{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38687/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38687","id":"gutenberg_38687","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38687","summary":null,"tags":["Animal","Animals -- Folklore","Animals -- Mythology","Animals, Mythical","Animals-Wild","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Folklore","Mythology, Indo-European"],"text":"Produced by Barbara Tozier, Douglas L. Alley, III, Bill\nTozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttps://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY\n\nOR\n\nTHE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS\n\nBY\n\nANGELO DE GUBERNATIS\n\nPROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN THE ISTITUTO DI STUDII\nSUPERIORI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO, AT FLORENCE\nFOREIGN MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PHILOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY\nOF THE DUTCH INDIES\n\n_IN TWO VOLUMES_\n\nVOL. I.\n\nLONDON\n\nTR\u00dcBNER & CO., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW\n\n1872\n\n[_All rights reserved_]\n\n\n\n\nPRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY\nEDINBURGH AND LONDON\n\n\n\n\n  TO\n\n  MICHELE AMARI AND MICHELE COPPINO\n\n  This Work\n\n  IS DEDICATED\n\n  AS A TRIBUTE OF LIVELY GRATITUDE AND\n\n  PROFOUND ESTEEM\n\n  BY\n\n  THE AUTHOR.\n\n\n\n\nZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY;\n\nOR\n\nTHE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS.\n\nFirst Part.\n\nTHE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE COW AND THE BULL.\n\n\nSECTION I.--THE COW AND THE BULL IN THE VEDIC HYMNS.\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Prelude.--The vault of Heaven as a luminous cow.--The gods and\n    goddesses, sons and daughters of this cow.--The vault of Heaven as a\n    spotted cow.--The sons and daughters of this cow, _i.e._ the winds,\n    Marutas, and the clouds, Pri\u00e7nayas.--The wind-bulls subdue the\n    cloud-cows.--Indras, the rain-sending, thundering, lightening,\n    radiant sun, who makes the rain fall and the light return, called\n    the bull of bulls.--The bull Indras drinks the water of\n    strength.--Hunger and thirst of the heroes of mythology.--The\n    cloud-barrel.--The horns of the bull and of the cow are\n    sharpened.--The thunderbolt-horns.--The cloud as a cow, and even as\n    a stable or hiding-place for cows.--Cavern where the cows are shut\n    up, of which cavern the bull Indras and the bulls Marutas remove the\n    stone, and force the entrance, to reconquer the cows, delivering\n    them from the monster; the male Indras finds himself again with his\n    wife.--The cloud-fortress, which Indras destroys and Agnis sets on\n    fire.--The cloud-forest, which the gods destroy.--The cloud-cow; the\n    cow-bow; the bird-thunderbolts; the birds come out of the cow.--The\n    monstrous cloud-cow, the wife of the monster.--Some phenomena of\n    the cloudy sky are analogous to those of the gloomy sky of night and\n    of winter.--The moment most fit for an epic poem is the meeting of\n    such phenomena in a nocturnal tempest.--The stars, cows put to\n    flight by the sun.--The moon, a milk-yielding cow.--The ambrosial\n    moon fished up in the fountain, gives nourishment to Indras.--The\n    moon as a male, or bull, discomfits, with the bull Indras, the\n    monster.--The two bulls, or the two stallions, the two horsemen, the\n    twins.--The bull chases the wolf from the waters.--The cow\n    tied.--The aurora, or ambrosial cow, formed out of the skin of\n    another cow by the Ribhavas.--The Ribhavas, bulls and wise\n    birds.--The three Ribhavas reproduce the triple Indras and the\n    triple Vishnus; their three relationships; the three brothers,\n    eldest, middle, youngest; the three brother workmen; the youngest\n    brother is the most intelligent, although at first thought stupid;\n    the reason why.--The three brothers guests of a king.--The third of\n    the Ribhavas, the third and youngest son becomes Tritas the third,\n    in the heroic form of Indras, who kills the monster; Tritas, the\n    third brother, after having accomplished the great heroic\n    undertaking, is abandoned by his envious brothers in the well; the\n    second brother is the son of the cow.--Indras a cowherd, parent of\n    the sun and the aurora, the cow of abundance, milk-yielding and\n    luminous.--The cow S\u00eet\u00e2.--Relationship of the sun to the\n    aurora.--The aurora as cow-nurse of the sun, mother of the cows; the\n    aurora cowherd; the sun hostler and cowherd.--The riddle of the\n    wonderful cowherd; the sun solves the riddle proposed by the\n    aurora.--The aurora wins the race, being the first to arrive at the\n    barrier, without making use of her feet.--The chariot of the\n    aurora.--She who has no feet, who leaves no footsteps; she who is\n    without footsteps of the measure of the feet; she who has no slipper\n    (which is the measure of the foot).--The sun who never puts his foot\n    down, the sun without feet, the sun lame, who, during the night,\n    becomes blind; the blind and the lame who help each other, whom\n    Indra helps, whom the ambrosia of the aurora enables to walk and to\n    see.--The aurora of evening, witch who blinds the sun; the sun\n    Indras, in the morning, chases the aurora away; Indras subdues and\n    destroys the witch aurora.--The brother sun follows, as a seducer,\n    the aurora his sister, and wishes to burn her.--The sun follows his\n    daughter the aurora.--The aurora, a beautiful young girl, deliverer\n    of the sun, rich in treasure, awakener of the sleepers, saviour of\n    mankind, foreseeing; from small becomes large, from dark becomes\n    brilliant, from infirm, whole, from blind, seeing and protectress of\n    sight.--Night and aurora, now mother and daughter, now\n    sisters.--The luminous night a good sister; the gloomy night gives\n    place to the aurora, her elder or better sister, working, purifying,\n    cleansing.--The aurora shines only when near the sun her husband,\n    before whom she dances splendidly dressed; the aurora Urva\u00e7\u00ee.--The\n    wife of the sun followed by the monster.--The husband of the aurora\n    subject to the same persecution.\n\nWe are on the vast table-land of Central Asia; gigantic mountains send\nforth on every side their thousand rivers; immense pasture-lands and\nforests cover it; migratory tribes of pastoral nations traverse it;\nthe _gopatis_, the shepherd or lord of the cows, is the king; the\ngopatis who has most herds is the most powerful. The story begins with\na graceful pastoral idyll.\n\nTo increase the number of the cows, to render them fruitful in milk\nand prolific in calves, to have them well looked after, is the dream,\nthe ideal of the ancient Aryan. The bull, the _foecundator_, is the\ntype of every male perfection, and the symbol of regal strength.\n\nHence, it is only natural that the two most prominent animal figures\nin the mythical heaven should be the cow and the bull.\n\nThe cow is the ready, loving, faithful, fruitful Providence of the\nshepherd.\n\nThe worst enemy of the Aryan, therefore, is he who carries off the\ncow; the best, the most illustrious, of his friends, he who is able to\nrecover it from the hands of the robber.\n\nThe same idea is hence transferred to heaven; in heaven there is a\nbeneficent, fruitful power, which is called the cow, and a beneficent\n_foecundator_ of this same power, which is called the bull.\n\nThe dewy moon, the dewy aurora, the watery cloud, the entire vault of\nheaven, that giver of the quickening and benignant rain, that\nbenefactress of mankind,--are each, with special predilection,\nrepresented as the beneficent cow of abundance. The lord of this\nmultiform cow of heaven, he who makes it pregnant and fruitful and\nmilk-yielding, the spring or morning sun, the rain-giving sun (or\nmoon) is often represented as a bull.\n\nNow, to apprehend all this clearly, we ought to go back, as nearly as\npossible, to that epoch in which such conceptions would arise\nspontaneously; but as the imagination so indulged is apt to betray us\ninto mere fantastical conceits, into an _\u00e0 priori_ system, we shall\nbegin by excluding it entirely from these preliminary researches, as\nbeing hazardous and misleading, and content ourselves with the humbler\noffice of collecting the testimonies of the poets themselves who\nassisted in the creation of the mythology in question.\n\nI do not mean to say anything of the Vedic myths that is not taken\nfrom one or other of the hymns contained in the greatest of the Vedas,\nbut only to arrange and connect together the links of the chain as\nthey certainly existed in the imagination of the ancient Aryan people,\nand which the _Rigvedas_, the work of a hundred poets and of several\ncenturies, presents to us as a whole, continuous and artistic. I shall\nindeed suppose myself in the valley of Ka\u00e7m\u00eera, or on the banks of the\nSindhus, under that sky, at the foot of these mountains, among these\nrivers; but I shall search in the sky for that which I find in the\nhymns, and not in the hymns for that which I may imagine I see in the\nsky. I shall begin my voyage with a trusty chart, and shall consult it\nwith all the diligence in my power, in order not to lose any of the\nadvantages that a voyage so full of surprises has to offer. Hence the\nnotes will all, or nearly all, consist of quotations from my guide, in\norder that the learned reader may be able to verify for himself every\nseparate assertion. And as to the frequent stoppages we shall have to\nmake by the way, let me ask the reader not to ascribe these to\nanything arbitrary on my part, but rather to the necessities of a\nvoyage, made, as it is, step by step, in a region but little known,\nand by the help of a guide, where nearly everything indeed is to be\nfound, but where, as in a rich inventory, it is easier to lose one's\nway than to find it again.\n\nThe immense vault of heaven which over-arches the earth, as the eternal\nstorehouse of light and rain, as the power which causes the grass to\ngrow, and therefore the animals which pasture upon it, assumes in the\nVedic literature the name of Aditis, or the infinite, the inexhaustible,\nthe fountain of ambrosia (_amritasya nabhis_). Thus far, however, we\nhave no personification, as yet we have no myth. The _amritas_ is simply\nthe immortal, and only poetically represents the rain, the dew, the\nluminous wave. But the inexhaustible soon comes to mean that which can\nbe milked without end--and hence also, a celestial cow, an inoffensive\ncow, which we must not offend, which must remain intact.[1] The whole\nheavens being thus represented as an infinite cow, it was natural that\nthe principal and most visible phenomena of the sky should become, in\ntheir turn, children of the cow, or themselves cows or bulls, and that\nthe _foecundator_ of the great mother should also be called a bull.\nHence we read that the wind (_V\u00e2yus_ or _Rudr\u00e2s_) gave birth, from the\nwomb of the celestial cow, to the winds that howl in the tempest\n(_Marutas_ and _Rudr\u00e2s_), called for this reason children of the cow.[2]\nBut, since this great celestial cow produces the tempestuous, noisy\nwinds, she represents not only the serene, tranquil vault of the shining\nsky, but also the cloudy and tenebrous mother of storms. This great\ncow, this immense cloud, that occupies all the vault of heaven and\nunchains the winds, is a brown, dark, spotted (_pri\u00e7nis_) cow; and so\nthe winds, or Marutas, her sons, are called the children of the spotted\none.[3] The singular has thus become a plural; the male sons of the\ncloud, the winds, are 21; the daughters, the clouds themselves, called\nthe spotted ones (_pri\u00e7nayas_) are also three times seven, or 21: 3 and\n7 are sacred numbers in the Aryan faith; and the number 21 is only a\nmultiple of these two great legendary numbers, by which either the\nstrength of a god or that of a monster is often symbolised. If\n_pri\u00e7nis_, or the variegated cow, therefore, is the mother of the\nMarutas, the winds, and of the variegated ones (_pri\u00e7nayas_), the\nclouds, we may say that the clouds are the sisters of the winds. We\noften have three or seven sisters, three or seven brothers in the\nlegends. Now, that 21, in the _Rigvedas_ itself, involves a reference to\n3, is evident, if we only observe how one hymn speaks of the 3 times 7\nspotted cows who bring to the god the divine drink, while another speaks\nof the spotted ones (the number not being specified) who give him three\nlakes to drink.[4] Evidently here the 3, or 7, or 21 sister cows that\nyield to the god of the eastern heavens their own nutritious milk, and\namidst whose milky humours the winds, now become invulnerable,\nincrease,[5] fulfil the pious duties of benevolent guardian fates.\n\nBut if the winds are sons of a cow, and the cows are their nurses,\nthe winds, or Marutas, must, as masculine, be necessarily represented\nas bulls. In reality the Wind (_V\u00e2yus_), their father, is borne by\nbulls--that is, by the winds themselves, who hurry, who grow, are\nmovable as the rays of the sun, very strong, and indomitable;[6] the\nstrength of the wind is compared to that of the bull or the bear;[7]\nthe winds, as lusty as bulls, overcome and subdue the dark ones.[8]\nHere, therefore, the clouds are no longer represented as the cows that\nnurse, but with the gloomy aspect of a monster. The Marutas, the winds\nthat howl in the tempest, are as swift as lightning, and surround\nthemselves with lightning. Hence they are celebrated for their\nluminous vestments; and hence it is said that the reddish winds are\nresplendent with gems, as some bulls with stars.[9] As such--that is,\nas subduers of the clouds, and as they who run impetuously through\nthem--these winds, these bulls, are the best friends, the most\npowerful helpers, of the great bellowing bull; of the god of thunder\nand rain; of the sun, the dispeller of clouds and darkness; of the\nsupreme Vedic god, Indras, the friend of light and ambrosia--of\nIndras, who brings with him daylight and fine weather, who sends us\nthe beneficent dew and the fertilising rain. Like the winds his\ncompanions, the sun Indras--the sun (and the luminous sky) hidden in\nthe dark, who strives to dissipate the shadows, the sun hidden in the\ncloud that thunders and lightens, to dissolve it in rain--is\nrepresented as a powerful bull, as the bull of bulls, invincible son\nof the cow, that bellows like the Marutas.[10]\n\nBut in order to become a bull, in order to grow, to develop the strength\nnecessary to kill the serpent, Indras must drink; and he drinks the\nwater of strength, the _somas_.[11] \"Drink and grow,\"[12] one of the\npoets says to him, while offering the symbolical libation of the cup of\nsacrifice, which is a type of the cup of heaven, now the heavenly vault,\nnow the cloud, now the sun, and now the moon. From the sweet food of the\ncelestial cow, Indras acquires a swiftness which resembles that of the\nhorse;[13] and he eats and drinks at one time enough to enable him to\nattain maturity at once. The gods give him three hundred oxen to eat,\nand three lakes of ambrosial liquor[14] to drink, in order that he may\nbe able to kill the monster serpent. The hunger and thirst of the heroes\nis always proportioned to the miracle they are called upon to perform;\nand for this reason the hymns of the _Rigvedas_ and of the\n_Atharvavedas_ often represent the cloud as an immense great-bellied\nbarrel (_Kabandhas_), which is carried by the divine _bull_.[15]\n\nBut when and how does the hero-bull display his extraordinary\nstrength? The terrible bull bellows, and shows his strength, as he\nsharpens his horns:[16] the splendid bull, with sharpened horns, who\nis able of himself to overthrow all peoples.[17] But what are the\nhorns of the bull Indras, the god of thunder? Evidently the\nthunderbolts; Indras is, in fact, said to sharpen the thunderbolts as\na bull sharpens his horns;[18] the thunderbolt of Indras is said to be\nthousand-pointed;[19] the bull Indras is called the bull with the\nthousand horns, who rises from the sea[20] (or from the cloudy ocean\nas a thunder-dealing sun, from the gloomy ocean as a radiant sun--the\nthunderbolt being supposed to be rays from the solar disc). Sometimes\nthe thunderbolt of Indras is itself called a bull,[21] and is\nsharpened by its beloved refulgent cows,[22] being used, now to\nwithdraw the cows from the darkness, now to deliver them from the\nmonster of darkness that envelops them,[23] and now to destroy the\nmonster of clouds and darkness itself. Besides the name of Indras,\nthis exceedingly powerful horned bull, who sharpens his horns to\nplunge them into the monster, assumes also, as the fire which sends\nforth lightning, as that which sends forth rays of light from the\nclouds and the darkness, the name of Agnis; and, as such, has two\nheads, four horns, three feet, seven hands, teeth of fire, and wings;\nhe is borne on the wind, and blows.[24]\n\nThus far, then, we have heavenly cows which nurture heavenly bulls,\nand heavenly bulls and cows which use their horns for a battle that is\nfought in heaven.\n\nLet us now suppose ourselves on the field of battle, and let us visit\nboth the hostile camps. In one we find the sun (and sometimes the moon),\nthe bull of bulls Indras, with the winds, Marutas, the radiant and\nbellowing bulls; in the other, a multiform monster, in the shape of\nwolves, serpents, wild boars, owls, mice, and such like. The bull Indras\nhas cows with him, who help him; the monster has also cows, either such\nas he has carried off from Indras, and which he imprisons and secretes\nin gloomy caverns, towers, or fortresses, or those which he caresses as\nhis own wives. In the one case, the cows consider the bull Indras as\ntheir friend and liberating hero; in the other, those with the monster\nare themselves monsters and enemies of Indras, who fights against them.\nThe clouds, in a word, are regarded at one time as the friends of the\nrain-giving sun, who delivers them from the monster that keeps back the\nrain, and at another as attacked by the sun, as they who wickedly\nenvelop him, and endeavour to destroy him. Let us now go on to search,\nin the _Rigvedas_, the proofs of this double battle.\n\nTo begin with the first phase of the conflict, where in the sky does\nIndras fight the most celebrated of all his battles?\n\nThe clouds generally assume the aspect of mountains; the words _adris_\nand _parvatas_, in the Vedic language, expressing the several ideas of\nstone, mountain, and cloud.[25] The cloud being compared to a stone, a\nrock, or a mountain, it was natural,--1st, To imagine in the rock or\nmountain dens or caverns, which, as they imprisoned cows, might be\nlikened to stables;[26] 2d, To pass from the idea of a rock to that of\ncitadel, fortress, fortified city, tower; 3d, To pass from the idea of\na mountain, which is immovable, to that of a tree which, though it\ncannot move from its place, yet rears itself and expands in the air;\nand from the idea of the tree of the forest to the shadowy and\nawe-inspiring grove. Hence the bull, or hero, or god Indras, or the\nsun of thunder, lightning, and rain, now does battle within a cavern,\nnow carries a fortified town by assault, and now draws forth the cow\nfrom the forest, or unbinds it from the tree, destroying the\n_rakshas_, or monster, that enchained it.\n\nThe Vedic poetry celebrates, in particular, the exploit of Indras\nagainst the cavern, enclosure, or mountain in which the monster\n(called by different names and especially by those of Valas, Vritras,\nCushnas, of enemy, black one, thief, serpent, wolf, or wild boar)\nconceals the herds of the celestial heroes, or slaughters them.\n\nThe black bull bellows; the thunderbolt bellows, that is, the thunder\nfollows the lightning, as the cow follows its calf;[27] the Marutas\nbulls ascend the rock--now, by their own efforts, moving and making\nthe sonorous stone, the rock mountain, fall;[28] now, with the iron\nedge of their rolling chariots violently splitting the mountain;[29]\nthe valiant hero, beloved by the gods, moves the stone;[30] Indras\nhears the cows: by the aid of the wind-bulls he finds the cows hidden\nin the cavern; he himself, furnished with an arm of stone, opens the\ngrotto of Valas, who keeps the cows; or, opens the cavern to the cows;\nhe vanquishes, kills, and pursues the thieves in battle; the bulls\nbellow; the cows move forward to meet them; the bull, Indras, bellows\nand leaves his seed in the herd; the thunder-dealing male, Indras, and\nhis spouse are glad and rejoice.[31]\n\nIn this fabled enterprise, three moments must be noted: 1st, The\neffort to raise the stone; 2d, The struggle with the monster who\ncarried off the cows; 3d, The liberation of the prisoners. It is an\nentire epic poem.\n\nThe second form of the enterprise of Indras in the cloudy heavens is\nthat which has for its object the destruction of the celestial\nfortresses, of the ninety, or ninety-nine, or hundred cities of\n\u00c7ambaras, of the cities which were the wives of the demons; and from\nthis undertaking Indras acquired the surname of _puramdaras_\n(explained as destroyer of cities); although he had in it a most\nvaluable companion-in-arms, Agnis, that is, Fire, which naturally\nsuggests to our thoughts the notion of destruction by fire.[32]\n\nIn a hymn to Indras, the gods arrive at last, bring their axes, and with\ntheir edges destroy the woods, and burn the monsters who restrain the\nmilk in the breasts of the cows.[33] The clouded sky here figures in the\nimagination as a great forest inhabited by _rakshasas_, or monsters,\nwhich render it unfruitful--that is, which prevent the great celestial\ncow from giving her milk. The cow that gives the honey, the ambrosial\ncow of the Ved\u00e2s, is thus replaced by a forest which hides the honey,\nthe ambrosia beloved by the gods. And although the Vedic hymns do not\ndwell much upon this conception of the cloudy-sky, preferring as they do\nto represent the darkness of night as a gloomy forest, the above passage\nfrom the Ved\u00e2s is worthy of notice as indicating the existence at least\nduring the Vedic period of a myth which was afterwards largely amplified\nin zoological legend.[34]\n\nIn this threefold battle of Indras, we must, moreover, remark a curious\nfeature. The thunder-dealing Indras overpowers his enemies with arrows\nand darts; the same cloud which thunders, bellows, and therefore is\ncalled a cow, becomes, as throwing darts, a bow: hence we have the\ncow-bow, from which Indras hurls the iron stone, the thunderbolt; and\nthe cord itself of that bellowing bow is called a cow; from the bow-cow,\nfrom the cord-cow, come forth the winged darts, the thunderbolts, called\nbirds, that eat men; and when they come forth, all the world\ntrembles.[35] We shall come upon the same idea again further on.\n\nThus far we have considered the cow-cloud as a victim of the monster\n(that Indras comes to subdue). But it is not uncommon to see the cloud\nitself or the darkness, that is, the cow, the fortress, or the forest\nrepresented as a monster. Thus, a Vedic hymn informs us that the monster\nValas had the shape of a cow;[36] another hymn represents the cloud as\nthe cow that forms the waters, and that has now one foot, now four, now\neight, now nine, and fills the highest heaven with sounds;[37] still\nanother hymn sings that the sun hurls his golden disc in the variegated\ncow;[38] they who have been carried off, who are guarded by the monster\nserpent, the waters, the cows, are become the wives of the demons;[39]\nand they must be malignant, since a poet can use as a curse the wish\nthat the malign spirits, the demons, may drink the poison of those\ncows.[40] We have already seen that the fortresses are wives of demons,\nand that the demons possessed the forests.[41]\n\nIt is in the beclouded and thundering heavens that the warrior hero\ndisplays his greatest strength; but it cannot be denied that the great\nmajority of the myths, and the most poetical, exemplify or represent the\nrelation between the nocturnal sky (now dark, tenebrous, watery, horrid,\nwild, now lit up by the ambrosial moon-beams, and now bespangled with\nstars) and the two glowing skies--the two resplendent ambrosial\ntwilights of morning and evening (of autumn and spring). We have here\nthe same general phenomenon of light and darkness engaged in strife;\nhere, again, the sun Indras is hidden, as though in a cloud, to prepare\nthe light, to recover from the monster of darkness the waters of youth\nand light, the riches, the cows, which he keeps concealed; but this\nconquest is only made by the hero after long wandering amidst many\ndangers, and is finally accomplished by battles, in which the principal\ncredit is often due to a heroine; except in those cases, not frequent\nbut well worthy of remark, in which the clouds, hurricanes, tempests of\nlightning and thunderbolts, coincide with the end of the night (or of\nwinter), and the sun Indras, by tearing the clouds, at the same time\ndisperses the darkness of night and brings dawn (or spring) back to the\nsky. In such coincidences, the sun Indras, besides being the greatest of\nthe gods, reveals himself to be also the most epic of the heroes; the\ntwo skies, the dark and the clouded, with their relative monsters, and\nthe two suns, the thundering and the radiant, with their relative\ncompanions, are confounded, and the myth then assumes all its poetical\nsplendour. And the most solemn moments of the great national Aryan epic\npoems, the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ and the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, the _Book of Kings_, as\nwell as those of the _Iliad_, the _Song of Roland_ and the _Nibelungen_,\nare founded upon this very coincidence of the two solar actions--the\ncloudy and shadowy monster thunderstruck, and the dawn (or spring)\ndelivered and resuscitated. In truth, the _Rigvedas_ itself, in a\npassage already quoted,[42] tells us that the clouds--the three times\nseven spotted cows--cause their milk to drop to a god (whom, from\nanother similar passage,[43] we know to be Indras, the sun) in the\neastern sky (_p\u00fbrve vyomani_), that is, towards the morning, and\nsometimes towards the spring, many of the phenomena of which correspond\nto those of the aurora. The _Pri\u00e7nayas_, or spotted ones, are beyond\ndoubt the clouds, as the Marutas, sons of Pri\u00e7nis, or the spotted one,\nare the winds that howl and lighten in the storm cloud. It is therefore\nnecessary to carry back the cloudy sky towards the morning, to\nunderstand the Pri\u00e7nayas feeding the sun Indras in the eastern heavens\nand the seven _A\u00f1girasas_, the seven sunbeams, the seven wise men, who\nalso sing hymns in the morning;--it seems to me that the hymn of these\nfabled wise men can be nothing else than the crash of the thunderbolts,\nwhich, as we have already seen, are supposed to be detached from the\nsolar rays. Allusions to Indras thundering in the morning are so\nfrequent in the Vedic hymns, that I hope to be excused for this short\ndigression, from which I must at once return, because my sole object\nhere is to treat in detail of the mythical animals, and because the road\nwe have to take will be a long one.\n\nEven the luminous night has its cows; the stars, which the sun puts to\nflight with his rays,[44] are cows: the cows themselves, whose\ndwellings the dwellings of the sun's cows must adjoin, are called the\nmany-horned ones.[45] These dwellings seem to me worthy of passing\nremark, they are the celestial houses that move, the enchanted huts\nand palaces that appear, disappear, and are transformed so often in\nthe popular stories of the Aryans.\n\nThe moon is generally a male, for its most popular names, _Candras_,\n_Indus_, and _Somas_ are masculine; but as Somas signifies ambrosia,\nthe moon, as giver of ambrosia, soon came to be considered a\nmilk-giving cow; in fact, moon is one among the various meanings given\nin Sanskrit to the word _g\u00e2us_ (cow). The moon, Somas, who illumines\nthe nocturnal sky, and the pluvial sun, Indras, who during the night,\nor the winter, prepares the light of morn, or spring, are represented\nas companions; a young girl, the evening, or autumnal, twilight, who\ngoes to draw water towards night, or winter, finds in the well, and\ntakes to Indras, the ambrosial moon, that is, the Somas whom he loves.\nHere are the very words of the Vedic hymn:--\"The young girl,\ndescending towards the water, found the moon in the fountain, and\nsaid: 'I will take you to Indras, I will take you to \u00c7akras; flow, O\nmoon, and envelop Indras.'\"[46] The moon and ambrosia in the word\nindus, as well as somas, are confounded with one another; hence,\nIndras, the drinker _par excellence_ of _somas_ (somap\u00e2tamas), is also\nthe best friend and companion of the ambrosial or pluvial moon, and so\nthe sun and moon (as also Indras and Vishnus) together come to suggest\nto us the idea of two friends, two brothers (Indus and Indras), two\ntwins, the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u; often the two twilights, properly speaking,\nthe morning and the evening, the spring and the autumn, twilights, the\nformer, however, being especially associated with the red sun which\nappears in the morning (or in the spring), and the latter with the\npale moon which appears in the evening (or in the autumn, as a\nparticular regent of the cold season). Indras and Somas (_Indr\u00e2som\u00e2u_)\nare more frequently represented as two bulls who together discomfit\nthe monster (_rakshohan\u00e2u_), who destroy by fire the monsters that\nlive in darkness.[47] The word _vrishan\u00e2u_ properly means the two who\npour out, or fertilise. Here it means the two bulls; but as the word\n_vrishan_ signifies stallion as well as bull, the two stallions, the\nvrishan\u00e2u Indras and Somas, are, by a natural transition, soon\ntransformed into two horses or horsemen, the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u. Hence, in\npopular tales, we find near the young princess the hero, who now leads\nout the cows to pasture, and now, as hostler or groom, takes excellent\ncare of the horses. But we must not anticipate comparisons which we\nshall have to make further on. Having noticed that, in the _Rigvedas_,\nwe find the moon represented either as a bull or a cow (the masculine,\n_Indus_, _somas_, _candras_, is always a bull; while the feminine,\n_r\u00e2k\u00e2_, suggests more naturally the idea of a cow), let us now\nconsider the bull Indras in relation to the cow Aurora (or spring).\n\nFive bulls stand in the midst of the heavens, and chase out of the way\nthe wolf who crosses the waters;[48] the luminous Vasavas unbind the\ncow that is tied by its foot.[49]\n\nHow now is this cow brought forth?\n\nThis ambrosial cow is created by the artists of the gods, by the three\nbrothers _Ribhavas_, who draw it out of the skin of a cow; that is,\nthey make a cow, and, to give it life, cover it with the skin of a\ndead cow.[50] It being understood that the cow Aurora (or Spring) dies\nat even (or in the autumn), the Ribhavas, the threefold sun Indras,\n_i.e._, the sun in the three watches of the night, prepares the skin\nof this cow, one Ribhus taking off the skin from the dead cow, another\nRibhus preparing it during the night (or winter), and the third\nRibhus, in the early morning (or at the end of winter) dressing the\nnew cow, the aurora (or the spring) with it. Thus it is that Indras,\nin three distinct moments, takes the skin from off the girl that he\nloves, who had become ugly during the night, and restores her beauty\nin the morning.[51] And the three Ribhavas may, it seems to me, be the\nmore easily identified with the triple Indras, with Indra-Vishnus, who\nmeasures the world in three paces, since, as Indras is called a bull,\nthey also are called bulls;[52] as Indras is often a falcon, they also\nare named birds;[53] and their miracles are sometimes also those of\nIndras. This identification of the bulls Ribhavas, whom we speak of\nhere as producers of the cow Aurora (the same sterile cow of the\nsleeping hero \u00c7ayus, that which the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the two horsemen of the\ntwilight, restored to youth by the Ribhavas, rendered fruitful\nagain),[54] with the bull, or hero Indras, appears to me to be of the\ngreatest importance, inasmuch as it affords us the key to much that is\nmost vital to the Aryan legends.\n\nThe Ribhavas, then, are three brothers. They prepare themselves to\nprocure the cups which are to serve for the gods to drink out of. Each\nhas a cup in his hand; the eldest brother defies the others to make\ntwo cups out of one; the second defies them to make three out of one;\nthe youngest brother comes forward and defies them to make four. The\nvictory is his, and the greatest workman of heaven, the Vedic Vulcan,\n_Tvashtar_, praises their wonderful work.[55] The youngest of the\nthree brothers is therefore the most skilful. We find in the\n_Rigvedas_ the name of _Sukarmas_, or maker of fine works, good\nworkman, given to each of the three brothers; and though only one of\nthem, who is properly called Ribhus, or _R\u00eebhuksh\u00e2_, is said to serve\nthe god Indras in the quality of a workman (whence Indras himself\nsometimes received the name of Ribhuksh\u00e2, Ribhvan, or Ribhvas), yet\nthe other two brothers, _V\u00e2gas_ and _Vibhvan_, are in the service, one\nof all the gods, the other of Varunas, the god of night.[56] It would\nseem natural to recognise in Ribhus, the prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Indras, the most\nskilful of the three brothers, who, as we have seen above, was the\nyoungest; yet, as we cannot infer anything from the order in which the\nhymns name the three brothers--as, in one, V\u00e2gas is first named, then\nRibhuksh\u00e2, and finally Vibhvan; in another, V\u00e2gas first, Vibhvan\nsecond, and Ribhus third;[57] in another, again, Ribhus is invoked\nfirst, then Vibhvan, and lastly V\u00e2gas; and as we also find all the\nRibhavas saluted under the common epithet of V\u00e2gas, and V\u00e2gas himself\nby the name of Indras, or rather Indras saluted in his triple form of\nRibhus, Vibhvan, and V\u00e2gas,[58] it remains uncertain which of these\nwas the proper name of the third brother of the Ribhavas. But what\nseems to be sufficiently clear is, that Indras is identified with the\nRibhavas (_Indravantas_), that the third brother is the most skilful,\nand that the three brothers serve the lords of heaven as workmen. And\nhere we meet with an interesting element. In two hymns of the\n_Rigvedas_, the host of the Ribhavas appears as one only, Indras\nhimself, or the sun (Savitar), under the name of _Agohyas_ (_i.e._,\nwho cannot be hidden). During the twelve days (the twelve hours of the\nnight, or the twelve months of the year) in which they are the guests\nof Agohyas, they bring as they sleep every species of prosperity to\nthe land, by making the fields fertile, causing the rivers to flow,\nand refreshing the grass of the field. In this, however, let us not\nforget that they are the beneficent sons of _Sudhanvan_, the good\narcher, and archers themselves, representatives of the great celestial\narcher, of the thunder-dealing and rain-giving Indras; and that\ntherefore their sleep is only a figure of speech to express their\nlatent existence in darkness and the clouds of night.\n\nBut the _Rigvedas_ introduces the three brothers under other names,\nand especially in one, and that an important aspect. The third brother\nis called _Tritas_, or the third, and as such, is also identified with\nIndras. Thus, for instance, the moments of Indras in the sky are\nthree--evening, night, and towards morning; and the horse of Tritas\n(the horse that Tritas has received from _Yamas_) is now mysteriously\nYama himself, now the son of \u00c2ditis (whom we have already seen to be\nthe cow, or the son of the cow), now Tritas himself, whom Tritas alone\ncan yoke, and Indras alone ride upon, a horse bedewed with ambrosia,\nwhich has three relationships in heaven, three in the waters, three in\nthe ocean;[60] that is to say, one relation is Yamas, the elder\nbrother; the second is the son of the cow, or the second brother; the\nlast is Tritas himself, or the youngest brother. This Tritas is called\nintelligent; he therefore corresponds to the third brother, who makes\nfour cups out of one. How then does he appear sometimes stupid? The\nlanguage itself supplies the explanation. In Sanskrit, _b\u00e2las_ means\nboth child and stolid; and the third brother is supposed to be stolid,\nbecause, at his first appearance especially, he is a child,--and we\nconstantly see him as a child do wonderful things, and give proofs of\nsuperhuman wisdom. With this key, the meaning of the myth is obvious.\nThe eldest brother, Yamas, the dying sun, with all his wisdom and\nexperience, is unable of himself to recover the ravished or missing\nprincess; the son of the cow \u00c2ditis, that is, \u00c2dityas, the sun in the\nmiddle of the night, gives often proof of strength great enough to\ndisperse the darkness and the clouds, and break the incantation; but,\ngenerally it is the third sun, the morning sun, Indras in his third\nmoment, Vishnus taking his third step,[61] the third brother, Tritas,\nwho seems to obtain the victory, and deliver the young aurora from the\nmonster of night. All this seems to me to be very evident.\n\nTritas, like Indras, drinks the water of strength, and thereupon tears\nthe monster in pieces;[62] the victory of the young hero must be\nachieved in the same way in which it is accomplished by Indras, his\nmore splendid and grandiose impersonation. But Tritas, or _Tr\u00e2itanas_,\nafter having killed the monster of the waters, is afraid that the\nwaters themselves may devour him; after cutting off the head of the\nmonster, some enemies have lowered him down into the waters.[63] The\nsun has vanquished the monster that kept the fountain of waters\nshut--he has unchained the waters, but he himself has not been able to\nbreak through the cloud; he has delivered from the dark and cloudy\nmonster the princess, the dawn that was to have been its prey, but he\nhimself does not yet come forth--is still invisible. Now, who are the\nenemies here that have placed the young hero in the cistern, down into\nthe well, in the sea? We have already seen that Tritas has two\nbrothers; and it is these two brothers who, in a fit of jealousy, on\naccount of his wife, the aurora, and the riches she brings with her\nfrom the realm of darkness, the cistern or well, detain their brother\nin the well,--all which is told us in a single but eloquent verse of\nthe Vedas. The intelligent Tritas in the well calls out (_rebhati_) on\naccount of his brothers;[64] and the two horsemen of the twilight, the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, come to deliver the invoker (_rebhas_) covered and enveloped\nby the waters.[65] In another hymn, the deliverer appears to be\nBrihaspatis, the lord of prayer, who having heard how Tritas, thrust\ndown into the well, was invoking the gods, made the large from the\nsmall;[66] that is to say, opened for the young hero a way to escape\nfrom the well and show himself in his glory.\n\nHaving seen how in the Vedic hymns Tritas, the third brother, and the\nablest as well as best, is persecuted by his brothers, it is\ninteresting to note the form of the myth in popular Hindoo\ntradition:--\"Three brothers, _Ekatas_ (_i.e._, the first), _Dvitas_\n(_i.e._, the second), and _Tritas_ (_i.e._, the third), were\ntravelling in a desert, and distressed with thirst, came to a well,\nfrom which the youngest, Tritas, drew water and gave it to his\nseniors. In requital, they threw him into the well, in order to\nappropriate his property, and having covered the top with a\ncart-wheel, left him within it. In this extremity he prayed to the\ngods to extricate him, and by their favour he made his escape.\"[67]\n\nThus have we brought the three brothers, of whom Tritas is the\nyoungest, into close affinity with the three Ribhavas, and both the\nformer and the latter into an equally close connection with the three\nmoments of Indras. We have already said that the Ribhavas created the\ncow; in the same way _U\u00e7an\u00e2 K\u00e2vy\u00e2s_, the desiring wise one protected\nby Indras, another name for the sun-hero of the morning, sends the\ncows together before him;[68] and Indras himself is the only lord of\nthe cows, the only real celestial shepherd;[69] or, rather, it is he\nthat begets the sun and the aurora,[70] or, as another hymn says, who\ngives the horses and the sun and the cow of abundance.[71]\n\nHere, therefore, the aurora is explicitly the cow of abundance; she is\nstill also the milk-giving and luminous cow, in which is found all\nsweetness;[72] and finally, _usr\u00e2_ or _ush\u00e2_ are two words, two\nappellations, which indiscriminately express aurora and cow as the red\nor brilliant one. The identification of the aurora with the cow, in\nthe mythical sky of the Vedas, is therefore a certainty.\n\nAnother of the names which the milk-yielding cow assumes in the\n_Rigvedas_, besides the ordinary one of _Ush\u00e2_, is _S\u00eet\u00e2_, whom Indras\nalso causes to descend from heaven, like the aurora, and who must be\nmilked by the sun-god _P\u00fbshan_,[73] the nourisher, the _foecundator_,\ncompared in one hymn to a pugnacious buffalo.[74] This Indras,\nprotector and friend of S\u00eet\u00e2, prepares therefore Vishnus, the\nprotector, in the form of R\u00e2mas, of his wife S\u00eet\u00e2. And even the\nRibhavas are the protectors of the cow, as well as the producers.[75]\n\nBut Indras, whose special function it is to lighten, to thunder, to\nfight the monster of darkness, and to prepare the light, generally\nfigures in the popular imagination, at dawn (aurora), as the sun,\nunder his three names of _S\u00fbryas_, of _Ritas_, and of _Savitar_.\n\nThe sun, with respect to the aurora, is now the father, now the\nhusband, now the son, and now the brother. As begotten of Indras\nsimultaneously with the aurora, he is the brother; as following and\nembracing the aurora, he is the husband; as simply coming after the\naurora, he is the son; and as sending the cow or the aurora before\nhim, he is the father. These four relationships of the sun to the\naurora or dawn are all mentioned in the _Rigvedas_.\n\nIn one of the hymns, the pure effulgence with which the aurora chases\naway the shadows of night is said to resemble the milk of a cow;[76]\nthat is, the whitish light of the daybreak precedes in the eastern\nheavens the rosy light of aurora. The aurora is the cow-nurse, and the\noriental mother of the old sun; at the sound of the hymn in praise of\nthe dawn, the two horsemen of twilight, the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, awaken.[77] Two\ncows--[_i.e._, the two twilights, that of the evening and that of the\nmorning, related to the two horsemen, the evening one and the morning\none, whom we also find together in the morning, the one white and the\nother red, the one in company with daybreak and the other with the\naurora, and who may therefore be sometimes identified with the two\nmorning dawns, the white dawn (alba) or daybreak, and the red dawn\n(aurora), and, from another point of view, the lunar dawn and the\nsolar one]--drop milk towards the sun, in the heaven.[78] The aurora\nis the mother of the cows.[79]\n\nAs the sun approaches, the heavenly cows, who walk without covering\nthemselves with dust, celebrate him[80] with songs. The red rays of the\nhigh sun fly and join themselves to the sun's cows.[81] The seven wise\n_A\u00f1girasas_ (the seven solar rays, or else the Angiras, the seven-rayed\nor seven-faced sun, as another hymn[82] represents him) celebrate in\ntheir songs the herds of cows which belong to the aurora, who appears\nupon the mountain.[83] Let us notice more particularly what is said of\nthe aurora that appears with the cows upon the mountain. It is the sun\nthat enables the A\u00f1girasas to split the mountain, to bellow along with\nthe cows, and to surround themselves with the splendour of the\naurora.[84] The aurora, the daughter of the sky, the splendid one,\nappears; at the same time, the sun draws up the cows.[85] The aurora is\ncarried by red luminous cows, whilst the sun, the hero-archer, kills\nthe enemies.[86] The aurora breaks open the prison of the cows; the cows\nexult towards the aurora;[87] the aurora comes out of the darkness as\ncows come out of their stable.[88] As the solar hero, Indras, is the\nguardian or shepherd of horses and of cows,[89] so the auroras are often\ncelebrated in the _Rigvedas_ as _a\u00e7v\u00e2vat\u00ees_ and _gomat\u00ees_, that is, as\nprovided with and attended by horses and cows. The aurora keeps together\nthe herd of red cows, and always accompanies them.[90]\n\nThus have we passed from the pastor-hero to the pastoral heroine upon\nthe mountain. The pastoral aurora, unveiling her body in the east,\nfollows the path of the sun;[91] and the sun is represented to us in\nthe following riddle as a wonderful cowherd:--\"I have seen a shepherd\nwho never set down his foot, and yet went and disappeared on the\nroads; and who, taking the same and yet different roads, goes round\nand round amidst the worlds.\"[92] The sun goes round in the ether, and\nnever puts down a foot, for he has none; and he takes the same, yet\ndifferent, roads in the sky, _i.e._, luminous by day, and gloomy by\nnight. The puzzle of the riddle lies in its self-contradiction; and\nthe beautiful girl is the prize appointed for him who, by his actions,\nresolves it. A similar riddle is, in the _Rigvedas_ itself, proposed\nto _Mitras_, the sun, and to _Varunas_, the night. The riddle is as\nfollows:--\"The first of them who walk afoot (_padvat\u00eenam_) comes\nwithout feet (_ap\u00e2d_);\" and the two divine heroes are asked, \"Which of\nyou two has guessed it?\"[93] He who solves this enigma we may be sure\nis Mitras, the sun, who recognises the aurora, the girl who comes\nmaking use of feet, although she seem to have none, for she comes\nborne in a chariot, of which the wheels appear to be feet, which is\nthe same luminous chariot that rolls well,[94] given by the Ribhavas\nto the two horsemen A\u00e7vin\u00e2u (represented sometimes as two old men made\nyoung again by the Ribhavas, and sometimes simply as two handsome\nyouths), into which chariot she mounts by the help of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u; and\nthe daughter of the sun is, in the race, the first to come to the\nwinning-post, amid the enthusiastic plaudits of the gods.[95] Then the\nhymns to the aurora sometimes represent that vast chariot as belonging\nto the eastern aurora, who guides a hundred chariots, and who, in\nturn, helps the immortal gods to ascend into the chariot beside\nher.[96] The aurora, as the first of those who appear every day in the\neastern sky, as the first to know the break of day,[97] is naturally\nrepresented as one of the swiftest among those who are the guests of\nthe sun-prince during the night; and like her cows, which do not cover\nthemselves with dust (this being an attribute which, in the Indian\nfaith, distinguishes the gods from mortals, for the former walk in the\nheavens, and the latter upon earth), she, in her onward flight, leaves\nno footsteps behind her. The word _ap\u00e2d_ (_pad_ and _pada_, being\nsynonymous) may, indeed, mean not only she who has no feet, but also\nshe who has no footsteps (that is, what is the measure of the foot),\nor, again, she who has no slippers, the aurora having, as appears,\nlost them; for the prince Mitras, while following the beautiful young\ngirl, finds a slipper which shows her footstep, the measure of her\nfoot, a foot so small, that no other woman has a foot like it, an\nalmost unfindable, almost imperceptible foot, which brings us back\nagain to the idea of her who has no feet. The legend of the lost\nslipper, and of the prince who tries to find the foot predestined to\nwear it, the central interest in the popular story of Cinderella,\nseems to me to repose entirely upon the double meaning of the word\n_ap\u00e2d_, _i.e._, who has no feet, or what is the measure of the foot,\nwhich may be either the footstep or the slipper; often, moreover, in\nthe story of Cinderella, the prince cannot overtake the fugitive,\nbecause a chariot bears her away.\n\nThe word _ap\u00e2d_, which we have heretofore seen applied to the heroine,\nwas applied, moreover, to the hero, giving rise to another popular\nlegend, of which the _Rigvedas_ offers us the mythical elements. We have\nalready seen the sun as _anipadyamanas_, _i.e._, the sun who never puts\nhis foot down; but this sun who never puts down his foot easily, came to\nbe conceived of and represented as a sun without feet, or as a lame\nhero, who, during the night, by the perfidy of the witch, the dusk of\nevening, became also blind. In one hymn, the blind and the lame are not\none, but two, whom propitious Indras guides;[98] in another, the\nblind-lame is one person, with the name of _P\u00e2ravrig_, whom the two\nhorsemen A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the two friends of the dawn, enable to walk and to\nsee.[99] The lame one who sees, shows the way to the blind who is able\nto walk, or the lame carries the blind; Indras, the hidden sun, guides\nthe blind and the lame; or, the blind and the lame, lost in the forest,\nhelp each other; in the morning, the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the two horsemen, friends\nof the aurora, with the water of sight and of strength (that is,\nP\u00e1ravrig, the blind-lame having discovered the hidden fountain of the\nyoung girls of the dawn,[100] with the ambrosia of the aurora, with the\naurora itself), make the blind see, and him who has no feet, the lame,\nwalk; that is, they burst forth into the upper air again, transfigured\nnow into the luminous sun who sets out on his heavenly voyage. I have\nsaid above that the hero becomes blind and lame through the perfidy and\nmagic of the evening aurora: nor was the assertion unfounded; for the\nVedic hymn in which Indras guides the blind and the lame, _i.e._,\nhimself or the sun, in the gloomy tardy night, is the very same hymn in\nwhich is celebrated his heroic and manly enterprise of the destruction\nof the daughter of the sky. The sun Indras revenges himself in the\nmorning upon the aurora of the morning, for the wrong done him by the\naurora of the evening, beautiful, but faithless.\n\nFor the aurora counts among her other talents that of magic; when the\nRibhavas created the aurora cow of morning, investing her with the\nskin of the aurora cow of evening, they endowed her with Protean\nqualities (_Vi\u00e7var\u00fbp\u00e2m_), and on this account the aurora herself is\nalso called witch or enchantress (_M\u00e2jin\u00ee_).[101] This aurora, this\nvirago, this Amazon, this Vedic Medea, who, treacherously plunging her\nhusband, or brother, the solar hero, into a fiery furnace, blinds and\nlames him, is punished in the morning for her crime of the evening.\nThe hero vanquishes her, overcomes her incantations, and annihilates\nher. The Vedic hymn sings--\"A manly and heroic undertaking thou hast\naccomplished, O Indras, for an evil-doing woman, the daughter of the\nheavens, thou hast smitten; the growing daughter of the heaven, the\naurora, O Indras, thou hast destroyed; from the chariot, broken in\npieces, fell the aurora, trembling, because the bull had struck\nher.\"[102] Here the mythical animal reappears on the same stage with\nthe heroes, and for the image of the hero and the heroine there is\nsubstituted that of the cow and the bull.[103]\n\nThe sun and the aurora, therefore, do not always seek each other from\npromptings of affection only, nor is the hateful part always played by\nthe aurora. The sun, also appears as a perverse persecutor in his\nturn. One Vedic hymn advises the aurora not to stretch out the web\nshe works at too far, lest the sun, like a robber, with hostile\nintention, set fire to and burn her.[104] Another hymn tells us that\nthe handsome one follows the beautiful one, the brother the sister,\nlike a lover,[105]--the aurora fleeing from the sun, her brother, out\nof shame, and her brother following her, actuated by a brutal\ninstinct. Finally, a third hymn shows us the Vedic Vulcan, the\nblacksmith of the gods, the sun Tvashtar, called also the omniform sun\n(_S\u00e2vit\u00e2 Vi\u00e7var\u00fbpah_), as father of Sarany\u00fb, another name for the\naurora, omniform herself, like her father (and, like the cow,\nundergoing the triple transmutation at the hands of Tvashtar, _i.e._,\nthe three brothers, the Ribhavas), creating another form of himself,\nthat is, the sun _Vivasvant_, to be able to espouse the aurora.\nSarany\u00fb, perceiving perhaps that Vivasvant is her father under another\nshape, creates another woman like herself, and flees away on the\nchariot that flies of itself, and that was before given her by her\nfather; and thereupon Vivasvant, in order to overtake her, transforms\nhimself into a horse.[106]\n\nBut sometimes the alienation the sun and the aurora, the young husband\nand wife, is not due to evil propensities in themselves, but the\ndecree of fate working through the machinations of monsters. The two\nbeautiful ones are at bottom united by love and reciprocal gratitude;\nfor now it is the sun who delivers the aurora, and now the aurora who\nliberates the sun; and we have already seen the aurora making the\nambrosial milk drop for the sun from her cows, and the sun drawing up\nand delivering the cows of the aurora. There is a hymn in which the\ndivine girl, the aurora, comes up in the east, with a lascivious air,\nsmiling, fresh, uncovering her bosom, resplendent, towards the god who\nsacrifices himself,[107] that is to say, towards the sun, towards\n_\u00c7unah\u00e7epas_ (the sun), who, in three verses of another hymn,[108]\ninvokes her, the well-known legend of which, narrated in the\n_\u00c2itareya-Br\u00e2hmanam_, I shall briefly relate. The aurora has also the\nmerit of having, with her pure and purifying light, opened the gates\nof the gloomy cavern, discomfited the enemies, the shades of night,\nand exposed to view the treasures hidden by the darkness (and here we\nhave Medea again, but this time in a benignant form); she awakens to\nactivity the sleepers and everything with life (and therefore, among\nthe living sleepers, the sun, her son, whom one of the hymns\nrepresents as sleeping profoundly in the bosom of the darkness of\nnight); she is the saviour of mortals,[109] that is to say, she\nprotects mortals from death, and resuscitates them; she sees and\nforesees everything.[110] The awakener is also the awakened; the\nilluminator is also the illumined, or the wise; and the illumined or\nluminous one is also the beautiful one. From being small, she is\nbecome large[111] (the heroes and heroines of mythology are only small\nat birth, and pass at once into fulness of stature); from being infirm\nand sombre-visaged, by the grace of Indras and of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, she is\ncured and restored to strength and clearness.[112] But why was she\ndark at first? Because her mother, the night, is the black one; she,\nthe white one, is born of the black one.[113]\n\nDuring the night, the young girl was blind, and she recovers her sight\nby the grace of a wise one, one who, protected by Indras, another\nshape of Indras, has become enamoured of her. We have seen above that\nit is the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u who, with the aurora, give back to the sun his\nsight; here it is the sun who makes the aurora see, it is the sun who\ngives her light; and she who, having been blind, recovers her sight,\nbecomes the protectress of the blind and preserver of vision,[114]\nlike St Lucia, virgin and martyr, in the Christian Mythology. Physical\ntruth and the mythical narration are in perfect accordance.\n\nThe night is now the mother, now the sister of the aurora; but the\ngloomy night is sometimes her step-mother, sometimes her half-sister.\nThere is a riddle which celebrates the luminous night and the aurora,\nas two diversely beautiful ones who go together, but of whom one goes\nwhile the other comes.[115] Another hymn sings of them thus: \"The\nbrilliantly-decked one approaches, the white aurora comes; the black\none prepares for her her rooms. The one immortal having joined the\nother, the two appear alternately in the heavens. One and eternal is\nthe path of the two sisters; they follow it, one after the other,\nguided by the gods; they do not meet, and they never stand still--the\ntwo good nurses, night and aurora, one in soul yet different in\nform.\"[116] The two good nurses, night and aurora, whose hues\nalternate eternally, nourish between them one and the same child (the\nsun).[117] But the _Rigvedas_ itself tells us that the night is not\nalways the legitimate sister of the aurora; the latter \"abandons now\nthe one that is, now the one that is not, properly its sister.\"[118]\nHere probably we must understand by the proper sister of the aurora\nthe luminous or moonlight night, and by the half-sister, the gloomy\nnight, the night without a moon. This is the sister whom, in a hymn,\nthe aurora removes, sends far away from her, while she shines to be\nseen of her husband;[119] and her half-sister, the night, is obliged\nto resign her place to her elder or better sister,[120] the word\n_gyeshthas_ meaning not only the eldest, but the best. We have\nalready seen that the aurora is the first to appear; as such, and as\nshe who in the evening precedes the night (the evening aurora), she is\nthe first-born, the eldest, the most experienced, the best; while,\nfrom another point of view, she is represented to us as the little one\nwho becomes great, and, in this case, as younger sister of the night\n(the morning dawn). The dawns, or auroras, are saluted with the\nepithet of workwomen,[121] just as the good sister, with respect to\nthe bad one, is always she who works, doing wonderful work, that is,\nspinning or weaving the rosy cloth. But the auroras are not only the\nworkers, they are also the pure purifying and cleansing ones;[122]\nhence one can understand how one of the tasks imposed upon the\nyoungest sister was that of purifying, purging, or separating the\ngrain during the night, taking from it all that is impure, in which\ntask she is assisted sometimes by a good fairy, sometimes by the\nVirgin Mary, who, according to all probability, is the moon.\n\nOne of the singular qualities of the younger sister is that she\ndisplays her beauty only before the eyes of her husband. The wife\naurora manifests herself in the sight of her husband;[123] united, in\nher splendour, with the rays of the sun,[124] like a wife she prepares\nthe dwelling of the sun.[125] Very brilliant, like a wife cleansed by\nher mother, she uncovers her body;[126] like a bather who shows\nherself, the shining one unveils her body;[127] she adorns herself\nlike a dancer, uncovering, like a cow, her breast;[128] she displays\nher luminous garments;[129] all-radiant, with beautiful face, she\nlaughs;[130] and he who has made the aurora laugh, her, the beautiful\nprincess, who, at first, that is, during the night, did not laugh,\nespouses her; the sun espouses the aurora.\n\nThe celestial nuptials take place, and the ceremony is minutely\ndescribed in the 85th hymn of the 10th book of the _Rigvedas_. But the\nmarriage of the two celestials is never consummated except under\nconditions; these conditions are always accepted and afterwards\nforgotten, and it is now the husband who, by forsaking his wife, now\nthe wife who, by abandoning her husband, violates the promise given.\nOne of these estrangements, these temporary alienations of husband and\nwife, is described in the _Rigvedas_ by the poetical myth of the dawn\n_Urva\u00e7\u00ee_ and her husband _Pur\u00fbravas_, one of the names given to the\nsun. Urva\u00e7\u00ee says of herself, \"I have arrived like the first of the\nauroras;\"[131] thereupon Urva\u00e7\u00ee suddenly abandons her husband\nPur\u00fbravas, because he breaks an agreement made between them. We shall\nsee further on in this chapter what this agreement was. Besides,\nhaving given him a son before her departure, she consoles him by\npermitting him to come and find her again in heaven, that is, by\nendowing the sun with the immortality she possesses herself. In the\nmorning the aurora precedes the sun; he follows her too closely, and\nshe disappears, but leaves a son, _i.e._, the new sun. In the evening\nthe aurora precedes the sun; he follows her again, and she loses\nherself, now in a forest, now in the sea. The same phenomenon, a\ndivorce of husband from wife, or a separation of brother and sister,\nor the flight of a sister from her brother, or again, that of a\ndaughter from her father, presents itself twice every day (and every\nyear) in the sky. Sometimes, on the other hand, it is a witch, or the\nmonster of nocturnal darkness, who takes the place of the radiant\nbride, or the aurora, near the sun; and in that case the aurora, the\nbeauteous bride, is spirited away into a wood to be killed or thrown\ninto the sea, from both of which predicaments, however, she always\nescapes. Sometimes the witch of night throws the brother and sister,\nthe mother and son, the sun and the aurora, together into the waves of\nthe sea, whence they both escape again, to reappear in the morning.\n\nAll these alternative variations of a mythical representation become\neach in turn a legend by itself, as we shall see again more in detail,\nwhen the study of the different animals that take part in them shall\nfurnish us with opportunities of doing so. In the meantime, we have\nhere finished our enumeration of all that in the hymns of the\n_Rigvedas_ refers in any way to the bull and the cow,--to the wind,\nmoon, and sun bulls, to the cow-cloud, moon, spring and\naurora,--leaving it, however, to be understood how natural it is to\npass from the bull to the handsome hero-prince, and from the cow to\nthe beautiful girl, the rich princess, the valiant heroine, or the\nwise fairy. For though in the mythical hymns of the _Rigvedas_ we have\nlittle more than hints or foreshadows of the many popular legends\nwhich we have thus referred to, often without naming them, these are\nso many and so precise that it seems to me to be almost impossible\nnot to recognise them. To demonstrate this, however, it will be\nnecessary for me to show further what form the mythological ideas and\nfigures relating to the animals dispersed in the Vedic hymns\nafterwards assumed in the Hindoo traditions.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] M\u00e2 g\u00e2m an\u00e2g\u00e2m aditim vadhishta; _Rigv._ viii. 90, 15.\n\n[2] Gom\u00e2tarah; _Rigv._ i. 8, 1, 3.--Aditis, called \"m\u00e2t\u00e2 rudr\u00e2n\u00e2m;\"\n_Rigv._ viii. 90, 15.\n\n[3] Tubhyam (to V\u00e2yus, to the wind), dhenuh sabardugh\u00e2 vi\u00e7v\u00e2 vas\u00fbni\ndohate aganayo maruto vakshan\u00e2bhyah; _Rigv._ i. 134, 4.\n\n[4] Im\u00e2s ta indra pri\u00e7nayo ghritam duhata \u00e2\u00e7iram; _Rigv._ viii. 6,\n19.--Trir asm\u00e2i sapta dhenavo duduhre saty\u00e2m \u00e2\u00e7iram p\u00fbrvye vyomani;\n_Rigv._ ix. 70, 1.--Tr\u00eeni sar\u00e2nsi pri\u00e7nayo duduhre vagrine madhu;\n_Rigv._ viii. 7, 10.--In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanan_, i. 48, the Marutas also\nappear in the number of 7.\n\n[5] Pra \u00e7ans\u00e2 goshv aghnyam kr\u00eelam yac chardho m\u00e2rutam gambhe rasasya\nv\u00e2vridhe; _Rigv._ i. 37, 5.\n\n[6] Ime ye te su v\u00e2yo b\u00e2hvogaso 'ntar nad\u00ee te patayanty ukshano mahi\nvr\u00e2dhanta ukshanah dhanvan cid ye an\u00e2\u00e7avo gir\u00e2\u00e7, cid agir\u00e2ukasah\ns\u00fbryasyeva ra\u00e7mayo durniyantavo hastayor durniyantavah; _Rigv._ i.\n135, 9.\n\n[7] Riksho na vo marutah \u00e7im\u00eev\u00e2n amo dudhro g\u00e2ur iva bh\u00eemayuh; _Rigv._\nv. 56, 3.\n\n[8] Te syandr\u00e2so nokshano 'ti shkandanti \u00e7arvar\u00eeh; _Rigv._ v. 52, 3.\n\n[9] Tvam v\u00e2t\u00e2ir arun\u00e2ir y\u00e2si; _T\u00e2ittiriya Yagurvedas_, i. 3,\n14.--Angibhir vy \u00e2nagre ke cid usr\u00e2 iva stribhih; _Rigv._ i. 87, 1.\n\n[10] Vrish\u00e2 vrishabhih; _Rigv._ i. 100, 4.--Grishtih sas\u00fbva sthaviram\ntav\u00e2g\u00e2m an\u00e2dhrishyam vrishabham tumram indram; _Rigv._ iv. 18,\n10.--Sa m\u00e2tar\u00e2 na dadri\u00e7\u00e2na usriyo n\u00e2nadad eti marut\u00e2m iva svanah;\n_Rigv._ ix. 70, 6.\n\n[11] Vrish\u00e2yam\u00e2no vrinita somam; _Rigv._ i. 32, 3.--Pitum nu stosham\nmaho dharm\u00e2nam tavish\u00eem yasya trito (Tritas, as we shall see, is an\n_alter ego_ of the god Indras) vy ogas\u00e2 vritram viparvam ardayat;\n_Rigv._ i. 187, 1.\n\n[12] Pib\u00e2 vardhasva; _Rigv._ iii. 36, 3.\n\n[13] Indro madhu sambhritam usriy\u00e2y\u00e2m padvad viveda \u00e7aphavan name goh;\n_Rigv._ iii. 39, 6.\n\n[14] Tr\u00ee yac chat\u00e2 mahish\u00e2n\u00e2m agho m\u00e2s tr\u00ee sar\u00e2nsi maghav\u00e2 somy\u00e2p\u00e2h\nk\u00e2ram na vi\u00e7ve ahvanta dev\u00e2 bharam indr\u00e2ya yad ahim gagh\u00e2na; _Rigv._\nv. 29, 8.\n\n[15] Vasoh kabandhamrishabho bibharti; _Atharvavedas_, ix. 4, 3.\n\n[16] Sruvati bh\u00eemo vrishabhas tavishyay\u00e2 \u00e7ri\u00f1ge \u00e7i\u00e7\u00e2no harin\u00ee\nvicakshanah; _Rigv._ ix. 70, 7.\n\n[17] Yas tigma\u00e7ri\u00f1go vrishabho na bh\u00eema ekah krisht\u00ee\u00e7 cy\u00e2vayati pra\nvi\u00e7v\u00e2h; _Rigv._ vii. 19, 1.--Idam namo vrishabh\u00e2ya svar\u00e2ge\nsatya\u00e7ushm\u00e2ya tavase 'v\u00e2ci; _Rigv._ i. 51, 15.\n\n[18] \u00c7i\u00e7\u00eete vagram tegase na vansagah; _Rigv._ i. 55, 1.\n\n[19] Abhy enam vagra \u00e2yasah sahasrabhrishtir \u00e2yat\u00e2rcano; _Rigv._ i.\n80, 12.\n\n[20] Sahasra\u00e7ri\u00f1go vrishabho yah samudr\u00e2d ud\u00e2carat; _Rigv._ vii. 55, 7.\n\n[21] Vi tigmena vrishabhena puro 'bhet; _Rigv._ i. 33, 13.\n\n[22] Priy\u00e2 indrasya dhenavo vagram hinvanti s\u00e2yakam vasv\u00eeh; _Rigv._ i.\n84, 10, 11, 12. The root, HI, properly signifies to _distend, draw\nout_; here, to _draw out_ the arm of Indras seems to me to mean to\nelongate it, to render it as fine as a thread--to sharpen it (in\nItalian, _affilare_); the cows that sharpen (It. _affilanti_), are a\nvariety of the cows that _spin_ (It. _filanti_).\n\n[23] Yugam vagram vrishabha\u00e7 cakra indro nir gyotish\u00e2 tamaso g\u00e2\nadukshat; _Rigv._ i. 33, 10.\n\n[24] \u00c7i\u00e7\u00eete \u00e7ri\u00f1ge rakshase vinikshe; _Rigv._ v. 2, 9.--Catv\u00e2ri \u00e7ri\u00f1g\u00e2\ntrayo asya p\u00e2d\u00e2 dve \u00e7\u00eershe sapta hast\u00e2so asya; _Rigv._ iv. 58,\n3.--Tapurgambho vana \u00e2 v\u00e2tacodito y\u00fbthe na s\u00e2hv\u00e2n ava v\u00e2ti vansagah\nabhi vragann akshitam p\u00e2gas\u00e2 ragah sth\u00e2tu\u00e7 caratham bhayate\npatatrinah; _Rigv._ i. 58, 5. In this stanza, however, _Vansagah_ may\nprobably signify rather _the stallion_ than _the bull_, as we find in\nthe second stanza this same Agnis already compared to a radiant horse\n(atyo na prishtham prushitasya rocate).\n\n[25] _Adris_ and _parvatas_ properly mean mountain, but, in the Ved\u00e2s,\noften cloud; and among their many meanings there is also that of tree;\n_agas_ (properly that which does not move) expresses equally tree and\nmountain. Hence perhaps the Italian proverb: _Le montagne stanno\nferme, ma gli uomini s'incontrano_, Mountains stand still, but men\nmeet; hence the cry of R\u00e2mas in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, ii. 122, that the\nHim\u00e2layas would move before he should become a traitor; hence the\nassurance with which Macbeth, after the celebrated prophecy of the\nwitches, can say: \"That will never be; who can impress the forest; bid\nthe tree unfix his earth-bound root?\" _Shakespeare_ (_Macbeth_, iv.\n1.) Nevertheless the forest moved, as it not unfrequently does in the\nmyths, where the tree-clouds walk, and fill all with terror wherever\nthey go, where heroes and monsters often fight, by unrooting the trees\nof a whole forest. Cfr. _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, iii. 3, 5, and the chapters of\nthis work which treat of the Horse, the Bear, and the Monkey.\n\n[26] Vragam gacha gosth\u00e2nam; _T\u00e2ittir. Yag\u00far._ i. 1, 9; cfr.\n_\u00c7atapathabr\u00e2hmanam_, i. 2, 3, 4.\n\n[27] Krishno non\u00e2va vrishabhah; _Rigv._ i. 79, 2.--V\u00e2\u00e7reva vidyun\nmim\u00e2ti vatsam na m\u00e2t\u00e2 sishakti; _Rigv._ i. 38, 8.\n\n[28] A\u00e7m\u00e2nam cit svaryam parvatam girim pra cy\u00e2vayanti y\u00e2mabhih;\n_Rigv._ v. 96, 4.\n\n[29] Pavy\u00e2 rath\u00e2n\u00e2m adrim bhindanty ogas\u00e2; _Rigv._ v. 52, 9. _Pavis_, in\ngeneral, is the iron part, the iron end (of a dart, or a lance); here it\nwould appear to be the iron tire of the chariot's wheels, which, driving\nfuriously over the mountain, break it,--thunder, in fact, often suggests\nthe idea of a noisy chariot making ruin in heaven.\n\n[30] V\u00eerah karmanyah sudaksho yuktagr\u00e2v\u00e2 g\u00e2yate devak\u00e2mah; _Rigv._\niii. 4, 9.\n\n[31] Ayam \u00e7rinve adha gayann uta ghnann ayam uta pra krinute yudh\u00e2 g\u00e2h;\n_Rigv._ iv. 17, 10.--Vilu cid \u00e2rugatnubhir guh\u00e2 cid indra vahnibhih\navinda usriy\u00e2 anu; _Rigv._ i. 6, 5.--Tvam valasya gomato 'pavar adrivo\nbilam; _Rigv._ i. 11, 5.--Vi gobhir adrim \u00e2irayat; _Rigv._ i. 7,\n3.--Uksh\u00e2 mim\u00e2ti prati yanti dhenavah; _Rigv._ ix. 69, 4.--Yad any\u00e2su\nvrishabho rorav\u00eeti so anyasmin y\u00fbthe ni dadh\u00e2ti retah; _Rigv._ iii. 55,\n17.--P\u00fbshanv\u00e2n vagrint sam u patny\u00e2madah; _Rigv._ i. 82, 6.\n\n[32] Indr\u00e2gn\u00ee navatim puro d\u00e2sapatn\u00eer adh\u00fbnutam s\u00e2kam ekena karman\u00e2;\n_Rigv._ iii. 12, 6; _T\u00e2itt. Yagurv._ i. 1, 14. Cfr. chap. on Serpent.\n\n[33] Dev\u00e2sa \u00e2yan para\u00e7\u00fbnr abibhran van\u00e2 vri\u00e7canto abhi vidbhir \u00e2yan ni\nsudrvam dadhato vakshan\u00e2su yatr\u00e2 krip\u00eetam anu tad dahanti; _Rigv._ x.\n28, 8.\n\n[34] Cfr. the chapter on the Bear and the Monkey.\n\n[35] Vrikshe-vrikshe niyat\u00e2 m\u00eemayad g\u00e2us tato vayah pra pat\u00e2n\np\u00fbrush\u00e2dah vi\u00e7vam bhuvanam bhay\u00e2te; _Rigv._ x. 27, 22.--Tvam \u00e2yasam\nprati vartayo gor divo a\u00e7m\u00e2nam; _Rigv._ i. 121, 9.\n\n[36] Brihaspatir govapusho valasya nir magg\u00e2nam na parvano gabh\u00e2ra;\n_Rigv._ x. 68, 9.\n\n[37] G\u00e2ur\u00eer mim\u00e2ya salil\u00e2ni takshaty ekapad\u00ee dvipad\u00ee s\u00e2\ncatushpad\u00ee--asht\u00e2pad\u00ee navapad\u00ee babh\u00fbvush\u00ee sahasr\u00e2kshar\u00e2 parame vyoman;\n_Rigv._ i. 164, 41.\n\n[38] Ut\u00e2dah parushe gavi s\u00fbra\u00e7 cakram hiranyayam; _Rigv._ vi. 56, 3.\n\n[39] D\u00e2sapatn\u00eer ahigop\u00e2 atishthan niruddh\u00e2 \u00e2pah panineva g\u00e2vah;\n_Rigv._ i. 32, 11.\n\n[40] Visham gav\u00e2m y\u00e2tudh\u00e2nah pibantu; _Rigv._ x. 87, 18. The same\npassage can, however, be also translated: \"The demons of the cows may\ndrink the poison.\"\n\n[41] _Rigv._ iii. 12, 6; x. 27, 22.\n\n[42] _Rigv._ ix. 70, 1.\n\n[43] viii. 6, 19. Cfr. the chapters on the Horse and the Cuckoo.\n\n[44] Vi ra\u00e7mibhih sasrige s\u00fbryo g\u00e2h; _Rigv._ vii. 36, 1.\n\n[45] Ta v\u00e2m (the gods Vishnus and Indras) v\u00e2st\u00fbny u\u00e7masi gama-dhy\u00e2i\nyatra g\u00e2vo bh\u00fbri\u00e7ri\u00f1g\u00e2 ay\u00e2sah; _Rigv._ i. 154, 6. Here all the stars\nor cows together form _many horns_; but perhaps each star or cow in\nitself was supposed to have but _one horn_; for the stars, like the\nmoon, shed but one ray of light, but one light. This, it appears to\nme, may be inferred from the name of _Eka\u00e7ri\u00f1g\u00e2s_ or _unicorns_,\ngiven, in the later mythology of the Indians, to an entire order of\nMani, of whom the stars are represented as the supreme habitations,\nand even purest forms.\n\n[46] Kany\u00e2 v\u00e2r av\u00e2yat\u00ee somam api srut\u00e2vidat astam bharanty abrav\u00eed\nindr\u00e2ya sunav\u00e2i tv\u00e2 \u00e7akr\u00e2ya sunav\u00e2i tv\u00e2.--Indr\u00e2yendo pari srava;\n_Rigv._ viii. 80, 1, 3.\n\n[47] Indr\u00e2som\u00e2 tapatam raksha ubgatam ny arpayatam vrishan\u00e2\ntamovridhah; _Rigv._ vii, 104, 1.--The following stanzas reproduce and\ndevelop the same argument.\n\n[48] Pancokshano madhye tasthur maho divah--Te sedhanti patho vrikam\ntarantam yahvat\u00eer apah; _Rigv._ i. 105, 10, 11.\n\n[49] Vasavo g\u00e2uryam cit padi shit\u00e2m amuncat\u00e2 yagtr\u00e2h; _Rigv._ iv. 12, 6.\n\n[50] Takshan dhenum sabardugham; _Rigv._ i. 20, 3.--Ni\u00e7 carmano g\u00e2m\narin\u00eeta dh\u00eetibhih; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7, e, iv. 36, 4.\n\n[51] This interesting particular is more fully developed in the\nchapters which treat of the Wolf, the Pig and the Wild Boar, _q.\nv._--To avoid useless and troublesome repetitions, I must observe here\nthat the myths of morning and evening are often applied to spring and\nautumn, and the myths of night to winter.\n\n[52] Rayim ribhavah sarvav\u00eeram \u00e2 takshata vrishano mandas\u00e2n\u00e2h; _Rigv._\niv. 35, 6.\n\n[53] Rayim ribhavas takshat\u00e2 vayah; _Rigv._ iv. 36, 8.--Here again we\nhave the cow in relation to the birds, since the riches given by the\nRibhavas consist above all in cows. (Ye gomantam v\u00e2gavantam suv\u00eeram\nrayim dhattha vasumantam purukshum te agrep\u00e2 ribhavo mandas\u00e2n\u00e2 asme\ndhatta ye ca r\u00e2tim grinanti; _Rigv._ iv. 34, 10.)\n\n[54] \u00c7ayave cin n\u00e2s\u00e2ty\u00e2 \u00e7acibhir gasuraye staryam pipyathur g\u00e2m;\n_Rigv._ i. 116. 22.--Y\u00e2 garant\u00e2 yuva\u00e7\u00e2 t\u00e2krinotana; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7.\n\n[55] Gyeshtha \u00e2ha camas\u00e2 dv\u00e2 kareti kan\u00eey\u00e2n tr\u00een krinav\u00e2mety \u00e2ha\nkanishtha \u00e2ha caturas kareti tvashta ribhavas tat panayad vaco vah;\n_Rigv._ iv. 33, 5.\n\n[56] V\u00e2go dev\u00e2n\u00e2m abhavat sukarmendrasya ribhuksh\u00e2 varunasya vibhv\u00e2;\n_Rigv._ iv. 33, 9.\n\n[57] Te v\u00e2go vibhv\u00e2n ribhur indravantah; _Rigv._ iv. 33, 3.\n\n[58] Ribhur vibhv\u00e2 v\u00e2ga indro no achemam yagnam ratnadheyopa y\u00e2ta;\n_Rigv._ iv. 34, 1.--Pibata v\u00e2g\u00e2 ribhavo; _Rigv._ iv. 34, 4.\n\n[59] Dv\u00e2da\u00e7a dy\u00fbn yad agohyasy\u00e2tithye ranann ribhavah sasantah\nsukshetr\u00e2krinvann anayanta sindh\u00fbn dhanv\u00e2tishthann oshadh\u00eer nimnam\n\u00e2pah; _Rigv._ iv. 33, 7.--Cfr. _Rigv._ i. 161, 11-13.\n\n[60] Yamena dattam trita enam \u00e2yunag indra enam prathamo adhy\natishthat; _Rigv._ i. 163, 2.--Asi yamo asy \u00e2dityo arvann asi trito\nguhyena vratena asi somena samay\u00e2 viprikta \u00e2hus te tr\u00eeni divi\nbandhan\u00e2ni tr\u00eeni ta \u00e2hur divi bandhan\u00e2ni tr\u00eeny apsu tr\u00eeny antah\nsamudre; _Rigv._ i. 163, 3, 4.\n\n[61] Vishnus the three-faced is already spoken of in the _Rigvedas_\nand in the _Yagurvedas_. The third step of Vishnus is taken among the\ncows with the great or many horns: Gamadhye g\u00e2vo yatra bh\u00fbri-\u00e7ri\u00f1g\u00e2\nay\u00e2sah atr\u00e2 'ha tad urug\u00e2yasya vishnoh paramam padam ava bh\u00e2ti bh\u00fbreh;\n_T\u00e2ittiriya Yagurv._ i. 3, 6.\n\n[62] _Rigv._ i. 187, 1, the passage already cited, when speaking of\nthe water of strength.\n\n[63] Na m\u00e2 garan nadyo m\u00e2tritam\u00e2 d\u00e2s\u00e2 yad \u00eem susamubdham av\u00e2dhuh \u00e7iro\nyad asya tr\u00e2itano vitakshat; _Rigv._ i. 158, 5. We shall have occasion\nto return more than once to an analogous myth referring to Indras.\n\n[64] Tritas tad ved\u00e2ptyah sa g\u00e2mitv\u00e2ya rebhati; _Rigv._ i. 105,\n9.--_G\u00e2mitv\u00e2_ is properly the relation of brotherhood, and also\nrelationship in general. _Rebhas_, or the invoker, represented as a\nhero, is no other than our _Trita \u00e2ptyas_.\n\n[65] Rebham nivritam sitam adbhyah; _Rigv._ i. 112, 5.\n\n[66] Tritah k\u00fbpe 'vahito dev\u00e2n havata \u00fbtaye tac chu\u00e7r\u00e2va brihaspatih\nkrinvann anh\u00fbran\u00e2d uru; _Rigv._ i. 105, 17.\n\n[67] _N\u00eetimangar\u00ee_, quoted by Wilson, _Rigvedas-Samhit\u00e2_, vol. i.\n\n[68] \u00c2 g\u00e2 \u00e2gad u\u00e7an\u00e2 k\u00e2vyah sac\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 83, 5.\n\n[69] Patir gav\u00e2m abhavad eka indrah; _Rigv._ iii. 31, 4.\n\n[70] Gag\u00e2na s\u00fbryam ush\u00e2sam; _Rigv._ iii. 32, 8.\n\n[71] Sas\u00e2n\u00e2ty\u00e2n uta s\u00fbryam sas\u00e2nendrah sas\u00e2na purubhogasam g\u00e2m;\n_Rigv._ iii. 34, 9.\n\n[72] Mahi gyotir nihitam vakshan\u00e2su \u00e2m\u00e2 pakvam carati bibhrat\u00ee g\u00e2uh\nvi\u00e7vam sv\u00e2dma sambhritam usriy\u00e2y\u00e2m; _Rigv._ iii. 30, 14.\n\n[73] Indrah s\u00eet\u00e2m ni grihn\u00e2tu t\u00e2m p\u00fbsh\u00e2nu yachatu s\u00e2 nah payasvat\u00ee\nduh\u00e2m uttar\u00e2m-uttar\u00e2m sam\u00e2m; _Rigv._ iv. 57, 7.\n\n[74] Mridha ushtro na; _Rigv._ i. 138, 2.\n\n[75] Yat samvatsam ribhavo g\u00e2m arakshan yat samvatsam ribhavo m\u00e2\napin\u00e7an; _Rigv._ iv. 33, 4.\n\n[76] Ush\u00e2 n\u00e2 r\u00e2m\u00eer arun\u00e2ir apornute maho gyotish\u00e2 \u00e7ucat\u00e2 goarnas\u00e2;\n_Rigv._ ii. 34, 12.\n\n[77] Dhenuh pratnasya k\u00e2myam duh\u00e2n\u00e2ntah putra\u00e7 carati dakshin\u00e2y\u00e2h\u00e2\ndyotanim vahati \u00e7ubhray\u00e2moshasah stomo a\u00e7vin\u00e2v agigah; _Rigv._ iii.\n58, 1.\n\n[78] Rit\u00e2ya dhen\u00fb parame duh\u00e2te; _Rigv._ iv. 23, 10.\n\n[79] Gav\u00e2m m\u00e2t\u00e2; _Rigv._ v. 45, 2.\n\n[80] Aren\u00e2vas tuga \u00e2 sadman dhenavah svaranti t\u00e2 uparat\u00e2ti s\u00fbryam;\n_Rigv._ i. 151, 5.\n\n[81] Ud apaptann arun\u00e2 bh\u00e2navo vrith\u00e2 sv\u00e2yugo arush\u00eer g\u00e2 ayukshata;\n_Rigv._ i. 92, 2\n\n[82] Yen\u00e2 navagve a\u00f1gire da\u00e7agve sapt\u00e2sye revat\u00ee revad \u00fbsha; _Rigv._\niv. 51, 4.--The sun is also said to be drawn by seven fair horses;\n_Rigv._ i. 50, 9.--Cfr. the following chapter.\n\n[83] Ta usho adris\u00e2no gotr\u00e2 gav\u00e2m a\u00f1giraso grinanti; _Rigv._ vi. 65, 5.\n\n[84] Riten\u00e2drim vy asan bhidantah sam a\u00f1giraso navanta gobhih \u00e7\u00fbnam\nnarah pari shadann ush\u00e2sam; _Rigv._ iv. 3, 11.\n\n[85] Praty u adar\u00e7y \u00e2yaty uchant\u00ee duhit\u00e2 divah--Ud usriy\u00e2h srigate\ns\u00fbryah sac\u00e2; _Rigv._ vii. 81, 1, 2.\n\n[86] Vahanti s\u00eem arun\u00e2so ru\u00e7anto g\u00e2vah subhag\u00e2m urviy\u00e2 prath\u00e2n\u00e2m\napegate \u00e7\u00fbro asteva \u00e7atr\u00fbn b\u00e2dhate; _Rigv._ vi. 64, 3.\n\n[87] Rugad drilh\u00e2ni dadad usriy\u00e2n\u00e2m prati g\u00e2va ushasam v\u00e2va\u00e7anta;\n_Rigv._ vii. 75, 7.\n\n[88] G\u00e2vo na vragam vy ush\u00e2 avar tamah; _Rigv._ i. 92, 4.\n\n[89] Yo a\u00e7v\u00e2n\u00e2m yo gav\u00e2m gopatih; _Rigv._ i. 101, 4.\n\n[90] Yu\u00f1kte gav\u00e2m arun\u00e2n\u00e2m an\u00eekam; _Rigv._ i. 124, 11.--Esha gobhir\narunebhir yug\u00e2n\u00e2; _Rigv._ v. 80, 3.\n\n[91] Avishk Krinv\u00e2n\u00e2 tanvam purastat ritasya panth\u00e2m anv eti; _Rigv._\nv. 80, 4.\n\n[92] Apa\u00e7yam gop\u00e2m anipadyam\u00e2nam \u00e2 ca par\u00e2 ca pathibhi\u00e7 carantam sa\nsadhr\u00eec\u00eeh sa vish\u00fbcir vas\u00e2na \u00e2 var\u00eevarti bhuvaneshv antah; _Rigv._ x.\n177, 3.\n\n[93] Ap\u00e2d eti pratham\u00e2 padvat\u00een\u00e2m kas tad v\u00e2m ciketa; _Rigv._ i. 152, 3.\n\n[94] Ratham ye cakruh suvritam; _Rigv._ iv. 33, 8.--Takshan\nn\u00e2saty\u00e2bhy\u00e2m parigm\u00e2nam sukham ratham; _Rigv._ i. 20, 3.\n\n[95] Yuvo ratham duhit\u00e2 s\u00fbryasya saha \u00e7riy\u00e2 n\u00e2saty\u00e2vrin\u00eeta; _Rigv._ i.\n117, 13.--\u00c2 v\u00e2m ratham duhit\u00e2 s\u00fbryasya k\u00e2rshmev\u00e2tishthad arvat\u00e2\ngayant\u00ee vi\u00e7ve dev\u00e2 anv amanyanta hridbhih; _Rigv._ i. 116, 17.\n\n[96] Yuktv\u00e2 ratham upa dev\u00e2n ay\u00e2tana; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7.--Prith\u00fb ratho\ndakshin\u00e2y\u00e2 ayogy \u00e2enam dev\u00e2so amrit\u00e2so asthuh; _Rigv._ i. 123,\n1.--Dev\u00ee gir\u00e2 rath\u00e2n\u00e2m; _Rigv._ i. 48, 3.--\u00c7atam rathebhih subhagosh\u00e2\niyam vi y\u00e2ty abhi m\u00e2nush\u00e2n; _Rigv._ i. 48, 7.\n\n[97] G\u00e2naty ahnah prathamasya; _Rigv._ i. 123, 9.\n\n[98] Anu dv\u00e2 gahit\u00e2 nayo 'ndham \u00e7ronam ca vritrahan; _Rigv._ iv. 30, 19.\n\n[99] Sakh\u00e2bh\u00fbd a\u00e7vinor ush\u00e2h; _Rigv._ iv. 52, 2.--Par\u00e2vrigam prandham\n\u00e7ronam cakshasa etave krithah; _Rigv._ i. 112, 8.--I here explicitly\nabandon the hypothesis I advanced six years ago in the \"Life and\nMiracles of the God Indras in the Rigvedas,\" pp. 22 and 24, to the\neffect that the hero P\u00e2ravrig is the lightning flashing from the dark\ncloud; whereas the blind-lame seems now to me the sun in the darkness\nof night or winter.\n\n[100] Sa vidv\u00e2n apagoham kan\u00een\u00e2m \u00e2vir bhavann udatishthat par\u00e2vrik\nprati \u00e7ronah sth\u00e2d vy anag acashta; _Rigv._ ii. 15, 7.\n\n[101] _Rigv._ v. 48, 1.\n\n[102] Etad ghed uta v\u00eeryam indra cakartha p\u00e2unsyam striyam yad durhan\u00e2\nyuvam vadh\u00eer duhitaram divah diva\u00e7 cid gh\u00e2 duhitaram mah\u00e2n mah\u00eeyam\u00e2n\u00e2m\nush\u00e2sam indra sam pinak aposh\u00e2 anasah sarat sampisht\u00e2d aha bibhyush\u00ee\nni yat s\u00eem \u00e7i\u00e7nathad vrish\u00e2; _Rigv._ iv. 30, 8-11.\n\n[103] The two arms of Indras are said to vanquish the cow (or the\ncows); Gogit\u00e2 bah\u00fb; _Rigv._ i. 102, 6.\n\n[104] Vy uch\u00e2 duhitar divo m\u00e2 ciram tanuth\u00e2 apah net tv\u00e2 stenam yath\u00e2\nripum tap\u00e2ti s\u00fbro arcish\u00e2; _Rigv._ v. 79, 9.--Cfr. the chapter which\ntreats of the Spider.\n\n[105] Bhadro bhadray\u00e2 sacam\u00e2na \u00e2g\u00e2t svas\u00e2ram g\u00e2ro abhy eti pa\u00e7cat;\n_Rigv._ x. 3, 3.\n\n[106] Cfr. _Rigv._ x. 17, and Max M\u00fcller's \"Lectures on the Science of\nLanguage,\" second series, 481-486.\n\n[107] Kanyeva tanv\u00e2 \u00e7\u00e2\u00e7ad\u00e2n\u00e2n (arepas\u00e2 tanv\u00e2 \u00e7\u00e2\u00e7ad\u00e2n\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 124,\n6), eshi devi devam iyaksham\u00e2nam samsmayam\u00e2n\u00e2 yuvatih purast\u00e2d \u00e2vir\nvaksh\u00e2nsi krinushe vibh\u00e2t\u00ee; _Rigv._ i. 123, 10.\n\n[108] _Rigv._ i. 30, 20-22.\n\n[109] Vy \u00fb vragasya tamaso dv\u00e2rochant\u00eer avran chucayah p\u00e2vak\u00e2h;\n_Rigv._ iv. 51, 2.--Apa dvesho b\u00e2dham\u00e2n\u00e2 tam\u00e2nsy ush\u00e2 divo duhit\u00e2\ngyotish\u00e2g\u00e2t; _Rigv._ v. 80, 5.--Sp\u00e2rh\u00e2 vas\u00fbni tamas\u00e2pag\u00fblh\u00e2 \u00e2vish,\nkrinvanty ushaso vibh\u00e2t\u00eeh; _Rigv._ i. 123, 6.--Sasato bodhayant\u00ee;\n_Rigv._ i. 124, 4.--Vi\u00e7vam givam carase bodhayant\u00ee; _Rigv._ i. 92,\n9.--Martyatr\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 123, 3.\n\n[110] Vi\u00e7v\u00e2ni dev\u00ee bhuvan\u00e2bhicakshy\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 92, 6.--Prag\u00e2nat\u00ee;\n_Rigv._ i. 124, 3.\n\n[111] Arbh\u00e2d \u00eeshate na maho vibh\u00e2t\u00ee; _Rigv._ i. 124, 6.\n\n[112] As to Ghosh\u00e2, cured by the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u (_Rigv._ i. 117, 7), and\nApal\u00e2, cured by Indras (_Rigv._ viii. 80), see the same subject\ndiscussed more in detail in the chapter which treats of the Hog.\n\n[113] \u00c7ukr\u00e2 krishn\u00e2d aganishta \u00e7vit\u00eec\u00ee; _Rigv._ i. 123, 9.\n\n[114] Yasy\u00e2naksh\u00e2 duhit\u00e2 g\u00e2tv\u00e2sa kas t\u00e2m vidv\u00e2n abhi many\u00e2te andh\u00e2m\nkataro menim prati tam muc\u00e2te ya \u00eem vah\u00e2te ya \u00eem v\u00e2 varey\u00e2t; _Rigv._\nx. 27, 11.--Vritrasya kan\u00eenik\u00e2 'si cakshushp\u00e2 asi; _T\u00e2ittir. Yagurv._\ni. 2, 1.\n\n[115] Ap\u00e2nyad ety abhy anyad eti vishur\u00fbpe ahan\u00ee sam carete; _Rigv._\ni. 123, 7.\n\n[116] Ru\u00e7advats\u00e2 ru\u00e7at\u00ee \u00e7vety\u00e2g\u00e2d \u00e2r\u00e2ig u krishn\u00e2 sadan\u00e2ny asy\u00e2h\nsam\u00e2nabandh\u00fb amrite an\u00fbc\u00ee dy\u00e2v\u00e2 varnam carata \u00e2min\u00e2ne sam\u00e2no adhv\u00e2\nsvasror anantas tam any\u00e2ny\u00e2 carato deva\u00e7ishte na methete na tasthatuh\nsumeke naktosh\u00e2sa samanas\u00e2 vir\u00fbpe; _Rigv._ i. 113, 2, 3.\n\n[117] Naktosh\u00e2s\u00e2 varnam \u00e2memy\u00e2ne dh\u00e2payete \u00e7i\u00e7um ekam sam\u00eec\u00ee; _Rigv._\ni. 96, 5.\n\n[118] N\u00e2g\u00e2mim na pari vrinakti g\u00e2mim; _Rigv._ i. 124, 6.\n\n[119] Vy\u00fbrnvat\u00ee divo ant\u00e2n abodhy apa svas\u00e2ram sanutar yuyoti praminat\u00ee\nmanushy\u00e2 yug\u00e2ni yosh\u00e2 garasya cakshas\u00e2 vi bh\u00e2ti; _Rigv._ i. 92, 11.\n\n[120] Svas\u00e2 svasre gy\u00e2yasy\u00e2i yonim \u00e2r\u00e2ik; _Rigv._ i. 124, 8.\n\n[121] N\u00e2r\u00eer apasah; _Rigv._ i. 92, 3.\n\n[122] \u00c7ucayah p\u00e2vak\u00e2h; _Rigv._ iv. 51, 2.\n\n[123] Yosh\u00e2 g\u00e2rasya cakshas\u00e2 vibh\u00e2ti; _Rigv._ quoted above, i. 92, 11.\n\n[124] Yatam\u00e2n\u00e2 ra\u00e7mibhih s\u00fbryasya; _Rigv._ i. 123, 12.--Vyuchant\u00ee\nra\u00e7mibhih s\u00fbryasya; _Rigv._ i. 124, 8.\n\n[125] Ritasya yosh\u00e2 na min\u00e2ti dh\u00e2ma; _Rigv._ i. 123, 9.\n\n[126] Susamk\u00e2\u00e7\u00e2 m\u00e2trimrishteva yosh\u00e2vis tanvam krinushe dri\u00e7e kam;\n_Rigv._ i. 123, 11.\n\n[127] Esh\u00e2 \u00e7ubhr\u00e2 na tanvo vid\u00e2nordhveva sn\u00e2t\u00ee dri\u00e7aye no asth\u00e2t;\n_Rigv._ v. 80, 5.\n\n[128] Adhi pe\u00e7\u00e2nsi vapate nrit\u00fbr iv\u00e2pornute vaksha usreva bargaham;\n_Rigv._ i. 92, 4.\n\n[129] Bhadr\u00e2 vastr\u00e2 tanvate; _Rigv._ i. 134, 4.\n\n[130] Smayate vibh\u00e2t\u00ee suprat\u00eek\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 92, 6.\n\n[131] Pr\u00e2kramisham ushas\u00e2m agriyeva; _Rigv._ x. 95, 2.\n\n\nSECTION II.\n\nTHE WORSHIP OF THE BULL AND OF THE COW IN INDIA, AND THE BR\u00c2HMANIC\nLEGENDS RELATING TO IT.\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The princes called bulls.--The bull the symbol of the god\n    \u00c7ivas.--The cow was not to be killed.--Exchange of the bull and the\n    cow for other animals; the bull and the cow, considered as the\n    greatest reward desired by the legislating priests of India.--The\n    cow's hide in nuptial usages a symbol of abundance; its elasticity\n    and power of extension; the cow and its hide during the pregnancy of\n    women an augury of happy birth, and in funeral ceremonies an augury\n    of resurrection.--Cows sent to pasture with auguries.--Cows seen by\n    night in a dream are a sinister omen; meaning of this Hindoo\n    superstition.--The black cow which produces white milk in the Vedic\n    hymns.--The reins of the cow or black goat sacrificed in funerals\n    given as a viaticum or provision to the dead man, that they may\n    contribute to his resurrection.--The variegated cow comes again in a\n    br\u00e2hmanam, and is interpreted as a cloud.--The coming out of the\n    cow-dawns feasted.--The cornucopia.--The milk of the cows is the\n    serpent's poison.--The salutary herb.--The enchanted gem, the ring\n    of recognition.--The moon, as a female, a good fairy who works for\n    the aurora, and who entertains and guides the hero.--The moon, as a\n    male, a white bull.--The city of the moon.--Indras consoles and\n    nourishes the unhappy S\u00eet\u00e2.--R\u00e2mas assimilated to Indras.--The\n    coadjutors of R\u00e2mas are those of Indras.--The bull R\u00e2mas.--The names\n    of the monsters and the names of the heroes in the\n    R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam.--R\u00e2mas, the Hindoo Xerxes, chastises the sea.--The\n    celestial ocean; the cloud-mountains carried by the heroes; the\n    bridge across the sea made of these mountains; while the bridge is\n    being made, it rains.--The battle of R\u00e2mas is a winter and a\n    nocturnal one, in a cloudy sky.--The monster barrel again; the\n    monster trunk with a cavity; Kabandhas.--The dying monster thanks\n    the hero, who delivers him from an ancient malediction, and becomes\n    again a handsome luminous youth.--The dawn S\u00eet\u00e2 sacrificed in the\n    fire.--S\u00eet\u00e2 daughter of the sun.--The Buddhist legend of R\u00e2mas and\n    S\u00eet\u00e2.--S\u00eet\u00e2 predestined as the reward of valour.--An indiscretion of\n    the husband R\u00e2mas causes him to lose his wife S\u00eet\u00e2.--The story of\n    Urva\u00e7\u00ee again, the first of the auroras; the wife flees because her\n    husband has revealed her secret, because her husband has looked at\n    another woman, because he has let himself be seen naked; the\n    fugitive wife hides herself in a plant.--The wife stays with her\n    husband as long as he says nothing displeasing to her.--The wife\n    kills her sons; the husband complains and the wife flees.--The\n    contrary.--The story of \u00c7unah\u00e7epas again.--The god Varunas, who\n    binds; the son sacrificed to the monster against his will by his\n    father.--The hero-hunter.--The middle son sold, the son of the\n    cow.--The cow herself, Aditi, or \u00c7abal\u00e2, or K\u00e2madhuk, wife of\n    Vasishtas, sacrificed instead of the son of Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras.--Indras\n    delivers the bound hero, _i.e._, he delivers himself. The aurora, or\n    the daughter of the black one, liberates \u00c7unah\u00e7epas, bound by the\n    black one, that is, she delivers the sun her husband.--The fetters\n    of Varunas and of Agigartas are equivalent to the bridle of the\n    horse and to the collar of the dog sold to the demon in European\n    fairy tales.--The golden palace of Varunas on the western\n    mountain.--Monstrous fathers.--Identification of Hari\u00e7candras,\n    Agigartas, and Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras.--The contention of Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras and\n    Vasishtas for the possession of the cow \u00c7abal\u00e2.--Demoniacal\n    character of Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras.--The sister of the monster-lover or\n    seducer of the hero.--The cloud drum.--The cloudy monster Dundubhis,\n    in the form of a buffalo with sharpened horns, destroyed by the son\n    of Indras.--The buffalo a monster, the bull a hero.--Krishnas the\n    monster becomes a god.--The god Indras fallen for having killed a\n    br\u00e2hman monster.--The three heads of the monster cut off at a\n    blow.--The three brothers in the palace of La\u00f1k\u00e2; the eldest brother\n    has the royal dignity; the second, the strong one, sleeps, and only\n    wakens to eat and prove his strength; the third is good and is\n    victorious.--The three brothers P\u00e2ndavas, sons of Yamas, V\u00e2yus and\n    Indras in the Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam; the first is wise, the second is strong,\n    the third is handsome and victorious; he is the best.--Again the\n    three working brothers entertained by a king.--The three disciples\n    of Dh\u00e2umyas.--The blind one who falls into the well.--The voyage of\n    Uta\u00f1kas to hell.--He meets a bull.--The excrement of the bull,\n    ambrosia.--The stone uplifted with the help of the lever, of the\n    thunderbolt of Indras.--The earrings of the queen carried off; their\n    mythical meaning.--Indras and Krishnas also search for the\n    earrings.--The three Buddhist brothers.--The eldest brother frees\n    the younger ones by his knowledge in questions and riddles.--The\n    hero and the monster ill or vulnerable in their feet.--The two rival\n    sisters.--The good sister thrown into the well by the wicked\n    one.--The prince comes to deliver her.--The wicked sister takes the\n    place of the good one.--The three brothers again.--The sons make\n    their father and mother recognise each other.--The third brother,\n    P\u00fbrus, the only good one, assists his aged father Yay\u00e2tis, by taking\n    his old age upon himself.--The old blind man, D\u00eerghatamas, thrown\n    into the water by his sons.--Yay\u00e2tis and D\u00eerghatamas, Hindoo King\n    Lears.--The queen Sudeshn\u00e2 makes her maid or foster-sister take her\n    place; a Hindoo form of Queen Berta.--The blind and the crooked or\n    lame, or hunchbacked, again with the three-breasted princess.--They\n    cure each other.--The bride disputed by the brothers.--The aurora\n    and the sun flee from each other.--The beautiful girl, the daughter\n    of the sun, flees after having seen the prince upon the\n    mountain.--The prince cannot overtake her; the third time, at last,\n    the prince marries the daughter of the sun.--The marvellous cow of\n    Vasishthas.--The hero Vasishthas wishes to kill himself, but cannot;\n    he is immortal; he throws himself down from the mountain and does\n    not hurt himself; he goes through fire and is not burnt; he throws\n    himself into the water and does not drown; mythical signification of\n    these prodigies.--The wind runs after women.--Conclusion of the\n    study of the myth and of the legends which refer to the bull and the\n    cow of India.\n\nJust as the importance of the cattle to primitive and pastoral Aryan\nlife explains the propensity of the Aryan mind to conceive of the\nmobile phenomena of the heavens, at first considered living beings, as\nbulls and cows, so the consecration of these animals, associated and\nidentified with the celestial phenomena and the gods, naturally gave\nrise to the superstitious worship of the bull and the cow, common to\nall the Aryan nations, but particularly, through the intervention of\nthe br\u00e2hmanic priests, to the Hindoos.\n\nIt is a remarkable fact that the words _vrishas_, _vrishabhas_, and\n_rishabhas_, which mean the bull as the one who pours out, the\n_foecundator_, is often used in Sanscrit to denote the best, the\nfirst, the prince; and hence the bull, that is to say, the best\n_foecundator_, is in India the most sacred symbol of royalty. For this\nreason the phallic and destroying god, the royal _\u00c7ivas_, who inhabits\n_Gokarnas_ (a word which properly means cow's ear), has both for his\nsteed and his emblem a br\u00e2hmanic bull, _i.e._, a bull with a hunch on\nits back; the _nandin_, or joyful attribute, being given to \u00c7ivas\nhimself, inasmuch as, being the _Deus phallicus_, he is the god of\njoyfulness and beatitude.[132]\n\nStill more honour is paid to the cow (like the Vedic dawn _anavady\u00e2_,\ninnocent or inculpable[133]), which therefore it was a crime to\nkill.[134] An interesting chapter of the _\u00c2itareya-br\u00e2hmanam_,[135] on\nthe sacrifice of animals, shows us how, next to man, the horse was the\nsupreme sacrifice offered to the gods; how the cow afterwards took the\nplace of the horse; the sheep, of the cow; the goat, of the sheep;\nand, at last, vegetable products were substituted for animals;--a\nsubstitution or cheating of the gods in the sacrifice, which, perhaps,\nserves to explain even more the fraud of which, in popular stories,\nthe simpleton is always the victim; the simpleton here being the god\nhimself, and the cheater man, who changes, under a sacred pretext, the\nnoblest and most valued animals for common and less valuable ones, and\nfinally for vegetables apparently of no value whatever. In the Hindoo\ncodes of law we have the same fraudulent substitution of animals under\na legal pretext. \"The killer of a cow,\" says the code attributed to\n_Y\u00e2gnavalkyas_,[136] \"must stay a month in penitence, drinking the\n_pancagavyam_ (_i.e._, the five good productions of the cow, which,\naccording to Manus,[137] are milk, curds, butter, urine, and dung),\nsleeping in a stable and following the cows; and he must purify\nhimself by the gift of another cow.\" Thus, according to\n_Y\u00e2gnavalkya_,[138] the killer of a parrot is purified by giving a\ntwo-year-old calf; the killer of a crane by giving a calf three years\nold; the killer of an ass, a goat, or a sheep, by the gift of a bull;\nthe killer of an elephant by the gift of five black bulls\n(_n\u00eelavrish\u00e2p_). And one need not be astonished to find these\ncontracts (which remind one of that between Jacob and Laban) in the\nHindoo codes of law, when, in the Vedic hymns themselves, a poet\noffers to sell to whoever will buy it, an Indras of his, that is to\nsay, a bull, for ten cows.[139] Another interesting verse of\n_Y\u00e2gnavalkyas_[140] tells us they die pure who are killed by lightning\nor in battle for the sake of the cows or the br\u00e2hmans. The cow was\noften the object heroes fought for in heaven; the Br\u00e2hman wished to be\nthe object heroes should fight for upon earth.\n\nWe learn from the domestic ceremonies referred to by _Grihyas\u00fbtr\u00e2ni_\nwith how much respect the bull and the cow were treated as the symbols\nof abundance in a family. In _\u00c2\u00e7val\u00e2yanas_,[141] we find the bull's\nhide stretched out near the nuptial hearth, the wife seated upon it,\nand the husband, touching his wife, saying, \"May the lord of all\ncreatures allow us to have children;\"--words taken from the Vedic\nnuptial hymn.[142] We have seen above how the Ribhavas, from the hide\nof a dead cow, formed a new and beautiful one, or, in other words,\nhow, from the dusk of evening, by stretching it in the night, they\nformed the dawn of morning. This cow's hide plays also an important\n_r\u00f4le_ in the popular faith; an extraordinary elasticity is attributed\nto it, a power of endless expansibility, and for this reason it is\nadopted as a symbol of fecundity, upon which the wife must place\nherself in order to become a mother of children. The cow's hide\n(_gocarman_), in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[143] is the garment of the god\nVishnus; and the gocarman divided into thongs, and afterwards fastened\nto each other, served formerly in India to measure the circumference\nof a piece of ground;[144] hence the cow's hide suggested the idea of\na species of infinity. Further on we shall find it put to\nextraordinary uses in western legend; we find it even in the hymns of\nthe Vedic age used to cover the body of a dead man, the fire being\ninvoked not to consume it, almost as if the cow's hide had the virtue\nof resuscitating the dead.[145]\n\nThe cow, being the symbol of fruitfulness, was also the companion of\nthe wife during pregnancy. _\u00c2\u00e7val\u00e2yanas_[146] tells us how, in the\nthird month, the husband was to give his wife to drink of the sour\nmilk of a cow that has a calf like itself, and in it two beans and a\ngrain of barley; the husband was then to ask his wife three times,\n\"What drinkest thou?\" and she was to answer three times: \"The\ngeneration of males.\" In the fourth month, the wife, according to\n_\u00c2\u00e7val\u00e2yanas_, was to put herself again upon the bull's hide, near the\nfire of sacrifice, when they again invoked the god _Prag\u00e2patis_, lord\nof all creatures, or of procreation; the moon, like a celestial bull\nand cow, was invited to be present at the generation of men;[147] and\na bull, during the Vedic period, was the gift which sufficed for the\npriest. In the Vedic antiquity, neither bulls nor cows were allowed to\ngo to pasture without some special augury, which, in the domestic\nceremonials of _\u00c2\u00e7val\u00e2yanas_,[148] has been also handed down to us;\nthe cows were to give milk and honey, for the strength and increase of\nwhoever possessed them. Here we have again the cows not only as the\nbeneficent, but as the strong ones, they who help the hero or the\nheroine who takes them to pasture.\n\nBut although beautiful cows, when seen by day, are a sign of good\nluck, seen in dreams they are of evil omen; for in that case they are\nof course the black cows, the shadows of night, or the gloomy waters\nof the nocturnal ocean. Already in the _Rigvedas_, the dawn, or the\nluminous cow, comes to deliver the fore-mentioned solar hero, Tritas\nAptyas, from the evil sleep which he sleeps amidst the cows[149] of\nnight. _\u00c2\u00e7val\u00e2yanas_, in his turn, recommends us when we have an evil\ndream, to invoke the sun, to hasten the approach of the morning, or,\nbetter still, to recite the hymn of five verses to the dawn which we\nhave already referred to, and which begins with the words, \"And like\nan evil dream amidst the cows.\" Here the belief is not yet an entirely\nsuperstitious one; and we understand what is meant by the cows who\nenvelop us in the sleep of night, when we are told to invoke the sun\nand the dawn to come and deliver us from them.\n\nA cow (probably a black one), often a black goat, was sometimes also\nsacrificed in the funeral ceremonies of the Hindoos, as if to augur\nthat, just as the black cow, night, produces the milky humours of the\naurora, or is fruitful, so will he who has passed through the kingdom\nof darkness rise again in the world of light. We have already seen the\nblack night as the mother of the white and luminous aurora; I quote\nbelow yet another Vedic sentence, in which a poet ingenuously wonders\nwhy the cows of Indras, the black ones as well as the light-coloured\n(the black clouds, as well as the white and red ones), should both\nyield white milk.[150] And even the gloomy nocturnal kingdom of Yamas,\nthe god of the dead, has its cows of black appearance, which are\nnevertheless milk-yielding; and thus the black cow of the funeral\nsacrifices comes to forebode resurrection.\n\nIn the same way the viaticum, or provision of food for his journey,\ngiven to the dead man is a symbol of his resurrection. The journey\nbeing considered as a short one, the provision of food which is to\nsustain the traveller to the kingdom of the dead is limited, and each\ndead hero carries it with him, generally not so much for himself, as\nto ensure a passage into the kingdom of the dead. For this reason we\nread, even in the domestic ceremonials of _\u00c2\u00e7val\u00e2yanas_, that it is\nrecommended to put into the hands of the dead man,[151] what is the\ngreatest symbol of strength, the reins of the animal killed in the\nfuneral sacrifice (or, in default of an animal victim, at least two\ncakes of rice or of flour), in order that the dead man may throw them\ndown the throats of the two Cerberi, the two sons of the bitch\n_Saram\u00e2_, so that they may let the deceased enter scatheless into the\ndeath-kingdom, the mysterious kingdom of Yamas; and here we find the\nmonster of the popular tales, into whose house the hero, having passed\nthrough many dangers, enters, by the advice of a good fairy or of a\ngood old man, giving something to appease the hunger of the two dogs\nwho guard its gate.\n\nThey who return from the funeral must touch the stone of Priapus, a\nfire, the excrement of a cow,[152] a grain of barley, a grain of\nsesame and water,--all symbols of that fecundity which the contact\nwith a corpse might have destroyed.\n\nThe Vedic hymns have shown us the principal mythical aspects and\nfunctions of the cow and the bull; we have also seen how the br\u00e2hmanic\ncodes confirmed, by the sanction of law, the worship of these animals,\nand how jealously the domestic tradition of the Hindoos has guarded\nit. Let us now see from the _\u00c2itareya-br\u00e2hmanam_, how the Br\u00e2hmans\nthemselves, those of the era immediately following that of the Ved\u00e2s,\ninterpreted the myth of the cow.\n\nWe have recognised in the Vedic heavens, as reflected in the hymns of\nthe _Rigvedas_, three cows--the cow-cloud, the cow-moon, and the\ncow-aurora. These three cows, and especially the first and the third,\nare also quite distinct from one another in the _\u00c2itareya-br\u00e2hmanam_.\n\nIt tells us how the _g\u00e2uh pri\u00e7nih_, the variegated cow, or spotted\ncow, of the _Rigvedas_, must be celebrated to make the earth\nfruitful[153] (or that one must sing to the cloud that it may\nfertilise the pastures and fields with rain), and how one must\nsacrifice a bull to _Vi\u00e7vakarman_ (or the one that does all), who is\ntransformed into the god Indras when killing the demon Vritras,[154]\nor the monster who keeps the rain in the cloud.\n\nIt shows us the full moon, _R\u00e2k\u00e2_, joined to the aurora, as a source of\nabundance,[155] and the aurora with the cow.[156] It tells us explicitly\nthat the characteristic form of the aurora is the red cow, because she\nmoves with the red cows.[157] The gods, after having discovered the cows\nin the cavern, open the cavern with the third libation of the\nmorning;[158] when the cows come out, the gods, the _\u00c2dity\u00e2s_, also come\nout; hence the coming forth of the gods (_\u00c2dity\u00e2n\u00e2m ayanam_) is\nequivalent to the coming forth of the cows (_gav\u00e2m ayanam_). The cows\ncome out when they have their horns, and adorn themselves.[159]\n\nThe aurora is a cow; this cow has horns; her horns are radiant and\ngolden. When the cow aurora comes forth, all that falls from her horns\nbrings good luck; hence in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[160] the benefits\nreceived from a holy hermit, called Mata\u00f1gas, are compared to those of\na _gav\u00e2m ayanam_, _i.e._, a coming out of cows. To understand this\nsimile, besides a reference to the Vedic texts, it is necessary to\ncompare it with the modern usages of India, in which, in celebration\nof the new solar year, or the birth of the pastoral god Krishnas (the\ngod who is black during the night, but who becomes luminous in the\nmorning among the cows of the dawning, or among the female cowherds),\nit is customary, towards the end of December, to give cows to the\nBr\u00e2hmans, exchange presents of cows and calves, besprinkle one another\nwith milk, to adorn a beautiful milch cow, crown her with flowers,\ngild her horns, or paint them various colours, to deck her to\noverloading with flowers, fruit, and little cakes, and then hunt her\nfrom the village to the sound of drums and trumpets, in order that,\nfull of terror, she may flee away with distraction and impetuosity.\nThe cow loses her ornaments in her flight, and these, being estimated\nas propitious treasures, are eagerly picked up by the faithful, and\npreserved as sacred relics.[161]\n\nIn the _\u00c2itareya-br\u00e2hmanam_,[162] the sun is born of the cows (_gog\u00e2_),\nis the son of the cow aurora; as the sun's mother she naturally\nnourishes him with her milk; hence the same _\u00c2itareya_[163] tells us\nthat the gods Mitras and Varunas, by means of the curdled milk, took\nfrom the drink of the gods the inebriating poison which the long-tongued\nwitch (_D\u00eerghagihv\u00ee_) had poured into it. This curdled milk is the same\nmilky sea, with health-giving herbs scattered in it, and which the gods\nagitate to form ambrosia, in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, and\nthe Puranic legends; a sea and herbs which we find already spoken of\ntogether in a Vedic hymn.[164] But in the sky, where the ambrosial milk\nand the health-giving herbs are produced, there are gods and demons; and\nthe milk, which is at one time the rain, at another ambrosia, is now in\nthe cloud, now in the moon (called also _Oshadhipatis_, or lord of\nherbs), now round the dawn. Hanumant, who, in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, goes in\nquest of the health-giving grass to restore their souls to the half-dead\nheroes, looks for it now between the mountain bull (_rishabhas_) and the\nheavenly mountain _K\u00e2ilasas_, now between the Mount Lunus (_\u00c7andras_)\nand the mountain cup (_Dronas_); and the mountain which possesses the\nherb for which Hanumant is searching is itself called herb (_oshadhis_),\nor the one that causes to rejoice with perfumes (_Gandham\u00e2danas_[165]),\nwhich two words are used synonymously. Here the milky, ambrosial, and\nhealthful humour is supposed to be produced, not by a cow, but by an\nherb. And the gods and demons contend in heaven for the possession of\nthis herb, as well as for the ambrosia; the only difference being that\nthe gods enjoy both one and the other without corrupting them, whilst\nthe demons poison them as they drink them; that is to say, they spread\ndarkness over the light, they move about in the darkness, in the gloomy\nwaters, in the black humour which comes out of the herb itself, which,\nin contact with them, becomes poisonous, so that they in turn suck the\npoison. On the other hand, the _Gandharv\u00e2s_,[166] an amphibious race, in\nwhom at one time the nature of the gods predominates, at another that of\nthe demons, and who consequently take now the side of the gods, now that\nof the demons, are simply guards who, as against theft, keep watch and\nward over the perfumes and healthful herbs, which are their own\nproperty, and the healthful or ambrosial waters, the ambrosia which\nbelongs to their wives, the nymphs; they are, in a word, the earliest\nrepresentatives of the enjoying and jealous proprietor. We have already\nheard, in the _Rigvedas_, the demoniacal monsters call on each other to\nsuck the poison of the celestial cows; and we have seen that the\n_\u00c2itareya-br\u00e2hmanam_ accuses a witch of being the poisoner of the divine\nambrosia; we have, moreover, noticed that a Vedic hymn already\nassociates together the ambrosial milk and the healthful herb, and that,\nin the br\u00e2hmanic cosmogony, the milk and the herb which produces it are\nmanifested together, which herb or grass is beneficent or the reverse\naccording as the gods or the demons enjoy it; from all which it will be\neasy to understand this interesting Hindoo proverb, \"The grass gives\nthe milk to the cows, and the milk gives the poison to the\nserpents.\"[167] It is indeed the milk of the cow of the dawn and of the\ncow of the moon which destroys the serpents of darkness, the demoniacal\nshadows of night.\n\nBut the idea of the healthful herb is incorporated in another image,\nvery familiar to the popular Indo-European legends, and which is\ncontained even in the Vedic hymns. The cow produces the sun and the\nmoon; the circular shape, the disc of sun and moon, suggests variously\nthe idea of a ring, a gem, and a pearl; and the sun, _Savitar_, he who\ngives the juice, and the generator, is introduced in a Vedic hymn, as\nthe one who has immortal juice, who gives the pearl.[168] The humours of\nthe cow have passed to the herb, and from the herb to the pearl; and the\nnaturalness of this figure recommends itself to our modern conception,\nfor when we would describe a diamond or other gem as of the purest\nquality, we say it is a diamond or gem of the first water. Even the\npearl-moon and the pearl-sun, from their ambrosial humours, have a fine\nwater. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[169] at the moment of production of ambrosia\nfrom the stirring up of the milky sea, we see, near the healthful\nherb, the gem _K\u00e2ustubhas_, the same which we afterwards find on the\nbreast of the sun-god Vishnus, and which is sometimes his navel;\nwhence Vishnus, in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[170] is saluted by the name of\n_ratnan\u00e2bhas_--that is to say, he who has a pearl for his navel; as the\nsun is in like manner saluted by the name of _Mani\u00e7ri\u00f1gas_--_i.e._, who\nhas horns of pearls.[171] In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[172] the bright-shining\ngrass and the solar disc appear together on the summit of the mountain\nGandham\u00e2danas; no sooner does he smell its odour than the solar hero\n_Lakshmanas_, delivered from the iron that oppressed him, lifts himself\nup from the ground; _i.e._, scarcely has the sun formed his disc, and\nbegun to shine like a celestial gem, than the sun-hero, whom the\nmonsters had vanquished during the night, rises in victory. And it is on\nthe summit of the mountain that, with a mountain metal of a colour\nsimilar to that of the young sun,[173] the sun _R\u00e2mas_ imprints a\ndazzling mark on the forehead of the dawn S\u00eet\u00e2, as if to be able to\nrecognise her--that is to say, he places himself upon the forehead of\nthe aurora or dawn. When the sun R\u00e2mas is separated from the dawn S\u00eet\u00e2,\nhe sends her in recognition, as a symbol of his disc, his own ring,\nwhich appears again in the famous ring given by King _Dushmantas_ to the\nbeautiful _\u00c7akuntal\u00e2_, the daughter of the nymph, and by means of which\nalone the lost bride can be recognised by the young and forgetful king;\nand S\u00eet\u00e2 sends back to R\u00e2mas, by the hands of Hanumant, as a sign of\nrecognition, the dazzling ornament which R\u00e2mas had one day placed upon\nher forehead in an idyllic scene among the mountains known to them\nalone. This ring of recognition, this magic pearl, often turns up in the\nHindoo legends. It is enough for me to indicate here the two most famous\nexamples.\n\nThe aurora who possesses the pearl becomes she who is rich in pearls,\nand herself a source of pearls; but the pearl, as we have already\nseen, is not only the sun, it is also the moon. The moon is the friend\nof the aurora; she comforts her in the evening under her persecutions;\nshe loads her with presents during the night, accompanies and guides\nher, and helps her to find her husband.\n\nIn the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, I frequently find the moon as a beneficent fairy,\nwho succours the dawn S\u00eet\u00e2; for the moon, as _r\u00e1gan\u00eekaras_ (she who\ngives light to the night), assumes a benignant aspect. We have already\nsaid that the moon is generally a male in India; but as full moon and\nnew moon it assumes, even in the Vedic texts, a feminine name. In a\nVedic hymn, _R\u00e2k\u00e2_, the full moon is exhorted to sew the work with a\nneedle that cannot be broken.[174] Here we have the moon personified\nas a marvellous workwoman, a fairy with golden fingers, a good fairy;\nand in this character we find her again in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, under the\nform of the old _Anas\u00fby\u00e2_, who anoints the darkened S\u00eet\u00e2 (for S\u00eet\u00e2,\nlike the Vedic girl, is dark and ugly during the night, or winter,\nwhen she is hidden) in the wood, with a divine unguent; gives her a\ngarland, various ornaments, and two beauteous garments, which are\nalways pure (as, _i.e._, they do not touch the earth, like the cows of\nthe Vedic dawn, who do not cover themselves with dust), and similar in\ncolour to the young sun;[175] in all which the fairy moon appears as\nworking during the night for the aurora, preparing her luminous\ngarments--the two garments, of which the one is for the evening and\nthe other for the morning, one lunar and of silver, the other solar\nand of gold--in order that she may please her husband R\u00e2mas, or the\nsun Vishnus, who is glad when he sees her thus adorned. In the\n_Svayamprabh\u00e2_, too, we meet with the moon as a good fairy, who, from\nthe golden palace which she reserves for her friend Hem\u00e2 (the golden\none), is during a month the guide, in the vast cavern, of Hanumant and\nhis companions, who have lost their way in the search of the dawn\nS\u00eet\u00e2. To come out of this cavern, it is necessary to shut the eyes, in\norder not to see its entrance; all Hanumant's companions are come out,\nbut Taras, who shines like the moon,[176] would wish to return. The\nsame moon can be recognised in the benignant fairies _Trig\u00e2t\u00e2_,\n_Suram\u00e2_, and _Saram\u00e2_, who announce to S\u00eet\u00e2 that her husband will\nsoon arrive, and that she will soon see him. The first, while the\narrival of R\u00e2mas is imminent, dreams that the monsters, dressed in\nyellow, are playing in a lake of cow's milk;[177] at the time when\nSuram\u00e2 announces to S\u00eet\u00e2 the approach of R\u00e2mas, S\u00eet\u00e2 shines by her own\nbeauty, like the opening dawn;[178] finally, Saram\u00e2 (who seems to be\nthe same as Suram\u00e2), whom S\u00eet\u00e2 calls her twin-sister (_sahodar\u00e2_),\npenetrating underground, like the moon Proserpine, also announces to\nS\u00eet\u00e2 her approaching deliverance at the hands of R\u00e2mas.[179] As to\nTrigat\u00e2, it is not difficult to recognise in her the moon, when we\nremember that Trgiatas is a name which is frequently given to the\nevening sun, or rising moon, _\u00c7ivas_, who is represented with the moon\nfor a diadem, whence his other name of _\u00c7andrac\u00fbdas_ (having the moon\nfor his diadem). Suram\u00e2 I believe to be, not a mythical, but only an\northographical variation, and more incorrect one, of Saram\u00e2, whose\nrelation to the moon we shall see in detail when we come to the\nchapter which treats of the mythical dog.\n\nThus far we have a moon fairy; but we find the moon designated at other\ntimes in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ by its common masculine name. The guardian of\nthe forest of honey, _Dadhimukhas_, in which forest, with its honey, the\nheroes who accompany S\u00eet\u00e2 enjoy themselves, is said to be generated by\nthe god Lunus.[180] And the moon, who assists Hanumant in his search of\nS\u00eet\u00e2, is said to shine like a white bull with a sharpened horn, with a\nfull horn;[181] in which we come back to the moon as a horned animal,\nand to the cornucopia. Moreover, we find the same lunar horn again in\nthe city of _\u00c7ri\u00f1gaveram_, where first the solar hero R\u00e2mas, and\nafterwards his brother Bharatas, are hospitably received when the sun is\ndarkened,[182] by _Guhas_, king of the black _Wish\u00e2d\u00e2s_, who also is of\nthe colour of a black cloud;[183] and R\u00e2mas and Bharatas take their\ndeparture in the morning from Guhas, who is said to wander always in the\nforests.[184] Now, this Guhas, who, though always hidden, yet wishes to\nentertain the solar hero during the night with presents of the town of\n\u00c7ri\u00f1gaveram, appears to me to be just another form of the solar hero\nhimself, who enters and hides himself in the night, hospitably received\nin the lunar habitation, another form of the god Indras, whom we have\nseen in the _Rigvedas_ united during the night to Indus or Somas--that\nis, to the moon--and who, in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_[185], when S\u00eet\u00e2 is in the\npower of the monster, comes down during the night to console her, lulls\nher keepers to sleep, and nourishes her with the ambrosial milk (with\nSoma, the moon, the same moon which, in the _Rigvedas_, the dawn, the\ngirl beloved of Indras, and whom therefore he does good to, brings him\nas a present), encouraging her with the prospect of the near advent of\nR\u00e2mas, the deliverer.\n\nBut it remains to us to adduce clearer evidence to show that in the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ R\u00e2mas is the sun, and S\u00eet\u00e2 the dawn, or aurora.\n\nWithout taking into account that R\u00e2mas is the most popular\npersonification of Vishnus, and that Vishnus is often the solar hero\n(although he is not seldom identified with the moon), let us see how\nR\u00e2mas manifests himself, and what he does in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ to\nvindicate especially his solar nature.\n\nIt is my opinion that the best way to prove this is to show how R\u00e2mas\nperforms the very same miracles that Indras does. R\u00e2mas, like Indras,\ngives, while still young, extraordinary proofs of his strength; R\u00e2mas,\nlike Indras, achieves his greatest enterprises while he is himself\nhidden; R\u00e2mas, like Indras, vanquishes the monster, reconquers S\u00eet\u00e2, and\nenjoys of right the company of his wife. Till R\u00e2mas goes into the\nforests, as Indras into the clouds and shadows, his great epopee\ndoes not begin. Indras has for assistants the winds (the Marutas);\nR\u00e2mas has for his greatest help Hanumant, the son of the wind\n(_M\u00e2rut\u00e2tmagah_);[186] Hanumant amuses himself with the monsters, as the\nwind with the archer-clouds of the thousand-eyed Indras;[187] and it is\nsaid that R\u00e2mas gets on Hanumant's back, as Indras does on the elephant\n_\u00c2iravatas_. The elephant with a proboscis is not unfrequently\nsubstituted, in the br\u00e2hmanic tradition, for the horned bull of the\nVed\u00e2s.[188] But the bull Indras is reproduced in the bull R\u00e2mas, and the\nmonkeys who assist R\u00e2mas have kept at least the tail of the Vedic cows,\nthe helpers of Indras, whence their generic name of _gol\u00e2\u00f1gul\u00e2s_ (who\nhave cows' tails).[189] The bow with which R\u00e2mas shoots the monsters is\nmade of a horn, whence his name of _\u00c7\u00e2rngadhanvant_ (he who shoots with\nthe horn);[190] R\u00e2mas receives the shower of hostile darts, as a bull\nupon its horns the abundant rains of autumn.[191] S\u00eet\u00e2 herself calls\nboth her R\u00e2mas and his brother Lakshmanas by the name of\n_sinharshabh\u00e2u_,[192] or the lion and the bull, which are conjoined so\nfrequently in the mythology, on account of equal strength; hence the\nterror of the lion when he hears the bull bellow in the first book of\nthe _Pancatantram_, and in all the numerous Eastern and Western\nvariations of that book. Indras has his conflicts in the cloudy, rainy,\nand gloomy sky; these are also the battle-fields of R\u00e2mas. The names of\nthe monsters of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, as, for instance, _Vidyuggivas_ (he who\nlives upon thunderbolts), _Vagrodar\u00ee_ (she who has thunderbolts in her\nstomach), _Indragit_ (who vanquishes Indras with magical arts),\n_Meghan\u00e2das_ (thundering cloud),[193] and others, show us the nature of\nthe battle. In the battle-field of R\u00e2mas, instead, the assisting hero is\nnow a bull (_rishabhas_), now an ox's eye (_gav\u00e2kshas_), now _gavayas_\n(_bos gavoeus_), and beings of similar appellations, which remind us of\nthe Vedic deities. Indras strikes with lightning the celestial ocean;\nR\u00e2mas, an Indian Xerxes, chastises the sea with burning arrows.[194]\nIndras, in the _Rigvedas_, crosses the sea and passes ninety-nine\nrivers; R\u00e2mas crosses the ocean upon a bridge of mountains, in carrying\nwhich Hanumant, the son of the wind, shows himself peculiarly skilful;\nthe winds carry the clouds, which we have seen, in the language of the\nVed\u00e2s, represented as mountains. And that clouds, and not real\nmountains, are here spoken of, we deduce from observing, as we read,\nthat while the animal army of R\u00e2mas carries the bridge on to the ocean,\nor the winds carry the clouds into the sky, the sun cannot burn the\nweary monkey-workers, because that clouds arise and cover it, rain\nfalls, and the wind expires.[195] The field of this epic battle is\nevidently the same as that of the mythical battle of Indras. And in the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ we find at every step the similarity of the combatants to\nthe dark clouds, the bellowing clouds, the clouds carried by the wind.\nThe forest which R\u00e2mas goes through is compared to a group of\nclouds.[196] The name of wanderer by night (_ragan\u00eecaras_), afterwards\ngiven frequently in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, to the monster whom R\u00e2mas combats,\nimplies, of course, that the battle is fought by night. The fact that,\nas we read, the witch _\u00c7\u00fbrpanakh\u00e2_ comes in winter to seduce R\u00e2mas\nwhilst he is in the forest,[197] and the monster _Kumbhakarnas_ awakens\nafter six months' sleep, like a rainy cloud which increases towards the\nend of summer (_tap\u00e2nte_),[198] shows us that the epic poem of R\u00e2mas\nembraces, besides the nightly battle of the sun over darkness, also the\ngreat annual battle of the sun in winter to recover and rejoin the\nspring. Anyhow, it is always a battle of the sun against the monster of\ndarkness. R\u00e2mas, in the very beginning of the great poem, says to his\nbrother Lakshmanas:--\"See, O Lakshmanas, M\u00e2ricas is come here with his\nfollowers, making a noise like thunder, and with him the wanderer by\nnight Sub\u00e2hus; thou wilt see them to-day, like a mass of dark clouds,\ndispersed by me in a moment, like clouds by the wind.\"[199] Here we find\nalmost the whole battle of Indras.\n\nAnd similar battles in the clouds are found in several other episodes of\nthe _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_. The dart of R\u00e2mas falls upon the monster _Kharas_ (the\nmonster ass), as upon a great tree falls the thunderbolt hurled by\nIndras.[200] Heroes and monsters combat with stones and rocks from the\ngreat mountain, and fall, overthrown on the earth, like mountains. The\nmonster R\u00e2vanas carries off S\u00eet\u00e2 with the magic of the wind and the\ntempest.[201] Heroes and monsters fight with trunks of trees from the\ngreat forest; moreover, the trunks themselves, having become monsters,\njoin the fray, stretch out their strange arms, and devour the hero in\ntheir cavities. And here we come upon the interesting legend of\n_Kabandhas_, in which we find again the forests and trees combating,\nand the barrel of the Ved\u00e2s carried by the divine bull. The _D\u00e2nav\u00e2s_ or\ndemons also appear, in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[202] in the forms of sounding\nbarrels. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, the highest of the demons (_d\u00e2navottamah_)\nis called by the name of _Kabandhas_ (barrel and trunk), compared to a\nblack thundering cloud, and represented as an enormous trunk, having one\nlarge yellowish eye, and an enormous devouring mouth in his chest.[203]\nIn Tuscany, we say of water that gushes copiously out of a reservoir,\nthat it pours as from a barrel's mouth. The monster Kabandhas draws\ntowards himself, with his long arms, the two brothers R\u00e2mas and\nLakshmanas (compared several times in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_[204] to the two\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, who resemble each other in everything). R\u00e2mas and Lakshmanas,\n_i.e._, the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the morning and evening, the spring and autumn\nsuns, the two twilights, who, in a passage of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, are\ncalled the two ears of R\u00e2mas, cut off the two extremities, the two long\narms, of the monster _Kabandhas_; upon which the trunk, able no longer\nto support itself, falls to the ground. The fallen monster then relates\nto the two brothers that he was once a beautiful demon; but that, by a\nmalediction, Indras one day made his head and legs enter his body; his\narms having been lacerated by the two brothers, the monster is\ndisenchanted from this malediction, and having resumed his form of a\nsplendid demon, he ascends to heaven in a luminous form. Here we have\nthe all-radiant sun shut up in the cloud, he being the yellow eye, the\nburning mouth, of Kabandhas, and, in union with the cloud, forming a\nhideous monster; the hero comes to destroy his monstrous form, and the\nmonster thanks him, for thus he becomes the glorious god, the splendid\nbeing, the handsome prince he was before. R\u00e2mas who delivers Kabandhas\nfrom his monstrous form by cutting off his two arms, is the sun R\u00e2mas\ncoming forth from the gloomy forest, and uncovering the sky in the east\nand in the west. R\u00e2mas delivering Kabandhas is simply the sun delivering\nhimself from the monster of gloom and cloud that envelops him. And,\nindeed, the greater part of the myths have their origin in the plurality\nof appellations given to the same phenomenon. Each appellation grows\ninto a distinct personality, and the various personalities fight with\neach other. Hence the hero who delivers himself becomes the deliverer of\nthe hero, viewed as a different person from the hero; the monstrous form\nwhich envelops the hero is often his own malediction; the hero who comes\nto kill this monstrous form is his benefactor.[205]\n\nThis theory of the monster who thanks the hero that kills him, agrees\nwith what we find on several other occasions in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, as in\nthe case of the stag _Mar\u00eecas_,[206] which, after being killed by\nR\u00e2mas, re-ascends to heaven in a luminous form; of the sea-monster,\nwhich Hanumant destroys, and restores to its primitive form, that of a\ncelestial nymph; of the old \u00c7avar\u00ee, who, after having seen R\u00e2mas,\nsacrifices herself in the fire, and re-ascends young and beautiful to\nheaven (the usual Vedic young girl, the dawn whom, ugly during the\nnight, Indras, by taking off her ugly skin, restores to beauty in the\nmorning); an episodical variation of what afterwards happens to S\u00eet\u00e2\nherself, who, having been ugly when in the power of the monster\nR\u00e2vanas, recovers her beauty by the sacrifice of fire, in order to\nprove her innocence to her husband R\u00e2mas, and shines again a young\ngirl, like the young sun, adorned with burning gold, and wearing a red\ndress;[207] and when R\u00e2mas comes near (like the young dawn, when she\nsees her husband), she resembles the first light (Prabh\u00e2), the wife of\nthe sun.[208] This S\u00eet\u00e2, daughter of Ganakas (the generator), whom the\n_T\u00e2ittiriya Br\u00e2hmanam_ calls Savitar[209] or the sun, seems to me to\nbe no other than the dawn, the daughter of light, the daughter of\nIndras, the god of the Vedic texts. These, indeed, sometimes represent\nS\u00fbry\u00e2, the daughter of the sun, as the lover of the moon (who is then\nmasculine); but we find more frequently the loves of the dawn and the\nsun, of the beautiful heroine and the splendid solar hero, while the\nmoon is generally the brother, or the pitying sister of the hero and\nthe heroine, the beneficent old man, the foreseeing fairy, the good\nhostess, who aids them in their enterprises; although we also find the\ndawn as a sister of the sun and his succourer. In fact, the Buddhist\ntradition of the legend of R\u00e2mas, illustrated by Weber,[210]\nrepresents S\u00eet\u00e2 to us as the sister of the two brothers R\u00e2mas and\nLakshmanas, who go into banishment for twelve years to escape the\npersecutions of their cruel step-mother (of whom the _K\u00e2ikey\u00ee_ of the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ offers a confused image), in the same way as the Vedic\ndawn is united to the twin A\u00e7vin\u00e2u; and the same tradition makes\nR\u00e2mas, at the termination of his exile, end with marrying his own\nsister S\u00eet\u00e2, as the sun marries the dawn. And the fact of S\u00eet\u00e2 being\nnot born from the womb, but produced from the ground, a girl of\nheavenly beauty, destined to be the reward of valour,[211] not only\ndoes not exclude her relationship with the dawn, but confirms it; for\nwe have seen the dawn rise from the mountain, as the daughter of light\nand the sun, whom the young sun wins for his bride, as a reward for\nhis wonderful skill as an archer against the monsters of darkness; and\nwe have seen that the dawn marries only her predestined husband, and\nher predestined husband is he who performs the greatest miracles,\nrestores her lost gaiety, and most resembles her. We have just seen\nthe old \u00c7avar\u00ee and the ugly S\u00eet\u00e2, at the sight of the sun R\u00e2mas,\ndeliver themselves in the fire from every mortal danger, and become\nbeautiful and happy once more.\n\nBut the concord between the mythical husband and wife is not more\nsteadfast than that of mortal couples. R\u00e2mas is very apt to be\nsuspicious. Having returned to his kingdom of Ayodhy\u00e2, he allows\nhimself to brood upon what his subjects may say of him for having\ntaken back his wife, after she had been in the hands of the monster\n(they were not present at the first fire-sacrifice of S\u00eet\u00e2); R\u00e2mas\nreveals his suspicions to S\u00eet\u00e2, and blames the evil-speaking of the\ncitizens for originating them; she submits a second time to the trial\nby fire, but, offended by his continual suspicions, she flees from her\nhusband, and on a car of light, drawn by serpents (_Pannag\u00e2s_), goes\ndown again underground (which appears to mean simply this--the dawn,\nor spring, marries the sun in the morning, or she stays all day, or\nall summer, in his kingdom, and in the evening, or in the autumn, goes\ndown into the shades of night, or of winter).[212] It is an\nindiscretion of the husband which causes his wife to abandon him.\n\nThus, in the _Rigvedas_, we have seen _Urva\u00e7\u00ee_, the first of the\ndawns, flee from the sun _Pur\u00fbravas_. In _Somadevas_,[213] the king\nPur\u00fbravas loses his wife Urva\u00e7\u00ee, because he has let it be known in\nheaven that she was with him; in K\u00e2lid\u00e2sas's drama of _Vikramorva\u00e7\u00ee_,\nthe king Pur\u00fbravas, having helped Indras in the fight, receives from\nhim Urva\u00e7\u00ee to wife, with whom he engages to stay till a child is born\nto them; the king, shortly after having espoused Urva\u00e7\u00ee, looks at\nanother nymph, Udakavat\u00ee (the watery). Urva\u00e7\u00ee, offended, flees; she\nenters a wood to hide herself, and is transformed into a creeper. In\nthe br\u00e2hmanic tradition of the _Yagurvedas_, referred to at length by\nProfessor Max M\u00fcller, in his \"Oxford Essays,\" Pur\u00fbravas loses sight of\nUrva\u00e7\u00ee, because he has let himself be seen by her without his regal\ndress, or even naked.\n\nWe find yet another similar legend in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_.[214] The\nwise and splendid \u00c7\u00e2ntanus goes to the chase on the banks of the\nGa\u00f1g\u00e2, and there finds a beautiful nymph whom he becomes enamoured of.\nThe nymph responds to his suit, and consents to remain with him, on\ncondition that he will never say anything displeasing to her,\nwhatever she may do or meditate; and the enamoured king assents to the\ngrave condition. They live together happily, for the king yields to\nthe nymph in everything; but in the course of time, eight sons are\nborn to them; the nymph has already thrown seven into the river, and\nthe king, although inwardly full of grief, dares not say anything to\nher; but when she is about to throw the last one in, the king implores\nher not to do it, and challenges her to say who she is. The nymph then\nconfesses to him that she is the Ga\u00f1g\u00e2 itself personified, and that\nthe eight sons born to their loves are human personifications of the\neight divine Vasavas, who, by being thrown into the Ga\u00f1g\u00e2, are\nliberated from the curse of the human form: the only Vasus who is\npleased to remain among men is Dy\u00e2us (the sky), in the form of the\neunuch Bh\u00eeshmas, whom \u00c7\u00e2ntanus would not allow to be thrown into the\nwaters. The same curse falls upon the Vasavas for having ravished the\ncow of abundance from the penitent Apavas. We shall find a legendary\nsubject analogous to this one of \u00c7\u00e2ntanus in several of the popular\ntales of Europe, with this difference that, in European tradition, it\nis generally the husband who abandons his indiscreet partner. The\nHindoo tradition, however, also offers us an example of the husband\nwho abandons his wife, in the wise Garatkarus, who marries the sister\nof the king of the serpents, on condition that she never does anything\nto displease him.[215] One day the wise man sleeps; evening comes on;\nhe ought to be awakened in order to say his evening prayers; if he\ndoes not say them, he does not do his duty, and she would do wrong did\nshe not warn him. If she awaken him, he will be enraged. What is to\nbe done? She takes the latter course. The wise man awakes, becomes\nenraged, and abandons her, after she had given him a son.[216]\n\nThe glowing aspect of the sky, morning and evening, suggested the\nidea, now of a splendid nuptial feast, now of a fire. In this fire,\nsometimes the witch who persecutes the hero and heroine is burnt, and\nsometimes the hero and heroine themselves are immolated. The sacrifice\nof \u00c7avar\u00ee and of S\u00eet\u00e2, who are delivered by the sun R\u00e2mas, is only a\nvariation of that of \u00c7unah\u00e7epas, liberated by the dawn in the\n_Rigvedas_. The story of \u00c7unah\u00e7epas has already been made known by\nProfessor Rodolph Roth,[217] and by Professor Max M\u00fcller,[218] who\ntranslated it from the _\u00c2itareya-br\u00e2hmanam_; and I refer the reader to\nthese translations, as well as to the English version which Professor\nMartin Haugh has given us of all the _\u00c2itareya_. I shall, therefore,\nhere give but a short account of it, with a few observations apropos\nto the subject in hand.\n\nThe king Hari\u00e7candras has no sons; the god Varunas the coverer, the\ngloomy, the watery, the king of the waters,[219] obliges him to\npromise that he will sacrifice to him whatever is born to him. The\nking promises; a child is born, who is named the red (Rohitas).\nVarunas claims him; the father begs him to wait till the child has\ncut his teeth, then till his first teeth are cast, then till he is\nable to bear armour. It is evident that the father wishes to wait till\nhis son be strong enough to defend himself against his persecutor,\nVarunas. Varunas thereupon claims him in a more resolute manner, and\nHari\u00e7candras informs the son himself that he must be given up in\nsacrifice. Rohitas takes his bow and flees into the woods, where he\nlives by the chase. This first part of the legend corresponds with\nthose numerous European popular tales, in which, now the devil, now\nthe aquatic monster, now the serpent, demands from a father the son\nwho has just been born to him without his knowledge. The second part\nof the story of \u00c7unah\u00e7epas shows us the hero in the forest; he has\ntaken his bow with him, and hence, like R\u00e2mas in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, who\nhas scarcely entered the forest than he begins to hunt, Rohitas turns\nhunter, and hunts for the six years during which he remains in the\nforest. But his chase is unsuccessful; he wanders about in quest of\nsome one to take his place as the victim of Varunas; at last he finds\nthe br\u00e2hmanas Agigartas, who consents to give his own second son,\n\u00c7unah\u00e7epas, for a hundred cows. The first-born being particularly dear\nto the father, and the third being especially beloved by the mother,\ncannot be sacrificed; the second son, therefore, is ceded to Varunas,\nthe gloomy god of night, who, like Yamas, binds all creatures with his\ncords. We have already observed how the middle son is the son of the\ncelestial cow Aditis, the hidden sun, the sun during and covered by\nthe darkness of night, or, in other words, bound by the fetters of\nVarunas--and it is his own father who binds him with those fetters.\nHis sacrifice begins in the evening. During the night he appeals to\nall the gods. At last Indras, flattered by the praise heaped upon\nhim, concedes to him a golden chariot, upon which, with praises to the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, and help from the dawn, \u00c7unah\u00e7epas, unbound from the fetters\nof Varunas, is delivered. These fetters of Varunas, which imprison the\nvictim, bound and sacrificed by his own father, help us to understand\nthe second part of the European popular tale of the son sacrificed\nagainst his will to the demon by his father; for \u00c7unah\u00e7epas, towards\nthe end of the European story, takes the form of a horse, Varunas that\nof a demon, and the fetters of Varunas are the bridle of the horse,\nwhich the imprudent father sells to the demon, together with his son\nin the shape of a horse;[220] the beautiful daughter of the demon (the\nwhite one, who, as usual, comes out of the black monster) delivers the\nyoung man transformed into a horse; as in the Vedic story of\n\u00c7unah\u00e7epas, it is explicitly the dawn who is the young girl that\ndelivers.[221] Varunas is called in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ the god who has in\nhis hand a rope (_p\u00e2\u00e7ahastas_); his dwelling is on Mount Astas, where\nthe sun goes down, and which it is impossible to touch, because it\nburns, in an immense palace, the work of Vi\u00e7vakarman, which has a\nhundred rooms, lakes with nymphs, and trees of gold.[222] Evidently,\nVarunas is here, not a different form, but a different name of the god\nYamas, the p\u00e2\u00e7in, or furnished with rope, the constrictor _par\nexcellence_; for we are to suppose the magic display of golden\nsplendour in the evening heavens not so much the work of the sun\nitself, as produced by the gloomy god who sits on the mountain, who\ninvests and surprises the solar hero, and drags him into his kingdom.\nAs to Hari\u00e7candras and Agigartas, Rohitas and \u00c7unah\u00e7epas, they appear,\nin my opinion, to be themselves different names for not only the same\ncelestial phenomenon, but the same mythical personage. Hari\u00e7candras is\ncelebrated in the legends as a solar king; Rohitas, his son, the red\none, is his _alter ego_, as well as his successor \u00c7unah\u00e7epas.\nHari\u00e7candras, moreover, who promises to sacrifice his son to Varunas,\nseems to differ little, if at all, from Agigartas, who sells his own\nson for the sacrifice. The _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[223] has given us a third name\nfor the same unnatural father,[224] in Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, who asks his own\nsons to sacrifice themselves, instead of \u00c7unah\u00e7epas, who is under his\nprotection, and as they refuse to obey, he curses them.\n\nThe variation of the same legend which we find in the\n_Harivan\u00e7as_[225] proves these identities, and adds a new and notable\nparticular. The wife of Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras designs, on account of her\npoverty, to barter her middle son for a hundred cows, and with that\nview already keeps him tied with a rope like a slave. The grandfather\nof Rohitas, Hari\u00e7candras's father, Tri\u00e7a\u00f1kus, wanders through the\nwoods, and delivers this son of Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, whose family he\nthenceforth protects and maintains. The deeds of Tri\u00e7a\u00f1kus, who begs\nof Vasishtas to be allowed to ascend to heaven bodily, and who, by\ngrace of Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, obtains instead the favour of remaining\nsuspended in the air like a constellation, are also attributed to his\nson Hari\u00e7candras; whence we may affirm, without much risk of\ncontradiction, that as Tri\u00e7a\u00f1kus is another name for his son\nHari\u00e7candras, so Hari\u00e7candras is another name for his son Rohitas, and\nthat, therefore, the Tri\u00e7a\u00f1kus of the _Harivan\u00e7as_ is the same as the\nRohitas of the _\u00c2itareya_, with this difference, that Tri\u00e7a\u00f1kus buys\nthe son destined to the sacrifice in order to free him, while Rohitas\nbuys him to free himself. But the first hundred cows given by\nTri\u00e7a\u00f1kus to Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras do not suffice for him, and the fruits of his\nhunting in the forest are not enough to maintain the family, a\ncircumstance which weighs upon him almost as much as if the family\nwere his own; upon which, in order to save Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, in order to\nsave Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras's son, and, we can perhaps add, to save himself, he\nresolves to sacrifice, to kill the beautiful and dearly-prized wife of\nVasishtas (the very luminous). I have said the wife of Vasishtas, but\nthe _Harivan\u00e7as_ says, speaking strictly, it was the cow of Vasishtas\nwho was killed. But we know from the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_[226] that this cow of\nVasishtas, this k\u00e2madhuk or k\u00e2madhenus, which yields at pleasure all\nthat is wished for, this cow of abundance, is kept by Vasishtas, under\nthe name of \u00c7ab\u00e2l\u00e2, as his own wife. Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras is covetous of her;\nhe demands her from Vasishtas, and offers a hundred cows for her, the\nexact price which, in the _Harivan\u00e7as_, he receives from Tri\u00e7a\u00f1kus for\nhis own son. Vasishtas answers that he will not give her for a\nhundred, nor for a thousand, nor even for a hundred thousand cows, for\n\u00c7ab\u00e2l\u00e2 is his gem, his riches, his all, his life.[227] Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras\ncarries her off; she returns to the feet of Vasishtas, and bellows;\nher bellowing calls forth armies, who come out of her own body; the\nhundred sons of Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras are burned to ashes by them. These armies\nwhich come out of the body of Vasishtas's cow remind us again of the\nVedic cow, from which come forth winged darts, or birds, by which the\nenemies are filled with terror. Vasishtas is a form of Indras; his cow\nis here the rain-cloud. Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, who wishes to ravish the cow from\nVasishtas, often assumes monstrous forms in the Hindoo legends, and is\nalmost always malignant, perverse, and revengeful. His hundred sons\nburned to cinders by Vasishtas remind us, from one point of view, of\nthe hundred cities of \u00c7ambaras destroyed by Indras, and the hundred\nperverse Dhritar\u00e2shtrides of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_; whence his name,\nVi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, which may also mean the enemy of all (_vi\u00e7va-amitras_),\nwould agree well with his almost demoniacal character.\n\nThis story of the cow of Vasishtas, whose relationship with the legend\nof \u00c7unah\u00e7epas cannot be doubted, brings us back to the animal forms of\nheroes and heroines from which we started. In the story of Vasishtas,\nthe cow-cloud, the cow \u00e7ab\u00e2l\u00e2, or the spotted-cow, plays in the epic\npoem the part of the cow Aditis, the cow pri\u00e7nis (spotted, variegated),\nwith which we are already familiar in the Vedic hymns. This cow is\nbenignant towards the god, or the hero, or the wise Vasishtas, as the\npri\u00e7nis is to the god Indras. But we have seen in the _Rigvedas_ itself\nthe cloud as the enemy of the god, and represented as a female form of\nthe monster, as his sister. This sister generally tries to seduce the\ngod, promising to deliver into his hands the monster her brother, and\nshe sometimes succeeds, as the witch Hidimb\u00e2 of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, who\ngives up her brother, the monster Hidimbas, into the hands of the hero\nBh\u00eemas, who thereupon espouses her. On the other hand, \u00c7\u00fbrpanakh\u00e2, the\nsister of the monster R\u00e2vanas, does not succeed in her intent; making\nherself beautiful, she endeavours to win the affection of the hero\nR\u00e2mas; but being ridiculed by him and by Lakshmanas, she becomes\ndeformed, and sends forth cries like a cloud in the rainy season,[228]\nexciting her brothers to annihilate R\u00e2mas.\n\nThe same cloud-monster is found again in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, under the\nname of Dundubhis, in the form of a terrible buffalo with sharpened\nhorns.[229] The buffalo, as a wild animal, is often chosen to\nrepresent the principle of evil, in the same way as the bull,\nincreaser of the bovine herds, is selected as the image of good. This\nbellowing buffalo, whence his name of Dundubhis (drum), strikes and\nknocks with his two horns at the door of the cavern[230] of the son of\nIndras (B\u00e2lin), the king of the monkeys. But B\u00e2lin takes Dundubhis by\nthe horns, throws him on the ground, and destroys him.\n\nDundus is also a name given to the father of Krishnas, or the black one,\nwho in the _Rigvedas_ is still a demon, and only later becomes the god\nof cows and cowherds, a govindas, or pastor _par excellence_.[231]\nIndras, his enemy in the Vedas, having fallen from heaven, he became one\nof the most popular gods, and even sometimes the most popular form of\nthe deity. In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, for instance, he is almost the _deus\nex machina_ of the battles between the P\u00e2ndavas and the Dh\u00e2rtar\u00e2shtr\u00e2s,\nand presents many analogies to the Zeus of the Iliad; whereas Indras\nplays only a part in the episodes, the rain-giver and thunderer being\noften forgotten for the black one who prepares and hurls the light. But\nthe fall of Indras begins in the Ved\u00e2s themselves. In the _Yagurvedas_,\nVi\u00e7var\u00fbpas, the son of Tvashtar, whom Indras kills, appears as no less\nthan the purohitas or high-priest of the gods, and son of a daughter of\nthe Asur\u00e2s; he has three heads, of which one drinks the ambrosia,\nanother the spirituous drink, while the third eats food. Indras cuts off\nVi\u00e7var\u00fbpas's three heads, in revenge of the one which drinks his\nambrosia; he is therefore charged with having killed a Br\u00e2hman, and\ndecried as a br\u00e2hmanicide.[232] In the _\u00c2itareya-br\u00e2hmanam_,[233] the\ncriminality of Indras in this regard is confirmed, to which the\n_K\u00e2ush\u00eetaki-Upanishad_ also refers. In the seventh book of the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, even the multiform monster R\u00e2vanas is represented as a\ngreat penitent, whom Br\u00e2hman fills with supreme grace; in the sixth\nbook, the son of the wind, Hanumant, cuts off the three heads of the\nR\u00e2vanide monster Tri\u00e7iras (having three heads), as one day Indras cut\noff the three heads of the monster Vritras, son of Tvashtar;[234] and he\ncuts all the three heads off together (_samas_), as the hero of the\nEuropean popular tales must cut off, at a blow, the three heads of the\nserpent, the wizard, otherwise he is powerless, and able to do nothing.\nThe monster, like the hero, seems to have a special affinity for the\nnumber three: hence the three heads of Tri\u00e7iras, as also the three\nbrothers of La\u00f1k\u00e2--R\u00e2vanas, the eldest brother, who reigns;\nKumbhakarnas, the middle brother, who sleeps; Vibhishanas, the third\nbrother, whom the two others do not care about, but who alone is just\nand good, and who alone obtains the gift of immortality.[235] We have\nevidently here again the three Vedic brothers; the two eldest in\ndemoniacal form, the youngest a friend of the divine hero, and who, by\nthe victory of R\u00e2mas over the monster R\u00e2vanas, obtains the kingdom of\nLa\u00f1k\u00e2. As to the brothers R\u00e2mas and Lakshmanas, and the brothers B\u00e2lin\nand Sugr\u00eevas, their natural place is in the story of the two twins,\nwhich will be referred to in the next chapter, although Hanumant, the\nson of the wind, figures second to them in the character of strong\nbrother.\n\nThe three interesting heroic brothers come out more prominently in the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, where of the five P\u00e2ndavas brothers, three stay on one\nside, and are Yudhishthiras, son of the god Yamas, the wise brother;\nBh\u00eemas (the terrible), or Vrikod\u00e2ras (wolf's belly), son of V\u00e2yus (the\nwind), the strong brother (another form of Hanumant, in company with\nwhom he is also found in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, on Mount Gandham\u00e2danas);\nand Argunas (the splendid), the son of Indras, the genial, dexterous,\nfortunate, victorious brother, he who wins the bride. The first\nbrother gives the best advice; the second shows proof of greatest\nstrength; the third brother wins, conquers the bride. They are\nprecisely the three Vedic brothers Ribhavas, Ekatas, Dv\u00eetas, and\nTritas, in the same relationships to one another and with the same\nnatures; only the legend is amplified.[236] As to their other\nbrothers, twins, born of another mother, Nakulas and Sahadevas, they\nare the sons of the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, and feebly repeat in the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_ the exploits of the two celestial twins. Bh\u00eemas or\nVrikod\u00e2ras, the second brother, is considered the strongest,\n(balavat\u00e2m \u00e7reshthah), because immediately after birth, _i.e._,\nscarcely has he come forth out of his mother (like the Vedic Marutas),\nthan he breaks the rock upon which he falls, because he breaks his\nfetters as soon as he is bound with them (like Hanumant when he\nbecomes the prisoner of R\u00e2vanas), because he carries his brothers\nduring the night (as Hanumant carries R\u00e2mas), as he flees from the\nburning house prepared by the impious Duryodhanas (_i.e._, from the\nburning sky of evening), and because in the kingdom of serpents, where\nDuryodhanas threw him down (that is, the night), he drinks the water\nof strength. A serpent, wishing to benefit Bh\u00eemas, says to Vasukis,\nking of the serpents--\"Let there be given to him as much strength as\nhe can drink from that cistern in which is placed the strength of a\nthousand serpents.\"[237] Bh\u00eemas, at one draught, drinks the whole\ncisternful; and with similar expedition, he drains consecutively eight\ncisterns.[238] The first-born of the P\u00e2ndavas is dear to his father\nYamas, the god of justice, Dharmar\u00e2gas,--and is himself indeed called\nDharmar\u00e2gas; and when he prepares himself to ascend into heaven, the\ngod Yamas follows him in the form of a dog: by his skill in solving\nenigmas, he saves his brother Bh\u00eemas from the king of the serpents.\nThe third brother, Argunas, son of Indras, is the Benjamin of the\nVedic supreme God. Indras welcomes him with festivals in heaven,\nwhither Argunas had gone to find him. Argunas is an infallible archer,\nlike Indras; like Indras, he several times regains the cows from the\nrobbers or from the enemies; and, like Indras, he wins and conquers\nhis bride; he is born by the assistance of all the celestials; he is\ninvincible (_agayas_); he is the best son (_varah putras_);[239] he\nalone of the three brothers has compassion on his master Dronas and\ndelivers him from an aquatic monster.[240]\n\nBut there is yet another particular which shows the resemblance between\nthe three brothers P\u00e2ndavas and the three brothers of the Vedas; it is\ntheir dwelling, hidden in the palace of the king Vir\u00e2ta, in the fourth\nbook of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_. They are exiled from the kingdom, like\nR\u00e2mas; they flee from the persecution of their enemies, now into the\nwoods, now, as the Ribhavas, disguised as workmen in the palace of\nVir\u00e2tas, to whom their presence brings every kind of happiness.\n\nWe meet with these three brothers again, episodically, in the three\ndisciples of Dh\u00e2umyas, in the first book of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_.[241] The\nfirst disciple, Upamanyus, takes his master's cows out to pasture, and,\nout of sensitive regard for his master's interest, refuses to drink not\nonly their milk, but even the foam from their mouths, and fasts till,\nlike to perish of hunger, he bites a leaf of arkapatr\u00e2 (properly, leaf\nof the sun, the _aristolochia indica_), when he instantly becomes\nblind. He wanders about and falls into a well; he there sings a hymn to\nthe A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, and they come immediately to deliver him. The second\nbrother, Udd\u00e2lakas, places his body, as a dike, to arrest the course of\nthe waters. The third brother is Vedas, he who sees, he who knows, whose\ndisciple Uta\u00f1kas is himself in the form of a hero. Uta\u00f1kas, like the\nVedic Tritas, and the P\u00e2ndavas Argunas, is protected by Indras. He is\nsent by the wife of his master to abstract the earrings of the wife of\nKing P\u00e2ushyas. He sets out; on his way he meets a gigantic bull, and a\nhorseman, who bids him, if he would succeed, eat the excrement of the\nbull; he does so, rinsing his mouth afterwards. He then presents himself\nto King P\u00e2ushyas and informs him of his message; the king consigns the\nearrings to him, but cautions him to beware of Takshakas, the king of\nthe serpents. Uta\u00f1kas says that he is not afraid of him, and sets out\nwith the earrings; but as he puts down the earrings upon the shore, in\norder to bathe, Takshakas presents himself in the shape of a naked\nmendicant, whips them up, and flees away with them. Uta\u00f1kas follows him,\nbut Takshakas resumes his serpent form, penetrates the ground, and\ndescends under it; Uta\u00f1kas attempts to follow the serpent, but does not\nsucceed in cleaving the entrance, which corresponds to the Vedic rock\nunder which the monster keeps his prey. Indras sees him tiring himself\nin vain, and sends his weapon, in order that it may be for a help to\nUta\u00f1kas; that weapon, or club, penetrating, opened the cavern.[242] This\nclub, this weapon of Indras is evidently the thunderbolt.[243] Uta\u00f1kas\ndescends into the kingdom of the serpents, full of infinite wonders.\nIndras reappears at his side in the shape of a horse,[244] and obliges\nthe king, Takshakas, to give back the earrings; having taken which,\nUta\u00f1kas mounts the horse, that he may be carried more swiftly to the\nwife of his master, from whom he learns that the horseman seen by him on\nthe way was none other than Indras himself; his horse, Agnis, the god of\nfire; the bull, the steed of Indras, or the elephant \u00c2iravatas; the\nexcrement of the bull, the ambrosia, which made him immortal in the\nkingdom of the serpents. In another episode of the same (the first) book\nof the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[245] we again find Indras busied in the search of\nthe earrings, that is to say, of the excessively fleshy part hanging\nfrom the ears of Karnas, the child of the sun, who, as soon as born, had\nbeen abandoned upon the waters. We have seen above how the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u\nare also represented in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ as the two ears of Vishnus R\u00e2mas\n(as the sun and moon are said to be his eyes); hence it seems to me that\nthese mythical earrings, coveted by Indras, and protected by him, are\nnothing else than the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the two luminous twilights (in\nconnection with the sun and the moon), in which Indras, and, still more\nthan he, the aurora, his wife, take such delight.[246]\n\nIn the commentary of _Buddhagoshas_ on the Buddhist Dhammapadam, we\nhave the three brothers again; the two eldest are represented as fleeing\nfrom the persecution of their cruel step-mother; the third brother,\nSuriyas (S\u00fbryas, the sun), goes to overtake them. The eldest counsels or\ncommands, the second lends his aid, and the youngest fights. The second\nand third brothers fall into a fountain, under the power of a monster;\nthe first-born saves them by his knowledge, as, in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,\nYudhishthiras, by his skill in solving riddles, delivers the second\nbrother from the fetters of the forest of the monster serpent.\n\nThis mode of delivering the hero, by propounding a question or a riddle,\nis very common in the Hindoo legends. Even in the _Pancatantram_,[247] a\nBr\u00e2hman who falls under the power of a forest monster who leaps on his\nshoulders, frees himself by asking why his feet are so soft. The monster\nconfesses that it is because, on account of a vow, he cannot touch the\nearth with his feet. The Br\u00e2hman then betakes himself to a sacred pond;\nthe monster wishes to take a bath, and the Br\u00e2hman throws him in; the\nmonster orders him to stay there till he has bathed and said his\norisons. The Br\u00e2hman profits by this opportunity to make his escape,\nknowing that the monster will not be able to overtake him, as he cannot\nput his feet to the ground. It is the usual vulnerability, weakness, or\nimperfection of the hero, or the monster, in the feet, and, if an animal\nis spoken of, in the tail.[248]\n\nThe _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_ has shown us the three Vedic brothers, of whom the\nyoungest has fallen into the well; it also presents to us, in the\nwitch (_asur\u00ee_) \u00c7armishth\u00e2, daughter of Vrishaparvan, king of the\ndemons, and in the nymph Devay\u00e2n\u00ee, daughter of \u00c7ukras, who credits\nherself with the virtue of Indras as the rain-giver,[249] the two\nrival sisters of the Vedas, the good and the evil. In the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[250] the witch \u00c7\u00fbrpanakh\u00e2, who seduces R\u00e2mas, in order to\ntake the place of S\u00eet\u00e2 at his side, is compared to \u00c7armishth\u00e2, who\nseduced N\u00e2hushas. In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, \u00c7armishth\u00e2 assumes the guise\nof Devay\u00e2n\u00ee, whom she throws into a well. Yay\u00e2tis, son of King\nN\u00e2hushas, goes to the chase; feeling thirsty, he stops near the well;\nfrom the bottom of the well a young girl looks up, like a flame of\nfire.[251] The prince takes her by the right hand and draws her up;\nand because in the marriage ceremony, the bride is taken by the right\nhand,[252] the prince Yay\u00e2tis is said to marry Devay\u00e2n\u00ee. But even\nafter she is a wife, \u00c7armishth\u00e2 continues to seduce her husband, to\nwhom she unites herself. Two sons are born of Devay\u00e2n\u00ee, Yadus and\nTurvasas, similar to Indras and Vishnus (a new form of the twins, of\nthe A\u00e7vin\u00e2u); three are born of \u00c7armishth\u00e2, Duhyus, Anus, and P\u00fbrus;\nand here also the third brother is the most glorious and valiant. And\nin this way the episode is connected with the essential legend of the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, and one and the same general myth is multiplied into\nan infinity of particular legends. As the genealogy of the gods and\nheroes is infinite, so is there an infinite number of forms assumed by\nthe same myth and of the names assumed by the same hero. Each day\ngave birth in the heavens to a new hero and a new monster, who\nexterminate each other, and afterwards revive in an aspect more or\nless glorious, according as their names were more or less fortunate.\n\nIt is for the same reason that the sons always recognise their fathers\nwithout having once seen them or even heard them spoken of; they\nrecognise themselves in their fathers. Thus \u00c7akuntal\u00e2 and Urvac\u00ee\nenable their mother to find again the husband that she has lost, and\ntheir father to recover his lost wife. Thus in the episode of Devay\u00e2n\u00ee\nand \u00c7armishth\u00e2, when the former wishes to know who is the father of\nthe three sons of \u00c7armishth\u00e2, so similar to the sons of immortals, she\nturns to them, and they tell her at once.\n\nFor this fault, Yay\u00e2tis, from being young, is fated to become old. He\nthen beseeches the two eldest of the three sons that he had by\n\u00c7armishth\u00e2 to take on themselves the old age of their father; they\nrefuse, but the third son, P\u00fbrus, out of reverence for his father,\nconsents to become old in his stead, to give up his youth to his\nfather. After a thousand years, the king Yay\u00e2tis, satiated with life,\nrestores to his son P\u00fbrus his youth, and although he is the youngest,\nalong with his youth, the kingdom, because he found him the only one\nof the three who respected the paternal will; and he expels the two\neldest brothers.[253]\n\nSometimes, however, the blind old father is entirely abandoned by his\nsons. Thus the old D\u00eerghatamas (of the vast darkness), blind from birth,\nis deprived of food, and thrown into the water by his wife and\nsons,[254] but a heroic king saves him, in order, by his wife, to beget\nsons for him. We have in D\u00eerghatamas and Yay\u00e2tis, King Lear in embryo.\n\nIn the same legend of D\u00eerghatamas, we find an exchange of wives. Queen\nSudeshn\u00e2, instead of going herself, sends her servant-maid, her\nfoster-sister, to be embraced by D\u00eerghatamas.[255] In the cunning\nSudeshn\u00e2 we have an ancient variation of Queen Berta.\n\nOther blind men occur frequently in the Hindoo legends. I shall here\ncite only Andhakas (the blind one) and Vrishnis (the sheep, as the lame\none),[256] who appear in the _Harivan\u00e7as_[257] as the two sons of M\u00e2dr\u00ee.\nBut we know from the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, that the two sons of M\u00e2dr\u00ee are a\nhuman incarnation of the celestial twins, the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u; and here we come\nagain upon the blind-lame one of the Vedas, the solar hero in his twin\nforms, the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u protected by Indras, and companions of the dawn.\n\nThe _Pancatantram_[258] represents the blind and the crooked, or\nhunchbacked,[259] in union with the three-breasted princess (_i.e._, the\ntriple sister, the aurora in the evening, the aurora in the night, the\naurora in the morning; the breast of the night nourishing the defective,\nthe monstrous, which the morning sweeps away). The crooked guides the\nblind with a stick; they both marry the three-breasted princess. The\nblind recovers sight by the steam of the poison of a black serpent,\ncooked in milk (the darkness of night, or of winter, mixed with the\nclearness of day, or of the snow); he then, being a strongly-built man,\ntakes the hunchback by the legs, and beats his hunch against the third\nand superfluous breast of the princess. The anterior prominence of the\nlatter, and the posterior one of the former, enter into their respective\nbodies;[260] thus the blind, the crooked, and the three-breasted\nprincess help and cure each other; the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u and the aurora (or\nthe spring) reappear together in beauty. The A\u00e7vin\u00e2u and the aurora also\ncome forth together from the monstrous shades of night; the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u\ncontend for the aurora; as we shall see soon, and in the next chapter,\nthe delivered bride disputed for by the brothers.\n\nThe sun and the aurora flee from each other; this spectacle has been\nrepresented in different ways by the popular imagination; and one of the\nmost familiar is certainly that of a beautiful young girl who, running\nmore quickly than the prince, escapes from him. This incident, which is\nalready described in the _Rigvedas_, occurs again in the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[261] in the legend of the loves of the virgin Tapat\u00ee,\ndaughter of the sun (the luminous and burning aurora, and also the\nsummer season, ardent as Dahan\u00e2), with the king Samvaranas, son of the\nbear (_rikshaputras_, a kind of Indras). The king Samvaranas arrives on\nhorseback with his retinue at the mountain, in order to hunt; he ties\nhis horse up and begins the chase, when he sees on the mountain the\nbeautiful girl, the daughter of the sun, who, covered with ornaments,\nshines like the sun; he declares his love and wishes to make her his\nown; she answers not a word, but flees and disappears like the lightning\nin the clouds;[262] the king cannot overtake her, because his horse,\nwhile he was hunting, has died of hunger and thirst; he searches in vain\nthrough the forest, but not seeing her, he throws himself almost\nbreathless to the ground. As he lies there the beautiful girl appears\nagain, approaches and wakens him; he again speaks to her of love, and\nshe answers that he must ask her father the sun, and then, still quite\ninnocent, she disappears swiftly on high (_\u00fbrdhvam_). The king again\nfaints; his minister sprinkles him with the water of health, and makes\nhim revive, but he refuses to leave the mountain, and having dismissed\nhis hunting company, he awaits the arrival of the great purohitas\nVasishthas, by whose mediation he demands from the sun his daughter\nTapat\u00ee to wife; the sun consents, and Vasishthas reconducts to\nSamvaranas, for the third time, the beautiful girl as his legitimate\nwife. The husband and wife live together happily on the mountain of\ntheir loves; but as long as King Samvaranas remains with Tapat\u00ee upon\nthis mountain, no rain falls upon the earth; wherefore the king, out of\nlove for his subjects, returns to his palace, upon which Indras pours\ndown the rain, and begins again to fructify the earth.[263]\n\nWe said a little ago that Vasishthas himself caused it to rain\n(_abhyavarshata_); and the mention of Vasishthas reminds us of the\nparticularly rain-giving, cloudy, and lunar function of his cow\nK\u00e2dmadhenus, whose wonderful productions are again described in the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_.[264] Besides milk and ambrosia, she yields herbs and\ngems, which we have already referred to, as analogous products in\nmythology. The cow of Vasishthas is, besides her tail, celebrated for\nher breasts, her horns, and even her ears ending in a point; whence\nher name of _\u00e7a\u00f1kukarn\u00e2_ (the masculine form of which is generally\napplied to the ass). And in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, also, the wise\nVi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras is covetous of this wonderful cow; the cow bellows and\ndrops fire from her tail, and radiates from every part of her body\narmies which disperse those of the son of Gadhis. Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras then\navenges himself in other ways upon the sons of Vasishthas; having,\n_e.g._, become a cannibal, he eats them.\n\nVasishthas cannot endure the pain this causes him: he tries to throw\nhimself down from the summit of Mount Merus, but he falls without\nhurting himself; he throws himself into the fire, but does not burn\nhimself; and, finally, he leaps into the sea, but is not drowned.\nThese three miracles are accomplished every day by the solar hero, who\nthrows himself down from the mountain into the gloomy ocean of night,\nafter having passed through the burning sky of evening.\n\nVasishthas ends by freeing, with the help of charmed water, the\nmonster Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras from his curse; and the latter is no sooner\ndelivered from the demon who possessed him, than he begins again to\nillumine the forest with his splendour, as the sun illumines a\ntwilight cloud. The friendships, enmities, and rivalries of Vasishthas\nand Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras seem to be another version of those of the two\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, whom we shall particularly describe in the next chapter.\n\nMeanwhile, it is high time, as the reader will think, to conclude this\npart of our study, which treats of the mythical cow of India. We might\neasily, indeed, have made it much larger, had our design been to chain\ntogether, link by link, all the traditions and legends in which the cow\nplays a primary or subordinate part. But it is better to stop short,\nlest, by expatiating further, we should lose sight of the essential aim\nof our work, and be tempted into digressions from the legends relating\nto beasts to those relating to men; besides, we think that we have\nsufficiently proved the thesis of this chapter, and shown how the\nprincipal mythical subjects of the Vedic hymns are not only preserved,\nbut developed, in the posterior Hindoo traditions. It is not entirely\nour fault if, from cows, we pass so often to princesses, and from bulls\nto princes; the myth itself involves and indicates these\ntransformations. Hence we find the bull Indras, the winner of the cows,\nbecome a winner and a seducer of women; we see the bull Wind, who aids\nIndras in the conquest of the cows, become the violator of a hundred\ndamsels;[265] we read of the bull and god Rudras, as husband of Um\u00e2,\ngiven up to sensual indulgence for a hundred years without a pause; that\nthe son of the bull, or of the wind, Hanumant, does prodigies of valour\nand strength for the sake of a beautiful woman, and receives, as a\nreward for his zeal, from the king Bharatas, a hundred thousand cows,\nsixteen wives, and a hundred servant-maids.[266] What could Hanumant\nhave done with so many wives and maids, if he were simply a bull? or\nwhat could he have done with so many cows, if he had been an ape? It is\nthese inconsistencies which have caused mythology to be condemned by the\ncrowd of old but prolific pedants, as a vain science; whereas, on the\ncontrary, it is precisely these inconsistencies which raise it, in our\nesteem, to the rank of a valid science. He who handed down to us the\nfeats of Hanumant, took care also to tell us how he had the faculty of\nchanging his form at will; and this faculty, attributed to this\nimpersonation of a celestial phenomenon, is the fruit of one of the most\n_na\u00efve_ but just observations of virgin and grandiose nature.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[132] I must, however, observe that competent authorities, such as\nProfessor Weber, consider the phallical worship of \u00c7ivas to have\noriginated in the beliefs of the indigenous tribes of Dravidian race.\n\n[133] _Rigv._ i. 123, 8.\n\n[134] Vidique saepe, sed cumprimis anno 1785 in Malabaria ad flumen\ntemplo celebri Ambalapushe proximum, extra oppidum Callure\u00e0ta in\nsilvula, sententia regis Travancoridis R\u00e1ma Varmer, quinque viros arbori\nappensos et morti traditos, quod, contra regni leges et religionis\npr\u00e6scripta, voluntarie unicam vaccam occiderint; _Systema Brahmanicum_,\nillustr. Fr. Paullinus a S. Bartholom\u00e6o, Rom\u00e6, 179.--Cfr.\n_M\u00e2nava-Dharma\u00e7\u00e2stram_, xi. 60, and _Y\u00e2gnavalkya-Dharma\u00e7\u00e2stram_, iii.\n234.\n\n[135] ii. 1, 8.\n\n[136] Pancagavyam piban goghno m\u00e2sam \u00e2s\u00eeta samyatah goshtre\u00e7ayo go\n'nug\u00e2m\u00ee goprad\u00e2nena \u00e7udhyati; _Dharm._ iii. 263.\n\n[137] _Dharm._ xi. 166.\n\n[138] Ibid. iii. 271.\n\n[139] Ka imam da\u00e7abhir mamendram kr\u00een\u00e2ti dhenubhih; _Rigv._ iv. 24, 10.\n\n[140] _Dharm._ iii. 27.\n\n[141] _Grihyas\u00fbtr\u00e2ni_, i. 8, 9.--It was, moreover, on the occasion of\na marriage, the custom to give cows to the Br\u00e2hmans; in the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, i. 74, the King Da\u00e7arathas, at the nuptials of his four\nsons, gives 400,000 cows.\n\n[142] \u00c2 nah prag\u00e2m ganayatu prag\u00e2patih; _Rigv._ x. 85, 43.\n\n[143] Gocarmavasano harih; xiii. 1228.\n\n[144] Cfr. B\u00f6htlingk u. Roth's, _Sanskrit W\u00f6rterbuch_ s. v. _gocarman_.\n\n[145] \u00c2\u00e7val\u00e2y. _Grihyas\u00fb._ iv. 3.\n\n[146] _Grihyas\u00fb._ i. 13.--The commentator _N\u00e2r\u00e2yanas_, quoted by\nProfessor Stenzler, in his version of _\u00c2\u00e7val\u00e2yanas_, explains how the\ntwo beans and grain of barley express by their form the male organs of\ngeneration.\n\n[147] _Grihyas\u00fb._ i. 14.\n\n[148] _Grihyas\u00fb._ ii. 10.--The St Antony, protector of animals, of the\nVedic faith was the god Rudras, the wind, to whom, when the cattle\nwere afflicted by a disease, it was necessary to sacrifice in the\nmidst of an enclosure of cows.--Cfr. the same, _\u00c2\u00e7val\u00e2y._ iv. 8.\n\n[149] Yac ca goshu dushvapnyam yac c\u00e2sme duhitar divah trit\u00e2ya tad\nvibh\u00e2vary \u00e2pty\u00e2ya par\u00e2 vah\u00e2nehaso va \u00fbtayah su\u00fbtayo va \u00fbtayah; _Rigv._\nviii. 47, 14.\n\n[150] Payah krishn\u00e2su ru\u00e7ad rohin\u00eeshu; _Rigv._ i. 62, 9.--Cfr. _Rigv._\ni. 123, 9.\n\n[151] _Grihyas\u00fb._ iv. 3.\n\n[152] \u00c2\u00e7val\u00e2y; _Grihyas\u00fb._\n\n[153] v. 4, 23.\n\n[154] Indro v\u00e2i vritram hatv\u00e2 vi\u00e7vakarm\u00e2bhavat; iv. 3, 22.\n\n[155] iii. 2, 37.\n\n[156] Ushase carum yosh\u00e2h s\u00e2 r\u00e2k\u00e2 so eva trishtup gave carum ya g\u00e1uh\ns\u00e2 sin\u00eev\u00e2l\u00ee (the new moon) so eva gagati; iii. 2, 48.\n\n[157] Abh\u00fbd ush\u00e2 ru\u00e7atpa\u00e7ur ityushaso r\u00fbpam; i. 2, 18.--Gobhirarun\u00e2ir\nush\u00e2 \u00e2gimadh\u00e2vat tasm\u00e2d ushasyagat\u00e2y\u00e2m arunam ivaeva\npra-bh\u00e1tyushasor\u00fbpam; iv. 2, 9.--Abh\u00fbd ush\u00e2 ru\u00e7atpa\u00e7ur ityushaso\nr\u00fbpam; i. 2, 18.\n\n[158] _\u00c2it.-br\u00e2hm._ vi. 4, 24.\n\n[159] _\u00c2it.-br\u00e2hm._ iv. 3, 17.\n\n[160] iii. 8080.\n\n[161] Cfr. Weber's _\u00dcber die Krishnagam\u00e2shtam\u00ee_, Berlin, 1868; _L'Inde\nFran\u00e7aise_, par Eug\u00e8ne Burnouf, Paris, 1828; _The Hindoos_, London,\n1834, vol. i.\n\n[162] iv. 3, 20.\n\n[163] i. 3. 22.\n\n[164] Mah\u00een\u00e2m payo 'sy oshadh\u00een\u00e1m rasah; _Taittir. Yagurv._ i. 1,\n10.--Ksh\u00eerodam s\u00e2garam sarve mathn\u00eemah sahit\u00e2 vayam n\u00e2u\u00e2ushadh\u00eeh\nsam\u00e2hritya prakshipya ca tatastatah; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ i. 46.--Cfr. Kuhn's _Die\nHerabkunft des Feuers und des G\u00f6ttertranks_, Berlin, 1859.\n\n[165] The _Gandham\u00e2danas_ is especially defended by the _Gandharv\u00e2s_,\na word which seems to be composed of _gandha_, perfume, and _arvas_,\nthe one who goes on (and afterwards the horse), from the root _arv_,\nexpansion of _riv_; according to this, they would therefore be those\nwho go in the perfumes, as the nymphs beloved and guarded by them are\nthey who go in the waters (ap-sarasas). Cfr. the chapter on the Ass.\n\n[166] Cfr. _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vi. 82, 83.\n\n[167] B\u00f6htlingk's _Indische Spr\u00fcche_, 122, erster Theil; 2^te Aufl. S.\nPetersburg, 1870.--Cfr. _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, i. 1143-1145.\n\n[168] Abhi tyam devam savit\u00e2ram \u00fbnyoh kavikratum arc\u00e2mi satyasavasam\nratnadh\u00e2m abhi priyam matim; _T\u00e2ittir. Yagurv._ i. 2, 6.\n\n[169] i. 46.\n\n[170] xiii. 7034.\n\n[171] Hariv., 12,367.\n\n[172] \u00c2ruhya tasya \u00e7ikhare so 'pa\u00e7yat param\u00e2ushad\u00eem drishtv\u00e2\ncotp\u00e2tay\u00e2m\u00e2sa vi\u00e7alyakaran\u00eem \u00e7ubh\u00e2m.--Vi\u00e7alyo nirugah\n\u00e7\u00eeghramudatishthanmah\u00eetal\u00e2t; vi. 83.\n\n[173] Sa nighrish\u00e2\u00f1gulim r\u00e2mo dh\u00e2ute manah\u00e7il\u00e2gir\u00e2u cakara tilakam\npatny\u00e2 lal\u00e2te ruciram tad\u00e2 b\u00e2l\u00e2rkasamavarnena tena s\u00e2 giridh\u00e2tun\u00e2\nlal\u00e2te vinivishthe na sasamdheva ni\u00e7\u00e2bhavat; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ ii. 105.\n\n[174] S\u00eevyatu apah s\u00fbcy\u00e2chidyam\u00e2nay\u00e2 dad\u00e2tu v\u00eeram \u00e7atad\u00e2yam ukthyam;\n_Rigv._ ii. 32, 4.\n\n[175] Tatah \u00e7ubham s\u00e2 tarun\u00e2rkasamnibham gataklam\u00e2 vasrayugam sad\u00e2\nmalam srago '\u00f1gar\u00e2gam ca vibh\u00fbshan\u00e2ni ca prasannacet\u00e2 gagrihe tu\nm\u00e2ithil\u00ee; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iii. 5.\n\n[176] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iv. 50-53.\n\n[177] P\u00eet\u00e2irniv\u00e2sit\u00e2 vastr\u00e2ih kr\u00eedanto gomaye hrade; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ v.\n27.--Cfr. vi. 23.\n\n[178] S\u00eet\u00e2muv\u00e2ca ha d\u00eepyam\u00e2n\u00e2m svay\u00e2 lakshmy\u00e2 sandhy\u00e2m\u00e2utp\u00e2tik\u00eemiva;\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ v. 52.\n\n[179] Samarth\u00e2 gatanam gantumapiv\u00e2 tvam ras\u00e2talam--Acirammokshyase\ns\u00eete; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vi. 9, 10.\n\n[180] S\u00e2umyah som\u00e2tmag\u00e1h; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vi. 6.\n\n[181] Sitah kakudv\u00e2niva t\u00eekshna\u00e7ri\u00f1go rar\u00e2ga candrah parip\u00fbrna\u00e7ri\u00f1gah;\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ v. 11.--Cfr. v. 20.\n\n[182] Babh\u00e2u nashtaprabhah s\u00fbryo ragan\u00ee c\u00e2bhyavartata; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ ii. 92.\n\n[183] Nish\u00e2dar\u00e2go guhah san\u00eel\u00e2mbudatulyavarnah; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ ii. 48.\n\n[184] Sad\u00e2 vanagocarah; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ ii. 98.\n\n[185] iii. 63.\n\n[186] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iv. 1.\n\n[187] Sahasr\u00e2kshadhanushmadbhis toyad\u00e2iriva m\u00e2rutah; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ v. 40.\n\n[188] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ v. 73.--In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ itself, R\u00e2mas, overpowered\nwith grief, is compared now to a bull (v. 34), now to an elephant\ntormented by a lion (v. 37).\n\n[189] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vi. 105.\n\n[190] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vi. 102.\n\n[191] \u00c7\u00e2radam sth\u00fblaprishatam \u00e7ri\u00f1g\u00e2bhy\u00e2m govrisho yath\u00e2; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._\niii. 32.\n\n[192] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ v. 28.--The monster Kabandhas salutes them both with\nthe name of _Vrishabhaskandh\u00e2u_, or they who have bulls' shoulders;\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iii. 74.\n\n[193] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vii. 36-38.\n\n[194] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ v. 93.\n\n[195] \u00c7rant\u00e2nstu na tapet s\u00fbryah kathancidv\u00e2nar\u00e2napi abhr\u00e2ni gagnire\ndigbhyas ch\u00e2dayitv\u00e2 raveh prabh\u00e2m pravavarsha ca parganyo m\u00e2ruta\u00e7ca\n\u00e7ivo vav\u00e2u; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ v. 95.\n\n[196] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iii. 77.\n\n[197] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iii. 23.\n\n[198] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vi. 37.\n\n[199] Pa\u00e7ya lakshmana m\u00e2r\u00eecam mah\u00e2\u00e7anisamasvanam sapad\u00e2nugam\u00e2y\u00e2ntam\nsub\u00e2hum ca ni\u00e7\u00e2caram et\u00e2vadya may\u00e2 pa\u00e7ya n\u00eel\u00e2ncanacayopam\u00e2u asmin\nkshane sam\u00e2dh\u00fbt\u00e2vanilen\u00e2mbud\u00e2viva; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ i. 33.\n\n[200] \u00c7akreneva vinirmukto vagrastaruvaropari; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iii. 35.\n\n[201] M\u00e2y\u00e2m\u00e2\u00e7ritya vipul\u00e2m v\u00e2tadurdinasamkul\u00e2m; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iii. 73.\n\n[202] Te nikrittabhugaskandh\u00e2s kavandh\u00e2kriti ekadar\u00e7an\u00e2h nadanto\nbh\u00e2irav\u00e2nn\u00e2d\u00e2nn\u00e2patanti sma d\u00e2nav\u00e2s; _Mbh._ iii. 806.\n\n[203] Atha tatra mah\u00e2ghoram vikritam tam mahocchrayam\nvivriddhama\u00e7irogr\u00eevam kabandhamudare mukham romabhirnicitam\ntikshn\u00e2irmah\u00e2girimivocchritam n\u00eelameghanibham ghoram\nmeghastanitanisvanam mahat\u00e2 c\u00e2tipi\u00f1gena vipulen\u00e2yatenaca ekenorasi\nd\u00eerghena nayanen\u00e2tidar\u00e7in\u00e2; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iii. 74.--The one yellowish eye\nof Kabandhas reminds us of V\u00e2i\u00e7ravanas with only one yellowish eye\n(_ekapinghekshanas_), his other eye having been burnt out by the\ngoddess Parvat\u00ee; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vii. 13.\n\n[204] i. 49; ii. 7, _et passim_.\n\n[205] Cfr. the chapter on the Wolf.\n\n[206] iii. 40, _et seq._\n\n[207] Tarun\u00e2dityasamk\u00e2\u00e7\u00e2m taptak\u00e2ncanabh\u00fbshit\u00e2m rakt\u00e2mbaradhar\u00e2m\nb\u00e2l\u00e2m; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vi. 103.--Of the dress of S\u00eet\u00e2 we read in another\nplace that it shines \"like the light of the sun upon the summit of a\nmountain\" (S\u00fbryaprabheva \u00e7\u00e2il\u00e2gre tasy\u00e2h k\u00e2usheyamuttamam; iv. 58).\n\n[208] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vi. 99.\n\n[209] Cfr. Weber's _Ueber das R\u00e2m\u00e2yana_, Berlin, 1870, p. 9.\n\n[210] Ibid. p. 1.\n\n[211] V\u00eerya\u00e7ulk\u00e2 ca me kany\u00e2 divyar\u00fbp\u00e2 gun\u00e2nvit\u00e2 bh\u00fbtal\u00e2dutthit\u00e2\np\u00fbrvam n\u00e2mn\u00e2 s\u00eetetyayonig\u00e2; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ i. 68.\n\n[212] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vii. 104, 105.\n\n[213] _Kath\u00e2 sarit s\u00e2garas_, iii. 17.\n\n[214] i. 3888-3965.\n\n[215] \"Apriyanca na kartavyam krite c\u00e2in\u00e2m tyag\u00e2myaham,\" says\nGaratkarus; _Mbh._ i. 1871.\n\n[216] _Mbh._ i. 1870-1911.\n\n[217] _Indische Studien_, vol. i. pp. 457-464, vol. ii. pp. 111-128.\n\n[218] _History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature._\n\n[219] Varunas, the god of night, has, like the night, a double aspect;\nnow he is the gloomy ocean, now the luminous milky ocean without a moon.\nHe is represented under the latter aspect in the 7th book of the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ (canto 27), in which the solar hero, having entered the\ncelestial city of Varunas, finds the cow which always yields milk (payah\nksharant\u00e2m satatam tatra g\u00e2m ca dadar\u00e7a sah), whence the white-rayed\nmoon emerges, whence also the ambrosia and the nectar (yata\u00e7candrah\nprabhavati \u00e7\u00eetara\u00e7mih--yasm\u00e2damritamutpannam sudh\u00e2 c\u00e2pi).\n\n[220] Cfr. the chapter on the Horse.\n\n[221] In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, i. 63, the deliverer is Indras, who, even in\nthe _\u00c2itareya_, does much for \u00c7unah\u00e7epas.\n\n[222] Tegas\u00e2 gharmadah sad\u00e2--Pr\u00e2s\u00e2da\u00e7atasamb\u00e2dham nirmitam\nvi\u00e7vakarman\u00e2 \u00e7obhitam padmin\u00eebhi\u00e7ca k\u00e2ncan\u00e2i\u00e7ca mah\u00e2drum\u00e2ih nilayah\np\u00e2\u00e7ahastasya varunasya mah\u00e2tmanah; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iv. 43.\n\n[223] i. 64.\n\n[224] The Puranic-legend gives an instance of such another father in\nHiranyaka\u00e7ipus, who, persecuting his own son Prahl\u00e2das, tries to\ndestroy him in several ways, and finally throws him into the sea;\nPrahl\u00e2das praises Vishnus, and is delivered.--Cfr. _The Vishnu\nPur\u00e2na_, translated by H. Wilson, i. 17-20. London: Tr\u00fcbner, 1864.\n\n[225] Chap. xii. 13.\n\n[226] i. 54-56.\n\n[227] Etadeva hi me ratnametadeva hi me dhanam etadva hi sarvasvam\netadeva hi givitam; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ 1. c.\n\n[228] Nan\u00e2da vividh\u00e2n n\u00e2d\u00e2n yath\u00e2 pr\u00e2vrishi toyadah; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iii. 24.\n\n[229] Dh\u00e2rayan m\u00e2hisham rupam t\u00eekshna\u00e7ri\u00f1go bhay\u00e2vahah; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iv.\n9.--Further on, instead (iv. 46), the buffalo is said to be the\nbrother of Dundubhis, and to have the strength of a thousand serpents\n(balam n\u00e2gasahasrasya dh\u00e2rayan) or elephants, for the word _n\u00e2gas_ is\nequivocal.\n\n[230] \u00c7ri\u00f1g\u00e2bhy\u00e2m\u00e2likhan darpat taddv\u00e2ram; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y_, iv. 9.--Cfr. the\ntwo chapters which treat of the Horse and the Monkey.\n\n[231] I do not insist upon this br\u00e2hmanic god, because his legend is\nnow popular.--Cfr., for the rest, for the relationship of Krishnas\nwith the cows, the cowherds, and the cow-maiden, the whole 5th book of\nthe _Vishnu Pur\u00e2na_, translated by H. Wilson, and the _G\u00eetagovindas_\nof Gayadevas, edidit Lassen, Bonn, 1836.\n\n[232] Vi\u00e7var\u00fbpo v\u00e2i tv\u00e2shtrah purohito dev\u00e2n\u00e2m \u00e2s\u00eet svasriyo 'sur\u00e2n\u00e2m\ntasya tr\u00eeni \u00e7irsh\u00e2ny asant--Indras tasya vagram \u00e2d\u00e2ya \u00e7\u00eersh\u00e2ny achinad\nyat somap\u00e2nam--Brahma-hatyam up\u00e2 'grihnat--Tam bh\u00fbt\u00e2ny abhy akro\u00e7an\nbrahmahann iti; _T\u00e2ittir\u00eeya Samhit\u00e2_, ed. Weber. ii. 5, 1-6.\n\n[233] vii. 5, 28.\n\n[234] Sa tasya kha\u00f1gena mah\u00e2\u00e7ir\u00e2nsi kapih samas t\u00e2m sukundal\u00e2m\nkruddhah praciccheda tad\u00e2 han\u00fbm\u00e2ns tv\u00e2shtr\u00e2tmagasyeva \u00e7ir\u00e2nsi \u00e7akrah;\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vii. 50.\n\n[235] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vii. 10.\n\n[236] _Mbh._ i. 4990.--Cfr. also the three phallical and solar brothers\nof the story of \u00c7unah\u00e7epas (him with the luminous tail or phallus).\n\n[237] i. 4775.\n\n[238] Balam n\u00e2gasahasrasya yasmin kunde pratishthitam y\u00e2vatpivati b\u00e2lo\n'yam t\u00e2vad asm\u00e2i prad\u00eeyatam--ekocchv\u00e2s\u00e2ttatah kundam danah; _Mbh._ i.\n5030, 5032.--A similar legend is found again in the third book of the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, under the form of an impenetrable forest, in which the\nking of the serpents envelops Bh\u00eemas.\n\n[239] _Mbh._ i. 4777.\n\n[240] i. 5300-5304.\n\n[241] i. 680-828.\n\n[242] Tam kli\u00e7yam\u00e2namindro 'pa\u00e7yatsa vagram preshay\u00e2m\u00e2sa--gacch\u00e2sya\nbr\u00e2hmanasya s\u00e2h\u00e2yyam kurusveti--atha vagram dandak\u00e2shthamanupravi\u00e7ya\ntadvilamad\u00e2rayat; _Mbh._ i. 794-795.\n\n[243] In a legend of the Tibetan Buddhists, referred to by Professor\nSchiefner in his interesting work, _Ueber Indra's Donnerkeil_ (St\nPetersburg), 1848, we find two valiant heroes who, upon Mount\nGridhrak\u00fbta (the vulture's peak), strive, in presence of their master,\nto lift the vagram (that is, the arm in the form of a wedge, the\nlever-rod, the thunderbolt of Indras), but in vain; Vagrap\u00e2nis alone\nsucceeds in lifting the vagram with his right hand. R\u00e2mas makes a\nsimilar trial of strength in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, when he lifts and breaks\nin pieces a bow, which no one had before been able even to move.\n\n[244] Cfr. the following chapter.\n\n[245] i. 2772-2783.\n\n[246] To the myth of the ravished earrings is almost always joined, even\nin the popular tales, the story of the horse, which is always especially\nreferred to the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, as that of the bull to Indras. In the Puranic\nlegends, Krishnas receives from the earth the earrings of Aditis (whom\nwe already know to be a cow), whilst he frees the princesses from the\ninfernal Narakas.--Cfr. the _Vishnu Pur\u00e2na_, v. 29.\n\n[247] v. 17.\n\n[248] Cfr. the chapters which treat of the Wolf, the Fox, and the\nSerpent; and also the foregoing discussion on the Vedic riddles, where\nthe sun is called _anipadyam\u00e2nas_.\n\n[249] Aham galam kimunc\u00e2mi prag\u00e2n\u00e2m hitak\u00e2myay\u00e2; _Mbh._ i. 3317.\n\n[250] iii. 23, 24.\n\n[251] Dadar\u00e7a r\u00e2g\u00e2 t\u00e2m tatra kany\u00e2magni\u00e7ikh\u00e2miva; _Mbh._ i. 3294.\n\n[252] _Mbh._ i. 3379-3394\n\n[253] _Mbh._ i. 3435-3545.\n\n[254] _Mbh._ i. 4193-4211.\n\n[255] _Mbh._ i. 4211-4216.\n\n[256] We shall find the lame goat in the chapter which treats of the\nLamb and the Goat.\n\n[257] 1908.\n\n[258] v. 12.\n\n[259] The word _badhiras_ means here the crooked, the crippled one,\nand not the deaf (from the root _badh_ or _vadh_, to wound, to cut);\nthe more so that here the name of the blind man's companion is\nMantharakas, a word which properly means the slow one. The curved line\nand the slow line correspond; and the curved one, who cannot stand\nupright, may be the hunchback just as well as the cripple, the\ncrooked, the lame.--Cfr. The chapter on the Tortoise.\n\n[260] For the incident of the hunchback who betrays the blind man, in\nthe same popular tale, cfr. next chapter.\n\n[261] i. 6527.\n\n[262] S\u00e2ud\u00e2min\u00eeva c\u00e2bhreshu tatr\u00e2ev\u00e2ntaradh\u00eeyata; _Mbh._ i. 6557.\n\n[263] Tasminnripati\u00e7\u00e2rd\u00fble pravishte nagaram punah pravavarsha\nsahasr\u00e2kshah \u00e7asy\u00e2ni ganayanprabhuh; _Mbh._ 6629, 6630.\n\n[264] i. 6651-6772.\n\n[265] The hundred daughters of King Ku\u00e7anabhas, and of the nymph\nGhrit\u00e2ci, who walks in curdled milk, recalling to us the mythical\ncow.--Cfr. _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ i. 35.\n\n[266] Cfr. Virgil, _\u00c6n\u00ebid_, I. 65-75, where Juno gives the nymph\nDeiopea to \u00c6olus.\n\n\nSECTION III.\n\nTHE BULL AND THE COW IN IRANIAN AND TURANIAN TRADITION.\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The bull the first created in Persian tradition.--The bull of\n    Mithra.--Mithra and Yamas.--The excrements of the celestial cow and\n    bull.--Exorcisms for chasing the evil one away from the beasts of\n    the stable.--The salutary herb, rue.--The heavenly cypress and the\n    mythical forest.--The mountain and the gem.--The mountain of the\n    heroes.--The defenceless soul of the bull recommends itself to the\n    mercy of the gods.--The moon, as a cow or bitch, guides the hero\n    over the funereal bridge.--The many-eyed god.--The golden-hoofed\n    bull.--The spinners of the sky.--Friendship between sun and\n    moon.--The Geusurva is the full moon.--The purifying\n    moon.--Ardhv\u00ee-\u00c7\u00fbra-An\u00e2hita, the Persian aurora, has all the\n    characteristics of the Vedic aurora, elevated, luminous, discomfiter\n    of the demons, deliverer of the hero Thraetaona from the water,\n    having golden shoes, swift, the first to arrive with her chariot,\n    guesser of riddles, revered at the break of day.--The aurora sung to\n    by her own name, the cow-aurora.--Mithra, the shepherd-god,--Mithra,\n    the hero who fights to recover his cows.--The bull\n    Veretraghna.--Thrita and Thraetaona.--The three brothers in the\n    Avesta.--The two brothers.--The three sisters.--The strength of the\n    solar hero consists in the wind.--The winds have golden shoes and an\n    especial foible for women, as the women have for them.--Indras\n    envious of the Marutas.--Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa envious of the wind.--The wind,\n    with its whistling and wailing, makes everything tremble; the hero\n    presses him tightly and forces him to be silent.--The bound\n    hero.--The bow-cow, and the birds coming out of the cow in the\n    Avesta.--The darts, horns of the cow.--The rich brother and the poor\n    one.--The poor one, who has a lean ox and a lean horse, makes his\n    fortune.--Ashis Vaguhi, another equivalent of the aurora who also\n    frees the hero Thraetaona.--Other names of the three Persian\n    brothers.--Importance of the Avesta on account of its mythical\n    contents.--The hero exposed on the mountain.--The hero-shepherd, the\n    wonderful child, Cyrus.--Feridun.--The three brothers, sons of\n    Feridun; the third brother is the best, and is murdered by the two\n    elder ones.--Sal, with white hair, the hero exposed and nourished by\n    a bird, solves riddles, and receives in reward the daughter of the\n    king.--The hero Rustem, with the mace of a bull's head, with the\n    strong horse that vanquishes the lion, the strong hero, the Persian\n    Orlando, kills and binds demons, monsters, and giants, who fight\n    with rocks.--From black comes white.--The prince Kawus recovers his\n    sight after the death of the monster.--The demon in the mountain,\n    who keeps back the waters, is the same as the demon in the\n    mill.--The hero Rustem unites himself with the daughter of the\n    demoniacal and hostile king.--Sohrab is born of this union, with a\n    demoniacal nature.--Gurdaferid, the Persian amazon princess,\n    assailed in her white castle by the hero-demon Sohrab.--Rustem\n    fights, wins, and kills his son Sohrab; he then retires from\n    warfare.--Explanation of this myth.--The end of Rustem in an\n    ambuscade.--Sijavush persecuted by his stepmother, whose love he had\n    disdained; the young prince submits to the trial by fire, and comes\n    out safely: the cruel stepmother was to have undergone the same\n    trial, but Sijavush intercedes for her; she continues to persecute\n    him; Sijavush dies in the country of his demoniacal father-in-law,\n    and is avenged by Rustem, who kills the cruel stepmother.--The\n    child-hero Kai Khosru consigned to the care of shepherds; during his\n    childhood he performs prodigies of valour, and passes a river with\n    dry feet.--The strength of the hair of the hero Firud.--The two\n    hero-brothers again; one brother avenges the other.--The old hero\n    becomes a penitent, and disappears in a tempest upon a\n    mountain.--The seven heroic undertakings of Isfendiar.--The legend\n    of Iskander.--The Tuti-Name.--The hero who wishes to kill himself\n    for the king's sake; the deity prevents the sacrifice.--The story of\n    the poor man and the rich one again.--The beautiful woman persecuted\n    by her brother-in-law the seducer; the oriental Crescentia or\n    Genevi\u00e8ve.--The sea, invited to the wedding, brings pearls and\n    gold.--The maiden who discovers the thief by means of a riddle.--The\n    girl who gives his eyesight back to the blind man against her\n    will.--The lovers flee upon the bull's back.--The lover forsakes his\n    mistress on the shore after having despoiled her.--The three\n    brothers deliver the beautiful maiden and dispute for her; the\n    maiden takes refuge in a convent.--The wise child who distinguishes\n    false from true, honest from dishonest.--The money of the dead\n    man.--The adulterer condemned to death who bites off the nose of his\n    companion in guilt and dissoluteness.--The wife despoiled of her\n    riches by her husband and thrown into the water.--Romeo and Juliet\n    in the East.--The three brothers: the seer; the strong carrier, or\n    Christophoros; the victorious one.--The disputed bride again.--The\n    little pipkin of abundance; Perrette in the East.--The small\n    porringer of abundance, which the two brothers contend for.--The\n    shoes which take one in an instant wherever one wishes to go.--The\n    little purse which is filled as fast as it is emptied.--The sword\n    which makes a city rise.--The animals which contend for the division\n    of the prey, and the third comer who profits between two\n    disputers.--The four mines of the four brothers.--Why old men have\n    white hair.--Calmuc and Mongol tradition.--The six companions are\n    the same as three.--The bride torn in pieces.--A man unites himself\n    with a cow, which brings forth a Minotaur of a good nature, who\n    fights against the demons in favour of the gods.--The gem in the\n    cow's litter.--The bull lost.--The three sisters; the third sister\n    marries the monster bird; she loses him, because she has burned the\n    aviary.--The painter and the woodman in Paradise; the painter is\n    burned.--The two brothers, the rich one and the poor one; the rich\n    brother ends badly.--The husband who despoils his wife and hides her\n    in a chest in the sand of the desert.--The gem of the prince falls\n    to the ground; his nose bleeds and he dies; explanation of this\n    myth.--The wonderful hammer, which, when used, brings one whatever\n    is wished for.--The rich and poor brothers; the poor one becomes\n    rich.--The lengthened nose and the corresponding Italian\n    proverb.--The wife kills her husband with the hammer, wishing to\n    knock a protuberance off his nose.--The old man who eats his last\n    cow; his wife continues, even after its death, to nourish and\n    protect him until the wild beasts in the cavern devour him.--The\n    woman disguised as a solar hero.--The lion and the bull friends, or\n    foster-brothers; their friendship is put an end to by the fox.--The\n    projects of Perrette again.--The horns of the dead buffalo.--The\n    grateful animals.--The laughing princess.--The wise\n    herd-children.--The wise puppets.--The prince born of a cake.--The\n    boy learns in the forest every art, even devilish ones.--The son of\n    the wolves who understands their language.--Heroes and demons cut\n    in pieces multiply themselves.--The hero has good luck, because he\n    has performed funeral services to the dead.--Four young shepherds, a\n    new form of the Ribhavas, make a beautiful maiden of wood, and then\n    dispute for her.--The wife throws her husband into the fountain out\n    of jealousy, having heard another voice, perhaps the echo of her\n    own.--The princess Light of the sun, who must be seen by no one, and\n    who is visited by the minister Moon.--Turanian tradition in\n    Siberia.--The three brothers dream upon the mountain; the third\n    brother is persecuted on account of his dream; he finds the blind\n    woman and lame man, and induces them to adopt him; he hunts, fights\n    against the devil, and vanquishes him; from the body of the demon\n    come forth animals, men, and treasures; he fishes up in the sea of\n    milk the casket which contains the eyes of the blind woman; receives\n    extraordinary gifts, and above all the faculty of transforming\n    himself; wins his predestined bride, and kills his own cruel\n    father.--The hero who solves enigmas.--Ancient and modern\n    riddles.--The cow devours the wolf, and the wolf devours the\n    cow.--The bow of horn.--The wolves fastened to the calf's tail.--The\n    soul of the black bull in the rainbow, the bridge of souls, wounded\n    by the young hero, who then espouses the daughter of the sky, after\n    attaining the third heaven, and accomplishing heroic undertakings to\n    merit her.--The sleeper in the cup, the gem in the fish.--The\n    Argonauts and Medea in Turan.--The Finnish Diana.--The Finnish\n    thundering God, Kave Ukko.--The little sun, the Finnish\n    dwarf-hero.--The second of the three brothers.--The strong\n    bear.--The monster giant darkness or cloud.--The Orpheus and the\n    lyre of the Finns; grief the inspirer of song.--Finnish and Aryan\n    myths.--The Sampo.--Esthonian tradition.--The three sisters; the\n    third is the most beautiful, and is persecuted by her stepmother,\n    and delivered by the prince.--The bird of light.--The maiden\n    transformed into a pond-rose, and delivered by her husband in the\n    shape of a shrimp.--The witch is burned in the form of a cat.--The\n    gold of the witch.--Explanation of several myths.--The third brother\n    is the swiftest.--The wise maiden.--The golden fairy.--The\n    puppet.--The magical rod makes the cock come out of the\n    mountain.--The fairy is good towards the good, and punishes the\n    wicked.--The cow lost.--The old hospitable dwarf.--The leaf which\n    carries the hero across the waters.--Heroic undertakings against the\n    serpent and the tortoise.--The third brother, expelled from home,\n    travels and solves riddles on the way.--The rod which makes a\n    bridge.--In heaven and in hell time passes quickly.--The hero\n    under-cook.--The golden birds and the voyages to hell.--The brothers\n    punished, and the bride won by the magical sword.--The son of\n    thunder.--The weapon carried off from the god of thunder.--The\n    weapon recovered.--The fisherman-god.--The marvellous musical\n    instrument; the magical flute.--The three dwarfs.--The hat that\n    makes its owner invisible, made of men's nails; the shoes which\n    carry one where-ever one wishes, and the stick which fights of\n    itself.--The proverb of the third who profits between two disputers\n    again.--The third brother is the son of a king, exposed when a\n    child; he awakens the princess who sleeps in the glass mountain;\n    _non est mortua puella, sed dormit_.--Passage from the dawn of the\n    day to the dawn of the year.--The child sold by his father without\n    the latter's knowledge.--The boy exchanged.--The boy sets out to\n    deliver the maiden from the demon.--The pea, the kidney-bean, the\n    cabbage, and the pumpkin of funerals accompany the solar hero in his\n    nocturnal voyage.--The symbol of abundance, of generation, of\n    stupidity.--The nuptial beans.--Meaning of the myth concerning\n    vegetables.--The region of silence.--The region of noise.--The wise\n    girl helps the hero.--The cow milked and the calf bound.--The\n    luminous ball comes out of the calf.--The antithesis of white and of\n    black.--Hungarian proverbs.--The luminous ball comes out of the\n    stone.--The luminous ball and the ring.--The fearless hero frees the\n    castle from spirits.--The Esthonian story of Blue Beard.--The\n    charivari in the nuptials of widowers.--The widow who burns\n    herself.--The hero exposed, and then brought up among cowherds,\n    feels himself predestined to reign, and learns the art by guiding\n    herds.--The German (or Western) witch endeavours to take the red\n    strawberries from the Esthonian hero.--The boy avenges this injury\n    by causing her to be devoured by wolves, who will not touch her\n    heart.--The gardener's daughter.--The broken ring; the two parts of\n    the ring unite again; the husband and wife find each other once\n    more.--The maiden born of the egg in the shape of a puppet.--The\n    casket which brings good luck disappears when the young couple are\n    married.\n\nMoving now from India westwards, we find on one side the Iranian, and\non the other the Turanian traditions. We cannot pass into Europe\nwithout at least indicating the general character of each.\n\nIn the Persian cosmogony, the bull (_g\u00e2us aevo d\u00e2to_) is one of the\nfirst of created existences, being as old as the elements. It is,\nmoreover, well known how much importance was ascribed to the bull\namong the Persians in the mysteries of the solar god Mithra, who is\nrepresented as a beautiful youth, holding the horns of a bull in his\nleft hand, and having the knife of sacrifice in his right. Mithra\nsacrificing the bull is just the solar hero sacrificing himself in the\nevening. Indeed, in the Persian tradition, Mithra, like the Hindoo\nYamas, holds the office of god of the dead, and as such, like Yamas,\nis of a monstrous aspect, and is found in the _Ya\u00e7na_ represented with\na thousand ears and ten thousand eyes.\n\nAs in India, so in Persia, the urine of the cow is used in ceremonies of\npurification, during which it is drunk.[267] We have already seen in the\nstory of Uta\u00f1kas how the excrement of the bull, upon which Uta\u00f1kas fed,\nwas ambrosia itself; and, indeed, all is beneficial which is given by\nthe cow of abundance (the moon, the cloud, and the aurora), and by the\ndivine bull (the moon and the sun). The mythical belief was natural,\nhowever disgusting when we insist on literal interpretation.\n\nAnd even in the Persian tradition itself, a distinction already exists\nbetween common bulls or oxen and sacred or privileged ones. This\ndistinction appears in the legend of Gemshid, whose bulls were all\ndevoured by the devil, as long as they were protected by no magical\nrites; whilst, when he was given a red ox (or bull) cooked in old,\nthat is strong, vinegar, to which was added garlic and rue (famous for\nits potency in exorcism), he disappeared and was never seen\nagain.[268] The rue is probably the fabulous plant which the Zend\ntradition surmises to have sprung from the sea _V\u00f4uru-Kasha_, whence\nAhura Mazda draws the clouds, from which all healthful water is\nderived, and which corresponds to the sea of milk of Hindoo tradition,\nin which the ambrosia is agitated.\n\nThus the funereal cypress of Kishmar (planted by Zarathustra, with a\nbranch from the tree of Paradise), under which more than two thousand\ncows and sheep could pasture, and the innumerable birds of which\ndarkened the air, obscuring the light of the sun, reminds us of the\ncelestial forest of the Ved\u00e2s, in which the shepherd-hero and the\nhunter-hero wander and are lost.\n\nThe idea of the funereal tree recalls to us that of the Persian\nmountain Arez\u00fbra or Dem\u00e2vend, where the demons met together to plot\nevil, and where was the gate of hell.[269]\n\nThe Zend word _a\u00e7ma_, which signifies stone and heaven, yields us, in\nits double meaning, the key to the interpretation of the myth. This\nstone, inasmuch as it is dark, is of evil omen; inasmuch as it shines,\nit is a gem, or gives the gem (the moon or the sun); whence, according\nto the _Minokhired_, the sky is the progeny of a precious stone.[270]\n\nThus to the mountain of the demons (where the sun goes down), is\nopposed in Persian tradition the glorious mountain, out of which are\nborn the heroes and the kings (or from which the sun rises and the\nmoon); because Haoma is born there (the Hindoo Somas), the ambrosial,\ngolden, and health-bringing god, who gives them the divine\nnourishment, and because the sacred bird, which stays on that\nmountain, feeds them with ambrosia, whence the _Ya\u00e7na_[271] invites\nHaoma to grow on the road of the birds.\n\nIn a rather obscure passage of the _G\u00e2th\u00e2 Ahunavaiti_, confirmed by the\n_Bundehesh_, the soul of the bull (or of the cow, as the case may be),\ndespoiled of his body by the evil one, complains to the Supreme Creator\nthat he is without defence against the assaults of his enemies, and that\nhe has no invincible protector. Ahura Mazda seems to wish only to give\nhim spiritual help, but the bull continues to declare himself\nunsatisfied, until Zarathustra, the defender, accords it, and he\nreceives the gift of efficacious favours which Ahura Mazda alone\npossesses.[272] Zarathustra is himself also born upon a mountain;[273]\nwhile his son \u00c7aoshyan\u00e7, the deliverer, comes out of the waters.\n\nA sacred cow, or at least a bitch which guards the cows (_pa\u00e7uvaiti_),\nseems, besides a good fairy, to be, in the _Vendiad_ itself,[274] the\nconductor of the souls across the bridge Cinvat, created by Ahura Mazda,\nto the kingdom of the blessed. The cow, as the guide of the souls[275]\nlost in the kingdom of the dead, and placed upon the bridge, is probably\nthe moon; the bitch (also the moon) reminds us of the Hindoo Saram\u00e2, the\nbitch which aids the heroes who have lost themselves in the nocturnal\nforest, grotto, or darkness. In the same chapter, after accounts of the\nbridge, we read the praise of the good \u00c7aoka, who has many eyes (like\nthe br\u00e2hmanic Indras, disguised as a woman, having a thousand eyes, and,\nafter the adventure of Ahaly\u00e2, a thousand wombs--the god hidden in the\nnight, who looks at the world through a thousand stars); after \u00c7aoka, of\nthe splendid Veretraghna (who corresponds to Vritrahan, properly the\ndiscomfiter of the all-covering darkness); and after him, of the\nluminous star Tistar, which seems a bull with golden hoofs,[276] which\nagain must refer to the moon; as the G\u00e2hs, who, according to Anquetil,\n\"sont occup\u00e9es \u00e0 filer des robes pour les justes dans le ciel,\" like the\ncows and Madonnas in our popular tales, cannot be very different from\nthe fairy, or at least from the stars which form her crown. The _Khorda\nAvesta_, in its hymns in praise of Mithra, celebrates the perfect\nfriendship which reigns between the sun and the moon, and sings of the\nmoon immediately after singing of the sun Mithra, and the splendid\nTistar immediately after the moon, whose light is said to come from the\nconstellation Tistrya.\n\nWe can thus divine the meaning of Geusurva (the soul of the bull or\nthe cow), of which, besides the soul, the body also is invoked in the\n_Ya\u00e7na_.[277] The Geusurva appears in the _Ya\u00e7na_ itself[278] as the\nprotectress of the fourteenth day of the month, or of the full-moon,\nviewed as a full cow. And when it is said in the _Khorda Avesta_[279]\nthat one must not sacrifice to the Geusurva at the time when the\nDaevas, or demons, are practising their evil-doings, it seems to me to\nindicate clearly enough that the sacrifice was to take place while the\nmoon was increasing, and not while it was diminishing. Thus Asha\nVahista, who reminds us of the Hindoo Vasishthas and his marvellous\ncow, has the power of conjuring away illness, north winds--in a word,\nevil of every kind--only when Agro-mainyus appears without help.[280]\n\nWe have seen in the legend of Utankas how, as the youth is on his way\nto take the queen's earrings, he meets a bull, upon the excrement of\nwhich he feeds, as upon ambrosia; that this ambrosial bull stays near\nIndras, as Indras and Somas are invoked together; and we noticed that\nfrom this mythical belief was derived the superstitious Hindoo custom\nof purifying one's self by means of the excrement of a cow. The same\ncustom passed into Persia; and the _Khorda Avesta_[281] has preserved\nthe formula to be recited by the devotee, whilst he holds in his hands\nthe urine of an ox or cow, preparatory to washing his face with\nit:--\"Destroyed, destroyed be the demon Ahriman, whose actions and\nworks are cursed. His actions and works do not come to us. May the\nthirty-three Amshaspands (the immortal saints, who correspond to the\nthirty-three Vedic dev\u00e2s), and Ormazd, be victorious and pure!\" It is\nsaid this remedial formula was used for the first time by Yima, when,\nfrom having touched Ahriman, in order to extricate from his body, by\nfraud, Takh mo Urupa, whom the demon had devoured, he had an eruption\non his hand. Finally, it is interesting to learn that one of the Zend\nnames of the moon is _gaocithra_, which means he that contains the\nseed of the bull, since, according to the _Bundehesh_, the seed of the\nprimitive bull passed into the moon, who, having purified it, used it\nto procreate other cattle (_p\u00f4uru \u00e7aredho_).\n\nAs to the aurora, there seems to be no doubt but that she was\nrepresented in ancient Persia by Ardv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra An\u00e2hita, the elevated, the\nstrong, the innocent or pure, according to the interpretation of\nProfessor Spiegel; she also drives a chariot drawn by four white\nhorses, which she guides herself; she has a veil, a diadem, and\nbracelets of gold, beautiful earrings (the Vedic A\u00e7vin\u00e2u), a dress of\nbeavers' skin, and prominent breasts; she is beautiful, and she is a\ngood young girl who protects men and women. She is often invoked in\nthe _Khorda Avesta_, like the Vedic aurora, to exorcise the demons,\nand to help the heroes who combat them; she herself has the strength\nof a thousand men, and is a marvellous heroine, like the Vedic amazon\nwhom Indras fought with; her body is girt round with a girdle. The\nprobability of this comparison seems to pass into certainty after\nreading a hymn of the _Khorda Avesta_,[282] even in the version of\nProfessor Spiegel, who perhaps would have introduced some little\nvariation if he had recognised the aurora in Ardv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra An\u00e2hita. In\nthis hymn, the victorious and mighty Thraetaona, in the form of a\nbird, flies for three days and three nights, which reminds us of the\nfugitive Indras of the _Rigvedas_, who wades across the rivers after\nhis victory; at the end of the third night he arrives near the aurora,\nand beseeches Ardv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra An\u00e2hita (that is, as it seems to us, the\naurora herself, elevated, mighty, and innocent) to come and help him,\nthat he may pass the waters and touch the ground at her habitation.\nThen Ardv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra An\u00e2hita appears in the shape of a beautiful, strong,\nand splendid girl, having a golden diadem and wearing shoes of gold\n(cfr. the _Yast_, xxi. 19) on her feet (this is perhaps another feeble\nforeshadow of Cinderella's slippers); the beautiful girl takes him by\none arm (the bird has, it seems, become a hero), and gives him back\nhealth and strength. But the certainty increases still more when, as\nthe Vedic aurora is the first of those who arrive, winning the race in\nher chariot, the so-called Ardhv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra An\u00e2hita appears in the _Khorda\nAvesta_ as \"the first who guides the chariot;\"[283] and we are\nrecommended to offer up sacrifices to her at break of day, before the\nsun rises.[284] We have seen the Vedic aurora and the sun propose and\nsolve riddles; we have seen the Hindoo solar hero free himself from\nthe monster by proposing or solving insoluble enigmas; in the same\nway, in the _Avesta_, the hero Ya\u00e7to Fryanananm asks Ardv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra\nAn\u00e2hita to help him to solve ninety-nine enigmas, in order that he may\nfree himself from the monster Akhtya.\n\nAdd to this that Ardv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra An\u00e2hita, like the Vedic aurora, is a giver\nof cows and horses, and that these animals are offered to her by her\ndevotees. The aurora herself, in the invocation made to her in the\nsixth prayer of the _Khorda Avesta_, is also called \"elevated,\" and\nfurnished with swift and splendid horses.[285] The fact of finding the\nAn\u00e2hita drawn by four white horses, like the sun Mithra, enhances the\nevidence of this identity. And if the aurora is not explicitly\nrepresented in the _Avesta_ as a cow, we infer that it was so\nconceived of, from the worship of Mithra, who was adored from the\nfirst streak of daylight till midday. Mithra often receives the\nepithet of \"he who possesses vast pasture-lands;\" the morning sun is\ntherefore a pastoral god; and if so, we are constrained to think of\nthe Persian aurora too as, if not a cow, at least a female cowherd.\n\nBut Mithra is not a god of mere idyllic exploits, he is also a hero;\nthe _Vendidad_[286] salutes him as \"the most victorious of the\nvictors.\" The booty of his victory [essentially due to his immediate\npredecessors Veretraghna (Vritrahan) and \u00c7raosha][287] must have been\nthe cows of the aurora, without which his immense pasture-lands would\nhave been of no use to him. Indeed it is said that Mithra enables\nowners of herds to recover their lost oxen.[288]\n\nBut Mithra is not the only prominent hero of the _Avesta_. Besides him,\nthe above-cited Veretraghna, with all his secondary and tertiary\nreflections, plays an important part in it. Now, this Veretraghna, who\noffers numerous analogies to the Vedic Indras, killer of Vritras, is,\nlike Indras, now a hero, now a horse, now a bird, now a sheep, now a\nwild boar, and now a bull.[289] As the bull Indras assists Tritas,\nTr\u00e2itanas, and Kavya Ucanas[290] in the _Rigvedas_, so the bull\nVeretraghna in the _Avesta_, partaking of the nature of one Thrita[291]\nwho is rich, splendid, and strong, and who, like Indras, cures maladies\nby the help of the guardian of the metals (the usual co-relation between\nthe hero and the magic pearl), assists Thraetaona, the killer of the\nserpent Duh\u00e2ka (Azhi Dah\u00e2ka) and the hero Kava U\u00e7a, of which Kava\nHao\u00e7rava is another name rather than another form. The Thrita and\nThraetaona of the _Zend_ are peculiarly interesting, because they remind\nus, though vaguely, of the Vedic myth of the three brothers. Only the\n_Avesta_ names Thrita and Thraetaona as two distinct divine heroes; it\nattributes to Thraetaona the second place among the three brothers; and\nas in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, it is the second brother, the strong Bh\u00eemas,\nwho falls into the waters, whilst the third brother, Argunas, delivers\nothers from the marine monster by his valour, so in the _Avesta_ it is\nThraetaona who comes out of the waters, or who is the son of Athvya\n(-\u00c2ptya). But every one can see the point of contact, connection, or\nidentification between the two hero-brothers. It is Bh\u00eemas who comes out\nof the waters, and Argunas who extricates him, that is, who extricates\nhis own strength, expressed in Bh\u00eemas (the subject, and his virtue,\nbecome the object, being inclosed in one person). They are confounded\ntogether, inasmuch as Thraetaona, son of him who stays in the waters, or\nof the watery one, or he who comes out of the waters, and kills the\ndemon, must be the same as Thrita, the third one, who has the virtue of\ncuring demoniacal diseases. Thraetaona, the killer of the serpent, and\nThrita, who destroys the evil-doing ones, are found again, with a\ndifferent splendour, in the same heroic adventure. Scarcely an instant\ntranspires between the time when the hero was a victim and that in which\nVeretraghna, or Thraetaona, or Thrita, the hero, triumphs in his own\nliberation.\n\nIn the _Ya\u00e7na_,[292] we find three men who, by their piety, win the\nfavour of the god Haoma (Soma, the lunar god, the moon, the good\nmagician, the good fairy). The first is Vivagh\u00e2o, the second \u00c2thvya,\nand the third Thrita; from which we are led to conclude that Vivagh\u00e2o is\nthe eldest brother, \u00c2thvya the second, and Thrita the youngest. On\naccount of their piety, they obtain sons; the son of Vivagh\u00e2o is Yima\n(the Vedic Yamas), the wise, the happy, the heavenly; the son of \u00c2thvya\nis Thraetaona, the warrior who discomfits the monster; the third,\nThrita, called the most useful, has two sons, Urv\u00e2ksha and Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa,\nwho remind us of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u. \u00c2thvya's son and Thrita being confounded\nin one person, Thraetaona, or Thrita, forms a new triumvirate with\nUrv\u00e2ksha and Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa, as the Vedic Indras with the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u. The\nstory of the three brothers and that of the two brothers seem to be\ninterwoven even in the myth, as they certainly are afterwards in the\nlegend. To the three brothers, moreover, correspond, in the _Avesta_,\nthe three sisters, the three daughters of Zarathustra and of Hv\u00f4vi:\nFreni, Thriti, and Pouruci\u00e7sta.[293] The first seems to correspond to\nYamas, the second to \u00c2ptya and his son Thraetaona (or Thrita), the\nthird, the luminous, the beautiful (as being the aurora), to the two\nhandsome brother horsemen, Urv\u00e2ksha and Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa (the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u).\n\nThe solar hero comes out of his difficulties, and triumphs over his\nenemies, not only by force of arms, but by his innate strength and\nprowess. This extraordinary strength, by which he moves and is borne\nalong, and which renders him irresistible, is the wind, invoked by the\nheroes in the _Avesta_ under the name of R\u00e2man. The wind, according to\nthe _Avesta_, is not only the swiftest of the swift, but the strongest\nof the strong (like the Marutas, Hanumant, or Bh\u00eemas, Hindoo winds, or\nsons of the wind). Even in the _Avesta_, he fights and assures the\nheroes of victory, and is dear to woman and girls. (In the same way,\nS\u00eet\u00e2 has a leaning for Hanumant, and Hidimb\u00e2, of all the P\u00e2ndavas,\ngives the preference to Bh\u00eemas.) Moreover, in the _Avesta_, girls\ninvoke the wind in order to obtain a husband.[294]\n\nA hymn of the _Rigvedas_, however, celebrates a kind of quarrel\nbetween the winds Marutas and the god Indras, prompted by rivalry; a\nquarrel which ends in Indras having the advantage. It is interesting\nto find in the Persian tradition[295] the same rivalry between the\nwind (v\u00e2ta) and the son of Thrita, the hero Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa. An evil genie\ninforms the wind that Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa boasts of being superior to him in\nstrength. Thereupon the wind begins to howl and rage in such a\nterrifying manner that nothing can resist him, and the very trees are\ncleft in two or torn up, till Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa comes and squeezes him so\ntightly in his arms that he is obliged to cease. This interesting\nmythical incident is a prefigurement of the loud whistle of the heroes\nand the monsters in fairy tales, which is brought to an end in a\nsummary fashion, similar to that of the Persian legend; which also\nleads us to suppose that Thraetaona vanquished the serpent Dah\u00e2ka,\nmerely by tying him to the demoniacal mountain Dem\u00e2vend.[296] This\nstyle of vanquishing the enemy by binding him occurs often enough in\nthe Persian legends and in the _Avesta_ itself;[297] and is also\nmentioned in the Hindoo traditions. The arrows of the monsters hurled\nagainst the heroes of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ bind them; the god Yamas and the\ngod Varunas bind their victims; the first draws tight, tightens the\nreins (_i.e._, the evening sun shortens his rays); the second\nenvelops, covers and binds with the darkness that which Yamas reined\nin. The solar ray which shortens itself, the shadow which advances,\nare images of the ensnarer of heroes; whereas the solar ray which\nlengthens itself, the thunderbolt which traverses all the heavens,\nsurrounded by clouds and darkness, represents the hero who grasps\naround, presses tightly, and strangles the monster.\n\nThe bow of Mithra is formed of a thousand bows, prepared from the\ntough hide of a cow; these bows, in the _Avesta_, also hurl a thousand\ndarts, which fly with winged vultures' feathers.[298] This carries us\nback again to the Vedic myth of the birds which come out of the cow.\n\nThe bow being considered a cow, this cow sharpens its horns; whence\nthe _Khorda Avesta_ celebrates the horned darts of the bow of Mithra,\n_i.e._, the horns of the cow, which have become weapons[299] or the\nthunderbolts.\n\nThe legend of the two brothers is connected more with the myth of the\nhorse than with that of the cow or the ox. But inasmuch as it presents\nthe two brothers to us as the one poor and the other rich, the riches\nare symbolised by the ox. However, if I am not mistaken, there are\ntwo heroes, celebrated in the _Avesta_ one after the other (and whom I\ntherefore suppose to be brothers), who derive their origin from this\nlegend; one is called \u00c7r\u00eeraokhsan (or who has a fine ox), the other\nKere\u00e7aokhsan (or who has a lean ox). As the _Avesta_ does not go on to\ndevelop this subject more in detail, I dare not insist upon it;\nnevertheless it is gratifying to me to remark that, of the two\nbrothers, Kere\u00e7aokhsan was the most valiant, as of the two brothers\nUrv\u00e2ksha (a word which may perhaps signify the one who has the fat\nhorse, and which is perhaps synonymous with Urv\u00e2\u00e7pa[300]) and\nKere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa (he of the lean horse), it is the second who is the glorious\nhero; as in the Russian popular tales, we shall find the third\nbrother, though thought to be an idiot, despised by the others, and\nriding the worst jade of the stable, yet becoming afterwards the most\nfortunate hero. Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa avenges his brother Urv\u00e2ksha against\nHit\u00e2\u00e7pa, whom Professor Spiegel[301] interprets to mean the bound\nhorse, but which can also be rendered he who keeps the horse bound,\nwhich would bring us back again to the story of the bridle and of the\nhero-horse, whom the demon keeps bound to himself, which we have\nalready noticed above in the story of the sacrifice of \u00c7unah\u00e7epas,\ndelivered by the aurora.\n\nIt is uncertain whether we must recognise the aurora or the moon, in\nthe _Avesta_, in the so-called Ashis Vaguhi, the elevated (like Ardv\u00ee\n\u00c7\u00fbra An\u00e2hita), who appears upon the high mountain, rich, beautiful,\nsplendid, golden-eyed, beneficent, giver of cattle, posterity, and\nabundance, who discomfits the demons, guides chariots, and is invoked\nby the son of the watery one, Thraetaona, in the _Ashi Yast_,[302] in\norder that she may help him to vanquish the three-headed\nmonster-serpent Dah\u00e2ka. Now, Thraetaona, the victorious and rich in\noxen,[303] being a well-known form of the solar hero Mithra, it is\ninteresting to learn how the heroine, the so-called Ashis Vaguhi (the\naurora, or the moon, as the three words Ardv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra An\u00e2hita are simple\nnames of the aurora), having the same supreme god for her father, has\nthree brothers, of whom the first is \u00c7raosha, the pious; the second,\nRashnus, the strong; and the third, Mithra, the victorious.\n\nShe is, moreover, herself represented as being pursued by enemies on\nhorseback; and it is now a bull, now a sheep, now a child, anon a virgin\nwho hides her from her pursuers. Not knowing where to go, whether to\nascend into heaven, or creep along the earth, she applies to Ahura\nMazda, who answers that she must neither ascend into heaven nor creep\nalong the earth, but betake herself to the middle of a beautiful king's\nhabitation.[304] How is it possible not to recognise in her the moon, or\nthe aurora, who follows the path of the sun her husband, the moon, or\nthe aurora, who appears on the summit of the high mountains?\n\nOther facts not devoid of mythological interest might perhaps be found\nin the _Avesta_, which, on account of the uncertainty attending the\ntranslation of the original texts, has hitherto been, it seems to me,\nutterly neglected by mythologists. And yet, though Anquetil, Burnouf,\nBenfey, Spiegel, Haugh, Kossowicz, and all who have turned their\ntalents and science to the interpretation of the Zendic texts,\ndisagree in the more abstruse passages, there are many of which the\ninterpretation is certain, in which the learned translators agree,\nwhich offer interesting mythological data, and permit us, in any case,\nto extract from the _Avesta_ an embryo of mythology, in the same way\nas an embryo of grammar has already been extracted from it. The brief\nreferences which I have now made to the myth of the cow and the bull\nin the _Avesta_, anyhow appear to me sufficient to warrant the\nconclusion I draw, that the cow and the bull presented the same\naspects, and generated the same myths and the same beliefs in Persia\nas in India, albeit in a form far more feeble and indeterminate.\n\nThe solar hero of Persia occurs again in the costume of historical\nlegend in the Cyrus ([Greek: Kyros]) of Herodotus and Ktesias, the\nfirst of which represents to us the child exposed by his parents,\nsaved and educated during his infancy (like the Hindoo Karnas, child\nof the sun, and Krishnas) among the shepherds, where for some time he\ngives extraordinary proofs of his valour; the second shows us the\nyoung hero who wins his own bride, Amytis, daughter of Astyages.\n\nFinally, the same hero appears in several splendid and glorious forms\nin the _Shahname_.\n\nAs in the _Rigvedas_, Tritas or Tr\u00e2itanas, and in the _Avesta_,\nThraetaona (of whom Thritas is a corresponding form), accomplish the\ngreat exploit of killing the monster, and more especially the serpent,\nso Feridun, the Persian synonym (by means of the intermediate form\nPhreduna) for the Zendic Thraetaona is, in subsequent Persian\ntradition, the most distinguished hero in the struggle against the\nmonster. I shall not insist upon the deeds of Feridun and his mythical\nvalour, after the learned paper written upon the subject by Professor\nR. Roth, which appears in the Transactions of the Oriental Society of\nLeipzig, and the able and highly-valued essay by Professor Michael\nBr\u00e9al on the myth of Hercules and Cacus. I shall therefore content\nmyself with quoting from the legend of Feridun the episode of his old\nage, which reminds us of the Vedic myth of the three brothers.\n\nThe great king Feridun has three sons, Selm, T\u00fbr, and Ireg (Selm, T\u00fbr,\nand Er are also the sons of Thraetaona); he divides the world into\nthree parts and gives the west to the first-born, and the north to the\nsecond, whilst he keeps Iran for the youngest. The two eldest are\njealous, and announce to their father their intention of declaring war\nagainst him, unless he expels their younger brother Ireg from the\npalace. Feridun replies to their impious threat with haughty reproofs,\nand meanwhile warns the young Ireg of the danger he is in. The youth\nproposes to go in person to his brothers, and induce them to make\npeace; his father is unwilling to let him go, but finally consents,\nand gives him a letter for the two brothers, in which he commends him\nas his best-loved son to their care. Ireg arrives at his brothers'\ndwelling; their soldiers see him, and cannot take their eyes off him,\nas though they already recognised him for their lord. Then Selm, the\neldest, advises T\u00fbr, the second, the strong one, to kill Ireg; T\u00fbr\nthereupon assaults the defenceless Ireg, and transfixes his breast\nwith a dagger. Ireg is afterwards avenged by the son of his daughter\n(born after his death of a maid whom he had left pregnant), the hero\nMinucehr, who kills Selm and T\u00fbr.\n\nThe hero who succeeds Minucehr is Sal, the son of Sam, whom, because\nborn with white hair, his father had exposed upon Mount Alburs, where\nthe bird Simurg nourished and saved him. Sal proves his wisdom before\nMinucehr by solving six astronomical riddles which King Minucehr\nproposes to him. The king, satisfied, orders him to be dressed in\nfestive clothes; he then, to prove his strength, challenges him to run\na tilt with the horsemen; Sal is victorious, and obtains another robe\nof honour and innumerable royal gifts; after which he espouses Rudabe,\ndaughter of King Mihrab.\n\nSal distinguishes himself, like Minucehr, in his wars against the\nperverse Turanians, the dragons and the monsters, in which he takes\nalong with him as his chief helper the mighty hero Rustem, whose\nweapon is a club surmounted with the head of a bull[305] or a horned\nmace (the hero is the bull, the thunderbolts are his horns), and whose\nhorse is so powerful as by itself to fight and vanquish a lion while\nRustem is asleep. The hero himself kills a dragon, and a witch\ntransformed into a beautiful woman, but who resumes her monstrous\nshape as soon as the hero pronounces the name of a god. He thunders\nlike a cloud, is dark, and describes himself as a thunder-cloud which\nhurls the thunderbolt.[306] He binds the warrior Aulad, and obliges\nhim to reveal where the demons detain in prison King Kawus, who is\nbecome blind in their kingdom of darkness. Kawus then informs Rustem\nthat to recover his sight his eyes must be anointed with three drops\nof blood from the slain demon Sefid; upon which Rustem sets out to\nkill the demon. The demons can be vanquished only by day; when it is\nlight, they sleep, and then they can be conquered, says Aulad to\nRustem; for this reason, Rustem does not begin the enterprise till the\nsun is in mid-heaven;[307] then he thunders and lightens at the\ndemons. Like a sun, he sets out towards the mountain (no doubt,\ntowards sunset), where the demon Sefid sits, and arrives at the mouth\nof a deep and gloomy cavern, from which Sefid sallies forth in the\nform of a black giant just awakened from his sleep. The giant himself,\nlike an enormous mountain assaulting the earth, hurls a rock like a\nmillstone at Rustem; Rustem strikes the monster on the feet, and lops\naway one of them; the lame giant continuing the fight, Rustem at last\nwrestles with him, lifts him into the air, then beats him several\ntimes furiously against the ground, and so takes his life. He throws\nthe body of Sefid into the mountain cavern, whilst his blood saturates\nthe earth, and gives back to the prince Kawus his eyesight and his\nsplendour. The myth is a beautiful and an expressive one. As from the\nblack venomous serpent comes white healthy milk, so from the black\nmonster, at his death, comes blood, which gives back his eyesight to\nthe blinded prince; the red aurora is here represented as the blood of\nthe nocturnal monster, discomfited by the solar hero.\n\nLet me ask the reader to notice the Persian comparison of the rock\nthrown by the demon to a millstone, as it is important to explain a\nsuperstition still extant in the West, to the effect that the devil\ngoes under the millstone to carry out his evil designs. The stone or\nmountain fractured by the waters was naturally compared to a millstone\nmoved by the waters; the demons inhabit the cavernous mountain to\nguard the waters; thus the devil, the evil one, the hobgoblins, prefer\nmills as their dwellings.\n\nRustem fights, in the _Shahname_, many other victoriously successful\nbattles against Afrasiab the Turanian, and other demoniacal beings, in\nthe service of sundry heroic kings, with epic incidents to boot, which\nare nearly all uniform. His struggle against his son Sohrab, however,\nis of an entirely different character.\n\nRustem goes to the chase. In the forest, Turkish bandits rob him of his\ninvaluable horse while he sleeps; he then sets out, alone and sad,\ntowards the city of Semengam, following the track left by his horse.\nWhen he appears, emerging from the wood, the king of Semengam and his\ncourtiers note the phenomenon as though it were the sun coming out of\nthe clouds of morning.[308] The king receives Rustem with great\nhospitality, and, as if to fill to the full the measure of his courtesy,\nhe sends at night to the room where he sleeps his exceedingly beautiful\ndaughter Tehmime. The hero and the beauty separate in the morning; but\nRustem, before parting from Tehmime, leaves her a pearl of recognition.\nIf a daughter is born to their loves, she is to wear it as an amulet in\nher hair; if a son, he is to wear it on his arm, and he will become an\ninvincible hero. After nine months, Tehmime gives birth to Sohrab; at\nthe age of one month he seems a year old, at three years of age he\namuses himself with arms, at five he gives proof of a lion's courage,\nand at ten he vanquishes all his companions, and asks his mother to\ninform him of his father, threatening to kill her if she does not tell\nhim. Scarcely does Sohrab learn that he is the son of Rustem, than he\nconceives the desire of becoming king of Iran and supplanting Kawus; he\nthen commences his persecution of the Iranian heroes by assaulting the\nwhite castle (the white morning sky, the alba), defended by a beautiful\nwarrior princess, Gurdaferid, dear to the Iranian warriors. Sohrab\nconquers and destroys the white castle, but in the moment of triumph,\nthe warrior maiden disappears. The old hero Rustem then moves against\nhis own son Sohrab; the latter throws him down, but Rustem, in his turn,\nmortally wounds Sohrab. In the old Rustem thrown down on the mountain it\nis not difficult to recognise the setting sun; in Sohrab mortally\nwounded by Rustem, the sun itself, which dies; and in fact, the dying\nsun has a different appearance from the new sun which rises and triumphs\nin the heavens: these two appearances might give rise to the idea of a\nstruggle between the old and the young sun, in which both are\nsacrificed. Indeed, Rustem feels, when he mortally wounds Sohrab, that\nhe is wounding himself; he curses his work and immediately sends for a\nhealing balsam; but in the meantime Sohrab dies. The only one who could\ndestroy the young sun was the old sun; the sun grows old and dies;\nRustem alone could kill Sohrab. With the death of Sohrab the glory of\nRustem is also eclipsed; he retires unto solitude, and the most\ngrandiose period of his epic life comes to an end. After this he only\nreappears in episodic battles or enterprises; as, for instance, in his\nsetting fire to Turan, in which he resembles Hanumant, burner of La\u00f1k\u00e2;\nin the liberation of the young hero Bishen, who had been taken prisoner\nand incarcerated by the Turanians; in the killing of the powerful and\nperverse Turanian Afrasiab; and in his own death in an ambuscade set by\nyoung rivals of the old lion, who dies taking vengeance on his enemies.\n\nIn the very palace of Kawus (he who was protected by Rustem), a\nnotable legendary drama takes place. Sijavush, son of King Kawus, is\nseduced by the queen-mother Sudabe, who burns with love for him. The\nyouth spurns this love, upon which she accuses him to King Kawus as\nher seducer. The father, after hearing his son's defence in proof of\nhis innocence, cannot believe the queen; and thereupon she devises\nanother method for destroying the young Sijavush. She concerts with a\nslave she has, who is a sorceress, and persuades her to create two\nlittle venomous monsters, which she straightway proclaims aloud are\nthe children of Sijavush. Then Sijavush, to prove his innocence,\nsubmits willingly to the trial by fire; he enters the flames upon his\nblack horse, after having embraced his trembling father; both horse\nand horseman come out of the immense fire, amid the plaudits of all\nthe spectators. Then the king gives orders to strangle the unnatural\nqueen; but his son Sijavush intercedes in her favour, and Sudabe is\nallowed to live by grace of the young prince, whom, however, she\ncontinues to persecute, till, on the death of Sijavush, Rustem, who\nbewailed him as his own son, or as his other self, avenges him first\nby killing Sudabe, on account of whom Sijavush had been obliged to\nrepair to Turan, and afterwards by carrying the war into Turan, where,\nafter a very agitated life, Sijavush had fallen into the power of his\nfather-in-law, Afrasiab, and been put to death.\n\nThe wife of Sijavush, Ferengis by name, being pregnant, is hospitably\nentertained by Piran, and gives birth to the hero Kai Khosru; and no\nsooner is he born than he is consigned to the shepherds of the\nmountain. As early as seven years of age, his favourite amusement is\nthat of drawing the bow; at ten, he confronts wild boars, bears,\nlions, and tigers with only his shepherd's staff. When Afrasiab sees\nthe young shepherd, he inquires at him about his sheep and the\npeaceful pursuits of shepherds; the boy replies with stories of lions\nhaving sharp teeth, and of other wild animals, of which he is not\nafraid. As soon as he comes to manhood, he flees from Turan, followed\nby the Turanians; he arrives at the banks of a river, where the\nferryman asks impossible conditions to take him over; upon which, like\nFeridun, he crosses the river safely, but without a boat, and on dry\nfeet (it is the sun traversing the cloudy and gloomy ocean without\nwetting himself);[309] arrived at length in Iran, he is feasted and\nf\u00eated as the future king. His reign begins; he then assigns different\ntasks to different heroes, among whom is his brother Firud, born of\nanother mother, of whom it is said that a single hair of his head has\nmore strength in it than many warriors (one ray of the sun is enough\nto break the darkness). One evening, however, at sunset, Firud is\nkilled in his castle upon the mountain, being surrounded by a crowd of\nenemies, after having lost his horse, and after his mother Cerire had\ndreamt that a fire had consumed both mountain and castle. His mother\nCerire (the evening aurora) throws herself among the flames with her\nmaids, and dies also. Kai Khosru bewails the loss of his brother Firud\nall the night through, till the cock crows; when morning comes he\nthinks of avenging him.\n\nAfter this, the life of Kai Khosru is consumed in battles fought by\nhis heroes against the Turanians. Only towards the end of his days\ndoes he become a penitent king; he will no longer allow his subjects\nto fight, and his only occupation is prayer; he takes leave of his\npeople and his daughters in peace, ascends a mountain, and disappears\nin a tempest, leaving no trace of himself. In a similar manner the\nheroes Yudhishthiras, Cyrus, and Romulus disappear (not to speak of\nthe biblical Moses, still less of Christ, as we do not wish to\ncomplicate a comparison of which the materials are already so\nextensive, by mixing up the Aryan elements with those of Semitic\norigin; although the legends of the serpent, of Noah, of Abraham and\nhis regained wife, of Abraham and his son Isaac, of Joseph and his\nbrethren, of Joshua, of Job, and other and more recent biblical\nheroes, by their mythical or astronomical import, present numerous\nanalogies with the Indo-European legends); in a similar manner, the\nold sun, weary of reigning in the heavens and fighting for his life,\nbecomes invisible every evening on the mountain-peaks.\n\nThe _Shahname_ contains numerous other legends besides those which we\nhave thus far briefly described; and one of the most notable is,\nbeyond a doubt, that of Isfendiar, who goes with his brother Bishutem\nto deliver his two sisters, imprisoned in a fortress by the Turanian\nking Ardshasp. The seven adventures of Isfendiar, _i.e._, his meeting\nwith the wolf, the lion, the dragon, the witch (who makes herself\nbeautiful, but who is no sooner bound with the enchanted necklace of\nIsfendiar [the solar disc] than she becomes old and ugly again), the\ngigantic bird, the tempest and the river, all of which dangers he\nvictoriously overcomes, are reproductions, in an analogous form too,\nof the seven adventures of Rustem.\n\nFinally, the legend of Iskander or Iskender (the name of Alexander of\nMacedon), full of extraordinary adventures, became exceedingly popular\nin Persia, and thence, no doubt, passed with all its charms into Europe.\nThe audacity and good fortune, the glory and the power of the great\nconqueror were the reasons why there grouped round his name so many\nextraordinary stories, which wandered dispersedly through the world\nwithout epic unity. To make up one glorious and never-to-be-forgotten\nhero, were combined together the achievements of many anonymous or\nnearly forgotten ones. The Persian _Iskendername_ of Nish\u00e2mi, is, as its\nname denotes, entirely taken up with the celebration of the deeds of the\nMacedonian hero, of which the most illustrious are the liberation of the\nprincess Nush\u00e2be (taken prisoner by the Russians), and the voyage in\nsearch of the fountain of life and immortality, which, however, Iskander\ncannot find. From Persia the same legend afterwards passed, with new\ndisguises, into Egypt, Armenia, and Greece, whence it was diffused\nduring the middle ages over almost the whole of Western Europe.[310]\n\nAs a bridge of transition between the Hindoo and Persian, and the Turk\nor Tartar traditions, we shall make use of three works: the Turkish\nversion[311] of the Persian _Tuti-Name_, itself a translation and in\npart a paraphrase of the Hindoo _\u00c7uka-Saptat\u00ee_, _i.e._, the seventy\n(stories) of the parrot; the Mongol stories of _Siddhi-k\u00fbr_, and the\nMongol history of _Ardshi-Bordshi Kh\u00e2n_,[312] the first being a\nparaphrase of the Hindoo _Vet\u00e2la-Pancavin\u00e7at\u00ee_, _i.e._, the\ntwenty-five of the Vet\u00e2la (a kind of demon), and the second of the\nHindoo _Vikrama-caritram_ (the heroic action).\n\nWe have seen in the _\u00c2itareya Brahm\u00e2nam_ the father who prepares to\noffer up his son, and in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, the son who forfeits\nyouth that his father may live. In the _Tuti-Name_,[313] the faithful\nMerdi G\u00e2nb\u00e2z prepares to sacrifice his wife and sons, and afterwards\nhimself, to prolong the life of the king; but his devotion and\nfidelity being proved, he is arrested by God before he can accomplish\nthe cruel sacrifice, and receives numberless benefits from the king.\n\nIn the story of the goldsmith and the woodcutter, the _Tuti-Name_[314]\nreproduces the two brothers or friends, of whom one is wicked, rich, and\navaricious, while the other is defrauded of the money due to him,\nbecause, though, in reality intelligent, he is supposed to be an idiot.\nThe woodcutter avenges himself upon the goldsmith by a plan which we\nshall find described in the legend of the bear, and recovers, thanks to\nhis craftiness, the gold which his brother or friend had kept from him.\n\nIn the interesting story of Merhuma,[315] we read of the wife who is\npersecuted by the seducer her brother-in-law. To avenge her refusal, he\ncauses her to be stoned during the absence of his brother; being\ninnocent, she rises again from under the stones; being sheltered by a\nBedouin, a monster of a slave seduces her; being repulsed, he accuses\nher of the death of the Bedouin's little son, whom he had himself\nkilled; the beautiful girl flees away; she frees a youth who was\ncondemned to death, and who in his turn seduces her. She then embarks in\na ship; while she is at sea all the sailors become enamoured of her and\nwish to possess her; she invokes the god who caused Pharaoh to be\ndrowned and who saved Noah from the waters. The waves begin to move; a\nthunderbolt descends and burns to ashes all who are in the ship, with\nthe exception of the beautiful girl, who lands safe and sound upon the\nshore (it is the aurora coming out of the gloomy ocean of night, and the\nmonsters who persecute her are burned to ashes by the thunderbolts and\nthe sun's rays); she thence escapes into a convent, in which she\nministers to the unfortunate, cures the lame, and gives eyesight to the\nblind. Among the latter is her persecutor, the brother of her husband;\nshe pardons him and gives him back his eyesight; in the same way she\ncures all her other persecutors. It is scarcely necessary for me to\nremind the reader how this oriental tale, which developed itself from\nthe myth of the persecuted and delivering aurora which we have seen in\nthe Vedic hymns, reappears in numerous very popular western legends, of\nwhich Crescentia and Genevi\u00e8ve are the most brilliant types.\n\nThe aurora comes out of the gloomy ocean and is espoused by the sun;\nthese heavenly nuptials in proximity to the sea gave rise to the\npopular tale[316] of the king who wishes the sea with its pearls to be\npresent at his nuptials; the pearls of the bride-aurora are supposed\nto come out of the sea of night. The sea sends as gifts to the king a\ncasket of pearls, a chest of precious dresses, a horse that goes like\nthe morning wind, and a chest full of gold.\n\nThe wise aurora figures again in the story of the ingenious\nprincess[317] who discovers, by means of a story-riddle, the robbers\nwho, during the night, stole the precious gem destined for the king.\n\nThe aurora imparts splendour and eyesight to the blinded sun. The story\nof the three-breasted princess who, while she meditates poisoning the\nblind man, in order that she may enjoy unrestrained the affections of\nher young and handsome lover, relents and gives him back his sight,\nreappears in a rather incomplete form in the _Tuti-Name_.[318]\n\nThe girl who has been married to a monster, whom she flees from to\nfollow a handsome young lover, who, arriving at the banks of a river,\ndespoils her of her riches, leaves her naked and passes over to the\nother side, after which she resigns herself to her fate and resolves to\nreturn to her husband the monster,[319] represents the evening aurora,\nwho flees before the monster of night to follow her lover the sun, who,\nin the morning, after adorning himself with her splendour, leaves her on\nthe shore of the gloomy ocean and runs away, the aurora being thereupon\nobliged in the evening to re-unite herself to her husband the monster.\nIt is interesting, moreover, as bearing upon our subject, to note the\nexpression of which the youth who flees with the beautiful woman makes\nuse to express his fear of discovery. He says that the monster-husband\nwill follow them, and that should he sit upon the horns of the bull (the\nmoon) he would be sure to recognise him. The story of two young people\nfleeing upon a bull, and followed by the monster, occurs again in the\nRussian popular tales. By the horns of the bull, the youth means the\nmost prominent and visible situation; and he knows, moreover, that if\nthe monster overtakes them, he will be sure to demonstrate the truth of\nthe brave proverb which advises us in arduous undertakings to take the\nbull by the horns.\n\nIt is also the aurora who is represented by the beautiful maiden[320]\nwhom her father, mother, and brother have, without each other's\nknowledge, severally affianced to three youths of different\nprofessions. The three young men contend for her person, but while the\nquarrel is undecided, the girl dies. The three then go to visit her\ntomb; one discovers her body, the second finds that there is still\nsome life in her, and the third strikes her and raises her up alive,\nupon which the quarrel is resumed. She flees from them, and withdraws\ninto another living tomb, a convent. In the most popular form of this\nlegend the three companions, or three brothers, fighting for the\nbride, divide her; the aurora is torn into pieces as soon as the sun,\nher true lover and rightful suitor, appears.\n\nFrom darkness comes forth light; from the old, the young; from death,\nlife; from the dust of a dead man's skull, tasted by a virgin, is born a\nwonderful child, who knows how to distinguish false pearls from real,\ndishonest women from honest ones[321] (the morning sun can distinguish\nbetween light and darkness); the wise boy (the young sun) is the brother\nof the wise girl (the young aurora). The flesh of a killed Br\u00e2hman is\nturned into gold in another story of the _Tuti-Name_.[322]\n\nWe have seen that the aurora and the sun are mother and son, brother\nand sister, or lover and mistress. The sun in the evening dies\nignominiously, is sacrificed and hanged upon a gibbet, and with\nhimself sacrifices his mother or his mistress. The legend is popular\nand ancient which speaks of the robber son, when about to end his life\nupon a gibbet,[323] biting the nose off his mother, who gave birth to\nhim and brought him up badly. In the _Tuti-Name_,[324] it is the young\nadulterer (and robber too) who, condemned to death for his adultery,\nasks to see his mistress once more before his death and kiss her, and\nwho, as she does so, gratifies his revenge by inflicting upon her a\nlike indignity. It is remarkable how, even in the Hindoo popular tale,\nthe story of the adulterer is confounded with that of a thief; the\nadulterer ends by being thrown into the water (the sun and the aurora\nfall into the gloomy ocean of night).\n\nIn the next story it is the wicked husband who, travelling with his\nrich wife for change of dwelling-place, despoils her of her clothes,\nand then throws her into a well in order to ensure possession of her\njewels and wardrobe. These riches, however, do not last long; he\nbecomes poor and goes begging alms, dressed as a mendicant, until he\nfinds his wife again, who had been saved by divine intervention from\nthe well, and provided anew with clothes and jewels of equal\ngorgeousness. The husband passes some time with his wife, and then\nsets out again on a voyage with her; he arrives at the same well, and\nthrows her in as before to enjoy alone her stripped-off garnitures and\nriches. (The meaning of the myth is evident; it is the sun throwing\nthe splendid aurora into the gloomy waters of the night.)\n\nA king becomes enamoured of the beauteous Mahrusa;[325] his\ncouncillors tear him from his love, upon which he pines away in\nsolitude and dies. The beautiful girl unites herself to him in the\ngrave (Romeo and Juliet, the evening aurora and the sun die together).\n\nThe story of the three brothers, the Ribhavas, occurs again in the\n_Tuti-Name_,[326] with other particulars which we already know. The\nfirst brother is the wise one; the second is a maker of talismans\n(amongst other things he can make a horse which will run in one day\nover a space of ground that would take other horses thirty); the third\nand youngest brother is the victorious archer. They set out to search\nfor the beautiful maiden who has fled by night from the house of her\nfather. The first brother discovers, by his wisdom, that the maiden\nwas carried off by the fairies into an island-mountain which men\ncannot reach. The second creates a wonderful animal upon which to\ntraverse the intervening waters (Christophoros or Bh\u00eemas). Having\narrived at the island-mountain, the third and youngest brother fights\nthe demon, the lord of the fairies, vanquishes him, and frees the\nbeautiful girl, who thereupon is conducted back to her father. Then\nthere arises the usual quarrel between the three brothers as to who is\nto possess the bride.\n\nIn the Ved\u00e2s, we have the sky and the moon represented as a cup. From\nthe little cup of abundance (the moon) it is easy to pass to the\nmiraculous little pipkin (the moon), in which the kind-hearted but poor\nhousekeeper of the P\u00e2ndavas, in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, still finds\nabundance of vegetables, after her powers of hospitality had been\nexhausted on the god Krishnas disguised as a beggar--to the pipkin from\nwhich can be taken whatever is wished for. In the _Tuti-Name_,[327] a\nwoodcutter finds ten magicians round a pipkin, and eating out of it as\nmuch and whatever they want; they are pleased with the woodcutter, and,\nat his request, give him the pipkin. He invites his acquaintances to a\nbanquet at his house, but not able to contain himself for joy, he places\nthe pipkin upon his head, and begins to dance. The pipkin falls to the\nground and is broken to pieces, and with it his fortune vanishes (the\nstory of Perrette).\n\nA variation of the small cup is the wooden porringer (the moon), which\ntwo brothers (the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u) dispute for, in the history of the king of\nChina,[328] and from which can be taken whatever drink and food is\nwished for; as, in the same story, we find the enchanted shoes which\ncarry us in an instant wherever we wish to go;--which brings us back\nto the fugitive Vedic aurora, the swiftest in the race, and to the\npopular tales relating to Cinderella, who is overtaken and found again\nby the prince only when she has lost her enchanted slipper. With the\nporringer and the enchanted shoes we find, in the popular tales, the\nlittle purse full of money which fills again as fast as it is emptied\n(another form of the cup of abundance), and a sword which, when\nunsheathed, causes a fine, rich, and great city to arise in a desert,\nwhich city disappears when the sword is put back into the sheath (the\nsolar ray is the drawn sword, which makes the luminous city of the\nrich aurora arise; scarcely does the sun's ray vanish, or scarcely is\nthe sword sheathed, than the marvellous city vanishes). The rest of\nthe story is also interesting, because it applies to three men a\ndouble and well-known fable of the animals which contend for the prey\n(as the three brothers contend for the beautiful maiden whom they have\nfound again). The animals cannot divide it equally; they refer to the\njudgment of a man passing by; he divides it so well that the animals\nare ever after grateful to him, and help him in every danger. The\nstory of the _Tuti-Name_ touches upon this form of the myth, but soon\nabandons it for another equally zoological, and a more familiar one,\nthat of the third who comes in between two that quarrel, and enjoys\nthe prey. The young adventurer undertakes to put an end to the dispute\nof the two brothers as to the division of the purse, the porringer,\nthe sword and the wonderful shoes; he does so by putting the shoes on\nhis feet and fleeing away with the other three articles contended for\n(the two brothers A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the two twilights, contend for the moon and\nalso for the aurora, as we shall see better in the next chapter; the\nsun puts an end to their quarrel by espousing her himself).\n\nWe are already familiar with the Vedic Ribhavas who out of one cup make\nfour. Probably upon this legend depends that of the four brothers of the\n_Tuti-Name_,[329] who, as they let each a pearl fall from their forehead\nupon the ground, see four mines open, one of copper, the second of\nsilver, the third of gold (the third brother is here again the\nfavourite), the fourth only of iron. The gem appears to be the sun\nitself. The four mines seem to me to represent respectively the coppery\nsky in the evening, the silver sky in the moonlight night, the sky in\nthe morning, golden with the dawn, and the iron sky, the grey or azure,\nof the day. The word _n\u00eelas_ in Sanskrit means azure, as well as black,\nand between azure and black is grey, the colour of iron.\n\nOf the three brothers, the most learned, he who solves the enigmas, is\noften the eldest; and in the story of the _Tuti-Name_,[330] the eldest\nof the three brothers explains why old men have white hair, saying\nthat this whiteness is a symbol of the clearness of their thoughts.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLet us now pass to the Calmuc and Mongol stories of _Siddhi-k\u00fbr_,\nwhich, as we have said above, are also of Hindoo origin.\n\nIn the first story, the three companions, forming at first three\ngroups of two, have resolved into six. The night-time is divided into\nthree, into six, into seven (six, _plus_ an extraordinary one, born\nafterwards), into nine (three groups of three), into twelve (three\ngroups of four). Hence, near the monster with three, six, seven, nine,\nor twelve heads, we find sometimes three, sometimes six, seven, nine,\ntwelve brother-heroes. The last head (or the last two, three, or four\nheads) of the monster, the decisive one, is the most difficult, and\neven dangerous, to cut off; the last of the brothers is he who, by\ncutting it off, is victorious. In the first Calmuc story of\n_Siddhi-k\u00fbr_, six brothers or companions separate where six rivers\ntake their rise, and go in search of fortune. The first-born perishes;\nthe second, by means of his wisdom (he partakes of the wisdom of the\nfirst-born, with whom he is grouped), discovers the place where the\ndead one is buried; the third, the strong one, breaks the rock under\nwhich the eldest is hidden; the fourth resuscitates him by means of a\nhealth-bringing drink, as Bh\u00eemas, the strong hero of the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, arises again when he drinks the water of health and\nstrength; the fifth brother creates a bird, which the sixth colours;\nthis bird flies to the bride of the eldest brother, and brings her\namong his companions, who, finding her exceedingly beautiful, become,\none and all, enamoured of her; they fight for her, and, that each may\nhave a part, end by cutting her to pieces. We already know the\nmythical meaning of this legend.\n\nThe third and fourth Calmuc tales introduce explicitly the bull and\nthe cow. In the third, a man who possesses but one cow unites himself\nto her, in order to make her fruitful. Of this union a tailed monster\nis born, having a man's body and a bull's head. The man-bull\n(Minotauros) goes into the forest, where he finds three\ncompanions--one black, one green, and one white--who accompany him.\nThe man-bull overcomes the enchantments of a dwarf witch; his three\ncompanions lower him into a well and leave him there, but he escapes.\nHe meets a beautiful maiden drawing water, at whose every footstep a\nflower arises; he follows her, and finally finds himself in heaven; he\nfights against the demons, in favour of the gods, and dies in this\nenterprise. This story, of Hindoo origin, where the bull and the cow\ntake the place of the hero and the maiden, appears to me to justify\nthe amplitude of the comparisons.\n\nWe have already seen the beneficial qualities of the excrement of the\ncow. In the fourth story, it is under the excrement of a cow that the\nenchanted gem, lost by the daughter of the king, is found. It is of\nthe cow that the pearl is the secretion. The moon-cow and the\naurora-cow are rich in pearls; they are pearls themselves, like the\nsun; the sun comes out of the aurora, the pearl comes out of the cow.\n\nThe subject of the seventh tale is the three sisters who, taking the\ncattle to pasture, lose a buffalo, or black bull. In their search for\nit, they came across an enchanted castle, tenanted by a white bird,\nwho offers to marry them. The third sister consents, and marries him.\nThe bird turns out then to be a handsome cavalier (a form of\nLohengrin). But having, by the advice of a witch, burned the aviary,\nshe loses him, and cannot recover him till the aviary is restored. We\nshall see the sun as a bird in the Vedic hymns; the aurora is the\naviary, made of flames, of this divine bird. When the aviary is burned\nat morn, the aurora and the sun separate; they meet again in the\nevening, when the aviary is reconstructed.\n\nAnother beautiful myth of analogous import occurs again in the eighth\nstory. A woodman and a painter envy each other; the painter makes the\nking believe that the woodman's father, who is in heaven, has written\nordering his son to repair to paradise, in order to build him a temple,\nand to take the route that the painter shall indicate. The king orders\nthe woodman to set out for paradise. The painter prepares a funeral\npyre, by way of exit; from this the woodman succeeds in escaping, and,\ngoing back to the king, he tells him that he has been to paradise, and\npresents a letter which his father has given him, ordering the painter\nto come by the same road, and paint the temple. The king requires the\nsummons to be obeyed, and the perfidious painter perishes in the flames.\nThe morning sun emerges safe and sound from the flames of the morning\naurora; the evening sun passes through those flames, and dies.\n\nThe tenth Calmuc tale gives us the myth of the two brothers; the rich\none avaricious and wicked, and the poor one virtuous. The story ends\nin a manner analogous to that of the dying adulterer, who, as we have\nseen in the _Tuti-Name_, bites off his mistress's nose.\n\nThe eleventh story is a variation of that of the lover, or husband,\nwho abandons or kills his wife, after having despoiled her of her\nriches; but instead of the waters of the sea, we have here the sea of\nsand, the sandy desert, in a cavity of which is deposited the young\ngirl, shut up in a chest, the same chest which in other popular tales\ndrifts about on the surface of the water.[331] But into the place\nwhere it was laid, the chest having been taken away by a young prince,\na tiger enters; the unworthy husband turns up himself to abstract the\nchest, and is torn to pieces by the tiger. The sterile night is a vast\ndesert, a sea of waters, a sea of sand; the sun-prince frees the\naurora from the waters, out of the well, or the cavern of the desert;\nthe tiger kills the monster-husband.\n\nIn the twelfth tale, a thief steals the enchanted gem from the prince;\nhe throws the gem to the ground, the consequence of which is that the\nprince's nose bleeds so excessively that he dies. The nose is the most\nprominent part of the face, the most conspicuous and splendid part; it\nis the gem of the sun-prince. The sun falls at night upon the\nmountain; the gem falls to the ground; the prince's nose bleeds; he\nhas struck his nose against the ground, and it bleeds. The sun-prince\ndies, and the evening sky is tinged red, blood-colour; the sun, who\nloses his blood in the evening, dies.\n\nThe thirteen Calmuc stories are followed by ten Mongol tales; in all,\ntwenty-three, of which the sixteenth, however, is lost.\n\nThe fourteenth tells us of the rich and avaricious man whose poor\nbrother goes in despair into the forest to die upon a rock; but his\npresence not being known to the spirits, he has the good luck to come\nupon a hammer and a sack, of which the former, when struck against an\nobject, produces whatever is desired by the owner, the latter being\nused to carry away the objects thus obtained, this hammer and this\nsack having been left there by the hobgoblins. Thus the poor brother\nbecomes rich, and is envied by the other, who goes to the same place,\nin hopes of experiencing the same good fortune; but as he does not\nhide himself, the hobgoblins see him, and believing him to be the man\nwho stole the hammer and the sack, avenge themselves upon him by\nlengthening his nose, and covering it with protuberances. To this myth\nmay perhaps be referred the origin of the Italian expression, \"Restare\ncon uno o due palmi di naso,\" to remain with one or two spans of the\nnose; that is to say, to be laughed at, and with the gesture by which\nderision is accompanied, and which is addressed to the man who is\nlaughed at, by applying one or sometimes both hands to the end of\none's nose. The poor brother, now rich, visits the miserly brother,\nwho has a long nose covered with protuberances, and knocks them off\nwith his hammer. He had already knocked off eight, and only one\nremained, when, at his wife's request, he desisted and left the last\none on. The rich man's wife, seeing how the protuberances had been\ntaken off by striking them, tries herself to remove the last one, and\nstrikes it with a hammer; but not calculating her aim accurately, she\nsplits her husband's head open, and he dies.\n\nIn the seventeenth Mongol story, an old man and an old woman have nine\ncows. The old man is fond of meat, and eats all the calves; the old\nwoman, on the other hand, has a great liking for milk and butter, with\nwhich she satiates herself. When the old man has eaten all the calves,\nhe thinks that one cow more or less will not affect his wealth;\nreasoning thus, he eats all the cows except one, which he spares out\nof respect for the whim of his old wife. But one day that the old\nwoman is out, the old man cannot resist the temptation, and kills the\nlast cow. His wife returns, is angry, and abandons him, upon which he\nthrows after her one of the cow's breasts. The woman, in grateful\nmemory of the milk and butter she liked so much, takes it up and goes\nup the mountain, where she strikes the cow's breast against the summit\nof the rock, and thereupon there flow out milk and butter in rivers.\nShe satisfies her appetite, and then remembers that her husband is\nperhaps dying of hunger, feeding, as he does, upon ashes; she\ntherefore, but secretly, throws butter into the house down the\nchimney, and then disappears. In this attention the old man recognises\nthe love of his wife, and resolves upon the plan of following her\nfootsteps during the night upon the snow. He comes to the mountain,\nsees the breast, and cannot resist the temptation it offers; he eats\nit, and takes the butter away with him. The old woman wanders about\ntill she comes upon a herd of deer, who pasture freely, and who,\ninstead of fleeing, let themselves be milked. Again, she thinks of her\nhusband, and she throws deer's butter down the chimney. The old man\nfollows her over the snow, finds her near the deer, and kills them in\nhis inordinate passion for meat. The old woman continues to wander\nabout, and stumbles this time upon a cavern of the wild beasts,\nguarded by a hare. The hare defends her from the wild beasts; but she\nthen conceives the idea of giving her husband a stick, and throws it\ndown the chimney whilst he is taking the ashes up with a spoon. He\nfollows her, and comes to the cave of the wild animals, who, seeing\nthem arrive together, tear them to pieces. Here again we have the myth\nof the sun and the aurora (or the fine season); the hare who guards\nthe cavern and tames the wild beasts is, as we shall see in the\nchapter which treats of it, the moon, the cows and the deer being the\nsame. The ferocious animals of the cavern of night rend both sun and\naurora (or fine season), both old man and old woman.\n\nThe eighteenth Mongol story is too indecent for me to relate, or for\nthe reader to peruse; suffice it to say, that we have in it a comic\nvariation of the Amazon heroine, and that this heroine calls herself\nS\u00fbrya (the sun) Bagatur (to which corresponds the bagat\u00edr; or hero, of\nthe Russians).\n\nIn the twentieth tale we have a calf and a lion's whelp brought up\ntogether by a lioness upon the same milk.[332] When grown, the lion\ngoes and inhabits the forest, or the desert, and the bull, the\nmountain illumined by the sun, meeting as good friends and brothers to\ndrink the same water. This good understanding is, however, put an end\nto by their perfidious uncle the fox, who persuades the lion to\nbelieve that the bull designs to kill him, and adds that when the bull\nin the morning strikes the ground with his horns, and bellows loudly,\nwill be the sign that he is going to carry his purpose into effect; he\nthen tells the bull that the lion has a similar design against him. In\nthe morning, when the two brothers, bull and lion, go to drink the\nsame water, they approach each other with suspicion, engage in battle\nand kill each other, the fox, or wolf, being the only one to benefit\nby the quarrel. This is a form of the story of the two twilights (the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u), which we shall illustrate in the following chapter.\n\nThe beginning of the twenty-first Mongol story offers a new analogy with\nthe apologue of Perrette.[333] A poor father and mother find a little\nlamb's-wool; they consult together, and resolve with the wool to make\ncloth, and with the cloth to buy an ass. Upon this ass they will place\ntheir little child, and go a-begging; by begging they will become yet\nricher, and buy another ass. Of the two, a young ass will be born. The\nyoungster immediately exclaims that if a young donkey is born he will\nride upon it; whereupon his mother answers, \"You would break its back,\"\nwhen, accompanying these words with the movement of a stick, she strikes\nthe youngster's head with it, and kills him; with him the fine projects\nof the poor parents also vanish.\n\nIn the last of the stories of _Siddhi-k\u00fbr_, which is joined to the\nthree legends of the grateful animals, the disguises, and the laughing\nprincess, a man uses the horns of his dead buffalo to grub up the\nroots upon which he lives in exile.\n\nThe history of _Ardshi-Bordshi_ also contains several interesting\nstories.\n\nIt begins with a challenge among the children who keep the king's cows\nto run a race from the summit of a mountain. The first who comes to\nthe winning-post is honoured as a king by his companions for that day,\nand acts and judges on the spot where the race takes place as a real\nking; indeed, he judges and decides as a court of final appeal on\ncases which have not been well examined by the great king of the\ncountry. He unmasks and convicts robbers and false witnesses acquitted\nby the king as innocent, and sends a missive to the king, recommending\nhim to be more cautious in future in his judgments, or else to resign\nhis royal dignity. The great king wonders at the extraordinary wisdom\nof the king of the children, and ascribes his preternatural sagacity\nto the magical influence of the mountain where the children who guard\nthe cows play their games. On another occasion, the king of the\nchildren, by his craftiness, detects a demon in one whom the king had\nthought to be the legitimate son of his minister. The discovery is\nmade by means of a challenge to the minister's real son and his\ndemoniacal counterfeit to get into a small jug at hand. The real son\ncannot; but the supposititious makes himself small and enters the jug,\nin which the king of the children shuts him up with a diamond, and\nadministers thereupon fresh reproof to the great king for his\ncarelessness. The great king then visits the mountain of the children,\nand sees a golden throne with thirty-two steps emerge from the ground;\nupon each step there is a wooden puppet (the moon). The great king has\nthe throne carried into his palace, and endeavours to ascend it; the\npuppets arrest him, and one of them tells him that this was once the\nthrone of the god Indras, and afterwards of King Vikram\u00e2dityas. The\ngreat king inclines himself in reverence, and one of the puppets\nbegins to narrate the history of Vikram\u00e2dityas.\n\nThe history of Vikram\u00e2dityas, narrated by the puppets, refers to a wise\nchild, born of the wife of the king, after she had eaten a cake made of\nearth mixed with oil, and dissolved in water in a porcelain vase (of\nwhich cake the servant-maid eats the remainder). The young Vikram\u00e2dityas\npasses his infancy in the forests, where he learns all the arts, not\nexcluding the art of thieving, taught him by the most experienced\nrobbers, as well as every kind of mercantile fraud; by cheating, he\nbecomes possessed of an enchanted gem which was in the hip of a dead\nman, and of a child who has the faculty of understanding the language of\nthe wolves, and who calls himself son of the wolves, but was, in fact,\nborn by the roadside of the maid who had eaten the rest of the cake;\nthis child is nursed by his mother, and although at first ill-favoured,\nbecomes in the long run very handsome. Vikram\u00e2dityas afterwards kills\nthe king of the demons in battle, in which it is remarkable that as many\nnew demons arise to combat him as there are pieces into which the hero\ncuts the demon, until the hero multiplies himself in his turn, and to\nevery demon opposes a lion sprung from his own body. Vikram\u00e2dityas\nmounts upon a throne where those who had sat before him had all\nperished, each after a reign of twenty-four hours, because they had\nomitted to offer up funeral sacrifices to the dead during the night;\nVikram\u00e2dityas, with his companion, the son of the wolf, fulfils the\nsacred duty, and escapes death.\n\nIn the same story, which reminds us of the _Ribhavas_ and the four cups\nand the cow, four young shepherds, one after another, work at the same\npiece of wood; one gives it the general shape of a woman, the second\ncolours it, the third imparts the features peculiar to the feminine\nform, and the fourth gives it life; they then dispute for her person.\nThe case is referred to the king; a wise man pronounces that the two\nfirst who worked the wood are the father and mother, the third is the\npriest, the fourth, who gave it life, is the legitimate husband. Thus\nthe four become three, by making a group of the first two.\n\nNext comes the legend of the wife who, taking her husband by the feet,\nmakes him fall into a fountain, because she hears a melodious voice,\nperhaps an echo of her own, which charms her; she sees a monster\ninstead, and bewails her lost husband. In zoological mythology, the\nfable of the dog who, at the sight of his own shadow, lets the meat\ndrop into the river, is analogous to this legend, which, however, we\nintroduce here, only because of its relation to the similar stories of\nthe wife who kills her husband, and of the husband who kills his wife\nby throwing her into the water, already vaguely hinted at in the Vedic\nhymns.\n\nThe last of the tales contained in the history of _Ardshi Bordshi_\nshows us, on the other hand, a far too complaisant wife. A king has a\ndaughter, named Light of the sun, who is to be seen by no one. The\ndaughter asks to be allowed to go out into the city to walk on the\n15th of the month (at full moon); this granted, the king orders every\none to stay that day in his house, and all the doors and windows to be\nshut; and capital punishment is the penalty of disobeying the king's\ncommand. (The like occurs again in the British legend of Godiva, the\nCountess of Mercia, in the eleventh century.) A minister, Ssaran by\nname (moon), cannot repress his curiosity, and observes her from a\nbalcony; the girl makes signs to him, inviting him to join her; the\nwife of the inquisitive minister interprets the signs to him, and\nurges him to overtake the beautiful girl, giving him, at parting, a\npearl of recognition. Light of the sun and Light of the moon meet at\nthe foot of a tree, and spend the night until sunrise in amorous\ndalliance. One of the persons employed to guard the princess discovers\nthis intrigue, and denounces it before the king; the wife of the\nminister Ssaran ascertains, by means of the pearl, that her husband is\nin danger; she rejoins him, disguises and disfigures him, suggesting a\nformula of oath by which Light of the sun swears that it was the\nmonster, and the monster only she embraced; which seeming impossible\nto the king and courtiers, the minister Ssaran and Light of the sun\nare acquitted. (The aurora, or the sun, hides during the night, and no\none sees, no one is allowed to see her; the god Lunus shows himself;\nhe remains during the night with the sun, or with the solar aurora,\nwhom no one can see during the night; the god Lunus then transforms\nand disfigures himself, so that he becomes unrecognisable, invisible;\nthe guilty one glides away, and escapes; it then seems impossible that\nthe god Lunus, who is no longer seen, can have been with the light of\nthe sun; their loves having come to an end, the adulterers being\nseparated, their guilt is no longer believed, their innocence is\nrecognised, and the morality of the myth is left to take care of\nitself as best it can.)\n\nBut the Calmuc and Mongol stories _Siddhi-k\u00fbr_, and the history of\n_Ardshi Bordshi_, being, as they are, only paraphrases of Hindoo\ntales, would not alone suffice to prove the derivation from the\nzoological legends of Aryan mythology of the oral Turco-Finnic\ntradition, properly speaking. We must, therefore, search for the\nproofs of their influence in other quarters as well.\n\nA Turanian story of the south of Siberia[334] combines together\nseveral of the mythical subjects which we are already acquainted with.\n\nA poor old man and woman have three sons; the three sons go upon the\nmountain to dream; the two eldest dream of riches, and the third dreams\nthat his father and mother are lean camels, his brothers two hungry\nwolves running towards the mountains, while he himself, between the sun\nand the moon, wears the morning star upon his forehead. The father\norders the brothers to kill him; they dare not do so; they only expel\nhim from the house, and kill the dog instead, the blood of which they\ntake to their father, who, thinking it is his son's, says they have done\nwell. The young man wanders about till he comes to a hut where a lame\nold man and a blind old woman are eating out of a golden cup, which of\nitself fills with meat as they empty it (the moon). The hungry youth\nhelps himself to some of this meat, but the old man finds, as he\ncontinues to eat the food, that some one has put his teeth into it; with\na hook, which he whirls around him, he clutches hold of the young man,\nwho begs for his life, pledging himself to be the eye of her who has no\neyes, and the foot of him who has no feet. This proposal pleases the old\ncouple, and they adopt him as their son; he makes himself a bow and a\nwooden arrow, and goes to hunt wildfowl for their support. The old man\nlends him his iron-grey horse, one day old, but advises him to ride him\nonly by day; the young man, thinking that by night he conceals\ntreasures, cattle, and people, disobeys, and rides by night. What the\nhorse then does we shall see in the next chapter. The youth fights and\nvanquishes the demon, by fastening one of his lips to the heavens, and\nthe other to the earth; the defeated demon advises him to rub himself\nwith the fat of his stomach; inside his stomach he will find a casket of\nsilver, inside that a casket of gold, and inside that another casket of\nsilver; he is to take it and throw it into the sea of milk. From the\nmonster's stomach, cut open, come forth innumerable animals, men,\ntreasures, and other objects. Some of the men say, \"What noble man has\ndelivered us from the black night? what noble man has shown us the clear\nday?\" The youth finds in the caskets money and a white handkerchief,\nwhich he puts into his pocket; from the last casket come forth more men,\nanimals, and valuables of every kind; he drives the white cattle before\nhim and returns home, where the old couple are asleep. He opens the\nhandkerchief, and finds in it the old woman's eyes; whilst he is smoking\nnear the fire, the old people waken, see him, and embrace him. The old\nman then endows him with the power of transforming himself into a fox, a\nwolf, a lion, a vulture, and other shapes, at will. He goes, to find for\nhimself a wife, to the residence of the prince Ai-Kan; the latter\npromises to give his daughter to whoever will bring him the necessary\namount of gold. It is in the shape of a vulture[335] that the young man\nsets out to search for it; he then wins the young maiden who has the\ngold, and she, who is herself the daughter of Ai-Kan, says to him, \"Thou\nart my husband.\" After various other transformations, in one of which\nthe two lean camels reappear, _i.e._, his two parents, of whom he had\ndreamt, whom he loads with a sack, he ends by taking to himself another\nwife, the daughter of K\u00fcn-Kan, and he lives now with one, now with the\nother, to whom he gives the flesh of his own infanticide father to eat.\nLet us recapitulate the moments of this significant legend:--1st, We\nhave the presage, the dream of the mountain-peak; 2d, The three\nbrothers, the third of whom, predestined to good fortune, the others\nwish to sacrifice; 3d, The lame and the blind in the forest; 4th, The\nhero's hunt; 5th, The struggle with the monster of night; 6th, The\ntreasures, spiritual and material, which come out of the monster; 7th,\nThe cattle in conjunction with the sea of milk; 8th, The passage of the\nhero from the milky sea to the fireside, from the alba to the aurora,\nfrom the whitish sky to the reddish one; 9th, The awakening of the\nsleepers, and restoration of sight to the blind, whilst he sits by the\nfire, whilst the sun is united to the aurora; 10th, The transformation\nof the hero himself; 11th, Winning his bride, by procuring the necessary\namount of gold; 12th, His marriage of two wives; 13th, His revenge on\nhis persecuting father. The legend is in itself an epic poem, and we can\nonly regret that the Altaic story-tellers did not give it a more\nartistic form than that in which it appears in the excellent collection\nof Radloff.\n\nAnother interesting Turanian story, in the same collection, which\npreserves several traces of the primitive myth, is another version of\nthe story of the hero who solves the riddle proposed by his\nfather-in-law, and thus wins his wife. A father has three sons; the\nfirst-born dreams that their cow has devoured a wolf; he goes to see,\nand finds it is true (the aurora destroys the night). We have already\nseen that, as the third brother is the wise child, so the first-born\nof the three is often the one who possesses the secret of solving\nriddles. The father of the three brothers wishes to obtain a wife for\nhis first-born son, and the bride's father, to give her up, demands\nthat the bridegroom's father should come to take her, arriving, the\nfirst time, with a fur-coat and without one (in the morning the old\nman, by the advice of the eldest son, departs wearing a coat of fur\nwhich seems to be one, but is not, being in reality a coat of mail),\nand coming, the second time, without touching the road, yet not off\nthe road, on horseback, yet without horses (the old man, by the advice\nagain of his first-born son, arrives at the father-in-law's abode,\ngoing on the side of the road, and riding on a stick; thus he obtains\npermission to take the bride away for his son).\n\nProfessor Schiefner gives a Finnic variation of the same story. A king\norders the son of a peasant to come neither by day nor by night,\nneither by the road nor by the road-side, neither on horseback nor on\nfoot, neither dressed nor naked, neither inside nor outside. The\nintelligent boy makes a robe of goat's skin, goes to the city lying\nin the bottom of a coffin, during the morning twilight, having a sieve\nfastened to one foot, and a brush to the other, and stops on the\ndoorstep of the antechamber, with one leg out and the other in.\n\nSuch was the humour, and such the wisdom of our fathers; ingenuity was\nmeasured by skill in solving astronomical riddles. Now the riddles have\ntaken another form; they are strokes of diplomacy, amorous hieroglyphs,\nethical ambiguities, metaphysical nebulosities, which we, the men of\nprogress, must solve; but not wishing to acknowledge our inferiority in\nacuteness to the children of the legends, we are fain to persuade\nourselves that the new riddles are more obscure than the ancient.\n\nIn the Vedic riddles proposed to one another by the aurora and the sun,\nwe have seen how they were solved in the morning by the nuptials of the\nguesser and the guessee. Thus in the two riddles which we have just\ndescribed, the son of the old man and the child solve the riddle in the\nmorning. As to the sieve, the brush, and the coffin, they are mythical\nfurniture of great interest and obvious import. The nocturnal sky is the\ngreat coffin; to sweep the sky of night, we must have a brush; to sunder\nthe good grain from the bad during the night, as the cruel mother-in-law\ncommands, we must have a sieve; the child-sun arrives, in the twilight,\nin the bottom of the coffin, at the doorstep of the royal palace, and\npresents to the maiden aurora (the Vedic cleaner or purifier) the brush\nand the sieve. The sun, at twilight, is neither in nor out. In the\nsecond Scottish story of Mr J. F. Campbell, the giant commands the hero,\namong other things, to cleanse, in one day, the stables which had not\nbeen cleansed for seven years (Herakl\u00e9s and Augeias).\n\nBut let us continue our subject, for the path is a long one.\n\nA Mongol tradition, contained in the _Mongol Crestomathy_ of\nPapoff,[336] speaks of the boy who comes riding upon a black ox,\ninstead of in a coffin.\n\nWe have seen above the cow who eats the wolf; in another Altaic legend\nwe find an old woman who gives up her seven azure (dark-coloured) cows\nto be eaten by the seven wolves, in order that the latter may spare the\nchild Kan P\u00fcdai, whom she had found at the foot of a tree; meanwhile the\nchild, who has fed upon two hundred hares,[337] has become strong, and\nbreaks his iron cradle (the iron sky of night is the cradle of the young\nsun); from the horns of six roebucks he makes himself a bow; from the\nskin of a colossal marine animal (the cloud, the gloomy one), he makes a\nstring for the bow (the string of the Hindoo bow is also called _go_,\n_i.e._, cow, as a cloud in the sky, and as being formed from the hide of\na cow); he rides upon the azure calf (the dark calf, which recalls our\nattention to the black ox, and leads us to conclude the colossal animal\nto have been a cow), and subdues and tames it; he then comes to a field\nof snow, upon which he breathes a black and numbing wind, and where he\nfinds the seven wolves; he ties them to the tail of his calf, and drags\nthem along the ground till they die. The boy continues his wild beast\nhunt; he kills the black and fat ones, and leaves the yellow and lean\nones alone. He goes into a black sea, and erects there a black castle,\ninto which he receives both the old woman who had sustained him, and his\nazure (_i.e._, dark-coloured) calf. Thereafter the young Kan P\u00fcdai,\napplying himself to warfare, forsakes or exchanges his calf for a horse.\nWe shall see in the next chapter what he does with his horse;--suffice\nit to notice here, that, in the end, he meets the black bull, who will\none day be the king of the Alta\u00ef. The soul of the black bull takes\nrefuge in a red thread in the middle of the rainbow (in the popular\nbelief of the East the rainbow was supposed to be a bridge, a road\ntraversed by the souls of mortals); the young Kan P\u00fcdai transfixes it\nwith his arrows. He wins the white cattle, kills the monstrous Kara\nKula, and, taking the latter's wife and daughter with him, returns home;\nand for seven days there is eating, drinking, and festivity in the house\nof Kan P\u00fcdai. But up to this point it is not said that he has espoused\nthe daughter and the wife of Kara Kula. Kan P\u00fcdai is, on the contrary,\npassionately enamoured of T\u00e4m\u00e4n \u00d6k\u00f6, the daughter of the sky (duhitar\ndivas, or daughter of the sky, is the name usually given to the aurora\nin the Vedic hymns), and ascends, in order to secure her and make her\nhis wife, to the third heaven (it is the third step of Vishnus; it is\nthe third brother, the sun of the third night-watch, who carries off the\npalm against the gloomy monster). In order to become worthy of the\ndaughter of the sky, Kan P\u00fcdai has to kill two monsters; to scatter\nashes on the field of victory, and lead away from it the white cattle;\nto catch the three bears; to take the three black bulls and make them\nswallow three hills; to take the tiger and give it the grass of the\nthree mountains to eat; to kill the whale in the azure sea (all\ndifferent forms of one and the same mythical and heroic battle); and,\nfinally, to play upon the mountain-peak with the golden-haired monster\nAndalma. He then obtains his bride, and returns with her to his own\ncountry, where he hunts, and makes war, and vanquishes all his enemies,\nuntil he grows old; he then renounces all except his old companion (the\nold sun and the old aurora meet again in the evening).\n\nHere evidently the mythology is really zoological.\n\nIn the complicated legend of Ai-Kan, we have in the brother Altyn\nAyak, who sleeps in the form of a golden cup, and who awakens to help\nAi-Kan, a figure which, though not the same as, is similar to, that of\nthe sleeping brother Kumbhakarnas (conch-ear) in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, who\nawakens to help R\u00e2vanas. We have the inebriating liquor which gives\nstrength to the hero, who is resuscitated three times from death,\nafter having been the food of dogs; the wolves who devour Sary-Kan, or\nthe fair-haired prince; the hero (the sun) who beats the wife (the\naurora) given him by the two brothers (the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u); the friendly dog\nand cat; the golden cup in which the brother of Ai-Kan is shut up\nasleep, and which falls into the sea; the grateful animals which\nsearch for the cup; the gem found in the stomach of a fish (from the\nwhale of the nocturnal ocean the gem comes forth); and the consequent\nawakening of the sleeping Altyn Ayak.\n\nThe following is from an Altaic saga, in the collection of\nRadloff:--Beyond the sea, on a rock surrounded with treasures, a dwarf\ngirl is brought up, against whom aggressive warriors can prevail\nnothing. She sends all enemies away, after loading them with gold and\nsilver, and placing on their heads part of the hair of her forehead,\nwhich proves to be sufficient to cover seven men. In this marvellous\nhair, in this enchanted maiden, and in the warriors who come by sea,\nwho does not recognise the veil of the maiden aurora of the Ved\u00e2s, who\nuncovers her bosom before the sun her husband, and the sea which the\nwarrior-sun crosses, and from which he emerges to come to the\naurora?--who does not recognise the golden fleece, Jason, Medea, the\nArgonauts of Hellenic tradition?\n\nIn the Finnic mythology of the _Kalevala_[338] also, we have upon the\nmountain a good and pure hostess, a generous giver, from the golden\nwindows of whose house are observed the women who give the wildfowl;\nbut in this Finnic representation, it is not the heroic girl-aurora,\nit seems to me, we recognise, but the moon, Diana the huntress (the\nGerman _Hellj\u00e4ger_), who also appears on the mountain-peak, surrounded\nby the stars of the nocturnal forest, where the wildfowl is found,\nwhich she can therefore lavish upon the hero.\n\nThe Finns worship a thundering god, united with the clouds, who has\nthe thunderbolt for his sword, and who is called Ukko,[339] father of\nV\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen, the valorous and wise hero, who speaks in the womb of his\nmother, who performs prodigies when yet a child, and who produces the\nsun and the moon.\n\nThis child-hero occurs again in their dwarf-god (_pikku mies_), who,\nalthough, like the Hindoo Vishnus, he is but a span long, wields in his\nhand an axe the length of a man, with which he cuts down an oak-tree\nthat no one had yet been able to bring to the ground. The sun-hero is\nlittle; but his ray, his thunderbolt, his weapon, his hand, lengthen\nthemselves, extend themselves as far as the dwarf-hero can desire, in\norder to destroy the enemy, who wears here the well-known aspect of the\ntrunk of a tree, or of a dark forest. The woodcutter is therefore a\nfavourite figure in popular tradition. And the fact that V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen,\nhaving grown old and truthful in speech, cuts down in the\n_Kalevala_,[340] by the help of the little god, the prodigious oak,\nshows us that this little god is a new and junior form, a younger and\nvictorious brother, or self-reproduction of the erewhile child-hero\nV\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen, who has lived his life of a day. The valiant child-sun of\nmorning has become the experienced old sun of evening; but as this old\nsun is not strong enough to cut down the oak-tree, under whose shadow he\nloses himself, he is obliged to become a child again to develope the\nrequisite amount of strength; he needs a younger brother, a hero or\ndwarf-god, to free him from the evil shades of the forest of night. To\nthis end he also invokes the sun and the moon to illumine the forest,\nand also the bear (the middle brother)--(in the _Kalevala_, of the three\nheroes it is the bear Ilmarinen who shows the greatest strength, and who\nwins the virgin for his bride)--in order that by his strength he may\nroot up the tree. But to root up the tree is all that bears can do,\nwhile V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen wishes it to be cut down; and so this victorious\nenterprise is intrusted to the dwarf-god. Thus, without explicit mention\nof their names, we find the three brothers described in the entirely\nmythical epopee of the Finns.\n\nAlongside of the dwarf, by force of antithesis, there arises, even in\nthe Finnic mythology, the idea of a giant, a Titan who amuses himself\nwith uplifting and hurling rocks and mountains. The cloud, the monster\nof darkness, being represented as a mountain, the monster inhabiting\nthis country must fight by means of the mountain itself. The cloudy\nmountain moves; it is a giant monster that moves it; it is the second\nbrother, the strong brother, the son of the cow, the bear, who amuses\nhimself with it, who shakes, carries, and throws it like a weapon. And\nsuch mythical battles must have seemed so much the more natural in the\nage in which the greater number of the myths were conceived and\nproduced, as we know it to have been the age which arch\u00e6ologists call\nthe age of stone. The sun, as a dwarf, destroys the vast cloud, the\nvast darkness, viewed as a giant.\n\nBut battles are not always going on in the heavens; even the wild\nanimals of the gloomy forest become tame and rest themselves; music\nfills the soul with calm sentiments. Therefore even the warrior\nGandharv\u00e2s of the Hindoo Olympus are transformed into expert\nmusicians, who entrance the very gods with wonder. The song of the\nSirens attracts and seduces the traveller; the lyre of Orpheus draws\nafter it mountains, trees, and animals; the harp of V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen, in\nthe _Kalevala_, makes the wolf forget his ferocity, the bear his\nwildness, the fish his coldness. And it is grief which is the first\ninspirer of song; the first stanza of the poet V\u00e2lm\u00eekis had its origin\nin the sorrow he felt upon seeing a bird bereft of its companion.\nOrpheus (the Thracian sun) sings and plays for grief, when the serpent\n(the shade of night) has bitten and thrown into the gloomy regions his\nsweet bride Eurydice (the aurora), and moves the demons to pity; the\nharp of V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen is also born of sorrow.[341]\n\nThe epopee of the Finns contains, moreover, several other myths cognate\nwith those of Aryan mythical tradition;--such as the resuscitated hero;\nthe winning of the maiden by display of heroism; the bride heroically\nwon and afterwards cut in pieces; the cup of abundance, or the\ncornucopia (the Sampo); the golden cradle; the marvellous vessel in\nwhich the hero crosses the sea; the three sisters, of whom one gives\nblack milk, one white, and one red (night, the alba or moon, and\naurora); the invulnerable shirt; the magician who makes children of gold\nand silver; and others of secondary importance,[342] but all tending to\nprove that formerly the Turanian and Aryan races, in their neighbouring\nabodes, were originally much more similar to each other than they now\nappear, on account of partly diversity of language, and partly their\ndifferent degrees of civilisation.\n\nI have just named the Finnish Sampo as a cup of abundance or\ncornucopia; it does, in fact, yield marvellous abundance to whoever\npossesses it, and wherever it falls. It is made of the feather of a\nswan, or of a duck (the swan and the duck are, as we shall see,\nconfounded together in tradition, and the duck, like the hen, is a\nsymbol of abundance), of a tuft of wool, of a grain of corn, and of\nchips from a spindle, all evident symbols of abundance; and it becomes\nso large that it has to be carried by a hundred-horned ox (reminding\nus of the horns of the cow which spin). The ox bears abundance upon\nits horns, it yields abundance from its horns. The cornucopia is, in\nmy mind, unmistakably implied in these mythical data.\n\nThe same mythical correspondence which we have found to exist between\nthe Finnic epos and the various legendary Aryan traditions is observable\nbetween the latter and the Esthonian popular tales. In the collection of\nFrederic Kreuzwald[343] we find numerous proofs of this correspondence.\n\nIn the first story we have, in a hut in the forest, three sisters, of\nwhom the youngest is the most beautiful. The old witch, her\nstep-mother, persecutes her, and always gives her filaments of gold to\nspin, hiding from time to time the gold she has spun in a secret room.\nDuring the summer the old woman goes out of the house, no one knows\nwhere, after having apportioned their respective tasks to the three\nsisters. While the old woman is out, a young prince, having lost\nhimself in the forest, finds his way to the hut, and becomes enamoured\nof the youngest of the three sisters. The young couple speak to each\nother of love in the light of the moon and of the stars; while the old\nking, impatient at the absence of his son, falls into grief, and sends\neverywhere to look for him. After three days he is found; before going\nback to the palace, he secretly promises to the youngest sister that\nhe will return. Meanwhile the old woman comes back, finds the work\nbadly done, curses, threatens, and maltreats the girl. Early in the\nmorning, while the old woman and the two elder sisters are slumbering,\nthe maiden slips out, and leaves the house. During her childhood she\nhad learned the language of birds; accordingly, when she meets a crow,\nshe salutes him by the name of \"bird of light,\" and sends him as a\nmessenger to the young prince, to warn him not to come back to see\nher, on account of the fury of the old woman. The prince then names\nher another trysting-place, and the young couple meet under a tree,\nbetween the second and third crowing of the cock; and when the sun\nrises, they flee away together. The old witch causes them to be\nfollowed by a ball made of nine evil herbs, and carried by malignant\nwinds. The fugitives are overtaken on the banks of a river, where the\nball strikes the prince's horse; it rears up on its hind legs, and the\ngirl falls off into the river, into the hands of a marine monster;\nupon which the prince is struck by a disease which no one can cure. By\neating the flesh of a hog, the prince acquires a knowledge of the\nlanguage of birds; he sends the swallows as messengers to the magician\nof Finland, that he may teach him the way to free a girl who has been\ntransformed into a pond-rose (lotus-flower). The answer, instead of\nbeing brought by the swallows, is brought by an eagle. The prince must\nbecome a shrimp, in order to enter the water without being drowned; he\nmust detach the lotus by its root, draw it along the surface of the\nwater to the bank, near a stone, and pronounce these words, \"From the\npond-rose, a maiden--from the shrimp, a man.\" The crow confirms the\neagle's words. The prince hears a song issue from the rose; he then\ndetermines to deliver the girl. The two young people emerge together\nfrom the water. The maiden is ashamed of being naked, and the prince\ngoes to procure nuptial robes for her; after which he conducts her to\nthe palace in a beautiful chariot, where a joyous and gorgeous\nwedding-festival is celebrated. Soon afterwards the old witch dies, to\nappear again in the form of a cat, which is taken by the tail and\nflung into the fire. In the witch's house are found mountains of spun\ngold, which serve for the dowry of the three sisters. We have already\nsaid that the three sisters correspond to the three brothers, and the\nyoungest sister to the youngest brother. The epithet of _young_ is\noften given to the Vedic aurora, whom the sun marries. Here the prince\nmarries the youngest of the three sisters; the morning aurora is\nunited to the sun. Towards night she falls into the water; it is the\nwitch (night) who throws her in; the hog which the prince (the sun)\neats we shall see to be a figurative representation of the nocturnal\nmonster, or the moon. Eating the hog, staying in the forest of night,\nthe prince learns the language of birds. The prince frees the maiden\nfrom the waters; the sun delivers the aurora from the gloomy ocean of\nnight, and robes her in his splendour, causing the witch of night to\nbe burned in the flames of the aurora, and taking from the witch's\nabode the spun gold or golden fleece.\n\nIn the third Esthonian story, a woman, called mother-of-gold, bears,\nby the favour of a dwarf, three dwarf-sons at the same time, who\nbecome three heroes. The first is the seer (the wise brother), the\nsecond has a ready arm (the strong brother), the third runs swiftly in\nthe race (a quality distinctive of the third brother, Argunas, in the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, and which is applicable to the victorious sun of\nmorning, who wins the race, together with the aurora).\n\nA variation of the story relating to the youngest sister and the dwarf\nis that of the girl seven years old, the wise girl (the aurora), in the\nfourth Esthonian tale, who, being persecuted by her step-mother, retires\ninto the forest (the night). While there, it seems to her that she is in\nheaven, where, in a house of crystal and pearls, she is received by a\nwell-dressed woman of gold (the fair-haired moon). The girl asks the\ngolden woman to be allowed to take care of the cattle, like the cowmaid\naurora. In the history of _Ardshi Bordshi_ we have seen the wise\npuppet. This form of the wise girl, the dressed girl of wood, occurs\nagain in the Esthonian story; in which she is made of wood from the\nforest, of three anchovies, of bread, of a black serpent, and of the\nblood of the girl herself, to whom the image has a great likeness, and\nwhich may be beaten by the old step-mother without being hurt. From the\nforest-tree, wood, or wooden box of the night, with the juice of the\nblack serpent of night and the blood of the girl aurora of evening,\ncomes forth the maiden aurora of morning, the wise, the speaking puppet,\nthe puppet who guesses the riddles. The girl who comes out of wood is\nrepresented as a wooden puppet; more frequently the puppet is the moon,\nthe wise fairy who comes out of the forest. In the same story we have\nthe magic rod which produces a cock upon the mountain, beside which a\ntablecloth spreads itself out, while the chairs range themselves in\ntheir places, and the dishes are filled of their own accord. The story\nends with the usual marriage between the beautiful maiden, and a king's\nson returning from the chase (or the son who comes out of the forest of\nnight, viewed as infested by ferocious animals).\n\nIn the sixth Esthonian tale, the poor girl finds a woman in a white\nrobe (the moon), adorned with gold, upon a rock near a fountain, who\nannounces her approaching marriage with a youth as poor as herself;\nbut the good fairy godmother--for in the legends the godmother is\nrepresented as good, as the stepmother is wicked--promises to make\nthem both rich and happy. She calls herself the lady of the waters,\nsecret wife of the wind, and she judges the criminals who present\nthemselves at her tribunal (Proserpina or Persephon\u00ea).\n\nIn the seventh tale, a boy nine years of age, the third son of two\npoor people, goes out to be a cowherd; his master treats him well, but\nhis mistress gives him more floggings than bread. One day the young\ncowherd is unfortunate enough to lose a cow; he searches for it all\nthrough the forest, but in vain. He re-enters the house with the\ncattle, after the sun has set some time. The observant eye of his\nmistress perceives at once that there is a cow missing; she beats the\nboy without pity, and sends him out to look for it, threatening to\nkill him if he returns without it. He wanders through the forest; but\nwhen the sun arises from out the bosom of the dawn, he resolves to\nstay out of the house, and not to return to his persecutor (the young\nmorning sun flees from the old and perverse night). In the evening,\nthe boy finds an old dwarf, who is his host during the night (the\nmoon), and who says to him, \"When the sun rises to-morrow, carefully\nobserve the spot in which he rises. Thou must go in that direction, so\nthat every morning thou may'st have the sun before thee, and every\nevening the sun behind thee. Thus thy strength will increase more and\nmore every day.\" How can one indicate better the apparent course of\nthe solar hero, or of the sun in the night? The hero, in order to go\ntowards the morning sun, must necessarily have the sun of evening\nbehind him. The old dwarf also gives him a sack and a little barrel,\nin which he will always find the food and drink he requires; but he\nrecommends him never to eat or drink more than is necessary, that he\nmay have to give to a hungry bird or a thirsty wild beast. He also\nleaves him a rolled-up leaf of burdock, upon which, by rolling it out,\nhe will always be able to cross water (a new form of the cup). We know\nhow the Hindoos represented their god as floating upon a lotus-leaf in\nthe midst of the waters, and how Padmagas (born of the lotus-flower,\nor the rose of the waters, which shuts during the night) was one of\nthe names of Br\u00e2hman; here we have the god or hero shutting himself up\nin the flower, from which he afterwards comes out. In the chapters on\nthe Serpent and the Frog we shall again see how the god sometimes\nshuts himself up in a monstrous form in this flower, the rose, on\naccount of a curse from which he is to be freed by a beautiful maiden.\nWe have seen how the Esthonian girl, who was by the curse of the old\nwoman thrown into the water, was transformed into a water-rose or\nlotus-flower, and delivered by the young prince. The Esthonian boy\nfinds himself before a small lake; he throws the leaf in, and it\nbecomes a magical boat, which carries him over. Meanwhile he has\nbecome strong. Upon the mountain he sees a serpent, a tortoise, and an\neagle, all three of enormous dimensions, approaching to attack him,\nwith a man upon a black horse, which has wings on its feet, in the\nrear of them. He kills the serpent and the tortoise, but the eagle\nflies away. The man with the black horse takes the boy into his house,\nand appoints him to look after the dogs, that they may not get loose\nfrom their chains, a danger against which the man provides by making\ntwelve colossal oxen fetch rocks upon rocks, to repair the damage done\nby the dogs. The rocks, touched by a magical rod, arrange themselves\nupon the car drawn by the oxen. At last, by the advice of the eagle,\nhe steals his master's horse, and departs to sojourn among mankind,\ntaking a wife with him.\n\nIn the eighth Esthonian story too, the third brother is the cunning one.\nHis two elder brothers, after the death of their father, despoil him of\nhis share of the inheritance, and he is reduced to wander alone and\nimpoverished about the world in quest of good fortune. He falls in with\na woman who complains to him that her husband regularly beats her when\nshe is unable to procure for him the things he wants, which he asks for\nin the form of a riddle. The third brother solves the enigma for the\nwoman (the moon), who, in gratitude, gives him provisions for his\ntravels. He then comes to a palace, where the king is engaged in\ncelebrating a summer festival, and he undertakes to provide and prepare\nthe feast. A magician presents himself at the festival in the shape of\nan old man, and asks to taste the food. The young man suspects him, but,\nseeing a ring upon his finger, he consents to allow him if he gives him\na pledge. The magician vows that he has nothing to give. The youth asks\nfor his ring, and the old man in his gluttony at once gives it up; upon\nwhich the youth, who, along with the ring, has taken all the magician's\nstrength away, first binds and derides him, and then has him beaten by\nseven strong men. The old man breaks the ropes and disappears; however,\nthe young man, having the ring in his hands, possesses the means of\ntracking his footsteps and making him his. (This is the usual disc,\nlasso, or bridle which is now in the hands of the hero, now in those of\nthe monster.) The youth follows the magician underground. The latter, it\nappears, is served by three maidens, who, when they perceive that the\nsorcerer has lost his ring, and that they have a young man for\ncompanion, enjoy themselves with him while the magician is asleep. The\nyouth learns from them that the old wizard also possesses a sword which\ncan destroy armies, and a magical rod which can create a bridge to span\nthe sea; these, therefore, he steals, and departs, returning by a\nwonderful bridge thrown over the sea to the palace whence he had\nstarted. It seems to him as if his journey had lasted only two nights,\ninstead of which a year has passed.[344] He finds on his arrival his\ntwo brothers in the king's service, one as coachman and the other as a\nvalet, both enriched because they have received the pay due to their\nyounger brother for having prepared the great feast. The young man now\nengages himself in another capacity, in a species of service especially\ndear to the young hero, next to those of stable-boy and cowherd; that is\nto say, he becomes under-cook of the king. (In the _V\u00eer\u00e2ta-Parvam_ of\nthe _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, it is the second of the brothers who disguises\nhimself as a cook, in order to prepare good sauces and substantial food\nfor the king whose guest he is; the elder brother is disguised as a\nBr\u00e2hmanas, a wise adviser; the third brother, Argunas, the agile, the\nswift one, pretends to be a eunuch, is given in exchange for a woman,\nand teaches dancing, music, and singing in the gynecium. Of the two sons\nof the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, one becomes a groom, the other a cowherd.) His brothers\ncontinue to dislike him, and because he boasts to them that he had seen\nin hell golden birds, they induce the king to send him to hell in order\nto procure them. He accomplishes this undertaking with great difficulty,\nand brings the birds in a sack made of spiders' webs, which is so strong\nthat the birds enclosed in it cannot extricate themselves. In the same\nsack, during another expedition, the young man brings from hell many\nprecious objects of gold and silver. In compensation, he only asks of\nthe king to send the princess, his daughter, to listen for one evening\nto the conversation of his two brothers the coachman and the valet. Both\nboast of having enjoyed to satiety the favours of the princess. The\nlatter, indignant and full of shame, runs to tell the king everything,\nupon which he arraigns them before him and has them judged. The third\nbrother is named Counsellor; with his enchanted sword he destroys an\nentire army of enemies, and obtains in reward for his services and his\nvalour the king's daughter to wife.\n\nThe ninth Esthonian story presents to us the son of the thunder, who\nsells his soul to the devil, on condition that the latter serves him\nfor seven years. The time agreed upon is nearly come to an end, and\nthe son of the thunder wishes to escape from him, and profits by an\nopportunity which has chanced. The devil sees a black cloud, which is\na sign of an approaching tempest; he is afraid, hides himself under a\nstone, and asks the son of the thunder to keep him company. The latter\nconsents; but seeing that the devil is afraid, at each thunderclap he\npresses his ears and eyes in such a manner as to make him perspire and\nshiver all over. The devil, believing this to be the effect of the\nthunder, promises the son of the thunder that he will not only leave\nhim his soul, but give him three other souls, if he will deliver him\nfrom the evils which he suffers on account of the thunder, by taking\nfrom the thundering god, the father of the clouds, his weapon (which\nis also a musical instrument). This weapon, having been ravished from\nthe god, is taken by the devil into hell, into a chamber of iron, shut\nup within seven castles. A great drought coming upon the earth, the\nson of the thunder repents of having rendered such a service to the\ndevil; he finds means, however, of informing the thunder-god where his\nweapon is concealed. The thunder-god then becomes a child, and engages\nhimself in the service of a fisherman, near a lake which the devil is\naccustomed to visit to steal the fishes. He surprises him in the act\nof robbery, and by the help of a magician takes him prisoner, and has\nhim beaten without pity, until he promises to pay a heavy ransom in\nmoney to be let free, the fisherman and his child to accompany him to\nhell itself to receive the sum of money. Arrived in hell, the devil\nentertains them like a gentleman. The child tells the fisherman to ask\nthe devil to show them the musical instrument which he keeps enclosed\nin the iron room. The devil kindly consents, but cannot draw from the\ninstrument anything more musical than the mewing of a cat or the\ngrunting of a pig. The fisherman then laughs at the devil, and says\nthat his boy can play better. The devil does not believe it, and\nlaughingly gives the instrument, which he calls bagpipes, to the boy.\nThe latter blows into them and makes such a noise that all hell\nresounds with it, and the devils fall to the earth as if dead. The\nchild then becomes the god of thunder again, and returns to heaven,\nwhere by the noise of his instrument he opens the celestial reservoirs\nand lets out the beneficent rain. The description of the tempest which\noccurs in many Vedic hymns is the germ of this interesting myth. The\ndrum or kettledrum thunder is a familiar image in Hindoo poetry, and\nthe Gandharv\u00e2s, the musician-warriors of the Hindoo Olympus, have no\nother instrument than the thunder. The conch of the warrior P\u00e2ndav\u00e2s\nin the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, and the famous horn of Orlando (which comes\nfrom the golden horn of Odin), are epical reminiscences of thunder.\nOrpheus, who in hell plays on his lyre and tames the animals, is a\nmore lucid and more perfect form of this Esthonian thunder-god who\nplays the bagpipes in hell. It is also remarkable how, in harmony with\nthe pastoral bagpipes, in the tenth Esthonian story, which is a\nvariation of the preceding one, the god transformed into a powerful\nboy is called a little shepherd or cowherd--another interesting fact,\nwhich completes his identification with Orpheus.[345] The magic flute\nis a variation of the same celestial musical instrument. The magic\nflute, the bagpipes or wonderful pipe, occurs again in the\ntwenty-third Esthonian story, in which the good Tiidu, by means of it\nand of his virtue, obtains riches. The magical harp of Gunnar in the\nEdda has the same marvellous effects.\n\nEvidently the monster-dwarf is a favourite subject of Esthonian\ntradition, and it often occurs in the Hindoo and in the German\ntraditions, as well as in the Franco-Latin tradition of Charlemagne.\nThe eleventh story introduces us to three dwarf-brothers who contend\nfor the inheritance left by their father, consisting of a miraculous\nhat, which enables its wearer to see everything, whilst he can himself\nbe visible or invisible at pleasure (this hat is made of pieces of\nmen's nails cut up);[346] of a pair of slippers which transport the\nowner in an instant wherever he wishes (we must not forget that\nCinderella, when she loses the slipper, is overtaken by the prince\nbridegroom); and of a stick which strikes of itself, and destroys\neverything, even stronger than the thunderbolt (the thunderbolt\nitself). The three brothers maintain that these three articles, to be\nreally useful, must be the property of one; but who is to enjoy this\nprivilege? A man comes up to put an end to the dispute, and feigns\ndisbelief in the virtue of these three things, unless he proves it\nhimself. The three simpletons give them to him that he may prove them.\nThe man takes them off, and the three dwarfs are left to meditate upon\nthe truth of the above-quoted proverb, \"Between two disputers the\nthird profits,\" or at least that variation of it which their own case\nsuggests \"Between three that dispute, the fourth profits.\"\n\nIn the thirteenth Esthonian story, the privileged character of the\nthird brother is explained, as we are told that he is the son of a\nking, but was exchanged by a witch during his infancy for the child of\na peasant. The latter died in the palace, whilst the king's son grew\nin the hut, showing in every action his royal pedigree. Here we have\nthe story of the hero who is exposed on the mountains intimately\nconnected with that of the third brother. To this third brother, who\nalone shows himself to be devoted to his father, and who alone makes a\nvow to watch by his grave, is also attributed the merit of having\ndelivered, upon a high mountain of crystal, from a seven years' sleep,\na princess, who then becomes his wife. We have seen the\naurora-awakener in the Vedic hymns--the sun and the aurora arouse each\nother: the sun sends forth the aurora; the aurora draws out the sun.\nThe myth reproduces itself every day, and expresses in its entirety a\ndaily phenomenon of light in the heavens. In Northern countries, where\nthe contrast is great between winter and spring, and therefore the\nimpression is striking which is caused by the cessation of vegetation\nin autumn, the earth also assumed the aspect of a dead young princess;\nbut an omniscient magician having said, _Non est mortua puella, sed\ndormit_, the third brother, predestined to the enterprise, lays down\nhis poor robes, and dresses himself, on the first occasion, in the\ncolour of bronze; on the second, the colour of silver; on the third,\nthe colour of gold, and ascends the mountain of crystal, or ice,\nwhence he brings forth the beautiful spring. The sky, grey in autumn,\nsnowy in winter, and golden in spring, corresponds to the grey sky of\nevening, the silver one of night, and the golden one of morning.\nSpring is the dawn of the year; the primitive myth is but amplified;\nthe last hour of the day awakens the aurora; the last month of the\nsolar year awakens the spring. The application of the myth of the day\nto the year is one of the greatest simplicity.\n\nIn the fourteenth story, the king of the golden country loses himself in\nthe forest full of ferocious animals, and cannot find his way out. A\nstranger (no doubt the devil) conducts him out, on condition that he\nwill give him whatever first comes to meet him. The king promises. The\nfirst thing he sees on his return is his royal child, who, carried by\nhis nurse, stretches out his arms to his father. The king exchanges him\nfor a peasant's girl, whom he gives up to the stranger, allowing his own\nson to be brought up among the peasant's herds. The king's son, having\ngrown to manhood, determines to go and deliver the poor girl. He\ndisguises himself as a poor man, puts a sack of peas on his shoulders,\nand goes into the forest where his father was lost eighteen years\nbefore. He also loses himself, and meets the stranger, who promises to\ndirect him if he will give him the peas which are in the sack, as they\nwill serve, he alleges, to recompense the assistants at the funeral of\nhis aunt, who died in poverty during the night.--This pulse in funeral\nceremonies refers to a very ancient custom. The Vedic ceremonials\nalready mention them in connection with funerals; and in the Greek\nbelief, the dead carried vegetables with them to hell, either for the\nright of passage or as provisions for travelling. In Piedmont, it is\nstill the custom on the second of November (All Soul's Day) to make a\ngreat distribution of kidney-beans to the poor, who pray for the souls\nof the dead. Vegetables, peas, vetches, and kidney-beans are symbols of\nabundance, and to this belief may be traced the numerous Indo-European\nstories in which mention is made of beans which multiply themselves in\nthe pipkin, or of peas which grow up to the sky, and up the stalk of\nwhich the hero climbs to heaven. The vegetables necessary for being\nintroduced into the kingdom of the dead, and the pea by means of which\nthe hero enters heaven, are variations of the same mythical subject. In\nHindoo tradition, besides the pea or kidney-bean, we have the pumpkin as\na symbol of abundance, which is multiplied infinitely, or which mounts\nup to heaven. The wife of the hero Sagaras gives birth to a pumpkin,\nfrom which afterwards come forth sixty thousand sons. The kidney-bean,\nthe pea, the vetch, the common bean, and the pumpkin are also symbols of\ngeneration, not only on account of the facility with which they\nmultiply, but also on account of their form. We have seen in the Vedic\nceremonials what organs are represented by the two kidney-beans; we\nshall also see, in the chapter on the Ass, how the names given to the\norgans of generation are also used to designate fools. Now, it is worthy\nof notice that the Sanskrit word _m\u00e2shas_ (or kidney-bean) also\nsignified the foolish, the stolid one, in the same way as in Piedmont a\n_bonus vir_ is called a kidney-bean. Thus, too, the pumpkin, which\nexpresses fecundity, also means, in Italian, idiocy or stupidity. As to\nbeans, I have already remarked, in my work upon \"Nuptial Usages,\" upon\ntheir symbolical meaning, and cited the Russian and Piedmontese custom\nof putting a black and a white bean into the cake eaten at Epiphany, one\nof which represents the male and the other the female, one the king and\nthe other the queen. The two who find the beans kiss each other with\njoyful auguries. As all these vegetables personify the moon, which we\nknow to be considered as a giver of abundance, and which, by its form of\na turning ball, can well be represented by the turning pea, in this\npersonification we must search for the solution of the principal myths\nrelating to vegetables.--The young prince of the Esthonian story, having\nobtained the stranger's favour in the gloomy forest by means of the\npeas, engages himself in his service, with intent to deliver the girl\nwho had freed him by taking his place with the stranger during eighteen\nyears. He therefore follows him; but on the way he lets a pea fall to\nthe ground from time to time, in order to know the way back. He is\nconducted by a strange and wild subterranean passage, where silence as\nof the tomb reigns--it is, in fact, the kingdom of the dead--where birds\nhave the appearance of wishing to sing, dogs to bark, and oxen to low,\nbut cannot, and where the water flows without a murmur. The young prince\nfeels in his heart a kind of anguish; the universal stillness in the\nmidst of animated beings oppresses him. Having passed the region of\nsilence, they come to that of deafening noise. The young prince thinks\nhe hears the excruciating din of twenty-four saws at work; but the old\nstranger tells him that it is only his grandmother who has fallen\nasleep, and is snoring. At last they come to the stranger's dwelling,\nwhere the prince finds the beautiful maiden, but the old stranger will\nnot let him speak. He sees in the stable a white horse and a black cow,\nwith a white or luminous-headed calf. This cow the young prince is\nordered to milk until there is not a drop of milk in its breast; instead\nof milking it with his fingers, he, by the advice of the girl, uses for\nthat purpose red-hot pincers. Another time the youth is told to lead\naway the enchanted calf with the white or luminous head. In order that\nit may not escape, the girl gives him a magic thread, of which one end\nis to be tied to the left leg of the calf, and the other to the little\ntoe of the prince's left foot.--The little finger, although the\nsmallest, is the most privileged of the five. It is the one that knows\neverything; and in Piedmont, when the mothers wish to make their\nchildren believe that they are in communication with a mysterious spy,\nwho sees everything that they do, they are accustomed to awe them by the\nwords, \"My little finger tells me everything.\"--At last the two young\npeople resolve to flee. Before starting, the prince splits open the\nforehead of the white-headed calf; from its skull comes forth an\nenchanted little red ball, which shines like a small sun. He wraps it\nup, leaving part of it uncovered to light the way, and flees away with\nthe girl. Being followed by malignant spirits, who are sent by the old\nman to follow them, the two fugitives, by means of the enchanted little\nball (or pearl), turned round three times, become, first the one a pond\nand the other a fish, then the one a rose-bush and the other a rose,\nthen again the one a breeze and the other a gnat, until the stone which\ncovers the entrance to the subterranean world having been lifted up,\nthey arrive again safe and happy upon the earth; and by means of the\nlittle red ball, they show themselves to mankind in splendid and\nprincely robes. I scarcely think it necessary to explain to the reader\nthe sense of this lucid mythical story. The black cow which produces the\ncalf with the white or luminous head is a Vedic antithesis which we have\nalready seen;[347] the cow (night) produces the calf (the moon). The\nprince takes the little red ball out of the calf; by means of this ball,\nthe girl is delivered from the regions of gloom. The little ball moves\nthe stone; the sun and the aurora come out together from the mountain,\nafter having travelled together in the kingdom of shadows; the sun\ndelivers the aurora. This story unites together and puts in order\nseveral myths of an analogous character, but born separately.\n\nThe three next stories describe other voyages made by the solar hero to\nheaven, or in hell, and end by meaning the same thing. In the eighteenth\nstory we again find the enchanted ring, called Solomon's ring, which the\nyoung hero goes to search for; when he finds it, by taking it from the\ndaughter of hell, and puts it on his finger, he is of a sudden endowed\nwith such strength that he can split a rock with one blow of his fist.\nThe little red ball of the story just described, which lifts up the\nrock, and this ring which splits the stone, represent the same mythical\nobject, _i.e._, the sun, the sun's ball or disc.\n\nThe twenty-first story shows us the fearless hero who frees a castle\nfrom the presence of the demons, and who thus gains a treasure; riches\nare the reward of valour.\n\nThe twentieth Esthonian story is a variation of the exceedingly\npopular tale of Blue Beard, the killer of his wives. The Esthonian\nmonster-husband has already killed eleven, and is about to murder the\ntwelfth, by way of punishing her for having, against his express\nprohibition, visited the secret room opened by the golden key (perhaps\nthe moon), when a youth who takes care of the goslings, the friend of\nher childhood, comes to deliver her. From the subject itself, and the\nexpressions used in this story, we can discover the origin of the\nterrible charivari in the nuptials of widowers or widows. This savage\ncustom is intended not only to deride the lust of the old man or woman\nwho marries again, but to warn the girl who marries the one, or the\nyouth who marries the other, of the possibility of a fate similar to\nthe first wife or husband. When, therefore, the wife _apatighn\u00ee_ (who\ndoes not kill her husband) is praised to the Vedic husband, we must\nunderstand that the _patighn\u00ee_ (or killer of her husband) is a widow,\nwhom no one must marry, as being suspected of murder. Hence, to free\nherself from this suspicion, an honest Hindoo wife (like Gudrun in the\nEdda) was to throw herself into the fire after the death of her\nhusband; the evening aurora, after the death of the sun, dies too.\n\nIn the twenty-second story we have once more the myth of the young\npastoral hero; he is the son of a king. By the order of his\nstep-mother, a witch, who carries off shepherds, steals him from the\npalace during his infancy, and abandons him in a solitary place, where\nhe is brought up by cowherds, and becomes himself an excellent\ncowherd. An old man finds him and says, looking at him and at the\ncattle, \"Thou dost not seem to me born to remain a cowherd.\" The boy\nanswers that he knows he was born to command, and adds, \"Here I learn\nthe duties of a commander by anticipation. If things go well with the\nquadrupeds, I shall also prosper with bipeds.\" The shepherd is\ntherefore a little king; a good shepherd will become a good king. The\nboy goes through several adventures, in which he displays his valour.\nA wicked German lady wishes to take from him the strawberries which he\nhas plucked. He defends himself bravely; his mistress persecutes him;\nand he takes twelve wolves, shuts them up in a cavern, and each day\ngives them a lamb to eat, in order to avenge himself upon his wicked\nmistress, to whom he simply says that the wolves have devoured them.\nAt last he causes her to be devoured herself by the wolves, who eat\nher all up, leaving only the heart (the sun) and the tongue, which are\ntoo full of venom for the wolves of the night, because they burn their\nmouths. At the age of eighteen, the youth has several other\nadventures. He becomes enamoured of a gardener's daughter, and is\nfound again by the king his father, who, before allowing him to marry\nthe beautiful gardener's daughter, wishes to prove that they are\npredestined to each other. He cuts a ring in two with his sword, and\ngives one part to the young prince and the other to the maiden; the\ntwo halves must be preserved by both, and one day they will meet of\nthemselves and form again the whole ring, in such a manner that it\nwill be impossible to find the place where it was broken.--In a Tuscan\nstory, the beautiful maiden gives half her necklace to the third\nbrother. The young couple lose each other; their meeting again and\nmutual recognition take place when the two parts of the necklace join\neach other. The use of the wedding-ring has a mythical origin. The\nsolar (and sometimes the lunar disc) is the ring which unites the\nheavenly husband and wife.--When, after other adventures, the two\nyoung people of the Esthonian story join together the two halves of\ntheir ring, their misfortunes come to an end; they marry and live\ntogether happily, whilst the cruel step-mother, who meanwhile has\nbecome a widow, is expelled from the kingdom.\n\nThe last Esthonian story tells of the extraordinary births, in the same\nday, of a handsome prince and a beautiful princess. The princess is born\nin a bird's egg, laid like a pearl in the bosom of the queen; she has at\nfirst the form of a living puppet, and afterwards, when warmed in wool,\nshe becomes a real girl. Whilst she undergoes this transformation, the\nqueen also gives birth to a beautiful boy. The two children are\nconsidered as twins, and baptized together. To the baptism of the girl\nthere comes as godmother, in a splendid chariot drawn by six horses, a\nyoung woman dressed in rose-coloured and golden robes, who shines like\nthe sun, and who, as she lets her veil drop, like the beautiful Argive\nHelen, fills the bystanders with admiration. [The aurora, who, before\nappearing in the form of a beautiful girl, is enclosed in the wood of\nthe forest, is a wooden puppet, and becomes a wooden puppet once more\nwhen, fleeing from the sun, she hides herself in a creeping-plant, like\nthe Hindoo Urva\u00e7\u00ee (the first of the dawns), or in a laurel-plant, like\nthe Hellenic Daphne (the Vedic Dahan\u00e2-aurora). The aurora is born\ntogether with the sun; the beautiful doll-maiden is born with the little\nprince. The mother and the beneficent godmother seem to be the moon, or\na more ancient aurora.] The mother, dying, leaves her daughter, putting\nit upon her breast, a gem which is to bring her happiness; that is, the\nlittle basket which contained the bird's egg, with the eggshell itself.\nBy means of the magical little basket, and by pronouncing some magic\nwords, the maiden can find all that she searches or wishes for. The\nyoung man and woman end by marrying each other, having discovered that,\nalthough both born of a king, they are children of different fathers;\nthey marry, and the little basket of happiness mysteriously disappears.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[267] _Anquetil du Perron, Zendavesta_, ii. p. 545.\n\n[268] Misit itaque Deus justissimus citissime Angelum Behman quasi\nesset fumus (jubendo): Ito et bovem rubrum accipiens mactato in nomine\nDei qui prudentiam dat; eumque coquito in aceto veteri, et cave\naccurate facias, allio ac rut\u00e2, superadditis; et in nomine Dei ex olla\neffundito: deinde coram eo adpone ut comedat. Cumque portiunculam\npanis in \u00edllud friasset, Diabolus ille maledictus inde aufugit, abiit,\nevanuit et disparuit, nec deinde, illum aliquis postea vidit;\n_Sadder_, p. 94.--The Russian peasants still believe that a household\ndevil, the damavoi, enters into the stable, who, during the night,\nmounts on horses and oxen and makes them sweat and grow lean.--Cfr.\nalso, on the _Damavoi_, Ralston's _Songs of the Russian people_,\nLondon, 1872, pp. 119-139.\n\n[269] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, vol. ii.; _Einleitung_, vii.\n\n[270] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, vol. ii. 21.\n\n[271] x. 11.\n\n[272] xxix.\n\n[273] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, vol. ii. p. 8.\n\n[274] xix. 99-101. Professor Spiegel translates \"Mit dem Hunde, mit\nEntscheidung, mit Vieh, mit St\u00e4rke, mit Tugend, diese bringt die\nSeelen der Reinen \u00fcber den Harabezaiti hinweg: \u00fcber die Br\u00fccke Chinvat\nbringt sie das Heer der himmlischen Yazatas.\"\n\n[275] Cows and calves, as a funeral gift, are spoken of in the _Khorda\nAvesta_, li. 15, Spiegel's version.\n\n[276] Cfr. also the Tistrya with a whole eye of the _Khorda Avesta_ of\nSpiegel, p. 9, and all the _Tistar Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxiv.\nIf Tistar is the moon, Tistrya would appear to perform the same duties\nas the good fairy--that is, of showing, by means of her good eyes, her\ngood eyesight, and her splendour, the way to the lost heroes. The\nHindoo cow of Vasishthas, which yields every good thing, and which\nthen fights in the clouds against Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, would sometimes appear\nto be the moon veiled by the rainy cloud; thus we can explain the\nrain-giving character of the star Tistrya, which, according to the\n_Bundehesh_, by raining ten days and ten nights, destroyed the\nmonsters of dryness created by the demon Agro-mainyus.\n\n[277] xxxix. 1.\n\n[278] xvii. 25.\n\n[279] Spiegel's version, p. 149.--Cfr. the three litanies for the body\nand soul of the cow, in the fragments of the same vol. p. 254.\n\n[280] _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einl._ x.\n\n[281] Spiegel's version, p. 4.\n\n[282] These are the exact terms used by Spiegel:--\"Dieser opferte der\nfr\u00fchere Vifra-nav\u00e2za, als ihn aufrief der siegreiche, starke\nThraetaona, in der Gestalt eines Vogels, eines Kahrk\u00e2\u00e7a. Dieser flog\ndort w\u00e4hrend dreier Tage und dreier N\u00e4chte hin zu seiner eigenen\nWohnung, nicht abw\u00e4rts, nicht abw\u00e4rts gelangte er gen\u00e4hrt. Er ging\nhervor gegen die Morgenr\u00f6the der dritten Nacht, der starken, beim\nZerfliessen der Morgenr\u00f6the und betete zur Ardv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra, der\nfleckenlosen; Ardv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra, fleckenlose! eile mir schnell zu H\u00fclfe,\nbringe nun mir Beistand, ich will dir tausend Opfer mit Haoma und\nFleisch versehene, gereinigte, wohl ausgesuchte, bringen hin zu dem\nWasser Ragha, wenn ich lebend hinkomme zu der von Ahura geschaffenen\nErde, hin zu meiner Wohnung. Es lief herbei Ardv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra, die\nfleckenlose, in Gestalt eines sch\u00f6nen M\u00e4dchens, eines sehr kr\u00e4ftigen,\nwohlgewachsenen, aufgesch\u00fcrzten, reinen, mit gl\u00e4nzendem Gesichte,\nedlen, unten am Fusse mit Schuhen bekleidet, mit goldnem Diadem auf\ndem Scheitel. Diese ergriff ihm am Arme, bald war das, nicht lange\ndauerte es, dass er hinstrebte kr\u00e4ftig zu von Ahura geschaffenen Erde,\ngesund, so unverletzt als wie vorher, zu seiner eignen Wohnung;\"\n_Khorda Avesta_, pp. 51, 52.\n\n[283] Welche zuerst den Wagen f\u00e4hrt; _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's\nversion, p. 45.\n\n[284] Professor Spiegel says, however, \"Vom Aufgang der Sonne bis\nTagesanbruch,\" which in a note he explains, \"Vom Sonnenaufgang bis\nMitternacht,\" which it appears to us cannot stand scrutiny, any more\nthan the conclusion inferred from this, that the sacrifice was to be\nmade \"den ganzen Tag hindurch.\" Zarathustra would not have been obliged\nto ask the precise time at which to sacrifice to the goddess, if she was\nto answer him in such a general way. What occasion is there to pray in\nmidday, in full daylight, that the darkness may be dispersed?--If there\nbe any equivoque, it can only be, in my opinion, in the rather frequent\nexchange of the maiden Aurora and the fairy Moon.\n\n[285] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, pp. 7, 27.\n\n[286] xix. 52.\n\n[287] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Cock.\n\n[288] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einl._ xxv., and all\nthe important _Mirh Yast_, or collection of hymns in honour of Mithra,\nin the _Khorda Avesta_, xxvi.\n\n[289] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einl._ xxxiii., and the\n_Bahr\u00e2m Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxx. 7, Spiegel's version. It is\nthen that he says of himself, \"As to strength, I am the strongest.\"\nFurther on it is said that strength belongs to the bull (or the cow).\n\n[290] In a hymn, Indras even calls himself U\u00e7an\u00e2, with the added\ndenomination of kavis; Aham kaviru\u00e7an\u00e2: _Rigv._ iv. 26, 1.\n\n[291] _Vendidad_, xxii. 11.\n\n[292] Chap. ix.\n\n[293] Cfr. _Farvardin Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxix. 30,\nSpiegel's version.\n\n[294] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's version, _Einleit._ xxxiv., and\nthe _R\u00e2m Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxxi. 40.--The 57th strophe\nappears to be a real Vedic hymn to the Marutas; the wind is celebrated\nas the strongest of the strong, the swiftest of the swift, having arms\nand ornaments of gold, a golden wheel and a golden chariot; his golden\nshoes and his girdle of gold besides show his sympathy and relation\nwith the Ardv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra An\u00e2hita, who, in the form of aurora, is referred\nto in the 55th strophe.\n\n[295] Cfr. _Khorda Avesta_, p. lxix.\n\n[296] Cfr. ibid. p. lxi.\n\n[297] Denn Verethraghna, der von Ahura geschaffene, h\u00e4lt die H\u00e4nde\nzur\u00fcck der furchtbaren Kampfesreihen, der verb\u00fcndeten L\u00e4nder und der\nmithratr\u00fcgenden Menschen, er umh\u00fcllt ihr Gesicht, verh\u00fcllt ihre Ohren,\nnicht l\u00e4sst er ihre F\u00fcsse ausschreiten, nicht sind sie m\u00e4chtig;\n_Khorda Avesta._ xxx. 63, Spiegel's version.\n\n[298] Cfr. the _Mihr Yast_ in the _Khorda Avesta_, xxvi. 128, 129.\n\n[299] Cfr. ibid.\n\n[300] Urv\u00e2ksha is also called the accumulator; _Khorda Avesta_, xl. 3,\nSpiegel's version.\n\n[301] _Khorda Avesta_, p. 155.\n\n[302] _Khorda Avesta_, xxxiii., Spiegel's version.\n\n[303] M\u00f6gest du reich an Rindern sein wie (der Sohn) de Athvy\u00e2nischen\n(clanes); _Khorda Avesta_, xl. 4, Spiegel's version.\n\n[304] Soll ich zum Himmel aufsteigen, soll ich in die Erde kriechen?\nDarauf entgegnete Ahura Mazda: Sch\u00f6ne Ashi, vom Sch\u00f6pfer geschaffene!\nsteige nicht zum Himmel auf, krieche nicht in die Erde; gehe du hieher\nin die Mitte der Wohnung eines sch\u00f6nen K\u00f6nigs; _Khorda Avesta_,\nxxxiii. 59, 60, Spiegel's version.--Cfr. xxxiv. 3, and following,\nwhere are celebrated the handsome husband of the beautiful Ashis and\nhis rich kingdom.\n\n[305] Die Stierkopfkeule in der Rechten schwingend; Schack,\n_Heldensagen von Firdusi_, iv. 2.--Cfr. viii. 9.\n\n[306] Die Donnerwolke bin ich, die Blitzeskeule schleudert; Schack,\n_Heldensagen von Firdusi_, v. 5.\n\n[307] Die Diwe (the demons) pflegen um Mittagszeit zur Ruhe sich zu\nlegen; das ist die Stunde sie zu besiegen. Nicht eher schreitet Rustem\nzu der That, bis sich die Sonne hoch erhoben hat; _Schack, Heldensagen\nvon Firdusi_, v. 5.\n\n[308] Ist's Rustem? ist es nicht die Sonne, die durch Morgenwolken\nbricht? _Schack, Heldensagen von Firdusi_, vii. 2.\n\n[309] Indeed, this undertaking seems to the ferryman himself so\nsupernatural, that he says these cannot be called men: \"In Wahrheit,\nMenschen kann man sie nicht heissen.\" _Schack, Heldensagen von\nFirdusi_, x. 27.\n\n[310] Cfr. Spiegel's _Die Alexandersage bei den Orientale_, Leipzig,\n1851; and Zacher's _Pseudocallisthenes, Forschungen zur Kritik und\nGeschichte der \u00e4ltesten Aufzeichnung der Alexandersage_, Halle, 1867.\n\n[311] Georg Rosen's version, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1858, 2 vols.\n\n[312] Bernhard J\u00fclg's version, Innsbruck, 1867-1868.\n\n[313] i. 5.\n\n[314] i. 6.\n\n[315] _Tuti-Name_, i. 7.\n\n[316] _Tuti-Name_, i. 13.\n\n[317] _Tuti-Name_, i. 14.--Cfr. Afanassieff, _Narodnija ruskija\nskaski_, vi. 23.\n\n[318] iii. 27.\n\n[319] ii. 17.\n\n[320] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 19.\n\n[321] ii. 21.\n\n[322] ii. 28.\n\n[323] This story was current in Italy as early as the fifteenth\ncentury, having been related to her son by the mother of the\nphilosopher and man of letters Pontano, as I find from his biography,\npublished last year by Professor Tallarigo (Sanseverino-Marche).\n\n[324] ii. 21.\n\n[325] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 25.\n\n[326] ii. 24.\n\n[327] ii. 26.\n\n[328] ii. 28.\n\n[329] ii. 29.\n\n[330] ii. 29.\n\n[331] Cfr. also the chapter on the Hog, where we shall expound the\nmyths and legends relating to disguises.\n\n[332] Cfr. also the chapters on the Lion and the Fox.\n\n[333] Cfr. on the story of Perrette, an interesting essay of Professor\nMax M\u00fcller in the _Contemporary Review_, 1870.\n\n[334] Radloff, _Proben der Volkslitteratur der T\u00fcrkischen St\u00e4mme\ns\u00fcd-Sibiriens_.\n\n[335] Professor Schiefner has already compared with this passage a story\npublished by Ahlquist in his _Versuch einer Mokscha-Mordwinischen\nGrammatik_, p. 97.\n\n[336] Kasan, 1836, quoted by Professor Schiefner in the introduction\nto the _Proben_, &c., of Radloff.\n\n[337] Cfr., for the meaning of this myth, the chapter which treats of\nthe Hare.\n\n[338] _Rune_, 7.--Cfr. Castren's _Kleinere Schriften_, Petersburg,\n1862, and the French translation of the _Kalevala_, published in 1867\nby Leouzon le Duc.\n\n[339] I find combined in the _Kleinere Schriften_ of Castren (p. 25)\nthe same _Ukko_ with the word _Kave_ (_Kave Ukko_). I would with\ndiffidence ask the learned Finnish philologists, whether, as _Ukko_ is\na Finnish form of the deity whom the Hindoos called Indras, and as the\nhero protected by Indras, the hero in whom Indras is reproduced, is\ncalled in the Vedic (and Iranian) tradition _K\u00e2vya U\u00e7an\u00e2_, or even\n_U\u00e7an\u00e2 Kavis_, the words _Kave Ukko_ may not have some relation to the\nname given to the Vedic and Iranian hero?\n\n[340] V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen, alt und wahrhaft, konnt durch ihn die Eiche f\u00e4llen;\n_Kal._ 24, in Castren's _Kleinere Schriften_, p. 233.\n\n[341] Nur aus Trauer ward die Harfe, nur aus Kummer sie geschaffen;\nharten Tagen ist die W\u00f6lbung, ist das Stammholz zu verdanken, nur\nVerdruss spannt ihre Saiten, andre M\u00fchsal macht die Wirbel;\n_Kanteletar_, i., quoted by Castren in the _Kleinere Schriften_, p. 277.\n\n[342] The origin of the bad and poor mythical iron, described in the\n_Kalevala_, is one of these: the mythical iron is the cloudy or\ntenebrous sky. The description is original, but the myths to which it\nrefers are known to Indo-Europeans; as, for instance, the honey which\nbecomes poison.\n\n[343] _Ehsthnische M\u00e4rchen_ aufgezeichnet von Fried. Kreuzwald, aus\ndem Ehsthnischen, \u00fcbersetzt von F. L\u00f6we, with notes by A. Schiefner\nand R. K\u00f6hler, Halle, 1869.\n\n[344] This is the phenomenon which occurs in the winter solstice on\nChristmas Eve and that of New Year's Day, in which we pass from one\nyear to another; in one night we become older by a year.\n\n[345] In a popular Swedish song, the maiden Gundela, who plays\nmarvellously upon the harp, and, in order to play it, demands the king\nto marry her, is also a shepherdess.--Cfr. _Schwedische Volkslieder\nder Vorzeit_, \u00fcbertragen von Warrens, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1857.\n\n[346] Cfr. the note of F. L\u00f6we, illustrating this passage, in his\nversion of the collection of Kreuzwald, pp. 144 and 145.--[This is\nalso a myth of easy interpretation, if I am not mistaken: at evening,\nthe sun loses his rays; the lion, the hero, loses his nails; these\nnails are picked up by the demoniacal monster, who forms out of them a\nhat (the gloom of night, or the clouds), by which the wearer has the\ngift of seeing without being seen. The magician who sees with his eyes\nshut is an interesting variation of this subject.]\n\n[347] A similar antithesis is found in a Hungarian proverb,\ncommunicated to me by my learned friend Count Geza Kunn, together with\nother notices of Hungarian beliefs relating to animals. This proverb\nis as follows: \"Even the black cow's milk is white.\" The black cow is\nspoken of in two other Hungarian proverbs; one says, \"The black cow\nhas not trodden upon his heel,\" meaning that no misfortune has\nhappened to him; it is the usual vulnerable heel, the heel of\nAchilles, the posterior part, for which is substituted sometimes, as\nwe shall see in the chapter on the Fox and the Serpent, the tail or\nextreme hind part. Another proverb is, \"In the dark all cows are\nblack;\" but it does not seem to have any mythical importance.\n\n\nSECTION IV.\n\nTHE BULL AND THE COW IN SLAVONIC TRADITION.\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The red cow and the black cow; what they prognosticate.--The red hue\n    of evening.--The bull that drinks.--The bull corrupts the\n    water.--The bull's hoofs.--The cow in the bartering of animals.--The\n    hero ascends into heaven.--The bull sold to the tree; the tree,\n    split open, yields gold.--The fool sells the bull.--Two bulls\n    conduct the poor brother to riches.--The bull carries the fugitive\n    home.--The bull is split in two, and is useful even after\n    death.--Ivan and Helen, followed by the bear, flee upon the bull\n    with their faces turned to the part whence the bear is likely to\n    come.--The dwarf comes out of the bull's bones; the dwarf dies amid\n    the flames.--The beasts of prey help the hero.--John and Mary, sun\n    and aurora of the Christians.--The saviour-bull again.--From the\n    dead bull an apple-tree springs up.--Ivan delivers Mary.--Mary, the\n    step-daughter, and persecuted.--The cow that spins, the good fairy,\n    the Madonna, the moon.--The maiden who combs the hair is the same as\n    the purifier.--The demoniacal cow obliges men to kiss her under her\n    tail.--The witch who sucks the beautiful girl's breast whilst the\n    latter combs her hair.--The hide of the demoniacal cow taken\n    off.--The eye which does not sleep and plays the spy.--From the cow,\n    the apple-tree; from the apple-tree, the branches which wound the\n    wicked sisters, and let the good one pluck their fruit; from the\n    apple, the husband.--The maiden bows to the right foot of the\n    beneficent cow; a tree springs up again from the killed cow.--The\n    red apples which cause horns to grow, and the white ones which give\n    beauty and youth.--Ivan, the sun, persecuted by the witch his\n    sister, is saved by the sister of the sun, the aurora.--The mythical\n    scales; the scales of St Michael.--The cows with golden horns and\n    tails.--The black demoniacal bull strikes the ground with his horns,\n    in order to prevent a wedding from taking place.--The hare and the\n    crow put obstacles in the way of nuptials.--The demon blinded whilst\n    drinking.--The third son of the peasant throws down the bull.--The\n    avaricious merchant.--The epidemic among the animals, and the bull\n    killed because he has stolen some hay from a priest.--The bull in\n    the forest.--The robber of cows and of oxen.--The black bull led\n    away by Ivan, by means of a cock.--The hero comes out of the\n    cow.--The intestines of the calf eaten by the fox.--Out of the calf\n    come birds.--The son of the cow, the strongest brother.--The three\n    brothers reduced to one with the qualities of the three.--The third\n    brother mounts into heaven by means of the cow's hide.--He who\n    ascends does not come down again.--Dreams.--The wife of the old man,\n    carried to heaven in a sack, is let fall to the ground and\n    dies.--The ascent into heaven by means of\n    vegetables.--Turn-little-Pea, the third brother, the killer of\n    monsters; Turn-little-Pea and Ivan identified.--Ivan followed by the\n    serpent-witches.--The female serpent tries to file the iron gate\n    with her tongue, which is caught by the pincers and burned.--The\n    three brothers, the evening one, the midnight one, and the\n    clearly-seeing one; the third is the victorious hero; he delivers\n    three princesses out of three castles of copper, of silver, and of\n    gold, and receives from them three eggs of copper, of silver, and of\n    gold, new forms corresponding to those of the three brothers; the\n    third brother, abandoned by his elders, after various vicissitudes,\n    finds his bride again; explanation of this beautiful myth.--Ivan\n    identified with Svetaz\u00f3r.--The mother of the birds, in gratitude,\n    delivers the hero.--The third brother, the cunning one, despoils his\n    two elder brothers of their precious objects.--Ivan of the dog is\n    equivalent to Svetaz\u00f3r; the story of the goldsmith.--Ivan the great\n    drinker.--Ivan the prince, Ivan the fool; Ivan and Emilius, foolish\n    and lazy, are one and the same person.--The red shoes in the\n    legend.--The sister kills her little brother to take his red shoes;\n    a magical flute discovers the crime.--The slippers attract the\n    bridegroom; corresponding nuptial usages.--The slipper tried on; the\n    toe cut off.--The change of wives.--The ugly one becomes\n    beautiful.--The grateful pike.--The barrel full of water, which\n    walks of its own accord.--The forest which is cut down and walks of\n    itself, the chariot which goes on by itself, the stove that moves\n    and carries Emilius where he wishes, the cask in which the hero and\n    heroine are shut up and thrown into the sea, all forms of the cloud\n    and of the gloom of night; the ugly becomes beautiful; the poor,\n    rich and pleasing.--The wine allowed to run out of the barrel,\n    _i.e._, the cloud which dissolves itself in rain.--Ivan, thought to\n    be stupid, makes his fortune out of having watched by his father's\n    grave.--Ivan, thought to be stupid, speculates upon his dead mother;\n    his brothers try to do the same by their wives, and are\n    punished.--The law of atavism in tradition.--The foolish mother and\n    the cunning son.--The funereal storks.--The thief cheats the\n    gentleman in several ways, and finally places him to guard his\n    hat.--Ivan without fear; a little fish terrifies him.--Various\n    heroical forms of Ivan in Russian tradition: Alessino, the son of\n    the priest, invokes the rain against the monster-serpent; Baldak\n    spits in the Sultan's face--the star under his heel; Basil and\n    Plavacek, who demand a gift from the monster; the fortunate\n    fictitious hero; the cunning little Thomas; the third brother, who\n    does not allow himself to be put to sleep; the thief Klimka, who\n    terrifies the other thieves in order to rob them; the Cossack who\n    delivers the maiden from the flames, and receives precious gifts;\n    Ilia Muromietz and his companions; the merchant's son educated by\n    the devil; the boy who understands the language of birds; the\n    virtuous workman, who prefers good advice to a large reward.--The\n    flying ship; the protector of the unfortunate rewarded; eating and\n    drinking.--The girl who solves the riddle of the prince, who comes\n    with the hare and the quail, and obtains her husband.--The dwarf\n    Allwis obtains the bride by answering the questions of his\n    father-in-law.--The wonderful puppet (the moon), that sews for the\n    priest's daughter (the aurora) the shirt destined for the\n    prince.--The girl-heroine, protectress of her brother, helper of the\n    young hero in dangers and trials of heroism.--The cow-herd's\n    daughter, who never says anything displeasing to her husband the\n    king, whatever the latter does.--By contact with the monster, the\n    heroine is perverted, and also becomes a persecutor of the hero, her\n    brother or husband; analogous types of the perfidious\n    woman.--Dangerous trials imposed on the hero.--The sister bound to\n    the tree.--The wife subdued, and the magical belt.--The tooth of a\n    dead man thrust into Ivan's head; the animals deliver him; the fox\n    knows better than the rest how to manage it.--The towel which causes\n    a bridge to spring up across the water; the hero's sister steals the\n    towel, and unites herself to the monster-serpent; she demands from\n    her brother Ivan wild beasts' milk, and the flour or powder of gold\n    which is under a mill guarded by twelve gates.--The monster burned,\n    and the hero's sister condemned to weep and to eat hay.--The\n    exchange of the hero.--The crow brings the water of death and of\n    life.--The stepmother who persecutes Ivan.--Ivan resuscitated by his\n    two sons.--Ivan chaunts his death-song; the liberating animals\n    appear to help him.--Ivan and his preceptor persecuted by his wife\n    Anna.--The blind man, the lame man, and the beautiful girl whose\n    breast is sucked by the witch.--The witch is forced to find the\n    fountain of life and of health; the blind man sees, the lame walks,\n    and the girl recovers her good health.--The maiden blinded; the wife\n    changed; the dew which gives eyesight; the girl finds her husband; a\n    Russian variety of the legend of Berta.\n\nHaving drawn so far the general outline of the Turanian boundaries of\nSlavonian tradition, it is now time to begin to study the tradition of\nthe Slaves itself, as far as it concerns the myth and the legend of\nthe bull and the cow.\n\nThe Russian peasants and shepherds are accustomed to remark that the\nweather will be fine when a red cow places herself at the head of the\nherd, and that it will rain or be bad weather when, on the contrary,\nthe first of the cows to re-enter the stable at evening is a black\none. We already know what the black and the red cow signify in the\nlanguage of the Ved\u00e2s. The aurora of morning and evening, that is, the\nred cows promise fine weather; the cloud (or black cow) announces wet\nweather. In Piedmont, when a beautiful evening aurora is observed, it\nis the custom to say--\n\n             \"Rosso di sera,\n              Buon tempo si spera.\"\n      (Red at eve, we hope for fine weather.)\n\nLet us now follow the Russian tradition relating to the cow and the bull\nin two of the many invaluable collections of popular stories already\nprinted in Russia, as well as in the celebrated fables of Kriloff.[348]\n\nWe shall begin with those stories and fables in which the cow or the\nbull is explicitly mentioned. They show us the bull who protects the\nhero and the heroine, the bull who enriches the hero, the bull that is\nsold, the grateful bull, the bull who sacrifices himself, the\npersecuted bull, the demoniacal bull; the cow who spins, the\nbeneficent cow, the son of the cow, the birds that come out from the\ncow, the cow's hide which becomes a rope to mount up to heaven, the\ncow exchanged, the demoniacal cow, the cow's horns. Here, again,\ntherefore, we have the double aspect of the Vedic cow; the\ndark-coloured one (cloud and darkness), generally monstrous, the\nluminous one (moon and aurora), usually divine and beneficent.\n\nOne of the special characteristics of the bull and of the cow is their\ncapacity of drinking. We have already seen how much the bull Indras (the\nsun in the cloud) drank. In the third story of the first book of\n_Afanassieff_, when the good maiden, persecuted by the witch, stretches\nout a towel, and thus causes a river to arise, in order that the witch\nmay not overtake her, the latter leads forward the bull to drink up the\nriver (a form of the Hindoo Agastyas, who, in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[349]\nabsorbs the sea). But the bull, who could dry up the river, refuses to\ndo so on account of a debt of gratitude he owes to the good maiden. The\nwater where this bull, or cow, belonging to the witch, drinks, has the\nproperty of transforming into a calf the man who drinks of it;[350] nay,\nto drink out of the hoof of the bull itself is enough to turn him into a\ncalf.[351] The water which comes out of the hoof of the demoniacal bull\nis the opposite of the water of Hippokrene, which flows from the hoofs\nof the divine horse of the Hellenes, the P\u00eagasos.\n\nIn the second book of _Afanassieff_, there is a story which speaks of\nthe exchange of animals in the very same order as in the\n_\u00c2itareya-br\u00e2hmanam_, _i.e._, the gold for a horse, the horse for a cow,\nthe cow for a goat or sheep. The Russian peasant goes on with his\nunfortunate exchanges; he barters the sheep for a young pig, the young\npig for a goose, the goose for a duck, the duck for a little stick with\nwhich he sees some children playing; he takes the stick home to his\nwife, and she beats him with it. In the twelfth story of the fifth book\nof _Afanassieff_, an old man also begins to barter the golden stockings\nand silver garters received in heaven from God for a horse, the horse\nfor a bull, the bull for a lamb; his last exchange is for a little\nneedle, which he loses. In the second story of the sixth book, the same\nfoolish liberality is attributed to the third brother, the stupid one\n(who, in another Russian variation of the same story, is the cunning\none), who, having learned that in heaven cows are cheap, gives his cow\nfor a fly, his ox for a horse-fly, and mounts up to heaven.\n\nBut, generally speaking, the bull and the cow are the beginning of\ngood luck for the heroes of popular tales.\n\nIn the fifty-second story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the third\nbrother, the truthful and fortunate fool, has, for his inheritance from\nhis father, one bull alone; he goes to sell it, and passes a dry old\ntree, which rattles; thinking that the tree wishes to buy his bull, he\ngives it, promising to come back for the money. On his return the bull\nis gone; he asks the tree for the money, and, receiving no answer,\nproceeds to cut it down with his hatchet, when from the tree there drops\nout a treasure which some robbers had hidden in it;[352] the young man\nthen takes it up and carries it home. In a variation of the same story,\nin the collection of _Erlenwein_,[353] the third son of the miller,\nbefore going to sell his bull, or ox, seeing the second son milking the\ncow, endeavours to milk the bull too; finding that his efforts are in\nvain, he resolves upon selling an animal which appears to him to be so\nutterly useless.\n\nIn the thirty-fourth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, we meet\nagain the two brothers, one rich and miserly, the other poor; the poor\none borrows from a neighbour two bulls, and is conducted by Misery\n(gory) to a stone, under which he finds a cavity full of gold. The\npoor man fills his waggon, and, on coming out, tells Misery that there\nis plenty more inside. Misery turns in to see; the ex-pauper thereupon\ncloses up the entrance with the stone, and returns home.[354]\n\nBut the bull and the cow do not only provide the hero with riches,\nthey help him in danger. In the eleventh story of _Erlenwein_,[355]\nIvan Tzarevic, or the Prince John,--the name of the favourite hero of\nSlavonian popular tradition (he is the third brother, the strongest,\nthe most fortunate, the victorious, the most intelligent, after having\nbeen the most foolish)--wishes to flee from the serpent, and, not\nknowing how, sits down on the trunk of a tree and weeps. The hare\ncomes to carry him away, but is killed by the serpent; the wolf\ncomes, but is killed too. At last the ox or bull comes, and carries\nhim off. Ivan having arrived at his dwelling, the ox has himself\ndivided in two; one part must be placed under the sacred images, which\nornament a corner of every room in Russian houses, the other part\nunder the window; Ivan must then look out sharp till two dogs and two\nbears appear, who will serve him in the chase, and be his strength.\n\nIn the twenty-seventh story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, Ivan\nTzarevic and the beautiful Helen are pursued by a monstrous bear with\niron bristles; they escape upon a bull (the moon), and Ivan, by the\nbull's advice, rides him with his face turned towards the place whence\nthe pursuing bear is likely to come, in order that he may not take\nthem by surprise. When Ivan sees that the bear is coming, the bull\nturns round and tears his eyes out; the blind bear follows them still,\nbut the fugitives pass a river on the bull's back, in which the bear\nis drowned. Ivan and Helen feel hungry; the bull tells them to cut him\nto pieces and eat him, but to preserve his bones, and to strike them\ntogether; from the bones of the bull, when struck, a dwarf, the height\nof a finger-nail, but with a beard a cubit long, comes out; he assists\nIvan in finding the milk of a wolf, a she-bear, and a lioness, until\nhe is swallowed by the burning bird, whose eggs he wished to steal.\n(The bear is the night; the bull is the sun's steed in the night, the\nmoon; the bull-moon is sacrificed; then comes forth a little sun with\nlong rays, the dwarf with a long beard, an _alter ego_ of Ivan, who\nends his life in the burning furnace of the phoenix, or of the evening\naurora.) Ivan is threatened with death when the dwarf dies, but he is\nat that moment helped by the wild beasts he had tamed and fed, who\nsave him from danger. These were, as we have seen before, given to him\nafter the death of the bull, his deliverer, being born of the bull\nhimself, cut in pieces (the wild animals of the forest of night are\nborn as soon as the evening sun is sacrificed).\n\nThe same subject occurs again, with some variations, in the\ntwenty-eighth story, which follows; only instead of John and Helen, we\nhave John and Mary, the sun and the aurora of the Christians. Near the\nabode of Ivan and Mary a funeral pile arises, on which the bull\nsacrifices himself. The bull's bones are sown in three furrows; from\nthe first furrow a horse comes forth, from the second a dog, and in\nthe third an apple-tree grows up. Ivan mounts upon the horse, followed\nby the dog, and hunts wolves' whelps and young bears, which he\nafterwards tames and uses to kill the serpent, who has shut up his dog\nin a cavern, and carried off his sister; he forces the entrance of the\nplace where the dog is hidden, by striking the bolt of the door with\nthree small branches of the apple-tree; the bolt breaks into pieces,\nthe door bursts open, and the dog is delivered; dog, wolf, and young\nbear then worry the serpent, and Ivan liberates the Princess Mary.\n\nIn the sixth book of _Afanassieff_,[356] the young Mary, being\npersecuted, is miraculously assisted by a cow. An old woman has three\ndaughters of her own (of whom one has one eye, another two, and the\nthird three), and a step-daughter called Mary; her own three do\nnothing, and eat much; the step-daughter must work hard and eat\nlittle. Her step-mother gives her for one night alone, while she takes\nthe cow to pasture, to spin, make into skeins, weave, and bleach, the\nweight of five pounds. The maiden goes to the pasture-ground, embraces\nher variegated cow, leans on her neck and bewails her fate. The cow\nsays to her, \"Beautiful girl, enter one of my ears, and come out by\nthe other, and all will be done.\"--In the Italian variety of this\nstory,[357] the cow spins with her horns for the good maiden, whilst\nshe combs the head of the old woman or the Madonna. I think I have\nalready said that I recognise in this good old woman, fairy, or\nMadonna, the moon. The moon, like the sun, is considered as in\nrelation with the aurora, and especially the evening aurora, which she\naccompanies; she is the hostess, the guide, and the protectress of the\nhero and heroine of evening, lost and pursued in the night; after the\nevening aurora, the white moon comes out, in the same way as after the\nmorning aurora the sun comes out in effulgence. We have seen that the\nname of purifier, cleanser, is given to the Vedic aurora; from this\nexpression to the image of comber or cleanser of the head of the old\nMadonna the transition is easy;[358] from, _i.e._, after, the aurora,\nthe moon comes out shining and clean, in a beautiful and serene sky;\nand on this account pearls fall from the Madonna's head; but when, on\nthe other hand, the beautiful maiden, the aurora, does not come, when\nthe step-mother sends to the pasture-ground, near the old woman, one\nof her own daughters, foul lice fall from the head of the old fairy or\nMadonna, inasmuch as the moon cannot show herself in her splendour\namid the shadows of the cloudy and black night. The Russian story\nshows us how the beneficent cow of the good maiden, who caresses her\nand serves her well, and the Madonna or good old woman grateful for\nthe careful combing of her hair of Italian tradition, are one and the\nsame thing. In the thirty-fifth story of the fifth book of\n_Afanassieff_, on the contrary, where the cow appears in a demoniacal\naspect, whom the hero Ivan, condemned from a prince to become a\ncowherd, must kiss under her tail, which she lifts with this intent,\nwe meet with an old witch who sucks the white breasts of the beautiful\ngirl, while the latter is obliged to hunt the vermin in her head; in\nthe witch, as well as in the cow who insolently lifts up her tail, we\ncan recognise the gloomy night, an explanation which is justified by\nthe fact that the hero-shepherd Katoma, the adorned one, the\nagile-footed, ends by flaying the shameless cow (the morning sun,\nshepherd of the luminous cows, takes off the skin of the dark-coloured\ncow of the gloomy night). But, to return to the fifty-fourth\nstory.--When the stepmother sees that the girl has done all the work\nassigned her, she begins to suspect that there is some one who helps\nher, and so sends next night her first daughter, who has but one eye,\nto watch the daughter-in-law, who goes to the pasture-ground. The\nyoung Mary then says to her, \"Eye, sleep;\" and immediately her\nstep-sister falls asleep, thus allowing the cow to assist her without\nany one perceiving it. The second night, the second daughter, who has\ntwo eyes, is sent; Mary says twice to her, \"Eye, sleep,\" and obtains,\nwithout being seen, the same favours from the cow. The third night,\nthe third sister, who has three eyes, is sent; Mary does not remember\nthe third eye, and only says twice, \"Eye, sleep:\" and so the third\nsister sees with her remaining eye[359] what the cow does with Mary,\nand in the morning tells everything to her mother, who gives orders\nthat the cow be killed. Mary warns the cow; and the cow recommends\nher to eat none of her flesh, to keep the bones, sow them in the\ngarden, and water them. The maiden does so; every day, however hungry\nshe may be, she eats none of the meat, only collects the bones\ntogether. From the bones sown in the garden arises a marvellous\napple-tree, with leaves of gold, and branches of silver, which prick\nand wound the three daughters of the stepmother, whilst, on the other\nhand, they offer apples to the beautiful maiden, in order that she may\npresent one to the young and rich lord who is to make her his wife. In\nthe following story, the fifty-fifth, which is a variation of the\npreceding one, the girl is named Mary, and her husband Ivan Tzarevic;\nwhen she goes to the pasture, and when she returns, she is accustomed\nto make obeisance to the right foot of the cow. When the cow, being\nkilled, revives again in the shape of a tree, it swarms with birds,\nwhich sing songs for kings and peasants alike, and make the sweet\nfruits fall upon Mary's plate.\n\nThe apples that cause horns to grow, and those which beautify and make\nyoung, mentioned in the thirty-sixth story of the fifth book, and\nagain in the last book of the collection of _Afanassieff_, as well as\nin other European variations of the same subject, are connected, in my\nopinion, with the myth of the evening sky, and of the lunar night, in\nthe shape of an apple-tree. In the fifteenth story of the collection\nof _Erlenwein_, the third brother, the usual Ivan, comes to an\napple-tree which has red apples, and eats four of them, upon which\nfour horns grow on his head, to such a height that he cannot enter the\nforest; he goes to an apple-tree that bears white fruit, eats four\napples, and the four horns disappear. (The solar hero at evening\napproaches the tree with the red apples, the evening aurora, and\nimmediately becomes deformed; horns grow on his head; he loses\nhimself in the shades of night; in the moonlight and the alba, he\napproaches the tree with the white apples, loses his horns, and\nbecomes young and beautiful again.)\n\nIn the fifty-seventh story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff's_\ncollection, Ivan Tzarevic is presented with the apples which restore\nyouth to him who eats them, by the sister of the sun, to whose abode he\nis lifted in the following manner: Ivan (the sun) has for his sister (no\ndoubt half-sister) a serpent-witch (night), who has already devoured his\nfather and mother (the sun and the aurora of evening, which create the\nnight, and are destroyed by it); the witch persecutes her little brother\nIvan, and endeavours to eat him; he flees, and she overtakes him in the\nvicinity of the dwelling of the sister of the sun (the aurora, the true\nsister of Ivan). The witch makes a proposal to Ivan, that they be\nweighed together in the scales. Ivan accepts this proposal, upon which\nthe one enters the one scale, and the other the other; no sooner does\nthe witch put her foot on the scale than, as she weighs so much more\nthan Ivan, he is lifted up to heaven, the dwelling of the sister of the\nsun, where he is welcomed and admitted. (A beautiful myth, of which the\nmeaning is evident. Ivan is the sun, the aurora is his sister; at\nmorning, near the abode of the aurora, that is, in the east, the shades\nof night go underground, and the sun arises to the heavens; this is the\nmythical pair of scales. Thus, in the Christian belief, St Michael\nweighs human souls: those who weigh much sink down into hell, and those\nwho are light arise to the heavenly paradise.)\n\nBy means of the sister of the sun, Ivan saves himself from the witch.\nIn another story in _Afanassieff_,[360] by means of the sister of the\nhero Nikanore, the same Ivan, running after the cows, causes them to\nhave golden horns and tails, with sides formed of stars; and\nafterwards, with the assistance of the hero Nikanore in person (of the\nsun, that is, of himself), he kills the serpent.\n\nWe have already seen the cloudy and the gloomy sky represented in the\nVedic poems, now as a black cow, now as a stable which encloses the\nbulls and cows. The black bull or cow of night is considered to be\ndemoniacal. In a story given in _Afanassieff_,[361] we find the devil\nin the shape of a bull, which bellows, and throws up the earth with\nits horns, arresting a nuptial procession. From a bull he turns into a\nbear, then a hare, and then a crow, to put obstacles in the way of the\nmarriage, until, having presented himself in the form of a devil, a\nsoldier-hero blinds him while he is drinking. A variation of this\nsoldier is the third son of the peasant,[362] who is so strong that\nwith a snap of his fingers he makes the bull and the bear fall dead,\nand then by a single pinch strips off their skins. The same hero hires\nhimself to a merchant, whom he engages to serve for two years, on\ncondition of receiving as his reward, at the end of them, the\npermission to give him a snap with the fingers and a pinch. The\nmerchant thinks he is getting the man's service for nothing, but pays\nfor it with his life. The merchant seldom plays a good part in popular\nstories. He and the miser are synonymous,--the miser is the monster\nwhich keeps treasures hidden; and on this account, as we have already\nseen in the Vedic hymns themselves, the enemies of the gods, the\nmonsters that ravish and conceal the treasures, are represented as\npanayas or merchants, cheats, robbers, or misers. The currency of this\nepithet as a term of infamy must have been owing in part to the\ndislike with which the priestly sacrificers of the last Vedic period\nregarded the merchants, in whom they saw only a pack of misers,\nbecause, on account of their wandering life, they had neither cows nor\nbulls to give them for sacrifice, but carried with them all their\nfortune, and did not require the fertilising rain of the god Indras to\nmultiply their gold and their silver.\n\nThe celestial bull comes out of the night or the nocturnal stables\neither, as we have seen, to help the hero, to be sacrificed, to flee\nfrom persecution, or because he has been stolen by a skilful thief.\n\nIn one of Kriloff's fables, God sends a terrible plague among the\nanimals, of which they perish in great numbers. They are so terrified\nby it that they forsake their habits, and begin to wander aimlessly\nhither and thither. The wolf no longer eats the sheep; the fox leaves\nthe hens unmolested; the turtle-doves no longer make love to each\nother. Then the lion holds a council of the animals, and exhorts them\nall to confess their faults. The cunning fox essays to quiet the\nlion-judge by assuring him that though he stole some sheep, he did not\nthereby commit a fault; and so he justifies his own ravages; as also\ndo the bear, the tiger, the wolf, and all the most wicked of the\nanimals. Then the simple bull comes forward, and, in his turn,\nconfesses that he stole a little hay from the priest. This crime\nappears so heinous that the council of animals sentences the bull to\nbe offered in sacrifice.[363]\n\nSometimes, on the contrary, the bull, either because he cannot bear the\nbad treatment that he receives from his masters, or in order to avoid\nthe danger of being killed or sold by the stupid son, who is in need of\nmoney that he may marry a wife, a danger of which he has a\npresentiment, abandons the stable with other animals, constructs a hut\nor isb\u00e0 and shuts himself up in it.[364] He has with him the lamb, the\ngoose, the cock, or else some other tame animals. The fox passes by,\nhears the crowing of the cock, and goes to call his friends the bear and\nthe wolf to help him. The bear opens the door, the fox enters, and the\nbull by goring him with his horns, the lamb by butting against his\nsides, and the cock by pecking his eyes out, put an end to the unwelcome\nintruder. The wolf, who goes in, curious to see what is going on, has\nthe same fate, and the bear, who comes last, only succeeds with great\ndifficulty, and after having been severely maltreated, in effecting his\nescape. In another variation of the same story, the bear dies of fear,\nand the stupid son takes his skin, sells it and makes money; then, the\ndanger of being sold having passed by, the bull and his company return\nhome. The battle between the tame and the savage animals, won by the\nformer, is an expression in zoological form of the victory of the heroes\n(the sun and the moon) over the monsters of darkness.\n\nThe story of the hero-thief is generally connected with the carrying\noff of his master's horse; but not unfrequently the hero, like the\nmonster, becomes a robber of cows and oxen.\n\nThe thief Ivan[365] is required to steal from his master a black bull or\nox tied to the plough; if he succeeds, he is to have a hundred roubles\nfor his reward; but if he does not, he is to receive instead a hundred\nbastinadoes. In order to steal it, Ivan adopts the following device: he\ntakes a cock, plucks it, and puts it alive under a clod of earth. The\nploughmen come with the oxen; while they are ploughing, the cock starts\nup; they leave the plough to run after it, upon which Ivan, who was\nhidden behind a bush, comes out. He cuts off one ox's tail and puts it\nin another ox's mouth, and then leads away the black ox. The ploughmen,\nnot having been able to overtake the cock, come back, and when they see\nonly two animals instead of three, conclude that one ox has eaten the\nblack ox and is beginning to eat the tail of the other, the variegated\nox. In the twenty-first story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the\nboy-dwarf steals an ox from the priest and eats its tripe.[366]\n\nFrom the cow the hero is born; under a putrid cow thrown into a ditch\nlies Ivan Tzarevic; a bird takes the water off and Ivan Tzarevic comes\nforth.[367] In another story of _Afanassieff_, the fox-heroine,\ncompanion of the wolf, whilst the wolf is absent, eats the intestines\nof the calf, their common property (which they had received from\ncowherds in exchange for a certain cake contaminated by their\nexcrement, the usual excrement which is the beginning of riches); she\nthen fills the calf or cow with straw and sparrows, and departs. The\nwolf returns, is astonished that the calf should have eaten so much\nstraw that it comes out, and draws out the straw. The birds fly away,\nthe calf falls, and the wolf flees away terrified.[368] With these two\nmyths are connected two more, that of the son of the cow and that of\nthe ascent into heaven by means of the cow's hide.\n\nThe king has no sons; he catches a pike, which the cook washes, giving\nthereafter the dirty water to the cow to drink; the fish they give to\nthe black girl to carry to the queen; the black girl eats a piece of\nit on the way, and the queen eats what remains. At the expiration of\nnine months, the cow, the maid, and the queen, give each birth to a\nson. The three sons resemble each other completely; but the son of the\ncow, the hero-tempest, is the strongest of the three brothers, and\naccomplishes the most difficult enterprises. In another variation of\nthe same story, in _Afanassieff_,[369] instead of the cow we have the\nbitch giving birth to the strongest of the three brothers.[370] In the\nnineteenth story of _Erlenwein_, instead of the cow and the bitch, we\nhave the mare; the strongest brother is here the son of the black\ngirl, Burghraver or the hero-tempest (Burya-Bagat\u00edr). In the third\nstory of _Erlenwein_, Ivan Tzarevic appears as the son of the black\ngirl. As in numerous other Russian stories, Ivan Tzarevic, usually the\nthird brother, appears not only (as) the most skilful, but the\nstrongest of the brothers, we are driven to recognise in the three\nbrothers, the son of the black girl, the son of the cow, and the\nqueen's son, who alternately accomplish the same heroic undertakings,\nthe same solar personage, whose mother, Night, is represented now as a\nqueen, now as a cow (we have just seen Ivan Tzarevic come out of the\nputrid cow), now as a black slave (the negro washerwoman, the Saracen\nwoman of Italian stories [Holda]; the cleaned fish which is carried by\nthe black girl may perhaps be a link connecting the imagery of Russian\ntradition with that of Italian legend).\n\nIn the second story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the third\nbrother, the cunning one, by means of the hides of his cows and oxen\nconverted into thongs, ascends into heaven; thus, in a variation of\nthe same story, the third brother thinks to let himself down by the\ncow's hide, cut into pieces and made into thongs, being fastened to\nthe confines of heaven; but he perceives on the way that the thong is\nnot long enough. Some peasants are threshing corn, and the chaff rises\ninto the air; he tries to make a rope with this chaff, but the rope\nbreaks and he falls to the ground. This successful ascent into heaven,\nfollowed by an unlucky descent, is often referred to, with curious\ndetails, in Russian popular legend; to which a play of words in the\nlanguage must have not a little contributed. It is as follows, \"He who\nmounts does not descend,\"[371] _i.e._, when one is doing one thing he\ncannot be doing the contrary. This elementary truth was afterwards\naltered by changing the tenses. \"He who has been able to ascend will\nnot be able to come down again;\" which is only partly true, and means\nthat while in dreams we require only a thin thread to mount up high,\nwhen we wish to come down from the world of dreams to that of reality,\nthe fall is heavy; we come down with leaden wings, with that\ndifficulty in breathing which oppresses us in dreams when we seem to\nfall from a height with painful slowness. And as at the end of the\ndream, after the painful fall from the sky, we awaken alive, so the\nstory does not say of the hero who fell from heaven that he is dead,\nonly that his dreams are dead. He is only unlucky when, the second\ntime, he attempts the descent with a greater weight.\n\nWhile reasonings such as these may have helped to diffuse the myths, I\nbelieve that the myths, at their formation, pleased more as images of\nnature than of reason, and as the images of mythology are almost all\ncelestial, so in the third brother, or old man of other varieties of\nthe story, who mounts up to heaven and comes down again by means of\nthe cow's hide, I always recognise the sun. The old man who ascends\ninto heaven, after the cow is dead, does so also by means of a\nvegetable of funereal omen which grows up in a marvellous manner.\n\nAn old man and an old woman have one daughter; she eats some beans and\nlets one fall to the ground; a plant (the moon) grows up till it\nreaches the sky. The old man mounts up and then comes back again. He\ntries to take his wife up in a sack, but unable to bear the weight, he\nlets her fall to the ground, when she dies.[372]\n\nA cabbage grows up near an old man's dwelling, till in like manner it\nrises up to the sky. The old man climbs up, makes a hole in the sky,\nand eats and drinks to satiety. He then returns and narrates\neverything to his wife. She wishes to go up too; when they are half\nway, the old man lets the sack drop, the old woman dies, and her\nhusband prepares her funeral, calling in the fox[373] as a mourner.\n\nOther variations of the same story offer us, instead of the cow's\nhide, the cabbage, and the beanstalk, the pea-plant, and even the\noak-tree, which grows up to heaven.[374]\n\nFrom the vegetable or funereal plant,--a symbol, as we have already\nremarked, at once of abundance and resurrection,--by which the hero\nascends to heaven, where he finds riches and abundance of food, the\ntransition was very natural to the pea which turns round, of which the\nhero Turn-little-Pea (the son of the king of the peas) is born.\n\nIn the second story of the third book of _Afanassieff_,[375]\nTurn-little-Pea appears as the third of the brothers, as the youngest\nbrother, who delivers his sister and his two brothers from the\nmonster. But the ungrateful brothers (perhaps covetous of the maiden,\nhere called a sister, but, who is virtually the same, the bride\ndelivered and disputed for by the three brothers in numerous\nIndo-European legends), tie him to an oak-tree and go home alone.\nTurn-little-Pea unroots the whole oak and goes off. He afterwards\nkills three more monster-serpents, and the she-serpents their wives.\n\nIn the thirtieth story of the second book of _Afanassieff_, this\nenterprise against the serpents, male and female, is attributed to the\nusual Ivan. He goes with his brothers against the serpent with twelve\nheads, and with his iron stick alone kills nine of them, and the three\nremaining ones by the help of his two brothers. Then the she-serpent and\nher three daughters persecute the three brothers, and Ivan in\nparticular. She causes them to find a beautiful cushion upon the ground;\nIvan, who is suspicious of some trick, first beats the cushion, upon\nwhich blood gushes out of it (in the story of _Turn-little-Pea_, the\nyoung hero averts the danger by making the sign of the cross with his\nsword, when blood comes out). The serpent then tempts them by an\napple-tree with gold and silver apples. The brothers wish to pluck some;\nIvan, however, first strikes the tree, and blood flows from it. They\nthen come to a beautiful fountain, where the brothers would like to\ndrink; Ivan strikes the fountain, and again blood comes from it. The\ncushion, the apple-tree, and the fountain were the three daughters of\nthe serpent. Then the serpent, having failed to deceive them, rushes\nupon Ivan; the latter escapes with his brothers into a forge shut by\ntwelve iron gates; the serpent licks the doors with her tongue to force\na passage, and her tongue is caught with red-hot pincers.\n\nIn the fourth story of _Erlenwein_, the three brothers occur again with\ninteresting mythical names. A woman bears three sons; one at evening,\nwho is on this account called Vecernik, or the evening one; the second\nat midnight, whence he is named Polunocnik, or the midnight one; the\nthird at the aurora, who is named Svetaz\u00f3r, or the clearly-seeing. The\nthree brothers become adults in a few hours. The most valiant of the\nthree is Svetaz\u00f3r, the last one. To prove his strength, he goes to the\nblacksmith and orders an iron club that weighs twelve puds (480 pounds);\nhe throws it into the air and catches it on the palm of his hand, the\nclub breaks. He orders one of twenty puds (800 pounds), throws it up,\ncatches it on his knee, and it breaks. Finally he orders one of thirty\npuds (1200 pounds), throws it up, and catches it on his forehead; it\nbends but does not break. Svetaz\u00f3r has it straightened and takes it\nwith him, as he goes with his two brothers to deliver the three\ndaughters of the Tzar, carried off by three magicians into the three\ncastles of copper, silver, and gold. Svetaz\u00f3r, after having drunk the\nwater of strength, and received from the first princess an egg of\ncopper, from the second one of silver, and from the third a golden one,\ndelivers the three princesses and brings them out. The two brothers,\nseeing that the third princess is more beautiful than the others, think\nthat the youngest brother is reserving her for himself, and throw him\ninto the water. Svetaz\u00f3r wanders about the subterranean world, and\ndelivers the daughter of another Tzar by killing a monster and burying\nhim under a rock. A soldier boasts before the Tzar of having\naccomplished this heroic act. Svetaz\u00f3r invites the soldier to prove his\nstrength, and so the truth of his boast, by lifting the rock up. He does\nnot succeed, and Svetaz\u00f3r wins the trial of strength, upon which the\nsoldier is executed by order of the Tzar. After this, Svetaz\u00f3r, for\nhaving once spared the life of a crow, is carried by it into the world\nof the living, on condition that he gives it something to eat by the\nway. Svetaz\u00f3r has at length to feed the crow with his own flesh, yet is\nin the end set down again safe and sound, with all his flesh, in the\nworld above, where, with the eggs of copper, silver, and gold, he causes\nthe castles formed of these metals to arise, in which are found the\nring, the slipper, and the robe demanded from their bridegrooms by the\nthree princesses, who hoped by this expedient to see again their lost\nSvetaz\u00f3r. Then Svetaz\u00f3r begins to sweep out the terrace of the golden\ncastle. The third princess expresses her intention to take him for her\nhusband. The nuptials are celebrated, Svetaz\u00f3r pardoning his two elder\nbrothers and giving them the two elder sisters of his bride. (The\nprincess of the copper is the evening aurora, the princess of the silver\nis the silvery moon, and that of the gold is the morning aurora, to whom\nSvetaz\u00f3r, the clearly-seeing, the illumined, the sun, is married.)\n\nIn the sixth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, the same\nundertaking is accomplished by the third brother, Ivan. The monster\nwhich carries off the three sisters is an aquatic one, an otter.\nAbandoned by his brothers in the nether world, Ivan is overtaken by a\ngreat tempest; he takes pity upon some young birds that are bathing,\nand saves them under his dress, upon which the grateful mother of the\nbirds brings him back to the upper world. In the fifteenth story of\n_Erlenwein_, the third brother is the cunning one, who, by a\nstratagem, and by means of his purse, which is self-replenishing,\nsteals from his two brothers the snuff-box out of which issue as many\narmies as are wished for, and the cloth which makes the wearer\ninvisible (both figures to represent the cloud from which come forth\nriches, solar rays, thunderbolts, and weapons, and which hides the\nhero, that is, renders him invisible). In the fifty-fourth story of\nthe fifth book of _Afanassieff_, Ivan of the dog, the hero sacrificed\nby his brothers, is the strong one, he who delivers the three\nprincesses, who possesses the three rings, and gives them to the\ngoldsmith from whom they were ordered, and who is not able to make\nthem, by which means he is recognised.\n\nIvan Tzarevic, inasmuch as he was born of a cow, as we have also seen\nabove, was necessarily represented as a bull; the bull displays part\nof his strength by drinking; Ivan Tzarevic drinks, at a gulp, whole\nbarrels of wine of marvellous strength. In this capacity he resembles\nIndras, the great drinker of somas, and the drinker Bh\u00eemas, the second\nbrother of the P\u00e2ndavas.\n\nThe third brother is now Prince Ivan (Ivan Tzarevic, Ivan Karolievic,\nIvan Kralievic), now the stupid Ivan (Ivan durak), Ivan the little fool\n(Ivan Duraciok). But, as I have already remarked, the fool generally\nmakes his fortune, either because the kingdom of heaven is for the poor\nin spirit, or because the stupidity of Ivan is feigned, or else because\nthe fool becomes wise. In a story given in _Afanassieff_,[376] the fool\nis also lazy, and takes the name of Emilius.\n\nEmilius is sent with a barrel to draw water; he only goes on account\nof the promise made him by his sister, that he will receive as a\nreward a pair of red boots.--This desire of the boy-hero, and of the\ngirl-heroine, is spoken of in many popular songs, and among others, in\na Piedmontese one, as yet unpublished. In the seventeenth story of the\nfifth book of _Afanassieff_,[377] the sister kills her brother, Little\nJohn, to possess herself of his red strawberries (as in the Esthonian\ntale), and his red little shoes. Upon his grave a fine cane grows; a\nshepherd makes a flute of it, and the flute, pressed to the lips,\nbegins to emit the following lamentation:--\n\n      \"Gently, gently, little shepherd, play;\n       Do not wound my heart!\n       My little sister, the traitress,\n       For the red little strawberries, for the red little shoes!\"\n\nWhen the flute is pressed to the sister's lips, instead of the word\n\"little shepherd,\" it says, \"Little sister, thou hast betrayed\nme,\"[378] and her crime is thus discovered. These little red shoes\nare simply a variation of the slippers which are lost by the fugitive\naurora, and found again by the sun, and which both wish to wear. (I\nrefer to this myth the origin of the nuptial custom in Europe of\nmaidens, towards the new year, throwing the slipper to know whether,\nduring the next year, they will be married, and who is to be their\nhusband.)[379] The slipper lost by the maiden, Little Mary (Masha, the\nMarion of Piedmontese and French legends), and found by the prince,\nalso occurs in the Russian tales. In the thirtieth of the sixth book\nof _Afanassieff_, Little Mary's elder sister begins by trying on the\nslipper; but it is too small; the foot will not go in. Seeing this,\nLittle Mary's step-mother advises her daughter to cut off her great\ntoe, which would not enter; then the foot goes in, and the messengers\nof the prince lead the eldest sister away; but two doves fly after\nthem and cry out, \"Blood on her foot, blood on her foot.\" The deceit\nis discovered, and the eldest sister sent back; the prince causes his\ntrue and predestined bride, Little Mary, to be carried off. (This is\nthe usual exchange of wives, upon which I have remarked in my \"Essay\non the Comparative History of Nuptial Usages,\" and of which the\nlegend of Queen Berta is one of the most popular examples. The\nRussian Little Mary, like Cinderella, is at first of ugly aspect, and\nthen beautiful. In the Russian story, the maiden becomes beautiful by\nmounting upon the stove. S\u00eet\u00e2 comes forth, beautiful in her innocence,\npassing through the fire; the morning aurora only seems beautiful when\nit passes through the flames of the Eastern sky. The stove brings us\nback to the interrupted story of the foolish and lazy Emilius (or\nIvan).--On account, therefore, of the promise made to him of the red\nboots, he goes to the fountain with the barrel to draw water. In the\nfountain he catches a pike, who beseeches him to set him at liberty,\nand promises in return to make him fortunate. Being lazy, the greatest\nfavour that he wishes for at this moment is that he may be helped to\ncarry the barrel; the grateful pike performs the miracle of the barrel\nfull of water which walks of its own accord. (I have already\nendeavoured to explain this myth: the cloud is represented as a barrel\nin the Vedic hymns; it moves on of its own accord; the barrel does the\nsame; the hero, as long as he is shut up in the cloud, remains\nfoolish; the barrel of the fool walks of itself.) Emilius is then sent\nto cut wood; by favour of the grateful pike, it is enough for him to\nsend his hatchet, which cuts the wood of itself; the wood piles itself\nupon the waggon, and the waggon, without being drawn by any one,\nadvances, passing or crushing whatever it meets; they endeavour to\narrest its progress, when the trunk of an oak-tree detaches itself\nfrom the waggon, and, like a stick, beating on every side, sweeps the\nroad (these are all curious variations of the walking forest or\ncloud). The Tzar then sends to invite him to court, and knowing his\nweak penchant for things of a red colour, he promises him a red robe,\na red hat, and red boots. When the Tzar's envoys arrive, Emilius,\nlike his _alter ego_ Ivan Durak (Ivan the fool), is warming himself at\nthe stove; grudging all trouble, he obtains from the pike the favour\nof being carried by the stove itself to the Tzar at court. The Tzar's\ndaughter falls in love with him; the Tzar shuts the young couple up in\na cask (the usual cloud-barrel, which occurs in the form of a little\nchest in other stories, a variation of the wooden dress), and has them\nthrown into the sea. Emilius, who was drunk in the cask, sleeps; the\nprincess wakens him, and beseeches him to save her; by means of the\npike, the cask comes to a beautiful island, where it breaks open;\nEmilius becomes handsome, rich, and happy in a beautiful palace with\nthe young princess. (The aurora and the sun of evening are thrown\ntogether into the ocean of night, until they land on the happy isle of\nthe east, where they reappear again together in all their splendour.)\nOne of the most popular stupidities of the fool is that of letting the\nwine contained in the barrel flow out upon the ground, when he is left\nalone at home; in the Russian story, too, Ivan the fool leaves the\nbeer that is fermenting in the barrel open (Indras with his lightning\nmakes a hole in the cloud-barrel, and the rain comes out).[380]\n\nThe fool Ivan takes his good luck from the living, but he also does so\nfrom the dead. On account of having watched three nights by the tomb\nof his father, his luck begins,[381] the shade of his father having\nblessed him; but, as the dead bring good luck (a belief which, at any\nrate, has always been entertained by the heirs of rich men deceased),\nthe third brother speculates on the body of his own mother. We do not\nknow whether he does so out of pure simplicity, or with some hidden\nand far-seeing design, presumable from the ease with which he\nexchanges the character of a fool for that of a cunning schemer (the\nfirst Brutus of popular tradition). In the seventeenth story of\n_Erlenwein_, after he has carried a treasure home, by selling his ox\nto the tree, and then cutting down the tree, which contains money, he\nalways guards his money, and sleeps upon it. His brothers know this,\nand resolve to go and kill him. But that very night, the third, the\nfoolish brother, leaves his mother in charge of the treasure; the\nbrothers come and kill his mother by mistake, instead of him. He turns\nup, and threatens to give them up to justice; they bribe him with a\nhundred roubles to keep silence. Then the third brother takes his\nmother's body and carries it into the middle of the road, in order\nthat a merchant's waggon may crush it; when this happens, he accuses\nthe merchant of murder, until the latter gives him a hundred more\nroubles to say nothing about it. He then comes to a village by night\nwith his mother's corpse; he places it against a peasant's door, and\nknocks at the window; the peasant opens the door, the body falls, and\nthe peasant treads upon it, upon which the so-called stupid son cries\nout that he has killed his mother, and receives another hundred\nroubles, on promise of silence. Then the two elder brothers, finding\nthat it is possible to speculate upon corpses, and make one's fortune,\nkill their wives, and go to town with their bodies; they are\nimmediately arrested and put into prison.\n\nThe law of atavism evolves itself in the generation of the heroes of\nmythical legends, no less than in that of simple mortals upon earth.\nOf a stupid father is born a wise son, and then the wise son in turn\nhas a foolish one. I do not as yet know how to explain this singular\nfact of natural history; its appearance in mythology, however, is not\ndifficult to understand. To the luminous day succeeds the gloomy\nnight, and then again to the dark night the luminous day; to summer\nsucceeds winter, and to winter summer; to white black, and to black\nwhite; to heat cold, and to cold heat.\n\nOn this account, in legends, when the mother is intelligent, the son,\ngenerally speaking, is silly; whereas, when the mother is silly,[382]\nthe son is usually intelligent.\n\nIn the fifth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a soldier enters\nthe house of a woman, while her son is travelling, and induces her to\nbelieve that he has just returned from hell, where he had seen her son\nemployed in taking the storks to pasture, and greatly in want of money;\nthe soldier says that he is about to return to hell, and will be happy\nto take with him whatever the woman wishes to send to her son. The\ncredulous woman gives him some money, directing him to take it\nimmediately to hell, and give it to her poor child. The soldier\ndisappears, and shortly afterwards the woman's son returns home; his\nmother is greatly astonished at his appearance, and tells him how she\nhas been deceived; he gets angry and leaves the house again, swearing\nnever to return till he finds some one more foolish than his mother. He\nis a skilful thief; he steals from a lady, whilst her husband is absent,\na hog with its little pigs, and puts them in safe concealment; the\nhusband returns, hears what has taken place, and follows the thief with\na carriage and horses. The robber hears him coming; squats down on the\nground, takes off his hat, and pretends to be covering with it a bird\nor a falcon, which wishes to escape. The husband comes and asks him if\nhe has seen the robber; the latter answers that he has seen him, but\nthat he is a long way off, and that the roads by which he can be\novertaken are many and winding. The husband, who, perhaps, does not know\nthe proverb which says, \"Who wishes, let him go; who wishes not, let him\nsend,\" asks the robber to overtake the fugitive; the thief demurs,\nsaying that he has under his hat a falcon, which cost his master three\nhundred roubles, and that it may escape. The gentleman promises to take\ncare of it, and if the falcon escapes, to pay the three hundred roubles.\nThe thief does not believe his promise, and desires the three hundred\nroubles in pledge of his good faith; the gentleman gives them, and the\nthief goes off with the carriage, the horses, and the three hundred\nroubles. The gentleman stays till evening looking at the hat, waiting\nfor his friend to return; at last he loses patience, wants to see what\nthere is under the hat, and finds nothing--but a proof of his own\nstupidity.[383]\n\nIvan (John), and oftener still Vaniusha (Little John, the Giovannino\nof Italian legends), distinguishes himself, not only by his thieving\naccomplishments, but also by his courage. In order to play the part of\na thief, as Little John does in all the Indo-Europeans legends, not\nonly industry, but courage must be called into requisition; hence he\nacquires, like the Chevalier Bayard, the good reputation of a hero\nwithout fear and without reproach. The hero Ivan is now the son of a\nking, now of a merchant, and now of a peasant; the merchants wished,\nno less than the peasants, to appropriate to themselves the most\npopular hero of tradition. In the forty-sixth story of the fifth book\nof _Afanassieff_, neither the shades of night, nor brigands, nor\ndeath, can make the hero afraid; but he is terrified and dies, falling\ninto the water, when the little _iersh_ (the perch) leaps upon his\nstomach, whilst he is asleep in his fishing-boat. In the Tuscan\nstory,[384] the fearless hero Giovannino, after having confronted\nevery kind of danger, dies from the terror the sight of his own shadow\ninspires him with. In the same way, in the _Rigvedas_, the god Indras,\nterrified at his own shadow, or, probably, that of his dead enemy,\ntakes to flight after the killing of the serpent Ahis.[385]\n\nThe following heroes are also variations of Prince Ivan, Ivan the son\nof the cow, Ivan the peasant's son, Ivan the merchant's son, and the\ncunning Ivan:--1st, Alessino Papovic, the son of the priest (it is\nwell known that the Russian priests are not bound to celibacy), who\nkills Tugarin, the son of the serpent, by prayer, that is, by praying\nto the Holy Mother of God, to order the black cloud to cause drops of\nrain to fall on the monster's wings, upon which the son of the\nserpent, like the Vedic Ahis, when Indras opens a way for the rivers\nto come out, instantly falls to the ground;[386] 2d, Baldak, son of\nBoris, the boy seven years old, who succeeds in spitting in the\nSultan's face--(I have already remarked, in the preface to this work,\nthat the king of the Turks is, in the Slavonic tradition, as well as\nin that of Persia, the representative of the devil; the demon, when\nthe hero approaches, smells the odour of human flesh in India, of\nChristian flesh in Western stories,[387] and of Russian flesh in\nRussian fairy tales)--but who afterwards becomes the Sultan's\nprisoner, because he appears to the third daughter of the latter with\na star under his heel, or shows his heel (which is the vulnerable part\nof both hero and monster); 3d, Basil Bes-ciastnoi, who goes, by his\nfather-in-law's order, into the kingdom of the serpent, in order to\nreceive a gift from him, with adventures similar to those of the young\nPlavacek in Bohemian stories, when he goes to seek the three golden\nhairs of the old Vsieveda (the all-seeing, the Vedic sun\nVi\u00e7vavedas);[388] 4th, The third brother who exchanges two sacks of\nflies and gnats he has caught for good cattle.[389] The same hero\ntakes the name of Little Thomas Berennikoff; being blind of one eye,\nhe kills an army of flies, and boasts of having killed an army of\nheroes; he thus dishonestly gains the reputation of being a hero, and\nis fortunate in having an opportunity offered him of proving his\nbravery by killing a monster-serpent, who, out of foolhardiness, shuts\nboth eyes when he sees that Thomas has but one; he afterwards destroys\nan army of Chinese with the trunk of a tree, rooted up by his\nindomitable horse, which a real hero had bound to the tree;[390] 5th,\nThe cunning rogue, Little Thomas (Thomka; the quacks in Piedmont are\naccustomed to give the name of Tommasino to the little devil which\nthey conjure out of a phial), who, by means of disguises, cheats and\nrobs the priest;[391] 6th, The third brother who does not suffer\nhimself to be put to sleep by the witch (as we have seen above the\nthird sister who keeps one of her three eyes open);[392] 7th, The\nfamous robber, Klimka,[393] who, by means of a drum (in Indian tales a\ntrumpet), terrifies his accomplices, the robbers, and takes their\nmoney, and then steals from a gentleman his horse, his casket of\njewels, and even his wife; 8th, The Cossack who delivers the maiden\nfrom the flames, and carries her to his golden house, where there are\ntwo other maidens (be it understood, the one in the silver house, and\nthe other in that of copper); from which three maidens the Cossack\nreceives a shirt which renders him invulnerable, a sword which\nproduces the most marvellous effects in slaughtering men, and a purse\nwhich, when shaken, drops money;[394] 9th, The celebrated Ilia\nMuromietz (Elias of Murom), round whom, as also around Svetaz\u00f3r and\nSvyatogor (holy mount), Dobrynia Nikitic, and the heroes of Vladimir,\nis grouped an entire heroic Russian epic poem.[395]\n\nOther variations of the same hero are the son of the merchant given\nup to be educated by the devil, who teaches him every kind of craft;\nthe boy Basil, who understands the language of birds, and who makes\nhis parents serve him;[396] the merchant or son of a peasant,[397]\nwho, because he prefers good advice to money, acquires a fortune; the\nvirtuous workman, who receives by way of pay for his labour only three\nkapeika, which, spent in good works, enables him at last to marry the\nking's daughter, or the princess who did not laugh.[398]\n\nThe legend of the hero Ivan has yet other interesting forms,\nreflective of the beautiful Vedic myth of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, who into their\nflying chariot-vessel also take up the unhappy. In _Afanassieff_,[399]\nthe third brother, thought to be foolish, is ill-treated by his\nparents, who dress and feed him badly. The king issues a proclamation,\nthat whoever can make a flying vessel will obtain his daughter to\nwife. The mother sends forth her three sons in quest of the necessary\nenchantment; to her third son she gives a little brown bread and\nwater, whilst the two eldest go provided with good white loaves and\nsome brandy. The fool meets on the way a poor old man, salutes him,\nand begins to share with him his scanty store of food; the old man\ntransmutes his brown bread into white, and his water into brandy, and\nthen advises him to enter the forest, to make the sign of the cross\nupon the first tree he finds, and to strike it with his axe; then to\nthrow himself on the ground and stay there until he wakens; he will\nsee a vessel ready before him: \"Sit down in it,\" added the old man,\n\"and fly whither your behest requires you; and by the way take up\nbeside you as many as you meet.\"[400] This chariot is freighted with\nabundance, both to eat and to drink; the young man overtakes several\nneedy beggars, and invites them up into the chariot; he receives only\npoor people, not a single rich man.[401] But these poor men afterwards\nshow their gratitude to the hero, and help him in other adventures\nimposed upon him by the Tzar, who hopes by this means to get rid of a\nson-in-law of such vulgar origin. One of the new tasks imposed\nrequires him to eat twelve oxen, and to drink at one gulp forty\nbarrels of wine; in this he is helped by Eating (Abi\u00e9dalo) and by\nDrinking (Apiv\u00e1lo), whom he had entertained in his chariot-ship, and\nwho eat and drink instead of him.[402] At last he comes to claim and\nmarry the young princess. (The hero-sun, taken up into the chariot of\nthe A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, by the grace of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, invoked by him in danger, is\ndelivered, and espouses the aurora.)\n\nIn a variation of this legend, a prince, fifteen years of age, who has\nbeen lost by his parents, is found again by means of a riddle which\nthey propose, and which he alone can solve.[403] In the Vedic hymns it\nis now the aurora, the beautiful maiden, who delivers the hero-sun,\nand now the hero-sun who delivers the beautiful maiden, the aurora.\nIn the forty-first story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a little\ngirl, seven years old (semilietk\u00e1), presents herself to the Tzar, who\nmust marry her, inasmuch as she solves the riddle proposed by him, by\narriving riding on a hare (an animal which represents the moon), with\na quail (an animal which seems to represent the sun) tied to her\nhand.[404] She too, like the aurora, knows all; she too protects the\npoor against the rich, and the innocent against the guilty. The dwarf\nAllwis is a form of this child. Allwis is the omniscient man of the\nEdda, who solves all the questions put to him by the god Thor, in\norder to obtain his daughter; when he is done with answering these\nquestions, day breaks, and the sun shines.\n\nThe wondrous girl of seven years of age (the aurora), brings us back\nto the marvellous puppet (generally, the moon). It is three puppets\n(the wooden chest of Marion d'bosch, or wooden little Mary of the\nPiedmontese story, the dark forest of night, the tree that hides the\nsplendid treasures of the evening aurora; another variety of the same\nmyth in relation to the sun) that hide the three splendid dresses of\nthe stars, the moon and the sun, which belong to the beautiful maiden,\nthe daughter of the priest (a variation of the Vedic aurora, duhitar\ndivas, or daughter of the sky). It is the three puppets which enable\nthe beautiful girl to descend through the ground, and so escape from\nthe persecutions of her father and seducer (in other versions, of her\nbrother), and which go down with her, dressed as old women, and enter\na forest, where, near an oak-tree, there is the house of a princess,\nwho has a young and handsome son.[405] In a variation of this\nstory,[406] the girl is persecuted, not by her father, but the\nwell-known cruel stepmother, for whom she divides the wheat from the\nbarley, and draws water at the fountain (like the Vedic maiden Apal\u00e2);\nshe goes three times splendidly dressed to church (which takes the\nplace of the ball-room of other stories), where she is seen three\ntimes by a handsome prince; she is twice followed, and twice\ndisappears; the third time the prince has gum (pitch, in other\nvariations) put on the ground; the fugitive loses her golden slipper\nin consequence, which the prince picks up, and tries on all the\nmaidens till he finds his bride. In another story,[407] where the\nrelation of the aurora with the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u comes out in wonderful\ndistinctness,[408] it is by means of her marvellous speaking puppet\n(_i.e._, the moon, the Vedic Rak\u00e2, very small, but very intelligent,\nenclosed in the wooden dress, in the forest of night) that the girl,\npersecuted by her step-mother, weaves a cloth so fine that it can pass\nlike a thread through the eye of a needle (just as the girl's feet are\nvery small, so also are the puppet's hands). The marvellous cloth is\nbrought to the Tzar, but no one is found who is able to sew it into a\nshirt for the Tzar.[409] The maiden alone, by the help of her puppet,\nsucceeds; the Tzar wishes to see the girl who prepared his\nextraordinary shirt, and goes to find her; he is astonished at her\nbeauty, and marries her. In the _Rigvedas_, the aurora weaves a robe\nfor her husband the sun.\n\nThe same girl (the aurora) whom we have here only as a good,\nbeautiful, intelligent, and skilful maiden, appears in other stories\ngiven in _Afanassieff_ as a heroic damsel. In the seventh story of the\nfirst book she disguises herself as a man, and mocks the Tzar three\ntimes. In the fourteenth story of the first book, the same girl, under\nthe name of Anastasia the beautiful, vanquishes and binds the serpent,\nand discovers the secret of how he can be killed. Under the name of\nHelen, or Little Helen, she is the protectress of her little brother,\nIvanusca (Little John),[410] and his guide through the world; and when\nthe boy, by the incantation of a witch, is transformed into a lamb or\nkid (in a story of the Canavese, in Piedmont, the seven monks,\nbrothers of the courageous girl, are transformed into seven hogs), she\nrecommends him to the care of the prince, her husband, in order that\nhe may destroy the evil work of the witch. The same maiden is found\nagain as the very wise Basilia (Vasilisa Premudraia), who succours the\nyoung hero, because, after stealing her dress while she was bathing in\nthe sea, he restores it to her, agreeably to her prayer. For this\nfavour she gratefully accomplishes for him the labours imposed upon\nhim by the king of the waters, and ends, after many vicissitudes, by\nmarrying him.[411] She appears once more as the royal maiden\n(Tzar-dievitza), who comes three times with her ships by sea to lead\naway the young Ivan, beloved by her;[412] and I also place among the\ngirl-heroines the daughter of the shepherd in the twenty-ninth story\nof the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, of which this is an abridgment.\nThere was once a king who could not find a maiden beautiful enough to\nsuit his taste. One day, returning from the chase (the solar hero\nalways meets the aurora, his bride, when returning from the hunt in\nthe forest of night), he meets a shepherd's daughter, who is leading\nout the flock to pasture, so beautiful that her like would be sought\nfor in vain over the world. He becomes enamoured of her, and promises\nto make her his wife, but only on condition that she will never say\nanything displeasing to him, whatever he may do; the poor enamoured\nmaiden consents, the nuptials are celebrated, and the couple live\ntogether happily for a year. A boy is born to them; then the king says\nroughly to his wife that the boy must be killed, that it may never be\nsaid the heir to the throne is the son of a shepherdess. The poor\nwoman resigns herself to her fate, remarking, \"The will of the king\nmust be done.\" Another year passes, and a daughter is born. The king\ninforms his wife that she too must be killed, as she can never become\na princess, but will always remain a peasant girl. The unhappy mother\nonce more bows her head to the will of the king, who, however,\nconsigns his son and daughter, not to an executioner, but to his\nsister, that they may receive all the attentions due to their royal\npedigree and standing. Years pass away; the little prince and princess\ngrow up beautiful, healthy, good, and happy, and pass adolescence.\nThen the king puts his wife to the last proof. He sends her back to\nher house in the dress of a shepherdess, signifying at the same time\nthat she has lived with him long enough. Then he orders her to return,\nto put the rooms in order, and to wait upon the new bride whom he\nintends to take her place; the shepherd's daughter obeys again without\na murmur. The new bride arrives, and is set down at the table; they\neat, drink, and are merry; the shepherd's daughter is obliged to see\nand hear all, and to serve in silence; at last the king asks her,\n\"Well, is not my bride beautiful?\" To which the unhappy woman\nresponds with a heroic effort, \"If she seem beautiful to thee, still\nmore does she seem so to me.\" Then the king, at the summit of his\nfelicity, exclaims, \"Dress thyself again in thy royal robes, and place\nthyself by my side; thou hast been, and shalt always be, my wife, my\nonly wife; this, my supposed bride, is thy daughter, and this handsome\nyouth is thy son.\" The poor heroine had undergone the last proof of\nher virtue, and triumphed.\n\nBut the virtue of the legendary heroine is not always so sound. Often\nthe good wife, sister, maiden, or woman is corrupted by contact with the\nwicked. We have already seen how the beautiful aurora, the pitying and\nbeneficent maiden, becomes, in the Vedic hymns themselves, the\nevil-doer, whom the god Indras overthrows and destroys. The Hellenic\nAmazons, the beautiful and proud warrior-women, were also pursued,\nfought with, and vanquished by the Hellenic heroes. Thus the\nScandinavian warrior, Walkiries, has a double aspect, a good and a bad.\nThe Russian stories also supply numerous instances of the ease with\nwhich the good degenerates into the demon, the hero into the monster,\nand the beautiful heroine into the powerful and mischief-working witch.\n\nThis good sister Helen or Little Helen, so careful a guardian of her\nbrother John, ends, when she conceives a passion for the monster, with\nbecoming his perfidious persecutor. (The evening aurora is represented\nas a friend of the monster of night, who conspires with him against\nher brother the sun; and whoever observes the sinister aspect often\nassumed by the reddish sky of evening, will find this fiction a very\nnatural one. I have said above that a Piedmontese proverb predicts bad\nweather for the morrow from a red evening; but in Piedmont the belief\nis also widely diffused that the red of evening signifies blood, and\nthat this bloody redness signifies war. It certainly does mean war,\nbut a mythical war--the war in which the hero, fighting against the\nmonster, succumbs and sheds blood. It is a woman that is the hero's\ndestruction. A counter-type of the biblical Delilah is found in all\nthe popular Indo-European traditions; the Vedic aurora, the sister of\nR\u00e2vanas in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, the sister of Hidimbas in the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, the Hellenic Dejanira, Ariadne, Medea, the Amazons,\nHelen, the Slavonic Helen, and Anna the Sabine woman, the Scandinavian\nWalkiries, Freya, Idun, Br\u00fcnhilt, Gudrun, the Germanic Kr\u00eemhilt, are\nall forms of one and the same heroine, conceived now in the light of a\nsaint, and now in that of a witch.\n\nIn the Russian story,[413] after the bull has saved from the bear the\nfugitive brother and sister, Ivan Tzarevic and Helen the exceedingly\nbeautiful (Prekra\u00e7na), they enter a brigand's house. Their bull,\nhaving become a dwarf, kills all the brigands, and shuts their bodies\nup in a room, which he forbids Helen to enter; the latter, not\nattending to the prohibition, enters, and seeing the head of the\nbrigand chief, falls in love with him, resuscitates him by means of\nthe water of life, and then conspires with him to destroy her brother\nIvan, by requiring him to accomplish enterprises in which death seemed\ninevitable, or else by ordering him to bring her, first, the milk of a\nwolf, then that of a she-bear, and then that of a lioness. Ivan, by\nthe help of his dwarf (or the sun grown small during the night, and\nperhaps also the moon), accomplishes all these undertakings. We have\nalready seen how white comes from black; the milk of the wolf, the\nbear, and the lioness is the _alba luna_, or the white morning sky\nbrought back by the solar hero. Ivan is then sent to fetch the eggs of\nthe burning bird (Szar-ptitza). Ivan goes with his dwarf (that is to\nsay, the moon, or he makes himself a dwarf, in other words, renders\nhimself invisible); the bird is enraged, and swallows the dwarf\n(_i.e._, the red sky of evening, the burning bird, or phoenix, absorbs\nthe moon or the sun in its flames.[414]) Ivan goes back to his sister\nwithout the eggs, upon which she threatens to burn him in the bath.\nIvan, with the help of the wolf's, the bear's, and the lion's whelps,\nor Ivan, with the young wolf, bear, or lion (the moon), or Ivan the\nson of the wolf, Ivan the son of the bear, Ivan the son of the lion\n(Ivan born of the she-wolf Night, the she-bear Night, or the lioness\nNight), tears the brigand to pieces, and binds his sister (as the\nVedic cow) to a tree (the aurora almost always loses herself in a tree\nor the water). Then Ivan wishes to marry a heroine. [Two myths are\nhere united in the story, originating in one and the same phenomenon,\nwhich seems twofold, because observed at different, almost literally\nsucceeding, instants. The morning sun comes and puts to flight his\nsister the aurora, driving her back into the forest of night, and\nbinding her to the tree; the morning sun passes safe and sound through\nthe flames (like S\u00eefrit in the _Nibelungen_), vanquishes and subdues\nthe aurora, makes her his, and espouses her.] He fights with her\nfirst, and succeeds in throwing her with his lance from her horse, and\nsubduing her. The first night--that is, when evening comes, she\nembraces and presses him so tightly, and with such strength, that he\ncannot succeed in extricating himself (the evening aurora envelops and\nsurrounds the sun; it is the famous nuptial belt, the belt of\nstrength of the god Thor, the shirt of Nessus). At last, however,\ntowards morning, Ivan vanquishes, subdues, and throws down (like\nS\u00eefrit in the _Nibelungen_) the girl-heroine (the morning sun, as\nIndras, throws down the aurora). He then thinks of liberating his\nsister Helen, who is bound to the tree, in order to take her with him;\nbut she, under the pretext of combing his hair, thrusts a dead man's\ntooth into his head. Ivan is about to die. Here the primary myth of\nthe sun and aurora, as brother and sister, reappears, and the\nsecondary one of the husband and wife is forgotten. The lion's whelp\ncomes forward and extracts the tooth; the lion is on the point of\ndying, when the young bear runs up and extracts it again. He is also\nabout to die; the fox then comes up, who assumes towards the end of\nthe story the part played in the middle by the young wolf (in the same\nway as in Indian tales the jackal is substituted for the fox), and,\nwith more cunning, throws the dead man's tooth into the fire, and thus\nsaves himself--_i.e._, the solar hero, passing through the flames,\ncomes out of the shadows which enveloped him during the night. Helen\nis attached to the tail of a horse (of Ivan's solar horse itself), and\nis thus made to perish (when the sun comes forth in the morning the\naurora loses herself behind him).\n\nThe same story of Ivan's perfidious sister, of which the mythical\nsense appears to me more than usually evident, occurs again in other\nforms in Russian tales.\n\nWhilst Ivan is travelling with his sister towards the kingdom where\nall the people die[415] (that is, towards the night), a fairy gives\nhim a towel, by shaking which a bridge may be thrown across a\nriver--(is this bridge the milky way, the bridge or road to be taken\nby the souls in the Persian and Porphyrian belief, as well as in the\nGerman?)--but advises him never to let his sister see him shake it.\nIvan arrives with his sister in the kingdom of the dead; they come\nupon a river on the further bank of which there is a serpent, who has\nthe power of transforming himself into a handsome youth; Ivan's sister\nbecomes enamoured of him, and he induces her to steal the towel from\nher brother and shake it. The sister, under the pretext of washing the\ndirty linen, takes off the fairy's towel and shakes it; a bridge\nrises, upon which the serpent crosses the river, and then conspires\nwith the girl with intent to work Ivan's ruin. They demand the usual\nmilk, which Ivan brings; then the flour which is shut up within twelve\ndoors. Ivan goes thither with his beasts of prey, takes the flour and\nbrings it away, but his beasts remain shut up inside; then his\nstrength diminishes, and the serpent, boasting that he fears him no\nlonger, prepares to devour him. Ivan, by the advice of a crow, prays\nfor time, and procrastinates till his beasts of prey, gnawing the\ntwelve doors through, come to his help, and tear the serpent in\npieces. The serpent's bones are burned in the fire, its ashes are\ndispersed to the four winds, and the sister is bound to a stone pillar\n(to the rock or mountain upon which the aurora arises, fading away\nafterwards when the sun appears). Ivan places near her some hay and a\nvessel full of water, that she may have whereof to eat and drink, and\nanother empty vessel, which she is to fill with her tears: when she\nhas eaten the hay, drunk the water, and filled the vessel with her\ntears, it will be a sign that God has forgiven her; when Ivan too will\nforgive her. Meanwhile, Ivan goes into a kingdom where there is\nnothing but mourning, because a twelve-headed serpent is massacring\nall the people (the usual nocturnal sky, where it is now the hero-sun,\nnow the heroine aurora that sacrifices itself), and the king's\ndaughter is the next victim. Ivan, by the help of his hunting animals,\ncuts the serpent to pieces, and then goes to sleep on the knees of the\nking's daughter. While he sleeps, a water-carrier passes towards\nmorning, cuts off his head, and presents himself to the king as the\ndeliverer of the princess, whom he demands for his wife. The beasts of\nprey come up, descry the crow upon Ivan's corpse, and prepare to eat\nit, when the crow begs for its life; they consent, and in return\nrequire it to search for the water of life and death, by means of\nwhich Ivan is resuscitated; the water-carrier's deceit is found out,\nand Ivan marries the princess whom he had delivered from the monster.\nThen he goes to look for his sister, and finds she has eaten the hay,\ndrunk the water, and filled half the vessel with tears; upon this he\npardons her, and takes her away with him.\n\nIn another story,[416] instead of the perfidious sister, we have the\nperfidious mother (probably step-mother), who, to please her demon\nlover, feigns illness, and demands from Ivan the heart, first of the\nthree-headed, then of the six-headed, and finally of the twelve-headed\nmonster. Ivan accomplishes these undertakings. He is then sent to a hot\nbath, to weaken his strength. Ivan goes, and his head is cut off by the\nmonster. But Ivan's two sons resuscitate him by rubbing a root upon his\nbody; the demon lover of Ivan's mother dies as soon as the hero revives\nagain. In the two sons of Ivan we recognise again the myth of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the celestial physicians who resuscitate the solar hero.\n\nIn another story, Ivan Karolievic (king's son) is threatened with\ndeath by his own wife,[417] who, feigning illness, demands the usual\nmilk of a she-wolf, a she-bear, and a lioness, and then the enchanted\npowder (powder of gold or flour), which is under the devils mill,\nbarred behind twelve doors. Ivan comes out, but his beasts remain\ninside. He returns and finds his wife with the serpent, the son of the\nserpent; he chaunts the song of death--he sings it three times;[418]\non hearing which the serpent is thrown down, and the beasts, regaining\nstrength to deliver themselves, come out and tear the serpent, and\nwith him the perfidious wife is put to death.\n\nIvan's perfidious wife occurs again in the thirty-fifth story of the\nfifth book of _Afanassieff_, under the name of Anna the very beautiful\n(Prekra\u00e7naia). She has married Ivan Tzarevic against her will, because\nshe could not solve a riddle which he proposed to her; she does not love\nhim, and endeavours to destroy him by requiring an extraordinary proof\nof his valour,[419] in which, by the help of his tutor, Katoma, Ivan is\nvictorious, so that Anna falls into his hands. But, understanding that\nIvan's strength is not in himself, but his tutor, she induces Ivan to\nsend him away, after depriving him of his feet. Anna then sends Ivan to\ntake the cows to pasture. The lame Katoma finds in the forest a blind\nman, also made so by Anna;[420] they become friends and consociate\ntogether, and carry off a beautiful maiden to be their sister; but a\nwitch comes and makes the maiden comb her hair, whilst she sucks her\nbreast (we must remember that in the Indian story the girl has three\nbreasts, or is defective in her breast, in the same way as the witch\nmakes the Russian girl so by sucking her breast). The poor girl grows\nthin and ugly, until the old witch is surprised in her evil doings by\nthe two heroes, fallen upon by them like a mountain of stone, and\npressed so tightly that she cries for mercy. Then they demand to be\nshown where the fountain of life and healing can be found. The old woman\nconducts them into a dense forest, and shows them a fountain. They first\nthrow a dry twig in, which immediately takes fire; they threaten to kill\nthe old witch, and force her to lead them to another fountain, into\nwhich they throw another dry twig; it becomes green again. Then one rubs\nhis eyes, and the other his feet, with the water, and both become\nhealthy and strong again. They throw the witch into the fountain of\nfire. Katoma, in a shepherd's dress, goes to deliver the hero Ivan from\nthe demon cow, which lifts up its tail and gives him back his strength\nand splendour. This is again the Vedic myth of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u united to the\naurora, who cure the blind and the lame, _i.e._, themselves, and save\nthe multiform solar hero.\n\nFinally, such as we have found the blind girl in the Vedic hymns, so\nwe meet her again in Russian tradition.[421] A servant-maid takes out\nthe eyes of the maiden her mistress, after having put her to sleep by\nmeans of a herb, and marries the king in her stead. The girl awakens,\nhears but does not see; an old shepherd receives her into his house;\nduring the night she, although blind, sews a crown for the Tzar and\nsends the old man to court to sell it for an eye (this is a variation\nof Queen Berta in the forest). The servant-maid, now become queen,\ntempted by the beauty of this crown, takes one of the girls eyes out\nof her pocket and gives it to the old man. The maiden arises at the\naurora, washes her eye in her own saliva (_i.e._, the dew. In Tuscany,\nthe peasants believe that whoever washes his face in the dew before\nthe sun rises on St John's Day, will have no illness all the year\nfollowing), puts it in the socket and sees. She then sews another\ncrown, and, in the same manner, recovers her other eye at the next\naurora. Then the servant-queen learns that she is alive, and makes\nhired murderers cut her to pieces. Where the maiden is buried, a\ngarden arises and a boy shows himself. The boy goes to the palace and\nruns after the queen, making such a din that she is obliged, in order\nto silence him, to give him the girl's heart, which she had kept\nhidden. The boy then runs off contented; the king follows him, and\nfinds himself before the resuscitated maiden. He marries her, and the\nservant-girl is blinded, and then torn to pieces by being fastened to\nthe tails of horses. Like the German Genevi\u00e8ve and the Hindoo\n\u00c7akuntal\u00e2, the Russian wife is recognised by her husband by means of a\nboy. This is the young sun, who enables the old one to be born again,\nto arise again and be young once more; this is the son who, in the\nHindoo legend, gives his father his eyesight back, and by doing so,\nnaturally imparts to him the means of recognising his wife, whom he\nhad forgotten, or rejected, or lost, according to the various forms\nassumed by the celestial myth of the separation of husband and wife.\n\nI might now carry on this comparison by entering the mythical field of\nthe more Western Slavonic nations;[422] but it is not my intention to\nconvert this modest volume into an entire library of legends; neither is\nit necessary for my purpose, as by so doing I should not add much more\nevidence to that which I have thus far attempted to collect, in order to\nprove how zoological mythology is the same in existing Slavonic\ntradition as it was in Hindoo antiquity. I have, moreover, gone rather\nminutely into the contents of Russian tradition in particular, because,\non account of our ignorance of the language, which is beautiful and\nworthy of study, it is little known, and because it is of especial\nimportance in our present inquiry. I believe, if I do not deceive\nmyself, that I have, up to this point, given an account of all the more\nessential legends developed in the Eastern Aryan world relating to the\nmyth of the cow and the bull; and now, in moving towards the West, I\nthink I may venture to proceed with greater expedition, because we shall\nfind ourselves in a region already familiar to us. It seemed to me that\nit was especially necessary, for a just comparison, to determine and fix\nthe character of Oriental tradition, in order that it may be easy for\nthe student to classify the interminable stories and traditions which\nhave already been collected in Western Europe, and which are published\nin languages which are, certainly, different from each other, but all,\ncomparatively speaking, readily accessible. If I have succeeded in\nimparting to the reader an understanding of the more authentic sources\nof legendary traditions and their most probable meanings, I shall go on\nwith more courage and a greater confidence to the investigations that\nfollow.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[348] These last have already been translated into English, and\nillustrated, by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. The _Narodnija Skaski_\nsabrannija selskimi uciteliami, isdanie A. A. Erlenwein (Moskva 1863),\nand the more voluminous N. Aphanasieva, _Narodnija ruskija skaski_,\nIsd. 2 (Moskva 1860, 1861), have not thus far been translated into\nother European languages. I have therefore thought fit to make copious\nquotations from them as well for the use of Western readers, as on\naccount of the real importance of their mythical contents, whilst\nawaiting the publication of the competent work which Mr Ralston is\nexpressly preparing upon Russian songs.\n\n[349] iii. 8805, and following.\n\n[350] _Afanassieff_, ii. 29.\n\n[351] iv. 45.\n\n[352] This subject is already given in _\u00c6sop's Fables_, in the\ntwenty-first fable (ed. Del Furia, Florence, 1809): the man prays to a\nwooden idol (x\u00fclinon theon) that it may make him rich; the statue does\nnot answer; he breaks it to pieces, and gold comes out of it.\n\n[353] Seventeenth story.\n\n[354] Cfr. also in _Afanassieff_, the story, v. 19.\n\n[355] Cfr. also, for the variations, the twenty-second of _Erlenwein_,\nand iii. 24, of _Afanassieff_.\n\n[356] Story 54.\n\n[357] Cfr. the first story of my collection of the _Novelline di Santo\nStefano di Calcinaia_, Torino, A. F. Negro, 1869. I am also acquainted\nwith a Piedmontese variation, differing but little from this Tuscan\nstory.\n\n[358] In the story, ii. 27, of the collection of _Afanassieff_, the\nbeautiful princess, near the sea, combs the youngest son of the Tzar,\nwho goes to sleep.\n\n[359] Cfr. the chapter on the Goat.\n\n[360] v. 37.\n\n[361] v. 50.\n\n[362] v. 9.\n\n[363] In Lafontaine, _Fables_, vii. 1, the animal sacrificed is the ass.\n\n[364] _Afanassieff_, iv. 20-22.--In a Lithuanian song, which describes\nthe nuptials of animals, the bull appears as a woodcutter or\nwoodman.--Cfr. Uhland's _Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und\nSage_, iii. 75.\n\n[365] _Afanassieff_, v. 6.\n\n[366] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Wolf.\n\n[367] _Afanassieff_, v. 41.\n\n[368] _Afanassieff_, iv. 1.--In another variation of the same myth,\nwhich we have already referred to in the Vedic hymns, the birds come,\non the contrary, out of a horse.\n\n[369] v. 54.\n\n[370] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 54, and the chapters on the Fish and the\nEel.\n\n[371] I read in the travels of Olearius in Persia during the year\n1638, French translation: \"Les Persans disent que la montagne de\nKilissim a une telle propri\u00e9t\u00e9 que tous ceux qui y montent n'en\ndescendent point; que le schach Abas obligea un jour un de ses\nchasseurs, en lui promettant une grosse somme d'argent, \u00e0 monter sur\ncette montagne, et qu'il y monta effectivement, l'ayant fait conno\u00eetre\npar le feu qu'il alluma; mais qu'il n'en descendit point, et que l'on\nne s\u00e7ait point ce qu'il devint avec son chien, qu'il menait avec lui.\"\n\n[372] _Afanassieff_, iv. 9.--In the well-known English story of _Jack\nand the Bean-stalk_, it is the giant who is killed by the fall from\nheaven, when Jack cuts the bean-stalk close to the ground.\n\n[373] _Afanassieff_, iv. 7.--Cfr. the chapter on the Fox.\n\n[374] _Afanassieff_, v. 12, and vi. 2.--Cfr. the chapters on the Goat,\nthe Fox, the Wolf, and the Duck, where other episodes of this legend\nare found again.--In the twelfth story of the fifth book of\n_Afanassieff_, the old man goes up to heaven to call God to account\nfor the peas that He has taken from the top of the pea-plant; God\ngives him in exchange stockings of gold and garters of silver.\n\n[375] Cfr. also v. 24.\n\n[376] v. 55.--Cfr. also vi. 22.--Cfr. the _Contes et Proverbes\nPopulaires recueillis en Armagnac_, par Blad\u00e9 (Paris, 1867), where the\nfoolish and lazy one occurs again under the name of Joan Lou Pigre.\n\n[377] Cfr. also the two variations in _Afanassieff_, vi. 25.\n\n[378]\n\n      Po malu, malu, sestritze, grai\n      Nie vraszi ti mav\u00f3 serdienk\u00e1 vkrai!\n      Ti-sz mini szradila\n      Sza krasni yagodki, sza corvonni cobotki!\n\nAlso cfr. the chapter on the Peacock.\n\n[379] In the Festival of the Epiphany, which is also a festival of the\nhusband and wife, the good fairy is accustomed to bring to the child,\nhusband, and wife, a boot or a stocking full of presents. This nuptial\nboot occurs again in the English custom of throwing a slipper after a\nnewly-married couple. Another meaning was also given to the slippers\nwhich are thrown away in the popular belief. Instead of being the\nheroine's shoes which, having been abandoned, serve to attract and\nguide the predestined husband, they are also considered as the old\nshoes which the devil leaves behind him when he flees (his tail, which\nbetrays itself). The Germanic wild huntress Gueroryssa, another form\nof the Frau Holle--the phantom of winter expelled at Epiphany--is\nrepresented with a serpent's tail. Hence in the German carnival the\nuse of the _Schuh-teufel laufen_, or running in the devil's slippers.\n\n[380] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 4, and the chapter on the Stork.\n\n[381] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, ii. 25, ii. 28, iv. 47, v. 37.\n\n[382] The _m\u00e8re sotte_ has become proverbial in France, where, in the\nsixteenth century, Pierre Gringore wrote a satirical comedy with the\ntitle of _Le Jeu de M\u00e8re Sotte_, in which the M\u00e8re Sotte is the\nCatholic Church.\n\n[383] A similar story, which, on account of its indecent details, I\nwas not able to publish in my collection of the _Novelline di Santo\nStefano di Calcinaia_, is narrated upon the hills of Signa, near\nFlorence. It is also told, with some variations, in Piedmont.--Cfr. a\nRussian variety of the same story in the chapter on the Hen.\n\n[384] _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, 22.\n\n[385] Cfr. the chapter on the Fishes.\n\n[386] _Afanassieff_, vi. 59.--But in the tale v. 11, he knows how to\nfight well.\n\n[387] In England the monster smells the blood of an Englishman, as in\nthe familiar lines in _Jack the Giant-Killer_--\n\n      \"Fe fo fum,\n       I smell the blood of an Englishman;\n       Be he alive or be he dead,\n       I'll grind his bones to make my bread.\"\n\n[388] Cfr. Teza, _The Three Golden Hairs of the Grandfather Know-all_, a\nBohemian tale (_I tre Capelli d'oro del Nonno Satutto_, Bologna, 1866).\n\n[389] _Afanassieff_, ii. 7.\n\n[390] v. 11.\n\n[391] _Afanassieff_, v. 7, 8.\n\n[392] iv. 46.\n\n[393] v. 6; _Erlenwein_, 7.\n\n[394] _Erlenwein_, 5.--In the first story of _Erlenwein_, the\nlast-born, Vaniusha (Little John), takes from disputing peasants, by a\nstratagem, first a marvellous arrow, then a hat which makes the wearer\ninvisible, and, finally, a mantle which flies of itself. He promises\nto divide them equitably, and for this service makes them pay him\nbeforehand, each of the three times, a hundred roubles; he then throws\nthe objects far away and says, that he who is able to find them will\nhave them; all search, but he alone finds them. (Thus Argunas, in the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, hides his wonderful arms in the trunk of a tree, in\nwhich he alone can find them.)\n\n[395] Cfr. Schiefner, _Zur Russischen Heldensage_, Petersburg, 1861.\nThis is how the hero Svyatogor is described in a Russian popular epic\nsong cited by Ralston (_The Songs of the Russian people_): \"There\ncomes a hero taller than the standing woods, whose head reaches to the\nfleeting clouds, bearing on his shoulders a crystal coffer.\"\n\n[396] _Afanassieff_, vi. 41.\n\n[397] v. 31, and _Erlenwein_, 16.\n\n[398] v. 32.\n\n[399] vi. 27.\n\n[400] \u00c7adis v niev\u00f3, i leti kuda nadobno; da po daroghie zabir\u00e1i k\nsebi\u00e9 vsi\u00e1kavo vstriecnavo.\n\n[401] Na karabli\u00e9 niet ni adnav\u00f3 p\u00e1na, a vsi\u00f3 c\u00f3rnie ludi.\n\n[402] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 23.--Ice, in the form of an old man,\ncomes to try the boiling bath into which the king of the sea wishes to\nthrow the young hero; when Ice has tried the bath, the youth enters it\nwithout suffering any harm.--The trial of drinking occurs again in a\ngrandiose form in the combat between Loki and Thor to empty the cup in\nthe Edda of Snorri, a different form of the Hindoo legend of Agastyas,\nwho dries up the sea.--Odin, too, as Indras and as Bh\u00eemas, at three\ngulps dries up three lakes of mead.\n\n[403] _Afanassieff_, v. 42.\n\n[404] Cfr. the chapters on the Hare and the Quail.\n\n[405] _Afanassieff_, vi. 28, and ii. 31.\n\n[406] _Afanassieff_, vi. 20.--Cfr. i. 3, and ii. 31, where we have the\nsame particular of the prince who strikes three times the disguised\ngirl who serves him, as in the Tuscan story of the Wooden Top (the\npuppet), the third in my collection of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano\ndi Calcinaia_.\n\n[407] iv. 44.\n\n[408] Cfr. next chapter.\n\n[409] Cfr. the chapter on the Spider.\n\n[410] _Afanassieff_, ii. 29, and iv. 45.\n\n[411] v. 23.\n\n[412] v. 42.\n\n[413] _Afanassieff_, v. 27.\n\n[414] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Eagle, the Vulture, and the\nFalcon.\n\n[415] _Afanassieff_, vi. 52.\n\n[416] _Afanassieff_, vi. 63.\n\n[417] vi. 51.\n\n[418] In the story, vi. 52, Ivan, by playing in a marvellous manner on\na flute, is recognised by the princess whom he had delivered from the\nmonster.\n\n[419] Cf. next chapter.\n\n[420] We find the blind-lame man again in an epigram by Ausonius of\nBordeaux, a writer of the fourth century:--\n\n      \"Insidens c\u00e6co graditur pede claudus utroque,\n         Quo caret alteruter, sumit ab alterutro.\n      C\u00e6cus namque pedes claudo gressumque ministrat,\n         At claudus c\u00e6co lumina, pro pedibus.\"\n\n[421] _Afanassieff_, v. 39.\n\n[422] The student who wishes to extend his researches in Slavonic\ntradition may consult with profit, among others, the following\nworks:--Schwenck, _Mythologie der Slaven_; Hanusch, _Slavische\nMythologie_; Woycicki, _Polnische M\u00e4rchen_; Schleicher, _Littauische\nM\u00e4rchen_; Wenzig, _Westslavischer M\u00e4rchenschatz_; Kapper, _Die Ges\u00e4nge\nder Serben_; Chodzko, _Contes des Paysans et des P\u00e2tres Slaves_; Teza,\n_Itre Capelli d'oro del Nonno Satutto_, a Bohemian story; Mi\u00e7kievic,\n_Canti Popolari Illirici_.\n\n\nSECTION V.\n\nTHE BULL AND THE COW IN THE GERMANICO-SCANDINAVIAN AND FRANCO-CELTIC\nTRADITIONS.\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The four bulls, sons of the virgin Gefion.--The bull which comes out\n    of the sea.--The bull progenitor of royal races.--The bull who\n    carries the maiden.--The cow of abundance, Audhumla, nurse and\n    mother of heroes.--The three brothers of Scandinavian and German\n    mythology.--The warrior-cow.--The sacred cow of \u00d6gwaldr burned upon\n    the hero's tomb.--The rod-phallos used to strike the cow, as an\n    augury of abundance and fecundity.--The head of the ox used as a\n    hook to catch the sea-serpent.--The Scandinavian cornucopia made of\n    the horns of oxen.--The horn full of honey.--The horn-trumpet.--The\n    daughter that milks.--The hero who eats oxen.--Atli eats the hearts\n    of his sons, believing them to be the hearts of\n    calves.--Hornboge.--To a wicked cow God gives short horns; to cut\n    off the cow's horns; to take the bull or cow by the horns, three\n    Germanic proverbs.--To dream of eagles announces the vicinity of\n    cows; Scandinavian corresponding legend.--A red cow on a certain\n    bridge announces a battle.--The Germanico-Scandinavian mythical\n    bridge.--The red cow and the black cow yield white milk.--Digression\n    upon mythical proverbs, and the explanation which seems to be the\n    most likely.--To shut the stable after the cow has been\n    stolen.--When the daughter is stolen, shut Peppergate.--He who has\n    lost a cow and gets its tail back again has not much, but he has\n    more than nothing.--To take by the horns.--Even if the cow's tail\n    moves it does not fall.--The tails in the mud.--The virtues of the\n    tail.--The ascent to heaven by means of the tails.--The hero in the\n    sack made of a cow's hide thrown into the sea.--The punishment of\n    the bull.--When the cow places herself upon the eggs, do not expect\n    fowls.--The black cow has crushed him.--The sack of the wolf or of\n    the black beast is his body itself.--The trial between hero and\n    monster to take off their skins; the hero gives cows' skins, but the\n    monster is obliged to give his own.--The cow's hide, when sold, is\n    the beginning of good luck.--The daughter flees from her father, who\n    wishes to seduce her; the story of the slipper again.--The cow can\n    pass before the hare.--The cow jumped over the moon.--Tarde sed\n    tute.--To take the hare with the chariot.--All those who blow the\n    horn do not hunt hares.--As a blind cow finds a pea.--Marvellous\n    pipkins and amphor\u00e6.--The cow that laughs.--The princess who\n    laughs.--The cow that speaks.--The language of animals.--Phallical\n    mysteries.--What the king said in the queen's ear.--Because they\n    have spoken, the husband and wife are separated.--Bulls that speak\n    at Rome.--Women know everything, even how Zeus married H\u00eara.--The\n    mythical laugh is in the sun's ray and in the lightning.--The fishes\n    that laugh; Phallic meaning of the myth.--If the cow-maid must spin,\n    there will be little yarn.--The cows that spin.--The spinning\n    Berta.--Berchta and Holda.--The time is passed when Berta spun.--The\n    times of King Pipino.--Berta with the large foot.--Berta with the\n    goose's foot.--St Lucia and St Luke.--Virgins after\n    parturition.--The old husband Pepin, a form of St Joseph.--The wife\n    Berta changed.--The Italian proverbs dare la Berta and dare la Madre\n    d'Orlando.--Continuation of the story of Berta persecuted in the\n    forest.--Orlando and Charlemagne.--The bull-priest and the\n    priest-bull.--The bull in funerals, in pregnancy, and as the food of\n    the hero.--The dwarf and the giant.--A French dwarf explains a myth\n    to us; a Scandinavian explains other myths to us.\n\nI shall here combine under one category the Germanico-Scandinavian and\nFranco-Celtic traditions, as traditions which, in the Middle Ages\nespecially, had a close and continual correlation of correspondence\nwith each other.\n\nThe _Edda_ of Snorri begins with the voyage of Gefion, with the four\noxen, her sons (although she is a virgin), yoked to a plough. The king\nGylfi concedes to her the right of occupying and possessing as much\nground as she can plough in twenty-four hours. When they come to the\nwestern sea-board, the four oxen rush forward and drag Gefion with them\ninto the sea, until they arrive at the land of Seelund (Seeland).[423]\nIn which, it is obvious we have again the Vedic bull with a thousand\nhorns which comes out of the sea, and the bull which carries off the\nmaiden. The bull which comes out of the sea is also found in Irish\nlegends, and in German ones. According to a German legend, of which\nseveral variations exist, a shepherd received a dinner every day and a\nclean shirt every Sunday from a variegated bull that came out of the\nsea.[424] A bull on the seaside begets, by the sleeping queen, the king\nMeroveus, the first of the Merovingians; perhaps it is on this account\nthat we find a golden bull's head represented on the tomb of King\nChilderic. Charles Simrock[425] found a similar legend also in Spain.\nThe bull which carries the girl, which we have already met with in the\nRussian stories, occurs again in the Norse tale[426] of \"_Katee Wooden\nCloak_ (Dasent), endowed with the powers of wish. In its left ear is a\ncloth (which reminds us of that spun on the cow's horns), which, when\nspread out, is covered with dainties of all kinds for the dawn-maiden,\nwho has been thrust out of her father's house; but when the step-mother\ninforms her that she cannot rest until she has eaten the dun bull's\nflesh, the animal, hearing her, engages to deliver her, and offers, if\nshe so wills, to carry her away.\"\n\nIn the voyage of Gylfi in the _Edda_ of Snorri, we find that the cow\nAudhumla, the cow of abundance, was the parent of the supreme\nScandinavian god Odin, as it was of the supreme Vedic god Indras. The\ncow Audhumla nourishes with her milk Ymir, the first of the giants. She\nlicks the salt mountain of ice (the Esthonian ice-mountain, the twelve\nglasses of the Russian princess, through which the young hero Ivan\npenetrates to kiss her). From the ice which the cow has licked, comes\nforth, first the hair, then the head, then the whole body, of the hero\nBuri. (The sun arises little by little from the mountain of the east,\nwarmed, attracted by the cow-aurora, and shows, first a few rays, then\nhis disc, and then himself in all his splendour and strength; and that\nwhich the sun does every day he repeats on a larger scale once a year,\nrising again from the ice of winter through the tepidity of spring.) Of\nBuri, who is at birth strong, is born B\u00f6r, who has, by Bestla, the\ndaughter of the giant B\u00f6lthorn, three sons, Odin, Wili, and We (the\nusual three brothers of the legends), who correspond to the three sons\nof Mannus in German tradition, that is, Inguis, Istio, and Irminius. The\nSwedish king Eistein had a great veneration for the cow Sibilia, and\nused to take her with him to battle, that she might terrify the enemy by\nher lowing. (The lowing of cows plays an important part in the battles\nof the Vedic hero Indras. In the _Pancatantram_, as we have noticed, the\nbellowing of the bull fills the lion with terror.) The Scandinavian\nking, \u00d6gwaldr, was accompanied everywhere by a sacred cow, of which he\ndrank the milk, and with which he desired to be buried. In the\n_Rigvedas_, as we have seen, the hero Indras makes the cow fruitful;\nand the thunderbolt of the god, penetrating the cloud, takes the form of\na phallos. Afterwards, as a symbol of the rod-phallos, the branch or rod\nof the tree pal\u00e2\u00e7as was adopted, with which the cow was struck to make\nit fruitful; such a magic rod is used in Germany to this day, where it\nis in many parts the custom to strike the cow, in the belief that it\nwill render her fruitful.[427]\n\nIt is with the head of the most beautiful of the giant Hymir's oxen\nfastened to his hook that, in Snorri's _Edda_, the god Thor goes to\nfish up the immense serpent of Midgard from the bottom of the sea, and\ndestroys it upon the sea-shore. (This myth, if I am not mistaken, has\nthe following meaning:--The head of the solar, or lunar, bull is\ndevoured by the monster of night; this same head, tossed about, draws\nup, towards morning as sun, and towards evening as moon, upon the\nshore of the sea of night, that is to say, on the eastern mountain,\nthe monster-serpent: thus Hanumant, in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, passes over to\nthe opposite shore of the sea, crossing the body of the marine\nmonster, which he causes to burst; thus Indras kills Ahis the serpent\nupon the mountain).\n\nNor is there the cow of abundance only. Scandinavian tradition, in the\nshort poem on the dwarf Allwis, offers us the cornucopia in the cup\nformed of the defence of oxen (_i.e._, with their horns), in which the\ngod Thor drinks hydromel. Thus Sigurd offers to Br\u00fcnhilt a horn full of\nmead to drink. And this horn, moreover, besides serving as a cornucopia,\nbecomes as a golden horn the war-trumpet of Odin (the Giallarhorn).\n\nThe Scandinavian hero then, it appears also, has his relationship with\ncows, though his life has far more of a warlike character than a\npastoral one; he therefore accuses Loki, and in so doing fills him with\nshame, with having passed eight winters underground occupied in milking\nthe cows like a woman. (It is known that the Hindoo word _duhitar_,\nwhence Tochter, means she who milks). The Scandinavian hero, instead of\nmilking cows, eats bulls. We find more than once in the _Eddas_ the\nheroes occupied in roasting oxen. Atli, the husband of Gudrun, boasts of\nhaving killed some oxen and having eaten them with her. Gudrun, the\nScandinavian Medea, gives Atli the hearts of his two sons to eat,\nassuring him that they are calves' hearts. The god Thor, disguised as\nthe goddess Freya, drinks three barrels of mead, and eats a whole bull,\nwhen he sets out on the enterprise of recovering his marvellous hammer.\nThe bull's or cow's horn, moreover, not only supplies mead to the hero,\nnor is it only used to call his friends to his aid and to throw down the\nenemy; it also forms the hero's bow, which therefore, in the _Vilkina\nSaga_,[428] also takes the name of Hornboge, and, as such, assists the\ngreatest hero, Thidrek or D\u00eetrich, and is the parent of the celebrated\nhero Sigurd (S\u00eefrit, or Siegfried). And, in conclusion, the horns are\nconsidered such an important weapon of the cow and bull, that a proverb,\nwhich is at once Slavonic, German, and Italian, says, \"To a wicked cow,\nGod gives short horns\" (that it may do no harm, or rather, because it\nwears them away by use); to cut off the cow's horns means, in a German\nproverb, to surmount a difficulty; and to take the bull or cow by the\nhorns, is to disarm them.[429]\n\nIn the Greenland poem on Atli, in the _Edda_ of S\u00f6mund, H\u00f6gni says, that\nwhen many cattle are killed much blood is seen, and that when one dreams\nof eagles, oxen are not far distant. In the _Edda_ of Snorri, whilst\nOdin, Loki, and H\u00f6nir are cooking an ox under a tree, an eagle on its\nsummit prevents the meat from being cooked, till the heroes consent to\ngive him part of it. The heroes consent, but the eagle carries off no\nless than the two thighs and the two shoulders of the ox. The eagle has\nin the _Edda_ the same demoniacal and infernal character that is in\nother traditions ascribed to the crow, the funereal stork, and the\nvulture: it searches for oxen; and therefore to dream of eagles is an\nintimation that an ox is near, in the same way as they say the presence\nof a vulture is a sign of the proximity of a corpse.\n\nA German legend, cited by Kuhn and Schwartz,[430] makes a battle begin\n\"as soon as a red cow is led over a certain bridge.\" We remember the\nRussian story of the girl who, by means of the magical towel of her\nbrother, makes a bridge arise over the river, over which the\nmonster-serpent, in the form of a handsome young man, crosses to take\nher; how the brother is sacrificed in the battle which he is obliged to\nfight against the monster, who disarms him by fraud; and how the battle\nbetween the hero and the monster begins when the maiden, passing the\nbridge, abandons the hero, her brother, who falls and sheds his blood in\nthe unequal struggle. I have already remarked that in the popular\nbelief the bloody sun of evening forebodes war, and the red cow of\nGerman tradition represents no other than this sky. As to the bridge, an\ninteresting note of Kuhn and Schwartz[431] seems to confirm the\nhypothesis which I have already hinted at in connection with the\nSlavonic story, _i.e._, that it represents the milky way; from this\nnote, too, in which a resemblance is noticed between the bridge of the\nred cow, which determines the beginning of a battle, and the\nScandinavian celestial B\u00eefr\u00f6st (as perhaps there is between it and even\nthe Persian bridge Cinvant itself), I gather that in Frisia the milky\nway is called Kau-pat (or Kuh-pfad, cow's-path). That is to say, it is\nsupposed that the red cow of evening passes during the night along the\nmilky way, scattering her milk over it; whence perhaps is derived the\nGerman proverb, \"Even red cows yield white milk,\"[432]--like that other\nwhich we have already seen current in India, and met with again in\nTuranian tradition, and which exists as a German, Slavonic, and Italian\nproverb, \"Even the black cow yields white milk\"--(the black night which\nproduces the alba or white dawn of morning, and we might add, the silver\nmoon and the milky way).\n\nSince it seems to me, therefore, as I trust it also does to the\nreader, that the maiden who crosses the bridge in the Slavonic\nstories is, without doubt, the same as the red cow which does the like\nin German legend, and if I have not been mistaken in identifying the\nmaiden who travels with her brother to the kingdom of the dead with\nthe evening aurora and the dying sun, I shall here adduce a few other\nGerman proverbs, which may also be said to be universal in European\ntradition, relating to the cow, all pointing to a similar conclusion.\nThey are as follows:--\"Shutting the stable after the cow has been\nstolen.\" \"He who has lost a cow, and recovers her tail, has not much,\nbut he has more than nothing.\" \"A cow's tail might reach heaven, if it\nwere only a long one.\"[434] \"A cow does not know what her tail is\nworth till she loses it.\" \"To take the cow by her tail.\" \"The black\ncow has crushed him, or has got upon him.\" \"A cow cannot overtake a\nhare.\" \"The cow has outrun the hare.\" \"Not all who sound the horn hunt\nthe hare.\" \"When the cows laugh.\" \"As a blind cow can find a pea.\" \"He\nmust be carried about in an old cow's hide.\" \"If the cow-maid spins,\nthere will be little yarn.\" \"The cow will learn to spin first.\"[435]\n\nMeditating upon all these German proverbs, it is, it appears to me,\nnot difficult to recognise in them a reminiscence of ancient myths\nwith which we are already acquainted. When we reflect that almost\nevery proverb has passed into contradictory forms and varieties, and\nas in these varieties we may trace the elements of the history of a\ngreat number of strange proverbs, it does not seem rash to affirm that\nthe said history generally had, in like manner, its origin in a myth.\nNot to wander from the subject in hand, that the same proverb is\nattributed to different animals, not only by different nations, but in\nthe oral traditions of the same people, I must refer the reader to\nwhat I have remarked in the preface to this volume concerning the\ncontradiction which exists between certain superstitious beliefs. The\ncontradiction between many proverbs, as also between many\nsuperstitions, compared with each other, can only be reconciled by\nreferring both back to the battle-field of mythology, where an\ninconceivable number of myths arise, and can only arise, out of\ncontradictions; that is, out of contrasted aspects which celestial\nphenomena present, even to the same observer, still more so to\ndifferent observers. The comparative history of mythical proverbs is\nyet to be written, and perhaps it is not yet possible to write it\naccording to rigorous scientific method in all its completeness. A\npreliminary study of the details is necessary to understand a proverb\nas well as a popular custom, a superstitious belief, a legend, or a\nmyth; and this study will demand some labour; for one proverb,\ncompletely illustrated, may involve the development of an entire\nepical history. I shall not presume here to solve the enigma of the\nabove-quoted German proverbs, but only to indicate what seems to me to\nbe the way of arriving at their most probable solution. In the study\nof a proverb, it is necessary to lay great stress upon its\nintonation. Upon the different tones in which an ancient proverb was\noriginally pronounced, and afterwards repeated, passing from tongue to\ntongue, and from people to people, depends a great part of the\nalteration in the meaning even of the most interesting of the\nproverbs, which are a patrimony we owe in common to Aryan tradition. A\nproverb, for instance, began by being a simple affirmation, the simple\nexpression of a natural mythical image; with the lapse of time the\nexpression remained, and the myth was forgotten; the expression then\nappeared to refer to a strange thing, and was accompanied, when\npronounced, with a doubtful mark of interrogation; it was now adopted\nin the denial of an impossible thing, and became an instrument for\nsatire. Thus many proverbs which have become satirical, must have been\noriginally nothing more than mythical affirmative phrases.\n\n\"To shut the stable after the cow has been stolen.\" In England, instead\nof the cow, we have in the proverb a girl: \"When your daughter is\nstolen, shut Peppergate\" (the name of a little gate of the city of\nChester, which it is said the mayor ordered to be shut when his daughter\nhad been carried off). The proverb is now used to stir up a laugh at the\nexpense of those who are at pains to guard their property after it has\nbeen robbed; but it perhaps had not always the same meaning. We are\nalready familiar in Hindoo tradition with the hero who delivers the\nbeautiful maiden out of the enclosure, and have seen how she is scarcely\nfree, when she is led away by iniquitous brothers or companions, after\nshutting up the legitimate proprietor of the cow or maiden in the cave\nwhence the cow or girl came forth; how the ravishing brothers shut the\ndoor of the stable or cavern, after having carried off the maiden. The\nhero imprisoned in the stable, the hero shut up in the darkness of\nnight, often assumed in mythology the form of a fool. Hence from the\nidea of shutting the gate of the stable upon the hero, by the ravishers\nof his cow, the transition seems natural, in my opinion, to the hero\nlost in the cavern, to the hero become foolish, to the peasant who shuts\nthe door of the stable when the cow has been robbed, or to the mayor of\nChester, who, being shut up in the town, shuts the Peppergate, through\nwhich the girl who had been carried off passed.\n\n\"He who has lost a cow and recovers its tail has not much, but he has\nmore than nothing.\" This proverb also appears to me to have a mythical\nmeaning. I have already remarked that the tail, the heel, the feet,\nthat is to say, the lower or hinder extremities, betray the mythical\nanimal; which we shall see more convincingly when we come to examine\nthe legends which refer to the wolf, the fox, and the serpent. It is\nthe footprint which, in all the European traditions, betrays the\nbeautiful maiden in her flight; and when the brigand Cacus carried off\nthe oxen of Hercules, the hero, to recover them, searches for their\nfootprints. But in order that these may not be recognised, the cunning\nbrigand, instead of leading the oxen by their heads, takes them by\ntheir tails,[436] and makes them walk backwards. Hence, to take by the\ntail, means to take hold of the wrong way, and it is applied to the\nass as well as the cow. It is said in Germany that a cow once fell\ninto a ditch from which none of the bystanders dared to extricate it.\nThe peasant to whom the cow belonged came up, and, according to some,\ntook it fearlessly by the horns, while, according to others, he\ndragged it out by its tail, whence can be explained the double proverb\nto take by the horns, _i.e._, to take by the right side, and to take\nby the tail, or, as we have said, to take by the wrong. But the\npeasant could only take his cow out by the horns, or by the tail,\naccording to the way in which it had fallen in; that is, if it had\nfallen down head foremost, it could only be dragged out by the tail,\nand if, on the contrary, it had fallen in tail foremost, he could only\nextricate it by laying hold of its horns. The cow-aurora is taken by\nsurprise and devoured by the wolf, bear, wild-boar, or serpent of\nnight, who takes her by the shoulders (it is on this account that, in\nthe Russian story, we have seen the bull recommend the fugitive hero,\naccompanied by his sister, to keep his face turned in the direction\nwhence the pursuing monster might be expected to come up). The monster\n(the shadow, or the cloud) clutches the cow by her tail and devours\nher, or drags her into his cave. The hero, in order to deliver his cow\nout of the cave, can take her by the horns only on condition that he\npenetrates into the cavern by the same way by which the cow entered,\nthat is, by the monster's mouth; but, as the monster endeavours to\nsurprise the hero from behind, so the hero often wounds the monster\nfrom behind, catches hold of him by the tail, and in this way drags\nhim out of the cavern, ditch, or mud--his fallen cow. In a Hindoo\nfable in the second book of the _Pancatantram_, we have the story of a\njackal, who, to satisfy a desire of his wife, follows the bull for\nwhole years together, in the hope that his two hanging testicles might\nfall some day or another. In a joke of Poggius, and in Lessing,[437]\nwe find the same subject spoken of, of which a variation is given in\na German proverb, \"Though the cow's tail moves, it does not\nfall.\"[438] In the hope of this it is that the wolf, or the fox, runs\nafter the tail of the cow or bull. There is a Piedmontese story which\nI heard in my infancy, one comic feature of which lingers vividly in\nthe memory: a boy who took the hogs to pasture, cut off their tails\nand stuck them in the mud, and then made off with the animals. The\nowner of the hogs, seeing their tails, is under the impression that\nthey have sunk into the mud. He tugs at them, brings away their tails,\nbut cannot fish up their bodies. In a Russian story given by\n_Afanassieff_,[439] we read that the cunning Little Thomas (Thomka,\nFomka) cheats the priest of his horse (in some versions his ass) by\ncutting off its tail and planting it in the mud of a marsh. He makes\nthe priest believe that his horse has fallen into the marsh; the\npriest, thinking to pull it out, gives one stiff tug, and falls down\non his back with the tail in his hand; upon which Tom persuades him to\nbelieve that he has broken it off himself, and to be content with the\nrecovery of so much of the lost animal. In the fifty-seventh Gaelic\nstory of Campbell,[440] a priest endeavours to pull out of the water a\ndrowning sheep, but the tail comes away, and the story-teller adds,\n\"If the tail had not come off, the story would have been longer.\" And\nso the owner of the cow, the robber of which has left the tail behind\nas a consolation, has in reality but little, but yet this little is\nsomething; for, just as the slipper left behind her by the fugitive\ngirl, although it is of little value, enables the hero to identify\nher, so in the tail of his cow the owner has something in hand to set\nout on its search with, and to recover his lost property; either\nbecause the tail of an animal is like its shadow and serves to trace\nit, as the slipper does the maiden by showing the footstep; or else,\nbecause tailless cows are evidently stolen ones. (In the myth of\nCacus, in which Hercules traces the stolen oxen by the footprints, and\nCacus drags them by their tails, the mythical figure of the slipper\nand that of the lost tail are perhaps united. It is possible that the\ntails of the oxen came off in the hands of Cacus when dragging them\ninto the cavern, and that, thrown away by the brigand, and found by\nHercules, they may have served him as a guide to recover his oxen. It\nis also possible that Cacus, pursued by Hercules, had not time to\ndrive the oxen in entirely, but that their tails still protruded and\nbetrayed their whereabouts. Relative to the Latin legend of Cacus,\nthese are simply hypotheses, and I have therefore enclosed them in a\nparenthesis; but inasmuch as in the above-quoted Russian story, we\nfind the horse's tail cut off by the robber, and as in the chapter on\nthe fox, we shall see the fox who betrays himself by not drawing in\nhis tail, whence the proverb, \"Cauda de vulpe testatur,\" the two\nhypotheses advanced above are, after all, not so visionary.) In\n_Pausanias_[441] the hero Aristomenes, who has been thrown into a deep\ncistern, liberates himself in a marvellous manner by means of an\neagle, after a fox had opened a passage. The fox's tail has such a\nbewitching power of attraction, that according to popular tradition,\nwhen it is moved the cock falls down unable to resist the charm.\nAccording to popular belief, the tail (as well as the nose and mouth)\nis the most splendid part of the body of an animal. The great monkey\nHanumant, with his tail on fire, burns Lanka (in the same way as the\nburning tails of the foxes of the biblical Samson burn the ripe\nharvests of the Philistines). The grey, or black, horse of mythology\n(having devoured the solar white, or red horse) emits fire from his\nmouth or tail. This black horse being the night, the horse's jaws and\ntail, which emit fire, represent the luminous heavens of evening and\nof morning; when, therefore, the tail of his horse (stolen by the\nrobber in the same way as the bull and the cow[442]) remains in the\nmythical hero's hand, this light-streaming tail is enough to enable\nhim to find the whole animal, _i.e._, the solar hero comes out of his\nhiding-place (Hanumant comes out of the hinder parts of the marine\nmonster, the dwarf comes out of the wolf's back[443]), the bull-sun\nfinds his cow the aurora again; the prince sun, the princess aurora;\nthe peasant recovers his ass or his cow; Hercules, his oxen; the white\nhorse comes out of the tail of the black horse, who had eaten him, and\nthen, by means of the tail, ascends to heaven;[444] the white bull\ncomes out of the black one; the white, or the red, cow comes out of\nthe black cow; the tail comes out of the body; the hero comes out of\nthe sack, or hide, in which he had been enclosed or sewed up. The sack\nplays a great part in the tradition of the hidden or persecuted hero;\nthis sack is the night or the cloud, or the winter; the hero shut up\nin the sack, and thrown into the sea, is the sun. The hero enclosed in\nthe sack and thrown into the sea, and the heroine shut up in a chest\n(covered, moreover, with a cow's hide, in the myth of Pasiph\u00e4e) or\nbarrel, and abandoned to the water,[445] are equivalent to each other,\nand so are the heroes shut up in the well, in the cavern, in the\nstables, and even in the cow. Inasmuch as the sack in which, according\nto the proverb quoted above, the delinquent hero is to be sewed, is an\nold cow's-hide, or else the hide of an old cow, or a dark one (of the\nnight), when this black cow sits on the eggs of the bird of evening,\nto hatch them, the eggs come to evil; whence I derive the German\nproverb, \"When the cow sits upon the eggs, do not expect fowls.\"[446]\nAnd when the night was observed to overwhelm the sun and withdraw him\nfrom human sight, this other proverb took its origin, \"The black cow\nhas crushed him.\" The black cow does not only crush the hero, but, as\nthe wolf does, shuts him up in her own hide,[447] in her own sack,\n_i.e._, devours him--to fill the sack is the same as to fill the body,\nand to empty the sack as to empty the body. In the Piedmontese story\nof the dwarf child (the Norwegian Schmierbock), whom the wolf[448]\nencloses in the sack, the dwarf comes out of the sack while the wolf\nis emptying his body. Of two Russian stories given by _Afanassieff_,\nwhich we shall examine in the chapter on the wolf, one shows us the\nwolf who puts the peasant in a sack, and the other the wolf who puts\nthe dwarf-hero in his body; and both peasant and dwarf save\nthemselves. The two variations took their origin in the comparison\ndrawn between the body and a sack, which, in mythical speech, are\ntherefore the same thing. The hide of the black bull, black ox, black\nor grey horse, or black or grey wolf, and the sack which wraps up the\nhero or the devil, play a great part in popular Indo-European\ntradition.[449] From the sack of the funeral stork (the night), in a\nRussian story,[450] come forth two young heroes (the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u),\ndefeaters of their enemies, who spread out the tablecloth of abundance\n(the aurora), and a horse which drops gold (the sun). The hero shut up\nin the sack, or the cow's hide, and thrown into the water, escapes\nfrom shipwreck in the same way as those navigators of the Chinese sea\ndescribed in his voyages by Benjamin of Tudela, who, he says, when\nshipwrecked, escaped being swallowed up by the waves by covering\nthemselves with the whole hide of a cow or an ox; for the eagles,\nmistaking them for real, flew to the spot and pouncing upon them, drew\nthem ashore. The ship with the buffalo's hide is found again in\npopular stories. This is evidently a reminiscence of mythical\nderivation (from which was, perhaps, afterwards derived the idea of\ntorture, as in the famous bull of Phalaris, in which many see a symbol\nof the god of the waters, the bull's hide in which the tetrarch\nAcarnides, vanquished by Memnon, was sewed up,[451] in antiquity, and,\nin the Middle Ages, the ox's hide in which, according to the\nchronicles, the horrid Duke of Spalato Euroia orders Paulus Chuporus,\nprefect of the Emperor Sigismond, to be sewed, to revenge himself upon\nhim, because he had, out of contempt, saluted him by bellowing like an\nox). Thus with the Celtic hero Brian,[452] the pretended fool, who\nspeculates upon the stupidity of those who are reputed wise. When one\nof these so-called sages, deceived by him, proposes to throw him into\nthe sea shut up in a sack, he makes another man take his place by\nmeans of a witty invention, as Goldoni's liar would say, whilst he\nhimself comes back to the shore with a whole herd of cattle. In the\nother Celtic, Slavonic, German, and Italian variations of this story,\nthe would-be fool begins his fortune-making, in one version, by\nputting a few coins into his dead cow's hide, and then selling it at a\nvery high price as a purse which will give out money whenever shaken;\nand in another, by palming off his ass or horse, persuading the\npurchaser, by means of an easy deceit, to believe that it yields gold\nand silver, and thus obtaining a high price for it. With the cow are\nalso connected the two horns, by blowing into which he causes his\nwife, who feigns death, to rise to life again, which horns he thus\nprevails on his brothers or companions to buy at a great ransom, who,\nthinking themselves cunning, and wishing by means of the horns to\nspeculate upon corpses,[453] begin by killing people, and are ruined.\nI have said above, that the sack in which the hero is generally\nenclosed is the same as the chest in which the heroine is usually shut\nup on account of her beauty, that is to say, in which the beautiful\nheroine hides her splendour, or in which the red cow, the evening\naurora with the sun, loses herself. The fourteenth Scottish story of\nMr J. F. Campbell's contains the following narrative:--A king, whose\nfirst wife (the morning aurora) is dead, engages to marry the woman\nwhom the dead queen's dresses will fit, and finds no one who can wear\nthem except his own daughter (the evening aurora). She makes her\nfather give her gold and silver dresses and shoes (that is, she takes\nfrom her father, the sun, the splendour of the morning aurora); she\nshuts herself up with them in a chest, and lets herself be thrown into\nthe sea. The chest drifts about on the waves, and comes at last to the\nshore; the beautiful maiden enters the service of a young king; she\nshows herself in church with her splendid robes; the young king, who\ndoes not recognise his servant-maid in this beautiful princess,\nbecomes enamoured of her, and hastens to overtake her; she flees and\nloses her golden slipper; the king finds it, and to discover her, has\nit measured on every foot; many maidens cut off their toes to make the\nslipper go on, but a bird divulges the deceit; the young king marries\nthe beautiful maiden who came out of the wooden chest. Here we have\nagain, not only the heroine who escapes, but the walking heroine; this\nheroine is the aurora, and the aurora is often a cow. Another swift\ncow passes in the proverb before the hare (the leaping moon), in the\nfable of the ant and the grasshopper, of which the former represents\nthe cloud or the night, or Indras or the aurora in the cloud of night,\nor the earth,[454] and the latter, the leaping one, the moon; the ant\npasses the grasshopper in the race, not because it walks faster, but\nbecause the two runners must necessarily meet, and therefore the one\nmust pass the other. The English infantile rhyme, \"Hey! diddle,\ndiddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon,\" refers\nto the myth of the cow which jumps over the hare. The observation of\ncelestial phenomena being afterwards neglected, and it being forgotten\nthat the running ant or cow meant the cloud, or the sun, or the\naurora, or the earth, and the jumping hare or grasshopper the moon,\nonly a regular and parallel race, on the terrestrial soil, between cow\nand hare, or ant and grasshopper, was seen; and from the myth of the\ntwo animals which meet and pass each other in the sky, was derived,\naccording to the different characters of nations or eras, a double\nproverb--one deriding the slow and rash animal which presumes to try\nand overtake the swift one in the race, the other serving as an\nexample to prove the truth of the sentence, \"Tarde sed tute,\" which,\nin Italian, is \"Chi va piano va sano e va lontano\" (he who goes\nslowly, goes well and far). The first proverb has for its parent the\nGreek one, \"to hunt the hare with an ox,\" which, in Italian, is\n\"pigliar la lepre col carro\" (to take the hare with a car);[455]\nreferring to cases where means disproportionate to the end are made\nuse of. When the hare and the cow meet, if the cow is obliged to stop\nthe hare, she crushes it, as we have seen above that she crushes the\nbird's eggs instead of hatching them. The idea, moreover, of the ox\nhunting the hare arose naturally out of the idea of the ox or cow\novertaking and passing beyond the hare. To these proverbs can perhaps\nbe joined the next German one:--\"All who blow the horn do not hunt\nhares,\" which is now directed against those who think by an easy\nmethod, such as blowing a horn, to accomplish a difficult enterprise,\nsuch as hunting a hare; in the same way as in Germany it is said, that\nall thunder-clouds do not give rain, and the cow must do more than low\nin order to have much milk, or the cow that lows most is not the one\nthat yields most milk.[456] In fact, a cow which lows much is unwell,\nneither while it is lowing can it eat and make milk; so he who\nfatigues himself with blowing the horn is not able, at the same time,\nto run after the hare; as in the Italian proverb, \"Il can che abbaia\nnon morde\" (the dog that barks does not bite), for the simple reason\nthat whilst he opens his mouth to bark, he cannot shut it to bite. The\nhen that clucks, on the other hand, is the one that lays the egg,\nbecause the act of clucking with the mouth does not interfere with the\noperation of egg-laying; there is no incompatibility of offices.\n\nThe German proverb, \"As a blind cow finds a pea,\" is now used to\nindicate an impossibility; and yet in the myth the blind cow (or the\nnight) really finds the pea, kidney-bean, or bean (the moon), which\nare the same thing to all intents and purposes. The night is sacred to\nthe dead; for the dead are as eaten vegetables--kidney-beans, vetches,\npeas, and cabbages--lunar symbols of resurrection and abundance. In\nthe ninth story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the daughter of\nthe old man and woman eats beans; a bean falls upon the ground, and\ngrows up to the sky; upon this bean the old man (the sun) climbs up to\nheaven and sees everything. In the numerous stories in which the young\nhero sells a cow or cow's hide, we almost always find a pipkin full of\nkidney-beans, which he induces people to think can cook themselves,\nthe hero having first cooked them, and then placed them upon the fire\ncovered with ashes (the darkness); the pipkin is also the moon. The\nstories of the pipkin belonging to the house-mother in the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, which the god Krishnas, having been hospitably\nentertained by her, refills with beans, and of the lord who, in an\nunpublished Piedmontese legend, disguised as a poor old man, throws\npebbles into the kettle of the pious widow, which, as soon as thrown\nin, become kidney-beans, involve the same myth. In the same way I\nthink the kidney-bean is evidently intended by the fruit of fruits,\nwhich, according to the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, the merciful man receives in\nexchange for the little black cow (_krishnadhenuk\u00e2_) given to the\npriest.[457] In the English fairy tale of \"Jack and the Bean-stalk,\"\nJack barters his cow for some beans; his mother (the blind cow)\nscatters the beans; one of them takes root, and grows up to the\nsky.[458] By means of the black cow, of the funereal or blind cow, of\nthe cow-aurora, which becomes black or blind during the night, the\nhero finds the bean or the pea of abundance (the moon), by means of\nwhich he sees again in the morning and becomes rich.\n\nWe have seen a sack, instead of the hide of a black cow, used to\nsignify the night; in like manner, after or instead of this same cow's\nhide (which the hero goes to sell), as well as the pea or bean, we\nhave the pipkin--the poor hero finds the moon. The Slavonic story of\nthe potter who becomes rich, and that of the brother believed to be\nstupid, who sells at a high price his pipkin, which makes the beans\nboil without a fire, are varieties of the same subject. In a Russian\nstory in _Afanassieff_,[459] the amphora takes the place of the pipkin\nthat makes its owner rich. The poor brother draws it out of the water;\nfrom the broken amphora comes a duck, which lays one day golden eggs,\nand the next silver ones--the sun and the moon (at morning the aurora\nhatches the golden day, at evening the silver night).\n\nWe have still to explain the proverbs of the cow that laughs and the\ncow that spins. The laughing aurora (after having, during the night,\nacted the princess that never laughs) and the spinning aurora (in\nrelation with the cow, the moon, that spins by means of its horns) are\nalready known to us. The aurora laughs at morn in the sky, at the\nsight of her husband; thus the princess that never laughs, in a\nnumerous series of Slavonic, German, and Italian stories, laughs when\nshe sees her predestined husband.[460] The proverb of the cow that\nlaughs is connected with that of the cow that speaks; it is perhaps on\nthis account that bulls and cows (and other animals) which speak, and\nsay and do complimentary things among themselves, in an entire cycle\nof Indo-European stories, which have been learnedly illustrated by\nProfessor Benfey, in _Orient und Occident_, under the title of \"Ein\nM\u00e4rchen von der Thiersprachen,\" always make the man who understands,\nand indiscreetly listens to their language, laugh. But if the man\nreveals what the bulls or cows (or other animals) have said to each\nother, he prepares his own ruin: the language and the inner life of\nanimals must not be divulged to all; if published abroad, the augury\nis a sinister one. That which makes the princess of the Russian tale\nlaugh, is seeing the courtesy which the animals, like men, show to the\nman taken out of the mud; that which makes the man who understands the\nlanguage of animals laugh, is seeing them speak and act to each other\nexactly as men do in similar private relations. To betray this mystery\nis to wish for one's death. No one must know what the bull said in\nsecret to the cow, the sun to his mistress, what the king said in the\nqueen's ear. The violator of the mysteries of Venus is guilty of\nsacrilege, and merits the punishment of death, or at least brings evil\ndown upon his head. Woe to the heroine if the hero hidden in the skin\nof an animal, on account of some indiscretion, or because she has\nspoken to her sisters, shows himself naked in his human form; she\nloses him, and their separation is inevitable.\n\nWe are already acquainted with the cloud-cow and the cloud-bull; the\ncloud thunders, the bull bellows and speaks. The clouds, the Vedic\n_gn\u00e2 devapatn\u00ees_, _gn\u00e2 dev\u00ees_,[461] that is, the goddesses, or divine\nand knowing wives, the fairy goddesses (women with their\npresentiments, the women that know more than the devil), are also\nprophetic cows; these cows, in their character of fairies, speak with\na human voice, and so do the cloud-bulls. Hence the Romans could take\ntheir auguries from an ox that spoke with a human voice. It has been\nsaid that this omen was a sinister one, but it is a mistake. According\nto Livy, under the consulate of Cn. Domitius and L. Quintius, an ox\nthrew Rome into terror by the words, _Cave tibi, Roma_. These words\nseem to have a sinister meaning, but they are in reality nothing more\nthan a friendly counsel or admonition, as much as to say, Look to your\nfield occupations, O Rome; the thunder has been heard which announces\nthe summer. Thus, when we read in the fifth book of Pliny's _Natural\nHistory_ that whenever an ox was known to have spoken with a man's\nvoice, the Roman Senate was accustomed to meet in the open air--_sub\ndio_, I only see in this allusion, and in ascribing this practice to\nthe Senate, one way of saying that when thunder is heard (that is to\nsay, when the ox speaks) it is a sign of summer, and we may go out\ninto the country and sleep in the open air. And so, finally, when,\naccording to Eusebius, an ox said, that for the death of C\u00e6sar (which,\nas every one knows, took place on the Ides of March, that is to say,\nat the beginning of spring) there would be more blades of corn than\nmen, I see a most evident announcement of the approach of summer, in\nwhich men or reapers are in fact never too many, and even rare when\nthe harvest is a large one. The ox that with a man's voice heralds the\nnear advent of summer corresponds to the cuckoo, the legend of which\nwe shall reserve for a special chapter. Meanwhile, to confirm still\nmore our identification, we shall cite here the almost proverbial\nverse of Theocritos: Women know everything, even how Zeus married H\u00eara\n(or that which the king said in the queen's ear). Zeus, transformed\ninto a cuckoo, flew to the mountain, and alighted on the knees of\nH\u00eara, who, to protect him from the cold, covered him over with her\nrobes. The cuckoo, or Zeus, disappears soon after having spoken, that\nis, announced the summer loves of the sun. After St John's Day the\ncuckoo, who appears in March, is no longer seen; so the ox, soon after\nit has spoken and betrayed the loves of Zeus, or soon after the cloud\nhas thundered, revealing the secret loves of the sun within the sky\ncovered with clouds, or the confidential speeches and secret caresses\nof the animals, pays for this indiscretion by his own death. As the\naurora is represented in the Vedic hymns by a maiden who does not\nlaugh, and smiles only when she sees her husband,[462] so the\nlightning that tears the cloud and comes before the thunder is\ncompared to the laughing of an ox or a cow, or else of the man who has\nseen their loves. As long as the sky only lightens, or merely\nsmiles,[463] there is little harm done. No one can know as yet why the\nox or the cow, the hero or heroine, or the third person who is looking\non, smiles before the spectator; but when the hero or the heroine\nspeaks, betraying the thought or singular surprise which makes him or\nher smile, the penalty of the indiscretion is death; the thundering\ncloud is soon dissolved into rain. Nor will my identification of the\ncloud that lightens (making a distinction between the lightning and\nthe thunderbolt) with the smiling cow, or ox, or man who,\nunderstanding the language of animals, as they speak in low tones, and\nseeing their most familiar habits, smiles, seem forced when we reflect\nthat our language has preserved the figures of a ray of joy, of a\nflash of joy, to indicate a smile, of which we say that it shines,\nillumines, or lightens. Lightning is the cloud's smile. In the ninth\nstory of the third book of _Afanassieff_, we meet with a fish which\nlaughs in the face of the onlooker (the cloud that lightens, and also\nthe moon that comes out of the ocean of night), and for which, on\naccount of this singular property, the poor man (the sun in the cloud\nor in the night) obtains an extraordinary sum from a rich lord, even\nall his riches--_i.e._, the poor man takes the place of the lord; the\nsplendid sun takes the place of the sun hidden in the cloud or in the\ndarkness. In a Hindoo story of _Somadevas_ (i. 5), a fish laughs upon\nseeing men disguised as women in the king's apartment. In the\n_Tuti-Name_ (ii. 21), the fishes laugh when they see the prudery of an\nadulteress. With this is connected the fable of Lafontane, \"Le Rieur\net les Poissons\" (viii. 8). In the legend of Merlin, the magician also\nlaughs because the wife of Julius C\u00e6sar lives with twelve heroes\ndisguised as women, and because he himself allowed himself to be taken\nby Grisandole, a princess disguised as a cavalier.[464]\n\nThe fish is a phallic symbol (in the Neapolitan dialect, _pesce_,\nfish, is the phallos itself). The fish that laughs because it has been\nthe spectator of adultery is the phallos itself _in gaudio Veneris_.\nThe thunderbolt of Indras is his phallos that breaks the cloud. In\nOvid,[465] we have Jupiter, who, by means of riddles, teaches Numa the\nway of forming the thunderbolt.\n\n      \"Coede caput, dixit, cui Rex, Parebimus, inquit;\n         Coedenda est hortis eruta cepa meis.\n       Addidit hic, Hominis: Summos, ait ille, capillos.\n         Postulat hic animam: cui Numa, Piscis, ait.\n       Risit; et His, inquit, facito mea tela procures,\n         O vir colloquio non abigende meo.\"\n\nThe joke of the April fish (le poisson d'Avril), with which so many of\nour ladies ingenuously amuse themselves, has a scandalously phallical\nsignification.[466] The fishes of the Zodiac are twins, a male and a\nfemale bound together, born of Er\u00f4s (Amor) and Aphrodit\u00ea (Venus). In\nthe Adiparvam of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, we read of a fish which devours a\nman's seed, and a girl who, having eaten it, brings forth a child. The\nsame myth occurs again in the Western popular tales.\n\nThe cow that spins still remains to be explained. We have already seen\nthat the cow spins with her horns for the maiden; this cow is,\ngenerally, the moon, which spins gold and silver during the night. The\naurora is ordered by her step-mother, the night, both to pasture the\ncow (the moon) and spin. If the cow-maid is to take care of her cow\nand guard her well, she will be able to spin but little; whence the\nGerman proverb is right when it says that if the cow-maid must spin\nthere will be little yarn. The good cow-maid prefers to keep her cow\nwell, and pays every regard to it, in order that it may find good\npasturage; then the grateful cow (the moon) puts gold and silver upon\nits horns to spin for the maiden.[467] In the morning the girl\nappears upon the mountain with the gold and silver yarn, with the gold\nand silver robes given her by the good fairy or by the good cow.[468]\nAnd when the old woman kills the cow, the girl who keeps its bones and\nsows them in the garden sees, instead of the cow, an apple-tree with\ngold and silver apples grow up, by offering one of which to a young\nprince the maiden obtains a husband, whilst perverse women are beaten\nby the apple-tree or find themselves opposed by horns. This\napple-legend is a variation of the star which falls upon the good\nmaiden's forehead on the mountain, and of the horns, or donkey's tail,\nwhich grow out of the forehead of the bad sister who has maltreated\nthe cow or badly combed the Madonna's head. The story of the good\nmaiden and the wicked one, of the beautiful and the ugly one, finishes\nwith the attempt made by the ugly and wicked girl to take the place of\nthe beautiful and good one in her husband's bed, in the same way as,\nin other stories, a black washerwoman tries to take the place of the\nbeautiful princess; and this conclusion brings us to the interesting\nstory of the spinning Berta, or Queen Bertha, as she is called.\n\nIn German mythology we have the luminous Berchta, who spins, in\ncontrast with the dark and wild Holda at the fountain (the washerwoman\nof fairy tales). The former seems to be (besides the moon as a white\nwoman, in her period of light, the silvery night) the aurora, the\nspring, or the luminous aspect of the heavens; the latter (besides the\nmoon in her period of darkness, Proserpina or Persephon\u00ea in hell), the\ndark night, winter, the old witch.[469] The same name is given to the\nvarious phenomena of the gloomy sky, in the same way as a contrary\nname is given to the various phenomena of the luminous heavens. On\nthis account lunar and solar myths, daily and annual myths, enter into\nthe story of Berta or Berchta.\n\nBerta, like the cow of the fairy tales, spins silver and gold.\nTherefore, when we say in Italy that the time when Berta spun is\npast,[470] this expression means, that the golden age, the age in\nwhich gold abounded is past. And instead of this expression we also\nuse another in Italy to denote an incident which took place in a very\nancient era, at a time very remote from the memory of men; we say, in\nthe times of King Pipino (Pepin). Queen Berta having been the wife of\nPepin, it was natural that the times of the husband should correspond\nto the fabled era of his wife, who was, tradition alleges, mother of\nCharlemagne, the hero so-named of the legends, of whom it is said, in\nTurpin's Chronicle, that he had long feet, and his _alter ego_ Orlando\n(a new and splendid medi\u00e6val form of the twin heroes), rather than of\nthe King Charlemagne of history.\n\nBerta has a large foot, like the goddess Freya, the German Venus, who\nhas swan's feet. It is this large foot that distinguishes her from other\nwomen, and enables her husband to recognise her, in the same way as it\nis the foot, or footprint (the sun follows the path taken by the\naurora), that betrays and discovers the fugitive maiden, who, we have\nsaid, is the aurora with the vast chariot (the vast chariot which, if it\npass over the hare, may crush it. Frau Stempe, and Frau Trempe, and the\nlarge-footed Bertha, are the same person)--vast, because she occupies a\nlarge extent of the heavens when she appears. When standing on the\nchariot, she seems to have no feet, or a very small, an imperceptible\nfoot; but the chariot on which she stands and which represents her foot\nis so much the larger; therefore when we leave the chariot out of\naccount, and suppose, on the contrary, that she goes on foot, inasmuch\nas, when walking, she takes up much room, the swan's, or goose's, or\nduck's foot given to her in the myth of Freya and the legend of Berta is\nquite suited to her. And seeing, as we have said, that the foot (the\nmyths almost always speak of one foot alone; even the devil is lame, or\nhas only one foot) and the tail of an animal are often substituted for\neach other in mythology, we can understand how, in a Russian story,[471]\nthe hero who has fallen into a marsh was able to deliver himself by\nclutching hold of the tail of a duck. This duck being the aurora, and\nhaving a wide spreading tail as well as a large foot, the solar hero, or\nthe sun, can easily, by holding on to her, raise himself out of the\nswamp of night. There is a German story[472] in which the white woman,\nor the Berta, is transformed into a duck. In another German legend,[473]\ninstead of the swan-footed Berta, we have the Virgin Mary (who, as a\nmaiden, represents the virgin aurora, always pure, even after having\ngiven birth to the sun; like the Kunt\u00ee of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, who gives\nbirth to Karnas, the child of the sun, and yet is still a virgin. On the\nother hand, when a good old woman, good woman or Madonna, she generally\npersonifies, in the legends, the moon) who, in the shape of a swan,\ncomes to deliver from the prison of the infidels (the Saracens or Turks,\nhere the black demons, or the darkness of night), and carry off by land\nand by sea, the young hero whom she protects (the aurora delivers the\nsun from the night).[474] The same luminous Berta also assumes, in\npopular German tradition, the form of St Lucia, that is, the saint who,\nafter having been made blind, became the protectress of eyesight. Of the\nblind or black cow of night is born the luminous cow of morning, the\naurora that sees everything herself and makes us see everything. For the\nsame reason that the cow or duck, Berta, is consecrated to St Lucia,\nwhose appearance she assumes, the bull (the sun) is sacred to St Luke,\nthe festival of whom is on this account celebrated at Charlton, near\nLondon, with a horn-fair or exhibition of horns, generally ornamented\nand perfumed.\n\nIn the above-quoted Hindoo legend of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, the queen\nwill not sleep with the old blind man, but sends instead her\nservant-maid. In the _Reali di Francia_, King Pepin is advised by his\nbarons to take a wife, when he is already \"far advanced in years\" (he\nis a form of St Joseph). The barons look for a wife, and find, in\nHungary, Berta, the daughter of King Philip, \"the most beautiful and\nskilful horsewoman,\" or Berta with the large foot upon a beautiful and\nstately horse, which goes along the road bounding, whilst she is\nalways laughing. Berta has a maid called Elizabeth, who resembles her\nin every respect except her feet. King Pepin is married by proxy to\nBerta, sends for her, and comes to meet her. Berta when she sees that\nKing Pepin is so ill-favoured, grieves \"although forewarned of his old\nage.\" When evening comes she takes off her royal robes and gives them\nto Elizabeth, that she may take her place and sleep with the\nking.[475] Hence the Italian proverbs, \"Dar la Berta\" (to give the\nBerta), and \"Pigliar la Berta\" (to take the Berta), meaning to deride\nand to be derided. But instead of to give the Berta, in Italy we also\nsay, \"Dar la madre d'Orlando\" (to give the mother of Orlando). The\n_Reali di Francia_ informs us that King Pepin had, by Elizabeth, two\nperverse bastards, Lanfroi and Olderigi, and by Berta, Charlemagne and\nanother Berta, mother of Orlando; but the Italian proverb is perhaps\nnearer the mythical truth when it recognises the mother of Orlando as\nherself Pepin's wife, so that Charlemagne and Orlando are brothers;\nand, in fact, they accomplish several of the undertakings mentioned in\nthe legend of the two brothers. In the so-called Chronicle of\nTurpin[476] when Orlando dies, Charlemagne says that Orlando was his\nright arm, and he has no longer anything to do in life without him;\nbut he lives long enough to avenge the death of Orlando; and after\nthis vengeance, the heroic life of Charlemagne comes at once to an\nend. In the _Chanson de Roland_, too, after the death of his hero,\nwhom he avenges, Charlemagne feels the burden of life, weeps, tears\nhis beard, unable to support this solitude; but in the _Chanson_, as\nwell as in the _Reali di Francia_, Orlando explicitly appears as the\nnephew of Charlemagne, that is, as the son of his sister Berta. (As\nthe Vedic aurora was now the mother, now the sister of the sun and of\nthe A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, thus Berta may, mythically, be mother or sister of\nCharlemagne, and yet be always the mother of Orlando).\n\nIt would be a never-ending work to collect together all the Germanic,\nScandinavian, and Celtic legends which, in one way or another, are\nconnected with the myth of the cow and of the bull. The literature\nrelating to this subject is composed not of one or a hundred, but of\nthousands of volumes, of which some (such, for instance, as the poem\nof the _Nibelungen_, and the poems of the _Round Table_) individually\ncontain, in the germ, almost the whole diverse world of fairy tales. I\nmust therefore limit myself to the indication of the more general\nfeatures, leaving to more diligent investigators the minuter\ncomparisons; and esteeming myself, I repeat, too happy if my brief\nnotices should be found clear enough to spare others the labour of\npreparing the warp upon which to weave comparisons.\n\nFrom what we have said thus far, it seems to me that two essential\nparticulars have been made clear:--1st, That the worship of the bull\nand the cow was wide-spread, even in northern nations; 2d, That the\nmythical bull and cow were easily transformed into a hero and heroine.\n\nThe sacred character ascribed to the cow and the bull is further\nevidenced by a Scandinavian song, in which, on the occasion of the\nnuptials of the animals (the crow and the crane), the calf (perhaps\nthe bull) appears as a priest, and reads a beautiful text.[477] As a\nsymbol of generation, the bull is the best adapted to propitiate the\nmarried couple; so the priest in the _Atharvavedas_ teaches the\ninexperienced husband and wife, by formulas _ad hoc_, the mysteries\nof Venus. Thus the _jus prim\u00e6 noctis_ was conceded to the Brahman in\nmedi\u00e6val India; and so in the ritual of medi\u00e6val France, we still find\nindications of the priest _pronubus_. The beautiful text that the\ncalf, or bull, recites in the Scandinavian song must be the same\nwhich, according to the ceremonial recorded by Villemarqu\u00e9, the priest\nrecited, whilst sprinkling them with incense, to the married couple\n_sedentes vel jacentes in lectulo suo_.[478] Thus, when the wolf dies\n(in a German writing of the twelfth century), it is the ox that reads\nthe gospel.[479] Besides marriages and funerals, the bull or ox also\nappears, finally, as in the Hindoo ceremonial, in pregnancy.\nGargamelle, while she has Gargantua in her womb, eats an excessive\nquantity[480] of tripe of fattened oxen. When she feels the pains of\nchild-birth, her husband comforts her with an agricultural proverb of\nPoitou, \"Laissez faire aux quatre beufz de devant;\" and she then gives\nbirth to Gargantua, who comes out of her left ear, in the same way as\nin the Slavonic stories we find the heroes come out of the ears of the\nhorse (or of the ass of night; the luminous solar hero comes out of\nthe ears of the ass, or of the grey or black horse; the twin horsemen\ncome out of the two ears). Rabelais, to explain this extraordinary\nbirth, asks \"Minerve ne naquit-elle pas du cerveau par l'aureille de\nIupiter?\" No sooner is Gargantua born, than he asks with loud cries\nfor something to drink; to give him milk, 17,913 cows are brought, his\nmother's breasts not being enough, although each time she is milked\nshe yields \"quatorze cens deux pipes neuf pot\u00e9es de laict.\" This is\nthe giant of popular tradition, whom the gigantic phantasy of Rabelais\nhas coloured in order to make him the butt of an immense satire. It is\nan amplified and humorous rendering in a literary form of the popular\nSuperlatif,[481] whose mythical character is revealed in the curse\nhurled against him by the old dwarf-fairy, whom he maltreated: \"One\nsun, to accomplish his work, eats eleven entire moons; but this time\nevery moon will eat the work of a sun.\" The ascending and descending\nlife of the solar hero is thus indicated. Superlatif will become\ncontinually smaller, until it seems as though he were about to\ndisappear altogether; but at that very instant the curse comes to an\nend, and from a dwarf, he grows into a giant again in the arms of his\nbride.[482] Thus the days become continually shorter and shorter,\ntill the winter solstice, till Christmas. At Christmas the sun is born\nagain, the days lengthen, the dwarf grows tall; the sun, by a double\nbut analogous conception of ideas, passes once each day and once each\nyear from giant to dwarf, and from dwarf to giant.\n\nAnd the dwarfs of tradition know and reveal the mythical how and why\nof their transformations, since, though they are dwarfs and hidden,\nthey see all and learn all. It is from the knowing dwarf Allwis, his\ndiminutive _alter ego_, that the mighty Thor, in the _Edda_, learns\nthe names of the moon, the sun, the clouds, and the winds. The moon,\naccording to Allwis, when it is in the kingdom of hell (in the kingdom\nof death, in the infernal world, when it is Proserpina), is called a\nwheel that is hurrying on; it then shines among the dwarfs (_i.e._, in\nthe luminous night, in which the sun hides itself; it becomes an\ninvisible dwarf). The sun among the dwarfs (_i.e._, when it is a\ndwarf) plays with Dwalin (the mythical stag, probably the horned\nmoon); among the giants (_i.e._, when in the aurora, it becomes a\ngiant again), it is a burning brand; among the gods (the Ases), it is\nthe light of the world. The cloud, the dwarf Allwis goes on to inform\nus, is the ship of the winds, the strength of the winds, the helmet\n(or hat, or hood) which makes its wearer invisible. The wind, again,\nis the wanderer, the noisy one, the weeper, the bellower, the\nwhistler (no one can resist the cries or the whistling of the hero of\nfairy tales; the bellowing of the bull makes the lion tremble in his\ncave). In this learned lesson on Germanico-Scandinavian mythology,\ngiven us by the dwarf Allwis, we have a further justification of the\ntransition which we here assume to have been made from the natural\ncelestial phenomenon to its personification in an animal, and to the\npersonification of the animal in a man: Allwis, who knew all things,\nhas explained the mystery to us.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[423] _Les Eddas_, traduites de l'ancien idiome Scandinave par Mdlle.\ndu Puget, 2\u00e8me \u00e9dition, p. 16.\n\n[424] Kuhn und Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, M\u00e4rchen und Gebr\u00e4uche_,\np. 501.\n\n[425] _Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie_, mit Einschluss der\nnordischen, 2te. aufl. p. 437.--We find also in Eginhardus (_Vita\nCaroli Magni_): \"Quocumque eundum erat, carpento ibat, quod bubus\njunctis et bubulco rustico more agente, trahebatur.\"--The bull is a\nsymbol of generation; the man who fears the bull is a stupid and\nridiculous eunuch. We find in Du Cange, Lit. Remiss, ann. 1397, \"Le\nsuppliant, lui dist, Eudet, vous av\u00e9z un toreau qui purte les gens et\nne osent aler aux champs pour luy; lequel Eudet luy respondis: as tu\nnom Jehannot?\" Faire Johan dicitur mulier, qu\u00e6 marito fidem non servat\n(a variety of the Mongol S\u00fbrya Bagatur).\n\n[426] Recorded by Cox, _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, vol. i. p.\n438, when speaking of the Hellenic myth of Zeus and Eur\u00f4p\u00e2.\n\n[427] Cfr. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des G\u00f6ttertranks_, p.\n181 and following.--In Du Cange, _Glossarium Medi\u00e6 et Infim\u00e6\nLatinitatis_, s. v. Acannizare, we read an extract of a paper of\nJacob, i. _Regis Arag._ fol. 16: \"Quicunque Acannizaverit vaccam vel\nbovem, si bos vel vacca fecerit damnum casu fortuito, dum Acannizatur,\ncujus est amittat ipsum bovem vel vaccam, nisi Acannizetur causa\nnuptiarum;\" and in Du Cange also: \"Ut in anserem ludendo baculos\ntorquere in usu fuit, ita et in bovem.\"\n\n[428] _Die Deutsche Heldensage_, von Wilhelm Grimm, 2te Aus., No 102,\n182.\n\n[429] Cfr. the chapter on the Goat and He-goat for more information on\nmythical horns.\n\n[430] _Vide_ p. 497.\n\n[431] Diese Br\u00fccke wird keine andere sein, als die himmlische B\u00eefr\u00f6st,\nderen er h\u00fctet, eine Vermuthung, die noch an Wahrscheinlichkeit\ngewinnt, wenn man den friesischen Namen der Milchstrasse Kaupat, der\nKuhpfad, hinzunimmt; denn Milchstrasse und Regenbogen ber\u00fchren\neinander sehr nahe. Dieser ist die Tagesbr\u00fccke zwischen G\u00f6ttern und\nMenschen, jene die n\u00e4chtliche.\n\n[432] Rothe K\u00fche geben auch weisse Milch; Wander, _Deutsches\nSprichw\u00f6rter Lexicon_, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1870.\n\n[433] Auch eine schwarze Kuh gibt weisse Milch; Wander, _ibid._\n\n[434] This reminds us of the familiar English riddle, \"How many cows'\ntails would it take to reach the moon? One, if it were long enough.\"\n\n[435] Wenn die Kuh gestohlen ist, verwahrt man den Stall.--Wer eine\nKuh verloren und den Schwanz zur\u00fcck erh\u00e4lt, hat nicht viel, aber mehr\nals nichts.--Die Kuh k\u00f6nnte mit dem Schwanze bis an den Himmel\nreichen, wenn er nur lang genug w\u00e4re.--Une vache ne sceit que lui\nvault sa queue jusques elle l'a perdue.--Die Kuh beim Schwanz\nfassen.--Die schwarze Kuh hat ihn gedr\u00fcckt.--Eine Kuh kann keinen\nHasen erlaufen.--Die Kuh \u00fcberl\u00e4uft einen Hasen.--Nicht alle, die\nH\u00f6rner blasen, jagen Hasen.--Wenn die K\u00fche lachen.--Wie eine blinde\nKuh eine Erbse findet.--Den sollt man in einer alten Kuhhaut\nherumfahren.--Soll die Kuhmagd spinnen, wird man wenig Garn\ngewinnen.--Man w\u00fcrde eher einer Kuh spinnen lehren; Wander's _Lexicon\nof German Proverbs_, ii. 1666-1695.\n\n[436] Livius i.: \"Quia si, agendo, armentum in speluncam compulisset,\nipsa vestigia qu\u00e6rentem dominum eo deductura erant, aversos boves\neximium quemque pulchritudine caudis in speluncam traxit.\"\n\n[437] _Faceti\u00e6_, Krakau, 1592, quoted by Benfey in his introduction to\nthe _Pancatantram_, Leipzig, Brockhaus, p. 323: \"Quia testiculi mei\nquadraginta annos pependerunt casuro similes et nunquam\nceciderant.\"--And in Lessing, xi. 250, we read of Lachmann-Maltzahn:\n\"De vulpe quadam asini testiculos manducandi cupido.\"--In Aldrovandi,\n_De Quadrupedibus Bisulcis_, i. Bologna, 1642, we read, \"Membrum tauri\nin aceto maceratum et illitum, splendidam, teste secto, facit faciem;\nRasis ait, genitale tauri rubri aridum tritum, et aurei pondere\npropinatum mulieri, fastidium coitus afferre; e contrario quidam\nrecentiores, ut in viris Venerem excitent, tauri membrum c\u00e6teris hujus\nfacultatibus admiscent.\"\n\n[438] Wenn auch der Kuhschwanz wackelt, so f\u00e4llt er doch nicht ab; in\nWander, _Deutsches Sprichw\u00f6rter Lexicon_.\n\n[439] v. 8.\n\n[440] Referred to by K\u00f6hler in _Orient und Occident_.\n\n[441] iv. 15.\n\n[442] Whence the proverb quoted above, relating to the stable that is\nshut when the cow is stolen, is also quoted as follows: \"Shutting the\nstable when the horse has been stolen.\"\n\n[443] Cfr. the chapter on the Wolf, where the dwarf enters the wolf by\nhis mouth and comes out by his tail.\n\n[444] In a Russian story, in _Afanassieff_, vi. 2, when the old peasant\n(the old sun) falls from the sky into a marsh (the sea of night), a duck\n(the moon or the aurora) comes to make its nest and lay an egg upon his\nhead; the peasant clutches hold of its tail; the duck struggles and\ndraws the peasant out of the marsh (the sun out of the night), and the\npeasant with the duck and its egg flies and returns to his house (the\nsky whence he had fallen).--In a variation of the same story in\n_Afanassieff_ (the two stories together refer to that of Aristomenes)\nthe old man falls from heaven into the mud. A fox places seven young\nfoxes on his head. A wolf comes to eat the young foxes; the peasant\ncatches hold of his tail; the wolf, by one pull, draws him out; by\nanother, leaves his tail in the peasant's hand. The tail of the wolf of\nnight is the morning aurora.--In the story of _Turn-Little-Pea_,\n_Afanassieff_, iii. 2, the young hero enters into the horse after having\ntaken off his (black) hide, and after having taken him by the tail,\n_i.e._, he becomes the luminous horse of the sun.\n\n[445] In the Russian story of lazy and stupid Emilius, who makes his\nfortune, the hero is shut up in a barrel with the heroine, and thrown\ninto the sea: the sun and the aurora, made prisoners, and shut up\ntogether, cross together the sea of night.\n\n[446] Wenn sich eine Kuh auf die Eier legt, so erwarte keine H\u00fchner;\nWander, the work quoted before.\n\n[447] In the Russian story of _Afanassieff_, v. 36, the hero-workman\nkills the monster-serpent by gambling with him for the price of his\nown skin. Thinking that he may lose, he has provided himself\nbeforehand with seven ox hides and with iron claws. He loses seven\ntimes; each time the monster thinks he has him in his power, but the\nworkman as often imposes upon him with an ox's hide, inducing him to\nbelieve that it is his own. At last the serpent loses, and the\nworkman, with his iron claws, really takes off his skin, upon which\nthe serpent dies. To take the sack or hide from the monster, to burn\nthe skin of the monster-serpent, goat, hog, frog, &c., to burn the\nenchanted mantle or hood in which the hero is wrapped up, is the same\nas to kill the monster.\n\n[448] See the chapter on the Wolf.\n\n[449] For the German one, cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 199.\n\n[450] _Afanassieff_, ii. 17.\n\n[451] Acarnides insutus pelle juvenci; Ovidius, _In Ibin_.\n\n[452] K\u00f6hler, _Ueber T. F. Campbell's Sammlung g\u00e4lischer M\u00e4rchen_, in\n_Orient und Occident_.--Cfr. the 30th of the _Novelline di Santo\nStefano di Calcinaia_.\n\n[453] K\u00f6hler, the work quoted above.\n\n[454] To this myth of the cow which goes over the moon, the\nobservation of a lunar eclipse might have contributed materially, in\nwhich the cow earth (in Sanskrit, _go_ means earth as well as cow)\nreally passes over the moon or hare. Or else, the cloud and the night,\nas a black cow, very frequently goes over the hare or moon.\n\n[455] In the Russian superstition, when a hare passes between the\nwheels of the vehicle which carries a newly-married couple, it bodes\nmisfortune; nor is this without reason: the hare is the moon; the moon\nis the protectress of marriages; if she throws obstacles in the way,\nthe marriage cannot be happy; consequently, marriages in India were\ncelebrated at full moon.\n\n[456] Die Kuh, die viel br\u00fcllt, gibt nicht die meiste Milch.\n\n[457] Phal\u00e2n\u00e2m phalam a\u00e7noti tad\u00e2 dattv\u00e2; _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, iii. 13, 423.\n\n[458] In the German legend of King Volmar, in Simrock, the work quoted\nbefore, p. 451, we find the peas in the ashes. In the seventh of the\n_Contes Merveilleux_ of Porchat, we have the pot in which the cabbages\nare boiled, from which come forth money and partridges. In the sixth\nof the same _Contes Merveilleux_, the young curioso sees a nest upon\nan elm-tree, and wishes to climb up; the ascent never comes to an end;\nthe tree takes him up near to heaven. On the summit of the elm-tree\nthere is a nest, from which comes forth a beautiful fair-haired maiden\n(the moon).\n\n[459] i. 53.\n\n[460] In the story, vi. 58, of _Afanassieff_, the honest workman, when\nhe wishes to fix his eyes upon the princess who never laughs, falls into\na marsh; the fish, the beetle, and the mouse, in gratitude, clean him\nagain; then the princess laughs for the first time, and marries the\nhonest workman. In the 25th of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano_, an\nanalogous detail is found, but this is not enough to make the princess\nlaugh; it is the eagles which draw after themselves everything they\ntouch that accomplish the miracle of making the queen's daughter laugh.\nIn the third story of the _Pentameron_, the princess laughs upon seeing\nPervonto carried by the faggot of wood, instead of carrying it. The\nRussian stories of the ducks which save the hero, in _Afanassieff_, vi.\n17-19, and the faithless wife and her lover bound together, are\nvariations of the eagles of the Tuscan story.\n\n[461] _Rigvedas_, v. 46, 8; v. 43, 6; i. 61, 8.\n\n[462] In the _Nibelungen_, Kr\u00eemhilt, who has never saluted any one,\n(diu nie gruozte reeken), salutes for the first time the young S\u00eefrit,\nthe victorious and predestined hero, and, whilst she is saluting him,\nturns the colour of flame (do erzunde sich s\u00een varwe).\n\n[463] In a medi\u00e6val paper in Du Cange, s. v. _Abocellus_, we read: \"De\nquodam c\u00e6co vaccarum custode,\" who, \"quod colores et staturam vaccarum\nsingularium specialiter discerneret,\" was believed to be demoniacal;\nhence the sacrament of confirmation was given him to deliver him from\nthis diabolical faculty, and the paper narrates that he was\nimmediately deprived of it. The blind hero who sees, who distinguishes\nhis cows from each other, is the sun in the cloud. No sooner does he\nreceive confirmation (which is a second baptism), than he ceases to\nsee his cows, for the simple reason that the clouds are dissolved in\nrain, or that himself has recovered his vision.\n\n[464] Cfr. the papers relative to Merlin by Liebrecht and Benfey in\n_Orient und Occident_.\n\n[465] _Fasti_, iii. 339.\n\n[466] Cfr. the chapter on the Fishes; where the custom of eating fish\non Friday is also explained.\n\n[467] In the first of the stories of _Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, the\ncow-maid says to her cow, \"Cow, my cow, spin with your mouth and wind\nwith your horns; I will make you a faggot of green boughs.\"\n\n[468] The maiden spins for her step-mother; the fairy gives luminous\nrobes to the maiden; the maiden weaves dresses for her husband; these\nare all details which confound themselves in one. In the _Nibelungen_,\nthe virgins prepared dresses of gold and pearls for the young hero\nS\u00eefrit.\n\n[469] Holda, or Frau Holle, is burnt every year in Thuringia on the\nday of Epiphany, on which day (or, perhaps, better still, on the\nBerchtennacht, the preceding night, or Berta's night) the good fairy\nexpels the wicked one. In England, too, the witch is burned on the day\nof Epiphany.--Cfr. Reinsberg von D\u00fcringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_, p.\n19.\n\n[470] In the _Pentameron_ of Basil, i. 9, we read: \"Passaie lo tiempo\nche Berta filava; mo hanno apierto l'huocchie li gattille.\"\n\n[471] _Afanassieff_, vi. 2.\n\n[472] Cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 409, and the ninth of\nthe _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, in which the luminous\nmaiden disguised as an old woman is uncovered by the geese, when she\nputs down the dress of an old woman.\n\n[473] Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 410.\n\n[474] Wuotan also saves him whom he protects upon a mantle;--this is\nthe flying carpet or mantle, hood, or hat, which renders the wearer\ninvisible, and for which the three brothers disputed, which is also\nrepresented as a tablecloth that lays itself. Thus the poor man who\ngoes to sell his cow's hide finds the pot of abundance and riches. The\ndispute for the tablecloth is the same as the dispute for riches, for\nthe beautiful princess who is afterwards divided, or else carried off\nby a third or fourth person who takes the lion's share. We must not\nforget the fable of the animals who wish to divide the stag among\nthemselves, of which the lion takes all, because he is named lion. In\nthe _Nibelungen_, Schilbung and Nibelung dispute with each other for\nthe division of a treasure; they beg S\u00eefrit to divide it; S\u00eefrit\nsolves the question by killing them both and taking to himself the\ntreasure, and the hood that makes its wearer invisible (Tarnkappe).\n\n[475] The romance of Berta continues in the _Reali di Francia_ in\nharmony with the popular stories of an analogous character; the false\nwife really causes King Pepin to marry her, and sends Berta into the\nforest to be killed; the hired murderers pity her, and grant her her\nlife. Berta, whilst in the forest bound to a tree (like the Vedic\ncow), is found by a hunter; out of gratitude she works (she, no doubt,\nspins and weaves), in order that the hunter may sell her work at Paris\nfor a high price. Meanwhile her father and mother dream that she is\nbeset by bears and wolves who threaten to devour her, that thereupon,\nthrowing herself into the water, a fisherman saves her (in the dream,\nthe water has taken the place of the forest, and the fisherman that of\nthe hunter). King Pepin goes into the forest, finds her, recognises\nand marries her, whilst Elizabeth is burnt alive. The change of wives\nalso occurs in a graceful form (with a variation of the episode of the\nbeauty thrown into the fountain) in the twelfth of the _Contes\nMerveilleux_ of Porchat, Paris, 1863.\n\n[476] _Histoire de la Vie de Charlemagne et de Roland_, par Jean\nTurpin, traduction de Alex. de Saint-Albin, Paris, 1865, preceded by\nthe Chanson de Roland, po\u00e8me de Th\u00e9roulde.--Cfr. the _Histoire\nPo\u00e9tique de Charlemagne_, par Gaston Paris.\n\n[477] Uhland's _Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage_, iii.\n77.\n\n[478] \"Seigneur, b\u00e9nissez ce lit et ceux qui s'y trouvent; b\u00e9nissez\nces chers enfants, comme vous avez b\u00e9ni Tobie et Sara; daignez les\nb\u00e9nir ainsi, Seigneur, afin qu'en votre nom ils vivent et vieillissent\net multiplient, par le Christ notre Seigneur.--Ainsi soit-il.\"\nVillemarqu\u00e9, _Barzaz Breiz, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne_, sixi\u00e8me\n\u00e9dition, Paris, 1867, p. 423.\n\n[479] Uhland, the work quoted above, p. 81.--In the French romance of\n_Renard_, on occasion of the apparent death of the fox, the gospel is\nread, on the contrary, by the horse. In the German customs the bull also\nappears as a funeral animal, and is fastened to the hearse. If, while he\nis drawing the hearse, he turns his head back, it is considered a\nsinister omen. According to a popular belief, the bulls and other\nstalled animals speak to each other on Christmas night. A tradition\nnarrates, that a peasant wished on that night to hide himself and hear\nwhat the bulls were saying; he heard them say that they would soon have\nto draw him to the grave, and died of terror. This is the usual\nindiscretion and its punishment.--Cfr. Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und\nBrauch_, Berlin, 1867, i. 164, and Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche\nUnsterblichkeits-Lehre_, Leipzig, 1870.--We have the speaking oxen again\nin Ph\u00e6drus's fable of the stag who takes refuge in the stable, ii. 8,\nwhere the master is called \"ille qui oculos centum habet.\"\n\n[480] Elle en mangea seze muiz, deux bussars et six tupins; Rabelais,\n_Gargantua_, i. 4.\n\n[481] Cfr. Porchat, _Contes Merveilleux_, Paris, 1863.\n\n[482] In _Porchat_, Superlatif, while he is a dwarf, is shut up in a\nclothes-press; he is a male form of the wooden girl, of the wise puppet,\nof the sun hidden in the trunk of a tree, in the tree of night, in the\nnocturnal (or cloudy, or wintry) night, full of mysteries, which the\nlittle solar hero surprises from his hiding-place. The hero in hell, or\nwho, educated by the devil, learns every kind of evil, is a variation of\nthis multiform idea. The dwarf of _Porchat_, who comes out of the\nclothes-press, is in perfect accord with the popular belief which makes\nthe man be born in the wood, on the stump of a tree, of which the\nChristmas-tree is a lively reminiscence.\n\n\nSECTION VI.\n\nTHE BULL AND THE COW IN GREEK AND LATIN TRADITION.\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Preparatory works.--Bos quoque formosa est.--Zeus as a bull.--I\u00f4 and\n    Eur\u00f4p\u00ea as cows.--The cow sacred to Minerva, the calf to Mercury, and\n    the bull to Zeus.--Demoniacal bulls.--Taurus draconem genuit et\n    taurum draco.--White bulls sacrificed to Zeus, and black ones to\n    Poseid\u00f4n.--Poseid\u00f4n as a bull.--The horn of abundance broken off the\n    bull Acheloos.--The bulls of Ai\u00eatas.--The bull who kills\n    Ampelos.--Dionysos a bull.--The bull that comes out of the sea.--The\n    eaters of bulls.--The sacrifice of the bull.--The intestines of the\n    bull.--From the cow, the lamb.--The bull's entrails are wanting when\n    the hero is about to die, that is, when the hero has no heart.--Even\n    the bull goes into the forest.--The bull that flees is a good omen\n    when taken and sacrificed.--The bull and the cow guide the lost\n    hero.--Analogy between solar and lunar phenomena.--H\u00earakl\u00eas passes\n    the sea now on the cow's neck, now in a golden cup.--H\u00earakl\u00eas shoots\n    at the sun.--The moon, the bull of H\u00earakl\u00eas, becomes an apple-tree;\n    anecdote relating to this.--The moon as a golden apple.--The moon as\n    a cake.--The funeral cake.--Instead of a cow of flesh, a cow made of\n    paste, in Plutarch and \u00c6sop.--Ashes and excrement of the cow.--L'eau\n    de millefleurs.--The bulls of the sun.--H\u00earakl\u00eas stable-boy and\n    cleaner of the herds.--The bull Phaeth\u00f4n.--The myth of the bull and\n    the lion.--The bull's horns.--The god a witty thief; the demon an\n    infamous one.--The myth of Cacus again.--The worm or serpent that\n    eats bulls.--The bellowing or thundering bull, celestial\n    musician.--The bull and the lyre.--The voice of Zeus--Bull-god and\n    cow-goddess.\n\nIn descending now from the North upon the Hellenic and Latin soils, to\nsearch for the mythical and legendary forms assumed there by the bull\nand the cow, the mass of available material in point which offers,\ninstead of diminishing, has increased prodigiously. Not to speak of the\nrich literary traditions of medi\u00e6val Italy and Spain (as to those of\nFrance, they are often but an echo of the Celtic and Germanic), nor the\nsignificant traditions of the Latin historians and poets themselves, nor\nthe beliefs, superstitious customs, and legends still existing on the\nhalf-Catholic, half-Pagan soil of Italy, all of which are notably\nfraught with the earliest mythical ideas, we here find ourselves face to\nface with the colossal and splendid edifice of Greek poetry or mythology\nitself; for that which constitutes the greatness and real originality of\nGreek poetry is its mythology, by means of which it is that a divinity\nbreathes in every artistic work of Hellenic genius. The poet and the\nartist are almost always in direct correspondence with the deities, and\ntherefore it is that they so often assume such a divine and inspired\nexpression. It would, therefore, be a bold presumption on my part if I\nwere to essay to extract and present, in a few pages, the soul, the\ncontents of this endless mythology. I have, moreover, the good fortune\nof being able to plead relief from the obligation to venture on any such\nattempt, by referring the reader to the learned preparatory works\npublished in England, in the same interest, by Max M\u00fcller and George\nCox, upon the Hellenic myths in relation to the other mythologies. It is\ncertainly possible to take exception to interpretations of particular\nmyths proposed by these two eminent scholars, as, no doubt, might be the\nfate of many of mine, were I to enter into minute explanations, and were\nmy lucubrations fortunate enough to obtain any measure of consideration.\nBut as I flatter myself with the hope that, notwithstanding occasional\ndiversions, in which I may have gone aside and lost myself for a few\nminutes, I am taking the royal road which alone leads to the solution of\nthe great questions of comparative mythology, I recognise with gratitude\nthe labours of Max M\u00fcller and Cox upon Greek mythology, the writings of\nMichael Br\u00e9al upon Roman mythology, the immortal work of Adalbert Kuhn\nupon the Indo-European myth of fire and water, and a few other helpful\nbeacon-towers which send their light-shafts clear and steady athwart the\nwaste, and serve as useful guides to the studious navigator of the _mare\nmagnum_ of the myths. And because that which there is yet to do is\nimmense in proportion to the little that has been done well, I shall\ntake for granted what has already been demonstrated by my learned\npredecessors (to one and all of whom I confidently and respectfully\nrefer my readers), and go on with my own researches, restricting myself,\nhowever, entirely to the zoological field, in order not to increase, out\nof all proportion, the dimensions of this opening chapter, which already\nthreatens to straiten the space I must leave for the rest of my\nundertaking.\n\n      \"Bos quoque formosa est,\"\n\nsays Ovid, in the first book of the _Metamorphoses_, when the daughter\nof Inachos is transformed into a luminous cow by Jupiter. The bull\nZeus of Nonnos is also beautiful, as he swims on the sea, carrying the\nbeautiful maiden Eur\u00f4p\u00ea. Her brothers wonder why oxen wish to marry\nwomen; but we shall not wonder when we remark that I\u00f4 and Eur\u00f4p\u00ea are\nduplicates of one and the same animal, or, at least, that I\u00f4 and\nEur\u00f4p\u00ea both took the shape of a cow--one as the moon especially,[483]\nthe other, the far-observing daughter of Telephaessa, the\nfar-shining,[484] as the moon also, or the aurora. In the first case\nit is the heroine that becomes a cow; in the second, it is the hero\nwho shows himself in the shape of a bull.[485] These forms are,\nhowever, only provisional and unnatural, in the same way as in the\nVedic hymns the representation of the aurora, the moon, and the sun as\ncow and bull is only a passing one. The cow and the bull send their\ncalf before them; the sun, the moon, and the aurora are preceded or\nfollowed by the twilight. Jupiter and Minerva have for their messenger\nthe winged Mercurius; and hence also Ovid[486] was able to sing:--\n\n                        \"Mactatur vacca Minerv\u00e6,\n      Alipedi vitulus, taurus tibi, summe Deorum.\"[487]\n\nThe fruit of the nuptials of I\u00f4 and of Eur\u00f4p\u00ea with Zeus is of a\nmonstrous nature, such as the evil-doing daughters of Danaos, who, on\naccount of their crimes, are condemned in hell to fill the famous barrel\n(the cloud) that is ever emptying (the counterpart of the cup which, in\nthe Scandinavian myth, is never emptied); such too as Min\u00f4s, he who\nordered the labyrinth to be made, the infernal judge, the feeder of the\nMin\u00f4tauros (of which the monstrous bull of Marathon, first subdued by\nH\u00earakl\u00eas and afterwards killed by Theseus, is a later form), the son of\nhis wife and the gloomy and watery black bull Poseid\u00f4n. Even Kadmos, the\nbrother of Eur\u00f4p\u00ea, ends his life badly. He descends into the kingdom of\nthe dead in the form of a serpent. Of good, evil is born, and of evil,\ngood; of the beautiful, the hideous, and of the hideous, the beautiful;\nof light, darkness, and of darkness, light; of day, night, and of night,\nday; of heat, cold, and of cold, heat. Each day and each year the\nmonotonous antithesis is renewed; the serpent's head always finds and\nbites its tail again. A Tarentine verse of Arnobius expresses very\nhappily these celestial vicissitudes:\n\n      \"Taurus draconem genuit et taurum draco.\"\n\nThus, in the romance of Heliodoros (_Aithiopika_) we read that the\nqueen of Ethiopia, being black, gave birth to a white son; that is to\nsay, the black night gives birth to the white moon and to the white\ndawn of morning. To Zeus (Dy\u00e2us, the luminous,) are sacrificed white\nbulls; to his brother Poseid\u00f4n, black ones; indeed, entirely\nblack[488] ones, according to the Homeric expression.\n\nPoseid\u00f4n, in Hesiod (_Theog._ 453), is the eldest brother; in Homer\n(_Il._ xv. 187), he is, on the contrary, the youngest; and both are\nright; it is the question of the egg and the hen; which is born first,\ndarkness or light? The son of Poseid\u00f4n, Polyph\u00eamos the Cyclop, is\nblinded by Odysseus. Poseid\u00f4n, representing the watery, cloudy, or\nnocturnal sky, his one-eyed son seems to be that sky itself, with the\nsolar star, the eye of the heavens, in the midst of the darkness or of\nthe clouds (the mouth of the barrel). When Odysseus blinds his son,\nPoseid\u00f4n avenges him by condemning Odysseus to wander on the waters\n(that is, lost in the ocean or the clouds of night). Inasmuch, moreover,\nas Zeus, properly the luminous one, is often called and represented by\nHomer as black as the clouds and pluvial,[489] he is assimilated to\nPoseid\u00f4n, the _presb\u00fdtatos_ or oldest; in fact, in the oldest Hellenic\nmyths, Poseid\u00f4n is essentially the pluvial form of Zeus. When Poseid\u00f4n,\nin the form of a bull, seduces Pasipha\u00ea, the daughter of the sun and\nwife of Min\u00f4s, he appears, indeed, of a white colour, but has between\nhis horns a black spot.[490] This spot, however small, is enough to\nbetray his tenebrous nature. Thus Acheloos, vanquished by H\u00earakl\u00eas in\nthe shape of a serpent, rises again in that of a pugnacious bull, one of\nwhose horns H\u00earakl\u00eas breaks,[491] which he gives to the \u00c6tolians, who\nreceive abundance from it (the waters of the Acheloos fertilise the\ncountry traversed by them; the dragon of the cloud kept back the waters;\nH\u00earakl\u00eas discomfits the dragon, _i.e._, the darkness, and it then\nreappears in the form of a bull; when its horns are broken, abundance is\nthe consequence). This monster reappears in the two perverse and\nterrible bulls of King Ai\u00eatas, with copper feet (_taur\u00f4 chalk\u00f3pode_),\nwhich breathe dark-red flames and smoke, and advance against the hero\nI\u00eas\u00f4n in the cavern; in the same way as the king of the monkeys in the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ vanquishes the demoniacal bull that fights with its horns,\nby taking hold of the horns themselves, and throwing it down; so I\u00eas\u00f4n\ndoes in Apoll\u00f4nios.[492] The same bull is repeated in that ridden by the\nyouth Ampelos, dear to Di\u00f3nysos (who has also the nature of a bull,\n_tauroph\u00fcs\u00eas_, but of a luminous one). Ampelos, persuaded by the\ndeath-bringing At\u00ea (_thanat\u00eaph\u00f3ros At\u00ea_), mounts on this bull, and is\nthrown by it upon a rock where his skull is broken, because he was full\nof pride against the horned moon, her who agitates the oxen, who,\noffended, sends a gadfly to the bull and maddens it. The bull Di\u00f3nysos\nwishes to avenge the young Ampelos, by fixing his horns in the belly of\nthe perverse and homicidal bull.[493] In this myth, the black bull of\nnight and the bull-moon are confounded together in one sinister action.\n\nFrom the ocean of night comes forth the head of the solar and lunar\nbull, and on this account, in Euripides[494] Okeanos is called the\nbull-headed (_taur\u00f3kranos_); or else the head of the solar bull enters\nthe nocturnal forest, or that of the lunar bull comes out of it. This\nphenomenon gave rise to several poetical images. The bull is devoured\nby the monsters of night; hence in the _Seven at Thebes_ (xlii.) of\n\u00c6schylos, the messenger accuses of impiety the seven eaters of bulls,\nwho touch with their hands the blood of bulls; hence in the\nforty-third fable of \u00c6sop, the dogs flee, horrified, from the peasant\nwho, being of a gluttonous nature (like the old man of the Russian\nstory who eats all his cows), after having devoured sheep and goats,\nprepares to eat the working oxen themselves.[495] The bulls head, or\neven the bull itself, or the milch-cow, which must not be eaten, can,\nhowever, be sacrificed; nay, he is lucky who offers them up (except\nwhen the deity is named Heliogabalus, who receives the _taurobolium_\nas a homage due to him, without giving anything in exchange to the\ndevoted sacrificers).[496] According to Valerius Maximus,[497] the\nempire of the world would, by an oracle of the time of Servius\nTullius, belong to the nation who should sacrifice to the Diana of the\nAventine a certain wonderful cow belonging to a Sabine (the aurora or\nthe moon, from the sacrifice of which the sun comes out at morning).\nThe Sabine prepares to sacrifice it, but a Roman priest takes it from\nhim by fraud, whilst the Sabine is sent to purify himself in the water\nnear at hand. This is a zoological form of the epico-mythic rape of\nthe Sabines, of the exchange of the wife or of the precious object, of\nthe exchange effected in the sack.\n\nIn Ovid,[498] the same myth occurs again with a variation:\n\n      \"Matre satus Terra, monstrum mirabile, taurus\n         Parte sui serpens posteriore fuit.\n       Hunc triplici muro lucis incluserat atris\n         Parcarum monitu Styx violenta trium.\n       Viscera qui tauri flammis adolenda dedisset,\n         Sors erat, \u00e6ternos vincere posse Deos.\n       Immolat hunc Briareus factu ex adamante securi;\n         Et jam jam flammis exta daturus erat.\n       Jupiter alitibus rapere imperat. Attulit illi\n         Milvus; et meritis venit in astra suis.\"\n\nWe shall return to this myth in the following chapters. The monster is\nkilled only when his heart, which he keeps shut up, is taken away.\nSometimes he does not keep it shut up in his own body, but in a duck\n(the aurora), which comes out of a hare (the moon sacrificed in the\nmorning).[499] When this duck is opened, a golden egg (the sun) is\nfound. When the egg is thrown on the ground, or at the monster's head,\nthe monster dies. The golden duck, whence the monster's heart, the\nsun, comes forth, is the same as the cow which gives birth to the lamb\n(the night gives birth to the aurora, and the aurora to the solar\nlamb). The historian Flavius cites, among the prodigies which preceded\nthe destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, a miracle of this kind,\nwhich took place in the middle of the temple itself, in the case of a\ncow led thither to be sacrificed. It occurs still every morning in the\nmythical heavens, and was a phenomenon familiar to human observation\nin the remotest antiquity, when it became a proverb; but, as often\nhappened, the proverb which affirmed an evident myth, when its sense\nwas lost, was adopted to indicate an impossibility; wherefore we read\nin the second satire (cxxii.) of Juvenal:--\n\n      \"Scilicet horreres maioraque monstra putares,\n       Si mulier vitulum, vel si bos ederet agnum?\"\n\nIn Greek and Latin authors[500] we find frequent examples of the\nsacrifice of a bull a short time before the death of the hero by whom\nit was ordered, in which it was noticed as a very sinister omen that\nthe entrails were missing, and particularly the heart or the liver.\nHaving observed that the monster's heart is the solar hero, or the sun\nitself, we can easily understand how, in the sacrifice of a bull, this\nheart must be wanting when the hero approaches his end. In the\nmythical bull sacrificed at evening, the hero's heart is not to be\nfound; the monster has eaten his intestines, of which, according to\nthe legend, he is particularly greedy.\n\nBut the bull does not always let himself be sacrificed patiently; he\noften flees in order not to be killed. We have seen in the Russian\nstories how the bull, which his owner intends to sacrifice, flees into\nthe forest, with the lamb (the bull and the lamb are two equivalent\nforms of the morning and evening solar hero) and the other domestic\nanimals. The proverb of Theokritos, \"Even the bull goes into the\nforest,\"[501] can have no other origin than in the two analogous myths\nof the moon which wanders through the forest of night, and of the sun\nwho hides himself in the same forest, when he sees the preparations\nmade for the sacrifice; the sun in the night becomes the moon.\n\nI have said that the bull, when sacrificed, often, on account of his\nbeing devoid of intestines, forebodes unlucky occurrences to the hero;\nthe solar bull of the evening is without strength, he has no heroic\nentrails. But after he has been to pasture freely in the forest, after\nhaving exercised his powers in battle with the wolves of night, after\nhaving, by his bellowing (in the darkness, in the thundering cloud),\nfilled all the animals with terror, the bull is found again and led\ntowards his dwelling of the morning, full of light, like a sacrificed\nhero; heroic entrails are found in him; from the black bull who is\nsacrificed towards morning, from the forest, from the bull of night,\ncome forth the heart, the liver, the life and strength, the sun, the\nhero-sun; and the human hero, observing his sacrifice, considers it a\ngood omen. We can thus understand the narrative of Ammianus Marcellinus:\n\"Decimus (taurus) diffractis vinculis, lapsus \u00e6gre reductus est, et\nmactatus ominosa signa monstravit.\"[502] Whilst he is hidden in the\nforest, the solar bull is black, but often (_i.e._, in all the nights\nillumined by the moon), giving up his place to the moon, he appears in\nthe form of a white bull or cow, who guides the hero lost in the\ndarkness. Thoas is called the king of the Tauroi (or bulls) in the\n_Iphigenia in Tauris_ of Euripides, because he has wings on his feet.\nThe cow I\u00f4 flees without stopping in the _Prometheus_ of \u00c6schylos.\nEuripides[503] says that she gave birth to the king of the Kadmoeans.\nHere, therefore, we find once more the intimate relation between I\u00f4 and\nEur\u00f4p\u00ea, the sister of Kadmos, which I noticed above. Kadmos, the brother\nof Eur\u00f4p\u00ea, unites himself with I\u00f4. But I\u00f4 is a cow, and we find a cow, a\ntravelling cow, marked with a white spot in the shape of a full moon\n(the moon itself, or I\u00f4), in the legend of Kadmos in Boeotia, according\nto Pausanias,[504] and to Ovid,[505] who sings--\n\n      \"Bos tibi, Phoebus ait, solis occurret in arvis,[506]\n       Nullum passa jugum, curvique immunis aratri.\n       Hac duce carpe vias, et, qua requieverit herba,\n       Moenia fac condas: Boeotia ilia vocato.\n       Vix bene Castalio Cadmus descenderat antro:\n       Incustoditam lente videt ire juvencam,\n       Nullum servitii signum cervice gerentem.\n       Subsequitur, pressoque legit vestigia gressu;\n       Auctoremque vi\u00e6 Phoebum taciturnus adorat.\n       Jam vada Cephisi, Panopesque evaserat arva;\n       Bos stetit; et, tollens spatiosam cornibus altis\n       Ad coelum frontem, mugitibus impulit auras.\n       Atque ita, respiciens comites sua terga sequentes,\n       Procubuit, teneraque latus submisit in herba.\"\n\nThis is the good fairy, or good old man, who shows the way to the\nheroes in popular tales; it is the cow which succours the maiden\npersecuted by her step-mother, the puppet which spins, sews, and\nweaves for the maiden aurora. For just as we have seen that the wooden\ngirl is the aurora herself, which at morn comes out of, and at even\nre-enters, the forest of night,[507] as is clearly shown by the myths\nof Urva\u00e7\u00ee and of Daphne, so in like manner the moon comes out of and\nre-enters the nocturnal forest, transforming herself from a tree to a\ncow, and from a cow to a tree, wooden girl, or puppet. Some myths\nrelating to the aurora are also applicable to the moon, on account of\nthe resemblance of the phenomena (the lunar and solar bulls also are\ninterchangeable), as they both come out of the nocturnal gloom, both\ndrop dewy humours, and both run after the sun, of which the aurora is\nthe deliverer in the morning, and the moon the protectress, guide,\nhostess, and good advising fairy, who teaches him the secret by which\nto avoid the ambuscades of the monster. H\u00earakl\u00eas passes the sea upon\nthe neck of the cow-moon; but instead of the cow, we also find in the\nmythical sky of H\u00earakl\u00eas the golden cup, which is the same thing. From\nthe cow-moon comes forth the horn of abundance; from the cornucopia to\nthe cup the passage is easy. It is said that H\u00earakl\u00eas, approaching the\noxen of Geryon, the West, felt himself burned by the sun's rays, and\nshot arrows at him (in the same way as Indras in the _Rigvedas_ breaks\na wheel of the car of S\u00fbryas, the sun). The sun admires the courage\nand strength of the hero, and lends him his golden cup, upon which\nH\u00earakl\u00eas passes the sea. This being accomplished, H\u00earakl\u00eas restores\nthe cup to the sun, and finds the oxen.\n\nThe bull which carries the hero and heroine, in the Russian story,\narises again in another form, if its essential part (now the\nintestines, now the bones, now the ashes) is preserved. The cow\nwhich helps the maiden becomes, as we have already seen, an\napple-tree, and helps her again in this form. We find the same myth\ntransformed in Greece. In _Coelius_, quoted by Aldrovandi,[508] we\nread, \"Cum rustici quidam Herculi Alexicaco bovem essent immolaturi,\nisque rupto fune profugisset (the bull destined to the sacrifice\nrepairs to the forest of night), nec esset quod sacrificaretur, malum\narreptum suppositis quatuor ramis crurum vice, deinde additis alteris\nduobus ceu cornuum loco, bovem utcumque fuisse imitatos, idque\nridiculum simulacrum pro victima sacrificasse Herculi.\" This account\nis confirmed by the facts recorded by Julius Pollux,[509] that the\napple-tree was sacrificed to H\u00earakl\u00eas. The moon, on account of its\ncircular form, assumed, besides the figure of a pea, a pumpkin and a\ncabbage, also that of a golden apple. As it contains honey, the sweet\napple represents well the ambrosial moon. Moreover, in the same way as\nwe have seen the pea which fell on the ground become a tree, and rise\nto heaven, so the apple became an apple-tree, the tree of golden\napples found in the Western garden of the Hesperides.\n\nThe moon, besides the form of a horned cow, also assumed, in the\npopular \u00c2ryan belief, that of a tart, of a cake, either on account of\nits circular shape, or of the ambrosial honey supposed to be contained\nby the moon, because of the dew or rain which it spreads on the\nground. The cake has in Slavonic tradition the same importance as the\npea, kidney-bean, or cabbage. The bull or cow of the fool, bartered\nfor a pea, is perhaps the same as the sun or aurora of evening,\nbartered during the night for the moon, or else meeting the moon. The\nfunereal pea or kidney-bean, the vegetable which serves as provision\nfor the journey in the kingdom of the dead, and which brings the hero\nriches, is perhaps only the moon, which the solar hero finds on the\nway during the night, and which he receives in exchange for his cow's\nhide. When the hero possesses this pea, he is assured of every kind of\ngood fortune, and can enter or ascend into the luminous sky, as well\nas come out of the gloomy hell, into which the monster has drawn him.\nA similar virtue is attributed to the cake, which we find in\nIndo-European funeral customs instead of the vegetable of the dead.\n\nAfter this we can understand what Plutarch tells us in the Life of\nLucullus concerning the Cyziceni, of whom he writes, that, pressed by\nsiege, they offered up to Proserpine (the moon in hell) a cow of black\npaste, not being able to offer up one of flesh; and he adds, that the\nsacrifice was agreeable to the goddess. Thus, in the thirty-sixth\nfable of \u00c6sop, we read of an invalid who promises to the gods that he\nwill sacrifice a hundred oxen to them in the event of a cure; when\ncured, as he does not possess a hundred oxen of flesh, he makes a\nhundred of paste, and burns them upon the hearth. But, according to\n\u00c6sop, the gods were not satisfied, and endeavoured to play off a joke\nupon him; an attempt, which, however, did not succeed, inasmuch as the\ncunning man used it to his own profit; for the solar hero in the\nnight, not being really a fool, merely feigns to be one.\n\nBut, to return to the cow-moon: we must complete the explanation of\nanother myth, that of the excrement of the cow considered as purifying.\nThe moon, as the aurora, yields ambrosia; it is considered to be a cow;\nthe urine of this cow is ambrosia or holy water; he who drinks this\nwater purifies himself, as the ambrosia which rains from the lunar ray\nand the aurora cleans the paths of the sky, purifies and makes clear\n(_d\u00eerghaya cakshase_) the paths of the sky which the shadows of night\ndarken and contaminate. The same virtue is attributed, moreover, to\ncow's dung, a conception also derived from the cow, and given to the\nmoon as well as to the morning aurora. These two cows are conceived as\nmaking the earth fruitful by means of their ambrosial excrements; these\nexcrements, being also luminous, both those of the moon and those of the\naurora are considered as purifiers. The ashes of these cows (which their\nfriend the heroine preserves) are not only ashes, but golden powder or\ngolden flour (the golden cake occurs again in that flour or powder of\ngold which the witch demands from the hero in Russian stories), which,\nmixed with excrement, brings good fortune to the cunning and robber\nhero. The ashes of the sacrificed pregnant cow (_i.e._, the cow which\ndies after having given birth to a calf) were religiously preserved by\nthe Romans in the temple of Vesta, with bean-stalks (which are used to\nfatten the earth sown with corn), as a means of expiation. Ovid[510]\nmentions this rite:--\n\n      \"Nox abiit, oriturque Aurora. Palilia poscor,\n         Non poscor frustra, si favet alma Pales.\n       Alma Pales, faveas pastoria sacra canenti;\n         Prosequor officio si tua festa pio.\n       Certe ego de vitulo cinerem, stipulasque fabales,\n         S\u00e6pe tuli plena februa casta, manu.\"\n\nThe ashes of a cow are preserved both as a symbol of resurrection and\nas a means of purification. As to the excrements of the cow, they are\nstill used to form the so-called _eau de millefleurs_, recommended by\nseveral pharmacopoeias as a remedy for cachexy.[511]\n\nI have noticed above the myth of H\u00earakl\u00eas, in which, having passed the\nsea upon the golden cup, he finds the oxen upon the shore. These oxen\nare thus described by Theokritos, in the myth of King Augeias, as the\nchild of the sun. The sun, says Theokritos, granted to his son the\nhonour of being richer than all other men in herds. All these herds are\nhealthy, and multiply without limit, always becoming better. Among the\nbulls, three hundred have white legs (like the alba of morning), two\nhundred are red (like the sun's rays), with curved horns. These bulls\nare to be used for purposes of reproduction; besides them there are\ntwelve sacred to the sun, which shine like swans. One of them is\nsuperior to all the rest in size, and is called a star, or Phaeth\u00f4n (the\nluminous, an epithet given to H\u00ealios, the sun, in the _Odyssey_, the\nguider of the chariot of the sun, who, after finishing his diurnal\ncourse, is unable to rein in the horses, and is precipitated with the\nchariot into the water, in order that the burning horses may not set\nfire to the world. Instead of solar oxen, which draw the chariot, and\nfall, at evening, into the nocturnal marsh, we find in this myth the\nchariot drawn by horses overturned into the waves; but the Phaeth\u00f4n, the\nvery luminous and excellent ox, as represented by Theokritos, justifies\nour identification of the two mythical episodes of the ox and of the\nhorse which falls into the water). The bull Phaeth\u00f4n of Theokritos sees\nH\u00earakl\u00eas, and, taking him for a lion, rushes upon him and endeavours to\nwound him with his horns. The sun, as a golden-haired hero, is a very\nstrong lion (H\u00earakl\u00eas, Samson); as a golden-horned hero, he is a very\nstrong bull; enclosed in the cloud, they roar and bellow. The two images\nof the sun-lion and of the sun-bull are now in harmony and now in\ndiscordance, and fight with one another. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ we found the\ntwo brother-heroes R\u00e2mas and Lakshmanas, an epic form of the two\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, represented respectively as a bull and a lion. In the Hellenic\nfables we frequently find the lion and the bull together, and afterwards\nin discordance, as happens in the legend of the two brother-heroes. In\n\u00c6sop and in Avianus, the bull (perhaps the moon) fleeing from the lion\n(_i.e._, from the sun in its monstrous evening or autumnal form of a\nlion), enters the hiding-place of the goat (the moon in the grotto of\nnight), and is insulted and provoked by it. In another \u00c6sopian fable, on\nthe contrary, it is the lion who fears the horns of the bull, and\ninduces him to part with them, in order that the bull may become his\nprey.[512] In yet another \u00c6sopian fable taken from Syntipa, the bull\nkills the lion, while asleep, with his horns. In Ph\u00e6drus, the wild boar\nwith his tusks, the bull with his horns, and the ass with kicks, put an\nend to the old and infirm lion. In Ph\u00e6drus's fable of the ox and the ass\ndrawing together, the ox falls inert upon the ground when he loses his\nhorns. Aristoteles, in the third book on the Parts of Animals, censures\nthe Momos of \u00c6sop, who laughs at the bull because he has his horns on\nhis forehead instead of on his arms, showing that if the bull had his\nhorns on any other part of his body, they would be a useless weight,\nand would impede his other functions without aiding him in anything. The\nox and the lion were also painted together in Christian churches.[513]\n\nTo continue the legend of the solar hero and the oxen, we find again in\nH\u00earakl\u00eas, as employed among the herds in the service of King Augeias,\nthe sun, the usual hostler-hero; he is not only to guard the herds well,\nbut in one day to cleanse them thoroughly, and make them shine.\nDefrauded of the price by Augeias, he kills him, and ravages all his\ncountry. In the same way, in Homer, Apollo guards, for a stipulated\nprice, the herds of King Laomedon upon Mount Ida, and is cheated of his\nreward. In the same way, Hermes takes the herds of King Admetos to\npasture; he leads them to browse near the herds of Apollo, from whom he\nsteals a hundred bulls and twelve cows, preventing the dogs from barking\n(as H\u00earakl\u00eas does when he leads away Geryon's oxen). This Hermes, this\ngod Mercury, god of merchants, this merchant and robber, is the same as\nthe skilful and cunning thief of the stories who carries off horses,\ndraught oxen, caskets, and ear-rings from the king; he is the\nhero-thief; but a shade distinguishes him from the monster brigand or\nVedic demoniacal Panis; the hero who hides himself and the monster that\nhides things both do a furtive action. When Hermes leads away the herds\nstolen from the solar god, the sun, he also takes care to fasten\nbranches of trees to their tails, which, by sweeping the road, shall\ndestroy the track of the bulls and cows that have been led away. The\nshepherd Battos plays the spy, although, as the price of his silence,\nHermes has promised him a white cow (the moon, and perhaps Battos\nhimself, the spy, is the moon). Hermes tests him, by disguising himself\nand promising him a bull and a cow if he speaks. Battos speaks, and\nHermes punishes him by transforming him into a stone:--\n\n                                        \"Vertit\n      In durum silicem, qui nunc quoque dicitur index.\"[514]\n\nThis god Mercury, who steals the bulls from Apollo (as H\u00earakl\u00eas leads\naway the oxen of Geryon), is the divine form of the thief. His\ndemoniacal form, is--Cacus, the son of Vulcan (as the Vedic Vritras is\nthe son of Tvashtar), who vomits fire; a giant who envelops himself in\ndarkness, in Virgil; three-headed (like the Vedic monster), in\nPropertius;[515] who inhabits in the Aventine forest a cavern full of\nhuman bones (like the monster of fairy tales); who thunders (flammas\nore sonante vomit), who fights with rocks and trunks of trees, in\nOvid[516] (like the heroes in the Hindoo, Slavonic, German, and\nHomeric tradition); who steals the cows from H\u00earakl\u00eas, and hides their\nfootprints by dragging them backwards into the cavern, in Livy; who\nalso tells us that the cows in the cavern low, wishing for the bulls\nfrom whom they are separated (as in the Vedic hymns). The hero,\nhearing them, finds the cavern, overturns with a great noise the rock\nwhich five pair of oxen yoked together could scarcely have moved (like\nthe Marutas who break the rock, like Indras who splits the crag open),\nand with the three-knotted club (trinodis) kills the monster and frees\nthe cows. The solar hero who at evening leads away oxen or cows, or\nwho at morning steals them from the stable, is a skilful robber who\nhas acted meritoriously, and marries, in reward, the princess aurora;\nthe cloudy or gloomy monster who steals the solar cows to shut them up\nin the cavern, whence he then throws out smoke and flames, is an\ninfamous criminal. The divine thief steals almost out of playfulness,\neither to show his craftiness or to prove his valour; the demoniacal\nthief steals because of his malevolent character, and instinct to\ndevour what he steals, as does the fabled worm of the river Indus (the\nVedic Sindhus, or heavenly ocean), who draws into the abyss and\ndevours the thirsty oxen who go to drink.[517]\n\nThe monster of the clouds who whistles and thunders only terrifies; the\ngod who whistles and thunders in the cloud, on the other hand, is _par\nexcellence_ a celestial musician; his musical instrument, the thunder,\nastonishes us by its marvels,[518] and makes stones and plants tremble,\nthat is, makes stones and plants move, especially celestial ones\n(_i.e._, cloud-mountains and cloud-trees); it draws after it the wild\nanimals (of the heavenly forest), tames and subdues them. The bellowing\nbull terrifies the lion himself. We, therefore, also read in\nNonnos,[519] that Dionysos gives a bull in reward to \u00c6agros, who has won\nin the competition of song and of the lyre, whilst he reserves a hirsute\nhe-goat for him who loses; on this account we find on the capitals of\ncolumns in old Milanese churches, calves and bulls represented as\nplaying on the lyre.[520] It is a variation of the myth of the ass and\nthe lyre, which has the same meaning. The bull and the ass, for the same\nreason, are found represented together, because they bellow and bray\n(like Christian Corybantes) near the cradle of the new-born god, in\norder to hide, by their noise, his birth from the old king or deity who\nis to be dethroned.[521] The conch of Bh\u00eemas, the elephant-horn of\nOrlando, the Greek war-bugle tauraia, by means of which armies were\nmoved, derived their character and their name from the mythical bull,\nthe thundering god. The voice of the bull is compared in Euripides to\nthe voice of Zeus;[522] the music which pleases the heroes is certainly\nnot the air of the _Casta diva_; it is the braying of the ass,[523] the\nroar of the lion, the bellowing of the bull, who occupies the first\nplace in the heavens, and has occupied us so long, because the supreme\ngod took his form, after having carried off Eur\u00f4p\u00ea. Zeus left on the\nearth his divine form, and the more generally preferred heroic form of a\nbull took him up to heaven:--\n\n      \"Litoribus tactis stabat sine cornibus ullis\n       Juppiter, inque deum de bove versus erat.\n       Taurus init coelum.\"[524]\n\nWe thus, after a long pilgrimage in the fields of tradition, return to\nthe Vedic bull Indras, from whom we started, and to his female form,\nwhich, having a human nature, became a cow, and being a cow, assumed a\ndivine shape:--\n\n      \"Qu\u00e6 bos ex homine, ex bove facta Dea.\"[525]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[483] According to Eustatius, \"I\u00f4 gar h\u00ea sel\u00ean\u00ea kat\u00e0 t\u00ean t\u00f4n Arget\u00f4n\ndialekton.\"\n\n[484] Cfr. Pott, _Studien zur griechischen Mythologie_, Leipzig,\nTeubner, 1859; and Cox, the work quoted before.\n\n[485] _Dionysiak\u00f4n_, i. 45, and following; iii. 306, and following.\n\n[486] _Metamorphose\u00f4n_, iv. 754.\n\n[487] In England, as I have already noticed, the bull or ox is sacred to\nSt Luke; in Russia, to the saints Froh and Laver. In Sicily, the\nprotector of oxen is San Cataldo, who was bishop of Taranto. (For the\nnotices relating to Sicilian beliefs concerning animals, I am indebted\nto my good friend Giuseppe Pitr\u00e8.) In Tuscany, and in other parts of\nItaly, oxen and horses are recommended to the care of St Antony, the\ngreat protector of domestic animals. In the rural parts of Tuscany, it\nwas the custom, on the 17th of February, to lead oxen and horses to the\nchurch-door, that they might be blessed. Now, to save trouble, only a\nbasket of hay is carried to be blessed; which done, it is taken to the\nanimals that they may eat it and be preserved from evil. On Palm Sunday,\nto drive away every evil, juniper is put into the stables in Tuscany.\n\n[488] Ta\u00farous pamm\u00e9lanai, in the _Odyssey_; the commentator explains\nthat the bulls are black because they resemble the colour of water.\n\n[489] Kelainef\u00e8s-nefel\u00eager\u00e9ta Ze\u00fas; _Odyssey_, xiii. 147 and 153.\n\n[490]\n\n      Signatus tenui media inter cornua nigro\n      Una fuit labes; coetera lactis erant.\n                            Ovidius, _De Arte Amandi_.\n\n[491] In _Diodoros_, Hammon loves the virgin Amalthea, who has a horn\nresembling that of an ox. The goat and the cow in the lunar and cloudy\nmyth are the same; and on this account we find them both in connection\nwith the apple-tree, a vegetable form, and with the cornucopia, since\nboth are seers, and spies, and guides. The golden doe is a variation\nof the same lunar myth.\n\n[492] _Argonantik\u00f4n_, iii. 410, 1277.\n\n[493] Nonnos, _Dionysiak\u00f4n_, xi. 113 and following.\n\n[494] _Orest\u00eas_, 1380.\n\n[495] _Ergazom\u00e9nous B\u00f3as._--In the twelfth book of his _History of\nAnimals_, \u00c6lianos writes: \"Among the Phrygians, if any one kills a\nworking ox, he atones for it with his life.\" And Varro, _De Re Rustic\u00e2_:\n\"Bos socius hominum in rustico opere et Cereris minister. Ab hoc antiqui\nita manus abstineri voluerunt ut capite sanxerint si quis occidisset.\"\n\n[496] _Scriptores Histori\u00e6 August\u00e6_, Lampridius, in the life of\nHeliogabalus.\n\n[497] vii. 3.\n\n[498] _Fasti_, iii. 800.\n\n[499] Cfr. the chapter on the Hare.\n\n[500] Plutarch, in the Life of Marcellus, Arrianos and Appianos among\nthe Greeks, Livy, Cicero (De Divinatione), Pliny the elder, Julius\nCapitolinus, Julius Obsequens among the Latins.\n\n[501] _\u00c9ba kai t\u00e1uros an h\u00fclan_, xiv. 43. In Theokritos, the proverb\nis used to intimate that he is gone to other and perfidious loves; he,\ntoo, is a traitor.\n\n[502] _Rerum gestarum_, xxii.--Cfr. the episode of the ox which lets\nitself fall into the marsh or swamp, in the various versions of the\nfirst book of the _Pancatantram_.--The astrologers placed the brain\nunder the protection of the moon, and the heart under that of the sun;\nCeloria, _La Luna_, Milano, 1871.\n\n[503] Kadmei\u00f4n Basil\u00eaas egeinato; _Phoinissai_, 835.\n\n[504] _Boiotia._\n\n[505] _Metam._, iii. 10.--Cfr. Nonnos, _Dionys._, iv. 290, and\nfollowing.\n\n[506] Or, on the path of the sun in the sky.\n\n[507] In an unpublished Piedmontese story, which is very widely spread,\nthe girl carried off by robbers escapes from their hands, and hides in\nthe trunk of a tree.\n\n[508] _De Quadrupedibus Bisulcis_, i.\n\n[509] _De Vocabulis_, i., quoted by Aldrovandi.\n\n[510] _Fasti_, iv. 721.\n\n[511] Cfr. Ott. Targioni Tozzetti, _Lezioni di Materia Medica_,\nFirenze, 1821.\n\n[512] In an \u00c6sopian fable taken from Syntipa, which corresponds to the\nfirst of Lokman, two bulls combine against the lion, and resist him;\nthe lion excites them against each other, and tears them to pieces. In\nthe sixth fable of Aphtonios, the bulls are three; in the eighteenth\nof Avianus, they are four. The lion already knew the motto of kings:\n\"Divide et impera.\"\n\n[513] Durandus, _Rational._ i. 3, quoted by Du Cange.\n\n[514] Ovidius, _Metam._, ii. 706.\n\n[515] Per tria partitos qui dabat ora sonos; _Ecl._ iv.\n\n[516] _Fasti_, i. 550.\n\n[517] Phil\u00ea, _Stichoi peri z\u00f4\u00f4n idiot\u00eatos_, lix.\n\n[518] In Italian, _attonito_ (or, properly speaking, struck by\nthunder) is the same as \"who is much surprised\").\n\n[519] _Dionys._ xix 58.\n\n[520] Cfr. Martigny, _Dictionnaire des Antiquit\u00e9s Chr\u00e9tiennes_, s. v.\n_veau._\n\n[521] In _Ph\u00e6drus_, as we have already observed, the ox and the ass\nare yoked together.\n\n[522] _Ippolitos_, _\u00d4s fon\u00ea Di\u00f2s_, 1200-1229.\n\n[523] Cfr. the chapter relating to the Ass.\n\n[524] Ovidius, _Fasti_, v. 615.\n\n[525] _Ib._ v. 620.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE HORSE.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The horse, favourite animal of the solar hero.--Attributes of the\n    Vedic solar hero.--Animals which draw the Vedic gods.--The A\u00e7vin\u00e2u\n    sons of a mare.--The mule, the ass, and the horse in relation to\n    each other.--The hero's horse, prior to being noble and handsome, is\n    vile and ill-favoured; proofs.--The teeth of the horse.--The figs\n    that make tails grow.--The excrement of the horse.--Three colours of\n    the heroic horse.--Pluto's horses abhor the light.--P\u00eagasos an\n    imperfect horse.--The black horse generally demoniacal.--The\n    hippomanes.--The monster that makes horses perspire and grow lean;\n    the fire in stables.--To dream of black horses.--The horse of the\n    third brother is small, humpbacked, and lame.--The hero transforms\n    himself into a horse.--The grey horse differs from the black\n    one.--The red horse frees the hero.--The three steps, the three\n    races, the three leaps, the three castles, the three days, the three\n    brothers, and the three horses correspond to each other.--Two\n    horsemen change the hero's bad horse into a heroic steed.--The\n    horse's ears; the hero in the horse's ears.--The horse's head\n    blesses the good maiden, and devours the wicked one.--The black\n    horseman, the white horseman, and the red one.--The horse-monster\n    that devastates the field surprised by the hero, and destroyed by\n    fire, in the _Rigvedas_.--The Dioscuri washing the sweat off their\n    horses.--Salt on the horse's back.--The hero-horse covered by the\n    waters.--The A\u00e7vin\u00e2u and Agnis give a good horse to the hero who has\n    a bad one.--The three steps of Vishnus are made by the horses of\n    Indras.--Vishnus as horse.--Indras and the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u find the bride on\n    horseback.--R\u00e2mas as horse.--Dadhyanc and his ambrosial horse's\n    head, which discomfits the hostile monsters.--The bones of the\n    horse.--The exchange of heads.--The two brother horses P\u00eagasos and\n    Chr\u00fcsaor in opposition to one another.--Castor and\n    Pollux.--Discussion upon the nature of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u.--The two\n    brothers at discord; Sundas and Upasundas.--Nakulas and\n    Vasudevas.--R\u00e2mas and Lakshmanas.--The brothers who resemble each\n    other; B\u00e2lin and Sugr\u00eevas; the brother betrays his brother and\n    steals his wife.--Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa and Urv\u00e2ksha.--Piran and Pilsem.--The\n    sky a mountain of stone; heroes, heroines, and horses of stone.--The\n    brother seducer in the _Tuti-Name_.--Sunlight and moonlight, two\n    brothers.--The minister's son and the king's son.--Horse and\n    cat.--The two brothers on a journey; one becomes a king, the other\n    spits gold; the candle of one of the two brothers lights of its own\n    accord, and he therefore obtains the kingdom; the other brother's\n    treasure.--Digression concerning the interpretation of the\n    myth.--Agam\u00ead\u00eas and Trophonios; Piedmontese story of the skilful\n    thief.--The two brothers who resemble each other; mistaken one for\n    the other by the wife of one of them; the brother sleeps with his\n    sister-in-law without touching her; the legend of the pilgrim who\n    comes from Rome; the head fastened on again.--The horse led away out\n    of hell.--The solar horse destined for sacrifice carried off by\n    Kapilas; that is, the solar horse escapes, like the solar bull, from\n    the sacrifice.--The stallion destined for the sacrifice touched, and\n    the horse's fat smelted by K\u00e2u\u00e7aly\u00e2 as an augury of\n    fruitfulness.--The horse's head as the mouth of hell.--The robber of\n    the horse and of the treasure.--The horns of the stag, the horns or\n    mane of the horse, and the hair of the hero, which catch and fasten\n    themselves to the trees of the forest.--The thief now protects\n    thieves, and now protects men from thieves.--The Miles gloriosus;\n    hero, horse, and tree, united together, discomfit the enemies.--The\n    heroic horse.--The tail of Indras's horse, and the Hindoo\n    war-horse.--The war-horses of Rustem, of Alexander, of Bellerophon,\n    and of C\u00e6sar; the winged horse.--The horse goes through water and\n    fire.--The horse and the apple.--The chains of the heroic horse, and\n    the difficulty of riding him.--The horse that speaks; the\n    horse-spy.--The chariot that speaks.--The solar horse bound that it\n    may not come back again.--The hero who flees in the shape of a\n    horse, and the horse sold with the bridle; transformations of the\n    horse.--The sun without a horse and without a bridle.--The horses of\n    the sun, arrested or wounded, precipitate the solar hero into the\n    waters.--The eternal hunter.--Eta\u00e7as, Phaeth\u00f4n, Hippolytos.--The\n    horse that delivers the hero.--The neighing of Indras's horse; the\n    horse of Darius which neighs at the sight of the sun on account of\n    the smell of a mare.--Number of the solar horses.--The hero born of\n    a mare.--The mare's egg.--The hare born of a mare devours the\n    mare.--Spanish mares made pregnant by the wind.--Horses sons of the\n    wind.--The hero A\u00e7vatth\u00e2man neighs immediately after birth.--The\n    horses that weep; mythical signification of these tears.--Vedic\n    riddle and play of words upon the letter _r_, and the root _varsh_\n    relative to the horse.--The foam from the horse's mouth destroys\n    enemies and cures the cough.--The A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the Dioscuri, Askl\u00eapios\n    and his two sons as physicians.--Caballus.--Ambrosia from the hoof\n    of the Vedic horse.--Hippokr\u00ean\u00ea; the horse's hoof in relation with\n    water.--Exchanges between moon and sun and between bull and\n    horse.--Horses sacred to the gods and to saints.--Holy horsemen who\n    help the heroes _mercede pacta_.\n\nThe myth of the horse is perhaps not so rich in legends as that of the\nbull and the cow, but certainly no less interesting. As the horseman\nis the finest type of the hero, so the horse which carries him is in\nmythology the noblest of animals.\n\nWe have already observed that the best of the three brothers, the third,\nthe victorious one, the morning sun, is, in tradition, distinguished\nfrom the other brothers by his swiftness; and that the morning dawn or\naurora, which is the third sister, the good one, the best of the three\nsisters, is she who wins the race. It is, therefore, natural that the\nfavourite animal of the hero should be his horse. The two Hindoo\nDioscuri, that is, the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the two horsemen, derive their name from\nthe a\u00e7vas or horse, as being the swift one;[526] and they are very\nprobably identical with the two fair-haired, amiable, splendid, and\nardent coursers of Indras, of Savitar (the sun), and proper and worthy\nto bear heroes,[527] who yoke themselves at a word,[528] are maned,\nadapted to make fruitful, full of life,[529] having eyes like the\nsun,[530] made by the Ribhavas,[531] who, as they made the cow out of a\ncow, also made a horse out of the horse,[532] black, with white feet,\ndrawing the chariot with the golden yoke, revealing the beings;[533] the\ntwo rapid ones; the two most rapid ones;[534] plunging into the\ninebriating drink before Indras yokes them;[535] beautiful, by means of\nwhich the chariot of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u is as swift as thought;[536] who carry\nIndras, as every day they carry the sun;[537] are the two rays of the\nsun;[538] who neigh, dropping ambrosia;[539] the very pure horses of the\nbull Indras, inebriated, who illumine the sky,[540] with manes the\ncolour of a peacock,[541] bridled sixty times (properly six times twice\nfive);[542] beneficent, winged, indefatigable, resolute destroyers (of\nthe enemies).[543] The _\u00c2itareya Br\u00e2hmanam_, when giving the\ncharacteristics of the race of each god, whilst it tells us that Agnis,\nat the marriage of Somas and S\u00fbry\u00e2, is drawn by mules, and the aurora\nby red cows (or bulls), teaches us that Indras is drawn by horses, and\nthe A\u00e7vin\u00e2u by asses; the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u carried off the prize.[544] In the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[545] we find another important circumstance, _i.e._, the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u represented as sons of a mare, or of Tvashtr\u00ee, wife of the sun\nSavitar, who took the form of a mare. Therefore we have here the sons of\nthe mare, who may be horses or mules, according as the mare united\nherself with a horse or with an ass. Here, then, we have already an\nevident proof of the identification of the heroes A\u00e7vin\u00e2u with the\nanimals, horses or asses, which draw them. The _Rigvedas_ does not as\nyet know the word _a\u00e7vatara_, or mule, but in representing the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u\ndrawn now by horses and now by asses, it shows us the intermediate\ncharacter of the real animal that draws the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, a grey beast,\ndark-coloured, and white only in its fore parts. Night is the mule that\ncarries the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u or twilights, in the same way as, in the\nabove-quoted _\u00c2itareya_, it carries or awakens Agnis, fire or light. In\nthe _Iliad_,[546] mules are sung of as being better adapted than oxen to\ndraw the plough.\n\nThe hero's horse, like the hero himself, begins by being ugly,\ndeformed, and inept, and ends by becoming beautiful, luminous, heroic,\nand victorious.\n\nThe mythical horse of the Hungarians, the horse T\u00e1tos, or T\u00e1tos lo,\nwhen born, is of an ugly aspect, defective and lean; it is therefore\nsaid in Hungarian, that \"the T\u00e1tos comes out of a defective horse.\" It\nis, however, always born with teeth,[547] although its chin is\nsometimes wanting; its bursts out of a black pentagonal egg on an Ash\nWednesday, after the hero has carried it for seven summers and seven\nwinters under his arm. In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[548] the first created\nhorse Ucc\u00e2ih\u00e7ravas, the king of the horses (and therefore the horse of\nIndras), which is as swift as thought, follows the path of the sun,\nand is luminous and white, has, however, a black tail, made so by the\nmagic of the serpents, who have covered it with black hairs. This is\nprobably the black ass's or horse's tail which remains upon the ugly\nor wicked sister's forehead, in the popular European story of the two\nsisters.[549] It must also be remarked that, as the word\n_Ucc\u00e2ih\u00e7ravas_ means, properly, him of the high ears, it indicates\nthe ass better than the horse.\n\nIn the same way, therefore, as the hero of popular tales before\nbecoming a wise man is generally an ass, the animal ridden by the\nsolar hero, prior to being a real and noble horse, is usually a\nworthless jade, or a dark-coloured ass. The sun, in the beginning of\nthe night, rides a black horse, and afterwards a grey one, or else an\nass or a mule, but in the morning, on the contrary, a white and\nluminous horse, which has a black tail; or else the dark horse of\nnight has a white head, or white legs, or anterior parts of the body,\nwith golden ears, and the nape of the neck formed of pearls.[550] The\nmonstrous Trojan horse too, of Epeios, a figure which represents the\nhorse of mythology, in Tryphiod\u00f4ros the Egyptian,[551] has a golden\nmane, red eyes, and silver teeth.\n\nIn the Turkish stories of Siberia,[552] it is upon an iron-coloured\nhorse that the third brother, hated by his father and his two elder\nbrothers, advances against the demon Ker Iutpa. The hero becomes the\nexcrement of a horse, and the horse a crow; the former glues the\nmonster's lower lip to the earth, the latter suspends his upper lip to\nthe sky. In order better to understand this strange myth, we must\nremember that the name of one of the Valkiries is \"Mist,\" a word which\nmeans excrement and fog. The fog, or frost, or rain, or dew, falls to\nthe ground; the solar horse, or the sun, rises in the sky; the\nmonster of night or of clouds is dispersed.\n\nIn the thirteenth Esthonian story of _Kreutzwald_, the third brother\ncomes three times to deliver the princess from the mountain of glass\n(or ice), where she sleeps. The first time he is dressed the colour of\nbronze, upon a bronze-coloured horse; the second time dressed in\nsilver, upon a horse the colour of silver; and the third time upon a\ngold-coloured horse, dressed in gold.\n\nIn an unpublished Piedmontese story, the young prince, whose beloved\nprincess has been ravished beyond seas, is borne over the waves by an\neagle, which he feeds with his own flesh. Arrived beyond the sea, he\nhears that the princess is destined to be the wife of the hero who wins\nthe race three times; the first time he appears dressed in black, upon a\nblack horse; the second time dressed in white, upon a white horse; and\nthe third time dressed in red, upon a red horse. Each time he wins the\nrace, and thereafter receives the beautiful princess in marriage.\n\nThus we see the first horse of the hero is always dark-coloured, like\nthe devil's horse, like the horses of Pluto, which, accustomed to\ndarkness, are terrified by light;[553] it then becomes the grey horse\nof the giantess, the grey horse which smells the dead hero Sigurd in\nthe _Edda_. P\u00eagasos himself, the _hieros hippos_ of Aratos, is born\nsemi-perfect (\u00eamitel\u00eas),[554] an expression which reminds me of the\n_equus dimidius_ of an Alsatian paper of 1336, in Du Cange, by which\nthe mule is meant. The Hindoo Arunas, charioteer of the sun (or even\nthe brother of the sun himself, inasmuch as he is the brother of\nGarudas, the solar bird), is said to be born with an imperfect\nbody;[555] he can be luminous and divine only in part. The black\nhorse, on the contrary, has generally an evil and demoniacal nature;\nthe black horse corresponds to the black devil; the colour black\nitself is, according to popular superstition, the product of bad\nhumours.[556] Every horse, when born, has, according to Maestro\nAgostino, a piece of black flesh upon its lips, called hippomanes by\nthe Greeks: \"La quale carne dici lo vulgo essere molto sospettosa a li\nmaleficii.\" Maestro Agostino adds, moreover, that the mother refuses\nto give suck to the colt as long as it carries this piece of flesh\nupon its lips, and some say that the mother herself eats it. In an\nidyll of Theokritos, we read that the Hippomanes is born among the\nArcadians, and maddens colts and swift mares.[557] In the first\nchapter we mentioned the Russian _damavoi_, the demon who, during the\nnight, rides upon cows, oxen, and horses, and makes them perspire.\nThis superstition was already combated in Italy in the sixteenth\ncentury by Maestro Agostino;[558] and to it can probably be traced the\ncustom, still observed by many grooms, of leaving a lamp lighted in\nthe stable during the night. The devil, as is well known, is afraid of\nthe light (Agnis is called rakshohan, or monster-killer), and his\nblack horse likewise. It is therefore a sinister omen, according to\ntwo verses in _Suidas_,[559] to dream of black horses, whilst, on the\ncontrary, it is a good omen to dream of white ones. In the Norman\nlegend of the priest Walchelm, a black horse presents itself to him in\nthe first days of January of the year 1091, and tempts him to mount\nupon its back; scarcely has Walchelm done so, than the black horse\nsets off for hell.[560] The dead, too, according to the popular\nbelief, often ride upon black or demoniacal horses.[561]\n\nA well-known Russian story in verse, the _Kaniok Garbunok_, or _Little\nHump-backed Horse_, of Jershoff, commences thus:--An old man has three\nsons, the youngest of which is the usual Ivan Dur\u00e1k, or Ivan the fool.\nThe old man finds his corn-field devastated every morning; he wishes\nto find out who the devastator is, and sends his first-born son to\nwatch the first night. The first-born has drunk too much, and falls\nasleep, and so does the second son, and from the same cause, on the\nsecond night. On the third night it is Ivan's turn to watch; he does\nnot fall asleep. At midnight he sees a mare which breathes flames\ncoming. Ivan ties her by a rope, leaps upon her, seizes her by the\nmane, torments and subdues her, until the mare, to be let free,\npromises to give Ivan one of her young ones, and carries him to the\nstable where her three young ones are. She gives Ivan a little\nhump-backed horse with long ears (the Hindoo Ucc\u00e2ihsravas), that\nflies. By means of this little hump-backed horse, Ivan will make his\nfortune; when he leads it away, the mare and the two other colts\nfollow it. Ivan's two brothers steal the mare and two colts, and go to\nsell them to the Sultan. Ivan rejoins them, and the three brothers\nstay in the Sultan's service as grooms; sometime afterwards, Ivan\nsaves himself from drowning by means of his horse.\n\nIn the third of _Erlenwein's_ Russian stories, a stallion is born to\nthe Tzar's mare, that had drunk the water in which a certain fish (a\npike, in the nineteenth story) had been washed, at the same time as\nthe Tzar's daughter and her maid give birth to two heroes, Ivan\nTzarevic and Ivan Dievic--_i.e._, John of the Tzar and John of the\ngirl, a form representing the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u. Ivan Tzarevic rides upon the\nstallion. In the nineteenth story, the son of the mare is called\nDemetrius of the Tzar (Dmitri Tzarevic); hero and horse being\nidentified. In the fifth story of _Erlenwein_, a Cossack goes into the\nforest, where he is betrayed into the enemy's hands, who gives orders\nthat he be cut in pieces, put into a sack, and attached to his horse.\nThe horse starts, and carries him to the house of silver and gold,\nwhere he is resuscitated. During the following night, an old man and\nwoman, whose guest the Cossack is, drag him, in order to waken him, by\nthe cross which hangs on his neck, and he is thus transformed into a\nhorse of gold and silver. Towards evening, the horse, by the Tzar's\norder, is killed, and (like the bull and the cow) becomes an\napple-tree of silver and gold. The apple-tree is cut down, and becomes\na golden duck. The golden duck is the same as the golden horse, or as\nthe hero resuscitated, _i.e._, the morning sun. The sack and the horse\nwhich carry the hero cut in pieces represent the voyage of the sun in\nthe gloom of night, or the voyage of the grey horse, the imperfect\nhorse, the bastard mule, or the ass.\n\nIn the Russian tales, moreover, a distinction is made between the grey\nand the black horse; the grey horse helps the hero in the night very\neffectively, and the black one, on the contrary, is the herald of death.\nWhen, in the ninth story of _Erlenwein_, the horse of Ivan the\nmerchant's son goes to search for the horses of the princess from beyond\nthe sea, Ivan waits for him upon the shore. If he sees grey horses come\nforth, it is to be a sign that his own steed is alive; but if, on the\nother hand, black horses appear, he is to conclude that his own horse is\ndead. Grey is the colour of sadness, black is the colour of death.\n\nIn _Afanassieff_, we find new interesting data. Ivan the fool watches\nduring the night to surprise the horse which devastates his father's\ncrops, and succeeds in binding it with rods from a linden-tree, after\nit has smelt the odour of tobacco. Then, by the help of the sister of\nthe hero Nikanore, it acquires the faculty, when running after cows\nand horses, of turning their tails into gold, as well as their horns\nor manes, and their flanks into stars. What better image could there\nbe of the starry sky of night, the golden tail of which is the red\nevening, and the front parts, also of gold, the morning aurora?[562]\n\nIn another story,[563] we have Ivan the son of the bitch occupying the\nplace and playing the part of Ivan the son of the mare. Ivan of the\nbitch, after having delivered the three princesses from the deep\ncistern, is himself thrown into it. The black horse comes to deliver\nhim, and cannot; the grey horse comes, and cannot either; the red horse\ncomes, and succeeds in dragging the hero out. The black horse represents\nthe dark night, the grey horse the night beginning to clear, and the red\nhorse the roseate morning, which delivers the sun or solar hero.\n\nThe third brother Ivan, mounted on a marvellous horse, comes first to\nthe bronze castle, then to the silver one, and lastly to that of\ngold.[564] This is a variety of the same myth, and represents\nsimilarly the solar voyage from evening to morning. The next mythical\nlegend, however, probably alludes rather to the three days of the\nwinter solstice, which the sun takes to return. The hero, Theodore,\nfinds a horse that has been just brought forth, which the wolves have\ndriven towards him; he makes it pasture upon the dew for three dawns\n(like the Hungarian T\u00e1tos, who feeds upon the golden oats in a silver\nfield, that is to say, who, during the silvery night, or else during\nthe white dawn, or the snowy winter, absorbs the dewy humours of the\nspring, or the morning aurora). The first day, the young horse becomes\nas high as half a tree; the second, higher than the tree; the third\nday it is as high as the heavens, and bears the hero Theodore and his\nwife Anastasia on its back.\n\nIvan Dur\u00e1k watches three nights at his father's tomb.[565] His father\ntells him that if at any time of need he calls with a hero's whistle,\na wonderful grey horse will appear to help him, whose eyes shoot\nflames, and from whose nostrils issues smoke. Ivan does so, and is\nanswered; he gets into his right ear, and comes out of the left. By\nmeans of this horse, Ivan succeeds in taking down the portrait of the\nTzar's daughter three times, though hung high up on the wall of the\npalace, and thus obtains the beautiful princess to wife.\n\nAccording to another variety of this story,[566] Ivan, the third and\nfoolish brother, goes with the most worthless jade in the stable into\nthe open air, and calls up the grey horse with a loud shout; he enters\ninto him by one ear, and comes out at the other. Two young horsemen (the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u) appear to him, and make a horse with golden mane and tail come\nforth; upon this horse Ivan succeeds in three times kissing, through\ntwelve glasses (the glass mountain of the Esthonian story), the daughter\nof the Tzar, who therefore becomes his wife. Here, therefore, we find\nthe ugly horse which is made beautiful by the two horsemen, represented\nby the two ears of the grey horse out of which they come. These two\nhorsemen give the hero a better steed. Be it understood that their own\nheroic steed (that is, the sun's horse), from being ugly or asinine\nduring the night, became beautiful and noble; in the K\u00fcllaros of the\nDioscuri, too, we ought probably to recognise a courser that has been\ntransformed from an ass to a heroic horse.\n\nSometimes, instead of the horse, we have only its head. The\nstep-mother persecutes the old man's daughter;[567] the persecuted\nmaiden finds a mare's head, which beseeches her to relieve and cover\nit; at last it invites her to enter the right ear and come out of the\nleft one. The persecuted girl comes out in the form of an exceedingly\nbeautiful maiden. The step-mother sends her own daughter to try the\nsame means of becoming beautiful; but she maltreats the mare's head,\nand the mare's head devours her.\n\nThere is also a singularly clear allusion to the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u in the\nforty-fourth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, which seems to\nme to be a full confirmation of these interpretations. When Basili\u00e7a,\nthe girl persecuted by her step-mother, approaches the house of the\nold witch (the baba-jeg\u00e1), she sees galloping towards the great door\nof it a black horseman, dressed all in black, upon a black horse, who\ndisappears underground, upon which night begins.[568] When the day\nbegins to appear, Basili\u00e7a sees before her a white horseman, dressed\nall in white, upon a white horse, caparisoned in white. The maiden\ngoes on; when the sun begins to rise, she sees a red horseman, dressed\nin red, upon a red horse.[569] The myth does not require comment; but\nit happens to be given to us in the story itself by the witch, who, to\nappease the curiosity of the girl Basili\u00e7a, reveals to her that the\nblack horseman represents the dark night (noc ti\u00f3mnaja), the white\nhorseman the clear day (dien jasnoi), and the red horseman the little\nred sun (solnishko krasnoje).\n\nReturning from Slavonic to Asiatic tradition, we meet with the same\nmyths.\n\nLet us begin with the demoniacal horse, or demon of horses. The\n_Rigvedas_ already knows it; the y\u00e2tudhanas, or monster, feeds now\nupon human flesh (like the Bucephalus of the legend of Alexander), now\nupon horse flesh, and now milk from cows. We have said it seems\nprobable that the custom of keeping a lamp lighted in the stables is a\nform of exorcism against the demon; the _Rigvedas_, indeed, tells us\nthat Agnis (that is, Fire, with his flame) cuts off the heads of such\nmonsters.[570] But this is not enough; the _Rigvedas_ offers us in the\nsame hymn the proof of another identification. We have seen in the\nlast chapter how Rebhas, the invoker, is the third brother, whom his\nenvious and perfidious brothers threw into the well; and we have seen\nabove how Ivan, who is also the third brother, invokes with a sonorous\nvoice the grey horse which is to help him, and how the same Ivan is\nthe one that discovers the monstrous horse which ravages the seed or\nthe crops in his father's field. In the same Vedic hymn where the\nflame of Agnis beats down the heads of the monster that torments\nhorses, Agnis (that is, fire) is invoked in order that the hero Rebhas\nmay see the monster which devastates with its claws.[571] Rebhas and\nBhugyus are two names of the hero who falls into the cistern in the\n_Rigvedas_. We have seen, not long ago, in the Russian story, that\nIvan, the third brother, who is thrown down into the cistern, is\ndelivered by the red horse. The A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, in the _Rigvedas_, deliver\nBhugyus out of the sea by means of red-winged horses.[572] Here the\ngrey and imperfect horse of night is become a red horse. In the same\nVedic hymn, Rebhas, overwhelmed in the waters, is identified with his\nown horse (Ivan is son of the bitch, or the cow, or the mare), he\nbeing compared to a horse hidden by wicked ones.[573]\n\nWe saw above, in the Russian story, how the two horsemen who come out\nof the grey horse's ear give to the foolish Ivan, who has an ugly and\nworthless horse, a handsome hero's palfrey, by means of which he\naccomplishes the arduous undertakings which entitle him to the hand of\nthe king's daughter. It is remarkable how completely the Vedic myth\nagrees with this European legend. The A\u00e7vin\u00e2u have given, for his\neternal happiness, a luminous horse to him who has a bad one.[574] In\nanother hymn, the god Agnis gives to his worshipper a pious, truthful,\ninvincible, and very glorious son, who vanquishes heroes, and a swift,\nvictorious, and unconquered horse.[575]\n\nWe have seen, moreover, how Ivan, the most popular type of the Russian\nhero, has always to make three essays before he accomplishes his\nundertaking upon the wonderful horse which he has obtained from the\ntwo horsemen. The _Rigvedas_, which celebrates the famous mythical\nenterprise of the three steps of Vishnus, of the great body\n(brihacchar\u00eerah),[576] of the very vast step (urukramishtah),[577]\nwho, in three steps, measured or traversed the whole span of the\nheavens,[578] betrays in another hymn the secret of Vishnus's success\nin this divine enterprise, since it says that when, with the strength\nof Indras, he made his three steps, he was drawn by the two\nfair-haired horses of Indras[579] (that is, the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u lent him\nthe swift and strong horse which was to bear him on to victory). The\nthree steps of Vishnus correspond, therefore, to the three stations of\nIvan, to the three races of the young hero to win the beautiful\nprincess. Vishnus also appears in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[580] in the midst\nof the sea of liquified butter, attractive to all beings, in the form\nof a horse's head. Hero and the solar or lunar horse are identified.\n\nIndras is requested to yoke his right and his left (horses), to\napproach, inebriated, his dear wife.[581] By means of the horse\nobtained from the two horsemen, the Russian Ivan acquires his wife; in\nthe _Rigvedas_, the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u themselves, by means of their rapid\nchariot, became husbands of the daughter of the sun.[582] The horses\nof the sun are so fully identified with the chariot drawn by them,\nthat they are said to be dependent on it, united with it, and almost\nborn of it.[583] The A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, therefore, by means of the horse now\nenable the wife to be found by the solar hero, by the old Cyavanas\nmade young again (Tith\u00f4n),[584] now by the sun, and now find her\nthemselves (perhaps drawing the chariot like horses). R\u00e2mas, too, who\nis represented in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_[585] as the deliverer of S\u00eet\u00e2, is\ncompared to the solar horse, to the sun born upon the mountain.\n\nWe have seen in the Russian stories how the horse's head possesses the\nsame magic power as the marvellous horse which the two horsemen give to\nthe hero Ivan. Thus, in the Vedic myth, and in the corresponding\nbr\u00e2hmanic tradition, the horse's head Dadhyanc stands in direct relation\nwith the myth of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u. The wise Dadhyanc shows himself pious\ntowards the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, to whom, although he knows that he will pay with\nhis head for the revelation he makes, he communicates what he knows\nconcerning the ambrosia or the Madhuvidy\u00e2. For this, accordingly,\nDadhyanc forfeits his head; but the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u present him with a horse's\nhead (his own), which heroically achieves wonders. With the bones of\nDadhyanc, or with the head of the horse Dadhyanc (he who walks in butter\nor ambrosia), fished up in the ambrosial lake \u00c7aryan\u00e2vat (the head of\nthe horse Vishnus in the sea of butter),[586] Indras discomfits the\nninety-nine hostile monsters (as Samson the Philistines with the jawbone\nof an ass).[587] This exchange of heads seems to be common to the\ntraditions which are founded upon the myth of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, that is, to\nthe legends of the two brother or companion heroes. In the\n_Tuti-Name_,[588] the heads of the prince and of the Br\u00e2hman, who are\nexceedingly like each other, are cut off and then fastened on again;\nbut, by some mistake, the head of the one is attached to the body of the\nother, so that the prince's wife is embarrassed between them. This\nexchange of the husband (which corresponds to the exchange of the wife\nin the legend of Berta, referred to in the first chapter) is very\nfrequent in the legend of the two brothers, and often ends in the\nrupture of the perfect concord reigning between them. The two brothers\nor companions who dispute about the wife, is a variety of the legend of\nthe three brothers who, having delivered the beautiful princess, wish to\ndivide her between them.\n\nThe _Rigvedas_ does not seem as yet explicitly to exhibit the two\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u at discord--they generally are united in doing good; but as we\nalready know the Vedic blind man and lame man who are cured by the\ngrace of Indras, or of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u themselves; as we know that the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, in the _Rigvedas_, make Dadhyanc, who has a horse's head,\nconduct them to the ambrosia, or indicate where it is, probably in\norder that they may procure health and strength for themselves; as in\nthe ninth strophe of the 117th hymn of the first book of the\n_Rigvedas_, the marvellous horse of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, which kills the\nmonster-serpent (ahihan), is but one; as we know that the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u run\nto gain the bride for themselves; and as we cannot ignore the fact\nthat in the story of the blind and lame man, when a woman comes upon\nthe scene, they endeavour to do harm to each other; as we know that of\nthe two Hellenic brothers, the Dioscuri, one alone had from the gods\nthe gift of immortality; as, finally, it is known to us that of the\ntwo brothers, he alone is the true hero who, by means of his horse,\ngains the victory over the monster,--it is clear that if we have not\nas yet in the _Rigvedas_ the myth of the two brothers at discord, we\nhave, at least, in the ambrosia, and in the bride won by them the\norigin of the myth already indicated; and from the idea of the\nprivileged brother that of the envious one would naturally arise.\n\nIn Hesiod's _Theogony_ we have the two brothers Chrys\u00e4or and P\u00eagasos,\nthat come out of the Medusa (the evening aurora), who is made pregnant\nby Poseid\u00f4n, after Perseus has cut off her head. P\u00eagasos, the younger\nbrother, becomes the heroic horse. In Hesiod himself, and in the\n_Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, he carries the thunder and the thunderbolts\nfor Zeus. The hero Bellerophontes rides him, and vanquishes, by his\nhelp, the Chimaira and the Amazons; he becomes the horse of the\naurora, the horse of the Muses, the ambrosial steed. The monstrous\nChimaira appears, in the _Theogony_ of Hesiod, as the daughter of\nTyphaon and the Echidna, the monstrous daughter of Chrys\u00e4or. Therefore\nin the conflict which Bellerophontes maintains against the Chimaira,\nwe have a form of the battle which goes on between the twin horses\nP\u00eagasos and Chrys\u00e4or, the one divine, the other demoniacal.\n\nIn the analogous myth of the Hellenic Dioscuri (the sons of the\nluminous one, _i.e._, of Zeus, just as the Vedic A\u00e7vin\u00e2u are the sons\nof the luminous sky;[589] Zeus is united with the Dioscuri, as Indras\nis with the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u), we again find the twins who fight to recover a\nwoman who had been carried off from them, _i.e._, their own sister\nHelen. One of the two brothers is mortal, and the other immortal; he\nwho is immortal passes the night in hell with his mortal brother. The\ndouble aspect of the sun, which at evening enters and loses itself in\nthe night, now black, now illumined by the moon, and which, in the\nmorning, comes forth in a luminous form, has enriched the story of\nthe two brothers of mythology. One of the two brothers, the red\nhorseman, is in especial relation with the morning sun; the other, in\nintimate connection with the silvery moon, the white horseman, and\nwhen the latter is amissing, with the infernal gloom.\n\nSeveral mythologists have interpreted the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u as only the two\ntwilights; but it seems more exact, inasmuch as they are often found\ntogether, whilst the two twilights are always apart, to recognise in\nthem two crepuscular lights, the lunar of evening and autumn, and the\nsolar of morning and spring.[590] Of the twin-brothers, one is always\nimperfect; the lunar crepuscular light offers us a similar\nimperfection, with respect to the sun. Inasmuch as the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u are\naffiliated both to the sun and the moon, when they come out of the two\nears of the horse of night, we should understand, it would appear,\nthat on one side the moon goes down, while on the other the sun is\nborn, or that the solar horse arises, upon which the young hero lost\nin the night mounts and wins the princess aurora. In the Russian\nstories referred to in the preceding chapter, we have seen how the\nmaiden abandons her hero-husband, or brother, to give herself into the\nmonster's hands; the evening aurora forsakes the sun to throw herself\ninto the night, and the evening twilight stays for a long time with\nthe evening aurora (the reddish sky of evening), when the sun is\nalready gone. In the morning the two lovers, the twilight, or sun and\nmoon, and the aurora, meet once more; when the sun, or solar hero,\narrives, he surprises them _in flagrante delicto_, and punishes them.\nSometimes, on the contrary, the twilight and the aurora stay together,\npreserving their chastity; in this case the brother twilight figures\nas the good and honest guardian of the rights of his brother the sun.\nThis appears to me to have been the most ancient, as it is the most\nsubtle, interpretation of the myth; afterwards, it is possible, and\neven probable, that in the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u only the two gods of morning\nand of evening were seen, with their respective twilights, considered\nas two brothers, so like that they were easily mistaken for each\nother. But from the data of the Russian story, which gives us the\nlunar twilight as a white horseman and the rising sun as a red one,\nthe aurora being found exactly between the white and the red horsemen,\nbetween the moon or the white dawn (alba) and the sunrise, and seeing\nthat the _Rigvedas_, which makes the aurora mount upon the chariot of\nthe A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, considers them in the celebrated nuptial hymn as the\n_paranymphoi_ of S\u00fbry\u00e2, the daughter of the sun or of the aurora\nherself, I venture to insist upon my interpretation as the most\nobvious, and perhaps the most logical one. The two brothers may very\nnaturally be conceived of as contending for the possession of the\nbride when they have her between them, since the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, considered\nas lunar light and sun, really take the aurora between them. The Vedic\nhymn cited above shows us how both the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, arriving on the\nswift-running chariot, became the husbands of S\u00fbry\u00e2, the daughter of\nthe sun. But this very S\u00fbry\u00e2, in the Vedic nuptial hymn, must be\nsatisfied with one husband, who is called Somas, so that the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u\ncan only occupy the place of paranymphs. The A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, therefore, would\nappear to be excluded from the wedding of S\u00fbry\u00e2 as principal\npersonages; they would seem to be nothing more than assistants, and,\nin fact, they often assume this part in the Vedic hymns, by enabling\nnow the bride to find a husband, now the husband to recover his bride.\nWe know already that by means of them Cyavanas, the old sun (a Vedic\nTith\u00f4n), became young again, and was able to espouse the aurora. We\nknow that they gave sight to Vandanas (properly, the Face), that they\nmade the blind see,[591] the lame walk, and performed sundry other\nworks of charity, which would, however, have been much more glorious\nif these acts did not, in fact, always issue in benefit to themselves,\nas blind, lame, or drowned. It is hence very probable that when they\ngive a bride to the hero, they, being now lunar, now solar heroes, do\nonly appropriate her to themselves. When, therefore, we read that the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u assist as paranymphs at the nuptials of S\u00fbry\u00e2 and Somas, we\nare much inclined to think that under Somas in this case one of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u is hidden. In Indras and Somas, often sung of together in the\n_Rigvedas_, it seems to me that we have just another form of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the more so because I also find them both, like the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u,\npersonified in one and the same horse, whose back is covered with\nhoney, and who is terrible and swift,[592] and because they are\ninvoked together against the y\u00e2tudh\u00e2nas, which, by the grace of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the hero Rebhas succeeds in discovering and then chasing\naway.[593] The _T\u00e2ittiriya_ _Br\u00e2hmanam_[594] represents to us the\ndaughter of the sun (S\u00e2vitr\u00ee) by the name of S\u00eet\u00e2, as enamoured of\nSomas, who, on the contrary, loves another woman, the \u00c7raddh\u00e2 (_i.e._,\nFaith), almost as if the daughter of the sun, the aurora, were, for\nhim at least, a symbol of infidelity. Probably this embryo of a myth\nrefers to the passage of the aurora, in the morning, from her amours\nwith the white horseman (the white twilight), which, as we have said,\nwas supposed to be in particular relation with the moon (Somas), to\nher amours with the red horseman (the sun), or, _vice versa_, to the\naurora who, in the evening, abandons the red horseman, the sun (now\nher father, now her husband), to throw herself into the arms of the\nwhite horseman, the white twilight, the king Somas, or silver god\nLunus. Moreover, Y\u00e2skas, in the _Niruktam_,[595] already notices that\nthe A\u00e7vin\u00e2u were identified now with the day and the night,[596] now\nwith the sun and the moon.\n\nWhen, therefore, we read that the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u obtained for their wife the\ndaughter of the sun, and when we learn that she chose both for\nhusbands,[597] we must interpret the passage with discrimination, and\nconclude that one of them was sometimes preferred, inasmuch as the\nVedic nuptial hymn speaks of only one husband of S\u00fbry\u00e2, with the name\nof Somas, with whom, as we have said, Y\u00e2skas identifies one of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u. We read in _Pausanias_ that, among the Greek usages, when the\nbride was conducted to the bridegroom's house, she was accustomed to\nmount a chariot and sit down in the middle, having the bridegroom on\none side, and on the other her nearest relation as paranymphos. The\npreference given to one of the two brothers over the other is\nnaturally suggestive of a contention between them; however, as I say,\nthe _Rigvedas_, which offers us already the myth of the third brother\nabandoned in the well by his relations, does not record any example of\nan open strife between the two brothers (_i.e._, the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the\nlunar and the solar light).\n\nAn evidently Hindoo variation of this myth is contained in the\nwell-known episode of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, which relates the adventures\nof Sundas and Upasundas, two inseparable brothers, who lived together\nin love and concord, each being ruled by the will of the other, and\nwho had never all their lives either said or done anything to\ndisplease each other. The gods become envious of their virtue, and\nwish to prove it, and send to seduce them a nymph of enchanting\nbeauty. The two brothers, on seeing her, desire each the exclusive\npossession of the divine maiden, and strive between themselves to\ncarry her off. They fight so long and so desperately that they both\ndie (the moon and the sun see the aurora in the morning, and dispute\nfor her; they see her again in the evening, and fight so long that\nthey both perish miserably, and die in the night). The gods who are\nenvious of the virtue of the two brothers Sundas and Upasundas, are\nthe same as those who, envying the good which the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u do to\nmankind, treat them as celestial \u00c7udr\u00e2s, under the pretext that they\npollute themselves by their contact with men, and refuse to admit\nthem, being impure, to the sacrifices.[598]\n\nIn the twin brothers, Nakulas and Saladevas, sons of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u themselves revive again, are made better, according to the\nexpression of the first book of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_. The first-born,\nNakulas, too, is perhaps the real A\u00e7vin who kills the monster. Nakulas\nis the name given to the _viverra ichneumon_, the mortal enemy of the\nserpents, which refers us back to the horse Ahihan (or killer of the\nserpent), as the horse of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, or perhaps rather of one of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, is called, in the _Rigvedas_. Of the two Dioscuri, moreover,\none alone is especially the horseman; the other is the valiant in\ncombat.[599] The mortal brother, he who has to remain in hell, and who\nhas to fight the monsters of night, is Castor the horseman. Pollux,\nthe strong-armed, is, on the contrary, the immortal one, the daily\nsun, he who profits from the victory obtained by his brother who has\nfought in the night, during which the Gandharv\u00e2s (the horses in the\nperfumes, they who walk in perfume) also ride upon war-horses, heroic,\ninvulnerable, divine, exceedingly swift, who change colour at\nwill--the Gandharv\u00e2s, whose strength increases during the night, as\none of them informs Argunas in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, when communicating\nto him Gandharvic knowledge.[600]\n\nIn the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, the two brothers R\u00e2mas and Lakshmanas are\ncompared to the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, to the sun and moon, as similar the one to\nthe other; and their reciprocal love reminds us of that of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u.[601] R\u00e2mas and Lakshmanas are always at peace with each\nother; there is, however, a passage which may serve as a link to\nconnect the myth of the two friendly brothers and that of the two\nhostile ones. When R\u00e2mas combats alone in the forest thousands of\nmonsters, Lakshmanas stays with S\u00eet\u00e2, hidden in a cavern.\n\nBut the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ itself shows us the two brothers in open strife in\nthe legend of the two brothers B\u00e2lin and Sugr\u00eevas, children of the sun,\nbeauteous as the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, so perfectly like one another that it is\nimpossible to distinguish one from the other; and so that when R\u00e2mas, to\nplease Sugr\u00eevas, wishes to kill B\u00e2lin, he does not know which to strike,\nuntil Sugr\u00eevas puts a garland on his head as a sign of recognition.[602]\nOnce B\u00e2lin and Sugr\u00eevas were intimate friends, but, on account of a\nwoman, they became mortal enemies. Sugr\u00eevas complains that B\u00e2lin, his\nelder brother, has deprived him of his wife Rum\u00e2;[603] but it is not\ncertain that Sugr\u00eevas did not rather steal B\u00e2lin's wife. B\u00e2lin seems\nespecially to represent the evening sun; the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_[604] says of\nhim that, while the sun is not risen (_i.e._, in the night), he is\nunweariedly passing from the western to the eastern ocean; by this is\ndescribed the supposed voyage of the sun in the ocean of night, in the\ngrotto or the darkness. When B\u00e2lin is in the grotto, he is betrayed by\nhis brother Sugr\u00eevas. The two brothers, B\u00e2lin and Sugr\u00eevas, while still\nfriends, set out together to follow the monster M\u00e2y\u00e2vin (the brother of\nDundubhis, who, in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ itself,[605] fights in the shape of\na demoniacal buffalo against B\u00e2lin, near the entrance of the cave). The\nmoon rises to show them the way. The monster escapes into the cavern,\nupon which B\u00e2lin enters and follows him, whilst Sugr\u00eevas remains\nwithout, awaiting his return. After waiting a long time, Sugr\u00eevas sees\nblood flow out of the cave (in analogous legends, instead of blood, it\nis a treasure, or else a princess or a beautiful maiden comes out in\nshining garments). This is the blood of the monster, killed by B\u00e2lin;\nbut Sugr\u00eevas believes it to be that of his brother B\u00e2lin. He returns\nhome, and showing his sorrow in public, declares that B\u00e2lin is dead, and\nallows himself to be consecrated king in his stead (probably also\nenjoying with the crown the wife of his brother). Meanwhile B\u00e2lin, after\nhaving killed the monster M\u00e2y\u00e2vin, endeavours to come out of the cavern,\nbut he finds the entrance closed. Attributing at once this wicked action\nto the brother Sugr\u00eevas, he succeeds, after great efforts, in effecting\nan opening; he comes out, returns to the palace, and expels Sugr\u00eevas\nfrom it, whom he persecutes ever after.[606] Even A\u00f1gadas, B\u00e2lin's son,\nirritated one day with Sugr\u00eevas, accuses him of having once shut up his\nbrother B\u00e2lin in the cave, in order to possess himself of the latter's\nwife.\n\nIn the _Avesta_, the name and the myth of Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa seems to me to be\nof special interest. To the Zend word _kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa_ corresponds the\nSanskrit _kri\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7vas_ (the name of a warlike rishis and hero), that is,\nhe of the lean horse. The hero Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa has, in the _Avesta_, a\nbrother called Urv\u00e2ksha (a word which is perhaps the same as\n_urv\u00e2\u00e7pa_, and, if this equivalence is admitted, _urv\u00e2ksha_ would mean\nhim of the fat or great horse, of the heroic horse.[607] We have\nalready noticed that the Vedic and Slavonic hero begins his fortune\nwith an ugly and bad horse; the hero Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa, too, of the two\nbrothers of the Zend myth, is the good, the heroic, and truly glorious\none. His brother, Urv\u00e2ksha, according to a Parsee tradition,[608] was\nbanished to hell because he had struck the fire which did not obey his\ncommands (the evening sun which descends into the infernal night);\nKere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa avenges him. This is evidently a Persian form of the myth of\nthe Dioscuri, who, as it seems to me, reappear once more in the two\nZend brothers, Gust\u00e2\u00e7p and A\u00e7p\u00e2yaodha (he who fights with the horse).\n\nIn the epic poem of Firdusi, the two brothers Piran and Pilsem, who\nfight together against the Turanians, and of whom the former and elder\ndelivers the latter and younger from the dangers that he is exposed to\namong the enemies, seem to me re-embodiments of the same myth.\n\nWe find the cloudy or tenebrous sky of night represented in the\n_Rigvedas_ and in the _Avesta_ as a\u00e7man, or mountain of stone. When\nthe evening sun falls upon the mountain, it turns to stone, and the\nwhole sky assumes the colour of this mountain. When the hero of the\npopular story follows the monster, the latter hides under a rock; the\nhero lifts up the rock and descends into the grotto, that is, hides\nhimself in the mountain of stone, or is turned to stone, and if he has\na horse, it undergoes the same transformation.\n\nIn the story of Merhuma, who is stoned (the aurora lost in the mountain\nof stone), in the _Tuti-Name_,[609] we have the brother possessed by a\ndemon, who seduces the wife of his brother, who is travelling abroad. In\nthat of Mans\u00fbr, in the same _Tuti-Name_,[610] the monstrous Fari assumes\nthe very shape of the absent husband, and succeeds in seducing his wife.\nIn another story in the _Tuti-Name_,[611] two brothers, finding\nthemselves deceived in their expectations, set out together, each, for\nlove of the other, wandering about the world in search of a better fate.\nThese are three forms of the myth of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u. With them is connected\nthe story of the maiden who comes out of the wood, of whom as many men,\nwhen she appears, become enamoured.[612]\n\nThe fifth Calmuck story (of Hindoo origin) is unmistakably a\nreproduction of the myth of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, even to the very mythical names\nthemselves. The king, Kun-snang (he who illumines all, like the Vedic\nVi\u00e7vavedas and the Slavonic Vsievedas, the all-seer), has by two\ndifferent mothers two sons--Sunlight (born in the year of the tiger;\nperhaps in the sol-leo, in July, in summer, under the solar influence)\nand Moonlight. The second wife does not love her step-son Sunlight, and\npersecutes him, but the two brothers are devoted to each other, and when\nSunlight goes into exile (like R\u00e2mas), Moonlight follows him (as\nLakshmanas follows R\u00e2mas, as the white lunar twilight follows the sun in\nthe forest of night). On the way, Moonlight is thirsty; Sunlight goes to\nfind water for him, but in the meantime Moonlight dies.[613] Sunlight\nreturns, and is in despair at the sight of his dead brother; however, a\nhermit has pity upon him, and, having resuscitated Moonlight, adopts the\ntwo brothers as his own sons. Near his abode there is a kingdom where\nthe dragons keep back the waters, unless they are given a young man born\nin the year of the tiger. It oozes out that Sunlight is such a young\nman, and he is led away to the king of that country. The daughter of the\nking falls in love with him, and begs Sunlight not to be given to the\ndragons. The king is furious against his daughter, and has her thrown\nwith Sunlight into the swamp where the dragons are.[614] The young\ncouple break out into such piteous lamentations, that the dragons are\ntouched, and let Sunlight and the young princess go free. When free,\nthey find Moonlight, who also becomes the husband of the beautiful\nprincess, the two brothers being inseparable, like the Vedic A\u00e7vin\u00e2u.\nThe three personages (white twilight, or white moonlight, aurora, and\nsun) return together into the kingdom of their birth, where, upon seeing\nthem arrive, Sunlight's step-mother (Night) dies of terror. Here the\nlegend has all its mythical splendour.\n\nIn the sixteenth Mongol story, on the contrary, the friendship of the\ntwo companions cannot last, because of the perfidy of one of them;\nwhile they are travelling in the forest, the minister's son kills the\nking's son.\n\nIn the history of _Ardshi-Bordshi_, the two men born in the palace\nare so like each other in everything, in shape, complexion, dress, and\nhorses, that they cannot be distinguished one from the other; hence\nthey dispute between themselves for the possession of everything, of\nwife and sons. One is made like the other by witchcraft; he is the son\nof a demon; and it is the marvellous king of the children who\ndiscovers the secret.[615]\n\nThis exchange of husbands, or heroes, by means of demoniacal craft,\noften occurs in European fairy-tales, like the exchange of wives. The\ndemon is now a water-carrier, now a washerman, now a woodcutter, now a\ncharcoal-burner, now a gipsy, now a Saracen, and now the devil _in\npropria persona_.\n\nThe Russian fairy-tales show us the two forms of the two brothers or\ncompanions, _i.e._, the two that remain friends _usque ad mortem_, and\nthe friend betrayed by his perfidious companion.\n\nWe find a zoological form of the legend of the two friends in one of\nAfanassieff's stories. The horse delivers the child of one of his\nmasters from the bear, upon which his grateful masters feed him\nbetter, whereas before they had almost let him die of starvation. The\nhorse (the sun) remembers in prosperity his companion in misfortune,\nthe cat (the moon), who is also allowed to starve, and gives it a part\nof what he receives from his masters. The latter perceive this, and\nagain ill-treat the horse, who then forms the resolution of killing\nhimself, in order that the cat may eat him; but the cat refuses to eat\nhis friend the horse,[616] and is also determined to die.\n\nThe two brothers who, because they have eaten one the head and the\nother the heart of a duck, are predestined, in _Afanassieff_,[617]\none to be king and the other to spit gold, flee from their perfidious\nmother (probably step-mother), who persecutes them in their father's\nabsence. They meet with a cowherd taking his cows to the pasturage,\nand are hospitably entertained by him. Then, continuing their journey,\nthey come to a place where two roads meet, where, upon a pillar, this\nis written, \"He who goes to the right (to the east) will become a\nking; he who goes to the left (to the west, into the kingdom of\nKuveras, the western sun, the god of riches; when the sun rises in the\neast the moon goes down in the west) will become rich.\" One goes to\nthe right; when it is morning, he rises, washes, and dresses himself.\nHe learns that the old king is dead (the old sun), and that funeral\nhonours are being paid to him in church. A decree says that he whose\ncandle lights of itself will be the new Tzar.[618] The Vedic god also\nhas the distinctive attribute of this wonderful candle, that of being\nlighted by himself, of shining of himself, _i.e._, he is svabh\u00e2nus.\nThe candle, therefore, of our youth predestined to be king lights of\nits own accord, and he is immediately proclaimed the new king. The\ndaughter of the old king (the aurora) marries him, recognising in him\nher predestined husband, and makes with her golden ring (the solar\ndisc) a mark upon his forehead (as R\u00e2mas does with S\u00eet\u00e2). The young\nman (the sun), after having remained some time with his bride (the\naurora), wishes to go towards the part where his brother went (that\nis, to the left, to the west). He traverses for a long time different\ncountries (_i.e._, the sun describes the whole arc of heaven which\narches over the earth), and finds at last (in the western sky,\ntowards the setting sun) his brother, who lives in great wealth. In\nhis rooms whole mountains of gold arise; when he spits, all is gold;\nthere is no place to put it,[619] (the evening sky is one mass of\ngold). The two brothers then set out together to find their poor old\nfather (the sun during the night). The younger brother goes to find\nfor himself a bride (probably the silvery moon), and the wicked mother\n(the step-mother, night) is forsaken. Here, too, the legend is\nentirely of a mythical character. In the two brothers we see now\ntwilight and sun, now the two twilights, now the spring and autumnal\nlights, now the sun and the moon, but always the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, always two\ndeities, two heavenly beings closely connected with the phenomena of\nthe lunar and solar light.\n\nAnd here allow me to say that I deem it enough for me to collect in\none body legends which betray a common origin; as to explaining all\nmythology in the legends, this is beyond my power, and therefore\noutside my pretensions. I only point out, as I proceed,\ninterpretations which I think come near the truth; but the objects\nembodied in mythology are so mobile and multiform, that, if grasped\ntoo tightly, they easily evaporate and disappear. Their richness\nconsists in their very mobility and uncertainty. If the sun and moon\nwere always seen in the same place, there would be no myths. The myths\nwhich originated the greatest number of legends are those which are\nfounded upon the most fleeting phenomena of the sky.[620] The myth of\nthe A\u00e7vin\u00e2u cannot be solved by mathematical demonstrations,\nprecisely on account of the uncertainty presented by the crepuscular\nlight which probably gave rise to it. This continuous succession of\nshadows, penumbr\u00e6, chiaroscuri, and shades of light, from the black\ndarkness to the silver moon, from the silver moon to the grey twilight\nof morning, which gradually melts into, and confounds itself with the\ndawn, from the dawn to the aurora, from the aurora to the sun; the\nsame variations recurring, but inversely, in the evening, from the\ndying sun to the reddish and blood-coloured sky or evening aurora,\nfrom the evening aurora to the grey twilight, from the grey twilight\nto the silver moon, from the silver moon to the gloomy night,--this\ncontinual change of colours, which meet, unite with, and pass into\neach other, originated the idea of celestial companions, friends, or\nrelations, who are now in unison and now separate, who now approach to\nlove each other, to move together and affectionately follow each\nother, now rush upon each other to fight, despoil, betray, and destroy\neach other turn by turn, who now attract and are now attracted, are\nnow seduced and now seducers, now cheated and now deceivers, now\nvictims, now sacrificers. Where there is a family, there is love,\nhence come exemplary brothers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters,\nfathers, and mothers, full of tenderness; that is the obverse of the\nmedal: where there are relations, there are disputes, hence\ncontentions between brothers, out of jealousy in love, or envy of\nriches; perverse mothers-in-law, step-mothers, and sisters-in-law,\ntyrannous fathers, perfidious wives; that is the reverse. This\ncontradiction of feelings is difficult to explain psychologically even\nin man; how much more, therefore, is it so when it has to be analysed\nin a mythical image, which assumes an animal form in one rapid flash\nof imagination, and then disappears? On this account, in the case of\nsome myths, we must content ourselves with a general demonstration, at\nleast until new and positive data appear, on which it may be possible\nto base, in a solid foundation, the real nature of the details of\nmythology. In the absence of these data, we can only offer\nprobabilities, and not rules to the reader. As to the Vedic A\u00e7vin\u00e2u,\nthis much is certain: they are found in unison with their wife, the\naurora, after having passed through the dangers of night, or after\nhaving enabled the heroes protected by them--that is to say, their own\nheroic forms--to pass through them; they are two splendid\nbrother-horsemen; and they are especially invoked in the first hours\nof morning. The myth in this Vedic form would not appear to be of\ndubious interpretation. The white moon and the sun take the aurora\nbetween them, that is, marry her; or else they present her in marriage\nto Somas (with whom one of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the white light or twilight,\nis in particular relation), in the quality of paranymphs. The aurora,\nin the morning, as well as in the evening, taken between the sun and\nthe moon, disappears. One would think that the twilight and the sun\npresent her together at the same time to the king or god Somas, or\nLunus, for whom the daughter of the sun has affection. One would also\nthink that she was especially united with the twilight, which is in\nespecial relation with Somas, observing how in the morning the aurora\nimmediately succeeds the twilight, and disappears when the sun shows\nhimself, that is, rejoins the twilight and forsakes the sun; and how\nin the evening, when the sun hides himself, or when her husband is\nabsent, she again unites herself with the twilight, with whom she\nagain flees and disappears, to reappear once more with him in the\nmorning. To continue; the absence of the sun during the night\ntormented the popular phantasy in several ways. As much as the aspect\nof the sky was negative with regard to the mythical hero--that is to\nsay, as much as the hero or god hides himself from the view--just so\nmuch the more does popular imagination invest him with positive\nqualities and exalt his greatness. The greatest of all deities is that\nwhich is seen the least;--would that Roman Catholic priests understood\nthis mythological truth! Indras and Zeus are great when within the\nthundering and lightning cloud. The sun becomes a hero when he loses\nhimself in the darkness of night and in the cloud. But it is just at\nthis very point that the demonstration of mythical particulars becomes\nmore difficult, because the myths are now founded, not merely upon an\nexternal appearance or image, but often upon a simple subjective\nhypothesis; and while the ancient image, possessing an objectivity\nirrespective of the subject, can always be reconciled with the\nobservation of the new celestial phenomena which reproduce it, the\nsubjective hypothesis, being an individual phantasy, is lost. The\ndemonstration is therefore possible only in the essential parts. When\nthe sun was seen to disappear in the nocturnal sky, this sky appeared\nin the various aspects of an ocean, a mountain, a forest, a cavern, or\na voracious monster which devoured the hero. But has the sun lost\nhimself by accident, or has he been precipitated into the night by the\naurora and her crepuscular lover, perfidiously united together, in\norder that they may have more freedom in their loves? This is a\ndilemma of which the two solutions originate a double series of\nlegends,--the brother betrayed by the brother, and the hero who goes\nto succour his unfortunate brother fallen into the power of the\nmonsters. The hour of day which the French indicate by the expressive\nphrase _entre chien et loup_, is the great epical hour of the fox,\nwhich partakes of the nature of the domestic dog and the savage wolf.\nIt is the hour of betrayals, of perfidies, of doubts, and mythical\nuncertainties. Who can tell whether the aurora is a widow by an\naccident which happens to her husband the sun, or whether she herself\nhas betrayed him?--whether she has been a chaste and faithful\nGenevi\u00e8ve, or a perfidious and luxurious Helen? It is these very\nmythical doubts which have made the fortune and the charm of\ntradition, as they are the despair of mythologists. When, moreover,\nthe sun is within the night, what can he do? According to the\ndifferent aspect assumed by the night, the acts of the solar hero lost\nin it are modified, and these modifications can be explained without\ntoo great an effort of imagination; but, sometimes, the relations\nbetween the hero and his companions or brothers in the world of the\ndead, can only be conceived by means of poetical dreams. When the sun\nis seen to enter the obscure night in the evening, and to come out of\nit safe and sound in the morning, after having dispersed the darkness,\nit is natural to think that throughout the night he is singly intent\nupon killing the monster. The action of the principal hero is well\ndefined, and therefore evident; and the reference is equally clear\nwhen the aurora is represented as experiencing the same fate as the\nsun, her husband or brother. They descend together into the night,\nwhich makes them invisible, and together emerge from it happily.\n\nThe myth becomes richer when the aurora throws herself into the arms of\na rival of her husband, because the character of this rival is various.\nNow he is a handsome youth who resembles the legitimate husband, either\nas the twilight or as Lunus; now he is a real demoniacal monster, the\ndemon himself, the black night. In proportion to the variety of aspects\nand relations which the hero's rival assumes, does the myth become more\ncomplicated, and its interpretation more difficult; hence the\nstory-tellers are often in the habit of interrupting their narrative by\nsaying, \"Now, let us leave this or that hero, and return to such or such\nanother.\" These interruptions of the stories have their mythological\nreason. We can understand, for instance, how the aurora, or daughter of\nthe sun, should be conceived of as, in a moment of feminine weakness,\nfalling in love with the moon, which she sees on the other side of the\nheavens, and desirous of being conducted to him as his bride. We can\nunderstand how Lunus, reciprocating the love-glance of the aurora at the\nother extremity of the sky, should appear to be drawing her to himself,\nand wishing to seduce her. We can also understand how now the moon, now\nthe sun, appears to seduce the aurora and carry her off from her\nlegitimate husband. In these cases the infidelity of the hero or the\nheroine is evident; but woe to him who attempts to carry the\ndemonstration or the proof of this interpretation too far, for when the\nseducer and seduced, be the seducer male or female, are thought of as\nenjoying together the fruits of their perfidy, the myth must come to an\nend, as no one can conceive the possibility of the moon and the aurora\nliving or doing anything together; no one can tell what the aurora and\nthe twilight, phenomena appertaining exclusively to the morning and\nevening, and which only appear when the sun rises from the mountain, do\ntogether in the night. The phenomenon ceases, the mythical personages\nvanish too, and the story-teller breaks off his narrative, because he\npossesses no data upon which to continue it. And so with all the myths;\nthey can only be explained on the condition that we do not insist upon\nexplaining too much. We must therefore be contented to see the girl\naurora carried off in the evening and the hero sun recover her in the\nmorning, or to conceive of the aurora and the sun fleeing away together\ninto the night, but we must not be too inquisitive as to the manner in\nwhich they do so. The moon, or good fairy, sometimes teaches them the\nway; but their nocturnal actions are but little seen into; those which\nare spoken of as performed by them at night refer either to the moment\nin which night begins, or to that in which it comes to an end. During\nthe night they wander about until they see a light (the guiding moon or\ndelivering light of day); they remain in the chest or cask thrown into\nthe water until it is carried to the other shore beyond the sea, or on\nthe eastern coast. In their nocturnal journey the moon plays the part\nnow of the good old man, or the good fairy; now of the good cow, or the\nbull; now of the grey horse, the steed of night, who, in three stations,\nbears them to their goal; now of the bird who, nourished upon their\nflesh, carries them to their destination; and now we have, on the\ncontrary, the monster itself, or the step-mother who threatens,\ntortures, and persecutes them. The hero shows his greatest strength\nwhen hidden, but it is used now to send out the cows, now to recover the\nravished bride, now to unchain the rivers kept back by the dragons, now\nto make the water of health gush forth, and now to destroy the monster\nand deliver himself. The hero displays his greatest powers when\ncontending with the monster; but it is in order to his own deliverance.\nIn the earliest epochs of the legend he is foolish, ill, drunken,\nunhappy, and stony; one can only speak of him by what is seen of him\nexternally. The cloud-barrel moves; it is the barrel full of water which\nmoves of its own accord in order to please the hero: the cloud-barrel\ndrops rain upon the earth; it is the foolish one who lets the wine run\nout of the cask: the cloud-forest moves; it is the trunk of a tree which\nattaches itself to the horse ridden by the hero, and massacres his\nenemies--_i.e._, the cloud or darkness disappears, and the hero comes\nout victorious. The part performed by the solar hero in the night or in\nthe cloud seems to me, therefore, almost always of a nearly certain\ninterpretation, but only so long as he is alone, or with but one\ncompanion; when the one hero is transformed into three, or five, or six,\nwho accompany each other, or when he meets other mythical personages of\na nature akin to his own, and when he speaks and acts in unison with\nthem, the legend confuses the myth, in order to explain which, we are\noften obliged to stretch the sense of the adverb _together_ to the\nsignification, now of a whole night, and now of an entire year. When we\nfind, for instance, in tradition, the twelve months of the year\nassociated with twelve old men round the fire, we know that the fire is\nthe sun, round which the twelve months turn in the sky in the space of a\nyear. Here _together_ is amplified to denote, therefore, the period of a\nyear and the entire width of the sky.\n\nI have been led into this long, but, I trust, not idle digression, in\norder to explain the Russian story of the two brothers, of whom it is\nsaid that they go together, one to the right and the other to the\nleft. In whatever way the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u are to be understood, whether as\ntwilight and sun, as spring and autumn, or as sun and moon, it is\nimpossible to comprehend how they can travel in the same direction;\nthe ways they take must therefore be separate. The sun and the evening\ntwilight do not advance in opposite directions; the morning sun and\nthat of evening occupy opposite positions, but not at the same time;\nthe sun and moon advance at the same time in the sky, but not\nconjointly and upon the same path, like two travelling companions. It\nis therefore necessary to suppose that the journey of the two brothers\neither happens at different periods, although it may be in the same\nnight or the same day, or else takes its start from different places,\nalthough always in the sky; in the evening the moon is seen advancing\nfrom east to west, whilst the hidden sun travels from west to east;\nwhen the sun has arrived in the east, the moon goes down in the west.\nThe eastern sun is bent, in the daytime, upon following and finding\nhis brother who has gone to the west; and when he arrives there he\nsees, besides his brother, his brother's immense treasures also. With\nthis is connected the other version of the myth of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the\npoor brother and the rich one. This is probably the weary, thirsty,\nand hungry sun, who, having during the day given all his wealth away,\ndemands hospitality from, and offers his services to, his rich\nbrother; the latter drives him away, and the poor brother wanders\nalone, poorer and sadder than before, into the forest, where he makes\nhis fortune by digging up a treasure which enriches him, whilst his\nrich brother in the west becomes poor. The story of the treasure, in\nconnection with the two brothers and the skilful thief, was familiar\nto the Greeks in the vicissitudes of Agam\u00ead\u00eas and Trophonios (in\n_Pausanias_[621]), who stole King H\u00fcrieus's treasure, on which account\none of the two brothers was to lose his head.\n\nWere I to follow the story of the two brothers in its Western\nversions, I could compose an entire volume on the subject, which is\nindeed of such interest that a student, by connecting it with that of\nthe three brothers, might profitably address himself to the work. But\nto resume the account of the horse. I must here limit myself to\nrecording only one other interesting variety of this legend, offered\nus in the seventh story of Basile's _Pentamerone_.[622]\n\nThere were once two brothers, named respectively Cienzo and Meo\n(Vincenzo and Meo). When they were born two enchanted horses and two\nenchanted dogs also came into the world. Cienzo goes about the world\nin search of fortune; he comes to a place where there is a dragon with\nseven heads, from whom a beautiful princess must be delivered. As long\nas he does not cut all the heads off, the dragon goes and rubs itself\nagainst a herb which possesses the virtue of fastening on to the body\nagain the head which had been cut off. Cienzo cuts off all the\ndragon's heads, \"pe gratia de lo sole Lione\" (by the grace of the Lion\nsun, _i.e._, when the sun is in the sign of Leo, which corresponds to\nthe tiger of the Indo-Turanian story recorded above, or when the solar\nhero possesses all his strength; the lion and the tiger are equivalent\nin Hindoo symbolism as heroic types, and are therefore all the same in\nthe zodiac). Cienzo marries the beautiful princess delivered by him;\nbut a beautiful fairy who lives in the opposite house fascinates him\nby her beauty, attracts him, and binds him with her hair. Meanwhile\nMeo, who by signs settled upon beforehand learns that his brother\nCienzo is in danger, comes to the house where the latter's wife lives,\naccompanied by his enchanted horse and dog. The wife believes him to\nbe Cienzo (the story of the Menechmi, of the two brothers who resemble\neach other in everything, was no doubt taken by the Greek poet, and\nafterwards by Plautus, from popular tradition), f\u00eates him on his\narrival, and receives him into her bed; but the faithful brother, in\norder not to touch her, divides the sheets between them so that they\nhave one each, and refuses to touch his sister-in-law. Thus Sifr\u00eet, as\nwell as his Scandinavian _alter ego_ Sigurd, places a sword between\nhimself and Br\u00fcnhilt, the destined bride of the king, in order not to\ntouch her when she lies beside him; and when Br\u00fcnhilt throws herself\nupon the funeral pyre, she also places a sword between herself and\nSigurd's corpse.[623] In the royal or heroic weddings by proxy of the\nMiddle Ages a similar custom was observed. In the popular Piedmontese,\nBergamasc, and Venetian song[624] of the pilgrim who comes from Rome,\nthe pilgrim is separated from the woman only by a wisp of straw.\nTowards morning Meo also sees the beautiful fairy in the house over\nthe way; he guesses that Cienzo has been drawn into her snare, and\ngoes to deliver him. He makes his enchanted dog devour her, and frees\nhis brother, awakening him out of his sleep. Cienzo learning that Meo\nhad slept with his wife, cuts off his head; but when he learns from\nhis wife how Meo had divided the sheets when he lay beside her, he\nbewails his rashness, has recourse to the herb with which the dragon\nrubbed itself when one of its heads had been cut off, and by this\nmeans fastens Meo's head on to his body again.\n\nThe principal auxiliary, however, to one in particular of the two\nbrothers, as of the third in the legend of the three brothers, is his\nhorse.\n\nWhen the hero devotes himself to the trade of thieving, his most\nglorious achievement is robbing the king's horse.\n\nWhen the young hero has been educated by the devil, it is in the shape\nof a horse that he succeeds in escaping from him.\n\nWhen the solar hero fights, his greatest strength is in his horse.\n\nWhen the hero dies, his horse, too, is sacrificed.\n\nLet us now illustrate, by some examples, these four circumstances\nrelative to the myth of the horse.\n\nIn the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[625] the god Indras appears in the form now of\na horseman, now of a horse. It is, moreover, upon such a heroic horse\nthat the young Uta\u00f1kas flees from the king of the serpents, after\nhaving recovered from him the queen's earrings, which the king of the\nserpents had stolen. In this legend reference is made to several\nmyths; to that of the hero in the infernal regions, to that of the\nhero-thief, and to the legend of the horse which saves the fugitive\nhero, the same as the hero who leads away the horse.\n\nIn the _Vishnu P._,[626] we have Kapilas, a form of Vishnus, or of the\nsolar hero (inasmuch as he is of a reddish colour, or else of the\nevening sun), who carries off the horse destined for the a\u00e7vamedhas,\nthat is to be sacrificed. (In other words, the solar horse, the horse\nwhich was meant for the sacrifice, escapes from it, in the same way as,\nin the preceding chapter, we have seen the bull escape into the\nforests.) In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[627] the horse destined for the sacrifice\nis, on the contrary, carried off by a serpent (_i.e._, the monster of\nnight ravishes the evening sun, whilst, in the western sky, the fire is\nbeing prepared for his immolation). The sons of Sagaras (the clouds of\nthe heavenly ocean, the word _sagaras_ meaning sea), make a noise like\nthunder, searching for the horse that had been carried off from them.\nThey find it near the god Vishnus or Kapilas (here the sun himself, the\nsolar horse itself, carried off into the cloudy ocean of night);\nbelieving him to be the ravisher, they assail him; Kapilas (or the solar\nhorse), full of indignation, burns them to ashes. Their nephew,\nAnsumant (he who is furnished with rays, the radiant sun of morning), on\nthe contrary, delivers the horse out of the forest. In the evening he is\nreconducted back to the place of sacrifice, on the golden pavement,\nafter having made the journey round the world.[628] In the same way as\nwe have seen, in the preceding chapter, that the bull or the cow is\ntouched or struck as an augury of fruitfulness and abundance, in the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[629] K\u00e2u\u00e7aly\u00e2 touches the horse (a stallion) in order to be\nfruitful, as he desires to have sons (_putrak\u00e2myay\u00e2_), and the king and\nqueen smell the odour of the burnt marrow or fat of the horse, as a\ntalisman which may work for them the gratification of a like wish.[630]\nOf course we must always refer the legend to the myth of the solar\nhorse, which, even when sacrificed, makes itself fruitful, so that it\nmay rise again in the morning in a new and young form. And we can easily\nprove that the horse of the a\u00e7vamedhas was a mythical horse, since the\na\u00e7vamedhas was originally a celestial ceremony, seeing we read in the\n_Rigvedas_ how the swift heroic horse destined to be sacrificed was born\nof the gods, and how the Vasavas had adorned it with the colours of the\nsun.[631] We saw a short time ago how in the _Rigvedas_ itself it is\nnow the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, and now Agnis who give the heroic steed to the\npredestined youth. Agnis, moreover, who gives a horse to the hero, is\nhimself now a handsome red horse, and now an excellent ghridhnus,[632] a\nword which means the ravisher, as well as the vulture (as a bird of\nprey). The thief plays a principal part, even in the Vedic myths. In the\nwar between the demons and the gods, described at length in the first\nbook of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, there is a continual strife between the two\nsides as to who will show himself the most skilful in stealing the cup\nwhich contains the ambrosia. And the horse's head which, according to\nHindoo cosmogony, is born in the very production of the ambrosia with\nthe mythical gem, the horse's heads of Dadhyanc and of Vishnus, which\nare found in the ambrosia [through the mouth of which (Vadavamukhas) it\nis necessary to pass in order to enter hell, where one hears the cries\nand howls of the tormented, who inhabit the water[633]], shows us how\nalready in the myth the legend of the theft of the earrings (the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u), or of the queen's gem (the sun), or of the treasure, must be\nunited with the theft of the horse (the sun itself), as it seems to be\nunited in the legend of Uta\u00f1kas, before quoted, in which Uta\u00f1kas flees\nupon the divine horse as he carries away from hell the earrings of the\nqueen, which another skilful thief, the king of the serpents, had, in\nhis turn, stolen from him. (Herodotos already knew the story of the\nskilful thief who robs the king's treasure and obtains the king's\ndaughter to wife; he applies it to the king of Egypt, Rampsinitos.)\n\nWhen the stag, in the fable, flees in the forest, his high horns betray\nhim; when the bull flees, he fears that his horns may betray the\nfugitives; even the mane of the solar hero takes the name of horns. The\nVedic hymn describing the horse destined for the sacrifice, represents\nit as having golden horns, and feet as rapid as thought (like the stag),\nwhose horns (or whose mane, like the hair of the biblical Absalom, who\nrevives again in the legendary tradition of Medi\u00e6val Europe under an\nanalogous form), stretching here and there, are caught in the trees of\nthe forest.[634] Here, therefore, we have the swift-footed animal, whose\nmane and horns are entangled to the trees. Another Vedic hymn presents\nto us the hero Tugras lost in the sea, who embraces a tree, and is saved\nby means of it.[635] In popular stories, the hero is often saved upon a\ntree, either because the thieves or the bear cannot see him, or because\nhe is thus able to see the horizon; the tree brings good luck to him,\nnow because by letting something drop or making a noise, he terrifies\nthe thieves, now because he cheats the cowherds, whose cattle he wishes\nto possess himself of, by appearing now upon one tree, and now upon\nanother; whereupon the cowherds begin to dispute about his identity, one\naffirming that it is the same person, another that it cannot be; they\ntherefore hastily go back to inspect the first tree, and leave the\ncattle unguarded, upon which the hero-thief descends from the tree, and\ndrives them away before him (this occurs in _Afanassieff_; the enemy of\nrobbers is generally himself an exceedingly skilful thief; Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa was\nno less a cunning thief than Mercury, the god of robbers, who discovers\nthe deceit of others, because he is himself so expert a deceiver). In\nthe nineteenth Mongol story, which is of Hindoo origin, the young hero,\nafter having discharged his pious filial duties at the tomb of his\nfather, mounts a fiery horse, while he seizes the branch of a tree. The\ntree is uprooted, and with it the horse and the hero massacre the army\nof the king, whose daughter the hero wishes to marry. In the Russian\nstory[636] which narrates the adventures of Little Thomas Berennikoff,\nblind of an eye, the _miles gloriosus_, Little Tom, after killing an\narmy of flies, begins to boast of the heroism he had shown in\noverthrowing, by himself, a whole army of light cavalry. He meets with\ntwo real heroes, Elias of Murom and Alexin Papovic (son of the priest),\nwho, on hearing him narrate his achievements, immediately own and honour\nhim as their elder brother. The valour of the three is soon put to the\nproof; Elias and Alexin show themselves to be true heroes; at last it\ncomes to Little Tom's turn to make proof of his valour; he kills a\nhostile hero whilst his eyes are shut, and then endeavours to ride his\nhorse, but cannot. It is a hero's horse, and can be ridden only by a\nhero. At length he fastens the horse to an oak-tree, and climbs up the\ntree in order to leap from it upon the horse's back. The horse feels\nthe man on his back, and plunges so much that he roots up the whole\ntree, and drags it after him, carrying Tom away into the heart of the\nChinese army. The Chinese are struck down by the oak-tree and trodden\nunder foot by the furious charger, and those who are not killed are put\nto flight. (The mythical wooden horse which proved so fatal to the\nTrojans appears to be a mythical variety of this horse with the tree so\nfatal to the Chinese.) The Emperor of China declares that he will never\nmake war again with a hero of Little Tom's strength. Then the King of\nPrussia, an enemy of the Chinese, gives, in gratitude to Tom, and as a\nreward for his valour, his own daughter to wife. It is remarkable that,\nin the course of the story, Alexin once observes to Elias that the horse\nwhich Little Tom had brought from his house showed none of the\ncharacteristic qualities of a hero's horse. Alexin, as the priest's son,\nis the wise hero; Elias, the strong one, who had conceived a high\nopinion of his new colleague, Little Tom, seriously answers that a\nhero's strength consists in himself, and not in his horse. However, the\ndevelopment of the story shows that Alexin was right; without the fiery\nhorse of the dead hero, Tom would not have dispersed the Chinese.\n\nThus, in a Vedic hymn,[637] we read that Indras, when he removes himself\nfrom his two horses, becomes like to a weak and wearied mortal; when he\nyokes them, he becomes strong. The enemies in the battles cannot resist\nthe charge of the two fair-coloured horses of the god Indras;[638] and\nnot only this, but one part alone of the divine horse is sometimes\nsufficient to give assurance of victory to the hero-god. Another\nhymn[639] sings, \"A horse's tail wert thou then, O Indras;\" that is,\nwhen Indras vanquished the monster serpent. It is with the head of the\nhorse Dadhyanc that Indras discomfits his enemies.[640] The horse of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, which kills the monster serpent, has already been referred to\nin these pages. The solar horse Dadhikr\u00e2, the same as Dadhyanc, in\nanother hymn of the _Rigvedas_,[641] is celebrated as a swift falcon,\nluminous, impetuous, who destroys his enemies like a hero-prince, who\nruns like the wind. His enemies tremble, terrified by him, as by the\nthundering sky; he fights against a thousand enemies--invincible,\nformidable, and resplendent. Finally, the horses of the god Agnis are\nsaid to vanquish the enemies with their fore-feet.[642]\n\nWhen A\u00f1gadas wishes to fight with the monster Nar\u00e2ntakas, in the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[643] he strikes with his fist the head of his great and\nswift-footed horse, and then with another blow he smites the monster\nin the chest, and kills him.\n\nIn the seven adventures of Rustem, related by Firdusi, the hero's horse\nfights against the monster, and drives him away, while the hero sleeps.\n\nIt is said of Bucephalus, the horse which Alexander the Great alone\nwas able to tame--so called because he had, it would seem, on his head\nprotuberances similar to the horns of a bull (we saw not long since\nhow the mane of the solar horse is spoken of as horns in the Vedic\nhymns)--that he several times saved Alexander in battle, and that,\nthough mortally wounded, in an engagement in India, in the flank and\nhead, he still summoned up strength enough to flee away with\nextraordinary swiftness and save his master, and then died. Pliny,\nquoting Philarcus, says that when Antiochus was slain, the warrior who\nhad killed him endeavoured to ride his horse, but that the latter\nthrew him on the ground, and he expired.\n\nOf P\u00eagasos, the winged horse which bore the hero Bellerophon over the\nwaters, and by means of whom that hero won his glorious victories, we\nknow that the warrior-goddess Pallas wore the effigy upon her helmet.\n\nSuetonius writes of the horse of Julius C\u00e6sar that it had almost human\nfeet, with toes (\"pedibus prope humanis, et in modum digitorum ungulis\nfissis\"), from which the aruspices prognosticated to C\u00e6sar the empire\nof the world; this horse, like Bucephalus, and every heroic courser,\nwould bear no other rider than its master--the great conqueror.\n\nThe horse Baiardo, in _Ariosto_, fights the enemies with its feet. The\nhippogriff of Ariosto has, moreover, the privilege of being winged\nlike P\u00eagasos, and of walking on air, like the Tatos of the Hungarians.\nThe name of Falke, given to the horse of the Germanic and Scandinavian\nhero Dietrich or Thidrek (Theodoricus), induces us to believe that it\ntoo had the same winged nature.\n\nIn the _Edda_, Skirner receives from Frey a horse which carried its\nrider through fogs (waters) and flames, and the sword which strikes of\nitself when the wearer of it happens to be a hero. The horse of Sigurd\nor S\u00eefrit exhibits the same bravery in bearing the hero intact through\nthe flames. This happens in the morning, when the sun emerges safe and\nsound from the flames of the aurora; in the evening, on the contrary,\nwhen the sun loses itself in the flames of the aurora, or when the\nsolar hero dies, his horse, too, like the horse of Balder in the\n_Edda_, is burned upon the pyre or sacrificed; the resurrection of the\ndead horse and that of the dead hero happen at the same time. The\nhorse's head which protrudes out of the window, represented in ancient\nHellenic tombs, and preserved in Germanic customs,[644] is, for man, a\nsymbol of resurrection. The head of Vishnus, that of Ucc\u00e2ih\u00e7ravas, and\nthat of Dadhyanc, in Hindoo tradition, have the same meaning. He who\nenters into this head finds death and hell; he who comes out of it\nrises again to new life. The pious Christian belief in the\nresurrection that is to come, and the numerous medi\u00e6val legends of\nEurope concerning dead heroes or maidens who are resuscitated, had\ntheir origin and ground in the contemplation of the annual and daily\nresurrection of the sun.\n\nIn the thirty-eighth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the\nyoung prince receives from an enchanted bird the present of a\nwar-charger, and of an apple the colour of the sun. (The youth gives\nthe golden apple to a beautiful princess for the pleasure of passing\nthe night with her; remark here, again, the relation of the horse and\nthe apple, and probably of the horse and the bull, the sun and moon).\nIn other Russian stories, the horse of the hero, Ivan Tzarevic, is at\nfirst bound underground by twelve iron chains; when Ivan rides him, he\nbreaks them all.[645] The horse which Ivan the thief is told to carry\noff from his master[646] is shut up within three gates made fast by\nsix bolts; if he steals it, he is to receive a reward of 200 roubles;\nand if he does not, 200 bastinadoes will be his punishment. Ivan takes\nhis master's clothes, disguises himself as a gentleman, and, imitating\nhis voice, orders the grooms to bring him his favourite horse. The\ngrooms are deceived, and obey, and thus Ivan carries the horse off.\nFinally, in a third Russian story,[647] Ivan Tzarevic must ride a\nhero's horse on the occasion of his nuptials with the beautiful but\nwicked Anna. He has recourse to his preceptor Katoma, surnamed Hat of\nOak (here we find again the hero in relation with the tree and the\nhorse), who orders the blacksmith to prepare a hero's horse; twelve\nyoung blacksmiths (the twelve hours of the night, or else the twelve\nmonths of the year) draw twelve bolts, open twelve doors, and lead out\nan enchanted horse, bound with twelve iron chains. Scarcely has the\npreceptor mounted on its back when it flies higher than the forest\nwhich stays still, and lower than the cloud which moves.[648] The\npreceptor subdues it by taking hold of its mane with one hand, and\nstriking it with the other between the ears with four pieces, one\nafter another, of an enchanted iron pillar. The horse then begs, with\na man's voice, for its life, the power of speech being a distinctive\nattribute of the hero's horse (a power of which it often makes use, as\nRustem's horse does, for instance, to warn the hero of the dangers\nwhich surround him, and to give him good advice; sometimes, on the\ncontrary, when it is in the monster's power, it plays the part of a\nspy upon the hero's actions, and reports them to the monster);[649] it\npromises also to do the will of the preceptor. Katoma, calling the\nhorse dog's flesh, orders it to stay still the next day, which is the\nday fixed for the wedding, and, when the bridegroom Ivan is to ride\nit, to seem as though it were oppressed by a great weight.\n\nIn the seventh Esthonian story, the young hero steals the horse from the\nmaster (the devil, or the black monster of night) in whose service he\nhad engaged himself. When he comes to the place where the sun sets, he\nbethinks himself of binding the horse with iron chains (the rope of\nYamas, or Varunas, the nocturnal coverer or binder, which binds the\nVedic hero \u00c7unah\u00e7epas, the sun, he of the golden rod), in order that it\nmay not escape and go back again. This particular is very interesting,\nas rendering the meaning of the myth more manifest. Seeing that the sun,\nin the evening, does not return, it was supposed that the solar horse\nhad been bound by the hero himself, who had stolen it.\n\nIn the European popular tales we sometimes have, instead of the hero\nwho carries off his master's horse, the hero himself, who escapes from\nhis master in the form of a horse, helped in his flight by the\ndaughter of his master, by the magician's or demon's daughter or black\nmaiden (who afterwards becomes beautiful and luminous). In the\nHungarian belief, the youngest of the witch's daughters (the aurora)\noften assumes the form of the heroic horse of the Tatos. She becomes\nTatos when the hero, meeting her, strikes her on the forehead with the\nbridle; then she carries him, in the shape of a horse, into the air.\nIn the Russian story,[650] the son of a merchant goes to be instructed\nby a wise magician, who teaches him every kind of knowledge, and,\namong the rest, what sheep say when they bleat, birds when they sing,\nand horses when they neigh. At last the young man, having learned\nevery species of mischief, returns home and transforms himself into a\nhorse, in order that his father may sell him at the market and make\nmoney; but he warns his father not to give up the bridle, that he may\nnot fall again into the hands of the magician. The father forgets, and\nsells horse and bridle together. The magician attaches the horse by a\nring to an oak-tree; the black maiden (dievki cernavke), the sister of\nthe devil, gives the horse millet and hydromel; the horse thus gains\nstrength enough to break the chain which binds him to the tree, and\nescapes. The devil follows him; the horse becomes a fish, and from a\nfish a ring; the king's daughter buys the ring and puts it on her\nfinger; during the day it is a ring (the solar disc), and during the\nnight a handsome youth, who lies in the bed of the queen's daughter\n(the hidden sun, or the moon, in the darkness of night). One day the\nprincess lets the ring fall on the ground, and it breaks into a\nthousand pieces (the evening sun which falls upon the mountain); then\nthe devil becomes a cock, to pick up the pieces of the broken ring;\nbut a little piece falls under the princess's foot; this piece is\ntransformed into a falcon, which strangles and devours the cock.\n\nIn the bridle which binds this hero who becomes a horse, I think I can\nrecognise the lasso with which Varunas keeps \u00c7unah\u00e7epas bound in the\n_\u00c2itareya Br._ In the _Rigvedas_,[651] we have S\u00fbryas, the sun, as\nS\u00e2uva\u00e7vyas, or son of Sva\u00e7vyas, that is, of him who has fine horses;\nbut as, besides Sva\u00e7vyas, we find Sva\u00e7vas, he who has a fine horse,\nthe sun itself would seem to be this horse. The legend narrates that\nSva\u00e7vas, having no children, requested the sun to give him some, and\nthat the sun, to please him, was himself born of him. Sva\u00e7vas, he who\nhas a fine horse and has no sons, is perhaps the same as the old man\nwho has lost his son by selling the horse; when the sun returns his\nson also comes back again. In the Vedic expressions, _without a horse,\nborn without a bridle, the sun_ (as a courser[652]), the hero would\nseem to be indicated who has not as yet that horse or that bridle,\nwithout which he is powerless; for the idea of the hero is rarely\nunaccompanied by that of the horseman.\n\nFor the horseman hero his horse is his all, and sometimes it even takes\nthe bit in its mouth, then the hero punishes it. We have already noticed\nthe well-known Hellenic myth of Phaeth\u00f4n, who is, with both the chariot\nand the horses, precipitated into the waters, because the horses\nthreatened to set the earth on fire. This happens every day towards\nevening, when the sun sets; the whole sky goes down, then the sun is\nthrown down into the ocean of night; the course of the solar steeds is\ninterrupted, and the wheels of the chariot no longer turn. A similar\ncatastrophe is repeated on St John's Day, at the summer solstice, in\nwhich the sun stops and begins to retire, for which reason the light of\nday, from this time to Christmas, grows less and less.\n\nIt is a custom on St John's Day, in Germany,[653] for hunters to fire\nat the sun, believing that they will thereby become infallible\nhunters. According to another popular German belief, he who, on St\nJohn's Day, fires towards the sun is condemned ever after to hunt for\never, like Odin, the eternal hunter; and both superstitions have their\nreason. In the night, as well as in the period during which the\nsplendour of the sun diminishes, and especially in autumn, the gloomy\nforest of heaven is filled with every kind of ferocious animal; the\nsun enters this forest, becomes moon, and hunts the wild beasts in it\nduring the whole of the night, or of the year that is, until he is\nborn again. In the _Rigvedas_, where we have seven sister-mares yoked\nto the sun-chariot,[654] Indras, to please his favourite, Eta\u00e7as,\nafter having drunk the ambrosia, pushes the clouds that had fallen\nbehind before the flying steeds of the sun,[655] that is to say, he\nprevents the solar hero, drawn by horses, either by the cloud in a\ntempest, or by the darkness of night, from going on; and he even\nstrikes the wheels themselves of the solar chariot to arrest its\nincendiary course. From these Vedic data it is easy to pass to the\nHellenic Phaeth\u00f4n, who is precipitated into the waters on account of\nthe horses. The hero killed on account of his horses is a frequent\nsubject of mythology, and the Greek name Hippolytos refers to this\nkind of death. Hippolytos, the son of Theseus, fleeing from his\nfather, who supposes him guilty of incest with his step-mother Phedra,\nis thrown from the chariot broken to pieces, when the horses that draw\nit approach the sea and are terrified by marine monsters. This is a\nvariation of the legend of the young hero, persecuted by his\nstep-mother, who is thrown into the sea, with the novel and remarkable\naccompaniment that it is his horses themselves which are the cause of\nhis death. The Christian legend of St Hippolytos has appropriated this\nparticular trait, representing the holy martyr, who was prefect under\nthe emperors Decius and Valerian, as dying, having been condemned to\nbe torn in pieces by horses. The poet Prudentius comments upon the\nstory in these two curious distichs, on the occasion of the Roman\njudge pronouncing capital punishment against St Hippolytos--\n\n      \"Ille supinata residens cervice, quis inquit\n          Dicitur? affirmant dicier Hippolytum.\n       Ergo sit Hippolytus; quatiat turbetque jugales\n          Intereatque feris dilaceratus equis.\"\n\nBut the horses which draw the hero into the water are the same as\nthose that save him by carrying him over the deep, drawing the chariot\nor ship on the sea towards the shore. The A\u00e7vin\u00e2u do the same in the\n_Rigvedas_, where they save from the waves both themselves and other\nheroes upon their chariot, which is compared to a ship.[656] Hero and\nhorse always have the same fate.\n\nWhen the hero approaches, or when some fortunate incident is about to\nhappen to the hero, his horse neighs for joy.\n\nIn the _Rigvedas_,[657] on the arrival of the god Indras, the horse\nneighs, the cow lows, like a messenger between heaven and earth. The\nneighing of this horse, and the lowing of this cow, are the thundering\nof the sun in the cloud. By this neighing or lowing, man is informed\nthat the hero-god Indras is beginning his battles in heaven. Another\nhymn, which calls the two horses of Indras two rays of the sun\n(s\u00fbryasya ket\u00fb), celebrates them as neighing and pouring out\nambrosia,[658] _i.e._, the sun makes rain fall from the clouds; when\nhe shows himself in the east at morn, his horse neighs and drops the\ndew on the ground.\n\nHerodotus, and, after him, Oppianos and Valerius Maximus, relate the\nmythical story of Darius Hystaspes, who unexpectedly succeeded to the\nempire from having persuaded his colleagues to decree that he should\nobtain the crown whose horse happened first to neigh at the sight of\nthe sun. It is narrated that when he came to the place, Darius, in\norder to assure himself of success, made his horse smell the odour of\na mare.[659] Neighing is the laughter of the horse. We have seen, in\nthe preceding chapter, how the bull speaks and the fish laughs at\nsight of coition; and so we have here, in the story of Darius, the\nhorse who neighs on account of the mare.--To return to the horse of\nmythology; the solar horse neighs within the thundering-cloud which,\nas a cow, the bull makes pregnant, and as a mare, the stallion, and\nneighs at the approach of the aurora, who appears now as the driver of\na hundred chariots[660] (a round number, like the hundred thousand\nhorses which, in another hymn,[661] the god Indras drives; a favourite\nnumber, like seven, which is applied to the same solar horses, solar\nrays and A\u00f1girasas[662])--on which account it can be compared with the\nHellenic Aphrodit\u00ea Hippodameia--now even as a real mare. The sun is\nnow a driver of horses, and now himself a horse; in the same way, the\naurora is now an Amazon horsewoman, now a driver of chariots, now\na\u00e7v\u00e2vat\u00ee, and now a mare. When the sun approaches the aurora, or when\nthe horse approaches the mare, the horse neighs. We know how the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u considered themselves sons of the wife of the sun, Sarany\u00fb,\ndaughter of Tvashtar, who united herself to the sun in the form of a\nmare. Whether this Sarany\u00fb be the cloud or the aurora, we have in her,\nanyhow, a mare with which the sun, solar hero, or solar horse, unites\nhimself to produce the twin heroes, who are, for this reason, also\ncalled the two sons of the mare.[663] We have already seen, in the\npreceding chapter, a hero and a heroine who are hatched from eggs; of\nthe Dioscuri, we know that they were born of the egg of Leda; and the\nmare's egg is the subject of a story in the _Ukermark_.[664] Greek\nwriters have handed down several cases of coition between men and\nmares, and between horses and women, with corresponding births of\nmonstrous conformation. Now, unnatural as such births must appear to\nus, they are, in mythology, in strict accordance with nature. In the\npreceding chapter we saw the cow which leaps over the hare, and\nexplained this phenomenon by the cloud or darkness covering the moon,\nand also by the earth covering the moon in eclipses. In Herodotus and\nValerius Maximus, a mare, in the time of Xerxes, gives birth to a\nhare; and we must here understand the hare to be the moon, coming out\nof the darkness or clouds; and when we read that the hare suffocated\nthe mare, we must understand it to mean the moon as dispersing the\ndarkness or clouds (perhaps also the sun or evening aurora). We must\nhave recourse in this way to the myth to comprehend the examples of\nparturition without coition found in some Hindoo legends, and applied\nto heroes, as well as the curious discussions and information which we\nfind in the ancients, from Aristotle, Varro, Pliny, Columella,\nSolinus, and St Augustin, to Albertus Magnus and Aldrovandi,\nconcerning mares, and especially Spanish and Portuguese mares, made\npregnant by the wind (called by Oppianos[665] of the windy feet), and\nwhich are also spoken of in the _Pentamerone_,[666] with less\ndecency, in reference to the myth of the maiden born of the tree.\n\nThe horse of Ariosto, too, has a similar nature--\n\n      \"Questo \u00e8 il destrier che fu dell' Argalia\n       Che di fiamma e di vento era concetto\n       E senza fieno e biada si nutria\n       De l'aria pura e Rabican fu detto.\"\n\nThe horse of Ciolle, in a Tuscan proverb, also feeds upon wind alone.\n\nThe horse of Dardanos, son of Zeus, was also said to be born of the\nwind, which brings us back to the Vedic Marutas, whose chariots have\nhorses for wings, and to the _volucer currus_ of the Diespiter of\nHorace.[667] In the Sanskrit tongue, the expression _v\u00e2t\u00e2\u00e7vas_, or\nwind-horse, is very common, to indicate a very swift-footed horse.\n\nNo sooner is the horse Ucc\u00e2ih\u00e7ravas born than he neighs; and like him,\nin the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, the hero A\u00e7vatth\u00e2man laughs, the son of Dronas,\nproperly he who has strength in his horse, which is the same as the\nhero-horse.\n\nMoreover, as the horse exults by neighing over the good fortune of the\nhero who rides him, so he not only becomes sad, but sheds real tears\nwhen his rider is about to meet with misfortune.\n\nWhen R\u00e2vanas, in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, comes forth in his chariot, to join\nin final combat with R\u00e2mas, his coursers shed tears,[668] as a\nsinister omen, R\u00e2vanas is the monster of darkness and clouds; when the\ncloud begins to disperse, drops of rain fall, that is, the horses of\nthe monster weep. The treacherous sister who is confederate with the\nmonster against her brother, in Russian stories, is condemned by her\nbrother, who kills the monster, to fill a whole basin with her\ntears.[669] These tears are also a legendary symbol of the rain which\nfalls when the solar hero has torn the cloud in two.\n\nSuetonius, in the Life of C\u00e6sar, writes that the horses consecrated by\nC\u00e6sar to Mars, and then set at liberty after the passage of the\nRubicon, refused to eat, and wept abundantly.[670] Note that this\nlegend of the horses that weep is connected with the passage of water,\nof the Rubicon (a river which no geographer has been able to identify\nwith certainty, probably because the legend of C\u00e6sar relating to it is\na fable of mythical origin. We know how mythical beliefs incline to\nassume a human form, and are especially prone to group themselves\nround the great personages of history--Cyrus, Alexander, Romulus,\nC\u00e6sar, Augustus, Vespasian, Attila, Theodoric, and Charlemagne are\nproofs of this; and perhaps a day will come in which Napoleon I. or\nGaribaldi will offer a new _mannequin_ to some popular tradition,\nwhich is now uncertain and wandering). Thus it is said that C\u00e6sar's\nhorse itself shed tears for three days before the hero's death. In the\n_Iliad_,[671] the horses of Achilleus weep for the death of\nPatroklos, whom Hektor has thrown from his chariot into the dust; in\nthe _Paraleipomenoi_ of Quintus Smyrneus,[672] the horses of Achilleus\nweep bitterly for the death of their hero. This is a variety of the\nlegend of the horses which throw the solar hero down into the waters,\nthe ocean of night or the clouds, and of that of the horses of\nPoseid\u00f4n. The mists which after sunset in the evening impregnate the\nair, and the diurnal or nocturnal rains, as well as the autumnal ones,\ncause tears to fall upon the ground, or weep over the (apparent) death\nof the solar hero.\n\nThe dew of the morning, on the contrary, which comes from the mouth of\nthe solar horse like foam, or from its hoof as ambrosia and salutary\nwater, is fraught with every species of healthful influence.\n\nThe horse and the bull of mythology are pourers out _par excellence_. In\na Vedic strophe--which seems in my eyes to be one of those riddles which\nare recited in order to loosen the thread of the tongue--relative to the\ntwo outpouring or fertilising horses of Indras, there is a continual\nplay kept up upon the root _varsh_ or _vrish_, which means at once to\npour out and to make fruitful,[673] and upon the letter _r_ which enters\ninto almost every word of the verse. Not only do the horses of Indras\npour out and make fruitful; the same virtue is attributed to the chariot\nwhich they draw.[674] We have seen already that the horse of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u is the killer of the monster serpent, and that the horse's head\nDadhyanc, he who goes in the milk or in the liquefied butter, and who is\nfound in a sea of milk, discomfits the enemies of Indras. A Vedic hymn\nsings that, with the foam of the waters, Indras beats down the head of\nthe monster serpent.[675] In Tuscany, the whooping-cough is called the\nhorse-cough or asinine-cough,[676] and it is thought that the cough is\ncured by giving the children to drink the foam from the horse's mouth,\nor causing them to drink in the water where a horse has been drinking.\nThis is a remedy founded upon the principle _similia similibus_, the\nfoam being used against the convulsive cough, which, like all\nconvulsions in general, brings much saliva or foam to the mouth. The\ncredit, however, of this marvellous medicine is slightly compromised\nwhen we read that the same foam is also very efficacious for ear-ache.\nPliny, Sextus Empiricus, and Marcellus, quoted by Aldrovandi,[677] also\nrecommend the saliva of a horse as a cure for cough, particularly in the\ncase of consumptive patients, adding that the sick person is cured in\nthree days, but that the horse dies; a superstition which must have had\nits origin in the mythical horse who feeds on ambrosia, and who loses\nhis strength, and expires when his saliva, foam, ambrosia, or dew is\ntaken from him. It is well known that the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, besides being\nluminous horsemen, were, as friends of men, also exceedingly skilful\nphysicians; nor could they be otherwise, having in their power the head\nof Dadhyanc which is in the ambrosia, that is, whose foam is ambrosia.\nThe Dioscuri also frequently appear, in European legends, as unexpected\nand miraculous deliverers. With this mythical belief of the horse that\nproduces ambrosia, is also connected the transformation, described by\nOvid in the second book of the _Metamorphoses_, of Ocyroe into a mare,\nbecause she had predicted that \u00c6sculapius would save men from death by\nthe medical art. It is a well-known fact that \u00c6sculapius was revered\nnear fountains whose waters were supposed to have salutary effects, and\nthat he was protected by the sun-god Apollo; and the two physicians,\nsons of Askl\u00eapios or \u00c6sculapius, seem to be nothing more than a specific\nform of the Dioscuri.\n\nBut the solar horse does not produce ambrosia with his mouth alone.\n\nHe has great strength in his hoofs (whence Isidorus and other medi\u00e6val\netymologists derived the name _caballus_, thus, \"Quod ungula terram\ncavet\"[678]), and makes use of them in the myth, and in the legend,\nnot only to combat the enemies, but also to break open the earth, and\ncause ambrosial fountains to spring out of it. Sometimes ambrosia\npours out of the hoof of the horse itself. In the _Rigvedas_,[679] the\nhorses of Agnis are said to have hands (_i.e._, hoofs of the\nfore-feet) that pour out; and the horse given by the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u to the\nhero protected by them (that is, to the solar horse, to the morning\nsun), with his strong hoof fills a hundred jars with inebriating\nliquor.[680] It is not necessary for me to instance here the famous\nfountain of the horse, or Hippokr\u00ean\u00ea, which Bellerophon's horse\nP\u00eagasos caused to spring out of the earth by breaking the soil with\nhis hoof (called also for this reason _P\u00eagas\u00eda kr\u00ean\u00ea_). In Latin\ntradition, the horse's hoof was worshipped on a spot near Lake\nRegillus, where it is said that the Dioscuri had appeared.[681] In a\nRussian story,[682] when Johnny (Ivanushka) sees a horse's hoof, he is\nsorely tempted to drink out of it, but is dissuaded by his sister. He\nexperiences the same temptation upon seeing a bull's hoof, and\nafterwards that of a kid. At last he gives way, drinks from the kid's\nhoof, and is himself transformed into a kid. In the footprint of a\nhorse's hoof, in other stories, the ant is in danger of being drowned;\nsaved by a man, it is ever afterwards grateful to him.[683]\n\nSeveral myths which we have already noticed in the preceding chapter\nas applied to the bull, occur again in connection with the horse; as,\nfor instance, the birds which come out of the horse; the hero who\ntakes the horse's skin off, seizing it by the tail in order to make a\nsack of it; the swift horse of Adrastus, which runs after the tortoise\n(a Greek proverb);[684] the lunar horse, and the solar one. These\nexchanges between moon and sun, and between bull and horse, are\nhappily indicated by the Latin poet, Fulgentius:--\n\n      \"Jam Phoebus disjungit equos, jam Cynthia jungit,\n       Quasque soror liquit, frater pede temperat undas:\n       Tum nox stellato coelum circumlita peplo\n       Coerula rorigenis pigrescere jusserat alis\n       Astrigeroque nitens diademate luna bicornis\n       Bullarum bijugis conscenderat \u00e6quora tauris.\"\n\nThe gods had often a liking to transform themselves into horses; so much\nso, that the sacrifice of the god, that is, the god's death, is\nrepresented by the death of the horse. Every one knows that gods and\nheroes delighted in showing themselves good horsemen, or, at least, good\ncharioteers. On this account, it would be difficult to say to which god\nin particular the horse is sacred. The Vedic A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the Vedic aurora,\nwho wins the race in her chariot, Agnis, Savitar, Indras, victorious and\nsplendid by means of their steeds, the hippios Poseid\u00f4n, the hippeia\nAth\u00ean\u00ea, the hippodameia Aphrodit\u00ea, the horsemen Dioscuri, Mars, Apollo,\nZeus, Pluto, and the German Wuotan (like his _alter ego_, St Zacch\u00e6us),\nnever show themselves otherwise than on horseback; hence the horse was\nnaturally sacred to all of them. In the Christian faith, the innumerable\ngods of the ancients having become innumerable saints (when they were\nnot so unfortunate as to degenerate into devils), the horse is now\nrecommended in its stable to the protection of several saints, from the\nobscure Sicilian St Aloi to the no less modest Russians St Froh and St\nLaver, who take the horse, as well as the mule and the ass, under their\nespecial protection, not to speak of the glorious horsemen St George, St\nMichael, St James, St Maurice, St Stephen, St Vladimir, and St Martin,\nespecially revered by warriors, and in whose honour the principal orders\nof knighthood in Europe were founded. But religions being, from one\npoint of view, the caricature of mythologies, there is now some\ndifference between the mythical old deities and the legendary new ones,\ninasmuch as the former would at times ingenuously accept the homage of\nthe animal in effigy, as we have observed in the preceding chapter;\nwhile the latter, and they who purvey to them upon earth, not being\nquite so simple, never leave their devotee in peace until they have\nreceived, at sight and without discount, the full value of their\nfavours. In the Life of San Gallo, we read that, in the times of King\nPepin (we already know what these times mean), a certain Willimar, being\nill, promised, if cured, to offer a horse to the Church of San Gallo.\nHaving recovered his health, he forgot his promise; but passing one day\nbefore the church of the saint, his horse stopped before the gate, and\nby no possibility could it be induced to-move on, until Willimar had at\nlast declared his intention of fulfilling his vow. In the Life of St\nMartin, there is a rather gayer variation of the same anecdote. King\nClodoveus, after having become a Christian, when fighting against the\nVisigoths, promises his own horse to St Martin, if he grants the victory\nto him. Having obtained it, Clodoveus regrets being obliged to deprive\nhimself of his good charger, and beseeches St Martin to be kind enough\nto take money instead, offering him a hundred pieces of gold. St Martin\nthinks the sum insufficient, and asks for double, which Clodoveus gives;\nbut, inasmuch as a little heretic blood still runs in his veins, he\ncannot refrain from aiming a pointed witticism at him: \"Martinus,\nquantum video, auxiliator est facilis, sed mercator difficilis!\"[685]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[526] The word _atyas_ has the same meaning.\n\n[527] Yungantv asya k\u00e2my\u00e2 har\u00ee vipakshas\u00e2 rathe \u00e7on\u00e2 dhrishn\u00fb\nnriv\u00e2has\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 6, 2.\n\n[528] Vacoyug\u00e2u; _Rigv._ i. 7, 2.\n\n[529] Yukshv\u00e2 hi ke\u00e7in\u00e2 har\u00ee vrishan\u00e2 kakshyapr\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 10, 3.\n\n[530] S\u00fbracakshasah; _Rigv._ i. 16, 1.\n\n[531] Indr\u00e2ya vacoyug\u00e2 tatakshur manas\u00e2 har\u00ee; _Rigv._ i. 20, 2.\n\n[532] Saudhanvan\u00e2 a\u00e7v\u00e2d a\u00e7vam atakshata; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7.\n\n[533] Vi gan\u00e2n chy\u00e2vah \u00e7itip\u00e2do akhyan ratham hiranyapr\u00e2ugam vahantah;\n_Rigv._ i. 33, 5.\n\n[534] Indro va\u00f1k\u00fb va\u00f1kutar\u00e2dhi tishthati; _Rigv._ i. 5, 11.\n\n[535] Yukshv\u00e2 madacyut\u00e2 har\u00ee; _Rigv._ i. 81, 3.\n\n[536] V\u00e2m a\u00e7vin\u00e2 manaso gaviy\u00e2n rathah sva\u00e7vah; _Rigv._ i. 117, 2.\n\n[537] \u00c2 tv\u00e2 yachantu harito na s\u00fbryam ah\u00e2 vi\u00e7veva s\u00fbryam; _Rigv._ i.\n130, 2.\n\n[538] Har\u00ee s\u00fbryasya ket\u00fb; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 6.\n\n[539] Ghrita\u00e7cutam sv\u00e2ram asv\u00e2rsht\u00e2m; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 7.\n\n[540] Pra ye dvit\u00e2 diva ringanty \u00e2t\u00e2h susammrisht\u00e2so vrishabhasya\nm\u00fbrah; _Rigv._ iii. 43, 6.\n\n[541] Indra haribhir y\u00e2hi may\u00fbraromabhih; _Rigv._ iii. 45. 1.\n\n[542] Sholh\u00e2 yukt\u00e2h panca-panc\u00e2 vahanti; _Rigv._ iii. 55, 18.\n\n[543] Patatribhir a\u00e7ram\u00e2ir avyatibhir dansan\u00e2bhih; _Rigv._ vii. 69, 7.\nThe A\u00e7vin\u00e2u also are called dravatp\u00e2n\u00ee (swift-hoofed); _Rigv._ i. 3, 1.\n\n[544] A\u00e7vatar\u00ee--rathen\u00e2gnir \u00e2gimadh\u00e2vatt\u00e2s\u00e2m pr\u00e2gam\u00e2no\nyonimak\u00fblayatt\u00e1sm\u00e2tt\u00e2 na vig\u00e2yante. Gobhirarun\u00e2irush\u00e2\n\u00e2gimadh\u00e2vattasm\u00e2dushasyagat\u00e2y\u00e2marunamivaeva\nprabh\u00e2tyushasor\u00fbpama\u00e7varathenendra \u00e2gimadh\u00e2vattasm\u00e2tsa ucc\u00e2irghosha\nupabdim\u00e2nkshatrasya r\u00fbpam\u00e2indro hi sa gadarbharathen\u00e2\u00e7vin\u00e2\nudagayat\u00e2ma\u00e7vin\u00e2v\u00e2\u00e7nuv\u00e2t\u00e2m; _Ait. Br._ iv. 2, 9.\n\n[545] Tv\u00e2shtr\u00ee tu savitur bh\u00e2ry\u00e2 vadav\u00e2rupadh\u00e2rin\u00ee as\u00fbyata mah\u00e2bh\u00e2g\u00e2\ns\u00e2 'ntar\u00eekshe '\u00e7vin\u00e2vubh\u00e2u; _Mbh._ i. 2599.\n\n[546] _Il._ x. 352.\n\n[547] In the Monferrato, according to the information kindly given me,\nconcerning the beliefs relative to animals current in this country, by\nDr Giuseppe Ferraro, the young collector of the popular songs and\nstories of the Monferrato, it is believed that the horse's teeth hung\nupon the necks of infants at the breast cause them to cut their teeth,\nand that the two incisors of the horse, when worn, are a spell to\ncharm away every evil.\n\n[548] _Mbh._ i. 1093-1237.\n\n[549] Cfr. the first of the Tuscan stories of _Santo Stefano di\nCalcinaia_.--In the preceding chapter, we have seen how the apples of a\ncertain apple-tree cause horns to grow on whoever eats them. In an\nunpublished Italian story, instead of the apple-tree, we have the\nfig-tree, and instead of horns, the tail. It is narrated by an old man\nof Osimo, in the Marches:--Three poor brothers, having but little\ninclination for work, go in search of fortune round the world. Overtaken\nin the country by night, they fall asleep in the open air. A fairy,\nunder the aspect of a hideous old woman, comes up and wakens them,\noffering herself as their wife. The three brothers excuse themselves,\nand declare that they wish for nothing except a little money with which\nto make merry. The fairy answers, \"Tell me what you wish for, and you\nshall have it.\" The first asks for a purse, which shall always be full\nof money; the second for a whistle, by blowing into which a whole army\nof brave combatants would be summoned to his side; the third a mantle,\nwhich would make its wearer invisible. The fairy satisfies them, and\nthen disappears in flames, like the devil. The eldest brother, Stephen,\ngoes with his purse into Portugal, where he plays and loses, but still\nremains rich. This comes to the queen-dowager's ears, who wishes to see\nthe stranger, hoping to possess herself of his secret; she feigns to\nlove him, and the wedding-day is fixed; but before it comes she has\nalready gained his confidence, and taking the purse from him, she orders\nhim to be flogged. Stephen returns to his brothers, relates his\ngrievance, and proposing to revenge himself upon the queen, induces them\nto lend him the whistle, which calls armies into existence. The queen\nsoftens towards him, protesting that she expected to the last that he\nwould have appeared on the day appointed for the wedding, and that he\nhad been flogged without her knowledge. Stephen gives way, and the\nwhistle passes out of his hands into those of the queen. He is flogged\nagain, but twice as severely as before. Again he has recourse to his\nbrothers; he implores, supplicates, and promises to get everything back\nby the miraculous mantle; but having obtained it, he allows himself to\nbe deceived once more by the queen. Deprived of everything, he wanders\nabout in despair, reduced to beggary. In the middle of January, he sees\na tree covered with beautiful figs; desirous of them, he eats with\navidity; but for every fig that he swallows, a span of tail as thick as\na boa grows on to him. He goes on his way, still more desperate, till he\nfinds more figs, of a smaller size; he eats them, and the tail\ndisappears. Contented with this discovery, he fills a basket with the\nfirst figs, and disguised as a countryman, comes to the palace of the\nQueen of Portugal. Every one marvels on seeing such fine figs in\nJanuary. The queen buys the basket, and every one eats; but tails\nimmediately grow on their backs. Stephen then dresses himself as a\ndoctor, and with the little figs, cures many persons. The queen has him\ncalled; he obliges her to confess to him first, and in the confession\nmakes her say where the three marvellous gifts of the fairy are kept.\nHaving recovered them, he leaves the queen with ten spans of tail, and\nreturns rich and happy to his brothers. In this story there must be some\nparts wanting; it is probable that the fairy warned the brothers not to\ndiscover their secret to any one. The last enterprise, moreover, is more\nlikely to have been undertaken by the third brother, who always assumes\nin fairy tales the part of the cunning one, than by the first-born, who\nin this story represents the part of the fool.--Polydorus speaks of the\nhorse's tail as a chastisement for an insult to Thomas Archbishop of\nCanterbury, in the thirteenth book of his _Hist. Angl._:--\"Irridentes\nArchiepiscopum, caudam equi cui insidebat, amputarunt. At postea nutu\nDei ita accidit, ut omnes ex eo hominum genere qui id facinus fecissent,\nnati sunt instar brutorum caudati.\"\n\n[550] Hiranyakarnam manigr\u00eevam arnas; _Rigv._ i. 122, 14.\n\n[551] _Il\u00edou Hal\u00f4sis_, 65-72.\n\n[552] In the before-quoted collection of Radloff, _T\u00e4kt\u00e4b\u00e4i M\u00e4rg\u00e4n_.\n\n[553]\n\n                     Longa solitos caligine pasci\n      Terruit orbis equos; pressis h\u00e6sere lupatis\n      Attoniti meliore polo; rursusque verendum\n      In chaos obliquo pugnant temone reverti.\n                  Claudianus, _De Raptu Proserpin\u00e6_, ii. 193.\n\n[554] _Phainomena_, 215.\n\n[555] _Mbh._ i. 1470, 1471.\n\n[556] Quelli cavalli che sono de pilo morello se fanno de humore\ncolerico impero che e pi\u00f9 caldo humore et sicco che non e lo sangue et\nper questo produce ad nigredine el pelo. _I tre Libri della Natura Dei\nCavalli et del Modo di medicar le Loro Infermit\u00e0_, composti da Maestro\nAgostino Columbre; _Prologo._ 6, Vinegia, 1547.\n\n[557]\n\n      Hippomanes ph\u00fcton esti par Arkasi t\u00f4i d'epi pasai\n      Kai p\u00f4loi mainontai an \u00f4rea, kai thoai hippoi; ii. 48.\n\n[558] Devennosi corrigere et emendare quelli li quali se posseno dire\nheretici, impero che voleno dire che quelle tal bestie che portano li\ncrini advolte et atrezate; et con loro poco cognoscimento dicono che\nsono le streghe che li cavalcano et chiamanli cavalli stregari;\"\n_Prologo._ 10, the work quoted before.--Cfr. on the Damavoi, Ralston,\n_The Songs of the Russian People_, p. 120, 139.\n\n[559]\n\n      Hippous mela\u00ednas ou kalon pant\u00f4s blepein\n      Hipp\u00f4n de leuk\u00f4n opsis, aggel\u00f4n phasis.\n\nIn Tuscany, flying horses, when seen in dreams, announce news; no\ndoubt, this flying horse seen in dreams can only refer to the\nnocturnal voyage of the solar horse.\n\n[560] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_,\nLeipzig, 1870.\n\n[561] The Hungarians call the bier of the dead St Michael's horse;\nNeo-Greek popular songs represent the ferryman of the dead, Charon, on\nhorseback; in Switzerland, the sight of a horse is a harbinger of\napproaching death for a person seriously ill.--Cfr. Rochholtz,\n_Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 163, 164.\n\n[562] _Afanassieff_, v. 37.\n\n[563] _Ib._ v. 54.\n\n[564] _Afanassieff_, i. 6.\n\n[565] _Ib._ ii. 25.--Cfr. iii. 5, iv. 27.\n\n[566] _Afanassieff_, ii. 28.\n\n[567] _Ib._ iv. 41.--In the twenty-first story of _Erlenwein_, the\npoor brother obtains wealth by means of a mare's head, while the rich\nbrother, on the other hand, becomes poor.--In _Af._ v. 21, the\ndwarf-boy, who possesses great strength, enters into the ear of one of\nthe two horses when in the act of ploughing; upon which they plough of\ntheir own accord, and the old father of the dwarf is at liberty to\nrest.--In the sixth Calmuck story, the head of the dead horse, when\nfallen from the tree, brings riches and good luck to him who lets it\nfall, who finds under it a golden cup: this is a form of the ambrosia\nwhich comes out of the horse's head, which we shall find farther on.\n\n[568] The Russian text seems to me of too much importance, in the\nhistory of myths, not to deserve to be recorded here: \"Iediet api\u00e1t\nvsadnik: sam cornoi, adiet va vsiem cornom; na cornom kani\u00e9; padskak\u00e1l\nk var\u00f3tam babijagh\u00ed i is-cesz, kak skvosz szemlin praval\u00edlsia; nast\u00e1la\nnoc.\"\n\n[569] Idi\u00f3t an\u00e1 i drasz\u00edt. Vdr\u00fag skacet mimo iej\u00e1 vsadnik sam bieloi,\nadiet v bielom, kon pod nim bieloi, i sbruja na kani\u00e9 bi\u00e9laja; na dvari\u00e9\nstalo raszviet\u00e1t. Idi\u00f3t an\u00e1 dalshe, kak skacet drugoi vsadnik; sam\nkrasnoi, adi\u00e9t v krasnom i na krasnom kanie; stalo vsh\u00f3dit solntze.\n\n[570] Yah p\u00e2urusheyena kravish\u00e2 sama\u00f1kte yo a\u00e7vyena pa\u00e7un\u00e2 y\u00e2tudh\u00e2nah\nyo aghny\u00e2y\u00e2 bharati ksh\u00eeram agne tesh\u00e2in \u00e7\u00eersh\u00e2ni haras\u00e2pi vri\u00e7ca;\n_Rigv._ x. 87, 16.--Cfr. the dragon that torments the horses in the\n_Tuti-Name_ of Rosen, ii. 300.\n\n[571] Tad agne cakshuh prati dhehi rebhe \u00e7aph\u00e2rugam yena pa\u00e7yasi\ny\u00e2tudh\u00e2nam; _Rigv._ x. 87, 12.--The demon Hayagr\u00eevas killed by Vishnus,\nwhich is the same as horse's neck, and Haya\u00e7iras, or horse's head,\nanother monster giant in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, iv. 43, 44, always refer to\nthe Vedic a\u00e7va-y\u00e2tudh\u00e2nas. We are already acquainted with the demon who,\nduring the night, makes the horses sweat and grow lean, _i.e._, who\nmakes them ugly. In the Latin tradition, after having assisted the\nRomans in the battle of the Lake Regillus, Castor and Pollux were seen,\nnear the ambrosial lacus Iuturn\u00e6 (Ovidius, _Fasti_, i.), to wash the\nsweat off their horses with the water of this lake, which was near the\ntemple of Vesta. To this Macaulay alludes in his verses--\n\n      \"And washed their horses in the well\n       That springs by Vesta's fane.\"\n              --_Battle of the Lake Regillus_, xxxix.\n\nThe salutary water of the Dioscuri, or sons of the luminous one, would\nhere occupy the place of the fire lighted by night in stables, and of\nthe Vedic Agnis who kills the monster of horses. My friend Giuseppe\nPitr\u00e8 writes me, that in Sicily, when an ass, a mule, or a horse is to\nenter a new stable, salt is put upon its back (a form of Christian\nbaptism), in order that the fairies may not lame it.--The K\u00fcllaros,\nthe heroic horse of the Dioscuri, is perhaps not unrelated to the word\n_k\u00fcllos_, which means lame and bent; the solar horse, before being\nheroic, is hump-backed, lame, lean, and ugly; the lame hero, the lame\nhorse (ass or mule), the lame devil, seem to me to be three _penumbr\u00e6_\nof the solar hero, or of the sun in the darkness.\n\n[572] Vibhir \u00fbhathur rigrebhir a\u00e7v\u00e2ih; _Rigv._ i. 117, 14.--Cfr. vii.\n69, 7.\n\n[573] A\u00e7vain na g\u00fblham a\u00e7vin\u00e2 durev\u00e2ir rishim nar\u00e2 vrishan\u00e2 rebham\napsu; _Rigv._ i. 117, 4.--The A\u00e7vin\u00e2u pass the sea upon a chariot,\nwhich resembles a ship; this chariot is said to have the sun for a\ncovering--rathena s\u00fbryatvac\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 47, 9.\n\n[574] Yam a\u00e7vin\u00e2 dadathuh \u00e7vetam a\u00e7vam agh\u00e2\u00e7v\u00e2ya \u00e7a\u00e7vad it svasti;\n_Rigv._ i. 116, 6.\n\n[575] Agnis tuvi\u00e7ravastamain tuvibrahm\u00e2nam uttamam at\u00fbrtam \u00e7r\u00e2vayatpatim\nputram dad\u00e2ti d\u00e2\u00e7ushe--Agnir dad\u00e2ti satpatim s\u00e2s\u00e2ha yo yudh\u00e2 nribhih\nagnir atyam raghushyadam get\u00e2ram apar\u00e2gitam; _Rigv._ v. 25, 5, 6.\n\n[576] _Rigv._ i. 155, 6.\n\n[577] i. 154, 4.\n\n[578] Vishnor nu kam v\u00eeryani pra vocam yah p\u00e2rthiv\u00e2ni vimame rag\u00e2nsi\nyo askabh\u00e2yad uttaram sadhastham vicakram\u00e2nas tredhorug\u00e2yah; _Rigv._\ni. 154, 1.\n\n[579] Yad\u00e2 te vishnur ogas\u00e2 tr\u00eeni pad\u00e2 vicakram \u00e2d it te haryat\u00e2 har\u00ee\nvavakshatuh; _Rigv._ viii. 12, 27.\n\n[580] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iv. 40.\n\n[581] Yuktas te astu dakshina uta savyah \u00e7atakrato tena g\u00e2y\u00e2m upa\npriy\u00e2m mand\u00e2no y\u00e2hy andhaso yog\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 82, 5.\n\n[582] Tad \u00fb shu v\u00e2m agiram ceti y\u00e2nain yena pat\u00ee bhavathah s\u00fbry\u00e2y\u00e2h;\n_Rigv._ iv. 43, 6.--In the following hymn, strophe 1st, the aurora is\ncalled now daughter of the sun, now cow: Tam v\u00e2m ratham vayam ady\u00e2\nhuvema prithugrayam a\u00e7vin\u00e2 samgatim goh--Tah s\u00fbry\u00e2m vahati.\n\n[583] Rathasya naptyah; _Rigv._ i. 50. 9.\n\n[584] _Rigv._ i. 116, 10.\n\n[585] vi. 9.\n\n[586] The lake of Br\u00e2hman, visited by Hanumant in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, vi.\n53, has the form of a horse's snout (hay\u00e2nanam).\n\n[587] Indro dadh\u00eeco asthabhir vritr\u00e2ny apratishkutah gagh\u00e2na navat\u00eer\nnava; _Rigv._ i. 84, 13, 14, i. 117, 22, and the corresponding\ncommentary of S\u00e2yanas.--The bones of the heroic horse possess strength\nequal to that of the horse itself; thus in the last chapter we have\nseen how, when the bones of the sacrificed bull or cow are kept, it\nsprings up again with renewed strength.--Cfr. concerning this subject\nthe interesting and copious details relating to European beliefs to be\nfound in Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 219-253.\n\n[588] ii. 24.\n\n[589] Divo nap\u00e2t\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 182, 1.\n\n[590] As to the Vedic passage, v. 76, 3, where it would seem that the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u are invoked in the morning, at midday, and in the evening,\nthere seems to me to be room for discussion. The text says: Ut\u00e2 y\u00e2tam\nsa\u00f1gave pr\u00e2tar ahno (that is, in the early dawn, when the cows are\ngathered together), madhyandine (which, in my mind, is the middle term\nwhich separates the gloomy hours from the luminous ones), udit\u00e2\ns\u00fbryasya (which, meaning the rising of the sun, cannot express\nevening, but precisely the rising of the morning sun). We too would\nhave thus expressed the three moments in the morning in which it was\nopportune to invoke the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u.\n\n[591] Sushupv\u00e2nsam na nirriter upasthe s\u00fbryam na dasr\u00e2 tamasi\nkshiyantam \u00e7ubhe rukmam na dar\u00e7atam nikh\u00e2tam ud \u00fbpathur a\u00e7vin\u00e2\nvandan\u00e2ya; _Rigv._ i. 117, 5.\n\n[592] Madhuprishtham ghoram ay\u00e2sam a\u00e7vam; _Rigv._ ix. 89, 4.\n\n[593] _Rigv._ viii. 104, 15-25.\n\n[594] Quoted in Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, v. 264.--Somas united with\nAgnis in the _Rigvedas_, Somas united with Rudras, seem, in my opinion,\nto be the same as Somas united with Indras.--Cfr. Muir, v. 269, 270.\n\n[595] xii. 1, quoted by Muir in his _Sanskrit Texts_, v. 224.\n\n[596] In the _Edda_ we find the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u under the forms of night and\nday. Odin took Natt and Dag her son, gave them two horses and two\ndrays, and placed them in the heavens to go round the earth in\ntwenty-four hours. Natt was the first to advance with Hrimfaxe, her\nhorse; he scatters every morning the foam from his bit upon the earth;\nit is the dew. The horse of Dag is named Skenfaxe; the air and the\nearth are illumined by his mane.\n\n[597] \u00c2 v\u00e2m patitvam sakhy\u00e2ya gagmush\u00ee yosh\u00e2vrin\u00eeta geny\u00e2 yuv\u00e2m pat\u00ee;\n_Rigv._ i. 119, 5.\n\n[598] Cfr. the legends relating to Cyavanas cured by the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u in\nthe _\u00c7atapatha Br\u00e2hmanam_ and in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, referred to by\nMuir in the above-quoted fifth volume of the _Sanskrit Texts_, p. 250,\nand those following.\n\n[599] In the _Rigv._ i. 8, 2, also, the invokers of Indras desire to\nfight the enemies, the monsters Mushtihatyay\u00e2 and Arvat\u00e2, by fist and\nby horses.\n\n[600] _Mbh._ i. 6484-6504.\n\n[601] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ i. 49, ii. 7.\n\n[602] iv. 12.\n\n[603] iv. 7, 17.\n\n[604] iv. 8.\n\n[605] iv. 10.\n\n[606] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iv. 8.\n\n[607] The Persian hero often takes his name from his horse or his\nhorses; hence Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa, V\u00eest\u00e2\u00e7pa, Arg\u00e2\u00e7p, Gust\u00e2\u00e7p, Yap\u00e2\u00e7p,\nP\u00fbrush\u00e2\u00e7pa, A\u00e7p\u00e2yaodha, &c.\n\n[608] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, ii. 72.--In the Servian stories of\nWuck, one of two brothers sleeps, transformed into stone with all his\npeople, until the other comes to free and resuscitate him.\n\n[609] i. 91, and following, Rosen's version.\n\n[610] ii. 20, and following.\n\n[611] ii. 157.\n\n[612] _Tuti-Name_, i. 151.\n\n[613] Cfr. a zoological variety of this myth in the chapter on the\nCock and the Hen.\n\n[614] This is a variety of the legend of the Tzar's daughter enamoured\nof Emilius, the foolish and idle, though fortunate, youth, whom the\nindignant Tzar orders to be shut up in a cask and thrown with her\nlover into the sea, as we have seen in the first chapter.\n\n[615] iv. 24.\n\n[616] We shall shortly find the hare (the moon) who devours the mare.\n\n[617] i. 53.\n\n[618] U kav\u00f3 preszde sviec\u00e2 sama saboi zagaritsia, tot tzar budiet.\n\n[619] Tzelij\u00e1 kuci zolot\u00e1 v anbarah nasipani; cto ni pluniet on, to\nvsi\u00e9 z\u00f3lotom; dievat niekud\u00e1!\n\n[620] It will, I hope, be deemed not inappropriate to quote here the\nwords with which Professor Roth begins his essay upon the legend of\n\u00c7unah\u00e7epas in the first volume of the _Indische Studien_: \"Die Deutung\nder indischen Sagengeschichte sucht noch die Regeln, nach welchen die\ndas \u00fcberlieferte verworrene Material behanden soll. Eine und dieselbe\nSage wird vielleicht in zehn verschiedenen B\u00fcchern in zehnfacher Form\nerz\u00e4hlt. Glaubt man einen festen Punkt gefunden zu haben, auf welchen\nnach einem Berichte die Spitze der Erz\u00e4hlung zusammenl\u00e4uft, so streben\nandere Berichte wieder nach ganz anderem Ziele und treiben denjenigen,\nder einen festen Kern der Sage fassen will, rathlos im Kreise herum. Die\nWiderspr\u00fcche, mit welchen ein Sammler und Ordner griechischer\nHeldensagen zu k\u00e4mpfen hat, sind lauter Einklang und Klarheit im\nVergleiche zu dem wirren Kn\u00e4uel, in welchen die Willk\u00fchr indischer\nPoeten die reichen Ueberlieferungen ihrer Vorzeit zusammengeballt hat.\"\n\n[621] ix. 37, 3.--I observe that the same craft as that used by the\ntwo brothers to steal the treasure, in an as yet unpublished fairy\ntale of the Canavese in Piedmont, was employed by the inexperienced\nrobber, who becomes at length very skilful to rob the loaves from the\nbaker's oven. The Piedmontese thief makes an opening from without, and\nthus carries the bread off. The same thief then steals the king's\nhorse. At first, he learns his profession from the chief of the\nrobbers. The chief sends him the first time to waylay some travellers,\nand bids him leap upon them; the young thief obeys these directions to\nthe letter; he makes the travellers lie down and then jumps upon them,\nbut does not rob them. The second time the chief tells him to take the\ntravellers' quattrini (the name of a very small coin, by which money\nin general is also expressed). The young thief takes the quattrini\nalone, and lets the travellers keep their dollars and napoleons. At\nlast, however, he becomes an accomplished thief.\n\n[622] Cfr. in the same _Pentamerone_, the ninth story of the first\nbook; the eighteenth of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_;\nthe thirty-ninth of the Sicilian stories of the _Gonzenbach_; the\nsixtieth and the eighty-fifth story of Grimm's collection, _Kinder und\nHausm\u00e4rchen_; the tenth of Kuhn and Schwartz's _M\u00e4rchen_; the\ntwenty-second of the Greek stories of Hahn, _Griechische und\nAlbanesische M\u00e4rchen_; the fourth of Campbell's in _Orient und\nOccident_; the first book of the _Pancatantram_, and the twelfth story\nof the fifth book of the same; and Cox, the work quoted before, i.\n141, 142, 161, 281, 393, &c.\n\n[623] In the _Pentamerone_, i. 9, the queen's son does the same with\nthe wife of his twin-brother; \"Mese la spata arrancata comme staccione\n'miego ad isso ed a Fenizia.\"\n\n[624] In the corresponding collections of Ferraro, Bolza, and\nWolf.--Cfr. the end of the twenty-eighth of the _Novelline di Santo\nStefano di Calcinaia_.\n\n[625] i. 807 and following.\n\n[626] iv. 4.\n\n[627] i. 41-43.\n\n[628] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ i. 13.\n\n[629] i. 13.\n\n[630] In the Western stories, instead of the horse's fat or marrow, it\nis generally the fish eaten by the queen and her servant-maid which\ngives life to the two brothers, who become three when the water in\nwhich the fish was washed is given to be drunk by the mare or the\nbitch, whence the son of the mare or bitch is born. I have already\nattempted to prove the identity of the fish with the phallos; the fish\neaten by the queen, the maid, the mare, or the bitch, which renders\nthem pregnant, seems to me a symbol of coition. The horse's fat or\nmarrow smelled by the queen seems to have the same meaning.\n\n[631] V\u00e2gino devag\u00e2tasya sapteh pravakshy\u00e2mo vidathe v\u00eery\u00e2ni; _Rigv._\ni. 162, 1.--S\u00fbr\u00e2d a\u00e7vam vasavo nir atashta; _Rigv._ i. 163, 2.\n\n[632] S\u00e2dhur na gridhnuh; _Rigv._ i. 70, 11.\n\n[633] Vikro\u00e7at\u00e2m n\u00e2do bh\u00fbt\u00e2n\u00e2m salil\u00e2ukas\u00e2m \u00e7r\u00fbyate bhri\u00e7\u00e2m\u00e2rtt\u00e2n\u00e2m\nvi\u00e7at\u00e2m vadav\u00e2mukham; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iv. 40.--Aurvas, who, in the shape of a\nhorse's head, swallows the water of the sea and vomits flames, is a\nvariety of the same solar myth; _Mbh._ i. 6802, and following verses.\n\n[634] Hiranya\u00e7ri\u00f1go yo asya p\u00e2d\u00e2 manogav\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 163, 9.--Tava\n\u00e7ri\u00f1g\u00e2ni vishthit\u00e2 purutr \u00e2ranyeshu garbhur\u00e2n\u00e2 caranti. 11.--We find\nthe stag in relation with the horse, as his stronger rival until man\nmounts upon the horse's back, in the well-known apologue of Horace,\n_Epist._ i. 10.\n\n      \"Cervus equum pugna melior communibus herbis\n       Pellebat, donec minor in certamine longo\n       Imploravit opes hominis, frenumque recepit;\n       Sed postquam victor discessit ab hoste,\n       Non equitem dorso, non frenum depulit ore.\"\n\n[635] Vriksho nishthito madhye arnaso yam t\u00e2ugryo n\u00e2dhitah\nparyashasvagat; _Rigv._ i. 182, 7.\n\n[636] _Afanassieff_, v. 11.\n\n[637] Apa yor indrah p\u00e2paga \u00e2 marto na \u00e7a\u00e7ram\u00e2no bibh\u00eev\u00e2n \u00e7ubhe yad\nyuyuge tavish\u00eev\u00e2n; _Rigv._ x. 105, 3.\n\n[638] Iasya samsthe na vrinvate har\u00ee samatsu \u00e7atravah; _Rigv._ i. 5, 4.\n\n[639] A\u00e7vyo v\u00e2ro abhavas tad indra; _Rigv._ i. 32, 12; and the Hindoo\ncommentator notes that Indras chased the enemy as the tail of a horse\nshakes off the insects that place themselves upon it, which it is much\nmore natural to believe of the tail of Indras's horse, which is\ncovered with milk, butter, honey, and ambrosia.\n\n[640] _Rigv._, the hymn quoted before, i. 84, 13, 14; Agnis, too, is\nhonoured as a tailed horse (v\u00e2ravantam a\u00e7vam), _Rigv._ i. 27, 1.\n\n[641] Rigipyam \u00e7yenam prushitapsum \u00e2\u00e7um carkrityam aryo nripatim na\n\u00e7\u00fbram--v\u00e2tam iva dhragantam--uta sm\u00e2sya tanyator iva dyor righ\u00e2yato\nabhiyugo bhayante yad\u00e2 sahasram abhi sh\u00eem ayodh\u00eed durvartuh sm\u00e2\nbhavati bh\u00eema ringan; _Rigv._ iv. 38, 2, 3, 8.\n\n[642] Avakr\u00e2mantah prapad\u00e2ir amitr\u00e2n; _Rigv._ vi. 75, 7.\n\n[643] vi. 49.\n\n[644] Cfr. Simrock, _Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie_, p. 375, and\nRochholtz, the work quoted before.\n\n[645] _Afanassieff_, ii. 24.\n\n[646] _Ib._ v. 6.\n\n[647] _Ib._ v. 35.\n\n[648] Pov\u00edshe liess\u00fa staj\u00e1cavo, pon\u00edsze ablak\u00e1 hadi\u00e1cavo.\n\n[649] For instance, in the _Pentamerone_, iii. 7, where the king of\nScotland sends Corvetto to steal the horse of the ogre who lives ten\nmiles distant from Scotland: \"Haveva st' Huorco no bellissimo cavallo,\nche pareva fatto co lo penniello, e tra le autre bellizze no le\nmancava manco la parola.\" When Corvetto carries off the horse, it\ncries out, \"A l'erta ca Corvetto me ne porta.\"--Cfr. also the\n_Pentamerone_, iii. 1.--Not only has the horse the gift of speech, but\nthe chariot too: in the seventh book of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, 44, the\nchariot Pushpakam speaks to R\u00e2mas, and says to him that he alone is\nworthy of driving it.\n\n[650] _Afanassieff_, vi. 46.--Cfr. also v. 22, and the 26th of the\n_Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_.\n\n[651] i. 61, 15.\n\n[652] Ana\u00e7vo g\u00e2to anabh\u00ee\u00e7ur arv\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 152, 5.\n\n[653] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_.\n\n[654] Sapta svas\u00e2rah suvit\u00e2ya s\u00fbryam vahanti harito rathe; _Rigv._\nvii. 66, 15.\n\n[655] Adha kratv\u00e2 maghavan tubhyam dev\u00e2 anu vi\u00e7ve adaduh somapeyam yat\ns\u00fbryasya haritah patant\u00eeh purah sat\u00eer upar\u00e2 eta\u00e7e kah; _Rigv._ v. 29, 5.\n\n[656] \u00c2 no n\u00e2v\u00e2 mat\u00een\u00e2m y\u00e2tam par\u00e2ya gantave, yung\u00e2th\u00e2m a\u00e7vin\u00e2 ratham;\n_Rigv._ i. 46, 7.\n\n[657] Krandad a\u00e7vo nayam\u00e2no ruvad g\u00e2ur antar d\u00fbto na rodas\u00ee carad v\u00e2k;\n_Rigv._ i. 173, 3.\n\n[658] Ghrita\u00e7cutam sv\u00e2ram asv\u00e2rsht\u00e2m; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 7.\n\n[659] ... in equ\u00e6 genitalem partem demissam manum, cum ad eum locum\nventum esset, naribus equi admovit, quo odore irritatus ante omnes\nhinnitum edidit, auditoque eo sex reliqui summ\u00e6 potestatis continuo\nequis dilapsi candidati, ut mos est Persarum, humi prostratis\ncorporibus Darium regem salutarunt; Valerius Maximus, _Mem._ vii.;\n_Herodotus_, iii. 87. Herodotus also refers to another variation of\nthe same anecdote, where he adds, that at the first dawn of day it\nlightninged and thundered.\n\n[660] Dev\u00ee g\u00eer\u00e2 rath\u00e2n\u00e2m; _Rigv._ i. 48, 3.--\u00c7atam rathebhih\nsubhagosh\u00e2 iyam vi y\u00e2ty abhi m\u00e2nush\u00e2n; i. 48, 7.\n\n[661] Upa tmani dadh\u00e2no dhury \u00e2\u00e7\u00fbnt sahasr\u00e2ni \u00e7at\u00e2ni vagrab\u00e2huh;\n_Rigv._ iv. 29, 4.\n\n[662] Cfr. _Rigv._ iv. 3, 11; iv. 13, 3.\n\n[663] Cfr. B\u00f6htling u. Roth, _Sanskrit W\u00f6rterbuch_, s. v. _a\u00e7vin_.\n\n[664] Kuhn u. Schwartz, p. 330.--The English proverbial expression, \"a\nmare's nest,\" now used to denote an impossibility, probably originally\nreferred to a real myth.\n\n[665] _K\u00fcn\u00eagetik\u00f4n_, i. 284.\n\n[666] ii. 3.--\"Allecordatose d'haver 'ntiso na vota da certe\nstodiante, che le cavalle de Spagna se'mpre\u00f1ano co lo viento;\" and the\nstory goes on to speak of the ogre's surprise, who, seeing a beautiful\nmaiden in his garden, \"penzaie che lo shiavro de lo pideto, havesse\n'ngravedato quarche arvolo, e ne fosse sciuta sta penta criatura;\nperzo abbracciatala co gran'ammore, decette, figlia mia, parte de sto\ncuorpo, shiato de lo spireto mio, e chi me l' havesse ditto mai, che\nco na ventosetate, havesse dato forma a ssa bella facce?\" Varro\nseriously wrote: \"In f\u00e6tura res incredibilis est in Hispania, sed est\nvera, quod in Lusitania ad Oceanum in ea regione, ubi est oppidum\nOlyssipo monte Tagro, qu\u00e6dam e vento concipiunt equ\u00e6, ut hic gallin\u00e6\nsolent, quarum ova hypanemia appellant, sed ex his equis qui nati\npulli, non plus triennium vivunt.\"\n\n[667] Rathebhir a\u00e7vaparn\u00e2ih; _Rigv._ i. 88, 1.--In Horace, _Carm._ i.\n14--\n\n                \"Namque Diespiter,\n      Igni corusco nubila dividens,\n      Plerumque per purum tonantes\n      Egit equos, volucremque currum.\"\n\n[668] A\u00e7r\u00fbni c\u00e2sya mumucurv\u00e2ginah; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vi. 75.\n\n[669] In the corresponding Italian stories, the hero or heroine,\npunished for some indiscretion, must, before being pardoned, wear out\nseven pairs of iron shoes, and fill seven flasks with their tears.\n\n[670] Proximus diebus equorum greges, quos in trajiciendo Rubicon\nMarti consacraverat, ac sine custodibus vagos dimiserat, comperit\npabulo pertinacissime abstinere, ubertimque flere.\n\n[671] xvii. 426.\n\n[672] iii. 740.\n\n[673] Vrish\u00e2 tv\u00e2 vrishanam vardhatu dy\u00e2ur vrish\u00e2 vrishabhy\u00e2m vahase\nharibhy\u00e2m sa no vrisha vrisharathah su\u00e7ipra vrishakrato vrish\u00e2 vagrin\nbhare dh\u00e2h; _Rigv._ v. 36, 5.--In Piedmont there exists a game of\nconversation, consisting in the description of the presents which one\nintends making to one's bride, in which description the letter _r_\nmust never enter; he who introduces it loses the game.\n\n[674] Vrish\u00e2yam indra te ratha uto te vrishan\u00e2 har\u00ee; _Rigv._ viii. 13,\n31.\n\n[675] Ap\u00e2m phenena namuceh \u00e7ira indrod avartayah; _Rigv._ viii. 14, 13.\n\n[676] It is also called the canine cough, and it is believed on this\naccount that it is cured when the children are made to drink where a\ndog has been drinking.\n\n[677] _De Quadrupedibus_ i.\n\n[678] Du Cange, _Gloss. Medi\u00e6 et Infim\u00e6 Latinitatis_, s. v. _caballus_.\n\n[679] Vrshap\u00e2nayo '\u00e7v\u00e2h; _Rigv._ vi. 75, 7.\n\n[680] K\u00e2rotar\u00e2c chaph\u00e2d a\u00e7vasya vrishnah \u00e7atam kumbh\u00e2n asincatam\nsur\u00e2yah; _Rigv._ i. 116, 7.\n\n[681] \"One spot on the margin of Lake Regillus was for many ages\nregarded with superstitious awe. A mark, resembling in shape a horse's\nhoof, was discernible in the volcanic rock; and this mark was believed\nto have been made by one of the celestial chargers.\"--Macaulay,\nPreface to the _Battle of the Lake Regillus_.\n\n[682] _Afanassieff_, iv. 45.\n\n[683] The milk of white mares, which, according to Olaus Magnus (i.\n24) was poured into the ground by the king of the Goths every year, on\nthe 28th of August, in honour of the gods, who received it with great\navidity, would seem to be an announcement of the imminent rains of\nautumn; the horse loses his ambrosial humour, and his end is at hand.\n\n[684] The Gr\u00e6co-Latin proverb, \"Equus me portat, alit rex,\" would seem\nalso to have a mythical origin, and to refer to the mythical legend of\nthe betrayed blind man, who carries the cunning hunchback or lame man;\nwho sometimes only feigns lameness, in order to play off his practical\njokes upon his companion.\n\n[685] The fable in _Ph\u00e6drus_, iv. 24, of the poet Simonides saved by the\nDioscuri, is well known; but the gods punish the miser who refuses to\ngive the reward that he had promised, not on their own account, but on\naccount of the wrong done to the poet, whom they love. It is remarkable\nthat, as the Latin legend shows us the horses of the Dioscuri\nperspiring, so Ph\u00e6drus represents the Dioscuri themselves as--\n\n                      \"Sparsi pulvere\n      Sudore multo diffluentes corpore.\"\n\nThis sweat must be the crepuscular mists, in the same way as the poet\nSimonides, who alone escapes, being delivered by the Dioscuri, the\nceiling of whose banqueting-hall he had ruined, seems to conceal an\nimage of the sun saved from the night.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE ASS.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Glory has been pernicious to the ass.--The purely stupid ass not an\n    ancient belief in India.--Eastern and Western asses; the ass of an\n    inferior quality pays the penalty of the reputation acquired in the\n    East by his superior congener.--Christianity, instead of improving\n    the condition of the ass, has aggravated it.--The medi\u00e6val hymn in\n    honour of the ass is a satire.--The ass in the sacred ceremonies of\n    the Church.--Physical and moral decadence of the ass.--Indian names\n    of the ass; equivoques in language form myths.--Gardabhas and\n    gandharbas.--Identification of the mythical ass with the gandharvas;\n    both are in connection with salutary waters, with perfumes or\n    unguents, and with women.--The ass which carries mysteries.--The\n    flight into Egypt; the ass laden; the old man, the boy, and the\n    ass.--Peau d'\u00e2ne.--The onokentauros.--Urva\u00e7\u00ee and Pur\u00fbravas in\n    connection with the gandharvas; Cupid and Psyche in connection with\n    the ass.--The mythical ass and the kentauros correspond, as well as\n    the ass and the gandharvas.--The Hindoo onocentaur and satyr; monkey\n    and gandharvas as warriors.--Kentauros, gandharvas, and ass in the\n    capacity of musicians and dancers.--Kri\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7vas\n    dancing-master.--Kri\u00e7\u00e2nus and Kere\u00e7\u00e2ni.--Hybrid nature of the\n    mythical ass and of the gandharvas.--The A\u00e7vin\u00e2u ride asses, and\n    give youth to Cyavanas; the youthfulness of the ass.--The Vedic ass\n    as a warrior.--The Vedic ass flies.--The decadence of the ass dates\n    as far back as the Ved\u00e2s; its explanation.--The phallic ass and the\n    punishment of the ass for adulterers.--The braying of the ass in\n    heaven; Indras kills the ass.--The funereal and demoniacal ass of\n    the Hindoos; the ass pi\u00e7\u00e2cas; the faces of parrots; equivoque\n    originated by the words _haris_ and _harit_.--The golden ass.--The\n    ass in love.--The ass in the tiger's skin.--The ass who betrays\n    himself by singing.--The Zend lame ass who brays in the\n    water.--Rustem, devourer of asses.--The ass's kick.--The fool and\n    the ass, the trumpet and the drum, the trumpet of Malacoda.--The\n    king Midas in the Mongol story; the hero forced to speak, in order\n    not to burst.--The ass among the monkeys.--Midas, king of Phrygia,\n    in connection with the ass, with Silenos, Dionysos, the roses, gold,\n    blades of corn, and waters.--The centaurs among the flowers.--The\n    ass awakens Vesta whilst she is being seduced.--Priapos and the ass\n    of Silenos.--The ass as a musical umpire between the cuckoo and the\n    nightingale.--Midas judges between Pan and Apollo.--The ears of King\n    Midas; his secret revealed by the young man who combs his hair.--The\n    Phrygian ass held up to derision by the Greeks.--The Greek spirit of\n    nationality still more pernicious to the ass.--The ass of Vicenza\n    impaled.--Pan and the ass.--Gandharv\u00e2s and satyrs.--Pan and the\n    nymphs.--Syrinx and the reed or cane; the leaf of the cane, and the\n    ass.--Pan chases away fear; the ass's skin gives courage.--The ass\n    in hell; golden excrements.--The heroic ass and Pan.--Perseus who\n    eats asses.--The ass and the water of the Styx; the horned ass.--The\n    cornucopia.--Ass and goat.--The asses save the hero out of the\n    water.--The asses in heaven.--The ass carries the water of\n    youth.--Ass's milk has a cosmetic virtue.--Youth and beauty of the\n    ass.--The deaths of the ass.--The ass carries wine and drinks\n    water.--The ass wet by the rain, the ass's ears predict rainy\n    weather.--The shadow of the ass; the ass's wool; lana caprina; to\n    shear the ass; the gold on the ass's head.--Asini prospectus.--The\n    ass and the gardener.--The ass chases the winds away.--The third\n    braying or flatus of the ass kills the fool.--The prophetic ass; the\n    kick of the ass kills the lion; the ass a good listener, who hears\n    everything; the hero Oidin Oidon; the ears of Lucifer.\n\nThe ass, in Europe at least, has had the misfortune to have been born\nunder an evil star, a circumstance which must be reckoned to the\naccount of the Greeks and Romans, whose humour it was to treat it as a\nsort of Don Quixote of animals. Its liability to be flogged has always\nincreased with its celebrity, which, no one can deny, is great and\nindefeasible. The poor ass has paid very dear, and continues to pay\nstill dearer, upon earth for the flight which the fantasy of primeval\nmen made it take in the mythical heavens. May this chapter--if it\nproduce no other effect--have at least that of sparing the poor\ncalumniated animal some few of the many blows which, given in fun, it\nis accustomed to receive, as if to afford a vent for the satirical\nhumour of our race, and _ad exhilarandam caveam_.\n\nThe germ of the reputation the ass has of being both a stupid and a\npetulant animal, acquired in Greece and in Italy, spreading thence\ninto all the other parts of Europe, may already be found in the\nancient myths of the Hindoos. Professor Weber,[686] however, has\nproved, in answer to Herr Wagener, that the idea of a stupid and\npresumptuous ass, such as we always find it represented in the fables\nof the _Pancatantram_, was diffused in India by the Greeks, and is not\nindigenous to Hindoo faith and literature.\n\nIn India, the ass was not a particular object of ridicule; and this\nwas perhaps for the simple reason that the Eastern varieties of the\nasinine family are far handsomer and nobler than the Western ones. The\nass in the East is generally ardent, lively, and swift-footed, as in\nthe West it is generally slow and lazy, having no real energy except\nof a sensual nature. For if even the West (and especially the south of\nEurope) possesses a distinct species of ass, which reminds us of the\n_multinummus_ ass of Varro (in the same way as the East also, though\nexceptionally, has inferior varieties), the asinine multitude in\nEurope is composed of animals of a low type and a down-trodden\nappearance, and it is against them that our jests and our floggings\nare especially directed. This is the proverbial ass's kick against the\nfallen; the poor outcast of the West dearly pays the penalty of the\nhonours conceded to his illustrious mythical ancestors of the East. We\nthink that the ass of which we hear heroic achievements related is the\nsame as that which now humbly carries the pack; and since we no longer\nregard him as capable of a magnanimous action, we suppose that he\n(unfortunate animal!) appropriates to himself all these ancient\nglories out of vain presumption, for which reason there is no affront\nwhich we do not feel entitled to offer to him. Nor did Christianity\nsucceed in delivering him from persecution,--Christianity, which, as\nit represents the Sun of nations, the Redeemer of the world, as born\nbetween the two musical animals, the ox and the ass (who were to\nprevent His cries from being heard), and introduces the ass as the\nsaviour of the Divine Child persecuted during the night, and as the\nanimal ridden by Christ, in his last entry into Jerusalem, invested\nhim with more than one sacred title which ought from its devotees to\nhave procured for him a little more regard. Unfortunately, the same\nfamous medi\u00e6val ecclesiastical hymn which was sung in France on the\n14th of January in honour of the ass, richly caparisoned near the\naltar, to celebrate the flight into Egypt, was turned into a satire.\nIt must have been not without some gay levity that priest and people\nexclaimed \"Hinham!\" three times after the conclusion of the mass, on\nthe day of the festival of the ass.[687] Nor did the inhabitants of\nEmpoli show him more reverence, when, on the eighth day after the\nfestival of the _Corpus Domini_--that is, near the summer\nsolstice--they made him fly in the air, amid the jeers of the crowd;\nnor the Germans, who, in Westphalia, made the ass a symbol of the dull\nSt Thomas, who was the last of the apostles to believe in the\nresurrection. The Westphalians were accustomed to call by the name of\n\"the ass Thomas\" (as in Holland he is called \"luilak\") the boy who on\nSt Thomas's Day was the last to enter school.[688] On Christmas Day,\nin the Carnival, on Palm-Sunday, and in the processions which follow\nthe festival of _Corpus Domini_,[689] the Church often introduced the\nass into her ceremonies, but more in order to exhilarate the minds of\nher devotees than to edify them by any suggestion of the virtues it\nrepresents in the Gospels; so that, notwithstanding the great services\nrendered by the ass to the Founder of the new religion, he not only\nreceived no benefit in return from Christianity, but became instead\nthe unfortunate object of new attentions, which rather depressed than\nheightened his already sufficiently degraded social condition.\n\nAnd so the Greeks and Romans first, and the Catholic priests afterwards,\ncombined, by their treatment of him, to make the ass more indifferent\nthan he would otherwise have been to the passion and spirited struggle\nfor life shown in all the other animals. He was perhaps intended for a\nhigher fate, if man had not come upon earth, and interfered too\npersistently to thwart his vocation. And probably his race gradually\ndeteriorated, just because, having become ridiculous, few cared to\npreserve or increase his nobleness. As the proverb said that it was\nuseless to wash the ass's head, so it seemed useless for man to\nendeavour to ameliorate or civilise his form: the physical decadence of\nthe ass was contemporary and parallel with his decline morally.\n\nBut although it was in Greece and Rome that the poor ass was thrown\ncompletely down from his rank in the animal kingdom, the first decree of\nhis fall was pronounced in his ancient Asiatic abode. Let us prove this.\n\nIn the _Rigvedas_, the ass already appears under two different\naspects--one divine and the other demoniacal--to which may perhaps be\nadded a third intermediate or gandharvic aspect.\n\nIn the _Rigvedas_, the ass has the names of _gardabhas_ and\n_r\u00e2sabhas_; in Sanskrit, also those of _kharas, cakr\u00eevant, ciramehin_,\nand _b\u00e2leyas_.\n\nIt is important to notice how each of these designations tends to\nlapse into ambiguity; and ambiguity in words plays a considerable part\nin the formation of myths and popular beliefs.\n\nLet us begin with the most modern designations.\n\n_B\u00e2leyas_ may mean the childish one (from _b\u00e2las_ = child, and\nstupid[690]), as well as the demoniacal (from _balis_; and indeed,\nbesides being a name given to the ass, _b\u00e2leyas_ is also a name for a\ndemon).\n\n_Ciramehin_ is the ass as _longe mingens_ (a quality which can apply\nto the ass, but still more so to the rainy cloud).\n\n_Cakr\u00eevant_ means he who is furnished with wheels, with round objects or\ntesticles (an epithet equally applicable to the ass and his phallos).\n\n_Kharas_ signifies he who cries out, as well as the ardent one (and\n_kharus_, which ought to have the same meaning, signifies, according\nto the Petropolitan Dictionary, foolish, and horse; perhaps ass too).\n\n_R\u00e2sabhas_ is derived from the double root _ras_, whence _rasa_ =\nhumour, juice, water, savour, sperm, and _r\u00e2sa_ = din, tumultuous noise.\n\n_Gardabhas_ comes from the root _gard_,[691] to resound, to bellow; but\nI think I can recognise in the word _gardabhas_ the same meaning as\n_gandharbas_ or _gandharvas_, and _vice versa_. The _gardabhas_ explains\nto me how the _gandharvas_ was conceived to be a musician; and the\n_gandharvas_ (a word which, I repeat, seems to me composed of _gandha_ +\n_arvas_, developed out of a hypothetic _rivas_,[692] that is, he who\nwalks in the unguent, or he who goes in the perfume) helps me to\nunderstand the proverb, \"Asinus in unguento,\" and the corresponding\nlegends. The equivocal word _r\u00e2sabhas_, in its two meanings, seems to\nunite together the sonorous _gardabhas_ with the _gandharbas_ who likes\nperfumes, or the _gandharvo apsu_ (_gandharvas_ in the waters) of the\n_Rigvedas_,[693] the guardian of the ambrosial plant.[694] The mythical\nass and the Vedic _gandharvas_ have the same qualities and the same\ninstincts. The gandharv\u00e2s, for instance, are represented in the\n_\u00c2itareya Br._ as lovers of women,[695] so much so that for a woman's\nsake they allow themselves to be deprived of the ambrosia (or somas);\nand it is also known from the story of Urva\u00e7\u00ee how jealous they are of\ntheir nymphs, the _apsar\u00e2s_, or them who flow by on the waters (the\nclouds), and from the story of Hanumant, in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, how greedy\nthey are of their salutary herbs and waters.[696] The mythical and\nlegendary ass also has a foible for beautiful maidens; it is unnecessary\nto give the reason of this belief.[697] When Circe wishes to give, by\nmeans of an unguent, an ass's head to Odysseus, we find an allusion to\nthe loves of the ass and the beautiful woman. When the Lucius of\nApuleius, while endeavouring to change himself into a bird (another of\nthe names by which the phallos is indicated), becomes instead, by means\nof the woman's unguent, an ass, the ass is another name for the\nphallical bird. And as the Vedic ass delights in the _rasas_, or humour,\nwater or sperm (the two words _r\u00e2sas_ and _rasas_, derived from a common\nroot, being easily interchangeable); as the mythical ass, when it finds\nthe ambrosia of the roseate morning aurora, once more becomes the\nsplendid young sun; so the ass of Apuleius, too, becomes Lucius again,\nor the luminous and handsome youth that he was before, as soon as he has\nan opportunity of feeding upon roses: he becomes an ass for love of a\nwoman, and regains his splendour in the rosy aurora. During the night,\nbeing subject to the enchantment of a beautiful fairy, the hero remains\nan ass; and in the form of an ass, and under an ass's skin, he carries\nthe priapoean mysteries, whence the expression of Aristophanes in the\n_Frogs_, \"The ass which carries mysteries\" (onos ag\u00f4n m\u00fcst\u00earia), the\nsame mysteries as the Phallagia or Perifallia of Rome. In the Christian\nmyth, this mystery is the flight of the new-born Divine Child into\nEgypt;[698] in the story of Perrault, it is the beautiful maiden, the\nevening aurora, the girl persecuted by her father and would-be seducer,\nwho disguises herself during the night with an ass's skin;[699] the\nbeautiful girl evidently transfers her erotic sympathies to the ass that\nloves her. Of loves such as these,--of an ass with a maiden, or of the\nyoung hero and an ass,--are born the monstrous onokentaurs and Empusa,\nnow a beautiful maiden, and now the terrifier of children, who is\nrepresented with ass's feet, because her mother was an ass, and her\nfather, Aristoxenes, enamoured of an ass. It is now the evening aurora,\nnow the dying sun, and now both, who, under the cloud of night, or in\nwinter, are represented as covered with an ass's skin. Professor Kuhn\nhas already proved the close affinity, amounting to identity, between\nthe gandharv\u00e2s and the Hellenic kentauroi, both of which come before us\nin connection with the inebriating drink; but the kentauros is\nessentially a hippokentauros, or, still better, an onokentauros,[700]\nor centaur ass. The fable of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius, in its\nrelation with the story of the ass, perfectly agrees with the analogous\nHindoo fable of the loves of Pur\u00fbravas and Urva\u00e7\u00ee, united with the story\nof the Gandharv\u00e2s. Peau d'\u00e2ne, Psyche, and Urva\u00e7\u00ee are therefore mythical\nsisters.\n\nProfessor Kuhn's proof of the identity of the gandharvas and the\nkentauros being admitted, the identity of the gardabhas with the\ngandharbas, and of the ass with the gandharvas, seems to follow as a\nnatural consequence. The myth of the kentauros, either hippokentauros or\nonokentauros, no less than the myth of the gandharvas, corresponds\nentirely with that of the ass. The kentauros loves wine and women; he\nplays the lyre upon the car of Dionysos in conjunction with satyrs,\nnymphs, and bacchantes; he teaches on Mount Pelion music,[701] the\nscience of health, and the prophetic art to the Dioscuri, which are all\nsubjects that occur again with slight modifications in the Hindoo\nlegends concerning the gandharv\u00e2s, and in the fable of the ass, as we\nshall prove hereafter.--But to return to the Hindoo myth; in the same\nway as the gandharv\u00e2s has a hybrid nature, and shows himself at one time\nin the aspect of a demi-god, at another in that of a semi-demon, so the\nmythical ass of India has now a divine nature, and now a human. The\ngandharvas is the guardian of riches and waters: inasmuch as he defends\nthem from the demoniacal robbers, preserves them from mortals, and\ndistributes them among the pious, he appears under a beneficent and\ndivine aspect; inasmuch, on the other hand, as he carries them off and\nkeeps them shut up like a miser, he resembles the monster that is fabled\nto guard fountains and treasures, the demon who keeps the waters shut\nup, the thieves who gather treasures together, and the devil, the master\nof all riches. For the same reason we already find in Hindoo tradition\nthe beneficent ass and his evil-doing congener. The sun (sometimes the\nmoon also) in the cloud and the darkness of night is the same as the\ntreasure in the cavern, the treasure in hell, and the hero or heroine in\nthe gloomy forest; and this cavern and hell sometimes assume the form of\nan ass's skin, or of an ass simply. That which comes out of the cloud,\nand of the gloom, also comes out of the ass; the soul of the ass is the\nsun, or the hero or heroine, or the riches which he conceals. The\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u are often found in connection with the worthless horse, which\nafterwards becomes handsome by means of the ambrosia itself that the\nhorse produces; the gandharv\u00e2s, a more nocturnal and cloudy form, if I\nmay use the expression, of the solar or lunar hero, are in near relation\nwith the ass, their _alter ego_, who enjoys the blessing of eternal\nyouth. The A\u00e7vin\u00e2u themselves, the two horsemen who have given youth to\nthe old Cyavanas, rode upon asses before they rode upon horses. The myth\nof the gandharv\u00e2s and that of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the myth of the horse and\nthat of the ass, are intimately connected: from the gandharv\u00e2s the a\u00e7vin\ncomes forth; from the mythical ass the horse comes out. This is\nunnatural in zoology, but it is very natural in mythology: the sun\ncomes, now out of the grey shades of night, and now out of the grey\ncloud.\n\nThe Vedic hymns already present us with several interesting myths\nconcerning the ass.\n\nThe ass of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u is swift; the devotees ask the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u when they\nare to yoke it, that they may be carried by it to the sacrifice.[702] In\nanother hymn, as the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u are two, so are their asses two (r\u00e2sabh\u00e2v\na\u00e7vinoh). Finally, the second strophe of the 116th hymn offers us a\ntwofold significant particularity, viz., the ass, that vanquishes a\nthousand in the rich battlefield of Yamas (or in the nocturnal battle,\nin the struggle in hell, in which the ass appears as a real warrior,\njoined with riches, and fighting for riches), and is helped by strong\nand rapid wings (in which it shows us the ass that flies).[703]\n\nThe _Rigvedas_ also represents the ass of Indras as swift-footed.[704]\nBut in the same hymn we already see the reverse of the medal, that is\nto say, the swift ones who deride him who is not swift, the horses\nthat are urged before the ass.[705] The solar hero, towards morning,\nsubstitutes the horse for the ass, or appears with horses, leaving the\nass or asses behind. We have learned in the preceding chapter how, in\nthe heavenly race of the Vedic gods, the asses gained the palm of\nvictory; but it was an effort superior to their powers. The _\u00c2itareya\nBr._ informs us that by this effort they lost their swiftness and\nbecame draught animals, deprived of honey, but yet preserving great\nvigour in their sperm, so that the male ass can generate offspring in\ntwo ways, that is, mules by union with a mare, and asses by union with\nan ass.[706] Here, therefore, the ass is already considered an animal\nof an essentially phallical nature, which notion is confirmed by the\nprecept of K\u00e2ty\u00e2yanas, recorded by Professor Weber,[707] which enjoins\nthe sacrificing of an ass to expiate violated chastity. To chastise\nthe ass, to sacrifice the ass, must mean the same as to chastise and\nto mortify the body,[708] and especially the phallos; and the Eastern\nand Western punishment of leading adulterers about upon an ass has the\nsame meaning; the real martyr, however, in this punishment being the\nass, who is exposed to every kind of derision and ill-treatment. In\nthe same way, the henpecked husband who allowed himself to be beaten\nby his wife, used, in several villages of Piedmont, only a few years\nago, to be led about ignominiously upon an ass: a husband who lets his\nwife impose upon him, and cannot subdue her, deserves to be chastised\nby means of an ass; he is not a man, and his ass, the emblem of his\nmanly strength, must on this account suffer the punishment, because\nhe has not shown himself able to assert his marital rights. The\nadulterer upon the ass, and the silly husband upon the ass, are\npunishments for phallic offences in, and in connection with, the\nperson of that which represents the phallos: one is chastised for\nhaving wished, in this regard, to do too much, and the other for not\nhaving been able to do enough. On this account the condemned person\nwas forced, in similar cases, to ride upon an ass with his face turned\ntowards the animal's tail, another image which is yet more manifestly\nphallical; whence the very name of the punishment, \"asini caudam in\nmanu tenere.\"[709] As to the other proverb which says, \"He to whom the\nass belongs, holds him by the tail,\" it is explained by the narrative\nof a peasant who drew his ass out of a swamp, taking it by the tail;\nbut this story too seems to have a phallic signification.\n\nThe ass, therefore, is already deposed from his noble place as a\nswift-footed courser in the _Rigvedas_ itself. And in the _Rigvedas_,\ntoo, where we have observed the ass described as a warrior who fights\nfor the gods, we find him in the demoniacal form of a disagreeable\nsinger who terrifies the worshippers of the god Indras; the latter is\ntherefore requested by the poet to kill the ass who sings with a\nhorrible voice.[710] Here the ass already appears as a real monster,\nworthy even of the steel of the prince of the celestial heroes\nhimself, who prepares to combat him. The ass, therefore, is already\nsacred to the monsters in the white Yagurvedas.[711]\n\nIn the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[712] the slowness of the ass has already become\nproverbial. The modest Bharatas excuses himself from not being able to\nequal his brother R\u00e2mas in the science of government, just as the ass,\nhe says, cannot run like the horse, or other birds cannot fly like the\nvulture. The mythical ass, moreover, appears in this epic poem[713] in a\ndemoniacal and infernal aspect: Bharatas, in fact, dreams of seeing his\ndead father Da\u00e7arathas, in blood-coloured clothes, borne to the southern\nfunereal region on a car drawn by asses; and we are told that when a man\nis seen upon a car drawn by asses, it is a sign of his departure for the\nabode of Yamas. Kharas, a word which, as we already know, means ass, is\nalso the name of a younger brother of the great monster R\u00e2vanas. R\u00e2vanas\nhimself is drawn by asses upon a chariot adorned with gold and gems.\nThese asses have the faces of the monster Pi\u00e7\u00e2c\u00e2s,[714] that is, faces\nof parrots, as Hanumant afterwards informs us when he speaks of the\nmonsters which he has seen in La\u00f1k\u00e2, which he also says are as swift as\nthought.[715] We know that the coursers of R\u00e2vanas were asses, and\ntherefore the asses with the faces of the Pi\u00e7\u00e2c\u00e2s, and the horses of the\nmonsters with the faces of parrots, are the same. The monster Pi\u00e7\u00e2c\u00e2s,\ntherefore, has the face of a parrot. How is it that the parrot is reared\nin India as a sacred bird? It appears to me that equivocation in\nlanguage had something to do with the formation of this singular\nmythological image. The word _pi\u00e7\u00e2cas_ is derived, like _pi\u00e7a\u00f1gas_,\nwhich means golden and red, from the root _pi\u00e7_, to adorn; whence also\nthe Vedic feminine _pi\u00e7_, ornament, and the Vedic neuter, _pe\u00e7as_,\ncoloured tissue. The ass pi\u00e7\u00e2cas, who draw the chariot full of gold, are\ntherefore themselves, at least in their face, in their foremost part,\ngolden asses, or red like the colour of gold, red like the colour of the\nsun; in fact, we find kharas (the ardent) as the proper name of an\nattendant on the sun, and khar\u00e2n\u00e7us or kharara\u00e7mih, he of the burning\nray, as Sanskrit names of the sun. Kharaketus, he who has a burning ray,\nis also the name of one of the monsters in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_.[716] We\ntherefore already see here the golden ass and the infernal monster\nidentified with the sun; and hence we are very near the monster with the\nparrot's face. In the preceding chapter we observed how the solar horse\nappears in the morning luminous at first in its foremost parts,--now in\nits legs, now in its face, now in its mane, which is called golden; it\nis only the head of the horse which is found in the butter; of Dadhyanc\nwe perceive only his head in connection with the ambrosia. Thus of the\nnocturnal ass, of the demoniacal ass, of the demon himself, the pi\u00e7\u00e2cas\n(the pi\u00e7\u00e2c\u00e2s are called carnivorous[717]), only the face is seen, in the\nsame way as of the pi\u00e7\u00e2c\u00e2s, and of the horses belonging to the monsters,\nonly the head is that of a parrot. But what connection can there be\nbetween the gold colour of the ass pi\u00e7\u00e2cas and the green colour of the\nparrot? The equivoque lies probably in the words _hari_ and _harit_,\nboth of which, in the Hindoo tongue mean yellow, as well as green. Haris\nand hari signify the sun, and the moon, as being yellow; harayas and\nharitas are the horses of the sun; har\u00ee are the two horses of Indras and\nof the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, of whom we also know that they more usually rode upon\nasses. We thus arrive at the light-coloured asses, at the asses that are\ngolden, at least in their foremost parts, that is, in the morning\ntwilight, when after his nocturnal course, the solar horseman is on the\npoint of arriving at his golden eastern destination, whence the head of\nthe ass which carries the divine horseman is illumined by him. But\n_haris_, besides signifying the solar hero as being yellow, also\nsignifies the parrot as green; on this account the ass or demon with a\ngolden head was exchanged with the ass or monster with the green head,\nor with the parrot's head. We shall see in the chapters concerning\nbirds how the bird was often substituted for the horse in the office of\ncarrying the deity or the hero.\n\nTo conclude the subject of the Hindoo mythical ass, it is certain that\nit existed in the heavens; it is certain that it flies in the sky,\nthat it fights in the sky like a valiant warrior, that it terrifies\nits enemies in the sky with its terrible voice; that, in a word, it\nwas a real and legitimate heroic animal. It is certain, moreover,\nthat, considered under another aspect, it not only throws down the\nheroes, but carries them to hell, serves the infernal monsters, and is\nfound in connection with the treasures of hell. Moreover, admitting,\nas I hope the reader will, my identification of the mythical ass with\nthe gandharvas, we have the ass as dancer, the ass as musician, the\nass who loves women, and the ass in the odorous ointment and in the\ninebriating drink, the somas which occupies the place of the wine of\nthe Dionysian mysteries, in which the Hellenic ass took a solemn part.\n\nIn the fables of the _Pancatantram_, the ass is partly modelled on the\nHellenic type and partly preserves its primitive character. The fourth\nbook shows us the ass twice attracted towards the lion by the jackal,\nwho induces him to believe that a beautiful female ass is awaiting\nhim. The ass is distrustful and shows his fear, but the argument of\nthe female ass, upon which the artful jackal insists, overcomes his\ntimidity. He is, however, cunning enough to send the jackal before\nhim; and at the sight of the lion he perceives the jackal's treachery\nand turns, fleeing away with such rapidity that the lion cannot\novertake him. The jackal returns to the assault, and convinces the ass\nthat he did wrong to abandon the beautiful female ass when he was on\nthe point of receiving her favours; and thus touching the tender\nchord of his heart, he goes on to assure him that the female ass will\nthrow herself into the fire or the water if she does not see him\nreturn. \"Omnia vincit amor;\" the ass returns, and this time the lion\nsurprises and tears him to pieces; upon which the lion, before\npartaking of his meal, goes to perform his ablutions and devotions.\nMeanwhile the jackal eats the ass's heart and ears, and makes the\nlion, on his return, believe that the stupid animal had neither the\none nor the other, because if he had had them, he would not have\nreturned to the dangerous spot after having once escaped. The lion\ndeclares himself to be perfectly satisfied with this explanation. Here\nwe have a mixture in the ass of swift-footedness, lust, and stupidity,\nhis stupidity being caused by his lustfulness. Now, it is possible\nthat his acquaintance with the Hellenic ass may have induced the\nauthor of the _Pancatantram_ to embody in the ass a quality which is\ngenerally attributed in fables of Hindoo origin to the monkey; but\nthis is not absolutely necessary in order to explain the narrative of\nwhich we have now given the epitome.\n\nOn the other hand, in the fourth book of the _Pancatantram_, the fable\nof the ass in the tiger's skin--an insignificant variety of the ass in\nthe lion's skin--was, as Professor Weber has already proved, taken\nfrom the \u00c6sopian fable. Another fable, in the fifth book, which tells\nus of the ass who, being passionately fond of music,[718] insisted\nupon singing, and was thus discovered and made a slave of, also seems\nto be of Hellenic origin. But, although the editing of these two\nHindoo fables in a literary form had its origin in the knowledge of\nHellenic literature, the original myth of the ass-lion (haris, which\nis the horse of Indras, also means the lion), and that of the\nass-musician (as gandharvas and gardabhas), can be traced as far back\nas the Vedic scriptures.\n\nIn the Zendic _Ya\u00e7na_,[719] I find a new proof, which appears to me a\nvery satisfactory one, of the identification which I have proposed of\nthe ass with the gandharvas. I have already mentioned the gandharvas\nwho guards over the somas in the midst of the waters, and I observed\nhow the gandharvas kri\u00e7\u00e2nus of the Ved\u00e2s, and the Zend kere\u00e7\u00e2ni who\nguards over the _hom_ in the _V\u00f4uru-Kasha_, have been identified. But\nthe same office is fulfilled in the _Ya\u00e7na_ by a three-legged ass,\nthat is, a lame ass (or the solar horse who has become lame during the\nnight, in the same way as the solar hero becomes lame, or a lame\ndevil), who, by braying, terrifies the monsters and prevents them from\ncontaminating the water.\n\nIn the first of the seven adventures of Rustem, in the _Shah-Name_ of\nFirdusi, the starving Rustem goes with his brave heroic horse to chase\nwild asses. The asses flee, but the hero's horse is swifter than they,\nand overtakes them; Rustem takes one by means of a lasso, and has it\ncooked, throwing away the bones. He then goes to sleep (_then_\nsometimes expresses in the myths the interval of a whole day or of a\nwhole year.--The hero does almost the same in his second adventure and\nin the book of _Sohrab_). While Rustem sleeps, a monstrous lion makes\nits appearance to surprise the hero; Rustem's heroic horse throws the\nlion down and tears it to pieces with its hoofs and teeth. This\nbattle between the horse of the sleeping hero and the monster lion is\nan epic form of the fable which represents the animals as being\nterrified in the forest by the braying of the ass, and of that of the\nlion itself killed by the ass's kick. Probably the bones of the dead\nass, when preserved, gave heroic strength to Rustem's horse.\n\nIn the Mongol stories, of which we have on a previous occasion\nindicated the Hindoo origin, we find two other legends relating to the\nass. In the eighteenth Mongol story, a foolish man goes with his ass\nto hang up some rice; he hides his ass in a cave; some merchants pass\nby with their goods, and the fool sends forth, by means of a trumpet,\nsuch a sonorous shout, that the merchants, thinking brigands are\nhidden in the cavern, escape, leaving their goods in the ass's\npossession. Here the fool and the ass are already identified. The\ntrumpet and the blowing made by the fool correspond to the braying of\nthe ass, of whom we shall soon see other miracles related. The sense\nof the myth is this: the solar hero in the night or in the cloud grows\nstupid; he becomes an ass during the night or in the cloud; the cloud\nthunders, and the thunder of the cloud gives rise to the idea now of\nthe braying and now of the flatus of the ass (or the fool), now of a\ntrumpet,[720] and now of a drum. We must not forget that the word\n_dundubhis_ which properly means kettledrum or drum, is also the name\nof a monster, and that Dundubh\u00ee is the proper name of the wife of a\ngandharvas, or of a gandharv\u00ee. The skin of the drum being made of an\nass's hide is one more reason why the thundering cloud, being very\nnaturally likened to a drum, the thunder should be also considered now\nas a _flatus oris_, now as a _flatus ventris_ of the celestial ass, or\nof the foolish hero who accompanies him.\n\nIn the twenty-second Mongol story we have a variety, though partly a\nless complete and partly a richer one, of the fable of the Phrygian king\nMidas. A king who has golden ass ears, has his head combed every night\nwith golden combs by young men, who are immediately after put to death\n(to comb the ass's head is about the same as to wash it; but however\nmuch it is combed, the ears can never be abolished). One day a young man\npredestined to the highest honours, before going to comb the king's\nhead, receives from his mother a cake made of her own milk and flour.\nThe young man offers the cake to the king, who likes it, and spares the\nyouth's life on condition that he tells no one, not even his mother, the\ngreat secret, _viz._, that the king has golden ears. The youth promises\nto preserve silence, and makes a very great effort indeed to keep his\npromise, but this effort makes him seriously ill, so much so that he\nfeels he will burst if he does not tell the secret. His mother then\nadvises him to go and relieve his mind by whispering it into a fissure\nof the earth or of a tree. The young man does so; he goes into the open\ncountry, finds a squirrel's hole, and breathes gently down it, \"Our king\nhas ass's ears;\" but animals have understanding and can speak, and there\nare men who understand their language. The secret is conveyed from one\nto another, till the king hears that the young man has divulged it. He\nthreatens to take his life; but relents when he hears from him how it\nhappened, and not only pardons him, but makes him his prime minister.\nThe fortunate youth's first act is to invent a cap of the shape of the\nears of an ass, in order that the king may be able to conceal the\ndeformity; and when the people see the king with a cap of this shape, it\npleases them so much that they all adopt it; and so the king, by means\nof his young minister, is no longer obliged to live secluded, and in the\nconstant tormenting dread of discovery, but lives at his ease and\nhappily ever afterwards.\n\nHaving thus examined under its principal aspects the most popular\nAsiatic tradition relative to the ass, let us now go on to epitomise\nthe European tradition, and, if possible, more briefly; all the more\nthat the reader, having, as I hope, now the key of the myth, will be\nof himself able to refer to it many analogous particulars of\nGr\u00e6co-Latin tradition. I say Gr\u00e6co-Latin alone, because the myth of\nthe ass among Slavonic and Germanic nations, where the ass is little,\nif at all, known, had no especial and independent development. In\nSlavonic countries, the part of the ass is generally sustained by Ivan\nthe fool or Emilius the lazy one, as also by the bear or wolf, as in\nIndia it is often sustained by the monkey;[721] ass, bear, wolf, and\nmonkey, as mythical animals, represent almost identical phenomena.\n\nLet us take the story of Midas again at its commencement.\n\nMidas appears in _Herodotus_, not only as a king of Phrygia, but as a\nprogenitor of the Phrygians. In the Tusculans of Cicero, the drunken\nsatyr Silenos (originally another form of the same Midas, the satyrs\nhaving ass's ears), the master of Dionysos, loses himself in the\nrose-garden belonging to Midas, before whom he is conducted, and by\nwhom he is benevolently received and entertained, and then sent back\nwith honour to the god, who, in gratitude, concedes to Midas the gift\nof turning to gold everything that he touches, to such an extent as to\naffect the food that he wishes to eat and the water in which he\nbathes. This myth is probably of a complex nature. Midas ought, like\nthe ass, to turn to gold what he has eaten, that is, to turn his food\nand drink into excrements of gold, to fructify the golden ears of\ncorn, _i.e._, in heaven, the solar rays. Cicero himself leads us to\nsuppose that the myth of Midas is in relation with the ears of corn,\nwhen, in his first book _De Divinatione_, he says that the ants\ncarried grains of wheat into the mouth of Midas when a child; these\nbeing symbols of abundance and of fecundity which are quite applicable\nto the mythical ass. For although the common ass is not a privileged\nfoecundator, the mythical ass, in its capacity of a rain-giving cloud\nor ciramehin, is the best fertiliser of the fields. The sun, or gold,\nor treasure, comes out of the ass-darkness or ass-cloud. The ass\nLucius, after having eaten the roses of morning or the east, again\nbecomes Lucius the luminous one (the sun). On this account the ass\nMidas, too, who also delights in roses, turns to gold whatever he\neats, as well as the dew or ambrosial fountain in which he bathes; the\nrosy becomes the golden; the sun comes out of the contact of the ass\nof night with the aurora.\n\nServius, in his commentary on the sixth book of the _\u00c6neid_, also\ntells us the centauri \"in floribus stabulant,\" as the Hindoo\ngandharvas in the perfumes. These perfumes are rain and dew. The ass\ncrowned with loaves of bread[722] and flowers, in the Latin worship\nof Vesta, who remembered the service rendered to her one day by the\nbraying of the ass, which aroused her from her sleep when some one was\nattempting to violate her, is another variety of the myth of the\naurora who awakes out of the night, golden, that is, rich in golden\noats and in golden wheat. The ass itself is sacrificed, because,\nperhaps, it was the ass itself that had made an attempt to deprive\nVesta of her chastity; but having betrayed itself, as it often happens\nin fables, by its braying, it arouses Vesta, who punishes it by\noffering it in sacrifice. In a variation of the same story in the\nfirst book of Ovid's _Fasti_, where instead of Vesta we have the nymph\nLothis asleep, the red Priapos, who wishes to violate her, also loses\nhis opportunity, because the ass of Silenos--\n\n      \"Intempestivos edidit ore sonos,\"\n\non which account it is killed by Priapos:\n\n      \"Morte dedit poenas auctor clamoris, et h\u00e6c est\n       Hellespontiaco victima sacra Deo.\"\n\nThe apologue is well known of the long-eared ass, who, when called\nupon to judge between the nightingale and the cuckoo as to who has the\nsweetest voice, decides in favour of the cuckoo. The nightingale then\nappeals to man with the sweet song that we are all acquainted\nwith.[723] In the myth of Midas, the Phrygian hero is given ass's\nears as a chastisement by Apollo, because, having been called upon to\njudge between the cithern or lyre of Apollo (whence the proverb\n\"Asinus ad lyram\") and the pastoral pipe (calamus agrestis) of Pan\n(who is represented as a horned and bearded satyr, with a tail and\nlong ears), he pronounced that the pan-pipes were the most harmonious\ninstrument. Midas hides his ears in a red cap, but his comber lets out\nthe secret, as in the Mongol story, and in a manner almost identical--\n\n      \"Ille quidem celat, turpique onerata pudore\n       Tempora purpureis tentat velare tiaris:\n       Sed, solitus longos ferro resecare capillos,\n       Viderat hoc famulus: qui, cum nec prodere visum\n       Dedecus auderet, cupiens efferre sub auras,\n       Nec posset reticere tamen, secedit; humumque\n       Effodit, et domini quales aspexerit aures,\n       Voce refert parva: terr\u00e6que immurmurat haust\u00e6.\n       Indiciumque su\u00e6 vocis tellure regesta\n       Obruit, et scrobibus tacitus discedit opertis.\n       Creber arundinibus tremulis ibi surgere lucus\n       Coepit; et, ut primum pleno maturuit anno,\n       Prodidit agricolam: leni jam motus ab Austro\n       Obruta verba refert; dominique coarguit aures.\"[724]\n\nThe same Greeks who held the ass up to derision, made the Phrygian\nking Midas, of the ass's ears, the object of their satire. This is a\nparticular form of the mythico-heroic struggle between Greeks and\nPhrygians or Trojans. Apollo is the enemy of the Trojans, as he is the\nenemy of the Phrygian king Midas. The Trojans and Troy are\nrepresented by the ass, and the Greeks, who vanquish and take by\nassault the Trojan fortress, by the horse; the sun disperses the\nnight; the hero kills the centaur; the horse defeats the ass, the\nGreek the Trojan; and every one can see how the fact that the Greeks\npersonified in the ass their enemies in Asia Minor, must have damaged\nthe reputation of the poor long-eared animal. The most bitter and\ncutting satire is always that which is directed towards one's own\nenemies; and the ass, unfortunately, had at one time the honour of\nrepresenting the Phrygian, the traditional enemy of the Greek. The ass\nbore the load of this heroic war, in the same way as in the Middle\nAges he was publicly impaled by the Paduans for having had the\nmisfortune of being the sacred animal on the arms of the city of\nVicenza, with which the Paduans lived in rivalry.[725]\n\nIn the same eleventh book of Ovid where the transformation of the\nhuman ears of Midas into ass's ears is described, it is very\nremarkable that the new ears are called whitish, as in the Mongol\nstory they are said to be golden. This confirms still more the\ninterpretation of the myth, to the effect that the ass is the solar\nsteed during the night. The head and the tail of the night, conceived\nas an animal, are now the two whitish or grey twilights, and now the\ntwo golden auroras of morning and evening.\n\n                                \"Nec Delius aures\n      Humanam stolidas patitur retinere figuram,\n      Sed trahit in spatium villisque albentibus implet\n      Instabilesque illas facit et dat posse moveri.\"\n\nThe changeableness of the twilights must have served very well to\nexpress the mobility of the ears of an ass.\n\nIn the story of the ass, Midas, the musical critic, the predestined ass,\npronounces in favour of Pan; and he does so not only on account of the\nconsanguinity between himself and the god, but also from a patriotic\nfeeling. Pan was born in a forest of Arcadia, of Zeus and the nymph\nKallisto; and it is well known that antiquity celebrated the asses of\nArcadia above those of every other country. The ass as a musician, the\nass as a musical critic, Pan the musician, and Pan preferred by the ass,\nare the same person. Arcadia, the country of pastoral music, of\nwhistling shepherds, which made the Italy of the seventeenth and\neighteenth centuries bleat out so many useless verses, the country of\nPan the satyr, _par excellence_, is the country of the ass. Arcadia is\nthe most mountainous and wooded part of Greece,[726] and therefore, when\nthe Olympians came down from heaven, celestial nymphs and satyrs came to\npeople the forests and fountains of Arcadia. The divine guardian of the\nambrosia in the heavenly cloud takes, in the Arcadian forest, the form\nof Pan, god of shepherds, who keeps guard over the honey. The\ngandharv\u00e2s, who danced and sung in the Hindoo Olympus with the\napsarasas, has descended into Arcadia in the shape of Pan, to dance and\nsing with the nymphs.[727] Pan who goes alone into the gloomy forest,\nPan who chases fear away, connected as he is with the story of the ass,\nreminds us on the one hand of the superstition recorded by Pliny, to the\neffect that an ass's skin put upon children chases fear from them[728]\n(in the same way as in the province of Girgenti, in Sicily, it is\nbelieved that shoes made of a wolf's skin, put on children's feet, make\nthem daring and lucky in battle), and, on the other hand, of the\nunpublished Piedmontese story of the fearless Giovannino, who, in reward\nfor his courage in going alone to hell, brings away with him an ass\nwhich throws gold from its tail.[729] In Tzetzas[730] I find again the\ncurious notion that Midas sold his own _stercus_ out of avarice, that\nis, that he changed it into gold, as Vespasian used to do by selling the\nexcrement of his horse.\n\nThe \u00c6sopian ass, when he goes to battle, terrifies by his braying all\nthe animals of the forest; so Pan defeats his enemies by means of his\nterrible voice; and according to Herodotus,[731] in the heroic battle\nof Marathon, the Athenians were helped by the powerful voice of the\ngod Pan. Finally, as we have seen Apollo to be the rival of Pan and\nthe enemy of the Phrygian Midas, the predestined ass, as well as of\nthe Trojans, so, in the eleventh of the Pythic odes of Pindar, we find\nthe hero Perseus, among the Hyperboreans,[732] eating asses.[733] The\nmorning sun devours the ass of night, as we have seen the solar hero\nRustem do in the _Shah-Name_, where he eats the wild asses.\n\nBut we must look for more mythical personages in connection with the\nass Midas in Arcadia, as the region of Pan and of asses. The ass Midas\nis considered as a rich progenitor of races, and is supposed to have\nbeen the first Phrygian. Windischmann has already observed (with the\nexamples of Yamas, Yima, Manus, Minos, and Radamanth\u00fcs) the connection\nbetween the rich progenitor of races and the rich king or judge of\nhell. To Midas the progenitor and to Midas the judge, corresponds the\nass whose excrements are of gold, the ass judge and prophet, the\nArcadian and prophetic Pan. The Arcadians considered themselves not\nonly autocthonoi, but prosel\u00eanoi, or anterior to the moon. But they\nare also considered in the light of inhabitants of an infernal region.\nIn Arcadia was situated the lake St\u00fcmphalos, the demoniacal birds of\nwhich were slain by H\u00earakl\u00eas in Arcadia; in a chasm formed of wild\nrocks was the source of the Styx, the principal infernal river, that\nby which the Hellenic infernal beings were accustomed to swear. Greek\nand Latin writers used to narrate of the ass (and the mule) that it\nhad an especial aversion to the water of the Styx, as being poisonous.\nThis superstition, when referred to the myth, appears to mean that,\nwhen the solar hero drinks this water--the water of the dark or cloudy\nocean--he becomes a dark ass. (We find in Russian stories the hero who\nis transformed into a bull, a horse, or a he-goat, when he drinks\nwater of which a demoniacal bull, horse, or he-goat has previously\ndrunk.) \u00c6lianos, in his tenth book relative to animals, speaking of\nthe horned asses of Scythia, writes that they held in their horns the\nwater of the Styx. A similar narrative is given by Philostratos in the\nthird book of his romantic Life of Apollonios, concerning the fabulous\nhorned ass of India. \"It is said,\" he writes, \"that in the marshy\nground near the Indian river Hyphasis many wild asses are to be found;\nand that these wild beasts have on their heads a horn with which they\nfight bravely like bulls\" (this seems to be a reminiscence of the\nIndian rhinoceros); \"and that the Indians form out of these horns\ndrinking-cups, affirming that those who drink out of these cups are\ndelivered from every illness for all that day; when wounded they feel\nno pain, they pass safely through flames, nor, when they have drunk\nout of it, can they be hurt by any poison. They say that these cups\nbelong to kings alone, nor is it permitted to any other than a king to\nhunt the animal. It is narrated that Apollonios (the hero of the\nromance) had seen this animal and observed its nature with wonder.\nMoreover, to Damis, who asked him whether he had faith in what was\ncommonly said concerning the virtue of this cup, he answered 'I will\nbelieve it when I shall have learned that in this country the king is\nimmortal.'\" And no doubt Apollonios would have believed had it been\nimpossible for him to divine that the king who makes use of this\nmarvellous cup is the immortal sun, to whom alone it is reserved to\nkill the ass of the nocturnal forest, the ass whose hairy ears are\nlike horns,[734] whose ears are of gold.\n\nThe horn of the Scythian ass full of Stygian water, the horn of the\nass which, when used as a cup, gives health and happiness to him who\ndrinks out of it, remind us (not to speak of Samson's jaw-bone of an\nass, which makes water flow) especially of the myth of the cornucopia\nand that of the goat, with which the satyrs and fauns, having goat's\nfeet, stand in particular connection. It is also for this reason that\nthe ass is found in relation with Pan; wherefore it is too that\nSilenos rides upon an ass, and appears, as we have already seen, in\nthe story of Midas, in his garden of roses; indeed the mythical\ncentaurs or onocentaurs, satyr, faun, ass, and goat are equivalent\nexpressions. We have seen, a few pages back, the Zendic three-legged\nass; in the following chapter we shall find the lame goat.\n\nAs the ass was ridden by Silenos,[735] so was he the animal dedicated to\nBacchus and to Priapos, whose mysteries were celebrated in the Dionysian\nfeasts. It is said that when Bacchus had to traverse a marsh, he met\nwith two young asses, and was conveyed by one of them, who was endowed\nwith human speech, to the other side without touching the water. (The\n116th hymn of the first book of the _Rigvedas_ merits being especially\ncompared with this. In it, immediately after having represented the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u as drawn by winged asses, the poet celebrates the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u as\ndelivering the hero Bhugyus out of the waters upon a vessel that moved\nof itself in the air.)[736] On this account it is said that Bacchus, in\ngratitude, placed the two young asses among the stars.[737] This is\nanother confirmation of the fact that the mythical ass really had the\nvirtue of flying; and the proverb \"Asinus si volat habet alas\"[738]\nalludes to this myth. The fable of the ass who wishes to fly, and the\nflight of the ass, are derisive allusions, applied to the earthly ass.\nThe celestial myth lingers in the memory, but is no longer understood.\n\nIn the myth of Prometheus, in _\u00c6lianos_ (vi. 5), we have the ass who\ncarries the talisman which makes young again, which Zeus intended for\nhim who should discover the robber of the divine fire (Prometheus). The\nass, being thirsty, approaches a fountain, and is about to drink, when a\nsnake who guards the fountain prevents him from doing so. The ass offers\nthe snake the charm which he is carrying, upon which the serpent strips\noff its old age, and the ass, drinking at the fountain, acquires the\npower of becoming young again. The ass of night, when he drinks the dew\nof the dawn, grows young and handsome again every day. It is on this\naccount, I repeat, that youth is celebrated as a peculiar virtue of the\nass; it is on this account that the Romans attributed a great cosmetic\nvirtue to ass's milk[739] (the white dawn, or moon).\n\nThe mythical ass seems to die every day, whereas, on the contrary it\nis born anew every day, and becomes young again; whence the Greek\nproverb does not celebrate the death in the singular, but the deaths\nof the ass (\"Onou thanatous\").\n\nThe Italian proverb of the ass that carries wine and drinks water,\nprobably alludes to the ass that carries the water of youth, and then,\nbeing thirsty, drinks at the fountain in the legend of Prometheus. The\nwine of the Hellenic and Latin myth corresponds to the inebriating\ndrink or somas in which Indras delights so much in the _Rigvedas_. The\nass bears the drunken Silenos on its back.\n\nThe sun, who in the cloud is covered with the skin of an ass, carries\nthe rain; whence the Greek proverb the ass is wetted by the rain\n(\"Onos h\u00fcetai\"), and the popular belief that when the ears of the ass\nor of a satyr (that is to say, of the ass itself) move, it is an\nindication of rainy weather (or dew). When the sun comes out of the\nshadows of night, he drinks the milk or white humour of the early\nmorning sky, the same white foaming humour which caused the birth of\nAphrodit\u00ea, the same humour out of which, by the loves of Dionysos (or\nof Pan, of a satyr, or of the ass itself) and Aphrodit\u00ea, the satyr was\nprocreated--Priapos, whose phallic loves are discovered by the ass.\nThe satyr serves as a link between the myth of the ass and that of the\ngoat. On this account (that is, on account of the close relation\nbetween the mythical ass and the mythical goat) two ancient Greek and\nLatin proverbs--_i.e._, to dispute about the shadow of the ass (\"Peri\nonou skias\") and to dispute, \"De lana caprina\"--have the same meaning,\na dispute concerning a bagatelle (but which is no trifle in the myth,\nwhere the skin of the goat or of the ass is sometimes changed into a\ngolden fleece), which seems so much the more probable, as the Greeks\nhave also handed down to us another proverb in which the man who\nexpects to reap where he has not sown is laughed at as one who looks\nfor the wool of the ass (\"Onou pokas z\u00eateis\"), or who shears the ass\n(\"Ton onon keireis\"). We have seen, in the myth of Midas, the king,\nwhose ears, when combed, betray his asinine nature. The Piedmontese\nstory of the maiden on whose forehead a horn or an ass's tail grows,\nbecause she has badly combed the good fairy's head, is connected with\nthis story of the combing of the long-eared Midas. The combed ass and\nthe sheared ass correspond with one another; the combed ass has golden\nears, in the same way as gold and gems fall from the head of the good\nfairy combed by the good girl in the fairy tale. To this mythical\nbelief, I think, may be traced the origin of the medi\u00e6val custom in\nthe Roman Church, which lasted till the time of Gregory VII., in which\npublic ovations were offered to the Pope, and an ass bearing money\nupon its head was brought before him.[740]\n\nThe shadow of the ass[741] betrays him, no less than his ears, his\nnose, and his braying. The shadow of the ass and his nose are found in\nconnection with each other in the legend of the Golden Ass of\nApuleius, which, after narrating how the ass, by putting his head out\nof the window, had betrayed his master the greengrocer or gardener\n(the friend of perfumes, \"Gandharvas, asinus, in unguento, onos en\nm\u00fcro\"), concludes thus: \"The miserable gardener having been found\nagain, and taken before the magistrates to pay the fine, they lead him\nto a public prison, and with great laughter cease not, says the ass\nLucius, to \"make merry with my face;\" whence also was derived the\npopular proverb concerning the face and shadow of the ass ('De\nprospectu et umbra asini').\" The ass who betrays his master the\ngreengrocer or gardener by his face is a variety of the ass who,\ndressed in the forest in the lion's skin[742] (like H\u00earakl\u00eas who goes\ninto hell dressed in a lion's skin), betrays himself by his braying,\nand of the ass who discovers by his braying Priapos, who delights in\ngardens (the vulva), Priapos the gardener, like the ogre[743] of the\n_Pentamerone_, who finds before him in his garden a beautiful maiden.\n\nThe ass can restrain neither his voice nor his flatus; we have already\nseen something similar in the story of Midas, where the comber of the\nass feels he will burst if he is not permitted to relieve himself of\nthe secret of the ass. Diogen\u00eas of Laertes narrates that the fields of\nAgrigentum being devastated by malignant winds which destroyed the\ncrops, the philosopher Empedocles instructed them to take asses'\nskins, and having made sacks of them, carry them to the summits of the\nhills and mountains, to chase the winds away. \u00c6lianos, confounding one\nnoise with another, suggests, to prevent the ass from braying, the\nadvantage of appending a stone to its tail. This ancient Greek fable\nis to this day very popular in Italy, and the narrator is accustomed\nto furbish it up with a character of actuality, as if it had happened\nyesterday, and among his acquaintances.\n\nIn the Italian stories,[744] when the ass brays upon the mountain, a\ntail grows on the forehead of the step-mother's ugly daughter; the third\ncrowing of the cock is the signal for the monster's death; the third\nbraying or flatus of the ass announces the death of the fool. With the\nend of the night the ass disappears, and the fool also disappears or\ndies. The braying of the ass cannot mount up into heaven; after the ass\nhas brayed, after the cloud has thundered, the ass comes down upon the\nearth, is dissolved into rain, is dispersed and dies; the dark ass\ncannot remain in the luminous sky, it can only inhabit the cloudy,\nwatery, or gloomy sky of hell. The way in which the fool of the story\ntries to elude death resembles that which was used, according to\n\u00c6lianos, to prevent the ass from braying. In a story of Armagnac,[745]\nJoan lou P\u00e9c runs after a man whom he believes to be a sage, and asks\nhim when he will die; the man answers, \"Joan lou P\u00e9c, mouriras au\ntroisi\u00e8mo pet de toun ase.\" The ass does so twice; the fool endeavours\nto prevent the third: \"Cop sec s'en-angonc cerca un pau (a stake) bien\npounchut et l'enfounc\u00e9c das un martet dens lou cu de l'ase. Mes l'ase\ns'enflec tant, e hasconc tant gran effort, que lou pau sourtisconc coumo\nno balo e tu\u00e8c lou praube Joan lou P\u00e9c.\"\n\nIn _Herodotus_, the Scythians are defeated when the asses bray, and\nthe dogs bark among Darius's tents. The braying of the ass, the\nthunder of the cloud, is an oracle; the ass that brays is a judge and\na prophet. In hell everything is known; the devil knows every art,\nevery species of malice, every secret; the ass in hell participates in\nthis knowledge. The ass Nicon, in _Plutarch_, in the Life of Antony,\npredicts to Augustus his victory at the battle of Actium; on the\ncontrary, in the Life of Alexander, by the same author, an ass who\nkills with a kick a great lion belonging to the Macedonian, appears to\nthe great conqueror in the light of an evil omen. The dying sun of\nevening, the old lion, is killed in the evening by the ass of night;\nin the morning, on the contrary, the ass of night announces his\nfortune to the solar hero, who again becomes luminous and wise. The\nass can predict all things, because it knows all things; it knows\neverything, because it hears everything, and it hears everything by\nmeans of its exceedingly long ears; the ass of Apuleius says of\nitself: \"Recreabar quod auribus pr\u00e6ditus cuncta longule etiam dissita\nsentiebam.\" And this ass which listens from a distance reminds us\nagain of the third brother, now a fool, and now only supposed to be a\nfool; to the Andalusian Oidin-Oidon, hijo del buen oidor (a relation\nof the already cited Vedic Indras \u00e2\u00e7rutkarnas), of the second cuento\nof Caballero,[746] who hears everything that is done in the deepest\nparts of hell, where Lucifer sits, horned and large-eared. The hero\nwho combats with Lucifer only thinks of cutting off his ear; the ass\nwithout ears is no longer an ass; the ears of the mythical ass are its\nvital and characteristic organs. Instead of ears, give horns to the\nmythical ass, and we have the mythical goat; take the horns away and\nwe have now the mythical abject sheep, now the hog; this is what we\nshall see in the two next chapters.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[686] _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen_, eine\nkritische Abhandlung von A. Weber, Berlin, 1855.\n\n[687] Here is the hymn as given by Du Cange in his _Gloss. M. et I.\nL._:--\n\n      \"Orentis partibus\n       Adventavit Asinus,\n       Pulcher et fortissimus,\n       Sarcinis aptissimus.\n         Hez, Sire Asnes, car chantez,\n         Belle bouche rechignez,\n         Vous aurez du fom assez\n         Et de l'avoine \u00e0 plantez.\n\n      \"Lentus erat pedibus\n       Nisi foret baculus\n       Et eum in clunibus\n       Pungeret aculeus.\n         Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.\n\n      \"Hic in collibus Sichem,\n       Jam nutritus sub Ruben,\n       Transiit per Jordanem,\n       Saliit in Bethleem.\n         Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.\n\n      \"Ecce magnis auribus\n       Subjugalis filius\n       Asinus egregius\n       Asinorum dominus.\n         Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.\n\n      \"Saltu vincit hinnulos,\n       Damas et capreolos,\n       Super dromedarios\n       Velox Madianeos.\n         Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.\n\n      \"Auram de Arabia,\n       Thus et myrrhum de Saba\n       Tulit in ecclesia\n       Virtus Asinaria.\n         Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.\n\n      \"Dum trahit vehicula\n       Multa cum sarcinula,\n       Illius mandibula,\n       Dura terit pabula,\n         Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.\n\n      \"Cum aristis hordeum\n       Comedit et carduum;\n       Triticum a palea\n       Segregat in area.\n         Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.\n\n      \"Amen, dicas, Asine,\n                (_Hic genuflectabatur._)\n       Jam satur de gramine:\n       Amen, amen itera\n       Aspernare vetera.\n         Hez va! hez va! hez va! hez!\n         Bialz! Sire Asne, car allez;\n         Belle bouche car chantez.\"\n\n[688] Cfr. Reinsberg von D\u00fcringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_.\n\n[689] Sometimes the place of the ass is taken by the mule. At Turin, for\ninstance, it is narrated that the church dedicated to the _Corpus\nDomini_ was erected several centuries ago on account of the miracle of a\nmule which carried some sacred goods stolen by an impious thief. Having\narrived in the little square where the Church of the _Corpus Domini_ now\nstands, the mule refused to go any farther; and out of a cup, which was\namong the sacred objects stolen, a wafer containing the body of our\nSaviour rose into the air. Nor would it come down again until the bishop\ncame forth, and, holding the cup high in the air, besought the wafer to\ncome back into it; which having been miraculously accomplished, the\nChurch of the _Corpus Domini_ was erected on the spot, from which starts\nand to which returns the solemn procession which takes place annually at\nTurin on the festival of _Corpus Domini_, and in which, about twenty\nyears ago, the princes and great dignitaries of the state, with the\nprofessors of the university, used to take part in all the pomp of\nmedi\u00e6val ceremony and costume.--In Persia the festival of asses is\ncelebrated at the approach of spring; the ass personifying here the end\nof the winter season.\n\n[690] The same analogy presents itself in the Sanskrit word\n_arbhakas_, which means little and foolish.\n\n[691] Cfr. the root _gad_, from which we might perhaps deduce an\nimaginary intermediate form, gadarbhas, besides the known gardabhas\nand gandharbas or gandharvas.\n\n[692] Cfr. _arvan_ with the roots _arv, arb, arp, riph, riph, riv,\nrinv_.\n\n[693] x. 10, 5.\n\n[694] Gandharva itth\u00e2 padam asya rakshati.; _Rigv._ ix. 83, 4.\n\n[695] Str\u00eek\u00e2m\u00e2h v\u00e2i gandharv\u00e2h; i. 27.\n\n[696] Professor Kuhn (_Die Herabkunft_, d. f. &c.) has already compared\nto this the Zend Gandhrawa, who, in the Lake V\u00f4uru-Kasha, keeps guard\nover the tree _hom_ (the Vedic Somas). Kuhn and Weber, moreover, have\nidentified the Vedic gandharvas, Kri\u00e7\u00e2nus, who wounds the ravisher of\nthe Somas, with the Zend Kere\u00e7\u00e2ni, who endeavours to destroy riches;\nhere the gandharvas would appear to be a monstrous and demoniacal being.\n\n[697] ... ut omittam eos, quos libidinis ac foed\u00e6 voluptatis causa,\ncoluisse nomen illud atque imposuisse suis, a scriptoribus notatur,\nqualis olim Onos ille Commodi; qualis exsecrandus Marci Verotrasinus,\nqualis et alterius Onobelos, quales, quos matronis in deliciis fuisse\nscimus. Unde illud atque alium bipedem sibi qu\u00e6rit asellum, ejus nempe\nmembri causa, quod, in asino, clava, a Nicandro dicitur; _Laus Asini_,\nLugd. Batavorum, ex officina Elzeviriana, p. 194.\n\n[698] To this flight into Egypt upon the ass can be referred the\nPiedmontese custom among children in the middle of Lent--that is, near\nthe festival of St Joseph--of attaching to their companions now a saw,\nnow a devil's head, now an ass's head, pronouncing the words, \"L'asu\ncari\u00e1 che gn\u00fcn lu sa\" (the ass burdened, and no one knows it).\nMoreover, it seems to me that to the Christian tradition of Joseph,\nand of the child Jesus carried upon the ass, can be referred the\nwell-known European fable of the old man, the boy, and the ass, of\nwhich numerous varieties may be read in the article upon the _asinus\nvulgi_ in the _Orient und Occident_ of Benfey.\n\n[699] Professor Benfey, in his learned Einleitung to the\n_Pancatantram_, p. 268, says that the disguise by means of the skin of\nan ass is found in a Latin poem of the fifteenth century.\n\n[700] \"Addo ex Conrado Lycosthene in libro de ostentis et prodigiis\nhanc iconem quam hippokentauri esse credebam, ipse vero (nescio ex\nquo) Apothami vocat, Apothami (inquit) in aqua morantes, qui una parte\nhominem, alia vero caballum sive equum referunt. Sic etiam memori\u00e6\ntradiderunt mulieres esse capite plano sine crinibus, promissas autem\nbarbas habentes. Atqui ea descriptio plane ad Onocentauros pertinere\nvidetur, quos Aelianus et Philes sic fere delineant. Qu\u00e6 vero de\nOnocentauro fama accepi, h\u00e6c sunt: Eum homini ore et promissa barba\nsimilem esse, simul et collum et pectus, humanam speciem gerere;\nmammas distantes tamquam mulieris ex pectore pendere; humeros,\nbrachia, digitos, humanam figuram habere; dorsum, ventrem, latera,\nposteriores pedes, asino persimiles et quemadmodum asinum sic cinereo\ncolore esse; imum ventrem leviter exalbescere: duplicem usum ei manus\npr\u00e6stare; nam celeritate ubi sit opus e\u00e6 manus pr\u00e6currunt ante\nposteriores pedes; ex quo fit, ut non c\u00e6terorum quadrupedum cursu\nsuperetur. Ac ubi rursus habet necesse vel cibum capere vel aliud\nquidpiam tollere, qui ante pedes erant manus efficiuntur, tumque non\ngraditur, sed in sessione quiescit: Animal est gravi animi acerbitate;\nnam si capiatur, non ferens servitutem, libertatis desiderio ab omni\ncibo abhorret, et fame sibi mortem consciscit, licet pullus adhuc\nfuerit. H\u00e6c de Onocentauro Pythagoram narrare testatur Crates, ex\nMysio Pergamo profectus;\" Aldrovandi, _De Quadrupedibus_, i.--In the\nIndian satyrs described by Pliny, in the seventh book of his _Natural\nHistory_, we find represented an analogous animal: \"Sunt et satyri\nsubsolanis Indorum montibus (Cartadulonum dicitur regio) pernicissimum\nanimal, turn quadrupes, turn recte currens, humana effigie, propter\nvelocitatem nisi senes aut \u00e6gri, aut capiuntur.\" Evidently this refers\nto some kind of monkey (probably the orang-outang); but as the myth of\nthe monkey does not differ much from that of the ass, as we shall see,\neven the Hindoo gandharvas is represented as a monkey.--\"In _A. V._\niv. 37, 11, the gandharvas, a class of gods, who are described as\nhairy, like dogs and monkeys, but as assuming a handsome appearance to\nseduce the affections of earthly females, are implored to desist from\nthis unbecoming practice, and not to interfere with mortals, as they\nhad wives of their own, the Apsarases;\" Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, v.\n309.--We have the monkey-gandharvas and the warrior-gandharvas in the\nVedic hymns, the warrior-monkey in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, and the\nwarrior-kentauros and warrior-ass in Hellenic myths.\n\n[701] We also read of the ass that dances, which reminds us of the\ngandharvas in their capacity of heavenly musicians and dancers, who\nteach the gods how to dance. Nor is it perhaps without reason that the\nauthor of precepts for dancers and mimics is named _Kri\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7vas_:\nkri\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7vas means, as we already know, he who possesses a lean horse, or\nsimply the lean horse. Between the lean horse, the mule, and the ass,\nthe distance is short; nor can we overlook the fact that in the\ngandharvas Kri\u00e7\u00e2nus is recognised as he who causes to become lean,\nwhich calls us back to the monster who makes horses grow lean, to the\nmonster of horses, the ugly horse, the horse-monster, who destroys the\ngolden ears of the fields, making them dry up, like the monster\n\u00c7ushnas, or the destroyer of riches, like the Zend Kere\u00e7\u00e2ni.--In the\nbefore-quoted book, _Laus Asini_, the author says in jest, \"Fortassis\nPegasum fuisse asinum;\" and in this jest a great truth is contained.\n\n[702] Kad\u00e2 yogo v\u00e2gino r\u00e2sabhasya yena yagnam n\u00e2satyopay\u00e2thah; _Rigv._\ni. 34, 9.\n\n[703] Vilupatmabhir \u00e2\u00e7uhemabhir v\u00e2 dev\u00e2n\u00e2m v\u00e2 g\u00fbtibhih \u00e7\u00e2\u00e7ad\u00e2n\u00e2 tad\nr\u00e2sabho n\u00e2saty\u00e2 sahasram \u00e2g\u00e2 yamasya pradhane gig\u00e2ya.\n\n[704] Yatr\u00e2 rathasya brihato nidh\u00e2nam vimocanam v\u00e2gino r\u00e2sabhasya;\n_Rigv._ iii. 53, 5.\n\n[705] N\u00e2v\u00e2ginam v\u00e2gin\u00e2 h\u00e2sayanti na gardabham puro a\u00e7v\u00e2n nayanti;\n_Rigv._ iii. 53, 23.\n\n[706] Gardabharathen\u00e2\u00e7vin\u00e2 udagayat\u00e2ma\u00e7vin\u00e2v\u00e2\u00e7nuv\u00e2t\u00e2m yada\u00e7vin\u00e2\nudagayat\u00e2ma\u00e7vin\u00e2v\u00e2\u00e7nuv\u00e2t\u00e2m tasm\u00e2tsasritagavo dugdhadohah\nsarvesh\u00e2metarhi v\u00e2han\u00e2n\u00e2man\u00e2\u00e7ishto retasastvasya v\u00eeryam n\u00e2harat\u00e2m\ntasm\u00e2tsa dviret\u00e2 v\u00e2g\u00ee; _\u00c2it. Br._ iv. 2, 9.\n\n[707] _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen_,\nBerlin, 1855.\n\n[708] St Jerome, in the Life of Saint Hilarion: \"Ego, inquit, Aselle,\nfaciam ut non calcitres necte hordeo alam, sed paleis; fame te\nconficiam et sitis gravi onerabo pondere; per \u00e6stus indagabo et\nfrigore, ut cibum potius quam lasciviam cogites.\"--St Paulinus wrote,\n\"Sit fortis anima mortificans asinum suum.\"--In Italian, too, there is\na low term by which we say, _il mio asino_, instead of _il mio corpo_.\n\n[709] A. c. i. m. t.,--poena seu mulcta, qu\u00e6 reis irrogari solebat, ut\ncolligitur ex decreto Nepesini populi ann. 1134.--Iis et maxime\nmaritis, qui a suis vapulabant mulieribus; quod eo usque insani\u00e6\ndeventum erat, ut si maritus aufugisset, proximior vicinus eam ipse\npoenam luere teneretur; quem morem non omnino periisse audivi. Du\nCange, whose words these are, gives several examples of a similar\nchastisement.--In the _Tuti-Name_, ii. 20, a certain man complains to\na sage that he has lost his ass, and begs the wise man to find it\nagain for him; the latter points out a man who grew old without having\nknown love; he who does not love is a fool.--It is a remarkable fact\nthat the ass, generally considered a very lustful animal, is sometimes\ndespised as unadapted to make fruitful, and the reason of this is\ngiven by Aldrovandi (_De Quadrupedibus_, i.)--Quamvis modo libidine\nmaxime pruriat, ob verendi tamen enormitatem, qua supra modum pr\u00e6ditus\nest, ad generandum admodum segnem esse compertum est, sicuti et\nhomines qui simili genitalis productione conspicui sunt, quod in\nemissione per eam longitudinem semen transmeans hebetetur et frigidius\nfiat. Testaturque \u00c6lianus inter causas cur \u00c6gyptii asinos odere, et\nhanc quoque accedere putari, quod eum populi pr\u00e6dicti omnes foecundos\nanimantes colant, asinus minime foecundans nullus in honore sit.\n\n[710] Sam, indra, gardabham mrina nuvantam p\u00e2pay\u00e2muy\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 29, 5.\n\n[711] Quoted by Weber, _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit\ngriechischen_, where the braying ass would also appear to be born of the\nomniform monster: \"Entsteht, nach \u00c7. xii. 7, 1, 5, nebst Ross und\nMaulthier, aus dem Ruhm (ya\u00e7as, which, however, may perhaps here also\nsimply mean splendour), welcher dem Ohr des get\u00f6dteten Vi\u00e7var\u00fbpa\nTv\u00e2shtra entfloss, worin der Bezug auf sein lautes Geschrei wohl nicht\nzu verkennen ist.\"--We have already seen, in the Russian stories quoted\nin the preceding chapter, how the two horsemen who protect the hero come\nout of the ears of the grey horse, and how the hero himself, entering by\none ear, and coming out of the other, finds a heroic horse. Here we can,\nperhaps, detect an allusion to the long-eared ass, in the same way as in\nthe appellation of \u00e2\u00e7rutkarnas, or the ear which listens, given to\nIndras (_Rigv._ i. 10, 9), the long-eared Indras may possibly be a form\nrepresenting the long-eared Midas, or the ass with long ears.\n\n[712] Gatim khara iv\u00e2\u00e7vasya suparnasyeva pakshinah an\u00e2gantum na \u00e7akto\n'smi r\u00e2gyam tava mah\u00eepate.\n\n[713] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ ii. 71.\n\n[714] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iii. 38, 48.\n\n[715] _Ib._ v. 12.\n\n[716] vi. 74.\n\n[717] Kravy\u00e2dah pi\u00e7\u00e2c\u00e2h, in the _Atharvavedas_, viii. 2, 12.\n\n[718] Cfr. also the _Tuti-Name_ of Rosen, ii. 218, for the musical\nass; and the same, ii. 149, for the ass in a lion's skin.\n\n[719] xli. 28.--Cfr. the _Khorda Avesta_, Spiegel's _Einleitung_, p.\n54: \"Dort ist der dreibeinige Esel der in der Mitte des Sees steht und\nmit seinem Geschrei die b\u00f6sen Wesen vertreibt und alles Wasser, das\nmit unreinen Wesen und Dingen in Ber\u00fchrung kommt, sogleich reinigt.\"\n\n[720] Readers of Dante are acquainted with the trumpet of the devil\nMalacoda, which is used in the same way as the fool uses his in the\nMongol story.\n\n[721] In Menander, quoted by Aulus Gellius, a husband complains of the\ninjuries done him by his wife, using the proverb, \"The ass amongst the\nmonkeys.\" Monkeys are well known for their impudent lasciviousness;\nthe ass, who represents the phallos, among this lascivious fraternity\nfinds himself often in the condition of an impotent and weak husband.\n\n[722]\n\n      Lampsacus huic soli solita est mactare Priapo.\n        Apta asini flammis indicis exta damus.\n      Quem tu diva memor de pane monilibus ornas;\n        Cessat opus; vacu\u00e6 conticuere mol\u00e6.\n                                 --Ovidius, _Fasti_, vi.\n\n[723] From the myth of the ass, as a musician and judge of music, is\nderived the Tuscan game of the ass, which is thus described by Signor\nFanfani in his _Vocabolario dell' Uso Tuscano_, Firenze, 1863:--\"Each\nmember of the party chooses an animal whose voice or song he must\nimitate. The head player represents the ass, and is the king of the\nother animals. When the head player, sitting in the middle, calls one\nof the animals who encircle him, the dog, for instance, this animal\nmust bark; when he calls the cock, it must cry chicchiric\u00f9; when he\ncalls the ox, he who represents it must bellow, and so on. When the\nass brays, then all the animals emit their respective cries. Whoever\nlaughs, or omits to give forth the voice or song of the animal which\nhe represents, pays a forfeit.\"\n\n[724] Ovidius, _Metam._ xi. 180.\n\n[725] According to the _Annals of Padova_, cited by Berrardino\nScardeone, in Aldrovandi. _De Quadrupedibus_, i.\n\n[726] The German proverb, \"Wald hat Ohren, Feld hat Gesicht,\" is well\nknown. Cfr. the varieties of this proverb upon the ears of the forest,\nin the third vol. pp. 120 and 173, of Uhland's _Schriften zur\nGeschichte der Dichtung und Sage_, St\u00fcttgart, 1866.\n\n[727] The reader is acquainted with the myth of the nymph Syrinx,\nbeloved of Pan, who was changed into a cane or reed, from which Pan made\na flute. We find the leaf of the cane in connection with the ass in\nHungarian tradition. A singular indentation can be observed upon the\nleaves of the cane, which has a great resemblance to the mark of three\nteeth. To explain this strange mark the Hungarian people narrate, that\nthe ass of the Redeemer once bit the leaf of a cane, but as Christ was\nin a hurry, the ass was unable to eat the leaf, and so it happened that\nits three teeth only left the mark of the bite upon the cane. From that\ntime forward every leaf of a cane bears record to this. The two lines\nwhich stretch down the two flanks of the ass are said in Hungary to be\ncaused by the blood of our Redeemer. The popular belief in Ireland is\nthat these lines remain as a memorial of Christ having once struck the\nass.--Cfr. the chapter on the Peacock and that on the Eel, where we\nshall find the hero and the heroine again transformed into canes.\n\n[728] The loss of heart or courage is expressed in Italian by the low\nterm \"Qu\u00ed mi casca l'asino\" (here my ass falls). This expression,\nhowever, may perhaps be of Hellenic origin; the equivoque between the\ntwo equisonant expressions, \"ap' onou\" and \"apo nou\" is well-known;\nwhence to fall off the ass and to fall from one's mind became\nsynonymous.\n\n[729] There is an unpublished story which I heard narrated at Antignano,\nnear Leghorn, of a mother who has a silly son named Pipetta. The latter\nasks his mother for a quattrino (a small coin) to buy a vetch, and\nafterwards a bean, because it grows higher; he sows it, and it attains a\nmarvellous height. Climbing up the bean-stalk he comes to the gates of\nparadise, which are opened to him, but St Peter sends him back; he then\nfinds the entrance to hell, which he wishes to visit. The devil shows\nhim all the sights; the two then play at cards, and Pipetta wins a\nsackful of souls. The devil fears that Pipetta will empty hell, so he\nallows him to depart with the sack, and an ass which throws gold from\nits tail; he mounts up to heaven, and consigns the sack of souls to St\nPeter. The story ends with the usual exchange of asses at the inn where\nPipetta sleeps upon his descent from the beanstalk.\n\n[730] _Biblion Istorikon_, i. 116.--It is added, that when Titus\nremonstrated with his father on his avarice, Vespasian made him smell\nthe gold for which the horse's dung had been sold, asking him whether\nit smelt bad.--In the Mongol story we saw the fool who goes out with\nhis ass and hides it in a cavern afterwards despoiling a merchant's\ncaravan.--_Tzetzas_, i. 128, records the existence in Phrygia of a\nvillage called \"Ass's-ears\" (\u00ea kl\u00easis onou \u00f4ta), inhabited by robbers,\nand belonging to Midas; he thinks, moreover, that Midas was surnamed\nthe large-eared on account of this village of his.\n\n[731] vi. 105.\n\n[732] Kleitas on\u00f4n hekatombas, xi. 51.\n\n[733] In _Anton. Liberalis_ we find a long narrative from which we\ngather that Apollo would only suffer the ass to be sacrificed to him\namong the Hyperboreans.\n\n[734] I read on this subject in the curious volume _Laus Asini_,\nprinted at Leyden by Elzevir, the following notice: \"Si quis graviter\na scorpione ictus, id in aurem insusurret asino, ex tempore curetur.\"\n\n[735]\n\n      \"Te senior turpi sequitur Silenus asello\n       Turgida pampineis redimitus tempora sertis\n       Condita lascivi deducunt orgya myst\u00e6.\"\n                                  --Seneca, _Oedipus_.\n\n[736] Tam \u00fbhathur n\u00e2ubhir \u00e2tmanvat\u00eebhir antarikshaprudbhir\napodak\u00e2bhih; strophe 3.--Cfr. strophe 4th and 5th of the same hymn.\n\n[737] Another reason is also assigned for the honour given to the ass\nin heaven: the ass and Priapos contend together as to who is superior;\nPriapos defeats the ass, and Dionysos takes pity upon the vanquished,\nand places it in heaven among the stars.\n\n[738] _Laus Asini_, Ludg. Batavorum, ex officina Elzeviriana.\n\n[739] \"Conferre aliquid et candori in mulierum cute existimatur.\nPoppaea certe Domitii Neronis conjux quingentas secum per omnia\ntrahens f\u00e6tas balnearum etiam solio totum corpus illo lacte macerabat,\nextendi quoque cutem credens;\" _Aldrov._ To which custom Juvenal\nalludes in his 6th satire:\n\n                      \"Atque illo lacte fovetur\n      Propter quod secum comites educit asellas\n      Exul hyperboreum si dimittetur ad axim.\"\n\n[740] \"Finitis laudibus, surgit quidam archipresbyter, retro se\nascendit asinum preparatum a curia; quidam cubicularius tenet in\ncapite asini bacilem cum xx. solidis denariorum,\" &c.; in Du Cange,\nthe work quoted before, _s. v. cornomannia_.--We also find in Du Cange\nthat a soldier was called in the middle ages \"caput asini, pro\nmagnitudine capitis et congerie capillorum.\"\n\n[741] In the _Pentamerone_, iii. 8, the night is called \"l'aseno de\nl'ombre.\"\n\n[742] In the _Pentamerone_, ii. I, we have a variation of the other\n\u00c6sopian fable of the lion who is afraid of the ass. The old witch, in\norder to deliver herself from the lion which Petrosinella has caused to\nrise, flays an ass and dresses herself in its skin; the lion, believing\nit to be really an ass, runs off.--In the thirteenth of the Sicilian\nstories collected by Signora Laura Gonzenbach, and published at Leipzig\nby Brockhaus, the ass and the lion dispute the spoil; the young hero\ndivides it, giving to the ass the hay that the lion has in its mouth,\nand to the lion the bones in the ass's mouth. But probably the lion here\nrepresents the dog, according to the Greek proverb, \"K\u00fcni did\u00f4s ach\u00fcra,\non\u00f4i ta ostea,\" to express a thing done the wrong way.\n\n[743] In the _Pentamerone_ again, in the island of the ogres, an old\nogress feeds a number of asses, who afterwards jump on to the bank of\na river and kick the swans; here the ass is demoniacal, as it is in\nthe _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_; the swans, as we shall see, are a form of the\nluminous A\u00e7vin\u00e2u.--In obscene literature, the _mentula_ as a gardener,\nand the _vulva_ as a garden, are two frequent images; cfr., among\nothers, the Italian poem, _La Menta_.\n\n[744] Cfr. the first of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_,\nin which we also find the third brother, believed to be stupid, who\nmakes his ass throw gold from its tail; the foolish Pimpi, who kills his\nass whilst cutting wood; the son of the poor man, who amuses himself by\nsending the ass before him tied to a string, and then making it return;\nthe peasant who drags up the ass which had fallen into the marsh, and\nwho then marries the daughter of the king of Russia (the wintry, the\ngloomy, the nocturnal one), who never laughed and whom he causes to\nlaugh; and the ass who dies after eating a poisoned loaf.\n\n[745] _Contes et Proverbes Populaires recueillis en Armagnac_, par J.\nF. Blad\u00e9, Paris, Franck.\n\n[746] _Cuentos y Poesias Populares Andaluces_, collecionados por\nFernan Caballero, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1866.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nTHE SHEEP, THE RAM, AND THE GOAT.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The sun-shepherd, and the sun-lamb, ram, or goat.--The dark-coloured\n    he-goat.--The goat-moon.--Agas; explanation given by Professor\n    Br\u00e9al; the Finnic aija.--Meshas; she-goat, ram, skin, sack.--The ram\n    Indras.--The goats A\u00e7vin\u00e2u.--The he-goat Veretraghna.--The lamb and\n    the goat in the forest opposed to the wolf.--The apple-tree and the\n    she-goat; the cloud and the apple-tree.--The goat, the nut-tree and\n    the hazel-nuts.--The wolf assumes the goat's voice; the wolf in the\n    fire.--The witch takes the voice of the little hero's mother; the\n    child born of a tree.--The hero among the sheep, or in the spoils of\n    the sheep, escapes from the witch.--P\u00fbshan ag\u00e2\u00e7vas and his\n    sister.--The brother who becomes a kid while drinking; the sister in\n    the sea.--The husband-goat; the goat's skin burned; the monster\n    appears once more a handsome youth; the funereal mantle of the young\n    hero; when it is burned, the hero lives again handsome and\n    splendid.--The children changed into kids.--The cunning Schmier-bock\n    in the sack.--Agamukh\u00ee--Ilvalas and W\u00e2t\u00e2pis.--Indras mesh\u00e2ndas,\n    sahasradh\u00e2ras and sahasrad\u00e2ras.--The rams of the wolf eaten.--The\n    goat of expiation, the goat and the stupidity of the hero disappear\n    at the same time.--The devil-ram; the putrid sheep that throws gold\n    behind it.--The goat which deprives men of sight.--The young prince,\n    riding on the goat, solves the riddle.--The spy of heaven; the eye\n    of God.--The constellation of the she-goat and two kids.--The lame\n    goat.--The heroine and the goat her guide and nurse.--The milky way\n    and the she-goat.--The goat's blood, manus Dei; the stone\n    bezoar.--The cunning goat.--The goat deceives the wolf; the goat\n    eats the leaf.--The she-goat possessed of a devil.--The\n    ram-vessel.--Ram and he-goat foecundators.--The he-goat and the\n    horned husband.--Zeus he-goat and the satyr Pan; H\u00earakl\u00eas the rival\n    of a goat; the old powerless man called a he-goat.--Hellenic forms\n    of the myth of the goat.--Phrixos and Helle; Jupiter Ammon; the\n    altar of Apollo; the fleece of the Iberians; the golden ram of\n    Atreus; Aig\u00fcsthos; Diana and the white sheep; Neptune a ram; satyrs\n    and fauns; Herm\u00eas krioforos; the sheep of Epimenis; lambs, rams, and\n    he-goats sacrificed; aixourania and the cornucopia.--The mythical\n    goat; its threefold form; black, white, and light-coloured\n    lambs.--Pecus and pecunia.\n\nWhen the girl aurora leads out of the stable in the morning her\nradiant flock, among them there are found to be white lambs, white\nkids, and luminous sheep; in the evening the same aurora leads the\nlambs, the kids, and the sheep back to the fold. In the early dawn all\nthis flock is white, by and by their fleeces are golden fleeces; the\nwhite, and afterwards the golden heavens of the east (or the west)\nconstituting this white and golden flock, and the sun's rays their\nfleeces. Then the sun himself, who steps forth from this flock, is now\nits young shepherd-king, and now the lamb, the ram, or he-goat. When\nthe sun enters into the region of night, the he-goat or lamb goes back\nto the fold and becomes dark-coloured; the sun veiled by the night or\nthe cloud is a dark-coloured ram, he-goat, or she-goat. In the night,\nsays the proverb, all cows are black; and the same might be said of\ngoats, except in the case of the goat, luminous and all-seeing, coming\nout of the nocturnal darkness in the form of the moon. We must,\ntherefore, consider the sheep or goat under a triple aspect; the\nprincipal and most interesting aspect being that of the sun veiled by\nthe gloom, or by the cloud, which wears often a demoniacal form, such\nas that of the ass or of the hero in hell; the second being that of\nthe grey-white, and afterwards golden sky of morning, or of the golden\nand thereafter grey-white sky of evening which, as a luminous, is\ntherefore generally a divine form of the goat; and the third aspect\nbeing that of the moon.\n\nThe richest myths refer to the sun enclosed in the cloud or the shades\nof night, or to the cloud or darkness of night closing round the sun.\nThe shifting shadow and the moving cloud on the one side, the damp\nnight and the rainy cloud on the other, easily came to be represented\nas a goat and as a ram. In the Indian tongue, or even the Vedic,\n_agas_ is a word which means, properly speaking, pushing, drawing,\nmoving (agens), and afterwards he-goat; the he-goat butts with its\nhorns; the sun in the cloud butts with its rays until it opens the\nstable and its horns come out.[747] The ram is called _meshas_, or\n_mehas_, that is, the pourer or spreader, mingens (like the ass\nciramehin), which corresponds with the _meghas_, or cloud mingens.\nMoreover, as in Greek from _aix_,[748] a goat, we have _aigis_, a skin\n(\u00c6gis), so in Sanskrit from _agas_, a goat, we have _aginas_, a skin;\nand from _meshas_, a ram, _meshas_, a fleece, a skin, and that which\nis formed from it; whence the Petropolitan Dictionary compares with it\nthe Russian _mieh_ (Lithuanian, _maiszas_) skin and sack.\n\nLet us now first of all see how these simple images developed\nthemselves in the Hindoo myth.\n\nIndras, the pluvial and thundering god, is represented in the first\nstrophe of a Vedic hymn as a very celebrated heroic ram;[749] in the\nsecond strophe, as the one who pours out ambrosial honey (madacyutam);\nin the third strophe, as opening the stable or precinct of the cows to\nthe A\u00f1girasas;[750] in the fourth strophe, as killing the serpent that\ncovers or keeps back; in the fifth strophe, as expelling the\nenchanters with enchantments, and breaking the strong cities of the\nmonster Piprus;[751] and in the sixth strophe, as crushing under his\nfoot the giant-like monster Arbudas[752] or monster serpent. Thus far\nwe have two aspects of the myth, the ram which pours out ambrosial\nhoney, and the ram which opens the gate and crushes with its foot. In\nanother hymn the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u are compared to two he-goats (ageva), to two\nhorns (\u00e7ri\u00f1geva), and to two swift dogs.[753] A third hymn informs us\nthat Indras by means of a ram killed a leonine monster.[754]\n\nHere we evidently have a heroic he-goat or ram.\n\nLet us compare it with other traditions. In the _Khorda Avesta_[755]\nwe find Veretraghna (the Zend form of Indras, as Vritrahan) \"with the\nbody of a warrior he-goat, handsome, and with sharpened horns.\"\n\nIn the Russian tale given by _Afanassieff_,[756] the lamb, companion of\nthe bull in the wood, kills the wolf by butting against its sides, while\nthe bull also wounds the ferocious beast with its horns. In another\nvariation of the same story,[757] the cat is confederate with the lamb\nagainst the wolf; the lamb butts hard at the wolf, while the cat\nscratches it till blood flows. In yet another version, besides the lamb,\nthe he-goat also appears; the cat twists some of the bark of the\nbirch-tree round the horns of the he-goat, and bids the lamb rub against\nit to produce fire; sparks come from it, the cat fetches hay, and the\nthree companions warm themselves. The wolves come up, and the cat makes\nthem run, presenting them the goat as a scarecrow, and frightening them\nfurther by ominous hints as to the strength contained in its beard.\nFinally, we have in the Russian stories two singular variations of the\nfable of the goat, the kids, and the wolf.[758] The goat is about to\ngive birth to her young ones under an apple-tree. (We have seen in\nChapter I. the apple-tree, the fruit of which, when eaten, causes horns\nto sprout. It is well-known that in Greek, _m\u00ealon_ means a goat and an\napple-tree, as the Hindoo masculine noun _petvas_, which means a ram, is\nin the neuter _petvam_ = ambrosia. The mythical apple-tree is ambrosial,\nlike the cornucopia of the goat of mythology; and it seems to me that\nhere, too, I can find an analogy in the Slavonic field itself between\nthe Russian words _\u00f3blaka_, clouds, in the plural _ablak\u00e1_, the clouds,\nand _iablony_, apple-tree, plural _j\u00e1blogna_, the apple-trees, _jablok_,\nthe apple.) The apple-tree advises the goat to betake itself to some\nother place, as the apples might fall upon its new-born kids and kill\nthem. The goat then goes to give birth to her young ones under an\nequally shady walnut-tree; the walnut-tree also advises her to go away,\nas the nuts might fall and do serious harm to her little ones;[759] upon\nwhich the goat goes to a deserted tent in the forest, another form of\nthe cloud of night. When the kids are brought forth, the goat issues\nforth out of the tent to procure food, and cautions her children not to\nopen to any one (the fable is well known in the West, but the Slavonic\nvariations are particularly interesting). The wolf comes and pronounces\nthe same password as the goat to induce the kids to open, but they\nperceive by the rough voice of the wolf that it is not their mother, and\nrefuse to admit him. The wolf then goes to the blacksmith, and has a\nvoice made for him resembling that of the goat; the deceived kids open,\nand the wolf devours them all except the smallest, who hides under the\nstove (the favourite place where the little Slavonic hero, the third\nbrother, the ill-favoured fool, who afterwards becomes handsome and\nwise, is accustomed to squat). The goat returns, and learns from the kid\nwhich has escaped the massacre of its brothers. She thinks how to avenge\nherself, and invites her friend and gossip the fox with the wolf to\ndinner; the unsuspecting wolf arrives along with the fox. After dinner,\nthe goat, to divert her guests, invites them to amuse themselves by\nleaping over an opening made in the floor; the goat leaps first, then\nthe fox leaps, and then the wolf, but falls down on the burning ashes\nand is burnt to death, like the witch in some other stories, as the\nnight is burned by the morning aurora; and the goat chaunts a marvellous\n_Te Deum_ (cudesnoi pamin) in the wolf's honour. The other Russian\nversion adds some new and curious details. The goat goes to find food,\nand leaves the kids alone; they shut the door after her. She returns\nand says, \"Open, my sons, my little fathers; your mother is come; she\nhas brought some milk, half a side full of milk, half a horn full of\nfresh cheese, half a little horn full of clear water (the\ncornucopia).\"[760] The kids open immediately. The second day the goat\ngoes out again; the wolf, who had heard the song, tries to sing it to\nthe kids; but the latter perceive that it is not their mother's voice,\nand do not open. Next day the wolf again imitates the mother's voice;\nthe kids open the door, and are all devoured except one which hides\nitself in the stove, and afterwards narrates to the mother-goat all that\nhas happened. The goat avenges herself as follows: She goes into the\nforest with the wolf, and comes to a ditch where some workmen had cooked\nsome gruel, and left the fire still burning. The goat challenges the\nwolf to leap the ditch; the wolf tries and falls into it, where the fire\nmakes his belly split open, from which the kids, still alive, skip out\nand run to their mother.\n\nAnother story, however,[761] affords us still more aid in the\ninterpretation of the myth; that is, in leading us to see in the goat\nand her kids the sun horned or furnished with rays, as it issues radiant\nout of the cloud, or darkness, or ocean of night, and in the wolf, or in\nthe wolf's skin, split open or burned, out of which the kids come, the\ndark, cloudy, watery nocturnal sky. Instead of the wolf we have a witch,\ninstead of the goat a woman, and instead of the kids the young Vaniushka\n(Little John); the witch has a voice made by the blacksmith like that of\nVaniushka's or Tereshicko's mother, and thus attracts him to her.\nTereshicha says that he was originally the stump of a tree, which his\nfather and mother, being childless, had picked up in the forest, and\nwrapped up and rocked in a cradle till he was born.\n\nThe monster wolf, or the witch, having the faculty of simulating the\nvoice of the goat,[762] and an especial predilection for both sheep\nand goats,--so much so that the witch Liho (properly Evil) keeps some\nin her house, and those which come out (of the dark sky) in the\nmorning, and which re-enter (the dark sky) in the evening, are\nconsidered her peculiar property,[763]--often transforms the hero (the\nevening sun) into a kid (into the darkness or cloud of night). Of\ncourse, as the dark and cloudy monster is often represented as a wolf,\nit is easy to understand his wish that everything should be\ntransformed into a lamb in order to eat it. But the mythical lamb or\nkid, the young solar hero, generally escapes out of the jaws of the\nwolf, out of the hands of the witch, or out of the darkness, the\nwaters, or the cloud of night.\n\nA Vedic hymn celebrates the strong P\u00fbshan, who has a he-goat for his\nhorse (or who is a goat-horse), and is called the lover of his sister.\nPerhaps these words contain the germ of the Russian story of Little\nJohn, brother of Little Helen, who is changed by witchcraft into a\nkid. I have already observed in Chapter I. how Helen, who at the\ncommencement of the story shows affection for her brother John, ends\nby betraying him. The Vedic hymn would appear to contain the notion of\nthe brother P\u00fbshan transformed into a he-goat (the sun which enters\ninto the cloud or darkness of night), because he has loved his sister.\nIn another Vedic hymn we have the sister Yam\u00ee, who seduces her brother\nYamas. In European fairy tales, the sister loves her brother, who is\nmetamorphosed by the art of a witch, now into a young hog, and now\ninto a kid. In the forty-fifth story of the fourth book of\n_Afanassieff_, Ivanushka (Little John) becomes a kid after drinking\nout of a goat's hoof. In the twenty-ninth story of the second book of\n_Afanassieff_, Ivanushka and Little Helen, the children of a Tzar,\nwander alone about the world. Ivanushka wishes to drink where cows,\nhorses, sheep, and hogs feed and drink; his sister Little Helen\nadvises him not to do so, lest he should turn into a calf, a colt, a\nlamb, or a young pig; but at last John is overcome by thirst, and,\nagainst the advice of his sister, he drinks where goats drink, and\nbecomes a kid. A young Tzar marries the sister, and gives every honour\nto the kid, but a witch throws the young queen into the sea (Phrixos\nand Helle; in other European stories, into a cistern), and usurps her\nplace, inducing the people to believe that she is Helen, and\ncommanding the kid to be put to death. The kid runs to the shore and\ninvokes his sister, who answers from the bottom of the sea that she\ncan do nothing. The young Tzar, to whom the affair is referred,\nhastens to deliver Helen out of the sea; the kid can again skip about\nin safety, and everything is green again, and flourishes as much as it\nwithered before; the witch is burnt alive.[764]\n\nAccording to the fiftieth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a\nmerchant has three daughters. He builds a new house, and sends his\nthree daughters by turns to pass the night there, in order to see what\nthey dream about. (The belief that the man dreamed of by a maiden\nduring the night of St John's Day, Christmas Day, or the Epiphany, is\nher predestined husband, still exists in the popular superstitions of\nEurope.) The eldest daughter dreams that she marries a merchant's son,\nthe second a noble, and the third a he-goat. The father commands his\nyoungest daughter never to go out of the house; she disobeys; a\nhe-goat appears and carries her off upon his horns towards a rocky\nplace. Saliva and mucous matter fall from the goat's mouth and\nnostrils; the good maiden is not disgusted, but patiently wipes the\ngoat's mouth. This pleases the animal, who tells her that if she had\nshown horror towards him, she would have had the same fate as his\nformer wives, whose heads were impaled on a stake. The geese bring to\nthe girl news of her father and sisters; they announce that the eldest\nsister is about to be married; she wishes to be present at the\nwedding, and is permitted by the goat to go, who orders for her use\nthree horses as black as a crow, who arrive at their destination in\nthree leaps (the three steps of Vishnus), whilst he himself sits upon\na flying carpet, and is transported to the wedding in the form of a\nhandsome and young stranger. The same happens on the occasion of the\nsecond sister's marriage, when the third sister guesses that this\nhandsome youth is her own husband. She departs before the rest, comes\nhome, finds the skin of the goat and burns it; then her husband always\npreserves the form of a handsome youth, inasmuch as the enchantment of\nthe witch has come to an end.[765]\n\nThe lamb, the he-goat, and the sheep are favourite forms of the\nwitch. In the European story, when the beautiful princess, in the\nabsence of the prince, her husband, gives birth to two beautiful sons,\nthe witch induces the absent prince to believe that, instead of real\nsons, his young wife has given birth to pups. In the seventh story of\nthe third book of _Afanassieff_, the young queen gives birth, during\nthe king's absence, to two sons, of whom one has the moon on his\nforehead, and the other a star on the nape of his neck (the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u).\nThe wicked sister of the young queen buries the children. Where they\nwere buried a golden sprout and a silver one spring up. A sheep feeds\nupon these plants, and gives birth to two lambs, having, the one the\nmoon on its head, the other a star on its neck. The wicked sister, who\nhas meanwhile been married to the king, orders them to be torn in\npieces, and their intestines to be thrown out into the road. The good\nlawful queen has them cooked, eats them, and again gives birth to her\ntwo sons, who grow up hardy and strong, and who, when interrogated by\nthe king, narrate to him the story of their origin; their mother is\nrecognised, and becomes once more the king's wife; the wicked sister\nis put to death.[766]\n\nThe witch is sometimes herself (as a wolf-cloud or wolf-darkness) a\ndevourer of young luminous kids or lambs, such as the Schmierbock in\nthe Norwegian story. The witch carries Schmierbock three times away in\na sack; the first and second time Schmierbock escapes by making a hole\nin the sack; but the third time the witch succeeds in carrying him to\nher house, where she prepares to eat him. The cunning Schmierbock,\nhowever, smuggles the witch's own daughter into his place, and,\nclimbing up, conceals himself in the chimney (a variation of the\nstove, the place where the young Russian hero usually hides himself,\nin the same way as in the Tuscan story the foolish Pimpi conceals\nhimself in the oven). From this post of security he laughs at the\nwitch, who endeavours to recapture him; he throws a stone down the\nchimney and kills her, upon which he descends, rifles her\ntreasure-stores, and carries off all her gold. Here the young hero is\ncalled a he-goat; in the chapter on the wolf, we shall find the witch\nof the Norwegian story actually bears the name of wolf. These two data\ncomplete the myth; the wolf which wishes to devour the little hero,\nand the witch who endeavours to eat the little lamb, are completed by\nthe fable which represents the wolf as, at the rivulet, eating the\nlamb, which, in the mythical heavens, means the cloudy and gloomy\nmonster which devours the sun.\n\nWe have seen above the witch who imitates the voice of the mother of\nthe little hero, in order to be able to eat him, and the wolf who\nmimics the voice of the goat and eats the kids; but the wolf does more\nthan assume the goat's voice; he sometimes even takes her form.\n\nIn the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[767] Agamukh\u00ee, or goat's face, is called a witch,\nwho wishes S\u00eet\u00e2 to be torn to pieces. In the legend of Ilvalas and\nV\u00e2t\u00e2pis,[768] the two wizard brothers who conspire to harm the\nBr\u00e2hman\u00e2s, V\u00e2t\u00e2pis transforms himself into a wether, and lets himself\nbe sacrificed in the funeral rites by the Br\u00e2hman\u00e2s. The unsuspecting\nBr\u00e2hman\u00e2s eat its flesh; then Ilvalas cries out to his brother, \"Come\nforth, O V\u00e2t\u00e2pis!\" and his brother, V\u00e2t\u00e2pis, comes out of the bodies\nof the Br\u00e2hman\u00e2s, lacerating them, until the rishis Agastyas eats of\nhimself the whole of V\u00e2t\u00e2pis, and burns Ilvalas to ashes. The\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ itself explains to us why, in these sacrifices, a wether,\nand not a ram, is spoken of,[769] when it narrates the legend of\nAhaly\u00e2. It is said in this passage that the god Indras was one day\ncondemned to lose his testicles by the malediction of the rishis\nG\u00e2utamas, with whose wife, Ahaly\u00e2, he had committed adultery. The\ngods, moved to pity, took the testicles of a ram and gave them to\nIndras, who was therefore called Mesh\u00e2ndas; on this account, says the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, the Pitaras feed on wethers, and not on rams, in funeral\noblations. This legend is evidently of br\u00e2hmanic origin. The\nBr\u00e2hman\u00e2s, being interested in discrediting the god of the warriors,\nIndras, and finding him called in the Ved\u00e2s by the name of Meshas or\nram, invented the story of the ram's testicles, in the same way as,\nfinding Indras in the Ved\u00e2s called by the name of Sahasr\u00e2kshas\n(_i.e._, he of the thousand eyes), they malignantly connected this\nappellation with the same scandalous story of the seduction of Ahaly\u00e2,\nand degraded the honourable epithet into an infamous one, he of the\nthousand wombs, probably by the confusion arising out of the equivoque\nbetween the words _sahasradh\u00e2ras_, the sun (as carrying, now a\nthousand stars, now a thousand rays), or _sahasr\u00e2n\u00e7us_, and\n_sahasrad\u00e2ras_, which has a very different meaning.\n\nIn the important 116th hymn of the first book of the _Rigvedas_,\nRigr\u00e2\u00e7vas (_i.e._, the red horse, or the hero of the red horse) eats a\nhundred rams belonging to the she-wolf (in the following hymn, a\nhundred and one); his father blinds him on this account; the two\nmarvellous physicians, the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, give him back his two eyes.[770]\nEvidently the father of the solar hero is here the gloomy monster of\nnight himself; the sun, at evening, becomes the devourer of the rams\nwho come out of the she-wolf, or who belong to the she-wolf; it is for\nthis reason that the monster wolf blinds him when evening comes. The\nred horse Rigr\u00e2\u00e7vas, or the hero of the red horse, who eats the rams\nof the she-wolf, affords a further key to enable us to understand the\nexpiatory goat, which in the _Rigvedas_ itself is sacrificed instead\nof the horse. We are told in a hymn, that in the sacrifice of the\nhorse the omniform he-goat (ago vi\u00e7var\u00fbpah) has preceded the\nhorse;[771] and the _\u00c2itareya Br._, commenting on this exchange of\nanimals, also speaks of the he-goat as the last animal destined for\nthe sacrifice. In the Russian stories, too, the goat has to pay the\nprice of the follies or rogueries done by the man, and is\nsacrificed.[772] This sacrificed he-goat appears to be the same as the\nass which undergoes punishment for all the animals in the celebrated\nfable of Lafontaine (which becomes a bull in the hands of the Russian\nfabulist Kriloff, who could not introduce the ass, an animal almost\nunknown in Russia); and we already know that the ass represents the\nsun in the cloud or the sun in the darkness; and we have also said\nthat the ass and the fool die together in the legend. The she-goat\ndies in the Russian story to deliver the fool, who, after her death,\nis a fool no longer, his folly having died with her.[773] The popular\nstory offers us another proof of the identity of the mythical ass and\nthe mythical goat. We have also seen above, in the Norwegian story,\nhow the witch possesses a treasure which is carried off by the\nSchmierbock, who kills her; the magician, or the devil, is always\nrich. The ass which the devil gives to Little Johnny throws gold from\nits tail; the ass personifies the devil. But the devil, as we have\nobserved, also has a predilection to embody himself in a ram, a lamb,\nor a he-goat. I remember the puppets who every day improvised popular\nrepresentations in the little wooden theatre on the Piazza Castello,\nat Turin, when I was a boy; the final doom of the personage who\nrepresented the tyrant was generally to die under the bastinadoes of\nArlecchino, or to be carried to hell by the devil in the form of a\nbleating lamb, which came upon the scene expressly to carry him away\nwith him, this disappearance being accompanied by much throbbing of\nthe spectators' hearts, to whom the manager preached a salutary\nsermon.[774] In the twenty-first of the Tuscan stories published by\nme, it is not the devil, but the little old man, Ges\u00f9, who gives to\nthe third brother, instead of the usual ass, a putrid sheep, which,\nhowever, has the virtue of throwing louis-d'or behind it. This putrid,\nor wet, or damp sheep represents still better the damp night.\n\nRigr\u00e2\u00e7vas, as we have said, eats the ram and becomes blind, his father\nhaving blinded him to avenge the she-wolf to whom the rams belonged; but\nthe mother of the rams being the sheep, it is probable that the she-wolf\nwho possessed the rams had assumed the form of a putrid sheep, in the\nsame way as we have seen her above transformed into a she-goat; the\nfather of Rigr\u00e2\u00e7vas, who avenges the she-wolf on account of the hundred\nrams, may perhaps himself have been a horned wolf transformed into a\nhe-goat, and have blinded Rigr\u00e2\u00e7vas with his horns. In the popular\nstory, the she-goat, when she is in the forest, takes a special pleasure\nin wounding people's eyes with her horns; hence is probably derived the\nname of the reptile agak\u00e2vas, conjured with in the _Rigvedas_,[775] as\ndurdri\u00e7ikas, or making to see badly, damaging the eyesight, and the name\nof agak\u00e2, given to an illness in the eyes by the Hindoo physician\nSu\u00e7rutas. However, we must not forget the connection between the idea of\nskin and that of goat, by which the agak\u00e2 might mean simply the thin\nmembrane that sometimes harms the pupil of the eye, and produces\nblindness. This thin membrane, stretched over the eye of the solar hero,\nblinds him. We shall see in the chapter on the frog and the toad, which\nvery often represent, in the myths, the cloud and the damp night, that\nthe toad[776] causes blindness only by means of the venom which it is\nfabled to exude, like the reptile agak\u00e2vas.\n\nBut, as the hero in hell learns and sees everything, the goat, which\ndeprives others of sight, has itself the property of seeing\neverything; this is the case, because the goat, being the sun enclosed\nin the cloud or gloomy night, sees the secrets of hell, and also\nbecause, being the horned moon or starry sky, it is the spy of the\nheavens. We have already observed in the first chapter how the\nmarvellous girl of seven years of age, to answer the acted riddle\nproposed by the Tzar, arrives upon a hare, which, in mythology,\nrepresents the moon. In a variation of the same story given by\n_Afanassieff_,[777] instead of riding upon a hare, the royal boy comes\nupon a goat, and is recognised by his father; the goat, in its\ncapacity of steed of the lost hero, seems here to represent the moon,\nas the hare does.\n\nWe have already spoken of Indras sahasr\u00e2kshas, _i.e._, of the thousand\neyes; Hindoo painters represent him with these thousand eyes, that is,\nas an azure sky bespangled with stars. Indras as the nocturnal sun hides\nhimself, transformed, in the starry heavens; the stars are his eyes. The\nhundred-eyed or all-seeing (panopt\u00eas) Argos placed as a spy over the\nactions of the cow beloved of Zeus, is the Hellenic equivalent of this\nform of Indras. In Chapter I. we also saw the witch's daughter of the\nRussian fairy tale who has three eyes, and with her third eye plays the\nspy over the cow, which protects the good maiden. In the second story of\nthe sixth book of _Afanassieff_, when the peasant ascends into heaven\nupon the pea-plant, and enters into a room where geese, hogs, and pastry\nare being cooked, he sees a goat on guard; he only discovers six eyes,\nas the goat has its seventh eye in its back; the peasant puts the six\neyes to sleep, but the goat, by means of its seventh eye, sees that the\npeasant eats and drinks as much as he likes, and informs the lord of the\nsky of the fact. In another variation of the story, given by\n_Afanassieff_,[778] the old man finds in heaven a little house guarded\nin turns by twelve goats, of which one has one eye, another two, a third\nthree, and so on up to twelve. The old man says to one after the other,\n\"One eye, two eyes, three eyes, &c., sleep.\" On the twelfth day, instead\nof saying \"twelve eyes,\" he makes a mistake and says \"eleven;\" the goat\nwith twelve eyes then sees and secures him. The eye of God which sees\neverything, in the popular faith, is a variation of Argos Panopt\u00eas, the\nVedic Vi\u00e7vavedas, and the Slavonic Vsievedas, the eye of the goat which\nsees what is being done in heaven. When the moon shines in the sky, the\nstars grow pale, the eyes of the witch of heaven fall asleep, but some\nfew eyes still stay open, some few stars continue to shine to observe\nthe movements of the cow-moon, the fairy-moon, the Madonna-moon, who\nprotects the young hero and the beautiful solar maiden lost in the\ndarkness of night.\n\nThis spying goat's eye is perhaps connected with the constellation of\nthe goat and two kids. Columella writes that the kids appear in the\nsky towards the end of September, when the west, and sometimes the\nsouth, wind blows and brings rain. According to Servius, the goat\nunited with the two kids in the constellation of Aquarius is the same\ngoat which was the nurse of Zeus; he says that it appears in October,\nwith the sign of Scorpio. Ovid, in _De Arte Amandi_, and in the first\nbook _Tristium_, and Virgil in the ninth book of the _\u00c6neid_,[779]\nalso celebrate the goat and the kids of heaven as bringers of rain.\nHorace, in the seventh ode, elegantly calls the goat's stars insane:--\n\n                \"Ille nothis actus ad Oricum\n      Post insana capr\u00e6 sidera, frigidas\n      Noctes non sine multis\n      Insomnis lachrymis agit.\"\n\nWe have already seen Indras as a ram or pluvial cloud; and the goat\nwith only one foot (ekap\u00e2d agah), or he who has but one goat's foot,\nwho supports the heavens, who lightens and thunders,[780] is a form of\nthe same pluvial Indras who supports the heavens in the rainy season.\nWe have seen the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u compared to two goats, two horns, two hoofs;\neach, therefore, would seem to have but one horn, but one goat's foot\n(which might perhaps explain the ekap\u00e2d agah); hence on one side the\ncornucopia, and on the other the lame goat.[781] The nymph Galathea\n(the milky one), who loves a faun (or one who has goat's feet), seems\nto be a Hellenic form of the loves of Esmeralda and the goat with\nQuasimodo. The goat loves him who has goat's feet; the solar hero (or\nheroine) in the night has goat's feet; he is a satyr, a faun, a\nhe-goat, an ass; he is deformed and foolish, but he interests the good\nfairy, who, in the form of a she-goat (as the moon and as the milky\nway), guides him in the night, and, as the dawn (white aurora) in the\nmorning, saves him and makes him happy. In the German legend, the poor\nprincess who, with her son, is persecuted in the forest, is assisted\nnow by a she-goat, now by a doe, which gives milk to the child; by\nmeans of this animal, which serves as his guide, the prince finds his\nlost bride. This guiding she-goat, or doe, the nurse of the\nchild-hero, which Servius recognised in the constellation of the goat\n(with respect to Zeus, who is essentially pluvial, as the Vedic Indras\nhas the clouds himself for his nurses), must have generally\nrepresented the moon. But even the milky way of the sky (the bridge of\nsouls) is the milk spilt by the she-goat of heaven; the white morning\nsky is also the milk of this same she-goat. The horned moon,[782] the\nmilky way, and the white dawn are represented in the form of a\nbeneficent she-goat which assists the hero and the heroine in the\nforest, in the darkness; whilst, on the contrary, the sun enclosed in\nthe cloud, the darkness, or the starry sky of night (with the insana\ncapr\u00e6 sidera), is now a good and wise he-goat or ram, full of good\nadvice, like the ram who advises the king of India in the\n_Tuti-Name_,[783] and now a malignant monster, a demoniacal being.\nInasmuch as the goat gives light and milk, it is divine; inasmuch as\nit conceals the beauty of the young hero or heroine and opposes them,\nit may be considered demoniacal.\n\nThe connection between the she-goat and the milky way can also be\nproved from the name St James's Way, given by the common people to the\ngalaxy, or galathea, or way of milk;[784] and it is interesting to\nlearn from Baron Reinsberg,[785] how, in several parts of Bohemia, it\nis the custom on St James's Day to throw a he-goat out of the window,\nand to preserve its blood, which is said to be of potent avail against\nseveral diseases, such, for instance, as the spitting of blood. In the\n_Lezioni di Materia Medica_ of Professor Targioni-Tozzetti,[786] we\nalso read that the he-goat's blood was known by no less a name than\n_manus Dei_, and believed to be especially useful against contusions\nof the back, pleurisy, and the stone. But the disease of the stone was\nsupposed to be cured by the stone called _capra_ (goat), which was\nsaid to be found in the bodies of some Indian goats. Targioni-Tozzetti\nhimself seriously describes the goat-stones as follows:--\"These stones\nare usually clear on their surface, and dark-coloured; they have an\nodour of musk when rubbed and heated by the hands. In them (the stone\nBezoar[787]) analeptic and alexipharmic virtues were supposed to\nexist, which were able to resist the evil effects of poison and\ncontagious diseases, the plague not excepted, and to save the patient\nby causing an abundant and healthy perspiration to break out on his\nskin. For this reason these stones were sold very dear. The same\nvirtues are attributed to those found in the West, but in a much less\ndegree.\" When the heavenly goat dissolves in rain or in dew, when\nmoisture comes from the goat-cloud, the mountain-cloud, or the\nstone-cloud, these humours are salutary. When St James, who is joined\nwith the goat and the rain, pours out his bottle, as the Piedmontese\npeople say, the vapour which falls from the sky on these days is\nconsidered by the peasants, as in fact it is for the country, and\nespecially for the vines, a real blessing. In the fable of _Babrios_,\nthe vine, whose leaves are eaten by the he-goat, threatens it, saying\nthat it will nevertheless produce wine, and that when the wine is made\n(_i.e._, at the Dionysian mysteries), the goat will be sacrificed to\nthe gods. In the spring, on the other hand, or on the Easter of the\nresurrection, it was the custom to sacrifice in effigy the _Agnus\nDei_, in the belief that it would serve to defend the fields and\nvineyards against demoniacal wiles, thunderbolts and thunder,\nfacilitate parturition, and deliver from shipwreck, fire, and sudden\ndeath.[788] In the Witches' Sabbath in Germany, it was said that the\nwitches burned a he-goat, and divided its ashes among themselves.[789]\n\nThe cunning she-goat is an intermediate form between the good wise\nfairy and the witch who is an expert in every kind of malice. In the\nsame way as the hero, at first foolish, learns malice from the devil,\nto use it afterwards against the devil himself, it may be presumed\nthat the hero, in his form of a goat, has learned from the monsters\nall that cunning by which he afterwards distinguishes himself. The\nVedic ram, Indras, also uses magic against the monster magicians.\n\nIn the second of the Esthonian stories, we read that the king of the\nserpents has a golden cup containing the milk of a heavenly goat; if\nbread is dipped into this milk, and put into the mouth, one can\ndiscover every secret thing that has happened in the night, without\nany one perceiving how.\n\nIn the French medi\u00e6val poem of _Ysengrin_,[790] the she-goat deceives\nthe wolf in a way similar to that in which, in the first number of\n_Afanassieff's_ stories, the peasant cheats the bear, and in the\nItalian stories the same peasant defrauds the devil. The she-goat\nshows a fox-like cunning, keeping for itself the leaf of the corn, and\nleaving the root for the wolf. Hence, in my eyes, the origin of the\nPiedmontese proverbial expression, \"La crava a l'\u00e0 mangi\u00e0 la f\u00f6ja\"\n(the goat ate the leaf), and even the simple one of \"Mang\u00e9 la f\u00f6ja\"\n(to eat the leaf), meaning to understand cunning.[791] I heard from a\ncertain Uliva Selvi, at Antignano (near Leghorn), the narrative of a\nwitch who sent a boy every day to take the she-goat to the pasturage,\nordering him to pay attention that it should eat well, but leave the\ncorn alone. When the goat returned, the witch asked it--\n\n      \"Capra, mia capra Mergolla,\n       Come se' ben satolla?\"\n       (Goat, my goat Mergolla,\n       Are you quite satiated?)\n\nTo which the goat answered--\n\n         \"Son satolla e cavalcata,\n          Tutto il giorno digiunata.\"\n      (I am satiated, and have been ridden;\n      I have fasted all day.)\n\nThen the boy was put to death by the witch. It happened thus to twelve\nboys, until the thirteenth, more cunning, caressed the goat and gave\nit the corn to eat; then the goat answered to the witch's question--\n\n         \"Son ben satolla e governata,\n          Tutto il giorno m' ha pasturata.\"\n      (I am quite satiated, and have been well kept;\n      He has given me to eat all day.)\n\nAnd the boy, too, was well treated.\n\nThe devil's pupil always outwits his master; the she-goat beguiles the\nwolf to its destruction. We have seen this in the Russian story, and\nit is confirmed in the legend of _Ysengrin_. The peasants of Piedmont\nand of Sicily have, for this reason, so much respect for the goat,\nthat they consider it brings a blessing to the house near which it is\nmaintained; and if, by chance, they show a perverse nature, this\nperversity is attributed to the devil himself, who, they believe, has\nmaliciously taken possession of them. A few years ago, a goatherd of\nthe Val di Formazza, in the Ossola in Piedmont, had two goats which he\nbelieved to be possessed by some evil spirit, for which reason they\nalways wandered about, in order, as he thought, that the demon might\nat last be able to throw them down some abyss. One day the two goats\nwere lost; the goatherd searched for them for a short time, but\nfinding his search bootless, he resolved to go and make a vow to the\nMadonna of Einsiedlen. Chance so arranged it, that at the very moment\nin which he was returning from his pious pilgrimage, his two goats\nalso approached the door of his house; therefore, of course, this was\ndeclared to be a miracle in Formazza, and as such it is still believed\nin that district.[792]\n\nIn the preceding chapter we saw the ass represented in two aspects, as\nregards its generative capabilities; that is, it is now represented as\nan ardent, insatiable, and competent foecundator, and now as a\nridiculous imbecile, and powerless to generate. We also saw the ass\nclosely connected with the satyrs with goat's or he-goat's feet. The\nhe-goats and rams, too, have a double and self-contradictory reputation.\nWe know, for instance, that the god Thor, the god of the Scandinavians,\nwho thunders in the cloud, is drawn by he-goats (the vessel of Thor and\nHymir, the cloud, is called in the _Edda_ a navigating ram or he-goat,\nin the same way as the Vedic Indras is represented as a god-ram); he\nis, moreover, the protector of marriages. Scandinavian mythology,\ntherefore, appears to regard the goat as essentially the one that makes\nfruitful, as a pluvial cloud. In the Hindoo mythology of the br\u00e2hmanic\nperiod, the god Indras loses, on the contrary, his divine power, becomes\nstupid and obscure, and is lost in his form of a ram. In one of his\n_Passeggiate nel Canavese_, Signor A. Bertolotti recently observed, at\nMuraglio, a curious custom which is observed by the young men of the\ncountry when a projected wedding falls through; they run up to the\nbride's house and obstreperously demand her to give her sheep up to\nthem, upon which they go to the bridegroom's house and cry out, \"Vente a\nsarrar quist motogn\" (come and shut up these rams). Here the ram\nrepresents the husband, and the sheep the wife. In Du Cange the name of\ngoat (caper) is given to the \"in pueris insuavis odor cum ad virilitatem\naccedunt.\"[793] In _Apuleius_, unmeasured lasciviousness is called\n\"cohircinatio.\" According to \u00c6lianos, the he-goat, at the age of seven\ndays (of seven months according to Columella), already yearns for\ncoition.\n\nBut in the same way as the ass is the stupid patient animal, the ram\nis the stupid quiet one. The he-goat is said to be an indifferent\nhusband, who allows his she-goats to be covered by other goats without\nshowing a sign of jealousy; hence our expressions, \"horned goat,\" and\nsimply \"horned,\" to indicate the husband of an unfaithful woman, that\nis, of a woman who makes him wear horns, like the goat, and the\nItalian proverb, \"E meglio esser geloso che becco\" (it is better to be\njealous than a he-goat). This reputation, however, as assigned to the\nhe-goat, is contrary to all that has been said and written, and that\nis known concerning the lust of the he-goat. On the contrary,\nAristotle says explicitly that two he-goats, which have always lived\ntogether in concord at the pasturage, fall out and fight with violence\nin the time of coition. Moreover, the verse of Pindaros is well known,\nin which he makes he-goats unite even with women. It is also said that\nHerm\u00eas, or Zeus, assuming the form of a he-goat, united himself with\nPenelope, whence was born the great goat-footed satyr, Pan; that\nH\u00earakl\u00eas (as an ass, in his lion's skin) competed with a he-goat in\nphallical powers (in Athenaios he joins himself with fifty virgins in\nthe space of seven nights); that, in \u00c6lianos, a jealous he-goat\npunished with death the goatherd Crathis, who had incestuously joined\nhimself with one of his she-goats. Nevertheless, the Greeks already\ncalled by the name of _aix_, as we Italians by that of _capra_, a\nwoman of an immoral life, or an adulteress. Columella gives us the key\nof the enigma, observing that the he-goat, by abuse of the Venus,\nwhich he uses too soon (like the ass), becomes powerless before the\nage of six years, so that it is not out of indifference that he is\nsimply a spectator of his she-goat's infidelity, but only because he\ncannot do otherwise. Hence the application of _hircosus_, which\nPlautus gives to an old man.\n\nIt is the Hellenic tradition which, more than any other, developed to\na greater extent the myth of the goat and the sheep, under all their\naspects--demoniacal, divine, and hybrid.\n\nThe golden fleece, or the fleece of the sheep or ram which had been\ntransported into Colchis by Phrixos, the son of Neph\u00eal\u00ea (the cloud)\nand of Helle;[794] Jupiter Ammon (in the fifth book of Ovid's\n_Metamorphoses_), who, afraid of the giants (as, in the last book of\nthe _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, the gods, terrified by the monsters, transform\nthemselves into different animals), hides himself in Lybia in the\nshape of a horned ram; the altar of Apollo in the isle of Delos,\nconstructed with innumerable horns; the woolly skins in which,\naccording to Strabo,[795] the Iberians gathered up gold, whence the\nGreek geographer believed the fable of the golden fleece to have\narisen; the golden lamb kept by Atreus, which was to bring Thyestes to\nthe throne, and the name of Aig\u00fcsthos, born of the incestuous loves of\nThyestes with his own daughter; Pan (with goat's feet, the son of the\nhe-goat Zeus or Hermes), who, in the fifth book of the _Saturnalians_\nof Macrobius, loves the moon and obtains its favours by means of sheep\nwith white but rough and coarse wool; Endymion, who, according to the\ncommentator Servius, induces the moon to love him by means of\nexceedingly white sheep; Neptune, who, in the form of a ram, in the\nsixth book of the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, seduces the beautiful\nvirgin Bisaltis; the satyrs, the fauns with goat's feet, into which\nthe gods transform themselves in order to seduce nymphs or maidens of\nthe earth, as, for instance, Jove again, in the same book of Ovid--\n\n                \"Satyri celatus imagine pulchram\n      Jupiter implevit gemino Nycteida foetu;\"\n\nHerm\u00eas, called Krioforos, or carrier of a ram (that is, of a ram which\ndelivers the land from the plague, a form of St James); the two\npredestined sheep which Epimenides sacrifices to make the Athenian\nplague cease, in the twenty-seventh Olympiad, in Diogenes Laert\u00eas; the\nbleating goats that King Priam (in the fragments of Ennius) sacrifices\nto dissipate the evil threatened by sinister dreams; the black sheep\nsacrificed to Pluto, Proserpine, the Furies, and all the infernal\ndeities; the lamb, the ram, and the he-goat sacrificed to the genital\nFates in the Sybilline verses translated by Angelo Poliziano--\n\n      \"Cum nox atra premit terram, tectusque latet Sol;\"\n\nthe white lamb sacrificed to Hercules, to Mars, to Jove, to Neptune,\nto Bacchus, to Pan (the goat being sacrificed to Diana), to Apollo\n(_i.e._, when the sun shines), to Ceres (the goddess of the\nlight-coloured ears of corn), to Venus, to the gods and goddesses; to\nhis divine forms (similia similibus); and several other mythical\nnotions (not to speak of the very popular legend relating to the goat\nAmalthea, who nourished Zeus with her milk, and was by Zeus translated\nfor this service to the stars, under the name of Aixourania, or\nheavenly goat, after he had taken off one of its horns, to give, in\ngratitude to the two nymphs who had protected him, the faculty of\npouring out everything that was wished for);[796] all these account,\nin an eloquent manner, for the wide-spread worship that the goat and\nthe sheep received, even in Gr\u00e6co-Latin antiquity, enriching with many\nepisodes the mythical and legendary traditions of these nations, now\nas the type of a god, now of a demon, and now of an intermediate\nbeing, such as the satyr, for instance.\n\nIn the same way as the mythical horse has, from evening to morning,\nthree conspicuous moments of action--black, grey, and white or\nred--and as the mythical ass throws gold from behind and has golden\nears, so the mythical goat and sheep, which are dark-coloured in the\nnight or in the cloud, throw gold from behind and have golden horns\nwhich pour out ambrosia, or else have even the cornucopia itself. It\nis always the same myth of the cloudy and aqueous, of the nocturnal\nand tenebrous sky, with its two glowing twilights or auroras, or else\nof the luminous heavenly hero who traverses the night or the cloud (or\nthe wintry season), disguised in the shapes of various animals, now by\nhis own will, now by a divine malediction or by diabolical witchcraft.\n\nIn the third book of Aristotle's _History of Animals_, we read of the\nriver Psikros in Thrace, that white sheep, when they drink of its\nwaters, bring forth black lambs; that in Antandria there are two\nrivers, of which one makes the sheep black, and the other white, and\nthat the river Xanthos or Skamandros makes the sheep fair (or golden).\nThis belief involves in itself the three transformations of the\ncelestial hero into the three he-goats or rams of different natures,\nof which we have spoken. The last transformation calls our attention\nto the sheep with golden wool, the golden lamb, and the _Agnus Dei_,\nthe symbol of happiness, power and riches. Wealth in sheep, even more\nthan wealth in cows, became the symbol of universal riches. The horn\npoured out every kind of treasure upon the earth, and upon the earth\nitself the _pecus_ became _pecunia_.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[747] The Petropolitan Dictionary sees in the he-goat agas, the movable\none (agilis). To illustrate the same analogies in the case of the Greek\nmyth, it will be useful to repeat the words of Professor Br\u00e9al: \"Le\nverbe grec _a\u00efss\u00f4_, qui signifie s'\u00e9lancer, a fait d'une part le\nsubstantif _aix_, ch\u00e8vre (\u00e0 cause de la nature bondissante de l'animal),\net de l'autre les mots _kata\u00efx, kataigis, temp\u00eate_ (as it seems to me,\nthat which shakes, which causes to move or tremble, inasmuch as I\nmaintain that _agas_ does not mean the movable, or him that rushes, so\nmuch as him that pushes, that butts, or causes to move). De l\u00e0 une\nnouvelle s\u00e9rie d'images et de fables o\u00f9 la ch\u00e8vre joue le r\u00f4le\nprincipal. L'\u00e9gide, avant d'\u00eatre un bouclier fait en peau de ch\u00e8vre,\n\u00e9tait le ciel au moment de l'orage; Jupiter aigiochos \u00e9tait le dieu qui\nenvoie la temp\u00eate; plus tard, on traduisit le dieu qui porte l'\u00e9gide.\nHom\u00e8re semble se souvenir de la premi\u00e8re signification, quand il nous\nmontre, au seul mouvement du bouclier le tonnerre qui \u00e9clate, l'Ida qui\nse couvre de nuages et les hommes frapp\u00e9s de terreur.\" Mr Ralston\ncompares very well the Russian _ablakagragonniki_ (cloud-compellers) to\nthe Zeus _nephel\u00eageretes_. In the _Rigv._ i. 10, 8, it is said similarly\nto Indras: geshah svarvat\u00eer apah sam g\u00e2 asmabhyam dh\u00fbnuhi.\n\n[748] Let Finnish philologists observe whether it is not possible to\nrefer to this their Aija, an equivalent of Ukko, their Indras, called\nhattarojen hallitsia, the master of the cloud-lambs.--Cfr. Castren's\n_Kleinere Schriften_, St Petersburg, 1862, p. 230.\n\n[749] Mesham puruh\u00fbtam; _Rigv._ i. 51, 1.--Tad indro artham cetati\ny\u00fbthena vrishnir egati; _Rigv._ i. 10, 2.\n\n[750] Tvam gotram a\u00f1igirobhyo 'vrinor; _Rigv._ i. 51, 3.\n\n[751] Tvam m\u00e2y\u00e2bhir apa m\u00e2yino 'dhamah--tvam pipror nrimanah pr\u00e2rugah\npurah; _Rigv._ i. 51, 5.\n\n[752] Mahantam cid arbudam ni kram\u00eeh pad\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 51, 6.--Arbudas\nis also in Sanskrit the proper name of a mountain and of a hell; the\ncloud-mountain and the hell in the cloudy and nocturnal sky have\nalready been noticed in this volume.\n\n[753] \u00c7aph\u00e2v iva garbhur\u00e2n\u00e2 tarobhih; _Rigv._ ii. 39, 3.\n\n[754] Sinhyam cit petven\u00e2 gagh\u00e2na; _Rigv._ vii. 18, 17.--In Firdusi we\nfind, in the adventures of Isfendiar, two horned wolves that catch\nlions; these seem to be demoniacal forms of the ram of Indras which\nkills the lion.\n\n[755] xxx. 9.--Here the horns are the sun's rays or the thunderbolts,\nwhich come again in the Italian superstition on the _iettatura_; the\nhorns of the goat, it is said, and the red coral horns excel the devil\nand his magic.\n\n[756] iv. 21.\n\n[757] iii. 18.--In the story, i. 20, we are told that the lamb fled\naway into the forest with the he-goat, because its master took the\nskin off one of its sides (that is, the wool). The lambs appear in the\nmorning and in the evening with luminous wool; they are sheared during\nthe night.\n\n[758] _Afanassieff_, ii. 4; iv. 17.\n\n[759] The walnut-tree is also found in relation with the goat in a fable\nof _Afanassieff_, ii. 1, that of the accused who exculpate themselves by\ninculpating others. The cock and the hen gather nuts together; the cock\nthrows one which strikes the hen on the ear; the hen weeps; a boiard\nasks the reason; the hen accuses the cock, the cock accuses the\nwalnut-tree, the walnut-tree accuses the goat, the goat accuses the\nshepherd, the shepherd accuses the housewife, the housewife accuses the\nhog, the hog accuses the wolf, the wolf accuses God, but beyond God it\nis impossible to go.--In another jest in verse, intended to exercise the\nmemory and loosen the tongue, and given by _Afanassieff_, iv. 16, we\nfind the goat in connection with hazel-nuts. The he-goat begins to\ncomplain that the she-goat does not come back with the hazel-nuts (n\u00edet\nkaszi s ariehami); the song goes on to say, that the he-goat will send\nthe wolf to find the she-goat, the bear after the wolf, the men after\nthe bear, the oak-tree after the men, the axe after the oak-tree, the\ngrindstone after the axe, the fire after the grindstone, the water after\nthe fire, and the hurricane after the water; then the hurricane sends\nthe water, the water the fire, the fire burns the grindstone, the stone\ngrinds the axe, the axe cuts down the oak-tree, the oak-tree made into a\nstick (as we have already seen in Chapters I. and II.) beats the men,\nthe men shoot against the bear, the bear fights with the wolves, the\nwolves hunt the she-goat, and here the she-goat comes back with the\nhazel-nuts (vot kasza s ariehami).\n\n[760]\n\n      Ah vi, dietuski,\n      Moi batiuski\n      Atapr\u00ectessia\n      Atamkn\u00edtessia;\n      Vasha mat prishl\u00e1\n      Malak\u00e1 priniesl\u00e1\n      Polni bak\u00e1 malak\u00e1,\n      Polni rag\u00e1 tvarag\u00e1\n      Polni kopitzi vaditzi.\n\n[761] _Afanassieff_, vi. 17.\n\n[762] In the story, ii. 32 of _Afanassieff_, a similar voice has the\nsame effect as that of the ass; it terrifies all the other animals.\nHowever, here, a goat that has been shorn is alone spoken of,--that\nis, the goat which has lost its hair or luminous wool, the thundering\ngoat-cloud.--In the twenty-fifth story of the first book of the\n_Narodnija iusznoruskija Skazki_ (_Popular Stories of South Russia_),\nedited by Rudcenko, Kiev, 1869, the goat terrifies by its voice the\nfirst fox and then the wolf, until she herself is terrified by the\nvoice of the cock. (The morning sun, personified in the cock, destroys\nthe she-goat of night.)\n\n[763] _Afanassieff_, iii. 15.--She sends them to the pasturage; a young\nblacksmith, who is in her power, adopts the follow mode of deliverance:\nHe puts his pelisse on outside-in, feigns himself a sheep, and passes\nout with the other sheep, escaping thus from the witch: the young sun\ncomes out at morn like a shepherd-hero among the sheep. Thus Odysseus\ndelivers himself from the grotto of Polyphemos with his companions, by\nhiding himself among the flock which comes out of it.\n\n[764] Cfr. the eleventh of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di\nCalcinaia_, where we have the lamb instead of the kid.\n\n[765] A very interesting variation of this is contained in another\nunpublished story which I heard from a certain Marianna Nesti of\nFucecchio in Tuscany.\n\nThere was once a queen that had a son, who, at the age of seven years,\nwas enchanted, so that he lay constantly in bed like one deprived of\nlife. Only at midnight he went out of the house, returning at one\no'clock, covered with blood, and throwing himself as if dead into the\nbed. A woman had to remain regularly on the watch for the purpose of\nopening the door for him at midnight and at one o'clock; but no girl\nhad, from very fright, been able to continue in the service more than\none night. Near the city lived an old woman with three daughters; the\ntwo eldest tried to discharge the prescribed duty, but were overcome\nwith fear; the youngest, more courageous, remained. The first night,\nat twelve o'clock, the dead man lifts up one arm; she runs to him and\nlifts the other; he tries to raise himself; she helps him to get out\nof bed. At one o'clock he returns covered with blood, and the girl\nasks him who has reduced him to this condition, but he answers\nnothing, and throws himself on the bed as if a corpse. The second\nnight she follows him, and sees him enter a subterranean cavern; he\ncomes to the foot of a flight of stairs, puts down his mantle and\nremains as naked as when he was born, a handsome youth of eighteen\nyears of age. At the summit of the stairs two great witches cry, \"Here\nhe is! come, pretty one!\" He ascends and is beaten by the witches for\nan hour till blood flows, he crying out the while for mercy. At one\no'clock he is allowed to go, comes back to the foot of the stairs,\ntakes his mantle and returns home dead. The third night his attendant\nagain follows him, and when he puts down his mantle at the foot of the\nstairs and goes up, she takes the mantle and presses it tightly; the\nwitches scream. The young man comes to the summit; but when they try\nto beat him they cannot lift the stick. Perceiving this, the girl\npresses and bites the mantle; when she does so, the witches feel\nthemselves bitten; then the girl runs to the palace, orders a great\nfire to be lighted, and throws the mantle into it; upon its being\nburnt, the two witches expire, their enchantment is destroyed, and the\nprince marries his deliverer.\n\n[766] In the eighth story of the first book of the _Pentamerone_, the\nungrateful young woman, Renzolla, is condemned by her own protecting\nfairy to have the face of a horned goat until she shows her repentance.\n\n[767] v. 25.\n\n[768] iii. 16.\n\n[769] i. 50; vii. 38.\n\n[770] \u00c7atam mesh\u00e2n vrikye cakshad\u00e2nam rigr\u00e2\u00e7vam tam pit\u00e2ndham cak\u00e2ra\ntasma aksh\u00ee n\u00e2saty\u00e2 vicaksha \u00e2dhattam dasr\u00e2 bhishag\u00e2v anarvan; _Rigv._\ni. 116, 16.--Cfr. 117, 18.\n\n[771] Esha ch\u00e2gah puro a\u00e7vena v\u00e2gin\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 162, 3.\n\n[772] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 7, where the rogue passes the she-goat\noff as his sister, and lets her be killed, in order to oblige the\nmurderer, by threats of exposure, to give him a large sum of money in\ncompensation; and v. 52, where the head of a goat is cut off to\nconceal the murder of a sacristan, committed by the foolish third\nbrother.--Cfr. _Erlenwein_, 17.\n\n[773] The she-goat is also sacrificed, in the eighth of the Sicilian\nstories collected by Laura Gonzenbach, to test the virtue of a\ntruthful peasant. The wife of a minister who is jealous of the peasant\nVerit\u00e0 (Truth), who has the custody of a goat, a lamb, a ram, and a\nwether belonging to the king, persuades him to believe that her life\nis forfeit, and can be ransomed only by the sacrifice of the wether.\nThe peasant, overcome partly by love and partly by compassion, gives\nway and consents to the sacrifice. The minister hopes that the peasant\nwill conceal his fault, but is disappointed in his expectation,\ninasmuch as, on the contrary, he ingenuously confesses everything; and\nhe becomes, in consequence, yet dearer to the king.\n\n[774] The devil also presents himself to do his evil deeds in the\n_B\u00e9lier de Rochefort_, in Bonnafoux, _L\u00e9gendes et Croyances\nSuperstitieuses Conserv\u00e9es dans le D\u00e9partment de la Creuse_, Gueret,\n1867, p. 17.--In a legend of Baden, too, recorded by Simrock (work\nquoted before, p. 260; cfr., in the same work, p. 501), the devil\nappears with the feet of a he-goat.\n\n[775] vii. 50, 1.--In the _Classical Dictionary of Natural History of\nAudouin, Bourdon_, &c., first Italian translation, Venice, Tasso, 1831,\nwe read: \"Goat, species of ophidian reptiles, indigenous in Congo, and\nalso in Bengal; as yet unclassified by zoologists, and which, it is\nsaid, throw from afar a kind of saliva causing blindness.\"\n\n[776] Cfr. the lacerta cornuta of the _Pentamerone_.\n\n[777] vi. 42.\n\n[778] iv. 7.\n\n[779]\n\n      Differ opus, tunc tristis hiems, tunc pleiades instant\n      Tunc et in \u00e6quorea mergitur h\u00e6dus aqua.\n      S\u00e6pe ego nimbosis dubius jactabar ab h\u00e6dis.\n      Nascitur Olene\u00e6 signum pluviale capell\u00e6.\n                                            --_Ovid._\n\n      Quantus ab occasu veniens pluvialibus h\u00e6dis\n      Verberat imber humum.\n                                    --_Virgil._\n\n[780] P\u00e2v\u00eerav\u00ee tanyatur ekap\u00e2d ago divo dhart\u00e2; _Rigv._ x. 65, 13.--Cfr.\nthe aga ekap\u00e2d invoked after Ahirbudhnya and before Tritas, in the\n_Rigv._ ii. 31, 6, and the ag\u00e2ikap\u00e2d, a name given to Vishnus, in the\n_Hariv_; the reader remembers also the _goat-footed races_ of Herodotus.\n\n[781] We also find the lame goat, or he-goat, in the legend of Thor.\nThe god kills his he-goats, takes off their skins, and keeps their\nbones, to be able to resuscitate them at pleasure. His son, Thialfi,\nsteals the thigh-bone of one of the goats, in order to go and sell it;\nthen one of the he-goats of Thor, being resuscitated, is lame.--Cfr.\nfor the analogous traditions the notices given by Simrock, work quoted\nbefore, p. 260.\n\n[782] In a Russian song we read: \"Moon! moon! golden horns!\"\n\n[783] ii. 240.\n\n[784] Cfr. Du Cange, _s. v._ galaxia.\n\n[785] _Das festliche Jahr_, zweite Ausg., p. 216.\n\n[786] Florence, Piatti, 1821.\n\n[787] Concerning this stone, cfr. a whole chapter in Aldrovandi, _De\nQuadrupedibus Bisulcis_, i.\n\n[788] Cfr. Du Cange, _s. v. Agnus Dei_, where we even find the verses\nwith which Urban V. accompanied the gift of an _Agnus Dei_ to John\nPaleologus.--In the month of October, the Thuringians celebrate the\nfestival of the race after the ram, which, when overtaken, is led to a\nlarge rock and there killed. For the race after the ram, cfr. also\nVillemarqu\u00e9, _Chants Populaires de la Bretagne_.--In a popular song,\nin which _England_ is transformed into _Engelland_ (or country of the\nangels), Mary, the nurse of God, appears with the white lamb:--\n\n      \"Die Himmelsth\u00fcr wird aufgehen;\n       Maria Gottes Amme\n       Kommt mit dem weissen Lamme.\"\n\n[789] Menzel, the work quoted before.\n\n[790] Professor Emilio Teza has published a medi\u00e6val Italian version\nof this poem with notes.\n\n[791] Cfr. the before-quoted fable of _Babrios_, in which the vine\ncomplains of the he-goat which eats its leaves.--In the Italian\nproverb, \"Salvar la capra e i cavoli,\" the she-goat is again indicated\nas an eater of leaves.--The leaves of the sorb-apple, according to the\nNorwegian belief, cure sick goats, by which the god Thor is\ndrawn.--Cfr. Kuhn, _Die H. d. F. u. d. G._\n\n[792] From a narrative made to me by my friend Valentino Carrera, an\nintrepid Alp-climber and popular dramatist.\n\n[793] Referred to by Martial's epigram:--\n\n      \"Tam male Thais olet, quam non fullonis avari\n       Tecta vetus media, sed modo fracta via.\n       Non ab amore recens hircus,\" &c.\n\n[794] With this myth of the brother Phrixos and of the sister Helle,\nwho pass the sea or fly through the air with the sheep, is connected\nthe Russian story recorded above of Ivan and Helena; Ivan is changed\ninto a little kid or lamb. In the Italian variety of the same story,\nthe sister is thrown into the sea by the witch. Whilst the brother and\nsister pass the Hellespont upon the golden ram, Helle falls into the\nsea. We learn from Ap\u00f4llonios, in the second book of the _Argon._,\nthat the fleece of the sheep became gold only when, on its arrival in\nColchis, it was sacrificed and suspended upon an oak-tree. The\ncloud-ram becomes golden only in the morning and evening sky.--The\nluminous fleece can perhaps be recognised in the bride of the\n_Rigvedas_, who, leaning towards the relations of Kaksh\u00eevant, says:\n\"Every day I shall be (properly speaking, I am) like the little woolly\nsheep of the gandh\u00e2ri (sarv\u00e2ham asmi roma\u00e7\u00e2 gandh\u00e2r\u00een\u00e2m iv\u00e2vik\u00e2);\"\n_Rigv._ i. 126. As there is an etymological analogy, so there may be a\nmythical analogy between the gandh\u00e2ri and the gandharv\u00e2s.\n\n[795] Book x.\n\n[796] Ovid calls the goat \"h\u00e6dorum mater formosa duorum,\" and sings\nthat the goat herself broke one of her horns against a tree, which\nhorn the nymph Amalthea wrapped--\n\n                        \"decentibus herbis\n      Et plenum pomis ad Jovis ora tulit;\"\n\nand Jupiter, when lord of heaven, in reward--\n\n      \"Sidera nutricem, nutricis fertile cornu\n       Fecit, quod domin\u00e6 nunc quoque nomen habet.\"\n\nEND OF VOL. I.\n\nPRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY\nEDINBURGH AND LONDON\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n    Page 1 - Added a missing -- separator (... for cows.--Cavern where\n    ...)\n\n    Page 24 - Removed the second \"the\" (... it is the third sun ...)\n\n    Page 178 - Added missing period. (... him from danger. These were\n    ...)\n\n    Page 196 - There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this\n    page (...  carried off. (This is the ...)\n\n    Page 211 - There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this\n    page (...  perfidious persecutor. (The evening ...)\n\n    Page 313 - There is an unmatched round bracket starting on this\n    page (...  called Urv\u00e2ksha (a word ...)\n\n    Page 335 - Removed an extra \"the\" (... seizes the branch of ...)\n\n    Corrected misspellings throughout the text\n\n    There are multiple spellings of many names throughout, all of which\n    appear valid, left per the text.\n\n    There are many words that are both hyphenated and unhyphenated in\n    the text (i.e. cowmaid and cow-maid). Words were left to match the\n    text.\n\n    Replaced non-standard characters with the closest standard\n    character. (i.e. \"[h.]\" replaced with \"h\")\n\n    Footnotes 59 and 433 have no anchor in the text\n\n    Added closing quotes to the end of Footnotes 395 and 436\n\n    Footnote 167 - Superscript changed for plain text (... erster Theil;\n    2^te Aufl. S. ...)\n\n    Footnote 518 - There is an unmatched round bracket in this footnote\n    (... _attonito_ (or, properly ...)\n\n    Footnote 558 - There is an unmatched quote in this footnote (...\n    cavalli stregari;\" _Prologo._ 10 ...)\n\n    Footnote 579 - Replaced the final comma with a period.\n\n    Footnote 612 - Replaced comma with period after \"i\" (_Tuti-Name_, i.\n    151.)\n\n    Footnote 659 - Changed \"lightned\" to \"lightninged\" (... day it\n    lightninged and thundered.)\n\n    Footnote 715 - Added second period after \"v\" (... _Ib._ v. 12. ...)","title":"Zoological Mythology; or, The Legends of Animals, Volume 1 (of 2)","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":143744}