - - Brebeuf, 165. - - Brinton, 45, 92, 101, 210. - - Brutes, souls in, 207. - - Bryant, 7. - - Buckle, 3. - - Buddha, 64. - - Buddhist fables (_see_ Jatakas). - - Bunsen, 132. - - Bushmen, 13, 20, 26. - - - Caesar, 106. - - Callaway, Bishop, 170. - - Campbell, J. F., 193. - - Cannibalism, 165. - - Cardinal points, symbol of, 44. - - Caribs, 167. - - Carpenter, Dr., 88, 232. - - Catlin, 162. - - Charlemagne, 125. - - Charles's Wain, 30. - - Charms, philosophy of, 164. - - Chasuble, 167. - - Chaucer, 28, 32. - - Child and savage, 14. - - Chimpanzee, brain of, 145. - - Chinese myth, 16, 36. - - Choctaws, 42, 184. - - Christian heaven, 220. - religion, 231. - - Cicero, 240. - - Civilised theories of soul's nature, 198, 203. - - Clan-totems, 107, 109. - - Cloud-serpent, 46. - - Clouds as cows, 51. - - Confession, 181. - - Congo Negroes, 202. - - Continuity, doctrine of, 228, 231. - - Coral, 166. - - Costa Ricans, 216, 234. - - Counting, savage, 153. - - Cox, Sir G. W., 37, 62, 75, 198. - - Crest, totem as, 108. - - Cronus, 35, 37. - - Cross as wind symbol, 44. - - _Custom and Myth_, 38. - - - Dakotas, 31, 46, 106, 175, 199, 213. - - Dammaras, 151. - - Darwin, 3, 230. - - Dasent, 91, 121. - - Dead, burial of food with, 212. - road of the, 32. - - Death, savage notion of, 186. - - Demons, 58, 178. - - Dennys, 15. - - Deodand, 15. - - Devil, 53, 56, 60. - as disease-bringer, 176. - - Disease, savage theory of, 89, 174 ff. - savage remedies for, 179. - - Doctrine of signatures, 166. - - Dorman, 42, 157, 209. - - Dragons, battles with, 52. - - Dreams as source of belief in soul, 183, 225. - - Dreams, duality in, 183. - savage belief in reality of, 168-174. - omens from, 236-242. - - Dyaks, 17, 25, 159, 171. - - Dyaus, 36, 74. - - - Earth as source of heaven-theories, 219. - - Earth-bearers, 40. - - Echo, soul as, 185. - - _Edda_, 15, 29, 33, 43, 52. - - Effigy, burning in, 16. - - Egg, world as, 38. - - Ego, the, 232. - - Egyptian folk-tale, 197. - - Epics, Aryan, 71. - - Epidemic delusions, 88. - - Eskimos, 30, 91, 153, 163, 179, 199, 217, 237. - - Esthonian myth, 39. - - Euhemeros, 66. - - Eumenides, 159. - - Evolution, 144. - of mind, 5, 228. - - Exile, Jewish, 134. - - Exogamy, 104. - - Eye-bright, 15, 166. - - - Fasting, 237. - - Fijians, 171, 177, 184, 211. - - Fingers in counting, 153. - - Finnish myth, 16, 32, 38, 43, 45, 121, 176, 196, 219. - - Finns, 159, 173. - - Fire myths, 47. - - Food, forbidden, 105. - - Foster, Thomas, 63. - - Frisian moon myth, 28. - - - Gaea, 35. - - Galton, 151. - - Gellert myth, 128. - - Gender, origin of, 22. - - _Gesta Romanorum_, 128. - - Giant with no heart in his body, 192. - - Gill, W. W., 20, 47, 177. - - Gladstone, W. E., 7. - - Gods, revelation from, through dreams, 239. - - Goldziher, 62, 64, 135. - - Greek myth, 33, 77. - notion of soul, 202. - - Greenlanders, 27, 164, 171, 201, 212. - - Grimm, 27, 30, 32, 55, 97, 178, 181, 201, 209, 210. - - Grimm's Law, 73. - - Grote, 14. - - - Hades, 220. - - Hall, Bishop, 18. - - Heaven, 19. - imagery of, 221. - and earth, myths of, 34. - - Hebrew myth, 33, 39, 64, 131-136. - notion of soul, 206. - - Hell, 220. - - Herakles, 22, 31, 51, 63, 136. - - Here, 31. - - Hiawatha, 158. - - Hidatsa Indians, 235. - - History, myth in, 114. - - _Hitopadesa_, 129. - - Holmes, 183. - - Homer, 240. - - Hottentot, 217. - - Huc, Father, 181. - - Hurricane, 199. - - Huxley, 145, 228. - - - Icelandic moon myth, 28. - - Iliad, 55, 64, 205. - - Ilmarine, 39. - - Im Thurn, 156, 171, 207. - - Inanimate things, criminality of, 15. - sex in, 24. - souls in, 211. - - Incas, 45. - - _Indian Fairy Tales_, 191. - - Indians, Columbian, 155. - Housatonic, 31. - North American, 13, 17, 21, 26, 30, 151, 156, 162, 164, 175, 199, 207, - 212, 216, 219, 235, 237. - of Guiana, 156, 171. - Selish, 27. - Western, 46, 107. - - Indra, 49, 53. - - Iroquois, 156, 165, 167. - - Isaac, 135. - - Islam, 33. - - - Jack and Jill, 28. - - Japanese myth, 40. - - Jatakas, 27, 96, 129, 192. - - Jehovah, 159. - - Johnson, Dr., 183. - - Jonah, 136. - - - Kaffirs, 13, 164. - - _Kalevala_, 38. - - _Kalevipoeeg_, 39. - - Kane, Dr., 155. - - Kasirs, 30. - - Kenaima, 175. - - Khasias moon myth, 27. - - Kinship, primitive, 102. - - Kirby, 196. - - Kuhn, 41. - - - Lancashire folk-lore, 177, 204. - - Lang, Andrew, 37, 166, 205. - - Lang, Dr., 157. - - Language, personification of, 24. - physical base of, 150. - primitive, 149. - - Languages, savage, 23. - limitations of, 150. - - Lapps, 156, 159, 201. - - Leland, 44. - - Lightning myths, 47. - - Lithuanian, 32. - - Living and not living, savage confusion between, 12, 160-168, 181. - - Llewellyn myth, 128. - - Lucretius, 169. - - Luther, 242. - - Lycanthropy, 83. - - Lyell, 145. - - - Malays, 150. - - Man, mental development of, 147, 228. - primitive interpretation of nature by, 10. - relation of, to nature, 4, 228. - savage and civilised, 144. - - Manacicas, 20. - - _Manes_, 212. - - Maoris, 34. - - Mapuches, 180. - - Marriage, primitive, 103. - - Maruts, 44, 53. - - Matthews, Washington, 235. - - Maudsley, Dr., 243. - - Maui, sun-catcher, 21. - fire-bringer, 47. - - M'Lennan, 102, 104. - - Medicine-men, 92, 99, 237. - - Melanesian, 166. - - Men-beasts, 86. - - Metamorphosis, 81. - - Metempsychosis, 82. - - Mexicans, 212. - - Milky Way, 31, 222. - - Mind, evolution of, 5, 228. - - Mivart, 233. - - Mohawk, 199. - - Mohicans, 150. - - Mongolian moon myth, 27. - - Mongols, 150. - - Moon, as mother, 25. - as sun's sister, 26. - man in the, 28. - myths, 10, 19, 20. - patches, 27. - - Moquis, 99, 102, 110. - - Mueller, Max, 37, 49, 56, 62, 66, 68, 111, 158. - - Multiple souls, 234. - - Myth in history, 114. - origin of, 17. - primitive meaning of, 3, 10. - serious meaning in, 7. - solar theory of, 61-81. - value of study of, 138. - - Myths of Creation, 38. - earth-bearers, 40. - fire-stealers, 47. - heaven and earth, 34. - lightning, 47. - Milky Way, 31. - moon, 20, 27. - Northern Lights, 31. - rainbow, 32, 33. - stars, 30. - sun, 19, 21. - swallowing, 36. - wind, 42-45. - - - Names, savage dread of, 104. - savage confusion about, 154-159. - - Napoleon III., will of, 113. - - New Zealanders, 13, 15, 30, 158, 164. - - Niebuhr, 65. - - Nightmare, 171. - - Non-Aryan, brain of, 144. - races, languages of, 201. - - _Norse, Tales from the_, 192. - - Northern Lights, 31. - - - Odin, 30, 44, 202. - - Ogres, 44. - - Ojibways, 42, 110, 155, 209, 212, 217. - - _Old Deccan Days_, 188. - - Omens, dreams as, 236-242. - - Oracles, 240. - - Origin of gender, 22. - moon, 20. - myth, 7. - religion, 111. - sun, 19. - - Orion, 30. - - Ormuzd, 54. - - Other self, barbaric theory of, 183. - conceived as breath, 187, 199. - passage from within to without, 185. - - Ottawas, 31. - - Ouranos, 74. - - Ovid, 85. - - - Paget, Sir J., 230. - - _Panchatantra_, 129. - - Papa, 19, 34. - - Papuan, brain of, 145. - - Patagonians, 31. - - Persians, 25, 33, 57. - - Picture-writing, 107. - - Plant, descent from, 99. - - Plants, souls in, 208. - - Pleiades, 30. - - Pocahontas, 158. - - Polynesians, 38, 163. - - Prithivi, 36. - - Prytaneum, 15. - - Psychical Research, Society of, 217. - - Punchkin, 188 ff. - - - Quiches, 42, 199. - - - Ra, 21. - - Rae, Dr., 153. - - Rain, gender in, 25. - - Rainbow, 32. - - Ralston, 194. - - Rangi, 34. - - Religion, origin of, 111. - - Renan, 132. - - Reville, 214. - - Reynard the fox, 97, 181. - - _Rig-Veda_, 44, 49, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80. - - Rink, Dr., 165. - - Road of the dead, 32. - - Roman notion of soul, 202. - - Rossetti, 17, 202. - - _Russian Folk-Tales_, 194. - - - St. George, 53. - - Saliva, virtue in, 16, 163. - - Samoan moon myth, 27. - - Samoyed folk-tale, 196. - - Samson, myth of, 137. - - San Graal, 126. - - Sanskrit, 72. - - Satan, 57. - - Savage and civilised man, 144. - belief in dreams, 168-174. - confusion between living and not living, 13, 160-168. - confusion between names and things, 105, 155. - cures for disease, 179. - interpretation of nature, 10. - languages, 23, 150. - mode of counting, 152. - theory of disease, 89, 174-182. - theory of soul, 182-187. - theory of soul's abode, 215-222. - theory of soul's nature, 198-207. - - Science, progress of, 230. - - Seminoles, 203. - - Semitic languages, 159. - myth, 132. - - Senses, illusions of the, 39, 226. - - Servian folk-tale, 195. - - Shadow, soul as, 184. - - Shawnee name myth, 157. - - Sheol, 206, 220. - - Sioux, 47, 162. - - Skulls, capacity of, 145. - - Slavonic sun myth, 26. - - Sleeping heroes, 124. - - Smith, Adam, 151. - - Sneezing, 177. - - Society Islanders, 150. - - Solar theory of myth, 61-81. - - Sonora Indians, 185. - - Sorcerers, 163. - - Soul, absence in disease, 178. - absence in dreams, 171. - as breath, 187, 199 ff. - as shadow, etc., 184. - barbaric theory of, 182-187, 225, 234. - dwelling-place of, 215-222. - in brutes, plants, etc., 207. - occupation of, 216. - tales of, apart from body, 188 ff. - theories of nature of, 198-207, 234. - transfer of, 203. - weight of, 207. - - South Sea Islanders, 158, 163, 185. - - Spencer, Herbert, 110, 149, 183, 214. - - Spirit as breath, 200. - - Spirits, offerings to, 213 (see also Soul). - - Star myths, 30. - - Stars as persons, 20, 25. - - Storm-gods, 44. - - Sun as ancestor, 19, 20. - as father, 25. - capture of, 21. - myths, 10, 19, 51. - - Swedenborgians, 234. - - Swift, Dean, 73, 166. - - - Taboo of names, 158. - - Tacitus, 16, 106. - - Tahitians, 158. - - Takahlis, 203. - - _Talmud_, 178. - - Tasmanians, 150. - - Tatar folk-tale, 196. - - Tell myth, 116 ff. - - Tertullian, 241. - - Thor, 46, 52, 60. - - Thunder-bird, 46. - - To be, the verb, 151. - - Tools, primitive, 147. - - Toothache, 175, 179. - - Totemism, 99, 102, 237. - - Totems as badge, 107. - as crest, 108. - Red Indian, 100. - worship of, 110. - - Tongans, 19, 201, 234. - - Tonkanays, 92. - - Transformation, 85, 91. - - Treacle, 16. - - Tree, criminality of, 15. - - Trees, soul in, 209. - - Trench, Archbishop, 137. - - Troyes, Courts of, 15. - - Tylor, 14, 25, 65, 165, 199, 202, 205, 207. - - Tyrolese, 164. - - - Underworld, 220. - - _Unseen Universe_, 233. - - Uranus, 35. - - - Varuna, 74. - - Vatea, 19. - - _Vatnsdaela Saga_, 173. - - _Veda_ (see _Rig-Veda_). - - _Vinaya Pitaka_, 129. - - Vritra, 49, 53, 60. - - - Waitz, 205. - - Wandering Jew, 31. - - Water between earth and heaven, 219. - - Watling Street, 32. - - Werewolves, 84, 86, 91. - - West, soul abode in, 219. - - Whitney, 151. - - Wind, myths of, 42-45. - soul as, 199. - - Witchcraft, 58. - - Witches, 83, 91. - - World as egg, 38. - - Worship of ancestors, 110, 214. - - - Xomanes, 167. - - - Yahweh, 55, 57, 159. - - - _Zend-Avesta_, 54. - - Zeus, 33, 36, 55, 74, 85. - - Zoroaster, 56. - - Zulu, 170, 184. - - -THE END. - - -_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Buckle's work appeared in 1857, Darwin's in 1859. - -[2] Matthew Arnold, _Empedocles on Etna_. - -[3] Countess Cesaresco's _Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs_, p. 183. - -[4] _The Folk-Lore of China_, p. 52. - -[5] Mark vii. 33, John ix. 6. Cf. Tacitus, _Hist._ iv. 81--"A certain man -of the Alexandrian populace afflicted with wasted eyes kept imploring the -prince to deign to spatter saliva on his cheek and eyeballs." In Finnish -myth the demon Hiisi forms a huge snake from the spittle of a -fellow-demon. Cf. also Thomson's _Masai Land_, pp. 288-290. - -[6] Henderson's _Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties_, p. 229; cf. Horace, -_Sat._ i. 8, 30; Frazer's _Golden Bough_, i. 9; Scot's _Discoverie of -Witchcraft_, p. 208. - -[7] Grimm, _T. M._, 356, 357. - -[8] II. 427. - -[9] Page xvi. - -[10] _Custom and Myth_, pp. 49, 50. While these sheets are passing through -the press I am glad to take occasion to commend Mr. Lang's scholarly and -fascinating book to the reader. As an explanation of the survival of crude -and irrational elements in the myths of civilised races, it is a book to -be reckoned with by the advocates of the solar theory. - -[11] "And said the gods, let there be a hammered plate in the midst of the -waters, and let it be dividing between waters and waters." Gen. i. 6. The -verb from which the substantive is derived signifies, among other -meanings, "to beat out into thin plates." - -[12] Gen. viii. 2. - -[13] Gen. xxviii. 17. - -[14] Ezek. i. 1. - -[15] _Modern Painters_, iii. 154. - -[16] Dorman's _Primitive Superstitions_, p. 350. - -[17] Leland's _Algonquin Legends_, pp. 111, 204. - -[18] From Sans. _mar_, to "grind." Ares and Mars come from the same root. - -[19] _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iv. sc. 4. - -[20] In Finnish myth the dwarfs punish with pimples and ringworm those who -enter new houses without bowing to the four corners. - -[21] Both "pecuniary" and "fee" are, as established by Grimm's law, from -_pecu_. Latin _pecu-a_, pl. _pecus_, "cattle"; Sanskrit _pacu_, "cattle," -from _pac_, to fasten (that which is tied up, _i.e._ domestic cattle). Cf. -Skeats' _Etymol. Dict._ _in loc._ A.S. _feoh_ is cognate with German -_vich_, and the ideas these express occur in _ktema_, the Greek word for -"property," which Grimm derives from the verb _keto_, "to feed cattle." - -[22] Not the same as the Greek Herakles. The similarity of name led the -Romans to identify their Hercules, who was a god of boundaries, like -Jupiter Terminus, with the Greek hero. _Cacus_ is not cognate with Greek -_kakos_, bad, but was originally _Caecius_, the "blinder" or "darkener." - -[23] _Decline and Fall_, iii. 171; Emerson's _English Traits_, p. 123. - -[24] See Ralston's _Russian Folk-Tales_, p. 347, for similar Bulgarian -legend about St. George. - -[25] Haug's _Essays on the Parsis_, tr. Vendidad, pp. 225 ff. - -[26] Cf. Isaiah xlv. 7, 1 Kings xxii. 21-23, Amos iii. 6. - -[27] _Iliad_, Book xxiv. 663 ff., and cf. Lang's tr., p. 494. - -[28] _Vide_ my _Jesus of Nazareth_, p. 144. - -[29] Notably _Tobit_ and _Baruch_, and cf. _Book of Wisdom_, ii. 24, for -earliest indications of the belief. The Asmodeus of _Tobit_, iii. 8 and -17, appears to be the Aeshmo daevo of the Zend-Avesta. - -[30] Exodus xxii. 18. - -[31] For details of witch trials in this island cf. Mrs. Lynn Linton's -_Witch Stories_, passim. - -[32] _Knowledge Library._ - -[33] Vide _Chips_, ii. 1-146. - -[34] Cf. Professor Keane's Appendix to Sir A. C. Ramsay's _Europe_, p. 557 - -[35] Cf. "Little Saddlehurst" in Mr. Geldart's _Folk-Lore of Modern -Greece_, p. 27. - -[36] Cf. on this matter Whitney's _Oriental and Linguistic Studies_, p. -203. - -[37] _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, i. 108. - -[38] _Mental Physiology_, p. 315. - -[39] Spenser says-- - - "Such, men do _changelings_ call, so changed by fairies' theft." - -[40] An Algonquin legend begins: "In old times, in the beginning of -things, men were as animals and animals as men; how this was, no one -knows."--Leland's _Algonquin Legends_, p. 31. - -[41] And cf. Bourke's _Snake Dance of the Moquis_, passim. - -[42] Cf. Mahaffy's _Prolegomena to Ancient History_, p. 392. - -[43] Vol. i., Truebner and Co. See for some valuable illustrations from -early English and other sources an article by Rev. Dr. Morris, in -_Contemp. Rev._, May 1881, and the _Folk-Lore Journal_, 1884-85, for -translations of Jatakas, also by Dr. Morris. - -[44] _Travels in N.W. and W. Australia_, ii. 229. - -[45] Bourke's _Snake Dance of the Moquis_, p. 136. - -[46] Cf. Art. "Family," _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. - -[47] _De Bell. Gall._, v. c. 12. - -[48] _Elton's Origins of English History_, p. 297. - -[49] _Germania_, ix. 10. - -[50] _Principles of Sociology_, p. 413. - -[51] _Edinburgh Review_, Jan. 1869, p. 134. Article on Rilliet's "Origines -de la Confederation Suisse: Histoire et Legende." - -[52] _Times'_ telegram from Geneva, June 25, 1883. - -[53] Book x. p. 166. Cf. Baring Gould's _Curious Myths_, p. 117, and -Fiske's _Myths and Myth-makers_, p. 4. - -[54] Baring Gould, p. 119. - -[55] Cf. Prof. Rhys's _Arthurian Legend_, _passim_. - -[56] _Academy_, Nov. 17, 1877, p. 472. - -[57] _Mythology among the Hebrews, and its Historical Development_ -(London: Longmans), 1877. - -[58] _Goldziher_, p. 392 ff. - -[59] _Ibid._, p. 103. - -[60] The following paragraph from Professor Huxley's _Observations on the -Human Skulls of Engis and Neanderthal_ is extracted from Lyell's -_Antiquity of Man_, p. 89 (4th edition). - -"The most capacious healthy European skull yet measured had a capacity of -114 cubic inches, the smallest (as estimated by weight of brain) about 55 -cubic inches, while, according to Professor Schaaffhausen, some Hindu -skulls have as small a capacity as about 46 cubic inches (27 oz. of -water). The largest cranium of any gorilla yet measured contained 34.5 -cubic inches." - -Commenting on this paper Sir Charles Lyell remarks that "it is admitted -that the differences in character between the brain of the highest races -of man and that of the lowest, though less in degree, are of the same -order as those which separate the human from the Simian brain," and that -the statements of both Professor Huxley and Dr. Morton show "that the -range of size or capacity between the highest and lowest human brain is -greater than that between the highest Simian and the lowest human brain." - -[61] Spencer's _Principles of Sociology_, p. 147. - -[62] The peculiar feature of the Semitic languages is that the consonants -are everything and the vowels nothing, every word consisting, in the first -instance, merely of three consonants, which form, so to speak, the soul of -the idea to be expressed by that word. And as in ancient times the -consonants only were written, the name Jehovah appeared as JHVH. Its exact -pronunciation is utterly lost, and such veneration gathered round it, that -when the Jews came to it they substituted some other name--usually Adonai. -Afterwards, when vowels were added to the Hebrew text, those in Adonai, or -its phonetic form Edona, were inserted between the letters of the sacred -name, and thus JHVH was written Jehovah. - -[63] Rink's _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, p. 45. - -[64] Vide _Custom and Myth_; Art. "Moly and Mandragora," p. 146. - -[65] _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 85. - -[66] Dyers _Folk-Lore_, p. 179. - -[67] Arnobius _adv. Gentes._, v. 19. - -[68] _De rerum Natura_, Book iv. 453-468. - -[69] According to Professor Skeat, from A.S. _niht_, night; _mara_, lit. -"a crusher," from Aryan root, MAR, to crush. Cf. _Etymol. Dict._ - -[70] _Among the Indians of Guiana_, pp. 344-346. - -[71] W. G. Black: _Folk-Medicine_, p. 13. - -[72] _Teut. Mythol._, 1165. - -[73] Cf. Grimm, _Teut. Mythol._ 1177. - -[74] "Voila autant de rapports que les Bouddhistes ont avec nous," adds -the traveller, for hinting at which analogies between Buddhists and -Catholics the Pope put his book on the Index. - -[75] In a Finnish legend, which is the subject of Southey's "Donica," a -maiden of that name moves about seemingly alive after her death in virtue -of a parchment as magic spell, which is fastened to her wrist, until a -sorcerer finds out the secret of the connection and unfastens the -parchment, when the counterfeit life departs. - -[76] _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, i. 140. - -[77] Brinton's _Myths of the New World_, p. 51 (second edition). - -[78] I am indebted to the Rev. Richard Morris for this reference. - -[79] Jacob Grimm remarks that whilst the more palpable breath, as spirit, -is masculine, the living, life-giving soul is treated as a delicate -feminine essence. _Soul_ is the Icelandic _sala_, German _seele_, Gothic -_saiwala_, akin to _saivs_, which means "the sea." _Saivs_ is from a root, -_si_, or _siv_, the Greek _seio_, to shake, and this choice of the word -_saivala_ may indicate that the ancient Teutons conceived of the soul "as -a sea within, heaving up and down with every breath, and reflecting heaven -and earth on the mirror of the deep."--_T. M._ p. 826. - -[80] _Prim. Culture_, i. 412. - -[81] _Brinton_, p. 271. - -[82] _Iliad_, xxiii. 103 (trans. Lang and others). - -[83] Cf. Lecky's _History of Rationalism_, i. 340. - -[84] _Prim. Culture_, i. 411. See _Soul Shapes_ (Fisher Unwin, 1890). - -[85] "To the ear of the savage, animals certainly seem even to talk. This -fact is universally evident, and ought to be fully realised."--Im Thurn's -_Guiana_, p. 351. - -[86] _Dorman_, pp. 287, 288. - -[87] Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_, p. 827. - -[88] Cox and Jones, _Popular Romances_, p. 139. - -[89] _Brinton_, p. 107. - -[90] Cf. _Ante_, pp. 110-114. - -[91] More correctly, "that engenders it." - -[92] _Hibbert Lectures_, 1884, pp. 39, 40. - -[93] The Society's advertisement is as follows:-- - -"THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE, APPARITIONS, etc.--The Society for Psychical -Research will be grateful for any good evidence bearing on such phenomena -as thought-reading, clairvoyance, presentiments, and dreams, noted at the -time of occurrence and afterwards confirmed; unexplained disturbances in -places supposed to be haunted; apparitions at the moment of death or -otherwise; and of such other abnormal events as may seem to fall under -somewhat the same categories. Communications to be addressed to E. Gurney, -14 Dean's Yard, S.W.; or to F. W. H. Myers, Leckhampton House, Cambridge. -Applications for information or for membership to be addressed to the -Secretary, at the Society's Offices, 14 Dean's Yard, S.W." - -[94] Matthew Arnold, _Empedocles on Etna_. - -[95] _Hume_, p. 50. - -[96] Dr. Carpenter's _Mental Physiology_, p. 27. - -[97] St. Geo. Mivart's _Genesis of Species_, p. 325. In the second edition -of this work Professor Mivart cites with satisfaction the authority of S. -Thomas Aquinas and of Cardinal Newman on the matter! - -[98] For criticism of this pseudo-scientific theory see Professor -Clifford's brilliant paper in _Lectures and Essays_, i. 228, ff.; and a -review of "The Unseen Universe" by the present writer, _Fraser's Mag._, -Jan. 1876. - -[99] The following Mohammadan recipe for summoning spirits is given in -Klunzinger's _Upper Egypt_. "Fast seven days in a lonely place, and take -incense with you, such as benzoin, aloeswood, mastic, and odoriferous wood -from Soudan, and read the chapter 1001 times (from the Koran) in the seven -days--a certain number of readings, namely, for every day one of the five -daily prayers. That is the secret, and you will see indescribable wonders; -drums will be beaten beside you, and flags hoisted over your head, and you -will see spirits full of light and of beautiful and benign aspect."--(P. -386). - -[100] In Roget's _Thesaurus_, sect. 511, a curious and instructive list of -terms expressive of the different forms of divination is given. - -[101] Numb. xii. 6; 1 Sam. xxviii. 6, 15, etc. - -[102] Chap. xxxiv. - -[103] Cf. _Ency. Brit._, Art. "Dreams." - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - -Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. - -The original text contains letters with diacritical marks that are not -represented in this text version. - -The original text includes Greek characters that have been replaced with -transliterations in this text version. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths and Dreams, by Edward Clodd - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS AND DREAMS *** - -***** This file should be named 43813.txt or 43813.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/8/1/43813/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - -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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