{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38688/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38688","id":"gutenberg_38688","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38688","summary":null,"tags":["Animals -- Folklore","Animals -- Mythology","Animals, Mythical","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\nhttp://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY\n\nOR\n\nTHE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS\n\n\nBY\n\nANGELO DE GUBERNATIS\n\nPROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN THE ISTITUTO DI\nSTUDII SUPERIORI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO, AT FLORENCE\n\nFOREIGN MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PHILOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY\nOF THE DUTCH INDIES\n\n\n_IN TWO VOLUMES_\n\nVOL. II.\n\n\nLONDON\n\nTR\u00dcBNER & CO., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW\n\n1872\n\n[_All rights reserved_]\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                                   PAGE\n\nPart First.\n\nTHE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH.\n\n(_Continued._)\n\n  CHAPTER V.\n\n  THE HOG, THE WILD BOAR, AND THE HEDGEHOG,                           1\n\n  CHAPTER VI.\n\n  THE DOG,                                                           17\n\n  CHAPTER VII.\n\n  THE CAT, THE WEASEL, THE MOUSE, THE MOLE, THE SNAIL,\n  THE ICHNEUMON, THE SCORPION, THE ANT, THE LOCUST, AND\n  THE GRASSHOPPER,                                                   41\n\n  CHAPTER VIII.\n\n  THE HARE, THE RABBIT, THE ERMINE, AND THE BEAVER,                  76\n\n  CHAPTER IX.\n\n  THE ANTELOPE, THE STAG, THE DEER, AND THE GAZELLE,                 83\n\n  CHAPTER X.\n\n  THE ELEPHANT,                                                      91\n\n  CHAPTER XI.\n\n  THE MONKEY AND THE BEAR,                                           96\n\n  CHAPTER XII.\n\n  THE FOX, THE JACKAL, AND THE WOLF,                                121\n\n  CHAPTER XIII.\n\n  THE LION, THE TIGER, THE LEOPARD, THE PANTHER, AND THE\n  CHAMELEON,                                                        153\n\n  CHAPTER XIV.\n\n  THE SPIDER,                                                       162\n\n\nPart Second.\n\nTHE ANIMALS OF THE AIR.\n\n  CHAPTER I.\n\n  BIRDS,                                                            167\n\n  CHAPTER II.\n\n  THE HAWK, THE EAGLE, THE VULTURE, THE PHOENIX, THE\n  HARPY, THE STRIX, THE BAT, THE GRIFFON, AND THE SIREN,            180\n\n  CHAPTER III.\n\n  THE WREN, THE BEETLE, AND THE FIREFLY,                            207\n\n  CHAPTER IV.\n\n  THE BEE, THE WASP, THE FLY, THE GNAT, THE MOSQUITO, THE\n  HORSEFLY, AND THE CICADA,                                         215\n\n  CHAPTER V.\n\n  THE CUCKOO, THE HERON, THE HEATHCOCK, THE PARTRIDGE,\n  THE NIGHTINGALE, THE SWALLOW, THE SPARROW, AND THE HOOPOE,        225\n\n  CHAPTER VI.\n\n  THE OWL, THE CROW, THE MAGPIE, AND THE STORK,                     243\n\n  CHAPTER VII.\n\n  THE WOODPECKER AND THE MARTIN,                                    264\n\n  CHAPTER VIII.\n\n  THE LARK AND THE QUAIL,                                           273\n\n  CHAPTER IX.\n\n  THE COCK AND THE HEN,                                             279\n\n  CHAPTER X.\n\n  THE DOVE, THE DUCK, THE GOOSE, AND THE SWAN,                      294\n\n  CHAPTER XI.\n\n  THE PARROT,                                                       320\n\n  CHAPTER XII.\n\n  THE PEACOCK,                                                      323\n\n\nPart Third.\n\nTHE ANIMALS OF THE WATER.\n\n  CHAPTER I.\n\n  FISHES, AND PARTICULARLY THE PIKE, THE SACRED FISH OR\n  FISH OF ST PETER, THE CARP, THE MELWEL, THE HERRING,\n  THE EEL, THE LITTLE GOLDFISH, THE SEA-URCHIN, THE\n  LITTLE PERCH, THE BREAM, THE DOLPHIN, AND THE WHALE,              329\n\n  CHAPTER II.\n\n  THE CRAB,                                                         354\n\n  CHAPTER III.\n\n  THE TORTOISE,                                                     360\n\n  CHAPTER IV.\n\n  THE FROG, THE LACERTA VIRIDIS, AND THE TOAD,                      371\n\n  CHAPTER V.\n\n  THE SERPENT AND THE AQUATIC MONSTER,                              388\n\n  CONCLUSION,                                                       421\n\n\n\n\nZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY;\n\nOR\n\nTHE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS.\n\n\n\n\nFirst Part.\n\nTHE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE HOG, THE WILD BOAR, AND THE HEDGEHOG.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The hog as a hero disguise.--The disguises of the hero and of the\n    heroine.--Ghosh\u00e2, the leprous maiden.--The moon in the well.--Ap\u00e2l\u00e2\n    cured by Indras.--Ap\u00e2l\u00e2 has the dress of a hog.--Godh\u00e2, the\n    persecuted maiden in a hog's dress.--The hogs eat the apples in the\n    maiden's stead.--The meretricious Circe and the hogs.--Porcus and\n    upodaras.--The wild boar god in India and in Persia.--Tydoeus, the\n    wild boar.--The wild boar of Erymanthos.--The wild boar of\n    Meleagros.--The Vedic monster wild boar.--The dog and the\n    pig.--Puloman, the wild boar, burned.--The hog in the fire.--The hog\n    cheats the wolf.--The astute hedgehog.--The hedgehog, the wild boar,\n    and the hog are presages of water.--The porcupine and its quills;\n    the comb and the dense forest.--The ears and the heart of the wild\n    boar.--The wild boar and the hog at Christmas.--The devil a wild\n    boar.--The heroes killed by the wild boar.--The tusk of the wild\n    boar now life-giving, now deadly; the dead man's tooth.--The hero\n    asleep; the hero becomes a eunuch; the lettuce-eunuch eaten by\n    Adonis, prior to his being killed by the wild boar.\n\nThe hog, as well as the wild boar, is another disguise of the solar\nhero in the night--another of the forms very often assumed by the sun,\nas a mythical hero, in the darkness or clouds. He adopts this form in\norder sometimes to hide himself from his persecutors, sometimes to\nexterminate them, and sometimes on account of a divine or demoniacal\nmalediction. This form is sometimes a dark and demoniacal guise\nassumed by the hero; on which account the poem of _Hyndla_, in the\n_Edda_ calls the hog a hero's animal. Often, however, it represents\nthe demon himself. When the solar hero enters the domain of evening,\nthe form he had of a handsome youth or splendid prince disappears; but\nhe himself, as a general rule, does not die along with it; he only\npasses into another, an uglier, and a monstrous form. The black bull,\nthe black horse, the grey horse, the hump-backed horse, the ass, and\nthe goat, are all forms of the same disguise with which we are already\nacquainted. The thousand-bellied Indras, who has lost his testicles;\nArgunas, who disguises himself as a eunuch; Indras, Vishnus, Zeus,\nAchille\u00fcs, Odin, Thor, Helgi, and many other mythical heroes, who\ndisguise themselves as women; and the numerous beautiful heroines who,\nin mythology and tradition, disguise themselves as bearded men, are\nall ancient forms under which was represented the passage of either\nthe sun or the aurora of evening into the darkness, cloud, ocean,\nforest, grotto, or hell of night. The hero lamed, blinded, bound,\ndrowned, or buried in a wood, can be understood when referred\nrespectively to the sun which is thrown down the mountain-side, which\nis lost in the darkness, which is held fast by the fetters of the\ndarkness, which plunges into the ocean of night, or which hides itself\nfrom our sight in the nocturnal forest. The illumined and illuminating\nsun, when it ceases to shine in the dark night, becomes devoid of\nsight, devoid of intelligence, and stupid. The handsome solar hero\nbecomes ugly when, with the night, his splendour ceases; the strong,\nred, healthy, solar hero, who pales and grows dark in the night,\nbecomes ill. We still say in Italy that the sun is ill when we see it\nlose its brightness, and, as it were, grow pale.\n\nIn the 117th hymn of the first book of the _Rigvedas_, the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u cure\nthe leprous daughter of Kaksh\u00eevant, Ghosh\u00e2, who is growing old without a\nhusband in her father's house, and find her a husband; the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u\ndeliver the aurora from the darkness of night, and marry her.[1]\n\nIn the eightieth hymn of the eighth book of the _Rigvedas_, the same\nmyth occurs again with relation to Indras, and in a more complete\nform. We have already remarked, in the first book of the _Rigvedas_,\nthe maiden Ap\u00e2l\u00e2 who descends from the mountain to draw water, and\ndraws up the somas (ambrosia, or else the moon, whence, as it seems to\nme, the origin of the double Italian proverb, \"Pescare, or mostrare la\nluna nel pozzo,\" to fish up, or show the moon in the well, which was\nafterwards corrupted to indicate one who says, or narrates, what is\nuntrue or impossible), and takes it to Indras, the well-known drinker\nof ambrosia (here identified with the moon, or somas). Indras,\ncontented with the maiden, consents, as she is ugly and deformed, to\npass over the three heavenly stations, that is, to pass over his\nfather's head, her vast breast and her bosom.[2] In the last strophe\nof the hymn quoted above, Indras makes a luminous robe, a skin of the\nsun, for Ap\u00e2l\u00e2, who has been thrice purified, by the wheel, by the\nchariot itself, and by the rudder of Indras's chariot.[3] And the same\nmyth occurs once more in a clearer and more complete form in a legend\nof the _Brihaddevat\u00e2_. Ap\u00e2l\u00e2 beseeches Indras, loved by her, to make\nfor her a beautiful and perfect (faultless, unimpeachable) skin.\nIndras, hearing her voice, passes over her with wheel, chariot, and\nrudder; by three efforts, he takes off her ugly skin. Ap\u00e2l\u00e2 then\nappears in a beautiful one. In the skin thus stript off there was a\nbristle (\u00e7alyakah); above, it had a hirsute appearance; below, it\nresembled the skin of a lizard.[4] The bristle or thorn upon the skin\nof Ap\u00e2l\u00e2 is naturally suggestive of the hedgehog, the porcupine, the\nwild boar, and the bristly hog. The aurora, as the Vedic hymn sings,\nshines only at the sight of her husband; thus Ap\u00e2l\u00e2, of the ugly or\nthe hog's skin, and Ghosh\u00e2, the leprous maiden, become splendid and\nhealthy by the grace of their husband. Thus Cinderella, or she who has\na dress of the colour of ashes, or of a grey or dark colour, like the\nsky of night (in Russian stories Cinderella is called Cernushka, which\nmeans little black one, as well as little dirty one), appears\nexceedingly beautiful only when she finds herself in the prince's\nball-room, or in church, in candlelight, and near the prince: the\naurora is beautiful only when the sun is near.\n\nIn the twenty-eighth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the\nmaiden persecuted by her father and would-be seducer, who wishes to\nmarry her, because he thinks her as beautiful as her mother (the\nevening aurora is as beautiful as the morning aurora), covers herself\nwith a hog's skin, which she takes off only when she marries a young\nprince.[5] In another story of White Russia,[6] we have, instead, the\nson of a king persecuted by his father, who is constrained to quit his\nfather's house with a cloak made of a pig's skin. In an unpublished\nstory of the Monferrato, the contents of which Dr Ferraro has\ncommunicated to me, the girl persecuted by her step-mother is\ncondemned to eat in one night an interminable number of apples; by\nmeans of two hog's bristles, she calls up a whole legion of pigs, who\neat the apples in her stead.\n\nAs to the rudder of Indras's chariot in the lower bosom of Ap\u00e2l\u00e2, it\nwould seem to me to have a phallic signification. Indras may have\ncured Ap\u00e2l\u00e2 by marrying her, as the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, by means of a husband,\ncured the leprous Ghosh\u00e2, who was growing old in her father's house.\nIn the tenth story of the _Pentamerone_, the king of Roccaforte\nmarries an old woman, believing he is espousing a young one. He throws\nher out of the window, but she is arrested in her fall by a tree, to\nwhich she clings; the fairies pass by, and make her young again, as\nwell as beautiful and rich, and tie up her hair with a golden ribbon.\nThe aged sister of the old woman who has grown young again (the night)\ngoes to the barber, thinking that the same result may be attained\nsimply by having her skin removed, and is flayed alive. For the myth\nof the two sisters, night and aurora, the black maiden and she who\ndisguises herself in black, in grey, or the colour of ashes, consult\nalso the _Pentamerone_, ii. 2. According to the Italian belief, the\nhog is dedicated to St Anthony, and a St Anthony is also celebrated as\nthe protector of weddings, like the Scandinavian Thor, to whom the hog\nis sacred. The hog symbolises fat; and therefore, in the sixteenth\nEsthonian story, the hog is eaten at weddings.\n\nThe companions of Odysseus, transformed by the meretricious\nenchantress Circe, with the help of poisonous herbs, into filthy hogs,\ncare only to gratify their bodily appetites, whence Horace, in the\nsecond of the first book of the _Epistol\u00e6_--\n\n      \"Sirenum voces, et Circes pocula nosti,\n       Qu\u00e6 si cum sociis stultus cupidusque bibisset\n       Sub domina meretrice fuisset turpis et excors\n       Vixisset canis immundus, vel amica luto Sus.\"\n\nThe hog, as one of the most libidinous of animals, is sacred to Venus;\nfor this reason, according to the Pythagorian doctrines, lustful men are\ntransformed into hogs, and the expression \"pig\" is applied to a man\ngiven over to every species of lust. In Varro[7] we read:--\"Nuptiarum\ninitio, antiqui reges ac sublimes viri in Hetruria in conjuctione\nnuptiali nova nupta et novus maritus primum porcum immolant; prisci\nquoque Latini et etiam Gr\u00e6ci in Italia idem fecisse videntur, nam et\nnostr\u00e6 mulieres, maxim\u00e6 nutrices naturam, qua foemin\u00e6 sunt, in\nvirginibus appellant porcum, et gr\u00e6ce choiron, significantes esse dignum\ninsigni nuptiarum.\" The rudder of Indras, which passes over the upodaras\n(or lower bosom) of Ap\u00e2l\u00e2, is illustrated by this passage in Varro.\n\nAs to the wild boar, its character is generally demoniacal; but the\nreason why the Hindoo gods were invested with this form was in a great\ndegree due to equivocation in language. The word _vishnus_ means he\nwho penetrates; on account of its sharp tusks, in a Vedic hymn,[8] the\nwild boar is called vishnus, or the penetrator. Hence, probably, by\nthe same analogy, in another hymn, Rudras, the father of the Marutas,\nthe winds, is invoked as a red, hirsute, horrid, celestial wild\nboar,[9] and the Marutas are invoked when the thunderbolts are seen in\nthe form of wild boars running out from the iron teeth and golden\nwheels;[10] that is, carried by the chariot of the Marutas, the winds,\nwho also are said to have tongues of fire, and eyes like the sun.[11]\nVishnus himself, in the _Rigvedas_, at the instigation of Indras,\nbrings a hundred oxen, the milky gruel, and the destroying wild\nboar.[12] Therefore Indras himself loves the shape of a wild boar,\nwhich, in the _Avesta_, is his _alter ego_. Verethraghnas assumes the\nsame form. We know that the sun (sometimes the moon), in the form of a\nram or he-goat, thrusts and pushes against the cloud, or the darkness,\nuntil he pierces it with his golden horns; and so Vishnus, the\npenetrator, with his sharp golden tusks (thunderbolts, lunar horns,\nand solar rays), puts forth such great strength in the darkness and\nthe cloud that he bursts through both, and comes forth luminous and\nvictorious. According to the P\u00e2uranic traditions, Vishnus, in his\nthird incarnation, when killing the demon Hirany\u00e2kshas (or him of the\ngolden eye), drew forth or delivered the earth from the waters (or\nfrom the ocean of the damp and gloomy night of the winter).[13]\nAccording to the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[14] Indras took the form of a wild boar\nimmediately after his birth.\n\nThe Arcadian wild boar of Mount Erymanth\u00fcs is familiar to the reader.\nH\u00earakl\u00eas killed it in his third labour, in the same way as Vishnus in\nthe third of his incarnations became a wild boar; Ovid describes him\nvery elegantly in the eighth book of the _Metamorphoses_--\n\n      \"Sanguine et igne micant oculi, riget horrida cervix;\n       Et set\u00e6 densis similes hastilibus horrent.\n       Stantque velut vallum; velut alta hastilia set\u00e6,\n       Fervida cum rauco latos stridore per armos\n       Spuma fluit, dentes \u00e6quantur dentibus Indis,\n       Fulmen ab ore venit frondes afflatibus ardent.\"\n\nThe wild boar of Meleagros is a variety of this very monster; it is,\ntherefore, not without reason that when H\u00earakl\u00eas goes to the infernal\nregions, all the shades flee before him, except those of Meleagros and\nMedusa. Meleagros and H\u00earakl\u00eas resemble each other, are identified\nwith each other; as to Medusa, we must not forget that the head of the\nGorgon was represented upon the \u00e6gis of Zeus, that Gorgon is one of\nthe names given to Pallas, and that the Gorgons, and especially\nMedusa, are connected with the garden of the Hesper\u00eedes, where the\ngolden apples grow which H\u00earakl\u00eas loves.\n\nIn the sixty-first hymn of the first book of the _Rigvedas_, the god,\nafter having eaten and drunk well, kills, with the weapon stolen from\nthe celestial blacksmith Tvashtar, the monster wild boar, who steals\nthat which is destined for the gods.[15] In the ninety-ninth hymn of\nthe tenth book of the _Rigvedas_, Tritas (the third brother), by the\nstrength which he has received from Indras, kills the monster wild\nboar.[16] In the _T\u00e2ittiriya Br\u00e2hmanam_, we find another very\ninteresting passage. The wild boar keeps guard over the treasure of\nthe demons, which is enclosed within seven mountains. Indras, with the\nsacred herb, succeeds in opening the seven mountains, kills the wild\nboar, and, in consequence, discovers the treasure.[17] In the\nfifty-fifth hymn of the seventh book of the _Rigvedas_, the hog and\nthe dog lacerate and tear each other to pieces in turns;[18] the dog\nand the pig are found in strife again in the \u00c6sopian fable.\n\nIn the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[19] Puloman assumes the form of a wild boar to\ncarry off the wife of Bhrigus; she prematurely gives birth to Cyavanas,\nwho, to avenge his mother, burns the wild boar to ashes. The thunderbolt\ntears through the cloud, the sun's ray (or the lunar horn) breaks\nthrough the darkness. In the popular Tuscan story, the stupid Pimpi\nkills the hog, by teasing and tormenting it with the tongs, which he has\nmade red-hot in the fire. In the ninth of the Sicilian stories collected\nby Laura Gonzenbach, the girl Zafarana, throwing three hog's bristles\nupon the burning embers, causes the old prince, her husband, to become\nyoung and handsome again; it is ever the same lucid myth (a variety of\nAp\u00e2l\u00e2). Thus, in the first Esthonian story, the prince, by eating pork\n(or in the night forest), acquires the faculty of understanding the\nlanguage of birds; the hero acquires malice, if he has it not already;\nhe becomes cunning, if he was previously stupid; we therefore also find\nin a story of _Afanassieff_,[20] the wolf cheated, first by the dog,\nthen by the goat, and finally by the hog, who nearly drowns him. The\nwolf wishes to eat the hog's little ones; the hog requests him to wait\nunder a bridge, where there is no water, whilst he goes, as he promises,\nin the meantime to wash the young porkers; the wolf waits, and the hog\ngoes to let off the water, which, as it passes under the bridge, puts\nthe wolf's life in danger. Hence the belief noticed by Aristotle, that\nthe hog is a match for the wolf, and the corresponding Greek fables.\nThis prudence is found carried to the highest degree in the hedgehog.\nThe Arabs are accustomed to say that the champion of truth must have the\ncourage of the cock, the scrutiny of the hen, the heart of the lion, the\nrush of the wild boar, the cunning of the fox, the prudence of the\nhedgehog, the swiftness of the wolf, the resignation of the dog, and the\ncomplexion of the naguir.[21] A verse attributed to Archilokos says:--\n\n      \"Poll' oid' al\u00f4p\u00eax, all' echinos en mega,\"\n\nwhich passed into the proverb: \"One knavery of the hedgehog is worth\nmore than many of the fox.\" In the _\u00c2itarey. Br._,[22] the hedgehog is\nsaid to be born of the talon of the rapacious hawk. In the \u00c6sopian\nfables, the wolf comes upon a hedgehog, and congratulates himself upon\nhis good luck; but the hedgehog defends itself. The wolf flatters it\nand beseeches it to lay down its arms, but it answers that it is\nimprudent to do so while the danger of fighting remains. Hence the\ncommon belief that the wolf is afraid of the hedgehog; hence the\nproverb, \"It is very easy to find the hedgehog, but very difficult to\nhold it.\" In a fable of Abstemius, the hedgehog appears as an enemy,\nnot only of the wolf, but also of the serpent; it pricks the viper\nwhich has taken refuge in its den. Then the viper begs it to go out,\nbut it answers, \"Let him go out who cannot stay.\" The hedgehog has the\nappearance of a little wild boar; and as an enemy of the wolf and of\nthe serpent, it appears to me to combine in one the dwarf Vishnus and\nthe wild boar Vishnus, the exterminator of monsters, who, as we know,\nalmost always assume, in Hindoo mythology, the form of a wolf or a\nserpent. And inasmuch as Vishnus, like Indras, is a thundering and\nrain-giving god, in his character of sun in the cloud, or nightly and\nautumnal moon, the hedgehog, too, is believed to presage wind and\nrain. The wild boar, when dreamed of, is, according to Artemidoros,\nquoted by Aldrovandi,[23] an omen of tempest and rain deluge. To this,\nrefers also the fable spoken of by \u00c6lianos and Pliny concerning the\nhogs carried off by the pirates, which make the ship sink. The\ncloud-hogs are evidently represented by this myth.\n\nThe porcupine seems to be an intermediate form between the hedgehog\nand the wild boar. According to the popular belief, the ashes of a\ndead porcupine are, when scattered on the head, an excellent remedy\nagainst baldness, and a hair-restorative. And inasmuch as it is\ndifficult to make the porcupine's quills fall, I read in\nAldrovandi,[24] that women \"Ad discriminandos capillos, ut illos\nconservent ill\u00e6sos, aculeis potius hystricum, quam acubus utuntur.\"\nThis information derived from Aldrovandi is interesting, as enabling\nus to understand a not uncommon circumstance in Russian stories. The\nhero and heroine who flee from the monster that pursues them have\nreceived from a good magician or a good fairy the gift of a comb, of\nsuch a nature that when thrown on the ground it makes a dense thicket\nor impenetrable forest arise, which arrests the pursuer's\nprogress.[25] This is a reminiscence of the porcupine with the\nthick-set quills, of the bristly wild boar, of the gloomy night or\ncloud itself, of the horned moon, which hides the fugitive solar hero\nand heroine from the sight of the pursuer.\n\nNotwithstanding this, the hog and the wild boar generally play in\nIndo-European tradition a part resembling that of the scape-goat and of\nthe ass _souffre-douleur_. In the _Pancatantram_, the ears and the heart\nof the credulous ass, torn by the lion, are eaten. In Babrios, the\n_r\u00f4le_ of the ass is sustained by the stag (which is often in myths a\nvariation of the foolish hero). In the _Gesta Romanorum_,[26] the wild\nboar loses, by his silliness, first one ear, then the other, then his\ntail; at last he is killed, and his heart eaten by the cook. In Germany,\nit is the custom, as it formerly was in England, to serve up at dinner\non Christmas Day an ornamented boar's head, no doubt as a symbol of the\ngloomy monster of lunar winter killed at the winter solstice, after\nwhich the days grow always longer and brighter. For the same reason, the\ncommon people in Germany often go to sleep on Christmas Day in the\npig-sty, hoping to dream there; this dream is a presage of good luck.\nThe new sun is born in the sty of the winter hog; even the Christian\nRedeemer was born in a stable, but instead of the hog it was the ass,\nits mythical equivalent, that occupied it. For this reason, too, the\ndevil often assumes in German superstition the form of a monstrous boar,\nwhich the hero kills.[27] The wild boar is also described as an\n_aversier_ (or demon) in the romance of _Gavin le Loherain_[28]--\n\n                        \"Voi\u00e9s quel aversier,\n      Grant a le dent fors de la gueule un piet\n      Mult fu hardis qui a cop l'atendi\u00e9.\"\n\nThe author of _Loci Communes_ says that Ferquhar II., king of Scotland,\nwas killed by a wild boar; other writers tell us, on the contrary, that\nhis death was caused by a wolf; but we already know how, in the myth,\nwolf and wild boar are sometimes equivalent the one to the other.\n\nIn the same way as Vishnus changed himself into a wild boar, and the\nhog was sacred to the Scandinavian Mars, so was the wild boar sacred\nto the Roman and Hellenic Mars; and even Mars himself assumed the\nshape of a monstrous lunar wild boar in order to kill the young\nAdonis, beloved of Venus. There is no god or saint so perfect but has\nonce in his life committed a fault, as there is not a demon so wicked\nas not to have done good at least once. The adversaries exchange\nparts. In Servius, it is with a wild boar's tusk that the bark is cut\noff the tree in which Myrrha, pregnant with Adonis after her incest\nwith her father, shuts herself up (we have above seen, on the\ncontrary, Indras who opens with an herb the hiding-place of the wild\nboar, in order to kill it). We here have again the incestuous father,\nthe girl in the wooden dress, the forest, the penetrating tusk of the\nwild boar which bursts through the forest of night, and enables the\nyoung hero to come forth, whom he kills in the evening out of\njealousy. In the ancient popular belief of Sweden, too, the wild boar\nkills the sun whilst he is asleep in a cavern and his horses grazing.\nNotice, moreover, the double character of the tusk of the nocturnal\nlunar wild boar; in the morning it is a life-giving tusk, which\nenables the solar hero to be born; in the evening it is a\ndeath-dealing one; the wild boar is alive during the night, and the\ndarkness is split open by the white tooth of the living wild boar. The\nlunar wild boar or hog is sacrificed,--it is killed at morn, in the\nnuptials of the solar hero. The tooth of this dead wild boar, in the\nevening, causes the death of the young hero or heroine, or else\ntransforms them into wild beasts. In popular fairy tales the witch,\nfeigning a wish to comb the head of the hero or the heroine, thrusts\ninto his or her head now a large pin, now a dead man's tooth, and thus\ndeprives them of life or human form. This is a reminiscence of the\ntusk of the cloudy, nocturnal, or wintry wild boar who kills the sun,\nor metamorphoses him, or puts him to sleep.\n\nTo represent the evening sun asleep, a curious particular is offered\nus in the myth of Adonis. It is well-known that doctors attribute to\nthe lettuce a soporific virtue, not dissimilar to that of the poppy.\nNow, it is interesting to read in _Nikandros Kolophonios_, quoted by\nAldrovandi, that Adonis was struck by the wild boar after having eaten\na lettuce. Ibykos, a Pythagorean poet, calls the lettuce by the name\nof eunuch, as it is that which puts to sleep, which renders stupid and\nimpotent; Adonis who has eaten the lettuce is therefore taken from\nVenus by the lunar wild boar, being eunuch and incapable. The solar\nhero falls asleep in the night, and becomes a eunuch, like the Hindoo\nArgunas, when he is hidden; and otherwise, the sun becomes the moon.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Cfr. the chapter on the Duck, the Goose, the Swan, and the Dove.\n\n[2] Im\u00e2ni tr\u00eeni vishtap\u00e2 t\u00e2n\u00eendra vi rohaya \u00e7iras tatasyorvar\u00e2m \u00e2d\nidam ma upodare.\n\n[3] Khe rathasya khe 'nasah khe yugasya \u00e7atakrato ap\u00e2l\u00e2m indra trish\np\u00fbtvy akrinoh s\u00fbryatvacam.\n\n[4]\n\n      Sulom\u00e2m anavady\u00e2\u00f1g\u00eem kuru m\u00e2m \u00e7akra sutvac\u00e2m\n      Tasy\u00e2s tad vacanam \u00e7rutv\u00e2 pr\u00eetas tena purandarah\n      Rathachidrena t\u00e2m indrah \u00e7akatasya yugasya ca\n      Prakshipya ni\u00e7cakarsha tris tatah s\u00e2 sutvac\u00e2 'bhavat\n      Tasy\u00e2m tvaci vyapet\u00e2y\u00e2m sarvasy\u00e2m \u00e7alyako 'bhavat\n      Uttar\u00e2 tv abhavad godh\u00e2 krikal\u00e2\u00e7as tvag uttam\u00e2.\n\n_Godh\u00e2_ seems to signify he who has the form of a hair (_go_, among\nits other meanings, has that of hair). As an animal, the dictionaries\nalso recognise in the godh\u00e2 a lizard. But perhaps we may also\ntranslate it by toad or frog; we could thus also understand the fable\nof the frog which aspires to equal the ox. I observe, moreover, to\nexemplify the ease with which we can pass from the ox to the frog, and\nfrom the frog to the lizard, how in the Russian story of\n_Afanassieff_, ii. 23, a beautiful princess is hidden in a frog; in\nTuscan and Piedmontese stories and in Sicilian superstitions, in a\ntoad. In the stories of the _Pentamerone_, the good fairy is a\n_lacerta cornuta_ (a horned lizard). Ghosh\u00e2, too, has for its\nequivalent in Sanskrit, karkata\u00e7ri\u00f1g\u00ee, which means a horned shrimp. In\nother varieties the young prince is a he-goat or a dragon.\n\n[5] For the persecuted maiden in connection with the hog or hogs, cfr.\nalso the _Pentamerone_, iii. 10.\n\n[6] _Afanassieff_, v. 38.\n\n[7] _De Re Rustica_, ii. 4.\n\n[8] _Rigv._ i. 61, 7.\n\n[9] Divo var\u00e2ham arusham kapardinam tvesham r\u00fbpam namas\u00e2 ni hvay\u00e2mahe;\n_Rigv._ i. 114, 5.\n\n[10] Pa\u00e7yan hiranyacakr\u00e2n ayodanshtr\u00e2n vidh\u00e2vato var\u00e2h\u00e2n; _Rigv._ i.\n88, 5.\n\n[11] Agnigihv\u00e2 manavah s\u00fbracakshasah; _Rigv._ i. 89, 7.--In the\n_Edda_, the chariot of Frey is drawn by a hog. The head of the\nmythical hog is luminous. In the twenty-eighth story of the second\nbook of _Afanassieff_, Ivan Dur\u00e1k obtains from the two young heroes,\nwho miraculously appear to him, three marvellous gifts, _i.e._, the\nhog with golden bristles, the buck with golden horns and tail, and the\nhorse with mane and tail also of gold.\n\n[12] Vi\u00e7vet t\u00e2 vishnur \u00e2bharad urukramas tveshitah \u00e7atam mahish\u00e2n\nksh\u00eerap\u00e2kam odanam var\u00e2ham indra emusham; _Rigv._ viii. 66, 10.--In\nthe Thebaid of Statius (v. 487), Tydoeus, too, is dressed in the\nspoils of a wild boar--\n\n      \"Terribiles contra setis, ac dente recurvo,\n       Tydea per latos humeros ambire laborant\n       Exuvi\u00e6, Calydonis honos.\"\n\n[13] According to other fables, the three persons of the Trinity at one\ntime disputed as to who had the pre-eminence. Brahm\u00e2n, who, from the\nsummit of the lotus where he was seated, saw nothing in the universe,\nbelieved himself the first of creatures. He descended into the stem of\nthe lotus, and finding at last N\u00e2r\u00e2yanas (Vishnus) asleep, he asked him\nwho he was. \"I am the first-born,\" replied Vishnus; Brahm\u00e2n disputed\nthis title and dared even to attack him. But during the struggle,\nMah\u00e2deva (\u00c7iva) threw himself between them, crying, \"It is I who am the\nfirst-born. Nevertheless I will recognise as my superior him who is able\nto see the summit of my head or the sole of my feet.\" Vishnus (as hidden\nor infernal moon), transforming himself into a wild boar, pierced\nthrough the ground and penetrated to the infernal regions, where he saw\nthe feet of Mah\u00e2deva. The latter, on his return, saluted him as the\nfirst-born of the gods; Bournouf, _L'Inde Fran\u00e7aise_.\n\n[14] ii. 119.\n\n[15] Asyed u m\u00e2tuh savaneshu sadyo mahah pitum papiv\u00e2n carv ann\u00e2\nmush\u00e2yad vishnuh pacatam sah\u00eey\u00e2m vidhyad var\u00e2ham tiro adrim ast\u00e2; str.\n7.\n\n[16] Asya trito nv ogas\u00e2 vridh\u00e2no vip\u00e2 var\u00e2ham ayoagray\u00e2 han; str. 6.\n\n[17] Varahoyam vamamoshah saptan\u00e2m gir\u00een\u00e2m parast\u00e2d vittam vedyam\nasur\u00e2n\u00e2m vibharti, sa darbhaping\u00fblam (pingalam?) uddhritya, sapta\ngir\u00een bhittv\u00e2 tam ahanniti, already quoted by Wilson, _Rigv. San._ i.\n164.--Cfr. the chapter on the Woodpecker.\n\n[18] Tvam s\u00fbkarasya dardrihi tava dardartu s\u00fbkarah; str. 4.--The dog in\nrelation with the hog occurs again in the two Latin proverbs: \"Canis\npeccatum sus dependit,\" and \"Aliter catuli longe olent, aliter sues.\"\n\n[19] i. 893.\n\n[20] iv. 13.\n\n[21] Daumas, _La Vie Arabe_, xv.\n\n[22] iii. 3, 26.\n\n[23] Cfr. Aldrovandi, _De Quadrup. Digit. Viv._ ii.\n\n[24] _Ibid._\n\n[25] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 28.\n\n[26] lxxxiii., quoted by Benfey in his Einleitung to the\n_Pancatantram_.--The fable is taken from the thirtieth of Avianus,\nwhere the wild boar loses his two ears and is then eaten, but the cook\n(who represents in tradition the cunning hero) has taken its heart to\neat it:--\n\n      \"Sed cum consumpti dominus cor qu\u00e6reret Apri\n       Impatiens, fertur (cor) rapuisse coquus.\"\n\n[27] In Du Cange, too, \"_aper_ significat diabolum; Papias M. S.\nBitur. Ex illo Scriptur\u00e6: 'Singularis aper egressus est de\nsilva.'\"--Cfr. also Uhland's _Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung\nund Sage_, iii. 141, _et seq._\n\n[28] ii. 220, _et seq._, quoted by Uhland.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE DOG.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Why the myth of the dog is difficult of interpretation.--_Entre\n    chien et loup._--The dog and the moon.--The bitch Saram\u00e2; her double\n    aspect in the Ved\u00e2s and in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_; messenger, consoler, and\n    infernal being.--The dog and the purple; the dog and the meat; the\n    dog and its shadow; the fearless hero and his shadow; the black\n    monster; the fear of Indras.--The two Vedic dogs; S\u00e2rameyas and\n    Herm\u00eas.--The favourite dog of Saram\u00e2; the dog that steals during the\n    sacrifice; the form of a dog to expiate crimes committed in former\n    states of existence; relative Hindoo, Pythagorean and Christian\n    beliefs.--The dog Yamas.--The dog demon that barks, with the long\n    bitter tongue.--The red bitch towards morning a beautiful maiden\n    during the night.--The intestines of the dog eaten.--The hawk that\n    carries honey and the sterile woman.--Dog and woodpecker.--The dog\n    carries the bones of the witch's daughter.--The dog-messenger brings\n    news of the hero.--The nurse-bitch.--The dog and his collar; the dog\n    tied up; the hero becomes a dog.--The dog helps the hero.--The\n    branch of the apple-tree opens the door.--The dog tears the devil in\n    pieces.--The two sons of Ivan think themselves dog's sons.--The\n    intestines of the fish given to be eaten by the bitch.--Ivan the son\n    of the bitch, the very strong hero, goes to the infernal\n    regions.--Dioscuri, Kerberos, funereal purifying dogs of the\n    Persians; the penitent dog; the two dogs equivalent to the two\n    A\u00e7vin\u00e2u.--The luminous children transformed into puppies; relative\n    legends; the maiden whose hands have been cut off obtains golden\n    hands; branches of trees, hands, sons born of a tree; the myth\n    compared and explained in the Vedic hymns, with the example of\n    Hiranyahastas; the word _vadhrimat\u00ee_.--The demoniacal dog.--The\n    strength of the mythical dog.--Monstrous dogs.--The dog Sirius.--To\n    swear by the dog or by the wolf.--A dog is always born among\n    wolves.--The dog dreamed of.--Double appearance of the dog; the\n    stories of the king of the assassins and of the magician with seven\n    heads.--St Vitus invoked in Sicily whilst a dog is being tied\n    up.--The dog of the shepherd behaves like a wolf among the\n    sheep.--The dog as an instrument of chastisement; the expressions to\n    lead the dog and the ignominious punishment of carrying the\n    dog.--The dogs that tear in pieces; the death caused by the dog\n    prognosticated; the dogs Sirius and Kerberos igneous and\n    pestilential; the incendiary dog of St Dominic, the inventor of\n    pyres for burning heretics, and the dog of the infected San Rocco.\n\nThe myth of the dog is one of those of which the interpretation is\nmore delicate. As the common dog stays upon the doorstep of the house,\nso is the mythical dog generally found at the gate of the sky, morning\nand evening, in connection with the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u. It was a fugitive\nphenomenon of but an instant's duration which determined the formation\nof the principal myth of the dog. When this moment is past, the myth\nchanges its nature. I have already referred to the French expression,\n\"entre chien et loup,\" as used to denote the twilight;[29] the dog\nprecedes by one instant the evening twilight, and follows by one\ninstant that of morning: it is, in a word, the twilight at its most\nluminous moment. Inasmuch as it watches at the gates of night, it is\nusually a funereal, infernal, and formidable animal; inasmuch as it\nguards the gates of day, it is generally represented as a propitious\none; and as we have seen that, of the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, one is in especial\nrelation with the moon, and the other with the sun, so, of the two\ndogs of mythology, one is especially lunar, and the other especially\nsolar. Between these two dogs we find the bitch their mother, who, if\nI am not mistaken, represents now the wandering moon of heaven, the\nguiding moon that illumines the path of the hero and heroine, now the\nthunderbolt that tears the cloud, and opens up the hiding-place of the\ncows or waters. We have, therefore, thus far three mythical dogs. One;\nmenacing, is found by the solar hero in the evening at the western\ngates of heaven; the second, the more active, helps him in the forest\nof night, where he is hunting, guides him in danger, and shows him the\nlurking-places of his enemies whilst he is in the cloud or darkness;\nthe third, in the morning, is quiet, and found by the hero when he\ncomes out of the gloomy region, towards the eastern sky.\n\nLet us now examine briefly these three forms in Hindoo mythology. I\nhave said that the mythical bitch appears to me sometimes to represent\nthe moon, and sometimes the thunderbolt. In India, this bitch is named\nSaram\u00e2, properly she who walks, who runs or flows. We are accustomed\nto say of the dog that it barks at the moon, which the popular proverb\nconnects with robbers. The dog that barks at the moon,[30] is perhaps\nthe same dog that barks to show that robbers are near. In the 108th\nhymn of the tenth book of the _Rigvedas_, we have a dramatic scene\nbetween the misers or thieves (the Panayas) and the bitch Saram\u00e2, the\nmessenger of Indras, who wishes for their treasures.[31] In order to\ncome to them, she traverses the waters of the Ras\u00e2 (a river of hell);\nthe treasure that is hidden in the mountain consists of cows, horses,\nand various riches; the Panayas wish Saram\u00e2 to stay with them as their\nsister, and to enjoy the cows along with them; Saram\u00e2 answers that she\ndoes not recognise their brotherhood, inasmuch as she is already the\nsister of Indras, and the terrible A\u00f1girasas.[32] In the sixty-second\nhymn of the first book, the bitch Saram\u00e2 discovers the cows hidden in\nthe rock, and receives in recompense from Indras and the A\u00f1girasas\nnourishment for her offspring; then men cry out, and the cows\nbellow.[33] Going towards the sun, in the path of the sun, Saram\u00e2\nfinds the cows.[34] When Indras splits the mountain open, Saram\u00e2 shows\nhim first the waters.[35] Having previously seen the fissure in the\nmountain, she showed the way. The first she guided rapidly, the band\nof the noisy ones having previously heard the noise.[36] This noise\nmay refer either to the waters, the sounding rivers (nad\u00e2s, nad\u00ees), or\nthe lowing cows (gavas). Now, this bitch that discovers the\nhiding-places, inasmuch as she breaks through the darkness of night,\nseems to be the moon; inasmuch as she breaks through the cloud, she\nseems to be the thunderbolt. The secret of this equivoque lies in the\nroot _sar_. In the _Rigvedas_, we have seen Saram\u00e2 disdaining to pass\nfor the sister of the thieves or the monsters; in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[37]\nthe wife of one of the monsters, of the very brother of R\u00e2vanas the\nrobber, is called Saram\u00e2, and takes, instead of the monster's part,\nthat of R\u00e2mas and S\u00eet\u00e2 the ravished wife. We have already several\ntimes seen the moon as a beneficent cow, as a good fairy, or as the\nMadonna. Saram\u00e2 (of which Suram\u00e2, another benignant rakshas\u00ee, is\nprobably only an incorrect form[38]), the consoler of S\u00eet\u00e2, who\nannounces prophetically her approaching deliverance by her husband\nR\u00e2mas, appears to me in the light of another impersonation of the\nmoon. It is on this account that S\u00eet\u00e2[39] praises Saram\u00e2 as a\ntwin-sister of hers (sahodar\u00e2), affectionate, and capable of\ntraversing the heavens, and penetrating into the watery infernal\nregions (ras\u00e2talam).[40] The benignant sister of S\u00eet\u00e2 can only be\nanother luminous being; she is the good sister whom the maiden of the\nRussian story, persecuted by her incestuous father, in _Afanassieff_,\nfinds in the subterranean world, where she is consoled and assisted in\nescaping from the power of the witch; she is the moon. The moon is the\nluminous form of the gloomy sky of night, or of the funereal and\ninfernal region; whilst its two luminous barriers in that sky, in the\neast and in the west, are morning and evening aurora; the luminous\nforms of the cloudy sky are lightning and thunderbolts. And it is from\none of these luminous mythical forms that the Greeks, according to\nPollux, quoted by Aldrovandi, made of the dog the inventor of purple,\nwhich the dog of H\u00earakl\u00eas was the first to bite. The dog of the\n\u00c6sopian fable,[41] with meat in its mouth, is a variation of this\nmyth. The red sky of evening appears purple in the morning, and in the\nevening as the meat that the dog lets fall into the waters of the\nocean of night. In the _Pancatantram_, we have instead the lion of\nevening (the evening sun), who, seeing in the fountain (or in the\nocean of night) another lion (now the moon, now his own shadow, the\nnight, or the cloud), throws himself into the water to tear him to\npieces, and perishes in it. The hare (the moon) is the animal which\nallures the famished lion of evening to perish in the waters.\n\nThe two sons of the bitch Saram\u00e2 preserve several of their mother's\ncharacteristics. Now they are spoken of together as S\u00e2ramey\u00e2u; now they\nare mentioned together, but distinct from one another; now one alone of\nthem, the most legitimate, by the name of S\u00e2rameyas, whose identity with\nthe Greek Herm\u00eas or Hermeias has already been proved by Professor Kuhn.\nSaram\u00e2 in connection with the Panayas, merchants or thieves, and Saram\u00e2\nas the divine messenger, gives us the key to the legend of Mercury, god\nof thieves and merchants, and messenger of the gods.\n\nIn a Vedic hymn we find described with great clearness the two dogs that\nguard the gates of hell, the monsters' dwelling, or the kingdom of the\ndead. It prays for one departed, \"that he may be able to pass safely\nbeyond the two dogs, sons of Saram\u00e2, having four eyes, spotted, who\noccupy the right path, and to come to the benignant Manes\" (for there\nare also the malignant ones, or Durvidatr\u00e2h); these dogs are called \"the\nvery fierce guardians, who watch the road, observing men, have vast\nnostrils, are long-winded, and very strong, the messengers of Yamas;\"\nthey are invoked \"that they may cause to enjoy the sight of the sun, and\ngive a happy life.\"[42] But the _Rigvedas_ itself already shows us the\ntwo sons of the bitch Saram\u00e2, as the two who look in turns (one after\nthe other), whom Indras must put to sleep.[43] One, however, of the two\nsons of Saram\u00e2 is especially invoked and feared, the S\u00e2rameyas _par\nexcellence_. The Vedic hymn speaks of him as he who returns\n(punahsaras), and represents him as \"luminous, with reddish teeth, that\nshine like spears, in the well-rooted gums,\" and implores him to sleep,\nor \"to bark only at the robber, or at the thief, not at the singers of\nhymns in honour of Indras.\"[44] The bitch Saram\u00e2 is passionately fond of\nher son; in recompense for her discovery of the cows of Indras, she\ndemands nourishment for her son, which nourishment the commentator\nexplains to be the milk of the liberated cows; the first rays of the\nmorning sun and the last rays of the evening sun drink the milk of the\ndawn or silvery twilight. In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[45] the bitch Saram\u00e2\ncurses King Ganamegayas, because his three brothers, when attending the\nsacrifice, maltreated and flogged the dog S\u00e2rameyas, who had also gone\nthere, although he had neither touched with his tongue nor desired with\nhis eyes the oblations destined to the gods (as, on the contrary, the\nwhite dog did, who, in the sacrifice of Dion, near Athens, stole part of\nthe victim, whence the name of K\u00fcnosarg\u00eas was given to that place). The\nsame legend occurs again, slightly modified, in the seventh book of the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_.[46] R\u00e2mas sends Lakshmanas, his brother, to see whether\nthere are any disputes to be settled in the kingdom; Lakshmanas returns,\nsaying that the whole kingdom is at peace. R\u00e2mas sends him again; he\nsees a dog erect on the doorstep of the palace, barking. The name of\nthis dog is S\u00e2rameyas. R\u00e2mas enables him to enter the palace. The dog\ncomplains that he has been beaten without just cause by a Br\u00e2hman. The\nBr\u00e2hman is called, appears, confesses his fault, and awaits his\npunishment. The dog S\u00e2rameyas proposes as his punishment that the\nBr\u00e2hman should take a wife (the usual proverbial satire against wives),\nand become head of a family in the very place where he himself had\nsupported the same dignity prior to assuming the shape of a dog. After\nthis the dog S\u00e2rameyas, who remembers his previous states of existence,\nreturns to do penitence at Benares, whence he had come.\n\nTherefore the dog and the Kerberos are also a form into which the\nhero of the myth passes. The Hindoo and Pythagorean religious beliefs\nboth teach that metempsychosis is a means of expiation; the curse of\nthe offended deity is now a vengeance now a chastisement for an error\nthat the hero or some one of his relations has committed, and which\nhas provoked the deity's indignation.[47]\n\nSometimes the deity himself assumes the form of a dog in order to put\nthe hero's virtue to the proof, as in the last book of the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, where the god Yamas becomes a dog, and follows\nYudhishthiras (the son of Yamas), who regards him with such affection,\nthat when invited to mount into the chariot of the gods, he refuses to\ndo so, unless his faithful dog is allowed to accompany him.\n\nSometimes, however, the shape of a dog or bitch (as it is easy to pass\nfrom Yamas, the god of hell in the form of a dog, to the dog-fiend) is\na real and specific form of a demon. The _Rigvedas_ speaks of the\ndog-demons bent upon tormenting Indras, who is requested to kill the\nmonster in the form of an owl, a bat, a dog, a wolf, a great bird, a\nvulture;[48] it invokes the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u to destroy on every side the\nbarking dogs;[49] it solicits the friends to destroy the long-tongued\nand avaricious dog (in the old Italian chronicle of Giov. Morelli,\nmisers are called Cani del danaro, dogs of money), as the Bhrigavas\nhave killed the monster Makhas.[50] And the skin of the red bitch is\nanother monstrous form in which is dressed every morning (as the\naurora in the morning sky), in the twenty-third Mongol story, the\nbeautiful maiden who is in the power of the prince of the dragons; she\n(as moon) is a beautiful maiden only at night; towards day she becomes\na red bitch (the moon gives up her place to the aurora); the youth who\nhas married her wishes to burn this bitch's skin, but the maiden\ndisappears; the sun overtakes the aurora, and he disappears with the\nmoon. We have already seen this myth.\n\nIn the eighteenth hymn of the fourth book of the _Rigvedas_, the\nthirteenth strophe seems to me to contain an interesting particular. A\ndevotee complains as follows:--\"In my misery I had the intestines of the\ndog cooked; I found among the gods no consoler; I saw my wife sterile;\nthe hawk brought honey to me.\"[51] Here we find the dog in connection\nwith a bird.[52] In the twenty-fifth story of the fourth book of\n_Afanassieff_, we find the woodpecker that brings food and drink to its\nfriend the dog, and avenges him after his death. In the forty-first\nstory of the fourth book, the dog is killed by the old witch, because he\ncarries in a sack the bones of her wicked daughter, who has been\ndevoured by the head of a mare. In the twentieth story of the fifth\nbook, we have the dog in the capacity of a messenger employed by the\nbeautiful girl whom the serpent has married; he carries to her father a\nletter that she has written, and brings his answer back to her. In the\nlegend of St Peter, the dog serves as a messenger between Peter and\nSimon the magician; in the legend of San Rocco, the dog of our Lord\ntakes bread to the saint, alone and ill under a tree. The name of\nCyrus's nurse, according to Textor, was K\u00fcna, whence Cyrus might have\nbeen nourished, like Askl\u00eapios, with the milk of a dog. I have already\nsaid that the story of the dog is connected with the myth of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, or, what is the same thing, with that of the horse; horse and\ndog are considered in the light of coursers: the horse bears the hero,\nand the dog usually takes news of the hero to his friends, as the bitch\nSaram\u00e2, the messenger of the gods, does in the _Rigvedas_.[53] The hero\nwho assumes the shape of a horse cautions his father, when he sells him\nto the devil, not to give up the bridle to the buyer. In the\ntwenty-second story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the young man\ntransforms himself into a dog, and lets his father sell him to a great\nlord, who is the devil in disguise, but tells him not to give up the\ncollar.[54] The gentleman buys the dog for two hundred roubles, but\ninsists upon having the collar too, calling the old man a thief upon the\nlatter refusing to consign it into his hands. The old man, in his\ndistraction, gives it up; the dog is thus in the power of the lord, that\nis, of the devil. But on the road, a hare (the moon) passes by; the\ngentleman lets the dog pursue it, and loses sight of it; the dog again\nassumes the shape of a hero, and rejoins his father. In the same story,\nthe young man adopts, the second time, the form of a bird (we shall see\nthe A\u00e7vin\u00e2u as swans and doves in the chapter on the swan, the goose,\nand the dove), and the third time that of a horse. In the twenty-eighth\nstory of the fifth book, a horse, a dog, and an apple-tree are born of\nthe dead bull who protects Ivan and Mary fleeing in the forest from the\nbear. Riding on the horse, and accompanied by the dog, Ivan goes to the\nchase. The first day he captures a wolf's whelp alive, and carries it\nhome; the second day he takes a young bear; the third day he returns to\nthe chase, and forgets the dog; then the six-headed serpent, in the\nshape of a handsome youth, carries off his sister, and shuts the dog up\nunder lock and key, throwing the key into the lake. Ivan returns, and,\nby the advice of a fairy, he breaks a twig off the apple-tree, and\nstrikes with it the bolt of the door which encloses the dog; the dog is\nthus set at liberty, and Ivan lets dog, wolf, and bear loose upon the\nserpent, who is torn in pieces by them, and recovers his sister. In the\nfiftieth story of the fifth book, the dog of a warrior-hero tears the\ndevil, who presents himself first in the form of a bull, and then in\nthat of a bear, to prevent the wedding of the hero taking place. In the\nfifty-second story of the sixth book, the dogs which Ivan Tzarevic has\nreceived from two fairies, together with a wolf's whelp, a bear's, and a\nlion's cub, tear the monster serpent to pieces. The two dogs carry us\nback to the myth of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u. In the fifty-third story of the sixth\nbook, the monster cuts Ivan's head off. Ivan has two sons, who believe\nthemselves to be of canine descent; they ask their mother to be\npermitted to go and resuscitate their father. An old man gives them a\nroot, which, when rubbed on Ivan's body, will bring him to life again;\nthey take it, and use it as directed. Ivan is resuscitated, and the\nmonster dies. Finally, in the fifty-fourth story of the fifth book of\n_Afanassieff_, we learn how the sons of the dog are born, and their mode\nof birth is analogous to that mentioned in the Vedic hymn. A king who\nhas no sons has a fish with golden fins; he orders it to be cooked, and\nto be given to the queen to eat. The intestines of the fish (the\nphallos) are thrown to the bitch, the bones are gnawed by the cook, and\nthe meat is eaten by the queen. To the bitch, the cook, and the queen a\nson is born at the same time. The three sons are all called Ivan, and\nare regarded as three brothers; but the strongest (he who accomplishes\nthe most difficult enterprises) is Ivan the son of the bitch, who goes\nunder ground into the kingdom of the monsters (as of the two Dioscuri,\none descends into hell, like the two funereal dogs, light-coloured and\nwhite, of the Avesta, which are in perfect accordance with the Vedic\n_S\u00e2ramey\u00e2u_[55]). In the same story, besides the three brother-heroes,\nthree heroic horses are brought forth by the three mares that have drunk\nthe water in which the fish was washed before being cooked; in other\nEuropean variations, and in the Russian stories themselves, therefore,\nwe sometimes have, instead of the bitch's son, the son of the mare (or\nthe cow). The two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u are now two horses, now two dogs, now a dog\nand a horse (now a bull and a lion).[56] Ivan Tzarevic, whom the horse\nand the dog save from danger, is the same as the Vedic hero, the sun,\nwhom the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u save from many dangers.\n\nIn the Russian stories, as well as in the Italian ones, the witch\nsubstitutes for one, two, or three sons of the prince, who have stars on\ntheir forehead, and were born of the princess in her husband's absence,\none, two, or three puppies. In these same stories, the hand of the\npersecuted princess is cut off. In the thirteenth story of the third\nbook of _Afanassieff_,[57] the witch sister-in-law accuses her husband's\nsister of imaginary crimes in his presence. The brother cuts her hands\noff; she wanders into the forest; she comes out again only after the\nlapse of several years; a young merchant becomes enamoured of her, and\nmarries her. During her husband's absence, she gives birth to a child\nwhose body is all of gold, effigies of stars, moon, and sun covering it.\nHis parents write to their son, telling him the news; but the witch\nsister-in-law abstracts the letter (as in the myth of Belleroph\u00f4n), and\nforges another, which announces, on the contrary, that a monster, half\ndog and half bear, is born. The husband writes back, bidding them wait\nuntil he returns to see with his own eyes his new-born son. The witch\nintercepts this letter also, and changes it for another, in which he\norders his young wife to be sent away. The young woman, without hands,\nwanders about with her boy. The boy falls into a fountain; she weeps; an\nold man tells her to throw the stumps of her arms into the fountain; she\nobeys, her hands return, and she recovers her boy again. She finds her\nhusband; and no sooner does she uncover the child in his sight, than all\nthe room shines with light (asviatilo).\n\nIn a Servian story,[58] the father of the maiden whose hands had been\ncut off by the witch, her mother-in-law, causes, by means of the ashes\nof three burned hairs from the tail of the black stallion and that of\nthe white mare, golden hands to grow on the maiden's arms. The\napple-tree, with golden branches, which we have already mentioned, is\nthe same as this girl who comes out of the forest (or wooden chest) with\ngolden hands. From the branches it is easy to pass to the hands of gold,\nto the fair-haired son who comes out of the trunk.[59] The idea of a\nyouth as the branch of a tree has been rendered poetical by Shakspeare,\nwho makes the Duchess of Gloster say of the seven sons of Edward--\n\n      \"Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one,\n       Were as seven phials of his sacred blood,\n       Or seven fair branches springing from one root.\"[60]\n\nIn Hindoo myths, the hand of Savitar having been cut off, one of gold is\ngiven to him, whence the epithet he enjoys of Hiranyahastas, or he who\nhas a golden hand. But in the 116th and 117th hymns of the first book we\nfind a more interesting datum. The branch is the hand of the tree; the\nbranch is the son who detaches himself from the maternal trunk of the\ntree; the golden son is the same as the golden branch, the golden hand\nof the tree. The mother who obtains a golden hand is the same as the\nmother who has Hiranyahastas--_i.e._, Golden-hand--for her son. The\nVedic hymn says that the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u gave Golden-hand as a son to the\nVadhrimat\u00ee.[61] The word _vadhrimat\u00ee_ is equivocal. The Petropolitan\nDictionary interprets it only as she who has a eunuch, or one who is\ncastrated, for her husband, but the proper sense of the word is she who\nhas something cut off, she who has, that is, the maimed arm, as in the\nfairy tale, for which reason she is given a golden hand. As the wife of\na eunuch, the Vedic woman, therefore, receives from the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u a son\nwith a golden hand; as having an imperfect arm, she receives only a\ngolden hand, as in the 116th hymn of the first book, the same A\u00e7vin\u00e2u\ngive to Vi\u00e7pal\u00e2, who had lost his own in battle, an iron leg.[62] The\n_Rigvedas_, therefore, already contains in its germ the very popular\nsubject of the man or woman without hands, in same way as we have\nalready found in it, in embryo, the legends of the lame man, the blind\nman or woman, the ugly and the disguised woman.\n\nBut to return to the dog. Besides his agility[63] in running, his\nstrength holds a prominent place in the myth. The Kerberos shows an\nextraordinary strength in rending his enemies. In the Russian stories\nthe dog is the hero's strength, and is associated with the wolf, the\nbear, and the lion. In popular stories, now terrible lions and now\ndreadful dogs are found guarding the gate of the monster's dwelling.\nThe monk of San Gallo, in Du Cange, says that the \"canes germanici\"\nare so agile and ferocious, that they suffice alone to hunt tigers and\nlions; the same fable is repeated in Du Cange of the dogs of Albania,\nwhich are so great and fierce, \"ut tauros premant et leones perimant.\"\nThe enormous chained dog, painted on the left side of the entrance of\nRoman houses, near the porter's room; the motto _cave canem_; the\nexpiations made in Greece and at Rome (whence the names \"Canaria\nHospitia\" and \"Porta Catularia,\" where a dog was immolated to appease\nthe fury of the Canicula, and whence the verse of Ovid--\n\n      \"Pro cane sidereo canis hic imponitur ar\u00e6,\")\n\nat the time of the Canicula or of the Canis Sirius, to conjure away\nthe evils which he brings along with the summer heat, in connection\nwith the _sol leo_, and the corresponding festival of the killing of\nthe dog (k\u00fcnophontis), besides the barking dogs that appear in the\ngroin of Scylla,[64] are all records of the mythical dog of hell. The\ndog, as a domestic animal, has been confounded with the savage brute\nwhich generally represents the monster. The dog is scarcely\ndistinguishable from the wolf in the twilight. In Du Cange we read\nthat in the Middle Ages it was the custom to swear now by the dog now\nby the wolf.[65] In the country round Arezzo, in Tuscany, it is\nbelieved that when a she-wolf brings forth her young ones, a dog is\nalways found among them, which, if it were allowed to live, would\nexterminate all the wolves. But the she-wolf, knowing this, no sooner\nperceives the dog-wolf than she drowns it when she takes the wolves to\ndrink.[66] In the district of Florence, it is believed that the wolf,\nas well as the dog, when it happens to be the subject of a dream, is\n(as in Terence) a prognostic of sickness or death, especially if the\ndog is dreamt of as running after or trying to bite one. In Horace\n(_Ad Galatheam_) it is an evil omen to meet with a pregnant bitch--\n\n      \"Impios parr\u00e6 pr\u00e6cinentis omen\n       Ducat et proegnans canis.\"\n\nIn Sicily, St Vitus is prayed to that he may keep the dogs chained--\n\n      \"Santu Vitu, Santu Vitu,\n       Io tri voti vi lu dicu:\n       Va', chiamativi a lu cani\n       Ca mi voli muzzicari.\"\n\nAnd when tying the dog up, they say--\n\n      \"Santu Vitu,\n       Beddu e pulitu,\n       Anghi di cira\n       E di ferru filatu;\n       Pi lu nuomu di Maria\n       Ligu stu cani\n       Ch' aju avanti a mia.\"\n\nWhen the dog is tied up, they add--\n\n      \"Fermati, cani\n       Ca t' aju ligatu.\"[67]\n\nIn Italy and Russia, when the dog howls like a wolf, that is, plays\nthe wolf, it forebodes misfortune and death. It is also narrated,[68]\nthat after the alliance between C\u00e6sar, Lepidus, and Antony, dogs\nhowled like wolves.\n\nWhen one is bitten by a dog[69] in Sicily, a tuft of hair is cut off\nthe dog and plunged into wine with a burning cinder; this wine is\ngiven to be drunk by the man who has been bitten. In _Aldrovandi_,[70]\nI read, on the other hand, that to cure the bite of a mad dog, it is\nuseful to cover the wound with wolf's skin.\n\nThe dog is a medium of chastisement. Our Italian expressions, \"Menare il\ncane per l'aia\" (to lead the dog about the barn-floor), and \"Dare il\ncane a menare\" (to give the dog to be led about), are probably a\nreminiscence of the ignominious medi\u00e6val punishment of Germany of\ncarrying the dog, inflicted upon a noble criminal, and which sometimes\npreceded his final execution.[71] The punishment of laceration by dogs,\nwhich has actually been carried out more than once by the order of\nearthly tyrants, has its prototype in the well-known myth of Kerberos\nand the avenging dogs of hell. Thus Pirithoos, who attempts to carry off\nPerseph\u00f4n\u00ea from the infernal king of the Molossians, is torn to pieces\nby the dog Trikerberos. Euripides, according to the popular tradition,\nwas lacerated in the forest by the avenging dogs of Archelaos. It is\ntold of Domitian, that when an astrologer on one occasion predicted his\napproaching death, he asked him whether he knew in what way he himself\nwould die; the astrologer answered that he would be devoured by dogs\n(death by dogs is also predicted in a story of the _Pentamerone_);\nDomitian, to make the oracle false, ordered him to be killed and burned;\nbut the wind put the flames out, and the dogs approached and devoured\nthe corpse. Boleslaus II., king of Poland, in the legend of St\nStanislaus, is torn by his own dogs while wandering in the forest, for\nhaving ordered the saint's death. The Vedic monster \u00c7ushnas, the\npestilential dog Sirius of the summer skies, and the dog Kerberos of the\nnocturnal hell, vomit flames; they chastise the world, too, with\npestilential flames; and the pagan world tries all arts, praying and\nconjuring, to rid itself of their baleful influences. But this dog is\nimmortal, or rather it generates children, and returns to fill men with\nterror in a new, a more direct, and a more earthly form in the Christian\nworld. It is narrated, in fact, that before the birth of St Dominic, the\nfamous inventor of the tortures of the Holy Inquisition (a truly satanic\nLucifer), his mother, being pregnant of him, dreamed that she saw a dog\ncarrying a lighted brand about, setting the world on fire. St Dominic\ntruly realised his mother's dream; he was really this incendiary dog;\nand, therefore, in the pictures that represent him, the dog is always\nclose to him with its lighted brand. Christ is the Prometheus enlarged,\npurified, and idealised; and St Dominic, the monstrous Vulcan,\ndeteriorated, diminished, and fanaticised, of the Christian Olympus. The\ndog, sacred in pagan antiquity to the infernal deities, was consecrated\nto St Dominic the incendiary, and to Rocco, the saint who protects the\nsick of the plague. The Roman feasts in honour of Vulcan (Volcanalia)\nfell in the month of August; and the Roman Catholic Church f\u00eates in the\nmonth of August the two saints of the dogs of the fire and the plague,\nSt Dominic and St Rocco.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[29] Leukoph\u00f4s; a verse of Vilkelmus Brito defines it in a Latin\nstrophe given in Du Cange--\n\n      \"Tempore quo neque nox neque lux sed utrumque videtur;\"\n\nand further on--\n\n      \"Interque _canem distare lupumque_.\"\n\nAccording to Pliny and Solinus, the shadow of the hyena makes the dog\ndumb, _i.e._, the night disperses the twilight; the moon vanishes.\n\n[30] The dog was sacred to the huntress Diana, whom we know to be the\nmoon, hence the Latin proverb, \"Delia nota canibus.\"\n\n[31] Indrasya d\u00fbtir ishit\u00e2 car\u00e2mi maha ichant\u00ee panayo nidh\u00een vah; str.\n2.\n\n[32] Ras\u00e2y\u00e2 ataram pay\u00e2nsi; str. 2.--Ayam nidhih sarame adribudhno\ngobhir a\u00e7vebhir vasubhir nyrishtah; str. 7.--Svas\u00e2ram tv\u00e2 krinav\u00e2i m\u00e2\npunar g\u00e2 apa te gav\u00e2m subhage bhag\u00e2ma; str. 9.--N\u00e2ham veda bhr\u00e2tritvam\nno svasritvam indro vidur a\u00f1girasa\u00e7 caghor\u00e2h; str. 10.\n\n[33] Indrasy\u00e2\u00f1giras\u00e2m cesht\u00e2u vidat saram\u00e2 tanay\u00e2ya dh\u00e2sim brihaspatir\nbhinad adrim vidad g\u00e2h sam usriy\u00e2bhir v\u00e2va\u00e7anta narah; str. 3.\n\n[34] Ritam yat\u00ee saram\u00e2 g\u00e2 avindat.--Ritasya path\u00e2 saram\u00e2 vidad g\u00e2h;\n_Rigv._ v. 45, 7, 8.\n\n[35] Apo yad adrim puruh\u00fbta dardar \u00e2vir bhuvat saram\u00e2 p\u00fbrvyam te;\n_Rigv._ iv. 16, 8.\n\n[36] Vidad yad\u00ee saram\u00e2 rugnam adrer mahi p\u00e2thah p\u00fbrvyam sadhryak kah\nagram nayat supady akshar\u00e2n\u00e2m ach\u00e2 ravam pratham\u00e2 g\u00e2nat\u00ee g\u00e2t; _Rigv._\niii. 31, 6.\n\n[37] vi. 9.\n\n[38] v. 62.\n\n[39] vi. 10.\n\n[40] Cfr. the Vedic text above quoted.\n\n[41] In the _Tuti-Name_, instead of the dog with the bone or piece of\nmeat, we have the fox. The dog who sees his shadow in the water; the\nfearless hero who, in Tuscan stories, dies when he sees his own\nshadow; the black monster (the shadow) who, in numerous stories,\npresents himself instead of the real hero to espouse the beautiful\nprincess, carry our thoughts back to Indras, who, in the _Rigvedas_,\nafter having defeated the monster, flees away over the rivers, upon\nseeing something which is probably the shadow of Vritras, killed by\nhim, or his own shadow. In the _\u00c2itar. Br\u00e2hm._ iii. 2, 15, 16, 20,\nthis flight of Indras is also recorded, and it is added, that Indras\nhides himself, and that the Pitaras (_i.e._, the souls of the\ndeparted) find him again. Indras thinks that he has killed Vritras,\nbut really has not killed him; then the gods abandon him; the Marutas\nalone (as dogs friendly to the bitch Saram\u00e2) remain faithful to him.\nThe monster killed by Indras in the morning rises again at eve.\nAccording to other Vedic accounts, Indras is obliged to flee, stung by\nremorse, having committed a br\u00e2hmanicide.\n\n[42] Ati drava s\u00e2ramey\u00e2u \u00e7v\u00e2n\u00e2u cataraksh\u00e2u \u00e7abal\u00e2u s\u00e2dhun\u00e2 path\u00e2 ath\u00e2\npitr\u00eent suvidatr\u00e2n upehi--Y\u00e2u te \u00e7v\u00e2n\u00e2u yama rakshit\u00e2r\u00e2u caturaksh\u00e2u\npathiraksh\u00ee nricakshas\u00e2u--Ur\u00fbnas\u00e2v asutrip\u00e2 udumbal\u00e2u yamasya d\u00fbt\u00e2u\ncarato gan\u00e2n anu--T\u00e2v asmabhyam dri\u00e7aye s\u00fbry\u00e2ya punar d\u00e2t\u00e2m asum\nadyeha bhadram; _Rigv._ x. 14, 10-12.\n\n[43] Ni shv\u00e2paya mith\u00fbdri\u00e7\u00e2u; _Rigv._ i. 29, 3.--The Petropolitan\nDictionary explains the word _mith._ by \"abwechselend sichtbar.\"\n\n[44] Yad arguna sarameya datah pi\u00e7a\u00f1ga yachase v\u00eeva bhr\u00e2ganta rishtaya\nupa srakveshu bapsato ni shu svapa; stenam r\u00e2ya s\u00e2rameya taskaram v\u00e2\npunahsara stotr\u00een indrasya r\u00e2yasi kim asm\u00e2n duchun\u00e2yase ni shu svapa;\n_Rigv._ vii. 55, 2, 3.\n\n[45] i. 657, 666.\n\n[46] Canto 62.\n\n[47] Thus Hecuba, the wife of Priam, after having suffered cruel\ntribulation as a woman, in Ovid--\n\n      \"Perdidit infelix hominis post omnia formam\n       Externasque novo latratu terruit auras.\"\n\nIn the _Breviarium Romanum_, too, in the offices of the dead, God is\nbesought not to consign to the beasts (ne tradas bestiis, &c.) the\nsouls of His servants.\n\n[48] Eta u tye patayanti \u00e7vay\u00e2tava indram dipsanti dipsavo\n'd\u00e2bhyam--Ulukay\u00e2tum \u00e7u\u00e7ul\u00fbkay\u00e2tum gahi \u00e7vay\u00e2tum uta kokay\u00e2tum\nsuparnay\u00e2tum gridhray\u00e2tum drishadeva pra mrina raksha indra; _Rigv._\nvii. 104, 20, 22.\n\n[49] Gambhayatam abhito r\u00e2yatah; _Rigv._ i. 182, 4.\n\n[50] Apa \u00e7v\u00e2nam \u00e7nathishtana sakh\u00e2yo d\u00eerghagihvyam--Apa \u00e7v\u00e2nam\nar\u00e2dhasam hat\u00e2 makham na bhrigavah; _Rigv._ ix. 101, 1, 13.\n\n[51] Avarty\u00e2 \u00e7una \u00e2ntr\u00e2ni pece na deveshu vivide mardit\u00e2ram apa\u00e7yam\ng\u00e2y\u00e2m amah\u00eeyam\u00e2n\u00e2m adh\u00e2 me \u00e7yeno madhv \u00e2 gabh\u00e2ra; _Rigv._ iv. 18, 13.\nThe bird who brings honey has evidently here a phallical meaning, as\nalso the intestine, the part that is inside of now the dog, now the\nfish, and now the ass (all of which are phallical symbols), desired as\na delicacy by the women of fairy tales, must be equivalent to the\n_madhu_ brought by the bird.\n\n[52] In the fifth story of the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, the\nbird does the same that a dog does in the third story of the third\nbook; the bird brings a knife, the dog brings a bone, and the\nimprisoned princess, by means of this knife and bone, is enabled to\nmake a hole in the prison, and to free herself.\n\n[53] In the _Pentamerone_, i. 7, the enchanted bitch brings to the\nprincess news of the young hero.\n\n[54] In the seventh Esthonian story, the man with the black horse\nbinds three dogs tightly; if they get loose, no one will be able to\nkeep them back.--In the _Edda_, Thrymer, the prince of the giants,\nkeeps the grey dogs bound with golden chains.\n\n[55] Einen gelblichen Hund mit vier Augen oder einen weissen mit gelben\nOhren; _Vendidad_, viii. 41, _et seq._, Spiegel's version. And Anquetil,\ndescribing the _Baraschnon no schab\u00e9_, represents the purifying dog as\nfollows:--\"Le Mobed prend le b\u00e2ton \u00e0 neuf noeuds, entre dans les Keischs\net attache la cuill\u00e8re de fer au neuvi\u00e8me noeud. L'impur entre aussi\ndans les Keischs. On y am\u00e8ne un chien; et si c'est une femme que l'on\npurifie, comme elle doit \u00eatre nue, c'est aussi une femme qui tient le\nchien. L'impur ayant la main droite sur sa t\u00eate et la gauche sur le\nchien, passe successivement sur les six premi\u00e8res pierres et s'y lave\navec l'urine que lui donne le Mobed.\"--In the _K\u00e2ty\u00e2y. S\u00fb._ the question\nis seriously discussed whether a dog, who was seen to fast on the\nfourteenth day of the month, did so on account of religious\npenitence.--Cfr. Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, i. 365.\n\n[56] Dog and horse, with bites and kicks, kill the monster doe and\nfree the two brother-heroes in the _Pentamerone_, i. 9.\n\n[57] Cfr. also the sixth of the third book.--In the second story of\nthe third book of the _Pentamerone_, the sister herself cuts off her\nown hands, of which her brother, who wishes to marry her, is\nenamoured.--Cfr. the _Medi\u00e6val Legends of Santa Uliva_, annotated by\nProfessor Alessandro d'Ancona, Pisa, Nistri, 1863; and the _Figlia del\nRe di Dacia_, illustrated by Professor Alessandro Wesselofski, Pisa,\nNistri, 1866, besides the thirty-first of the stories of the Brothers\nGrimm.\n\n[58] The thirty-third of the collection of Karadzik, quoted by\nProfessor Wesselofsky in his introduction to the story of the _Figlia\ndel Re di Dacia_.\n\n[59] Cfr. my little essay on the _Albero di Natale_.\n\n[60] _King Richard II._, act. i. scene 2.\n\n[61] \u00c7rutam tac ch\u00e2sur iva vadhrimat y\u00e2 hiranyahastam a\u00e7vin\u00e2v adattam;\n_Rigv._ i. 116, 13.--Hiranyahastam a\u00e7vin\u00e2 rar\u00e2n\u00e2 putram nar\u00e2\nvadhrimaty\u00e2 adattam; i. 117, 24.--The dog in connection with a man's\nhand is mentioned in the Latin works of Petrarch, when speaking of\nVespasian, who considered as a good omen the incident of a dog\nbringing a man's hand into the refectory.\n\n[62] Sadyo ga\u00f1gh\u00e2m \u00e2yas\u00eem vi\u00e7pal\u00e2yai dhane hite sartave praty\nadhattam; str. 15.\n\n[63] It is perhaps for this reason that the Hungarians give to their\ndogs names of rivers, as being runners; but it is also said that they\ndo so from their belief that a dog which bears the name of a river or\npiece of water never goes mad, especially if he be a white dog,\ninasmuch as the Hungarians consider the red dog and the black or\nspotted one as diabolical shapes. In Tuscany, when a Christian's tooth\nis taken out, it must be hidden carefully, that the dogs may not find\nit and eat it; here dog and devil are assimilated.\n\n[64] Scylla laves her groin in a fountain, the waters of which the\nenchantress Circe has corrupted, upon which monstrous dogs appear in\nher body, whence Ovid--\n\n      \"Scylla venit mediaque tenus descenderat alvo,\n       Cum sua foedari latrantibus inguina monstris\n       Aspicit, ac primo non credens corporis illas\n       Esse sui partes, refugitque, abiitque timetque\n       Ora proterva canum.\"\n\n[65] H\u00e6c lucem accipiunt ab Joinville in Hist. S. Ludovici, dum foedera\ninter Imp. Joannem Vatatzem et Comanorum Principem inita recenset, eaque\nfirmata ebibito alterius invicem sanguine, hacque adhibita ceremonia,\nquam sic enarrat: \"Et ancore firent-ils autre chose. Car ils firent\npasser un chien entre nos gens et eux, et d\u00e9coup\u00e8rent tout le chien \u00e0\nleurs esp\u00e9es, disans que ainsy fussent-ils d\u00e9coupez s'ils failloient\nl'un \u00e0 l'autre.\"--Cfr. in Du Cange the expression \"cerebrare canem.\"\n\n[66] In a fable of Abstemius, a shepherd's dog eats one of the sheep\nevery day, instead of watching over the flock. The shepherd kills him,\nsaying, that he prefers the wolf, a declared enemy, to the dog, a\nfalse friend. This uncertainty and confusion between the dog and the\nwolf explains the double nature of the dog; to prove which I shall\nrefer to two unpublished Italian stories: the first, which I heard\nfrom the mouth of a peasant-woman of Fucecchio, shows the bitch in the\ncapacity of the monster's spy; the second was narrated a few years ago\nby a Piedmontese bandit to a peasant-woman who had shown hospitality\nto him, at Capellanuova, near Cavour in Piedmont. The first story is\ncalled _The King of the Assassins_, and is as follows:--\n\nThere was once a widow with three daughters who worked as seamstresses.\nThey sit upon a terrace; a handsome lord passes and marries the eldest;\nhe takes her to his castle in the middle of a wood, after having told\nher that he is the chief of the assassins. He gives her a she-puppy and\nsays, \"This will be your companion; if you treat her well, it is as if\nyou treated me well.\" Taking her into the palace, he shows her all the\nrooms, and gives her all the keys; of four rooms, however, which he\nindicates, there are two which she must not enter; if she does so, evil\nwill befall her. The chief of the assassins spends one day at home and\nthen three away. During his absence she maltreats the puppy, and gives\nher scarcely anything to eat; then she lets herself be overcome by\ncuriosity, and goes to see what there is in the two rooms, followed by\nthe puppy. She sees in one room heads of dead people, and in the other\ntongues, ears, &c., hung up. This sight fills her with terror. The chief\nof the assassins returns and asks the bitch whether she has been well\ntreated; she makes signs to the contrary, and informs her master that\nhis wife has been in the forbidden rooms. He cuts off her head, and goes\nto find the second sister, whom he induces to come to him by under\ninvitation to visit his wife; she undergoes the same miserable fate.\nThen he goes to take the third sister, and tells her who he is; she\nanswers, \"It is better thus, for I shall no longer be afraid of\nthieves.\" She gives the bitch soup, caresses her, and makes herself\nloved by her; the king of the assassins is contented, and the puppy\nleads a happy life. After a month, while he is out and the puppy amusing\nitself in the garden, she enters the two rooms, finds her two sisters,\nand goes into the other rooms, where there are ointments to fasten on\nlimbs that have been cut off, and ointments to bring the dead to life.\nHaving resuscitated her sisters, and given them food, she hides them in\ntwo great jars, furnished with breathing holes, and asks her husband to\ntake them as a present to her mother, warning him not to look into the\njars, as she will see him. He takes them, and when he tries to look in,\nhe hears, as he had been forewarned, not one voice, but two whispering\nfrom within them, \"My love, I see you.\" Terrified at this, he gives up\nthe two jars at once to the mother. Meanwhile his wife has killed the\nbitch in boiling oil; she then brings all the dead men and women to\nlife, amongst whom there is Carlino, the son of a king of France, who\nmarries her. Upon the return of the king of the assassins he perceives\nthe treachery, and vows revenge; going to Paris, he has a golden pillar\nconstructed in which a man can be concealed without any aperture being\nvisible, and bribes an old woman of the palace to lay on the prince's\npillow a leaf of paper which will put him and all his servants to sleep\nas soon as he reclines on it. Shutting himself up in the pillar, he has\nit carried before the palace; the queen wishes to possess it, and\ninsists upon having it at the foot of her bed. Night comes; the prince\nputs his head upon the leaf, and he and his servants are at once thrown\ninto a deep sleep. The assassin steps out of the pillar, threatens to\nput the princess to death, and goes into the kitchen to fill a copper\nwith oil, in which to boil her. Meanwhile she calls her husband to help\nher, but in vain; she rings the bell, but no one answers; the king of\nthe assassins returns and drags her out of bed; she catches hold of the\nprince's head, and thus draws it off the paper; the prince and his\nservants awake, and the enchanter is burnt alive.\n\nThe second story is called _The Magician of the Seven Heads_, and was\nnarrated to me by the peasant-woman in the following terms:--\n\nAn old man and woman have two children, Giacomo and Carolina. Giacomo\nlooks after three sheep. A hunter passes and asks for them; Giacomo\ngives them, and receives in reward three dogs, Throttle-iron,\nRun-like-the-wind, and Pass-everywhere, besides a whistle. The father\nrefuses to keep Giacomo at home; he goes away with his three dogs, of\nwhich the first carries bread, the second viands, and the third wine.\nHe comes to a magician's palace and is well received. Bringing his\nsister, the magician falls in love with her and wishes to marry her;\nbut to this end the brother must be weakened by the abstraction of his\ndogs. His sister feigns illness and asks for flour; the miller demands\na dog for the flour, and Giacomo yields it for love of his sister; in\na similar manner the other two dogs are wheedled away from him. The\nmagician tries to strangle Giacomo, but the latter blows his whistle,\nand the dogs appear and kill the magician and the sister. Giacomo goes\naway with the three dogs, and comes to a city which is in mourning\nbecause the king's daughter is to be devoured by the seven-headed\nmagician. Giacomo, by means of the three dogs, kills the monster; the\ngrateful princess puts the hem of her robe round Throttle-iron's neck\nand promises to marry Giacomo. The latter, who is in mourning for his\nsister, asks for a year and a day; but before going he cuts the seven\ntongues of the magician off and takes them with him. The maiden\nreturns to the palace. The chimney-sweeper forces her to recognise him\nas her deliverer; the king, her father, consents to his marrying her;\nthe princess, however, stipulates to be allowed to wait for a year and\na day, which is accorded. At the expiration of the appointed time,\nGiacomo returns, and hears that the princess is going to be married.\nHe sends Throttle-iron to strike the chimney-sweeper (the black man,\nthe Saracen, the Turk, the gipsy, the monster) with his tail, in order\nthat his collar may be remarked; he then presents himself as the real\ndeliverer of the princess, and demands that the magician's heads be\nbrought; as the tongues are wanting, the trick is discovered. The\nyoung couple are married, and the chimney-sweeper is burnt.\n\n[67] Cfr. the _Biblioteca delle Tradizioni Popolari Siciliane_, edited\nby Gius. Pitr\u00e8, ii. canto 811.\n\n[68] In Richardus Dinothus, quoted by Aldrovandi.\n\n[69] From a letter of my friend Pitr\u00e8.\n\n[70] _De Quadrup. Dig. Viv._ ii.\n\n[71] Cfr. Du Cange, _s. v._ \"canem ferre.\" The ignominy connected with\nthis punishment has perhaps a phallic signification, the dog and the\nphallos appear in connection with each other in an unpublished legend\nmaliciously narrated at Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, near Florence, and\nwhich asserts that woman was not born of a man, but of a dog. Adam was\nasleep; the dog carried off one of his ribs; Adam ran after the dog to\nrecover it, but brought back nothing save the dog's tail, which came\naway in his hand. The tail of the ass, horse, or pig, which is left in\nthe peasant's hand in other burlesque traditions, besides serving as\nan indication, as the most visible part, to find the lost or fallen\nanimal again, or to return into itself, may perhaps have a meaning\nanalogous to that of the tail of Adam's dog.--I hope the reader will\npardon me these frequent repugnant allusions to indecent images; but\nbeing obliged to go back to an epoch in which idealism was still in\nits cradle, while physical life was in all its plenitude of vigour,\nimages were taken in preference from the things of a more sensible\nnature, and which made a deeper and more abiding impression. It is\nwell known that in the production of the Vedic fire by means of the\nfriction of two sticks, the male and the female are alluded to, so\nthat the grandiose and splendid poetical myth of Prometheus had its\norigin in the lowest of similitudes.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nTHE CAT, THE WEASEL, THE MOUSE, THE MOLE, THE SNAIL, THE ICHNEUMON, THE\nSCORPION, THE ANT, THE LOCUST, AND THE GRASSHOPPER.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    M\u00e2rg\u00e2ras, m\u00e2rgaras, mrigas, mrig\u00e2ris,\n    mrigar\u00e2gas.--Nakulas.--M\u00fbsh.--Vamras, vamr\u00ee, vapr\u00ee, valm\u00eekam,\n    _formica_.--The serpent and the ants.--Indras as an ant; the serpent\n    eaten by the ants.--Vamras drinking, assisted by the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u.--The\n    grateful ant; the hermit-dwarfs.--Ants' milk.--Ants' legs.--The ant\n    dies when its wings grow; the ants and the treasure.--The ants\n    separate the grains.--The locust and the ant; \u00e7arabhas as the\n    moon.--Grasshopper and ant.--Avere il grillo, aver la luna;\n    indovinala, grillo.--Wedding between ant and grasshopper.--Locusts\n    destroyed by fire.--Hippom\u00fcrm\u00eakes.--The Indian locust that guards\n    honey again.--The scorpion, and its poison absorbed.--The ichneumon,\n    enemy of the serpent.--The weasel.--Galanthis.--The cat with ears of\n    butter.--The cat as a judge.--The lynx.--The penitent cat.--The\n    beneficent cat.--The cat with a golden tail.--Cat and dog as\n    friends; the dog carries the cat; they find the lost ring\n    again.--The new-born son changed for a cat.--The cat that sings and\n    tells tales.--The cat created by the moon; Diana as a cat.--The\n    sacred cat.--The funereal and diabolical cat.--Cat and fox.--The cat\n    hangman.--_Le chat bott\u00e9_.--_Chatte blanche;_ the cat that spins and\n    weaves.--The cat becomes a girl.--The enchanted palace of the\n    cats.--The cats of February; the black cat; the cat dreamed-of.--The\n    cat becomes a witch at seven years of age.--The cat in the\n    sack.--The mewing of the cat.--The cats dispute for souls.--Battle\n    of cats.--The mice that bite their tails or that gnaw the threads of\n    the net.--The mouse in the honey.--The mouse that becomes a maiden;\n    the mouse and the mountain.--The mouse that becomes a tiger.--The\n    souls of the dead pass into mice; funereal and diabolical mice;\n    superstitions relating to this belief.--The mouse that releases the\n    lion and the elephant from the trap.--Gane\u00e7as crushes the mouse;\n    Apollo Smyntheus.--When the cat's away the mice can dance.--The\n    mouse plays blind-man's-buff with the bear.--The grateful\n    mouse.--The mouse that foresees the future.--Mouse and sparrow,\n    first friends and then enemies.--The batrachomyomachia.--The mouse,\n    the tooth, and the coin.--Hiranyakas; the squirrel.--The monster\n    mole; the mole as a gravedigger; the blind mole.--The snail in the\n    popular song; the snail and the serpent; the snail as a funereal\n    animal.\n\nI unite in one series several mythical nocturnal animals, which,\nalthough really of very different natures, enter into only one order\nof myths.\n\nThey are thieving and hunting animals, and are therefore very aptly\nplaced in the darkness of night (_naktac\u00e2rin_ is an epithet applied in\nSanskrit both to the cat and the thief), in the nocturnal forest, in\nconnection now with Diana the huntress, or the good fairy the moon,\nand now with the ugly witch; now appearing as the helpers of the hero,\nand now as his persecutors.\n\nThe etymologies of several Hindoo words may be of some interest to the\nreader, and may with propriety be adduced here. _M\u00e2rg\u00e2ras_, the cat,\nmeans the cleanser (as the animal that, in fact, cleans itself).\nReferring to the myth, we know already that one of the principal\nexactions of the witch is that her step-daughter should comb her hair,\nor else clean the corn, during the night; and that the good fairy, the\nMadonna, while she too has her hair combed, scatters gems about,\nspins, and cleans the corn for the good maiden. The witch of night\nforces the maiden aurora to separate the luminous wheat of evening\nfrom the dark tares of night; the moon with its silvery splendour\ndisperses the shades of night. The _m\u00e2rg\u00e2ras_, or cleanser of the\nnight, the white cat, is the moon. _Aranyam\u00e2rg\u00e2ras_, or cat of the\nforest, is the name given to the wild cat, with which the lynx, too,\nis identified. As a white cat, as the moon, it protects innocent\nanimals; as a black cat, as the dark night, it persecutes them. The\ncat is a skilful hunter; moreover, it is easy to confound the word\n_m\u00e2rg\u00e2ras_ (the cleanser) with the word _m\u00e2rgaras_, the proper meaning\nof which is hunter, investigator, he who follows the track, the\n_m\u00e2rgas_, or else the enemy of the _mrigas_ (as mrig\u00e2ris); the road is\nthe clean part of the land, as the margin is the white or clean part\nof a book. The hunter may be he that goes on the margin or on the\ntrack, or else he that hunts and kills the mrigas or forest animal.\nThe moon (the huntress Diana) is also called in Sanskrit _mrigar\u00e2gas_,\nor king of the forest animals; and, as kings are wont, it sometimes\ndefends its subjects and sometimes eats them. The cat-moon eats the\ngrey mice of the night.\n\n_Nakulas_ is the name given in Sanskrit to the ichneumon, the enemy of\nmice, scorpions, and snakes. The word seems to be derived from the\nroot _na\u00e7_, _nak = necare_, whence nakulas would appear to be the\ndestroyer (of nocturnal mice).\n\nThe mouse, _m\u00fbsh_, _m\u00fbshas_, _m\u00fbshakas_, is the thief, the ravisher,\nwhence also its name rat (_a rapiendo_).\n\nThe Hindoo names of the ant are _vamras_ and _vamr\u00ee_ (besides\n_pip\u00eelakas_). _Vamr\u00ee_ is connected with _vap\u00e2_, _vapram_, _vapr\u00ee_,\nant-hole, and, by metathesis, _valm\u00eekam_ (_i.e._, appertaining to\nants), which has the same meaning. The Latin _formica_ unites together\nthe two forms _vamr\u00ee_ and _valm\u00eekam_. The roots are _vap_, in the\nsense of to throw, and _vam_, to erupt or to throw out, as the ants do\nwhen they erect little mounds of earth.\n\nIn the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, the hole of a serpent is also called by the name\nof _valm\u00eekam_; from this we can explain the fable of the third book of\nthe _Pancatantram_, where we have a serpent fighting against ants. He\nkills many of them, but their number is so interminable that he is at\nlast forced to succumb. Thus, in the mythical Vedic heavens, it is in\nthe shape of a vamras or ant that Indras fights victoriously against the\nold monster that invades the sky.[72] Nay, more, in the _Pancatantram_,\nthe ants sting and bite the serpent and kill it; thus Indras (who, as we\nhave just said, is an ant in the cloud or the night) gives to the ants\nthe avaricious serpent, the son of Agrus, dragging it out of its\nhiding-place.[73] Indras is therefore a variety of the Captain Formicola\nof the Tuscan fairy tale. Finally, the _Rigvedas_ offers us yet another\ncurious particular. The two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u come to assist Vamras (or Indras in\nhis form of an ant, _i.e._, they come to assist the ant) whilst it is\ndrinking (vamram vipip\u00e2nam). The ant throws or lifts up little hillocks\nof earth by biting the ground. The root _vap_, which means to throw, to\nscatter, has also the sense of to cut, and perhaps to make a hole in.\nThe convex presupposes the concave; and _vam_ is related to _vap_ (as\n_somnus_ is related to _h\u00fcpnos_, to _svapnas_, and to _sopor_). Indras,\nas an ant, is the wounder, the biter of the serpent. He makes it come\nout of its den, or vomits it forth (eructat); the two etymological\nsenses are found again in the myth. The weapons with which Indras wounds\nthe serpent are doubtless now the solar rays, and now the thunderbolts.\nIndras, in the cloud, drinks the somas. The ant drinks, and the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u,\nwhilst it drinks, come to its help, for no doubt the ant when drinking\nis in danger of being drowned. And this brings us to the story of the\ngrateful animals, in which the young hero finds an ant about to be\ndrowned.\n\nIn the twenty-fourth of the Tuscan fairy tales published by me, when the\nshepherd's son, by a good advice which he has received, determines to do\ngood to every one he meets, he sees on the path an ant-hill, which is\nabout to be destroyed by water; he then makes a bank round it, and thus\nsaves the ants;[74] in their turn the ants pay back the debt. The king\nof the land demands of the young man, as a condition of receiving his\ndaughter in marriage, that he should separate and sort the different\nkinds of grain in a granary; up marches Captain Formicola with his army,\nand accomplishes the stipulated task. In other varieties of the same\nstory, instead of the embankment, we have the leaf that the hero puts\nunder the ant to float it out of the water contained in the footprint of\na horse, which again recalls the lotus-leaf on which the Hindoo deity\nnavigates the ocean. This water in which the ant is drowning was\nafterwards changed into the proverbial ants' milk,[75] which is now used\nto express an impossibility, but which, when referred to Indras, to the\nmythical ant, represents the ambrosial and pluvial moisture. In the\nsixth Sicilian story of Signora Gonzenbach, the boy Giuseppe, having\ngiven crumbs of bread to the hungry ants, receives from the king of the\nants the present of an ant's leg, in order that he may use it when\nrequired. When he wishes to become an ant, in order to penetrate into\nthe giant's palace, he has only to let the ant's leg fall to the ground,\nwith the words, \"I am a Christian, and am becoming an ant,\" which\nimmediately comes to pass. In the same story Giuseppe procures sheep, in\norder to attract the serpent by their smell, and induce it to come out\nof its lurking-place. Here we evidently return to the Vedic subject of\nthe ant Indras, who tempts the serpent to come out in order to give it\nto the ants. In the eighth story of the fourth book of the\n_Pentamerone_, the ant shows the third part of the way to the girl\nCianna, who is going to search for the mother of time; on the door of\nher dwelling Cianna will find a serpent biting its tail (the well-known\nsymbol of the cyclical day or year, and of time, in antiquity), and she\nis to ask the mother of time, on the ant's part, advice as to how the\nants can live a hundred years. The mother of time answers to Cianna that\nthe ants will live a hundred years when they can dispense with flying,\ninasmuch as \"quanno la formica vo morire, mette l'ascelle\" (_i.e._, the\nwings). The ant, grateful for this good advice, shows Cianna and her\nbrothers the place underground where the thieves have deposited their\ntreasure. We also remember the story of the ants who bring grains of\nbarley into the mouth of the royal child Midas, to announce his future\nwealth. In _Herodotus_ (iii.), and in the twelfth book of the stories of\n_Tzetza_,[76] I find the curious information that there are in India\nants as large as foxes, that keep golden treasures in their holes; the\ngrains of wheat are this gold. The morning and evening heavens are\nsometimes compared to granaries of gold; the ants separate the grain\nduring the night, carrying it from west to east, and purifying it of all\nthat is unclean, or cleansing the sky of the nocturnal shadows. The work\nassigned every night by the witch to the maiden aurora of evening is\ndone in one night by the black ants of the sky of night. Sometimes the\ngirl meets on the way the good fairy (the moon), who comes to her help;\nthe maiden, assisted by the ants, meets the madonna-moon. But the moon\nis called also the leaper or hopper, a nocturnal locust; the darkness,\nthe cloud and the dark-coloured earth (in lunar eclipses) are at the\nsame time ant-hills and black ants, that pass over or before the moon;\nand, therefore, in the race between the ant and the locust, it is said\nin the fable that the ant won the race. The locust, or _\u00e7arabhas_, or\n_\u00e7alabhas_, is presented to us as an improvident animal in two sentences\nof the first and fourth books of the _Pancatantram_. The green\ngrasshopper or locust leaps; the fair-haired moon leaps. (I have already\nnoticed in the chapter on the ass how the words _haris_ and _harit_ mean\nboth green and fair, or yellow; in the second canto of the sixth book of\nthe _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, the monkey \u00c7arabhas is said to inhabit the mountain\nCandras or Mount Moon; \u00c7arabhas, therefore, appears as the moon.) Locust\nand grasshopper jump (cfr. the Chap. on the hare); hence the ant is not\nonly in connection with the locust, but also with the grasshopper: the\nHindoo expression _\u00e7arabhas_ means both grasshopper (in Sanskrit, also\nnamed _varshakar\u00ee_) and locust. In one of the popular songs of the\nMonferrato collected by Signor Ferraro, we have the wedding of the\ngrasshopper and the ant; the magpie, the mouse, the ortolan, the crow,\nand the goldfinch bring to the wedding a little cut straw, a cushion,\nbread, cheese, and wine. In the popular Tuscan songs published by\nGiuseppe Tigri, I find the word _grilli_ (grasshoppers) used in the\nsense of lovers. In Italian, _grillo_ also means caprice, and especially\namorous caprice; and _medico grillo_ is applied to a foolish doctor.[77]\nAnd yet the grasshopper ought to be the diviner _par excellence_. In\nItaly, when we propose a riddle, we are accustomed to end it with the\nwords \"indovinala, grillo\" (guess it, grasshopper); this expression\nperhaps refers to the supposed fool of the popular story, who almost\nalways ends by showing himself wise. The sun enclosed in the cloud and\nin the gloom of night is generally the fool, but he is at the same time\nthe fool who, in the kingdom of the dead, sees, hears, and learns\neverything; and the moon, too, personified as a grasshopper or locust,\nis the supposed fool who, on the contrary, knows, sees, understands, and\nteaches everything; from the moon are taken prognostics; hence riddles\nmay be proposed to the capricious moon, or the celestial cricket. In\nItalian, the expressions \"aver la luna\" (to have the moon), and \"avere\nil grillo\" (to have the grasshopper), are equivalent, and mean to suffer\nfrom a nervous attack, or the spleen. I also find the wedding between\nant and grasshopper in a very popular, but as yet unpublished Tuscan\nsong. The ant asks the grasshopper whether he desires her for his wife,\nand recommends him, if he does not, to look after his own affairs, that\nis, to leave her alone. And then the narrative begins. The grasshopper\ngoes into a field of linen; the ant begs for a thread to make herself\naprons and shirts for the wedding; then the grasshopper says he wishes\nto marry her. The grasshopper goes into a field of vetches; the ant asks\nfor ten vetches, to cook four in a stew, and to put six upon the spit\nfor the wedding-dinner. After the wedding, the grasshopper follows the\ntrade of a greengrocer, then that of an innkeeper; but his affairs\nsucceed so badly, that he first puts his own trousers in pawn, and then\nbecomes bankrupt, and beats his wife the ant; at last he dies in misery.\nThen the ant faints away, throws herself upon the bed, and beats her\nbreast for sorrow with her heel (as ants do when they die).[78] The\nnuptials of the black ant, the gloom of night, with the moon, locust,\nor grasshopper, take place in the evening; the grasshopper dies, the\nmoon pales, and the black ant, the night, also disappears. In the\n_Pancatantram_, the locusts are destroyed by fire. In the so-called\nletter of Alexander the Great to Olympias,[79] I find the ants scared\naway by means of fire, whilst they are endeavouring to keep horses and\nheroes at a distance. These extraordinary ants recall to us the\nhippom\u00fcrm\u00eakes of the Greeks, or ants of horses. The ants, the insects of\nthe forest of night, molest the hero and solar horse that traverse it;\nthe black ants of night are dispersed by the solar fire of the morning:\nthis we can understand all the better when Tzetza, quoted before,\nspeaking of the Indian ants, calls them as large as foxes; when Pliny,\nin the eleventh book of his History, says they are of the colour of a\ncat, and the size of Egyptian wolves; and when Solinus tells us that\nthey have the shape of a large dog, with lion's feet, with which they\ndig gold up. \u00c6lianos calls them guardians of gold (t\u00f4n chr\u00fcs\u00f4n\nph\u00fclattontes). Evidently the ants have already taken here a monstrous\nand demoniacal aspect. Several other ancient authors have written\nconcerning these Indian ants, including Herodotus, Strabo, Philostratos,\nand Lucian. I shall only mention here, as bearing on our subject, that,\naccording to Lucian, it is by night that they dig up the gold, and that,\naccording to Pliny, the ants dig up gold in winter (night and winter are\noften equivalent in mythology). \"The Indians, moreover, steal it during\nsummer, whilst the ants stay hidden in their subterranean lurking-places\non account of the vapours; however, tempted forth by the smell, they run\nout, and often cut the Indians in pieces, although they flee away on\nvery swift camels, they are so rapid, ferocious, and desirous of\ngold.\"[80] This monster ant, with lion's claws, which Pliny also\ndescribes as horned, approaches very closely to the mythical black\nscorpion of the clouds and the night, the Vedic _Vri\u00e7cikas_, which, now\na very little bird (iyattik\u00e2 \u00e7akuntik\u00e2), now a very small ichneumon\n(kushumbhakas, properly the little golden one, perhaps the young morning\nsun), destroys with its tooth (a\u00e7man\u00e2, properly with the biter),\nabsorbing or taking away the poison, as jars take off the water, _i.e._,\nthe sun's rays dissipate the vapours of the sun enclosed in the cloud or\nthe gloom.[81] Here the ichneumon (viverra ichneumon) appears as the\nbenefactor of the scorpion rather than as its enemy; it takes its poison\naway, that is, it frees the sun from the sign of Scorpio, from the\nvapours which envelope it. The ichneumon is in Sanskrit called\n_nakulas_. In the twelfth story of the first book of the _Pancatantram_,\nwe see it, on the contrary, as the declared enemy of the black serpent,\nwhich it kills in its den. But inasmuch as the weasel-ichneumon bites\nvenomous animals, it is itself obliged to deliver itself from the venom\nit has in consequence imbibed. Therefore, in the _Atharvavedas_, mention\nis already made of the salutary herb with which the nakulas (which is\nalso the name of one of the two sons of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, in the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_) cures himself of the bite of venomous animals, that is,\nof serpents, scorpions, and monstrous mice, his enemies. The weasel\n(mustela), which differs but little from the ichneumon, is almost the\nsame in the myths. The weasel, too, as we learn from the ninth book of\nAristotle's _History of Animals_, fights against serpents, after having\neaten the famous herb called rue, the smell of which is said to be\ninsupportable to serpents. But, as its Latin name tells us, it is no\nless skilful as a hunter of mice.[82] The reader is doubtless familiar\nwith the \u00c6sopian fable of the weasel which petitions the man for its\nliberty for the service which it has rendered him by freeing his house\nfrom rats; and with that of Ph\u00e6drus, of the old weasel which catches\nmice in the flour-trough by rolling itself in the flour, so that the\nmice approach, under the impression that it is a solid mass. Plautus's\nparasite reckons upon a good dinner for himself from having met with a\nweasel carrying away the whole of a mouse except its feet (auspicio\nhodie optumo exivi foras; mustela murem abstulit pr\u00e6ter pedes); but the\nexpected dinner never appearing, he declares that the presage is false,\nand pronounces the weasel a prophet only of evil, inasmuch as in one and\nthe same day it changes its place ten times. According to the ninth book\nof Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, the maid Galanthis was changed by the\ngoddess Lucina (the moon) into a weasel, for having told a lie,\nannouncing the birth of H\u00earakl\u00eas before it had taken place:--\n\n      \"Strenuitas antiqua manet, nec terga colorem\n       Amis\u00eare suum, forma est diversa priori;\n       Qu\u00e6, quia mendaci parientem juverat ore,\n       Ore parit.\"\n\nThe popular superstition which makes the weasel bring forth its young\nby its mouth, probably had its origin in this fable. From the mouth\nintemperate words are brought forth. Simonides, in Stobeus, quoted\nalready by Aldrovandi,[83] compares wicked women to weasels. The moon\nthat changes the chattering Galanthis into a weasel appears to be the\nsame as the white moon itself transformed into a white weasel, the\nmoon that explores the nocturnal heaven and discovers all its secrets.\n\nAnts, mice, moles (like serpents), love, on the contrary, to stay\nhidden, and to keep their secrets concealed. The ichneumon, the weasel,\nand the cat generally come out of their hiding-places, and chase away\nwhoever is concealed, carrying away from the hiding-places whatever they\ncan. They are both themselves thieves, and hunt other thieves.\n\nIt is easy now to pass from the Latin _mustela_ to the Sanskrit cat\n_m\u00fbshak\u00e2r\u00e2tis_, or _m\u00fbshik\u00e2ntakrit_.\n\nIn the _Pancatantram_, the cat Butter-ears (dadhikarnas), or he of the\nwhite ears, who feigns to repent of his crimes, is called upon to act\nas judge in a dispute pending between the sparrow, kapingalas and the\nhare Quick-walker (s\u00eeghragas), who had taken up his quarters in the\ndwelling of the absent sparrow. Butter-ears solves the question by\nfeigning deafness, and requesting the two disputants to come nearer,\nto confide their arguments in his ears; the hare and the sparrow rely\non his good faith, and approach, when the cat clutches and devours\nthem both. In the _Hitopade\u00e7as_,[84] we have, instead of the sparrow,\nthe vulture caradgavas, which meets with its death in consequence of\nhaving shown hospitality to the cat, \"of which it knew neither the\ndisposition nor the strength\" (agn\u00e2takula\u00e7\u00eelasya). In the\n_Tuti-Name_,[85] we have, instead of the cat, the lynx,[86] that\nwishes to possess itself of the lion's house, which is guarded by the\nmonkey; it terrifies the lion, and drives it to flight. In the\n_Anvari-Suhaili_,[87] instead of the cat or lynx, we find represented\nthe leopard. In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[88] we find again the fable of the\npenitent cat. The cat, by the austerity which it practises on the\nbanks of the Ganges, inspires confidence in the birds, which gather\nround it to do it honour. After some time, the mice imitate the\nexample of the birds, and put themselves under the cat's protection,\nthat it may defend them. The cat makes its meals upon them every day,\nby inducing one or two to accompany it to the river, and fattens\nexceedingly fast, whilst the mice diminish every day. Then a wise\nmouse determines to follow the cat one day when it goes to the river;\nthe cat eats both the mouse that accompanies it and the spy. Upon this\nthe mice discover the trick, and evacuate altogether the post of\ndanger. The penitent cat is already proverbial in the _Code of\nManus_.[89] In the _Reineke Fuchs_ of Goethe,[90] the cat goes to\nsteal in the priest's house, by the wicked advice of the fox, when\nevery one falls upon him--\n\n                                  \"Sprang er w\u00fcthend entschlossen\n      Zwischen die Schenkel des Pfaffen und biss und kratzte\n          gef\u00e4hrlich.\"\n\nThe _Roman du Renard_,[91] when the priest is mutilated by the cat,\nmakes his wife exclaim--\n\n      \"C'en est fait de nos amours!\n       Je suis veuve sans recours!\"\n\nIn the same _Roman_, when the cat Tibert, the ambassador of King Lion,\narrives at Mantpertuis, where the fox reigns, we read--\n\n         \"Tibert lui pr\u00e9senta la patte;\n          Il fait le saint, il fait la chatte!\n      Mais \u00e0 bon chat, bon rat! Renard aussi le flatte!\n      Il s'entend \u00e0 dorer ses paroles de miel!\n            Si l'un est saint, l'autre est hermite;\n            Si l'un est chatte, l'autre est mite.\"\n\nIn the romance of the fox, the fox endeavours to destroy the cat by\ninducing it to catch the mice that are in the priest's house. In an\nunpublished Tuscan story,[92] we have, on the contrary, the fox that\ninvites the mouse to the shop of a butcher who has recently killed a\npig. The mouse promises to gnaw the wood till the hole is large enough\nfor the fox to pass through it; the fox eats till it is able to pass,\nand then goes away; the mouse eats and fattens so much that it can no\nlonger pass; the cat then comes and eats it.\n\nIn the thirty-fourth story of the second book of _Afanassieff_, the\ncat occurs again, as in India, in connection with the sparrow, but not\nto eat it; on the contrary, they are friends, and twice deliver the\nyoung hero from the witch. This is a form of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u. In the\nsixty-seventh story of the sixth book, the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u return in the\nshape respectively of a dog and a cat (now enemies one of the other,\nas the two mythical brothers often show themselves, and now friends\nfor life and death). A young man buys for a hundred roubles a dog with\nhanging ears, and for another hundred roubles a cat with a golden\ntail,[93] both of which he nourishes well. With a hundred roubles\nmore, he acquires the ring of a dead princess, from which thirty boys\nand a hundred and seventy heroes, who perform every kind of marvel,\ncan come forth at the possessor's will. By means of these wonders, the\nyoung man is enabled to wed the king's daughter; but as the latter\nwishes to ruin him, she makes him drunk, steals his ring, and departs\ninto a far distant kingdom. The Tzar then shuts the youth up in\nprison; the dog and the cat go to recover the lost ring. When they\npass the river, the dog swims and carries the cat upon his back (the\nblind and the lame, St Christopher and Christ). They come to the place\nwhere the princess lives, and enter into her dwelling. They then\nengage themselves in the service of the cook and the housemaid; the\ncat, following its natural instinct, gives chase to a mouse, upon\nwhich the mouse begs for its life, promising to bring the ring to the\ncat. The princess sleeps with the ring in her mouth; the mouse puts\nits tail into her mouth; she spits, the ring comes out, and is taken\nby the dog and the cat, who deliver the young man, and force the\nfugitive Tzar's daughter to return to her first abode.\n\nIn the following story of _Afanassieff_, when the youngest of the\nthree sisters bears three sons to Ivan Tzarevic, her envious elder\nsisters make the prince believe that she has brought forth a cat, a\ndog, and a vulgar child. The three real sons are carried off; the\nprincess is blinded and enclosed with her supposed child in a cask,\nwhich is thrown into the sea. The cask, however, comes to shore and\nopens;[94] the supposititious son immediately bathes the princess's\neyes with hot water, and she recovers her sight, after which he finds\nher three luminous sons again, who light up whatever is near them with\ntheir splendour, and is again united to her husband. In a Russian\nvariation of the same story, the three sons are changed by the witch\ninto three doves; the princess, with her supposed son, is saved from\nthe sea, and takes refuge upon an island, where, perched upon a gold\npillar, a wise cat sings ballads and tells stories. The three doves\nare transformed into handsome youths, whose legs are of silver up to\nthe knee, their chests of gold, their foreheads like the moon, and\ntheir sides formed of stars, and recover their father and mother.\n\nThus far we have seen the cat with white ears, who hunts the hare (or\nmoon), the morning twilight, and the penitent cat who eats mice at the\nriver's side, and which is mythically the same. We have observed that,\nof the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, one represents especially the sun, and the other\nthe moon; the thieving cat, who is the friend of some thieves and the\nenemy of others (whence the Hungarian and Tuscan superstition, to the\neffect that for a good cat to be a skilful thief, it must itself have\nbeen stolen; then it is sure to catch mice well), is now the morning\ntwilight, now the moon who gives chase to the mice of the night.\nAccording to the Hellenic cosmogony, the sun and the moon created the\nanimals; the sun creating the lion, and the moon the cat. In the fifth\nbook of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, when the gods fled from the giants,\nDiana took the form of a cat.[95] In Sicily the cat is sacred to St\nMartha, and is respected in order not to irritate her: he who kills a\ncat will be unhappy for seven years. In the ancient German belief, the\ngoddess Freya was drawn by two cats. At present, the cat and the\nmouse are sacred to the funereal St Gertrude. In the sixty-second\nstory of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, we have the chattering cat,\nwhich the hero Baldak must kill in the territory of the hostile Sultan\n(that is, in the wintry night). In the eighth story of the fourth book\nof the _Pentamerone_, we also find a she-cat that plays the part of\nthe ogre's spy; in the tenth story of the _Pentamerone_, and in the\nfirst of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, on the\ncontrary, the cat reveals the witch's treachery to the prince. In the\ntwenty-third story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the cat\nKatofiei appears as the husband of the fox, who passes him off as a\nburgomaster. United together, they terrify the wolf and the bear,[96]\nthe cat climbing up a tree. In the \u00c6sopian fables, on the contrary,\nthe cat and the fox dispute as to which is the superior animal; the\ncat makes the dog catch the fox, whilst it itself climbs up a tree. In\nthe third story of the second book of _Afanassieff_, the cat\nassociates with the cock in the search for the bark of trees; it\ndelivers its comrade three times from the fox that had run off with\nit; the third time, the cat not only liberates the cock, but also eats\nthe four young foxes. In the thirtieth story of the fourth book, the\ncat Catonaievic, the son of Cato (this name is derived from the\nequivoque between the words _catus_ and _caton_; in French, besides\n_chat_, we have _chaton_, _chatonique_, &c.), delivers the cock twice\nfrom the fox, but the third time the fox eats the poor bird. In a\nRussian variety of this story, the cat kills the five little foxes and\nthen the fox, after having sung as follows:--\n\n      \"The cat walks upon its feet\n       In red boots;\n       It wears a sword by its side,\n       And a stick by its thigh;\n       It wishes to kill the fox,\n       And to make its soul perish.\"[97]\n\nIn another variety, the cat and the lamb go to deliver the cock from\nthe fox. The latter has seven daughters. The cat and the lamb allure\nthem by songs to come out, and they kill them one after the other,\nwounding them in their foreheads; they then kill the fox itself, and\nso deliver the cock. In the romance of the fox, the cat is the\nhangman, and ties the fox to the gibbet.\n\nIn the third story of the first book, the witch's cat, grateful to the\ngood girl who has given her some ham to eat, teaches her how to\nescape, and gives her the usual towel which, when thrown on the\nground, makes a river appear, and the usual comb which, in like\nmanner, causes an impenetrable forest to arise before the witch who\nruns after the girl to devour her.\n\nWe have already seen the Vedic moon who sews the wedding-robe with a\nthread that does not break. In the Russian story we have already\nremarked how the little puppet, to oblige the good maiden, makes a shirt\ndestined for the Tzar, which is so fine that no one else can make the\nlike. In the celebrated tale of the witty Madame d'Aulnoy, _La Chatte\nBlanche_, we have the white cat Blanchette, veiled in black, who\ninhabits the enchanted palace, rides upon a monkey, speaks, and gives to\nthe young prince, who rides upon a wooden horse (the forest of night),\ninside an acorn, the most beautiful little dog that ever existed in the\nworld, that he may take it to the king his father--a little dog, \"plus\nbeau que la canicule\" (evidently the sun itself, which comes out of the\ngolden egg or acorn), which can pass through a ring (the disc of the\nsun), and then a marvellously painted cloth, which is so fine that it\ncan pass through the eye of a small needle, and is enclosed in a grain\nof millet, although of the length of \"quatre cents aunes\" (the eye of\nthe needle, the acorn, the grain of millet, and the ring are equivalent\nforms to represent the solar disc). This wonderful cat finally herself\nbecomes a beautiful maiden, \"Parut comme le soleil qui a \u00e9t\u00e9 quelque\ntemps envelopp\u00e9 dans une nue; ses cheveux blonds \u00e9taient \u00e9pars sur ses\n\u00e9paules; ils tombaient par grosses boucles jusqu'\u00e0 ses pieds. Sa t\u00eate\n\u00e9tait ceinte de fleurs, sa robe, d'une l\u00e9g\u00e8re gaze blanche, doubl\u00e9e de\ntaffetas couleur de rose.\" The white cat of night, the white moon,\nresigns her place in the morning to the rosy aurora; the two phenomena\nthat succeed each other appear to be metamorphoses of the same being.\nThe white cat, with its attendant cats, before becoming a beautiful\nmaiden, invites the prince to assist in a battle which he engages in\nwith the mice. To this we can compare the \u00c6sopian fable of the young man\nwho, in love with a cat, beseeches Venus to transform her into a woman.\nVenus gratifies him; the youth marries her; but when the bride is in bed\n(_i.e._, in the night, when the evening aurora again gives up its place\nto the moon, or when it meets with the grey mice of night), a mouse\npasses by, and the woman, who still retains her feline nature, runs\nafter it.\n\nWhen the sun enters into the night, it finds in the starry heavens an\nenchanted palace, where either there is not a living soul to be found,\nor where only the cat-moon moves about. Hence, in my opinion, the\norigin of the expression that we make use of in Italy to indicate an\nempty house--\"Non vi era neanche un gatto\" (there was not even a cat\nthere). The cat is considered the familiar genie of the house. The\nenchanted palace is always situated either at the summit of a\nmountain, or in a gloomy forest (like the moon). This palace is the\ndwelling either of a good fairy, or a good magician, or of a witch, or\na serpent-demon, or at least cats. The visit to the house of the cats\nis the subject of a story which I have heard told, with few\nvariations, in Piedmont and in Tuscany.[98]\n\nWe have hitherto seen only the luminous or white cat, the cat-moon and\ntwilight, under a generally benignant aspect. But when the night is\nwithout a moon, we have only the black cat in the dense gloom. This\nblack cat then assumes a demoniacal character.\n\nIn the Monferrato it is believed that all the cats that wander about\nthe roofs in the month of February are not really cats, but witches,\nwhich one must shoot. For this reason, black cats are kept away from\nthe cradles of children. The same superstition exists in Germany.[99]\nIn Tuscany, it is believed that when a man desires death, the devil\npasses before his bed in the form of any animal except the lamb, but\nespecially in that of a he-goat, a cock, a hen, or a cat. In the\nGerman superstition,[100] the black cat that places itself upon the\nbed of a sick man announces his approaching death; if it is seen upon\na grave, it signifies that the departed is in the devil's power. If\none dreams of a black cat at Christmas, it is an omen of some alarming\nillness during the following year. Aldrovandi, speaking of Stefano\nCardano, narrates that, being old and seriously ill, or rather dying,\na cat appeared unexpectedly before him, emitted a loud cry, and\ndisappeared. The same Aldrovandi tells us of a cat which scratched the\nbreast of a woman, who, recognising in it a supernatural being, died\nafter the lapse of a few days. In Hungary it is believed that the cat\ngenerally becomes a witch from the age of seven years to that of\ntwelve, and that witches ride upon tom-cats, especially black ones; it\nis, moreover, believed that to deliver the cat from the witch, it is\nnecessary to make upon its skin an incision in the form of a cross.\nThe cat in the bag of proverbs has probably a diabolical allusion. In\nthe tenth story of the _Pentamerone_, when the King of Roccaforte,\nthinking that he is marrying a beautiful maiden, finds that, on the\ncontrary, he has espoused a hideous veiled old hag (the night), he\nsays, \"Questo \u00e8 peo nce vole a chi accatta la gatta dinto lo sacco.\"\nIn Sicily, when the Rosary is recited for navigators, the mewing of\nthe cat presages a tedious voyage.[101] When the witches in _Macbeth_\nprepare their evil enchantments against the king, the first witch\ncommences with the words--\n\n      \"Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.\"\n\nIn a German belief noticed by Professor Rochholtz, two cats that fight\nagainst each other are to a sick man an omen of approaching death. These\ntwo cats are probably another form of the children's game in Piedmont\nand Tuscany, called the game of souls, in which the devil and the angel\ncome to dispute for the soul. Of the two cats, one is probably benignant\nand the other malignant; they represent perhaps night and twilight. An\nIrish legend tells us of a combat between cats, in which all the\ncombatants perished, leaving only their tails upon the battlefield. (A\nsimilar tradition also exists in Piedmont, but is there, if I am not\nmistaken, referred to wolves.) Two cats that fight for a mouse, and\nallow it to escape, are also mentioned in Hindoo tradition.[102]\n\nIn the 105th hymn of the first book of the _Rigvedas_, and in the\nthirty-third of the tenth book, a poet says to Indras, \"The thought\nrends me, thy praiser, as mice tear their tails by gnawing at\nthem.\"[103] But according to another interpretation, instead of\n\"tails,\" we should read \"threads;\" in this case, the mice that rend\nthe threads would refer to the fable of the mouse that delivers from\nthe net now the elephant, and now the lion (of which fable I shall\nendeavour to prove the Vedic antiquity in the next chapter).\n\nThe twelfth story of the third book of the _Pancatantram_ is of great\nmythological interest. From the beak of a hawk (in another Hindoo\nlegend, from two cats that are disputing for it) a mouse takes refuge\nin the hands of a penitent, whilst he is bathing in the river. The\npenitent transforms the mouse into a beautiful maiden, and wishes to\nmarry her to the sun; the maiden declines--he is too hot. The penitent\nnext wishes to marry her to the cloud which defeats the sun; the\nmaiden declares it is too dark and cold. He then proposes to give her\nto the wind which defeats the cloud (in the white _Yagurvedas_, the\nmouse is sacred to the god Rudras, the wind that howls and lightens in\nthe cloud); the maiden refuses--it is too changeful. The penitent now\nproposes that she should wed the mountain, against which the wind\ncannot prevail, but the girl says it is too hard; and finally the\npenitent asks if she would be willing to part with her affections to\nthe mouse, who alone can make a hole in the mountain; the maiden is\nsatisfied with this last proposal, and is again transformed into a\nfemale mouse, in order to be able to wed the male mouse. In this\nbeautiful myth (which is a variation of the other one which we have\nalready mentioned of the cat-maiden that, though transfigured, still\nretains its instinct as a huntress of mice), the whole revolution of\nthe twenty-four hours of the day is described. The mouse of night\nappears first; the twilight tries to make it its prey; the night\nbecomes the aurora; the sun presents itself for her husband; the sun\nis covered by the cloud, and the cloud is scattered by the wind;\nmeanwhile the evening aurora, the girl, appears upon the mountain; the\nmouse of night again appears, and with her the maiden is confounded.\nThe _H\u00eetopade\u00e7as_ contains an interesting variety of the same myth.\nThe mouse falls from the vulture's beak, and is received by a wise\nman, who changes it into a cat, then, to save it from the dog, into a\ndog, and finally into a tiger. When the mouse is become a tiger, it\nthinks of killing the wise man, who, reading its thoughts, transforms\nit again into a mouse. Here we find described the same circle of daily\ncelestial phenomena. The succession of these phenomena sometimes\ncauses transformations in the myths.\n\nThe well-known proverb of the mountain that gives birth to the mouse,\nrefers to the myth contained in the story of the _Pancatantram_. We\nalready know that the solar hero enters in the evening with the solar\nhorse into the mountain and becomes stone, and that all the heavens\nassume the colour of this mountain. From the mountain come forth the\nmice of night, the shadows of night, to which the cat-moon and the\ncat-twilight give chase; the thieving propensities of the mice\ndisplay themselves in the night. In German superstition the souls of\nthe dead assume the forms of mice, and when the head of a house dies,\nit is said that even the mice of the house abandon it.[104] In\ngeneral, every apparition of mice is considered a funereal presage; it\nis on this account that the funereal St Gertrude was represented\nsurrounded by mice. The first witch in _Macbeth_, when she wishes to\npersecute the merchant who is sailing towards Aleppo, and shipwreck\nhim, that she may avenge herself upon his wife, who had refused to\ngive her some chestnuts, threatens to become like a rat without a\ntail. In the _Historia Sarmati\u00e6_, quoted by Aldrovandi, the uncles of\nKing Popelus II., whom, with his wife for accomplice, he murders in\nsecret, and throws into the lake, become mice, and gnaw the king and\nqueen to death. The same death is said to have been the doom of\nMi\u00e7cislaus, the son of the Duke Conrad of Poland, for having\nwrongfully appropriated the property of widows and orphans; and of\nOtto, Archbishop of Mainz, for having burned the granary during a\nfamine. Mice are said to have presaged at Rome the first civil war, by\ngnawing the gold in the temple; and it was, moreover, alleged that a\nfemale mouse had given birth in a trap to five male mice, of which she\nhad devoured two. Other prodigies, in which mice were implicated, are\nmentioned as having taken place at Rome, even in the times of Cato,\nwho was accustomed to make them the butt of his indignant scorn. To a\nperson who told him, for instance, how the mice had gnawed the boots,\nhe answered that this was no miracle; it would have been a miracle if\nthe boots (_calig\u00e6_) had eaten the mice.\n\nThe mouse in the fable is sometimes in connection with the elephant\nand the lion, whom it sometimes insults and despises (as in the\n_Tuti-Name_),[105] and sometimes comes to help and deliver from their\nfetters. The meaning of the myth is evident: the elephant and the lion\nrepresent here the sun in the darkness; in the evening the mouse of\nnight leaps upon the two heroic animals, which are then old or infirm;\nin the morning the sun is delivered out of the fetters of the night,\nand it is supposed that it was the mouse which gnawed the ropes and\nset at liberty now the elephant, as in the _Pancatantram_, now the\nlion, as in the \u00c6sopian fable.\n\nThe Hindoo god Gane\u00e7as, the god of poets, eloquence, and wisdom, is\nrepresented with an elephant's head, and his foot crushing a mouse.\nThus, among the Greeks, Apollo Smintheus, so called because he had\nshot the mice that stole the yearly provisions from Krinos, the priest\nof Apollo himself, was represented with a mouse under him. As the\nChristian Virgin crushes the serpent of night under her foot, so does\nthe pagan sun-god crush under his feet the mouse of night.\n\nWhen the cat's away, the mice may play; the shadows of night dance\nwhen the moon is absent.\n\nIn the fifteenth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the witch\nstep-mother desires her old husband to lead away his daughter to spin\nin the forest[106] in a deserted hut. The girl finds a little mouse\nthere, and gives it something to eat. At night the bear comes, and\nwishes to play with the girl at the game of blind-man's-buff (this\nvery popular game has evidently a mythical origin and meaning; every\nevening in the sky the sun amuses itself by playing blind-man's-buff;\nit blinds itself, and runs blind into the night, where it must find\nagain its predestined bride or lost wife, the aurora). The little\nmouse approaches the maiden, and whispers in her ear, \"Maiden, be not\nafraid; say to him, 'Let us play;' then put out the fire and hide\nunder the stove; I will run and make the little bells ring.\" (Mice\nseem to have an especial predilection for the sound of bells. It is\nwell-known how, in the Hellenic fable, the council of mice resolve, to\ndeliver themselves from the cat, to put a bell round its neck; no one,\nhowever, undertakes to perform the arduous enterprise.) The bear\nthinks he is running after the maiden, and runs, on the contrary,\nafter the mouse, which he cannot catch. The bear tires himself out,\nand congratulating the maiden, says to her, \"Thou art my mistress,\nmaiden, in playing at blind-man's-buff; to-morrow morning I will send\nyou a herd of horses and a chariot of goods.\" (The morning aurora\ncomes out of the forest, delivers herself from the clutches of the\nbear, from the witch of the night, and appears drawn by horses upon a\nchariot full of treasure. The myth is a lucid one.)\n\nIn other numerous legends we have the grateful mouse that helps the\nhero or heroine. In the thirteenth Calmuc story, the mouse, the\nmonkey, and the bear, grateful for having been delivered, from the\nrogues that tormented them, by the son of the Brahman, come to his\nhelp by gnawing and breaking open the chest in which the young man had\nbeen enclosed by order of the king; afterwards, with the assistance of\nthe fishes, they help him to recover a lost talisman.\n\nIn the fifty-eighth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_,[107] the\nmouse, the war-horse, and the fish silurus, out of gratitude assist\nthe honest workman who has fallen into a marsh, and cleanse him; upon\nseeing which the princess, that has never laughed, laughs, and\nthereafter marries the workman. (The young morning sun comes out of\nthe marsh or swamp of night; the aurora, who was at first a dark,\nwicked, and ugly girl, marries the young sun whom the mouse has\ndelivered out of the mud, as it delivered the lion out of the toils.)\n\nIn the fifty-seventh story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, it is\nthe mouse that warns Ivan Tzarevic to flee from the serpent-witch (the\nblack night) his sister, who is sharpening her teeth to eat him.\n\nIn the third story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, the mice help\nthe good maiden, who had given them something to eat, to do what the\nwitch, her step-mother, had commanded.\n\nIn the twenty-third story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the\nmouse and the sparrow appear at first as friends and associates. But\none day the sparrow, having found a poppy-seed, thinks it so small\nthat he eats it up without offering a share to his partner. The mouse\nhears of it, and is indignant; he breaks the alliance, and declares\nwar against the sparrow. The latter assembles all the birds of the\nair, and the mouse all the animals of the earth, and a sanguinary\nbattle commences. In a Russian variety of the same story, instead of\nthe sparrow, it is the mouse that breaks the compact. They collect\ntogether the provisions against winter, but when, towards the end of\nthe season, they are all but finished, the mouse expels the sparrow,\nand the sparrow goes to complain to the king of the birds. The king of\nthe birds visits the king of the beasts, and sets forth the complaint\nof the sparrow; the king of the beasts then calls the mouse to\naccount, who defends himself with such humility and cunning, that he\nends by convincing his monarch that the sparrow is in the wrong. Then\nthe two kings declare war against each other, and engage in a\nformidable struggle, attended with terrible bloodshed on both sides,\nand which ends in the king of the birds being wounded. (The nocturnal\nor wintry mouse expels the solar bird of evening or of autumn.)\n\nIn the _Batrachomyomachia_, attributed to Homer, the royal mouse\nPsicharpax (properly ravisher of crumbs), the third son of Troxartes\n(eat-bread), boasts to Ph\u00fcsignathos (he who inflates his cheeks), the\nlord of the frogs, that he does not fear the man, the point of whose\nfinger (akron dakt\u00fcl\u00f4n) he has bitten while he was asleep; whilst, on\nthe other hand, he has for his enemies the falcon (which we have\nalready, in the Hindoo story, seen let the mouse fall from its beak)\nand the cat. The frog, who wishes to entertain the mouse, invites it\nto get upon his back, to be carried to his royal mansion; at first the\nmouse is amused with its ride, but when the frog makes it feel the icy\nwater, the poor mouse's heart begins to fail; finally, at the sight\nof a serpent, the frog forgets its rider and runs away, throwing the\nmouse head-over-heels into the water to be the prey of the serpent.\nThen, before expiring, remembering that the gods have an avenging eye,\nit threatens the frogs with the vengeance of the army of the mice. War\nis prepared. The mice make themselves good boots with the shells of\nbeans; they cover their cuirasses of bulrushes with the skin of a\nflayed cat; their shield is the centre knob of the lamps (l\u00fcchn\u00f4n to\nmesomphalon, _i.e._, if I am not mistaken, a fragment of a little lamp\nof terra-cotta, and, properly speaking, the lower and central part);\nfor a lance they have a needle, and for a helmet a nutshell. The gods\nare present at the battle as neutrals,--Pallas having declared her\nunwillingness to help the mice, because they stole the oil from the\nlamps burning in her honour, and because they had gnawed her peplum,\nand being equally indifferent to the frogs, because they had once\nwakened her when returning from war, and when, being tired and weary,\nshe wished to rest. The battle is fiercely fought, and is about to\nhave an unfavourable result for the frogs, when Zeus takes pity upon\nthem; he lightens and hurls his thunderbolts. At last, seeing that the\nmice do not desist, the gods send a host of crabs, who, biting the\ntails, the hands, and the feet of the mice, force them to flee. This\nis undoubtedly the representation of a mythical battle. The frogs, as\nwe shall see, are the clouds; the night meets the cloud; the mouse\nfights with the frog. Zeus, the thunder-god, to put an end to the\nstruggle, thunders and lightens; at last the retrograde crab makes its\nappearance; the combatants, frogs and mice, naturally disappear.\n\nThe mouse is never conceived otherwise than in connection with the\nnocturnal darkness, and hence, by extending the myth, in connection\nalso with the darkness of winter, from which light and riches\nsubsequently come forth. In Sicily it is believed that when a child's\ntooth is taken out, if it be hidden in a hole, the mouse will take it\naway and bring a coin for the child in compensation. The mouse is\ndark-coloured, but its teeth and fore-parts are white and luminous.\nThe mouse Hiranyakas, or the golden one, in the _Pancatantram_, is the\nblack or grey mouse of night. It is the red squirrel that, in an\n\u00c6sopian fable, answers to the query of the fox why it sharpens its\nteeth when it has nothing to eat, that it does so to be always\nprepared against its enemies. In the _Edda_, the squirrel runs upon\nthe tree Yggdrasil, and sets the eagle and Nidh\u00f6gg at discord.\n\nThe mole and the snail are of the same nature as the grey mouse. The\nHindoo word _\u00e2khus_, or the mole (already spoken of as a demon killed\nby Indras, in the _Rigvedas_[108]), properly signifies the excavator.\n\nIn the _Reineke Fuchs_ the mole appears as a gravedigger, as the\nanimal that heaves the earth up, and makes ditches underground; it is,\nin fact, the most skilful of gravediggers, and its black colour and\nsupposed blindness are in perfect accordance with the funereal\ncharacter assigned to it by mythology. In an apologue of Laurentius,\nthe ass complains to the mole of having no horns, and the monkey of\nhaving a short tail; the mole answers them--\n\n                      \"Quid potestis hanc meam\n      Miseram intuentes coecitatem, h\u00e6c conqueri?\"\n\nAccording to the Hellenic myth, Phineus became a mole because he had,\nfollowing the advice of his second wife, Idaia, allowed his two sons\nby his first wife, Cleopatra, to be blinded, and also because he had\nrevealed the secret thoughts of Zeus.[109]\n\nIn Du Cange I find that even in the Middle Ages it was the custom on\nChristmas Eve for children to meet with poles, having straw wrapped\nround the ends, which they set fire to, and to go round the gardens,\nnear the trees, shouting--\n\n      \"Taupes et mulots\n       Sortez de nos clos\n       Sinon je vous brulerai la barbe et les os.\"\n\nWe find a similar invocation in the seventh story of the second book\nof the _Pentamerone_. The beautiful girl goes to find maruzze, and\nthreatens the snail to make her mother cut off its horns--\n\n      \"Iesce, iesce, corna\n       Ca mammata te scorna,\n       Te scorna 'ncoppa l'astreco\n       Che fa lo figlio mascolo.\"\n\nIn Piedmont, to induce the snail to put its horns out, children are\naccustomed to sing to it--\n\n      \"L\u00fcmassa, l\u00fcmassora,\n       Tira fora i to corn,\n       Dass no,[110] i vad dal barb\u00e9\n       E it tje fass tai\u00e9!\"\n\nSicilian children terrify the snail by informing it that their mother\nis coming to burn its horns with a candle--\n\n      \"Nesci li corna ch 'a mamma veni\n       E t' adduma lu cannileri.\"\n\nIn Tuscany they threaten the white snail (la marinella), telling it to\nthrust out its little horns to save itself from kicks and blows--\n\n      \"Chi\u00f3cciola marinella,\n       Tira fuori le tue cornella,\n       E se tu non le tirerai\n       Calci e pugni tu buscherai.\"\n\nIn Tuscany it is believed, moreover, that in the month of April the\nsnail makes love with the serpents, and is therefore venomous; hence\nthey sing--\n\n      \"Chi vuol presto morire\n       Mangi la chiocciola d' aprile.\"[111]\n\nThe snail of popular superstition is demoniacal; hence it is also\ninvoked by children in Germany by the name of the funereal St\nGertrude--\n\n      \"Kuckuck, kuckuck Gerderut\n       St\u00e4k d\u00eene v\u00ear Horns herut.\"[112]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[72] Vriddhasya cid vardhato dy\u00e2m inakshatah stav\u00e2no vamro vi gagh\u00e2na\nsamdihah; _Rigv._ i. 51, 9.\n\n[73] Vamr\u00eebhih putram agruvo ad\u00e2nam nive\u00e7an\u00e2d dhariva \u00e2 gabhartha;\n_Rigv._ iv. 19, 9.--Another variation is the hedgehog, which, as we\nhave seen in Chapter V., forces the viper out of its den.\n\n[74] The dwarf-hermits, who transport a leaf upon a car, and are about\nto be drowned in the water contained in the foot-print of a cow, and\nwho curse Indras, who passes smiling without assisting them, in the\nlegend of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, are a variety of these same ants.--Cfr.\nthe chapters on the Elephant and on the Fishes, where we have Indras\nwho fears to be submerged.\n\n[75] Fa cunto ca no le mancava lo latto de la formica; _Pentamerone_,\ni. 8.\n\n[76] _Biblion Istorikon_, xii. 404.--In the _Epist. Presb. Johannis_,\nwe find also:--\"In quadam provincia nostra sunt formic\u00e6 in magnitudine\ncatulorum, habentes vii. pedes et alas iv. Ist\u00e6 formic\u00e6 ab occasu\nsolis ad ortum morantur sub terra et fodiunt purissimum aurum tota\nnocte--qu\u00e6runt victum suum tota die. In nocte autem veniunt homines de\ncunctis civitatibus ad colligendum ipsum aurum et imponunt\nelephantibus. Quando formic\u00e6 sunt supra terram, nullus ibi audet\naccedere propter crudelitatem et ferocitatem ipsarum.\"--Cfr. _infra._\n\n[77] Of this expression a historical origin is given, referring it to\na Bolognese doctor of the twelfth century, named Grillo.--Cfr.\nFanfani, _Vocabolario dell 'uso Toscano, s. v._ \"grillo.\"\n\n[78] Here are the words of the song of this curious wedding, which I\nheard sung at Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, near Florence:--\n\n      \"Grillo, mio grillo,\n       Se tu vuoi moglie, dillo;\n       Se tu n' la vuoi,\n       Abbada a' fatti tuoi.\n                      Tinfillulilalera\n                      Linfillulilal\u00e0.\n\n      \"Povero grillo, 'n un campo di lino,\n       La formicuccia gne ne chiese un filo.\n       D'un filo solo, cosa ne vuoi tu fare?\n       Grembi e camicie; mi vuo' maritare.\n       Disse lo grillo:--Ti piglier\u00f2 io.\n       La formicuccia:--Son contenta anch' io.\n                      Tinfillul., &c.\n\n      \"Povero grillo, 'n un campo di ceci;\n       La formicuccia gne ne chiese dieci\n       Di dieci soli, cosa ne vuoi tu fare?\n       Quattro di stufa, e sei li vuo' girare.\n                      Tinfillul., &c.\n\n      \"Povero grillo facea l'ortolano\n       L'andava a spasso col ravanello in mano;\n       Povero grillo, andava a Pontedera,\n       Con le vilancie pesava la miseria.\n                      Tinfillul., &c.\n\n      \"Povero grillo, l'andiede a Monteboni,\n       Dalla miseria l'impegn\u00f2 i calzoni;\n       Povero grillo facea l'oste a Colle,\n       L'and\u00f2 fallito e baston\u00f2 la moglie.\n                      Tinfillul., &c.\n\n      \"La formicuccia and\u00f2 alla festa a il Porto,\n       Ebbe la nova che il suo grillo era morto\n       La formicuccia, quando seppe la nova\n       La casc\u00f2 in terra, stette svenuta un 'ora.\n       La formicuccia si butt\u00f2 su il letto,\n       Con le calcagna si batteva il petto.\n                      Tinfillul.,\" &c.\n\n[79] Cfr. Zacher, _Pseudo-Callisthenes_, Halle, 1867.\n\n[80] Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ xi. 31.\n\n[81] Iyattik\u00e2 \u00e7akuntik\u00e2 sak\u00e2 gagh\u00e2sa te visham; _Rigv._ i. 191, 11.\n\n[82] iv. 1.\n\n[83] _De Quad. Dig. Viv._ ii.\n\n[84] i. 49.\n\n[85] ii. 22.\n\n[86] The forgetfulness of the lynx, as well as of the cat, is\nproverbial. St Jerome, in the Ep. ad Chrisog.--\"Verum tu quod natura\nlynces insitum habent, ne post tergum respicientes meminerint priorum,\net mens perdat quod oculi videre desierint, ita nostr\u00e6 es\nnecessitudinis penitus oblitus.\" Thus of the lynx it is said by\n\u00c6lianos that it covers its urine with sand (like the cat), so that men\nmay not find it, for in seven days the precious stone lyncurion is\nformed of this urine. The cat that sees by night, the lynx that sees\nthrough opaque bodies, the fable of Lynkeus, who, according to Pliny,\nsaw in one day the first and the last moon in the sign of Aries, and\nthe lynx that, according to Apollonios, saw through the earth what was\ngoing on in hell, recall to us the moon, the wise and all-seeing fairy\nof the sky, and the infernal moon.\n\n[87] Quoted by Benfey in the Einleitung to the _Pancatantram_.\n\n[88] v. 5421-5448.\n\n[89] \"Let no man, apprised of this law, present even water to a priest\nwho acts like a cat;\" iv. 192, version of Jones and Graves' _Chamney\nHaughton_, edited by Percival, Madras, 1863.--In a Russian story\nquoted by Afanassieff in his observations to the first volume of his\nstories, the cat Eustachio feigns itself penitent or monk in order to\neat the mouse when it passes. It being observed that the cat is too\nfat for a penitent, it answers that it eats from the duty of\npreserving its health.\n\n[90] iii. 147, Stuttgart, Cotta, 1857.\n\n[91] Translation by Ch. Potvin, Paris and Brussels, 1861.\n\n[92] From the peasant-woman Uliva Selvi, who told it to me at\nAntignano, near Leghorn.\n\n[93] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 32, where a cat is bought by a virtuous\nworkman for the price of a kapeika (a small coin), the only price that\nhe had consented to take as a reward for his work; the same cat is\nbought by the king for three vessels. With another kapeika, earned by\nother work, the workman delivers the king's daughter from the devil,\nand subsequently marries her.\n\n[94] Cfr. analogous subjects in Chapter I., _e.g._, Emilius the lazy\nand stupid youth, and the blind woman who recovers her sight.\n\n[95]\n\n      Huc quoque terrigenam venisse Typhoea narrat,\n      Et se mentitis superos celasse figuris;\n      Duxque gregis, dixit, fit Jupiter; unde recurvis\n      Nunc quoque formatus Lybis est cum cornibus Ammon\n      Delius in corvo, proles Semeleia capro\n      Fele soror Phoebi, nivea Saturnia vacca,\n      Pisce Venus latuit, Cyllenius ibidis alis.\n                                     --v. 325-332.\n\n[96] In the eighteenth story of the third book of _Afanassieff_ it is\nin company with the lamb (in the nineteenth, with the he-goat) that\nthe cat terrifies the wolf and the bear.\n\n[97]\n\n      \"Idiot kot na nag\u00e1h,\n       V krasnih sapag\u00e1h;\n       Nessiot sabliu na plessi\u00e9;\n       A palocku pri bedri\u00e9,\n       Hociet lissu parub\u00edt,\n       Iei\u00e0 dushu zagub\u00edt.\"\n\nPuss-in-boots (le chat bott\u00e9), helps the third brother in the tale of\nPerrault.\n\n[98] In Tuscany the previously mentioned story-teller, Uliva Selvi, at\nAntignano, near Leghorn, narrated it to me as follows:--A mother has a\nnumber of children and no money; a fairy tells her to go to the summit\nof the mountain, where she will find many enchanted cats in a\nbeautiful palace, who give alms. The woman goes, and a kitten lets her\nin; she sweeps the rooms, lights the fire, washes the dishes, draws\nwater, makes the beds, and bakes bread for the cats; at last she comes\nbefore the king of the cats, who is seated with a crown on his head,\nand asks for alms. The great cat rings the golden bell with a golden\nchain, and calls the cats. He learns that the woman has treated them\nwell, and orders them to fill her apron with gold coins (rusponi). The\nwicked sister of the poor woman also goes to visit the cats, but she\nmaltreats them, and returns home all scratched, and more dead than\nalive from pain and terror.\n\n[99] Cfr. Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauche_, i. 161.\n\n[100] _Ib._--I find the same belief referred to in the twenty-first\nEsthonian story of Kreutzwald.\n\n[101] It is almost universally believed that when the cat cleans\nitself behind its ears with its wet paw, it presages rain. And yet the\nLatin proverb says--\n\n      \"Catus amat pisces, sed aquas intrare recusat;\"\n\nand the Hungarian proverb, that the cat does not die in water. It is\nfor this reason, perhaps, that it is said, in a watery autumn the cat\nis worth little--(\"The cat of autumn and the woman of spring are not\nworth much;\" _Hung. prov._)\n\n[102] Polier, _Mythologie des Indes_, ii. 571.\n\n[103] M\u00fbsho na \u00e7i\u00e7n\u00e2 vy adanti m\u00e2dhyah stot\u00e2ram te \u00e7atakrato; _Rigv._\ni. 105, 8.--The commentator now interprets _\u00e7i\u00e7n\u00e2_ by _sutr\u00e2ni_,\nthreads, and now calls the reader's attention to the legend of the\nmice that lick their tails after plunging them into a vase full of\nbutter, or some other savoury substance; but here _vy adanti_ can only\nmean, they lacerate by biting, as in the preceding strophe we have the\nthought that tears by biting, as the wolf tears the thirsty wild beast\n(m\u00e2 vyanti \u00e2dhyo na trishnagam mrigam).--The mouse in the jar of\nprovisions also occurs in the fable of the mouse and the two penitents\nin the _Pancatantram_, in the Hellenic fable of the son of Minos and\nof Pasiph\u00e4e, who, pursuing a mouse, falls into a jar of honey, in\nwhich he is suffocated, until recalled to life by a salutary herb.\n\n[104] Den M\u00e4usen pfeifen, heisst den Seelen ein Zeichen geben, um von\nihnen abgeholt zu werden; ebenso wie der Rattenf\u00e4nger zu Hameln die\nLockpfeife bl\u00e4st, auf deren Ton alle M\u00e4use und Kinder der Stadt mit ihm\nin den Berg hineinziehen, der sich hinter ihnen zuschliesst. M\u00e4use sind\nSeelen. Die Seele des auf der Jagd entschlafenen K\u00f6nigs Guntram kommt\nschl\u00e4ngleinartig aus seinem Munde hervor, um so in einen n\u00e4chsten Berg\nund wieder zur\u00fcckzulaufen. Der goethe'sche Faust weigert sich dem Tanz\nmit dem h\u00fcbschen Hexenm\u00e4dchen am Blocksberg fortzusetzen:--\n\n      \"Den mitten im Gesange sprang\n       Ein rothes M\u00e4uschen ihr aus dem Munde.\"\n           --Rochholtz, _Deut. Glaube u. Brauch_, i. 156, 157.\n\n[105] i. 268.\n\n[106] The mouse that passes over the yarn occurs again in German\ntradition:--\"Gertrudenbuchlein ab: Zwei M\u00e4uschen nagen an einer\nflachsumwundenen Spindel; eine Spinnerinn sitzt am St Gertrudentag,\nnoch in der Zeit der Zw\u00f6lften, wo die Geister in Gestalt von M\u00e4usen\nerscheinen, darf gesponnen werden;\" Rochholtz, _ut supra_, i. 158.\n\n[107] Cfr. _Pentamerone_, iii. 5.--In the story, iv. 1, the grateful\nmice assist Minec Aniello to find the lost ring by gnawing the finger\non which the magician wears it.\n\n[108] Al\u00e2yyasya para\u00e7ur nan\u00e2\u00e7a tam \u00e2 pavasya (pavasva according to\nAufrecht's text, and according to the commentator--cfr. Bollensen, Zur\nHerstellung des Veda, in the _Orient und Occident_ of Benfey, ii. 484)\ndeva soma; \u00e2khum cid eva deva soma; _Rigv._ ix. 67, 30.\n\n[109] Cfr. the _Antigon\u00ea_ of Sophocles, v. 973, _et seq._\n\n[110] This _dass no_ of the Piedmontese means \"if not,\" and is\nevidently of Germanic origin. The Piedmontese dialect has also taken\nfrom the Germanic languages the final negative.--In Germany, children\nsing to the snails--\n\n                 \"Schneckh\u00fbs, peckh\u00fbs,\n                  St\u00e4k d\u00een v\u00ear h\u00f6rner r\u00fbt,\n                  S\u00fcst schm\u00eet ick d\u00ee in'n graven\n                  Da fr\u00eaten d\u00ee de raven.\"\n      --Cfr. Kuhn und Schwartz, _N. d. S. M. u. G._, p. 453.\n\n[111] In _Rabelais_, i. 38, when Gargantua has eaten five pilgrims in\nhis salad, another still remains hidden under a leaf of lettuce. His\nfather says to him--\"Je crois que c'est l\u00e0 une corne de limasson, ne le\nmangez point. Pourquoy? dist Gargantua, ilz sont bons tout se moys.\"\n\n[112] Simrock, _Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie_, 2te Aufl., p. 516.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nHARE, RABBIT, ERMINE, AND BEAVER.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The hare is the moon; _\u00e7a\u00e7as_ and _\u00e7a\u00e7in_.--The hares at the lake\n    of the moon; the king of the hares in the moon.--The hare and the\n    elephant.--The hare and the lion.--The hare devours the western\n    monster; the hare devours his mother the mare.--_Mortuo leoni\n    lepores insultant_.--The hare and the eagle.--The hare that guards\n    the cavern of the beasts.--The hare comes out on the 15th of the\n    month and terrifies the wolf.--The hare transformed into the moon\n    by Indras.--Ermine and beaver.--Hare's-foot.--Hare and moon\n    fruitful.--Hare and moon that guide the hero.--_Somnus\n    leporinus_.--The hare and the bear.--The hare and the nuptial\n    procession.--The hare that contains a duck.--The girl riding upon\n    the hare.\n\nThe mythical hare is undoubtedly the moon. In Sanskrit, the _\u00e7a\u00e7as_\nmeans properly the leaping one, as well as the hare, the rabbit, and the\nspots on the moon (the _saltans_), which suggest the figure of a hare.\nHence the names of _\u00e7a\u00e7in_, or furnished with hares, and of\n_\u00e7a\u00e7adharas_, _\u00e7a\u00e7abhrit_, or he who carries the hare given to the moon.\nIn the first story of the third book of the _Pancatantram_, the hares\ndwell upon the shore of the Lake Candrasaras, or lake of the moon; and\ntheir king, Vigayadattas (the funereal god, the god of death), has for\nhis palace the lunar disc. When the hare speaks to the king of the\nelephants who crushed the hares (in the same way as we have seen the cow\ndo in Chapter I.), he speaks in the moon's name. The hare makes the\nelephant believe that the moon is in anger against the elephants because\nthey crush the hares under their feet; then the elephant demands to see\nthe moon, and the hare conducts him to the lake of the moon, where he\nshows him the moon in the water. Wishing to approach the moon and ask\nforgiveness, the elephant thrusts his proboscis into the water; the\nwater is agitated, and the reflection of the moon is disturbed, and\nmultiplied a thousand-fold. The hare makes the elephant believe that the\nmoon is still more angry because he has disturbed the water; then the\nking of the elephants begs for pardon, and goes far away with his\nsubjects; from that day the hares live tranquilly on the shores of the\nmoon-lake, and are no longer crushed under the ponderous feet of their\nhuge companions. The moon rules the night (and the winter), the sun\nrules the day (and the summer). The moon is cold, the sun is hot. The\nsolar elephant, lion, or bull, goes down at even to drink at the river,\nat the lake of the nocturnal moon; the hare warns the elephant that if\nhe does not retire, if he continues to crush the hares on the shores of\nthe lake, the moon will take back her cold beams, and then the elephants\nwill die of thirst and excessive heat. The other story of the\n_Pancatantram_ is a variety of the myth, which we mentioned in the\nchapter of the dog, of the hare who conducts to his ruin the hungry lion\nwho wishes to eat her, by making him throw himself into a fountain or\nwell. This myth, which is analogous to that of the mouse as the enemy of\nnow the elephant, now the lion, and now the hawk, is already very\nclearly indicated in the Vedic hymns. In the twenty-eighth hymn of the\ntenth book of the _Rigvedas_, in which the fox comes to visit the\nwestern lion (the sick lion[113]), in which we have the lion who falls\ninto the trap[114] (and whom the mouse insults in the evening, and\ndelivers in the morning by gnawing at the ropes which bind it: in the\nHellenic proverb it is the hare that draws the lion into the golden\nnet--\"elkei lag\u00f4s lionta chr\u00fcsin\u00f4 broch\u00f4,\" in the same way as in the\n_Pancatantram_, it allures him into the well), and in which the hare\ndevours the western monster[115] (a variety of the Hellenic tradition of\nthe hare brought forth by a mare, and which immediately thereafter\ndevours its mother)--in this hymn we find the germ of several fables of\nanimals of the same cycle. The inferior animal vanquishes the superior\none, and upon this peculiarity the whole hymn turns; for this reason,\ntoo, in the same hymn, the dog or jackal (canis aureus) assails the wild\nboar,[116] and the calf defeats the bull.[117] The hare occurs again as\nthe proverbial enemy of the lion (whence the Latin proverb, \"Mortuo\nleoni lepores insultant,\" or _saltant_; the moon jumps up when the sun\ndies), in the last book of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, where the great king of the\nmonkeys, B\u00e2lin, regards the king of the monsters, R\u00e2vanas, as a lion\ndoes a hare, or as the bird Garudasa serpent.[118]\n\nIn _\u00c6sop_ we find the hare that laughs at its enemy, the dying eagle,\nbecause the hunter killed it with an arrow furnished with eagle's\nfeathers. In another \u00c6sopian fable, the rabbit avenges itself upon the\neagle which has eaten its young ones, by rooting up and throwing down\nthe tree upon which the eagle has its nest, so that the eaglets are\nkilled.\n\nIn the seventeenth Mongol story, the hare is the guardian of the\ncavern of the wild beasts (or the moon, the mrigar\u00e2gas and guardian of\nthe forest of night); in the same story an old woman (the old fairy or\nold Madonna) is substituted for the hare. In the twenty-first Mongol\nstory, the hare sets out on a journey with the lamb, on the fifteenth\nday of the month, when the moon comes forth, and defends the lamb from\nthe wolf of night, terrifying the latter by telling it that it has\nreceived a writing from the god Indras, in which the hare is ordered\nto bring to Indras a thousand wolves' skins.\n\nIn a Buddhist legend, the hare is transfigured by Indras into the\nmoon, because it had freely given him its flesh to eat, when,\ndisguised as a pilgrim, he came up begging for bread. The hare, having\nnothing else to offer him, threw itself upon the fire, that Indras\nmight appease his hunger.[119]\n\nIn the _Avesta_ we find the ermine as the king of the animals, and the\nbeaver as the sacred and inviolable animal, in whose skin the pure\nArdv\u00ee\u00e7\u00fbra is invested (white and silvery as the white dawn, rosy and\ngolden as the aurora; unless Ardv\u00ee\u00e7\u00fbra, whose diadem is made of a\nhundred stars, should also be interpreted as denoting the moon, which\nis now silvery, and now fair and golden). Moreover, for the beaver to\nrepresent the moon (the chaste Diana) is in perfect accordance with\nthe reputation it has as a eunuch (castor _a castrando_) in popular\nsuperstition; whence the words of Cicero concerning beavers,[120] and\nthe verses of Juvenal--\n\n                           \"Imitatus castora qui se\n      Eunuchum ipse facit cupiens evadere damnum\n      Testiculorum, adeo medicatum intelliget unguen.\"[121]\n\nIn the twenty-first Esthonian story, a silly husband is called by the\nname of Hare's-foot. In _Aldrovandi_, on the other hand, Philostratos\nnarrates the case of a woman who had miscarried seven times in the act\nof child-birth, but who the eighth time brought forth a child, when\nher husband unexpectedly drew a hare out of his bosom. Although the\nmoon is herself the timid and chaste goddess (or eunuch), she is, as\npluvial, the _f\u00e6cundatrix_, and famous as presiding over and\nprotecting child-birth; this is why, when the hare-moon, or Lucina,\nassisted at parturition, it was sure to issue happily. The mythical\nhare and the moon are constantly identified. It is on this account\nthat in _Pausanias_, the moon-goddess instructs the exiles who are\nsearching for a propitious place to found a city, to build it in a\nmyrtle-grove into which they should see a hare flee for refuge. The\nmoon is the watcher of the sky, that is to say, she sleeps with her\neyes open; so also does the hare, whence the _somnus leporinus_ became\na proverb. In the ninth Esthonian story, the thunder-god is compared\nto the hare that sleeps with its eyes open; Indras, who transforms the\nhare into the moon, has already been mentioned; Indras becomes a\neunuch in the form of sahasr\u00e2kshas, or of the thousand-eyed god (the\nstarry sky in the night, or the sun in this starry sky); the thousand\neyes become one, the _milloculus_ becomes _monoculus_, when the moon\nshines in the evening sky; hence we say now the hundred eyes of Argos,\nand now simply the eye of Argos--the eye of God.\n\nIn a Slavonic tale,[122] the hare laughs at the bear's cubs, and spits\nupon them; the bear runs after the hare, and in the hunt is decoyed\ninto an intricate jungle, where it is caught. As the lion is unknown\nin Russia, the bear is substituted for it; the Russian hare allures\nthe bear into the trap, as the Hindoo and Greek one causes the lion to\nfall into it. This hare which does harm to the solar hero or animal of\nevening is the same as that which, in the fiftieth story of the fifth\nbook of _Afanassieff_, and in Russian popular tradition, meeting the\nnuptial car, bodes evil to the wedding, and is of evil omen to the\nbride and bridegroom. The hare-moon, the chaste protectress of\nmarriages and births, the benefactress of mankind, must not meet the\ncar; if she opposes the wedding (perhaps at evening and in the\nautumn), or if the hare is crushed or overtaken by the car (as the\nproverb says), it is a bad presage, not only for the wedded couple,\nbut for all mankind; solar as well as lunar eclipses were always\nconsidered sinister omens in popular superstition. In the Russian\npopular tales we frequently find mention of the hare under a tree, or\non a rock in the midst of the sea, where there is a duck, which\ncontains an egg; the yoke of this egg (the solar disc) is a precious\nstone; when it falls into the hands of the young hero, the monster\ndies, and he is able to espouse the young princess.[123] The girl of\nseven years of age, who, to solve in action the riddle proposed by\nthe Tzar, who offers to marry her, rides upon a hare, is a variety of\nthis myth. By the help of the moon, the sun and evening aurora arrive\nat the region of the morning, find each other, and are married; the\nmoon is the mediatrix of the mythical nuptials; the hare which\nrepresents it must therefore not only not oppose them, but help them\nmaterially; at evening the moon separates the sun from the aurora; at\nmorning she unites them again.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[113] Lop\u00e2\u00e7ah sinham pratyancam ats\u00e2h; _Rigv._ x. 28, 4.\n\n[114] Avaruddhah paripadam na sinhah; x. 28, 10.\n\n[115] \u00c7a\u00e7ah kshuram pratyancam gag\u00e2ra; x. 28, 9.\n\n[116] Krosht\u00e2 var\u00e2ham nir atakta kaksh\u00e2t; x. 28, 4.\n\n[117] Vatso vrishabham \u00e7\u00fb\u00e7uv\u00e2nah; x. 28, 9.\n\n[118] Sinhah \u00e7a\u00e7amiv\u00e2lakshya garudo v\u00e2 bhuga\u00f1gamam; _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ xxiii.\n\n[119] Cfr. _M\u00e9moires sur les Contr\u00e9es Occidentales_, traduits du\nSanscrit par Hiouen Thsang, et du Chinois par St Julien, i. 375.\n\n[120] Redimunt ea parte corporis, propter quam maxime expetuntur; _Pro\n\u00c6milio Scauro_. It is said that when the beaver is pursued by hunters,\nit tears off its testicles, as the most precious part for which\nbeavers are hunted, popular medical belief attributing marvellous\nvirtues to beavers' testicles.\n\n[121] xii. 35.\n\n[122] Cited by Afanassieff in the observations on the first volume of\nthe Russian stories.\n\n[123] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, i. 14, ii. 24, v. 42.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nTHE ANTELOPE, THE STAG, THE DEER, AND THE GAZELLE.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Luminous stag and black stag.--The Marutas drawn by antelopes, and\n    dressed in antelopes' skins.--The stag, the gazelle, and the\n    antelope as forms assumed or created by the demon to ruin several\n    heroes whilst they hunt.--Mar\u00eecas.--Indras kills the mrigas.--The\n    solar hero or heroine transformed into a stag, a gazelle, or an\n    antelope.--Aktaion.--Artemis and the stag.--The stags of the\n    Yggdrasill.--The stag Eikthyrner.--The hind as a nurse.--The hind\n    and the old woman on the 1st of January.--The hind and the snow;\n    the white hind.\n\nThe stag represents the luminous forms that appear in the cloudy or\nthe nocturnal forest; these, therefore, are now lightning and\nthunderbolts, now the cloud itself from which the lightning and\nthunderbolts are discharged, now the moon in the gloom of night. The\nmythical stag is nearly always either entirely luminous or else\nspotted; when it is black it is of a diabolical nature, and represents\nthe whole sky of night. Sometimes the luminous stag is a form assumed\nby the demon of the forest to compass the ruin of the hero.\n\nThe _Rigvedas_ represents to us the Marutas, or winds that lighten and\nthunder in the clouds, as drawn by antelopes. The Marutas \"are born\nshining of themselves, with antelopes, with lances, amid\nthunder-peals and flashes of lightning.\"[124] \"They have yoked, with\na red yoke, the antelopes.[125] The young battalion of the Marutas\ngoes of itself, and has an antelope for its horse.\"[126] The horses of\nthe Marutas, which we already know to be antelopes, are called\nwinged,[127] and are said to have golden fore-feet.[128] The antelopes\nof the Marutas are splendid.[129] Nor are the Marutas only carried by\nantelopes; they also wear upon their shoulders antelopes' skins.[130]\n\nBut the antelope, the gazelle, and the stag generally, instead of\nhelping the hero, involve him rather in perplexity and peril. This\nmythical subject is amplified in numerous Hindoo legends.\n\nIn the first scene of K\u00e2lid\u00e2sas' _\u00c7akuntal\u00e2_, a black-spotted\n(krishnas\u00e2ras) gazelle misleads King Dushyantas.\n\nIn the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[131] King Par\u00eekshit pursues a gazelle and\nwounds it (as the god \u00c7ivas one day wounded the gazelle of the\nsacrifice); he then follows its track, but the gazelle flees at sight\nof him, inasmuch as it has taken the path of heaven in its primitive\n(_i.e._, celestial) form. The king loses the track of his prey, and in\ntrying to find it again, brings death upon his head.\n\nIn the same _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[132] King Pandus dies at the moment when\nhe is uniting himself with his wife M\u00e2dr\u00ee, because he had one day in\nthe chase transfixed a male gazelle at the instant when it was about\nto have fruit of its union with a female gazelle.\n\nIn the _Vishnu P._,[133] King Bharatas, who has abandoned his throne\nto give himself up entirely to penitence, loses the fruit of his\nascetic life, by becoming passionately enamoured of a fawn.\n\nIn the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[134] Mar\u00eecas, who is possessed by a demon,\nbecomes, by order of R\u00e2vanas, the king of the monsters, a golden stag\nspotted with silver, having four golden horns adorned with pearls, and\na tongue as red as the sun, and tempts R\u00e2mas to pursue him in order to\nprocure his silver-spotted skin, for which S\u00eet\u00e2 has expressed a\ndesire, that she might lie down upon it and rest herself. In this way\nthe stag (here an equivalent of the hare) succeeds in separating R\u00e2mas\nfrom S\u00eet\u00e2. It then emits a lamentable cry, imitating the voice of\nR\u00e2mas, so as to induce Lakshmanas, his brother, to come to his\nassistance, and leave S\u00eet\u00e2 alone, that R\u00e2vanas may then be able to\ncarry her off with impunity. Lakshmanas leaves her unwillingly,\nbecause, perceiving that the stag shines like the constellation of the\nhead of the stag (or gazelle, Mriga\u00e7iras), he suspects it to be an\napparition of Mar\u00eecas, who, as a stag, has already caused the ruin of\nmany other princes who have hunted him. The moon, in Sanskrit, besides\nthe name of \u00c7a\u00e7adharas, or who carries the hare, has also that of\nMrigadharas, or who carries the gazelle (or stag). The solar hero\nloses himself in the forest of night while pursuing the gazelle-moon.\nA demoniacal gazelle seems to appear even in the _Rigvedas_, where\nIndras fights and kills a monster called Mrigas. In Germanic\ntradition there are numerous legends in which the hero who hunts the\nstag meets with his death or is dragged into hell.[135]\n\nAs the moon is a stag or gazelle, and comes after the sun, so it was\nalso sometimes imagined that the solar hero or heroine was transformed\ninto a stag or hind.\n\nIn the _Tuti-Name_,[136] a king goes to the chase, kills an antelope,\ndoffs the human form, and disguises himself as an antelope. This\nmythical disguise can be understood in two ways. The evening sun\nreflects its rays in the ocean of night, the sun-stag sees its horns\nreflected in the fountain or lake of night, and admires them. At this\nfountain sits a beautiful and bewitching siren, the moon; this fountain\nis the dwelling of the moon; she allures the hero-stag that admires\nitself in the fountain, and ruins it, or else the stag attracts the hero\nto the fountain, where it causes him to meet with his death.[137] The\nstag of the fable, after admiring itself in the fountain, is torn to\npieces by the dogs who overtake it in the forest because its horns\nbecome entangled in the branches; the solar rays are enveloped in the\nbranches of the nocturnal forest. Aktaion, who, for having seen Artemis\n(the moon) naked in the bath, is changed into a stag and torn by dogs,\nis a variety of the same fable. In _Stesichoros_, quoted by Pausanias,\nArtemis puts a stag's skin round Aktaion and incites the dogs to devour\nhim in order that he may not be able to wed the moon. Sun and moon are\nbrother and sister; the brother, wishing to seduce his sister, meets\nwith his death. A Lithuanian song describes the moon Menas (the Hindoo\nManu-s) as the unfaithful husband of the sun (who is a female), being\nenamoured of Aushrine (the Vedic Usr\u00e2, the morning aurora). The god\nPerkuns, to avenge the sun, kills the moon. In a Servian song, the moon\nreproaches his mistress or wife, the morning aurora, on account of her\nabsence. The aurora answers that she travels upon the heights of\nBelgrade, that is, of the white or the luminous city, in the sky, upon\nthe lofty mountains.\n\nThe king in the _Tuti-Name_ who assumes the guise of an antelope,\nappears to be a variety of the solar hero at the moment of the\napproach of night, or of the ass that invests itself in the lion's\nskin. But inasmuch as the Indian moon is Mrigar\u00e2gas, or king of the\nwild animals, no less than the lion, inasmuch as the moon succeeds the\nsun, one mrigas another, one lion another, or one stag another, when\nthe solar hero or heroine enters into the night, he or she appears in\nthe form of a luminous stag or hind, no longer as the sun, but as the\nmoon, which, although luminous, penetrates into hell, and is in\nrelation with demons and itself demoniacal.\n\nArtemis (the moon) is represented as a hunting goddess in the act of\nwounding, with her left hand, an antelope between the horns. To this\ngoddess is also attributed the merit of having overtaken the stags\nwithout the help of dogs, perhaps because, sometimes, she is herself a\ndog, surprising the solar stag of evening. The four stags of Artemis\nconnect themselves in my mind with the four stags that stay round the\ntree Yggdrasill in the _Edda_, and which come out of the river\nH\u00e4effing. The stag Eikthyrner which, eating the leaves of the tree\nLerad, causes all its waters to flow out, seems, on the other hand, to\nrefer to the sun as it merges and loses its rays in the cloud (the\nsolar stag is also referred to in the _Edda_).\n\nArtemis, who substitutes a hind for Iphigeneia, who was to have been\nsacrificed, seems to point to the moon-hind as taking the place of the\nevening aurora. We also recognise the moon in the hind which, according\nto \u00c6lianos and Diodoros, nourished Telephos, son of H\u00earakl\u00eas (H\u00earakl\u00eas\nin his fourth labour overtakes the stag with golden horns), who had been\nexposed in the forest by the order of his grandfather; as well as in\nthat which, according to Justinus, fed with its milk in the forest the\nnephew of the king of the Tartessians, and afterwards, according to the\n\"Lives of the Saints,\" the blessed \u00c6gidius, the hermit who lived in the\nforest. There are numerous medi\u00e6val legends which reproduce this\ncircumstance of the young hero abandoned in the forest and nourished now\nby a goat, now by a hind, the same which afterwards serves as a guide to\nthe royal father in recovering the prince his son, or to the\nprince-husband in recovering the abandoned princess his bride. It was\nprobably by some such reminiscence of the mythical nourishing hind that,\nas I read in Du Cange,[138] silver images of stags (cervi argentei) were\nplaced in ancient Christian baptistries.\n\nAmong the customs of the primitive Christians condemned by St\nAugustine, St Maximus of Turin, and other sacred writers, was that of\ndisguising one's self on the 1st of January as a hind or an old woman.\nThe old woman and the hind here evidently represent the witch or ugly\nwoman of winter; and inasmuch as the winter is, like the night, under\nthe moon's influence, the disguise of a hind was another way of\nrepresenting the moon. When the moon or the sun shines, the hind is\nluminous and generally propitious, the wild goat is beneficent (the\nwild goat, the deer, and the stag are the same in the myths; the same\nword, _mrigas_, serves in India to express the constellation of the\ngazelle and that of the capricorn or wild goat), and hunts the wolves\naway from the sleeping hero in the forest.[139] When the sky is dark,\nthe hind, from being luminous, has become black, and, as such, is the\nmost sinister of omens; sometimes, in the midst of the night or of the\nwinter, the beautiful luminous hind, or moon, or sun, disappears, and\nthe black monster of night or of winter remains alone. In the ninth\nstory of the _Pentamerone_, the Huorco (the rakshas or monster)\ntransforms himself into a beautiful hind to allure the young\nCanneloro, who pursues it in the hope of securing it. But it decoys\nhim into the midst of the forest (of winter), where it causes so much\nsnow to fall, \"che pareva che lo cielo cadesse\" (the white hind into\nwhich the witch transforms the beautiful maiden, in the story of\nMadame d'Aulnoy, would seem to have the same meaning); then the hind\nbecomes a monster again in order to devour the hero. The period in\nwhich the moon is hidden or on the wane, in which the night is dark,\nwas considered ill-omend by the ancient Hindoos, who held, on the\nother hand, that the time of full moon, or at least of the crescent\nmoon, was propitious. Our country-people have preserved several\nsuperstitions relative to a similar belief. In a Rutenian legend,\npublished by Novosielski, the evening star (Lithuanian, _vakerinne_;\nSlavonic, _vecernitza_, the evening aurora) prays its friend Lunus\n(the moon is masculine in Slavonic as in Sanskrit) to wait a little\nbefore rising, that they may rise together, and adds, \"We shall\nillumine together sky and earth: the animals will be glad in the\nfields, and the traveller will bless us on his way.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[124] Ye prishat\u00eebhir rishtibhih s\u00e2kam v\u00e2\u00e7\u00eebhir angibhih--ag\u00e2yanta\nsvabh\u00e2navah; _Rigv._ i. 37, 2.\n\n[125] Upo ratheshu prishat\u00eer ayugdhvam prashtir vahati rohitah; i. 39,\n6.\n\n[126] Sa hi svasrit prishada\u00e7vo yuv\u00e2 ganah: i. 87, 4.\n\n[127] \u00c2 vidyunmadbhir marutah svark\u00e2i rathebhir y\u00e2tha rishtimadbhir\na\u00e7vaparn\u00e2ih; i. 88, 1.\n\n[128] A\u00e7v\u00e2ir hiranyap\u00e2nibhih; viii. 7, 27.\n\n[129] \u00c7ubhe sammi\u00e7l\u00e2h prishat\u00eer ayukshata; iii. 26, 4.\n\n[130] Anseshu et\u00e2h; _Rigv._ i. 166, 10.--Concerning the use of similar\nskins for dress in India, cfr. the long and instructive note of\nProfessor Max M\u00fcller, _Rigveda-Sanhita Translated and Explained_, i.\n221-223.\n\n[131] i. 1665.\n\n[132] i. 3811, _et seq._; i. 4585, _et seq._\n\n[133] ii. 13, translated by Wilson.\n\n[134] iii. 40, 48, 49.\n\n[135] Cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 354.\n\n[136] ii. 258, Rosen's version.\n\n[137] Oft f\u00fchrt der Hirsch nur zu einer sch\u00f6nen Frau am Brunnen; sie\nist aber der Unterwelt verwandt und die Verbindung mit ihr an die\nBedingung gekn\u00fcpft, dass die ungleiche Natur des Verbundenen nicht an\nden Tag gezogen werde.\n\n[138] Du Cange adds: \"Quoad baptismam, quomodo cervus ad fontes\naquarum, summo desiderium perveniendum esse monstraretur.\"\n\n[139] Cfr. Porchat, _Contes Merveilleux_, xiii.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nTHE ELEPHANT.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The myth of the elephant is entirely Indian.--The Marutas as\n    elephants; Indras as an elephant.--The elephant ridden by Indras\n    and Agnis.--The four elephants that support the world.--\u00c2iravanas\n    and \u00c2iravatas.--The elephant becomes diabolical.--N\u00e2gas and nagas;\n    \u00e7ri\u00f1gm.--The monkeys fight against the elephants.--The elephant in\n    the marsh.--The elephant and the tortoise; war between them.--The\n    eagle, the elephant, and the tortoise.--The bird, the fly, and the\n    frog lure the elephant to his death.--Hermit dwarfs.--Indras and\n    his elephant fall together.\n\nThe whole mythical history of the elephant is confined to India. The\nstrength of his proboscis and tusks, his extraordinary size, the ease\nwith which he carries heavy burdens, his great fecundity in the season\nof loves, all contributed to his mythical importance, and to his fame\nas a great ravager of the celestial gloomy or cloudy forest, as an\nAtlas, a supporter of worlds, and the steed of the pluvial god.\n\nThe elephant has a place even in the Vedic heavens.\n\nThe Marutas, drawn by antelopes, are compared to wild elephants that\nlevel forests;[140] the horns of the antelopes, the tusks of the wild\nboar, the trunk and tusks of the elephant, are of equivalent\nsignificance, and are seen in the solar rays, in lightnings and\nthunderbolts. The pluvial and thundering god Indras is compared to a\nwild elephant that expends his strength[141]--to a wild elephant that,\nin the season of loves, is, on all hands, in a constant state of\nfeverish agitation.[142] The god Agnis is invoked to come forth like a\nformidable king upon an elephant.[143]\n\nThe elephant generally represents the sun as it shuts itself up in the\ncloud or the darkness, or comes out of it, shooting forth rays of\nlight or flashes of lightning (which were also supposed to be caused\nby the friction on the axle of the wheel of the sun's chariot). The\nsun, in the four seasons, visits the four quarters of the earth, east\nand west, south and north; hence, perhaps, the Hindoo conception of\nfour elephants that support the four corners of the earth.[144]\nIndras, the pluvial god, rides upon an enormous elephant, \u00c2iravatas or\n\u00c2iravanas, the cloud or darkness itself, with its luminous eruptions;\n\u00e2iravatam and \u00e2iravat\u00ee are also appellations of the lightning. The\nelephant \u00c2iravanas or \u00c2iravatas is one of the first of the progeny of\nthe heavens, begotten of the agitation of the celestial ocean.\n\nIt plays a prominent part in the battles of Indras against the monsters;\nhence R\u00e2vanas, the monster king of La\u00f1k\u00e2, still bears the scars of the\nwounds given him by the elephant Airavatas, in the war between the gods\nand the demons,[145] although this same R\u00e2vanas boasts of having one day\ndefeated Indras, who rode upon the elephant \u00c2iravanas.[146]\n\nBut the mythical elephant did not always preserve the character of an\nanimal beloved of the gods; after other animals were admitted into\nspecial favour, it too assumed, in time, a monstrous aspect. The sun\nhides itself in the cloud, in the cloudy or nocturnal mountain, in the\nocean of night, in the autumn or the snowy winter. Hence we have the\nwhite elephant (Dhavalas), the malignant killer of wise men (rishayas,\nthe solar rays); the wind, father of Hanumant, in the form of a\nmonkey, lacerates him with his claws, and tears out his tusks; the\nelephant falls like a mountain[147] (the mountain of snow, or white\ncloud, dissolve themselves; this white elephant and the white\nmountain, or Dhavalagiris, are the same; the equivoque easily arose\nbetween n\u00e2gas, elephant, and nagas, mountain and tree; the word\n_cri\u00f1gin_, properly horned, means tree, mountain, and elephant; the\nwind breaks through and disperses the cloud, and pushes forward the\navalanches of snow). Thus it is said that the monkey Sann\u00e2danas was\none day victorious over the elephant \u00c2iravatas.[148] (The northern\npath of the moon is called \u00e2iravatapath\u00e2.)\n\nWe have already seen the elephant that crushes the hares under his\nfeet on the shores of the moon-lake, and disturbs with his trunk the\nwaters of this lake. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[149] Bharatas considers it as\nof a sinister omen his having dreamed of a great elephant fallen into\nmarshy ground. The sun plunges into the ocean of night, and of the\nautumnal rains.\n\nThe elephant near or in the waters is mythically equivalent to the\nlunar and solar tortoise that dwells on the shores of the lake and\nsea, or at the bottom of the sea. In the Hindoo cosmogony, it is now\nthe elephant and now the tortoise that supports the weight of the\nworld. For this reason there is rivalry between these two mythical\nanimals. . Therefore the eagle, or king of birds, or the bird\nGarudas, the solar bird, is represented as a mortal enemy now of the\nserpent, now of the elephant (the word _n\u00e2gas_ means equally serpent\nand elephant; \u00c2iravatas is also the name of a monstrous serpent), and\nnow of the tortoise. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[150] the bird Garudas carries\ninto the air an elephant and a tortoise (the relative occidental\nfables are evidently of Hindoo origin), in order to eat them. The same\nlegend is developed in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[151] where two brothers\ndispute with each other about the division of their goods, each curses\nthe other, and they become, the one a colossal elephant, and the other\na colossal tortoise, and, as such, continue to fight fiercely against\neach other in a lake, until the gigantic bird Garudas (the new sun),\ntakes them both and carries them to the summit of a mountain.\n\nIn the fifteenth story of the first book of the _Pancatantram_, we\nfind birds represented as enemies of the elephant, on account of the\nravages it commits, where the bird, the fly, and the frog work the\nruin of the elephant; the fly enters into one of the elephant's ears;\nthe bird pecks at its eyes, and blinds it; the frog croaks on the\nbanks of a deep pool; the elephant, impelled by thirst, comes to the\npool and is drowned.\n\nThe Vedic elephant has a divine nature, being connected with the pluvial\nIndras; but when Indras fell, to give place to Brahman, Vishnus, and\n\u00c7ivas, his elephant was also fated to become the prey of the bird of\nVishnus, of the bird Garudas (or the sun). In the fable of the\n_Pancatantram_ quoted above, the elephant brings upon its head the\nvengeance of the sparrow, because it had rooted up a tree upon which the\nsparrow had made its nest and laid its eggs, which were broken in\nconsequence. The Vishnuitic legend of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_ relating to the\nbird Garudas, which carries the elephant into the air, offers several\nother analogous and interesting particulars. The bird Garudas flies away\nwith the elephant and the tortoise; on the way, being tired, it rests\nupon the huge bough of a tree; the bough breaks under the enormous\nweight. From this bough are suspended, with their heads down, in\npenitence, several dwarf hermits, born of the hairs of Brahman; then the\nbird Garudas takes in its beak the whole bough, with the little hermits,\nand carries them up in the air till they succeed in escaping. These\nhermit dwarfs upon the branch (who remind us of the ants), had one day\ncursed Indras. Ka\u00e7yapas Prag\u00e2patis, wishing one day to make a sacrifice\nin order to obtain the favour of a son, orders the gods to provide him\nwith wood. Indras, like the four elephants who support the world, places\nupon his shoulders a whole mountain of wood. Laden with this weight, he\nmeets on the way the hermit dwarfs, who were carrying a leaf in a car,\nand were in danger of being drowned in a pool of water, the size of the\nfoot-print of a cow. Indras, instead of coming to their assistance,\nsmiles and passes by; the hermit dwarfs, in indignation, pray for the\nbirth of a new Indras; on this account the Indras of birds was born--the\nbird of Garudas, the steed of Vishnus, which naturally makes war against\nthe steed of Indras, the elephant.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[140] Mrig\u00e2 iva hastinah kh\u00e2dath\u00e2 van\u00e2 yad \u00e2run\u00eeshu tavish\u00eer\nayugdhvam; _Rigv._ i. 64, 7.\n\n[141] Mrigo na hast\u00ee tavish\u00eem ush\u00e2nah; _Rigv._ iv. 16, 14.\n\n[142] D\u00e2n\u00e2 mrigo na v\u00e2ranah purutr\u00e2 caratham dadhe; _Rigv._ viii. 33, 8.\n\n[143] Y\u00e2hi r\u00e2gev\u00e2mav\u00e2n ibhena; _Rigv._ iv. 4, 1.\n\n[144] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ i. 42.\n\n[145] iii. 36.\n\n[146] iii. 47.\n\n[147] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ v. 3\n\n[148] vi. 3.\n\n[149] ii. 71.\n\n[150] iii. 39.\n\n[151] i. 1353, _seq._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nTHE MONKEY AND THE BEAR.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Monkey and bear are already associated together in India; Gambavant\n    is a great monkey and the king of the bears.--Haris, kapis, kapil\u00e2,\n    kapidhvagas; rikshas, arkas, ursus, arktos, rakshas; the Great Bear;\n    rishayas, harayas.--The Marutas as rivals of Indras; Vishnus as\n    Indras' rival; the monkeys allied to Vishnus; the Vedic monster\n    monkey killed by Indras; Haris or Vishnus.--Har\u00ee mother of monkeys\n    and horses.--B\u00e2lin, king of the monkeys, son of Indras, defeated by\n    his brother Sugr\u00eevas, son of the sun.--Hanumant in opposition to\n    Indras; Hanumant son of the wind; Hanumant as the brother of\n    Sugr\u00eevas; Hanumant is the strong brother or companion.--Hanumant\n    flies; he presses the mountain and makes the waters come out of it;\n    he draws the clouds after himself.--The epic monkeys and the\n    Marutas.--The monkey and the water.--The monkeys and the salutary\n    herbs.--The sea-monster draws to itself the shadow of Hanumant and\n    swallows him; Hanumant comes out of the monster's body safe and\n    sound; the mountain Hiranyanabhas.--Hanumant makes himself as small\n    as a cat in order to search for S\u00eet\u00e2; Hanumant proves his power to\n    S\u00eet\u00e2 by making himself as large as a cloud or a mountain; he\n    massacres the monsters with a pillar; Dadhyanc, Hanumant, Samson;\n    Hanumant bound; he sets fire to La\u00f1k\u00e2 with his tail.--The monkey\n    sacrificed to cure the burns of horses.--S\u00eet\u00e2 has a weakness for\n    Hanumant.--Dvividas a monster monkey.--The monkey destroys the\n    sparrow's nest.--The monkey draws a king into the jaws of an aquatic\n    monster.--The demoniacal monkey; monkey and fox.--The monkey\n    deceiver.--Sinister omens of the monkey.--The monkey envies the\n    fox's tail.--The stupid monkey.--The bear of the Marutas.--Tri\u00e7a\u00f1kus\n    with the skin of a bear; the seven rishayas.--Rikshar\u00e2gas; the moon\n    as a reputed father.--Bears and monkeys in the forest of honey;\n    Balar\u00e2mas; medvjed; the bear and the honey; Italian proverbs; the\n    bear and the peasant; the deceived bear; the vengeance of the bear;\n    the bear in the sack; the demoniacal bear; the bear and the fox; the\n    monkey and the woodcutter; the bear and the trunk of a tree; the\n    peasant and the gentleman; the death of the athlete Mil\u00f4n; the bear\n    entangled in the waggon that had fallen into the cistern.--The king\n    bear, monster of the fountain; sons sacrificed to the bear by their\n    father; the young men flee from the bear; the sleep of the\n    bear.--The bear's cub.--The bear and women.--The hero-bear; the\n    heroine she-bear.--The virgin she-bears.--Ursula, rikshik\u00e2.--Ivanko\n    Medviedko.--Kalistos.--The bear as a musician.--The quartette of\n    animals.--Bear and monkey.--Bear and ass.--The monkey as a\n    messenger, an intermediate form.\n\nI here unite under one heading two animals of very diverse nature and\nrace, but which, from some gross resemblances, probably helped by an\nequivoque in the language, are closely affiliated in the Hindoo myth.\nI say Hindoo in particular, because the monkey, which is so common in\nIndia, was long unknown to many of the Indo-European nations in their\nscattered abodes, so that if they had some dim reminiscence of it as\nconnected with that part of Asia where the \u00c2ryan mythology took its\nrise, they soon forgot it when they no longer had under their eyes the\nanimal itself which had suggested the primitive mythical form. But as\nthey held tenaciously by the substance of the myth, they by and by\nsubstituted for the original mythical animal, called monkey, in the\nsouth the ass, and in the north often the bear. Even in India, where\nthe pre-eminent quality of the monkey was cunning, we already find\nmonkeys and bears associated together. A reddish colour of the skin,\nwant of symmetry and ungainliness of form, strength in hugging with\nthe fore paws or arms, the faculty of climbing, shortness of tail,\nsensuality, capacity for instruction in dancing and in music, are all\ncharacteristics which more or less distinguish and meet in bears as\nwell as in monkeys.\n\nIn the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, the wise G\u00e2mbavant, the Odysseus of the expedition\nof La\u00f1k\u00e2, is called now king of the bears (rikshap\u00e2rthivah),[152] now\ngreat monkey (mah\u00e2kapih).[153]\n\nThe word _haris_ means fair, golden, reddish, sun, and monkey; the word\n_kapis_ (probably, the changeful one) means monkey and sun. In Sanskrit,\nthe _vidyut_ or thunderbolt, the reddish thunderbolt, of the colour of a\nmonkey, is also called _kapil\u00e2_. Argunas, the son of Indras, has for\ninsignia the sun or a monkey, whence his name of Kapidhvagas.\n\nProfessor Kuhn also supposes that the word _rikshas_, which means bear\nand star, is derived from the root _arc_ in the sense of to shine\n(_arkas_ is the sun), on account of the reddish colour of the bear's\nskin.[154] But _rikshas_ (like ursus and arktos) may also be derived\nfrom _rakshas_, the monster (perhaps as a keeper back, a constrictor,\narctor); so that the very word which names it supplies the point of\ntransition from the idea of the divine bear to that of the monster bear.\n\nIn the _Rigvedas_, the Marutas are represented as the most powerful\nassistants of Indras; but a Vedic hymn already shows them in the light\nof Indras' rivals. The god Vishnus in the _Rigvedas_ is usually a\nsympathetic form of Indras; but in some hymns he already appears as his\nantagonist. In the preceding chapter we spoke of the Vishnuitic bird, of\nthe wind, father of Hanumant, and of a monkey, as enemies of Indras'\nelephant. In Hindoo epic tradition, Vishnus, personified in R\u00e2mas, has\nthe monkeys for his allies. The most luminous and effulgent form of the\ngod is very distinct from his occult and mysterious appearances.\nVishnus, the sun, the solar rays, the moon and the winds that lighten,\nare an army of golden monkeys to fight the monster. For the same reason\nthe monkey, on the contrary, has in the _Rigvedas_ a monstrous form;\nthat which was diabolical becomes divine in the lapse of time, and\nsimilarly that which was divine, diabolical. In the eighty-sixth hymn of\nthe tenth book of the _Rigvedas_, Vishnus, personified in Kapis\n(monkey), or Vrish\u00e2kapis (monkey that pours out, pluvial monkey), comes\nto destroy the sacrificial offerings loved by Indras. Indras, being\nsuperior to all, cuts off his head, as he wishes not to be indulgent to\nan evil-doer.[155] This monkey is probably the pluvial, reddish\nlightning cloud carried by the wind, which Indras pierces through with\nhis thunderbolt, although these same lightning and thundering clouds,\ncarried by the winds or Marutas (_i.e._, the Marutas themselves), are\nusually represented in the _Rigvedas_ as assisting the supreme deity. A\ndifference having arisen between Vishnus and Indras, and between the\nMarutas and Indras, the Marutas took Vishnus' part, and became monkeys\nlike Vishnus,--the word _haris_, which is a favourite name of Vishnus\n(now moon, now sun), meaning also monkey. Vishnus surrounds himself with\nfair, reddish, or golden monkeys, or with harayas (solar rays or\nlightning, thunder-striking and thundering clouds), in the same way as\nthe Vedic Indras was drawn by harayas. R\u00e2mas _kapirathas_ is simply an\nincarnation of Vishnus, who usurps the rights of Indras, which last, as\nwe have seen, had lent his harayas to Vishnus, in order that he might\ntake his three famous steps. Evidently Vishnus forgot to return the\nfair-haired ones to his friend; hence from this time the strength of\nIndras passes almost entirely into Vishnus, who, in the form of R\u00e2mas,\nhelped by the harayas or red-haired ones, _i.e._, by the monkeys, moves\nacross the Dekhan (a region densely inhabited by monkeys) to the\nconquest of the isle of La\u00f1k\u00e2. The _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_ informs us that\nmonkeys and horses had Har\u00ee for their mother.[156] The splendid Marutas\nform the army of Indras, the red-haired monkeys and bears that of R\u00e2mas;\nand the mythical and solar nature of the monkeys and bears of the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ manifests itself several times. The king of the monkeys is a\nsun-god. The ancient king was named B\u00e2lin, and was the son of Indras\n(\u00c7akras\u00fbnus). His young brother, Sugr\u00eevas, he who changes his shape at\npleasure (k\u00e2mar\u00fbpas), who, helped by R\u00e2mas, usurped his throne, is said\nto be own child of the sun (bh\u00e2skarasy\u00e2urasah putrahs\u00fbryanandanah).[157]\nHere it is evident that the Vedic antagonism between Indras and Vishnus\nis reproduced in a zoological and entirely apish form. The old Zeus must\ngive way to the new, the moon to the sun, the evening to the morning\nsun, the sun of winter to that of spring; the young sun betrays and\noverthrows the old one. We have already seen that the legend of the two\nbrothers, B\u00e2lin and Sugr\u00eevas, is one of the forms which the myth of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u assumes. R\u00e2mas, who treacherously kills the old king of the\nmonkeys, B\u00e2lin, is the equivalent of Vishnus, who hurls his predecessor,\nIndras, from his throne; and Sugr\u00eevas, the new king of the monkeys,\nresembles Indras when he promises to find the ravished S\u00eet\u00e2, in the same\nway as Vishnus, in one of his incarnations, finds again the lost Ved\u00e2s.\nAnd there are other indications in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_[158] of opposition\nbetween Indras and the monkeys who assist R\u00e2mas. The great monkey\nHanumant, of the reddish colour of gold (hemapi\u00f1galah), has his jaw\nbroken, Indras having struck him with his thunderbolt, and caused him to\nfall upon a mountain, because, while yet a child, he threw himself off a\nmountain into the air in order to arrest the course of the sun, whose\nrays had no effect upon him.[159] (The cloud rises from the mountain and\nhides the sun, which is unable of itself to disperse it; the tempest\ncomes, and brings flashes of lightning and thunderbolts, which tear the\ncloud in pieces.)\n\nThe whole legend of the monkey Hanumant represents the sun entering\ninto the cloud or darkness, and coming out of it. His father is said\nto be now the wind, now the elephant of the monkeys[160]\n(kapikungaras), now ke\u00e7arin, the long-haired sun, the sun with a mane,\nthe lion sun (whence his name of _ke\u00e7arinah putrah_). From this point\nof view, Hanumant would seem to be the brother of Sugr\u00eevas, who is\nalso the offspring of the sun, the strong brother in the legend of the\ntwo brothers connected with that of the three; that is to say, we\nshould have now B\u00e2lin, Hanumant, and Sugr\u00eevas brothers, now R\u00e2mas,\nHanumant, and Lakshamanas. The strong brother is between the other\ntwo; the sun in the cloud, in the darkness or in the winter, is placed\nbetween the evening sun and that of morning, or between the dying sun\nof autumn and the new one of spring.\n\nHanumant flies (like the ass); his powers of flight are seated in his\nsides and his hips, which serve him for wings. Hanumant ascends to the\nsummit of Mount Mahendras, in order to throw himself into the air;\nwhilst he presses the mountain (a real vrish\u00e2kapis), he makes the\nwaters gush out of it; when he moves, the trees of the mountain-forest\nare torn up by their roots, and follow him in the current made by him\nas he cuts his way through the air (here we meet once more with the\nmythical forest, the mythical tree that moves of itself like a cloud).\nThe wind in his armpits roars like a cloud (g\u00eem\u00fbta iva gargati), and\nthe shadow that he leaves behind him in the air resembles a line of\nclouds (meghar\u00e2g\u00eeva v\u00e2yuputr\u00e2nug\u00e2min\u00ee);[161] he draws the clouds after\nhim.[162] Thus all the epic monkeys of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ are described\nin the twentieth canto of the first book by expressions which very\nclosely resemble those applied in the Vedic hymns to the Marutas, as\nswift as the tempestuous wind (v\u00e2yuvegasam\u00e2s), changing their shape at\npleasure (k\u00e2mar\u00fbpinas), making a noise like clouds, sounding like\nthunder, battling, hurling mountain-peaks, shaking great uprooted\ntrees, armed with claws and teeth, shaking the mountains, uprooting\ntrees, stirring up the deep waters, crushing the earth with their\narms, lifting themselves into the air, making the clouds fall. Thus\nB\u00e2lin, the king of the monkeys, comes out of the cavern, as the sun\nout of the cloud (toyad\u00e2diva bh\u00e2skarah).[163]\n\nIn the same way as we have seen the harayas, or horses of Indras, the\ngandharv\u00e2s, and the mythical ass in connection with the salutary waters,\nwith the herbs, and with the perfumes, so in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ it is the\nmonkeys that carry the herbs and the salutary roots of the mountain,\nthat is, of the cloud-mountain or of the mountain of perfumes.\n\nThe cloud in which the sun Hanumant travels through the air throws a\nshadow upon the sea; a sea-monster perceives this shadow, and by it\nattracts Hanumant to himself. (We have already seen the fearless hero\nwho is misled by his own shadow and lost.) Hanumant is k\u00e2mar\u00fbpas, like\nSugr\u00eevas, and like all the other monkeys, his companions. When he sees\nthat the monster is about to swallow him, he distends and expands his\nfigure out of all measure; the ogress assumes the same gigantic\nproportions; when she does so, Hanumant (repeating the miracle of his\ntype Haris, or the dwarf Vishnus), becomes as small as a man's thumb,\nenters into the vast body of the monster, and comes out on the other\nside. Hanumant continues to fly across the ocean, in order to arrive\nat the island of La\u00f1k\u00e2. The ocean takes pity upon him, and, to help\nhim, raises up Mount Hiranyanabhas, _i.e._, of the golden navel, the\nmountain whence the sun comes out; indeed, Hanumant says[164] that he\nstruck the mountain with his tail, and broke its summit, that shone\nlike the sun, in order to rest upon it. Hanumant then recommences his\nflight, and finds a new obstacle in the marine monster Sinhik\u00e2 (the\nmother of R\u00e2hus, the eclipse with a serpent's tail, which devours now\nthe sun, now the moon). She also draws to herself the shadow of\nHanumant; Hanumant, resorting once more to his former stratagem,\nbecomes small, and enters into her body; but he is no sooner inside\nthan he increases in bulk, swells out, tears her, kills her, and\nescapes, a feat for which he receives the homage of the birds, who\nwill thenceforth be able to cross the ocean with impunity.[165] When\nhe arrives in La\u00f1k\u00e2, Hanumant, that he may search for and find S\u00eet\u00e2 by\nmoonlight, becomes as small as a cat (vrishadan\u00e7apram\u00e2nas); when he\nfinds her, and offers to carry her away from La\u00f1k\u00e2, she cannot believe\nthat so small an animal is able to accomplish so great an enterprise;\nthen Hanumant makes himself as tall as a black cloud, as a high\nmountain; he breaks down the whole forest of a\u00e7ok\u00e2s, mounts upon a\ntemple that stands on a thousand columns, claps his hands, and fills\nall La\u00f1k\u00e2 with the din; he tears from the temple a pillar adorned with\ngold, and, swinging it around, devotes the monsters to wholesale\nslaughter.[166] The mythical monkey and the mythical ass resemble each\nother; hence the analogy between the legend of Dadhyanc (quoted in the\nsecond chapter), that of Samson, and that of Hanumant. But the legend\nof the monkey Hanumant presents another curious resemblance to that\nof Samson. Hanumant is bound with cords by Indragit, son of\nRavanas;[167] he could easily free himself, but does not wish to do\nso. Ravanas, to put him to shame, orders his tail to be burned,\nbecause the tail is the part most prized by monkeys (kap\u00een\u00e2m kila\nl\u00e2\u00f1gulam ishtam, whence the fable of the monkey who complains of\nhaving no tail). Hanumant's tail is greased and set on fire, and\nhimself thereafter marched in this plight ignominiously through the\nstreets of La\u00f1k\u00e2. But S\u00eet\u00e2 having invoked the favour of the god Agnis,\nthe fire, though it plays round the tail of Hanumant, does not burn\nit, and Hanumant by this means is able to avenge himself for the\ninsult, by setting fire to and burning to ashes the city of\nLa\u00f1ka.[168] (The tail of Hanumant, which sets fire to the city of the\nmonsters, is probably a personification of the rays of the morning or\nspring sun, which sets fire to the eastern heavens, and destroys the\nabode of the nocturnal or winter monsters.) The enterprise of the\nMarutas in the _Rigvedas_, and that of the monkey Hanumant in the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, assume such dimensions that they obscure the fame of both\nIndras and R\u00e2mas; the former without the Marutas, the latter without\nHanumant, would be unable to defeat the monsters. S\u00eet\u00e2 perceives this\nso clearly, that, at the end of the poem, she makes Hanumant such a\npresent that R\u00e2mas might well become jealous. Hanumant, however, is an\nhonest and pious cavalier; it suffices him to have defended justice\nin the service of his master, nor does he ask to be recompensed for\nthe hard achievement that he has accomplished. For the rest, a popular\nHindoo sentence says that monkeys are not accustomed to weep for\nthemselves;[169] they weep (rodanti) for others. The same is true of\nthe Rudr\u00e2s, or winds, that weep in the cloud; they do not lament for\nthemselves; their tears fall upon the ground in beneficent rain that\nfertilises our fields and tempers the heat of our summers;\nnevertheless, they themselves afterwards feel, as solar rays, the\nbenefit of weeping, that is, of rain. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, monkeys who\ndie in battle are resuscitated by rain; when the cloud dissolves\nitself in rain, the fair-haired, the golden ones, the harayas, the\nsunbeams or monkeys, show themselves again in all their vigour.\n\nWe have seen thus far the cloud-monkey, from which the sun emerges, and\ninto which he re-enters. But we have already said more than once that\nthe sun often assumes a monstrous form, when enclosed in the cloud or\nthe darkness. It is thus we explain the divine hero Balar\u00e2mas, who, in\nthe _Vishnu P._,[170] destroys the demon Dvividas, who had taken the\nform of a monkey. In the eighteenth story of the first book of the\n_Pancatantram_, a monkey, whilst the wind blows and the rain falls,\nshakes a tree upon which a sparrow has made its nest, and breaks the\neggs in pieces. In the tenth story of the fifth book, the king of the\nmonkeys, by means of a crown of pearls, attracts a king of men who had\nkilled monkeys to cure his horses (to which the fire had been\ncommunicated by the wool of a ram which the cook had chased away from\nthe kitchen with a burning brand) to a fountain guarded by a monster\nwho devours the king and his suite. In the eleventh story of the same\nbook, a monkey upon a tree is the friend of one of the two crepuscular\nmonsters, and this monster invites it to eat the man; the man, however,\nretaliates, and fiercely bites its long tail; the monkey then believes\nthis man to be stronger than the monster, and the latter believes the\nman who holds the monkey by the tail with his teeth to be the monster of\nthe other twilight, _i.e._, the morning twilight. Here the monkey is\nconfounded with the fox, which is a mythical animal of a specially\ncrepuscular nature, and which also comes to ruin on account of its tail.\nThe reader has already observed how the incendiary monkey-tail of\nHanumant corresponds to the tails of the foxes in the legend of Samson.\nThe Hellenic and Latin proverbs generally regard the monkey as a very\ncunning animal, so much so that Hercules and the monkey represented the\ncombination of strength and deceit. According to Cardano, a monkey seen\nin dreams is a presage of deceit. According to Lucian, it was an augury\nof an unlucky day to meet with a monkey in the early morning. The\nSpartans considered it an omen of most sinister import that the monkey\nof the king of the Molossians had upset their urn while they were going\nto consult the oracle. According to Suetonius, when Nero thought he saw\nhis horse flee, having the shape of a monkey in his hind parts, he\nbelieved it to prognosticate death. The monkey, accordingly, was usually\nconceived of in Greece and at Rome as a cunning and demoniacal animal.\nThe hero in the cloud, in the dark, or in hell, on the other hand,\nlearns wisdom; and just as before this he is only a poor fool, so the\nmonkey, too, is also sometimes represented in the ancient fables of\nSouthern Europe as an animal full of simplicity. In Italy we have a\nproverb which says that every monkey thinks her young ones beautiful;\nthis refers to the apologue of the monkey that believes her young ones\nto be the most beautiful animals in the world, because Jove, seeing them\none day leaping about, could not refrain from laughing. The fox, in an\nepigram, laughs at the monkey who craves from him the half of his tail,\non the plea that it would disencumber himself of just so much useless\nappendage, and supply his suitor with the very covering required to\nprotect his all too naked buttocks:--\n\n      \"Malo verrat humum quam sit tibi causa decoris,\n       Quam tegat immundas res bene munda nates.\"\n\nIn India the analogy between the monkey and the ass, as a stupid\nanimal, is of still more frequent occurrence. In the _Pancatantram_ we\nhave the monkeys who try to warm themselves by the light of the\nglowworm; a monkey presuming to correct the handiwork of a carpenter,\nmeets with its death by putting its hands into the cleft of a tree\ntrunk, and heedlessly withdrawing the wedge that caused it. In the\n_Tuti-Name_,[171] we find a variety of the story of the ass and the\nlyre, _i.e._, the wise S\u00e2z-Perd\u00e2z, who learns from the monkey,\nassisted by the wind, the way to form musical instruments. (The\nthundering cloud is the mythical musical instrument _par excellence_;\nit is the wind that moves it, it is the wind that makes it sound: the\nhero in the cloud, gandharvas, ass or monkey, is a musician.)\n\nThe strong, powerful, and terrible bear of the Marutas,[172] or winds,\nin the stormy, lightning and thundering cloud, is already mentioned in\nthe Vedic hymn. So the constellation of the she-bear[173] seems also\nto be referred to in them. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[174] we find in\nconnection with it the legend of King Tri\u00e7a\u00f1kus, who, cursed by the\nsons of Vasishthas, becomes a candalas, covered with the skin of a\nbear (rikshacarmaniv\u00e2s\u00ee). Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, the rival of Vasishthas,\npromises to introduce it into heaven, under cover of his own body; but\nIndras scorns to admit it, and indignantly spurns it, hurling it down\nheels over head. Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras arrests it in its descent as it falls\nwith its head downmost, within the constellation of the seven rishayas\nor wise men, that is to say, in the constellation of the Great Bear.\nAnd as the bear is in relation with the polar constellation, with the\nnorth, the frigid regions, the winter and the stars, so the moon, who\nrules particularly over the cold night in the icy season, is called in\nSanskrit _rikshar\u00e2gas_ and _rikshe\u00e7as_, or king of the luminous ones,\nking of the stars, king of the bears. The king of the bears also takes\npart in the expedition to La\u00f1ka. The king of the bears (here in\nrelation to the moon) is the eunuch, the reputed, father, the St\nJoseph, of the king of the monkeys, Sugr\u00eevas, who was, on the\ncontrary, really generated in the bosom of the wife of the bear-king,\nby the magnanimous sun.[175] Led on by the bear or monkey G\u00e2mbavant,\nthe king of the bears (rikshap\u00e2rthivas), the monkeys enter into the\nforest of the honey (madhuvanam), guarded by the monkey Dadhimukhas\n(mouth of butter, generated by Somas, the ambrosial god Lunus),[176]\nand devastate and ransack the forest in order to suck its honey.[177]\nIn the _Vishnu P._,[178] even Balar\u00e2mas, brother of the god Krishnas,\nmakes himself drunk with the spirituous liquor contained in the\nfissure of a tree.\n\nThe bear-eater of honey is an extremely popular subject of Russian\ntradition; the very name of the bear, medv-jed, means in Russian, \"he\nwho eats honey\" (_miod_ is honey, and _iest_ to eat; but the form\n_medv_ [medu] is more perfectly equivalent to the Hindoo _madhu_ = the\nsweet honey ambrosia; the bear in the _madhuvanam_ corresponds\nentirely to the medvjed or bear who eats honey of the Russians). In a\nSlavonic story referred to by Afanassieff in the observations to the\nfirst book of the Russian stories, the bear, deceived by the hare, is\nleft shut up in the trunk of a tree. A peasant passes by; the bear\nbegs him to deliver it from this trunk, promising to show him a\nbee-hive, and beseeching him not to tell any one that a hare had\ndeceived it. The peasant frees the bear; the bear shows the bee-hive,\nthe peasant takes the honey and goes home.[179] The bear goes and\nlistens at the door to overhear the conversation. The peasant narrates\nhow he had procured the honey by means of a bear who, following a\nhare, had been caught in a tree. The bear determines to have its\nrevenge. One day it finds the peasant in the field, and is about to\nfall upon and rend him,[180] when the fox makes its appearance, shakes\nits tail, and says to the peasant, \"Man, thou hast ingenuity in thy\nhead, and a stick in thy hand.\" The peasant immediately understands\nthe stratagem. He begs the bear to let him perform his devotions\nfirst; and offers, as a devotion, instead of doing penance, to carry\nthe bear, shut up in a sack, three times round the field, after which\nthe bear is to do with him whatever it likes. The bear, proud of\nbeing carried by the man,[181] enters into the sack; the man binds it\nstrongly, and then beats it so with his stick that it dies.\n\nThe bear, representing usually the luminous one in the darkness, has\nfrequently in Slavonic tradition a demoniacal character,[182] or else\nthat of a fool, like the ass. In the first of the Russian stories, the\nfox terrifies the bear, and then delivers the peasant from it. (The\npeasant in popular rustic narratives is almost always a heroic\npersonage, who becomes a wiseacre and a prince.) The peasant cheats\nhis companion, the bear, twice: when they sow turnips together, the\npeasant reserves for himself whatever grows underground, and leaves to\nthe bear whatever comes out of the earth and appears above; when they\nsow wheat, the bear, thinking to be very knowing, takes for his own\npart what grows under, and gives to the peasant what grows above the\nground. The peasant is about to be devoured by the bear, when the fox\ncomes to the rescue.[183] In the first story of the fourth book of\n_Afanassieff_, the fox goes to pass the winter in the bear's den, and\ndevours all the provision of hens that the bear had laid up. The bear\nasks what it is eating, and the fox makes him believe that it is\ntaking meat from its own forehead. The bear asks whether it is good,\nupon which the fox gives him some to taste; the bear then tries also\nto take meat from his forehead, and dies; thus the fox has enough to\neat for a year.\n\nThe romance of the fox also presents to us the fox in opposition to\nthe bear, whom he induces to put his paws into the cleft of the trunk\nof a tree, as happened to the Hindoo monkey of the _Pancatantram_. In\nthe Russian story,[184] instead of the fox, we have the peasant, and\ninstead of the monkey and the bear, we have the gentleman (who in the\npoor man's eyes is often a personification of the demon) who is caught\nby his hands in the fissure of a tree. The peasant revenges himself in\nthis way upon the gentleman who had, after having bought from others a\nlittle canary for fifteen roubles, refused to buy from him a large\ngoose for a hundred roubles. The very strong athlete Mil\u00f4n of Kroton,\nwho in one day used to eat an ox four years old, a legendary hero, is\ntorn to pieces by wild beasts, having been caught by the hands in the\ncrevice of a log which he was splitting. Animal and hero continually\nalternate in myths. In the fourth story of the fifth book of\n_Afanassieff_, the peasant meets with his death on account of the\nfunereal and demoniacal storks and the bear. The peasant binds himself\nto his waggon in order not to fall off; the horse wishes to drink,\nand drags the waggon into a well. The bear, being pursued, passes by,\nfalls unexpectedly into the well, becomes involved with the waggon,\nand, in order to extricate himself, is constrained to drag out waggon,\npeasant, and all. Soon afterwards the bear, in search of honey, climbs\nup a tree; another peasant passes, sees the bear upon the tree, and\nwishing to secure the animal, cuts down the tree; bear and waggon fall\ndown, and the peasant is killed, whilst the bear releases itself and\nescapes. The bear which is looking for honey and the bear in the well\nremind us of the _asinus in unguento_, and of the ass in the roses:\nthe ass who is the friend of the gardener or of the priest of Flora\nand Pomona, in the fable of La Fontaine,[185] has the same\nsignification. In the twenty-eighth story of the fifth book of\n_Afanassieff_, King Bear lies hidden in a fountain (we have already\nseen the Hindoo monkey that draws a king into a fountain, into the\nmonster's jaws); a king goes to hunt; feeling thirsty, he wishes to\ndrink at this fountain; the bear clutches him by the beard, and only\nreleases him on condition that he will give up in his stead whatever\nhe has at home without knowing it (this is a variation of the story of\nHari\u00e7candras). The king consents, and returning home, learns that\ntwins, named Ivan and Maria, are born to him. To save them from the\nbear, their father has them lowered into a subterranean cavern, well\nfurnished and very deep, which he supplies with abundant provisions.\nThe twins grow up healthy and strong; the king and queen die, and the\nbear comes to search for the twins. He finds in the royal palace a\npair of scissors, and asks them where the king's sons are; the\nscissors answer, \"Throw me upon the ground in the courtyard; where I\nfall, there search.\" The scissors fall over the very place under which\nIvan and Maria are concealed. The bear opens the ground with his paws,\nand is about to devour the young brother and sister; they beg for\ntheir lives, and the bear spares them, at sight of the abundance of\nhens and geese provided for them. The bear then resolves to take them\ninto his service; they twice attempt in vain to escape, the first time\nwith the help of a hawk, the second with that of an eagle: at last a\nbull succeeds in releasing them. Pursued by the bear, they throw down\na comb, and an impenetrable forest springs up; the bear lacerates and\nwounds himself all over in passing through. Ivan then spreads out a\ntowel which makes a lake of fire; at this sight the bear, who is\nafraid of being burned, who does not like heat, but, on the contrary,\nprefers cold, goes back.\n\nIn the twenty-seventh story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, a\ndemoniacal bear with iron hairs, devastates a whole kingdom, devouring\nall the inhabitants; Ivan Tzarevic and Helena Prekrasnaia alone remain;\nbut the king has them placed with provisions upon a high pillar (a new\nform of Mount Hiranyanabhas, whence the sun issues forth, which comes up\nfrom the bottom of the sea, and upon which the great monkey Hanumant\nplaces himself. The bear is also found in connection with a gem in the\n_Vishnu P._[186]) In the _Tuti-Name_,[187] the carpenter teaches two\nbears to take their food upon a statue which is a perfect image of his\ncompanion the miserly goldsmith, who had defrauded him of some money. By\nmeans of the bears, whom he represents as the two sons of the goldsmith\nwho had run away from him, he terrifies him. The goldsmith, perceiving\nthe carpenter's craftiness, gives him back his money. The famished\nbear approaches the pillar. Ivan throws him down some food; the bear,\nafter having eaten, goes to sleep.[188] While he sleeps, Ivan and Helena\nflee away upon a horse; the bear awakes, overtakes them, brings them\nback to the pillar, and makes them throw him down some food, after which\nhe again goes to sleep. The young brother and sister then try to escape\nupon the backs of geese; the bear again wakens, overtakes them, burns\nthe geese, and takes Ivan and Helena back to the pillar. Having a third\ntime supplied the bear with food, it is again overcome by sleep; this\ntime the deliverer comes in the shape of a bull, who blinds the bear\nwith his horns, and throws him into a stream, where he is drowned. In\nthe same story, the demon, wishing to expose Ivan to certain death,\nsends him to search for the milk of a she-bear.[189] The demon appears\nagain in the form of a bear in the fiftieth story of the fifth book of\n_Afanassieff_, where the dog of a soldier rends him to pieces. But\nalthough the bear is demoniacal, the bear's cub, on the other hand,\nhelps the hero.[190] In the eleventh story of the sixth book of\n_Afanassieff_, a woman who is gathering mushrooms loses herself and\nenters into the bear's den--the bear takes her to himself. We have\nalready seen the bear that plays at blind-man's-buff with the mouse,\nthinking that he is playing with the beautiful maiden. The wind Rudras\nand \u00c6olus, king of the winds, we have already seen, in the first chapter\nof this book, to be passionately fond of beautiful nymphs. In a\nNorwegian story (a variation of that of the White Cat), in _Asbi\u00f6rnsen_,\nthe hero is disguised as a bear, and becomes a beautiful young man by\nnight. His wife, by her indiscreet curiosity, _i.e._, because she had\nwished to see him by lamplight, loses him, and her place is taken by the\nlong-nosed princess, until, with the help of a golden apple and a horse,\nshe is able to find her husband again. In the sixth story of the second\nbook of the _Pentamerone_, it is, on the other hand, the girl Pretiosa\nwho, to escape the embraces of her father, goes into the forest\ndisguised as a she-bear. A young prince, the son of the king of the\nwater, becomes enamoured of her, and takes her to the palace. The prince\nbecomes ill for love of the she-bear; she assists him and cures him.\nWhile he is kissing her, she becomes a beautiful girl (\"la chi\u00f9 bella\ncosa de lo Munno\"). We learn from two medi\u00e6val writings quoted by Du\nCange (_s. v. Ursus_), that it was already the custom in the Middle Ages\nto lead the bear round to make him play indecent games (\"Nec turpia joca\ncum urso vel tornatricibus ante se facere permittat\"), and that hairs of\na bear stained in some ointment used to be sold, \"Tamquam philacteria,\nad depellendos morbos, atque, adeo oculorum fascinos amoliendos.\" The\nAthenians called she-bears the virgins sacred to the chaste Artemis, the\nfriend of closed places; and to this, it would appear, must also be\nreferred the interesting Christian legend of the virgin St Ursula,[191]\nwhom Karl Simrock identifies with the demoniacal, funereal, somniferous,\ndeath-bringing Holda. Were this identification accepted, Ursula would\nbe, moreover, in close ideal and etymological relation with the Vedic\nmonster Rikshik\u00e2.\n\nBut to return to the Russian story, the woman who enters into the bear's\nden unites herself with him, and subsequently gives birth to a son, who\nis a man down to the waist, and a bear from the waist downwards. His\nmother, therefore, names him Ivanko-Medviedko (Little John, the son of\nthe bear). This half-man half-bear becomes a cunning animal, and cheats\nthe devil, making him fight with the bear, and persuading him to think\nthat the bear is his middle brother (that is, the strong brother). In a\nDanish tradition we read of a girl violated by a bear, who gives birth\nafterwards to a monster. According to the Hellenic myth, the nymph\nKalistos, daughter of King Lykaon, violated by Zeus, is changed by Juno\nor by Artemis into a she-bear, gives birth to Arkas, and, being killed\nwith her son by shepherds, is converted into a star.\n\nThe cunning bear appears again as a musician (like the ass) in the\nseventeenth story of the third book of _Afanassieff_, where he sings\nso well that he deceives the old shepherdess, and succeeds in carrying\noff her sheep. In a note to the ninth Esthonian story of Kreutzwald,\nHerr L\u00f6we observes, that in the Northern languages, the god of thunder\nand the bear are synonymous. The bear, the monkey, the ass, and the\nbull (all of which are personifications of the cloud), form a musical\nquartette in a fine fable of Kriloff. The bear is made to dance like\nthe monkey,[192] the ass, and the gandharvas, his mythical equivalent.\nIn the same way as the ass's skin chases away fear, the eye of a bear\ndried and hung upon a child's neck preserves from fear.[193] In the\nlegends of the saints, especially of the hermits, to whom the bear,\ninspired by God, often gives up his den in obedience to their\ncommands, we read of St Maximin that he transformed a bear into an ass\nbecause he had eaten an ass that carried a load.\n\nIn the nineteenth fable of the twelfth book of _La Fontaine_, the\nmonkey appears as a messenger of Jove, with the caduceus, to\n\n      \"Partager un brin d'herbe entre quelques fourmis;\"\n\nwhile two enormous animals, the elephant and the rhinoceros, are\ncontending for the superiority. The monkey, as Mercury, as an\nintermediate and mediating form between two heroic similar animals,\ncomes near to the knowing fox, the reddish colour of which (as well as\nof the bear) it partakes of. It is no longer the pure fair sun of day,\nand it is not yet the black monster of night; it is too black to be\nred, and too red to be black; it has all the cunning of the devils,\nand is acquainted with all the habits of the saints. The monkey, the\nimitator of man (a Darwinist would say his progenitor), partakes, like\nman, of the nature of the brutish demon and of the intelligent god.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[152] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iv. 63.\n\n[153] v. 55.\n\n[154] For the connection between the seven rikshas (rishayas, wise men,\nstars, or bears) of the Hindoos and the septemtriones, the seven stars\nof the she-bear (Arktos, Arkturus), and the Arctic regions, cfr. the\ninteresting discussion of Professor Max M\u00fcller, in the second series of\nhis Lectures.--The seven rishayas are the same as the seven A\u00f1girasas,\nthe seven harayas, and the Marutas, who are seven (multiplied by three,\nthat is, twenty-one). In the Marutas, as harayas, we have the monkeys.\nEven the wife of the king of the monkeys is named T\u00e2r\u00e2, or, properly,\nthe star. Thus there seems to exist between the monkey and the star the\nsame relation as between the bear and the star, a new argument to\nvindicate the identity of the two animals in mythology.\n\n[155] Priy\u00e2 tasht\u00e2ni me kapir vyakt\u00e2 vy ad\u00fbdushat \u00e7iro nv asya\nr\u00e2visham na sugam dushkrite bhuvam vi\u00e7vasm\u00e2d indra uttarah; str. 5.\n\n[156] i. 2628.\n\n[157] iii. 75.\n\n[158] iv. 5.\n\n[159] v. 2, vii. 39.\n\n[160] v. 3.\n\n[161] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ v. 4, v. 5.\n\n[162] v. 55.\n\n[163] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iv. 12, v. 6.--The monkey on the sea is also to be\nfound in a Greek apologue, but the subject is somewhat different. A\nmonkey, which during a tempest had been washed from a ship, and tossed\nabout upon the stormy waves under the promontory of Attica, is\nmistaken by a dolphin for a man; the dolphin, having great affection\nfor the race to which he presumed he belonged, takes him up and\ncarries him towards the shore. But before letting him touch firm\nground, he asks him whether he is an Athenian; the monkey answers that\nhe is of illustrious birth; the dolphin asks if he knows the Pir\u00e6us;\nthe monkey, thinking that it is a man's name, answers that he is a\ngreat friend of his; upon which the dolphin, indignant at having been\ndeceived, lets the monkey fall again into the sea.\n\n[164] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ v. 56.\n\n[165] v. 8.\n\n[166] v. 37.\n\n[167] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ v. 56.\n\n[168] v. 50.--In the _Pancatantram_, v. 10, it is said, on the\ncontrary, that monkeys possess the virtue of healing the wounds of\nhorses that have been scalded or burned, as the sun of morning chases\nthe darkness away. According to a variety of this story contained in\nthe _Tuti-Name_, i. 130, the bite of a monkey can be cured only by the\nblood of the very monkey who had inflicted it.\n\n[169] Agnatakula\u00e7\u00eele 'pi pr\u00eetim kurvanti v\u00e2nar\u00e2h \u00e2tm\u00e2rthe ca na\nrodanti; B\u00f6htlingk, _Indische Spr\u00fcche_, 107.\n\n[170] v. 36.\n\n[171] i. 266.\n\n[172] Riksho na vo m\u00e2rutah \u00e7im\u00eev\u00e2n amo dadhro g\u00e2uriva bh\u00eemayuh _Rigv._\nv. 56, 3.\n\n[173] Am\u00ee ya riksh\u00e2 nihit\u00e2sa ucc\u00e2; _Rigv._ i. 24, 10.\n\n[174] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ i. 60-62.\n\n[175] vi. 46.\n\n[176] vi. 6.\n\n[177] v. 59.\n\n[178] v. 25.\n\n[179] This story, with some variations, was already known in the\nsixteenth century: \"Demetrius Moschovitarum legatus Romam missus, teste\nPaulo Jovio (quoted by Aldrovandi), narravit proximis annis vicini\u00e6 su\u00e6\nagricolam qu\u00e6rendi mellis causa in pr\u00e6grandem et cavam arborem superne\ndesiliisse, eumque profundo mellis gurgite collo tenus fuisse immersum\net biduo vitam solo melle sustinuisse, cum in ill\u00e2 solitudine vox\nagricol\u00e6 opem implorantis ad viatorum aures non perveniret. Tandem hic,\ndesperata salute, urs\u00e6 beneficio extractus evasit, nam hujus fer\u00e6 ad\nmella edenda more humano in arboris civitatem se demittentis, pellem\ntergoris manibus comprehendit et inde ab ursa subito timore exterrita et\nretrocedente extractus fuit.\"--The bear is also celebrated in Kriloff's\nfables as an eater of honey.--In an apologue of Abstemius, the bear,\nwhen searching for honey, is stung by a bee; he avenges himself by\ndestroying the honeycombs, but the swarms of bees fly upon him, and\nsting and torment him on every side; the bear then complains that by not\nhaving known how to support a small evil he had drawn upon himself a\nvery grave one.--The pears of the Italian proverb in connection with the\nbear also refer to hydromel or to honey. The Italian proverbs are as\nfollows: \"Dar le pere in guardia all' orso\" (to give the pears to be\nguarded by the bear); \"Chi divide la pera (or il miele) all' orso ne ha\nsempre men che parte\" (he who divides the pear (or the honey) with the\nbear, always has less than a part, that is, the bear eats it all), and\n\"L'orso sogna pere\" (the bear dreams of pears). To catch the bear is the\nsame as to be inebriated; the bear, in fact, is, in the legends, often\ninebriated himself with honey, as the Vedic Indras with the ambrosia,\nand as Balar\u00e2mas in the spirituous liquor contained in the fissure of a\ntree (_Vishnu-P._ v. 25). The sun in the cloud or in the rainy or wintry\nseason drinks more than necessary. Cfr. also Ralston, _Songs of the\nRussian People_, p. 182.\n\n[180] In the fifteenth story of _Afanassieff_, the bear revenges\nhimself upon an old man who had cut off one of his paws with a\nhatchet; the bear makes himself a paw from the wood of a linden-tree,\ntakes the old man and the old woman by surprise in their house and\ndevours them. In the nineteenth story of the fourth book, the bear\nallies himself with the fox lamed by the peasant, and with the gadfly\nthat the peasant had placed behind the straw, in order to revenge\nhimself upon the peasant, who, promising to cover him with spots like\nthe horse, had struck him here and there on the body with a red-hot\naxe, so that the bones were left bare. This fable is perhaps connected\nwith the Hindoo superstition that the burns of a horse are cured by\nmeans of a monkey. As to the wooden paws, they are doubtless the\nbranches of the cloudy or nocturnal forest. In the _Edda_ of S\u00f6mund it\nis said that the Alfes are accustomed to call the trees the beautiful\narms; we already know the meaning of the boy with the golden hand.\n\n[181] In the tenth story of the third book of _Afanassieff_, Nadzei,\nthe son of a virgin who is the daughter of a priest, makes himself\nformidable by cutting down the forest and drawing, without assistance,\nout of the forest the bear that destroyed the cats.\n\n[182] In a description of the last Sunday of the Roman carnival of the\nthirteenth century, in Du Cange, _s. v. Carnelevarium_, we read:\n\"Occidunt ursum, occiditur diabolus, id est, temptator nostr\u00e6\ncarnis.\"--In Bohemia it is still the custom at the end of the carnival\nto bring the bear,--that is, a man disguised as a bear, with straw,\nwho goes round to ask for beer (or hydromel, which takes the place of\nthe mythical honey or ambrosia). The women take the straws to put them\ninto the place where the hens lay their eggs, to make them lay better.\nIn Suabia the straw bear is accused of having killed a blind cat, and\ntherefore condemned, with all formality, to death, after having had,\nbefore his death, two priests to console him; on Ash-Wednesday the\nbear is solemnly buried.--Cfr. Reinsberg von D\u00fcringfeld, _Das\nfestliche Jahr_.--The poet Hans Sachs, quoted by Simrock, covers with\na bear's skin two old women who are to be presented to the devil.\n\n[183] Cfr., moreover, _Afanassieff_, ii. 33.--In a popular Norwegian\nstory, the fox makes the bear catch fish with his tail, which is\nfrozen in the water.\n\n[184] _Afanassieff_, v. 2.\n\n[185] viii. 10.\n\n[186] iv. 13.\n\n[187] i. 6.\n\n[188] Concerning the bear's sleep, it is interesting to read the\ncurious information furnished by Aldrovandi (_De Quadr. Dig. Viv._\ni.): \"Devorant etiam ursi ineunte hyeme radices nomine nobis adhuc\nignotas, quibus per longum temporis spatium cibi cupiditas expletur et\nsomnus conciliatur. Nam in Alpibus Helveticis aiunt, referente\nGesnero, vaccarum pastorem eminus vidisse ursum, qui radicem quemdam\nmanibus propriis effossam edebat, et post ursi discessum, illuc se\ntranstulisse; radicemque illam degustasse, qui postmodum tanto somni\ndesiderio affectus est, ut se continere non potuerit, quin in vi\u00e2\nstratus somno frueretur.\" The bear, as a nocturnal and wintry animal,\nmust of necessity conciliate sleep.\n\n[189] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, vi. 5.--According to Hellenic tradition,\nParis and Atalanta were nourished with the milk of a she-bear.\n\n[190] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 27, v. 28.--According to Cardano, to meet\nwith a bear's cub just born indicated a change of fortune for the\nbetter.\n\n[191] Cfr. the work of Schade, _Die Sage von der Heiligen Ursula_. She\nis also to be found among the _Leggende del Secolo Decimoquarto_,\npublished at Florence by Signor Del Lungo (Barbera, publisher).\n\n[192]\n\n      \"... il parle, on l'entend, il sait danser, baller\n              Faire des tours de toute sorte\n                 Passer en des cerceaux.\"\n                            --_La Fontaine, Fables_, ix. 3.\n\nIn _La Fontaine_, the monkey is again identified with the ass, as a\njudge on the tribunal between the wolf and the fox, and afterwards as\ndressed in the skin of the dead lion. In the fourth fable of the\neleventh book, La Fontaine makes the monkey M.A. narrate the story of\nthe _asinus asinum fricat;_ in the second fable of the twelfth book\nthe monkey scatters the miser's treasure, as in Hindoo tradition it\nspoils the sacrificial offerings.\n\n[193] Cfr. Aldrovandi, _De Quadr. Dig. Viv._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nTHE FOX, THE JACKAL, AND THE WOLF.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Lop\u00e2\u00e7as, lop\u00e2\u00e7ik\u00e2.--The jackal takes in Hindoo tradition the place\n    of the fox.--What the fox represents in mythology, and why the\n    jackal is his mythical equivalent.--Double aspect of the mythical\n    fox, in connection with the cock and in connection with the wolf,\n    turned towards the day and towards the night, now friendly, now\n    hostile to the hero.--The fox deceives all the other animals, in\n    order to have all the prey to itself.--The fox is the monster's\n    enemy.--The blue jackal.--The inquisitive jackal.--The avenging\n    jackal.--The astute fox; the woman more cunning than the fox.--The\n    fox's skin.--The buttered tail of the jackal.--The fox eats the\n    honey, the butter, or the cake belonging to the wolf, and then\n    accuses him.--The fox sends the wolf to fish.--The fox eats the\n    woman whom he had promised to bring to life.--The fox as a\n    mourner.--The peasant ungrateful to the fox.--\"Cauda de vulpe\n    testatur.\"--The fox eats the bear; the bird feeds the fox, and\n    afterwards draws it in among the dogs.--Former hospitality is to be\n    forgotten.--The fox as the cat's wife.--The round cheese of the myth\n    is the moon.--The fox steals the fishes.--The fox is of every\n    profession.--The grateful fox enriches the poor hero.--King Fire and\n    Queen Loszna.--The house of the fox and that of the hare.--The fox\n    deceives the cock; the cock deceives the fox.--The fox's tail in the\n    beaks of the chickens.--The fox's malice; the ideal of a prince\n    according to Macchiavelli; fox and serpent.--The fox cheats almost\n    all the animals; it does not, however, succeed in cheating the other\n    foxes, and sometimes not even the lion.--The Catholic Church\n    furnishes new types for the legend of the fox.--Union of the fox\n    with the wolf.--Diverse nature of the wolf.--The red wolf.--The\n    thieving wolf.--The wolf (or the devil) and the fishes; the fish in\n    shallow water.--The dog and the wolf.--The wolf as a\n    shepherd.--Wolf's belly.--The good wolf and the good maiden.--The\n    son of the wolf understands the language of birds.--The she-wolf as\n    a nurse; she-wolves and strumpets.--Disguises in a wolf's\n    skin.--Wolf-hunter.--The wolf's shadow.--Wolves that chastise in the\n    name of God; sanctified wolves.--The dead wolf; the wolf's\n    skin.--Diabolical wolves.--The white\n    wolf.--Wulfesheofod.--Ysengrin.--The wolf sings psalms.--The cunning\n    of the wolf.--The wolf's tail.--The dwarf in the wolf's body; the\n    dwarf in the wolf's sack.--The she-wolf at Rome.--Dante's she-wolf.\n\nThe fox is scarcely spoken of once in the _Rigvedas_ by the name of\nlop\u00e2\u00e7as (al\u00f4p\u00eax), as penetrating to the old Western lion; this word\n(like _lop\u00e2kas_, which is interpreted in the Petropolitan Dictionary as\n\"a kind of jackal\") seems to mean properly \"the destroyer\" (according to\nProfessor Weber, _Aasfresser_). The Sanskrit language also gives us the\ndiminutive _lop\u00e2\u00e7ik\u00e2_, which is interpreted as the female of a jackal\nand as the fox (vulpecula). The legendary fox, however, is generally\nrepresented in Hindoo tradition by the jackal, or _canis aureus_\n(srig\u00e2las, kroshtar, gom\u00e2yus, as a shouter). The fox is the reddish\nmediatrix between the luminous day and the gloomy night: the crepuscular\nphenomenon of the heavens taking an animal form, no form seemed more\nadapted to the purpose than that of the fox or the jackal, on account of\ntheir colour and some of their cunning habits: the hour of twilight is\nthe time of uncertainties and of deceits. Professor Weber[194] supposes\nthat all the cunning actions attributed to the jackal in Hindoo fables\nwere taken on loan from the fox of Hellenic fables. We must certainly\nassign no undue importance to the expressions _vancakas_ and\n_mrigadh\u00fbrtakas_ (the cheater of animals), given in Hindoo lexicons to\nthe jackal, inasmuch as these lexicons are not of very remote antiquity;\nbut at the same time we must confess, that the cunning of the fox has\nbeen exaggerated by popular superstition as much as the stupidity of the\nass, for a mythical reason, and from tradition, far more than by the\nobservation of exceptional habits in these animals, which could easily\nbe identified in mythology, in which, as I have already observed, some\nfew gross and accidental similarities are enough to cause the same\nphenomena to be represented by animals of a very different genus. Thus\nthe hairy reddish bodies of the bear and the monkey, and certain\npostures which they assume in common, are enough to make us understand\nhow they are sometimes substituted for each other in legends; for the\nsame reason, to the monkey and to the bear are attributed some of the\nenterprises for which the legendary fox is celebrated. How much greater,\ntherefore, must have been the confusion which arose between the _canis\nvulpes_ (the reddish fox) and the _canis aureus_ (or jackal), animals\nwhich agree in showing themselves towards night, in feeding upon little\nanimals, in having skins of the same colour, who have very bright eyes,\nand several other zoological characteristics in common?\n\nThe legendary fox (or the jackal, which is its mythical equivalent)\nhas, like nearly all mythical figures, a double aspect. As it\nrepresents the evening, and as the sun is represented as a bird (the\ncock), the fox, the proverbial enemy of chickens, is, in the sky too,\nthe robber and devourer of the cock, and as such the natural enemy of\nthe man or hero, who ends by showing himself to be more cunning than\nit is, and by effecting its ruin. The fox cheats the cock in the\nevening, and is cheated by the cock in the morning. It is therefore an\nanimal of demoniacal nature, when considered as the devourer or\nbetrayer of the sun (cock, lion, or man), in the form of the red\nwestern sky, or of the evening aurora, and as being killed or put to\nflight by the sun itself (cock, lion, or man), in the form of the red\neastern sky, or the morning aurora.[195] We have already seen, in the\nfirst chapter of this work, the aurora both as a wise girl and a\nperverse one; in its animal metamorphosis, the fox reproduces this\naspect. But the aurora has not this mythical aspect alone. If, as she\nis turned towards or against the sun, she is supposed to be the killer\nof the luminous day in the evening, and to be chased away by the\nluminous day in the morning, she also, when considered as turning\ntowards or against the night, assumes a heroic and sympathetic aspect,\nand becomes the friend and assister of the solar hero or animal\nagainst the wolf of the darkness of night. In these two mythical\naspects is contained and explained all the essential legendary story\nof the fox, to narrate which, as far as it concerns Western tradition,\nvolumes have already been written. I shall limit myself to culling and\nsummarising from Oriental and Slavonic tradition their chief\ncharacteristics, in order to compare them briefly with the most\ngenerally known particulars of Western legendary lore; as it seems to\nme that when I shall have shown the double nature of the fox in\nmythology, as representing the two auroras, when I shall have proved\nthat the sun is personified now as a hero, now as a cock, and now as a\nlion, and the night as a wolf, it will be easy to refer to this\ninterpretation the immense variety of legendary subjects to which, on\naccount of the smaller proportions to which I have been obliged to\nreduce this work, I shall be unable to allude.\n\nIn the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[196] a learned jackal, who has finished his\nstudies, associates with the ichneumon, the mouse, the wolf, and the\ntiger, but only in order to cheat them all. He makes the tiger kill a\ngazelle, and then sends all the animals to bathe before eating it.\nThen, when the tiger returns, he makes him run after the mouse, by\nrepresenting it as having boasted that it had killed the tiger; he\nmakes the mouse flee, persuading it that the ichneumon has bitten the\ngazelle, and that its flesh is therefore poisonous; he makes the wolf\ntake to its heels, by informing it that the tiger is coming to devour\nit; he makes the ichneumon glad to escape, by boasting that he has\nvanquished the other three animals; then the jackal eats the whole\ngazelle himself. In the _Pancatantram_,[197] the jackal cheats, in a\nsimilar manner, the lion and the wolf out of their part of a camel; we\nhave already seen how it cheated the lion out of the ass. In the\ntwentieth Mongol story, the fox stirs up discord between the two\nbrothers, bull and lion, who kill each other in consequence.\n\nIn the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[198] the jackal appears as the hero's friend,\ninasmuch as by howling, and vomiting fire, he is of sinister omen to the\nmonster Kharas, who prepares to attack R\u00e2mas. In the _Khorda-Avesta_, a\nhero devoured by Agra-Mainyu, the god of the monsters, is named\nTakhmo-urupis, or Takhma-urupa, which means strong fox.\n\nOne of the most interesting fables, in a mythological point of view,\nis that of the jackal who, falling among pigments, comes out blue, or\nof opaline lustre, and passes himself off as a peacock of the sky. The\nanimals make him their king, but he betrays himself by his voice:\nhearing other jackals howling, he howls also; upon which the lion, the\nreal king of the beasts, tears him to pieces.[199] This is a variety\nof the ass dressed in the lion's skin, but yet more so of the crow\nthat takes up and decks itself in the peacock's feathers; the black\nnight shines as an azure sky, as sahasr\u00e2kshas (an appellation of\nIndras and of the peacock, as having a thousand eyes or stars). The\nevening aurora, the fox, transforms itself into the azure sky of\nnight, until at morn, the deceit being exposed, the lion (_i.e._, the\nsun) rends the fox, and disperses the night and the aurora.\n\nThe _Pancatantram_ contains two other narratives relating to the\nlegendary jackal--viz., the inquisitive and silly jackal, who, in an\nattempt to break the skin of a drum to see what is inside, breaks one\nof his teeth, and who, wishing to eat the string of a bow, has his\nmouth lacerated and dies;[200] and the vile jackal who, brought up\namong the lion's cubs, reveals his vulpine nature when he should have\nthrown himself with the two lions, his adoptive brothers, upon the\nelephant, but, instead of that, took to flight.[201] In the\n_Tuti-Name_,[202] the jackal desires to revenge himself upon the\nparrots, whom he judges indirectly implicated in the death of his\nyoung ones; up comes the lynx, who is astounded that the jackal,\ncelebrated for its craftiness, is unable to devise a way of ruining\nthe parrots. At last the lynx advises him to pretend being lame, and\nlet himself be followed by a hunter as far as the abode of the\nparrots, at which place he will be able to skulk away, and the hunter,\nseeing the parrots, will set his nets and catch them.\n\nIn the _Tuti-Name_ we also find several other particulars relating to\nthe jackal, which will pass into the Russian stories of the fox.\n\nThe jackal makes the wolf come out of his den, which the latter had\ntaken possession of, by calling the shepherd.[203] In another place, the\ncunning fox laughs at the stolid tiger, but the woman proves herself to\nbe more cunning than the fox.[204] It is also in the _Tuti-Name_[205]\nthat we read of a companion of the poor Abdul Megid, enamoured of the\nking's daughter, who teaches him how to enrich himself, or rather to\nappear rich, in order to wed her. In a much more scientific and\ninteresting variety of this legend, in the Russian stories, it is, on\nthe contrary, the fox who enriches the poor hero. The nineteenth Mongol\nstory, in which the false hero makes his fortune by means of the spoils\nof a certain designated fox, is another intermediate form between the\ntwo traditions, the Hindoo and the Russian.\n\nThe name of a jackal in the _Pancatantram_ is Dadhi-pucchas, which\nmeans tail of butter, buttered tail (the aurora is ambrosial).\n\nIn the first of the stories of _Afanassieff_, the fox eats the honey\nbelonging to the wolf (which reminds one of the sentence of Plautus,\n\"S\u00e6pe condita luporum fiunt rapin\u00e6 vulpium\"[206]), and then accuses\nthe wolf of having eaten it himself; the wolf proposes a sort of\njudgment of God; they are to go together to the sun, and he who pours\nout honey will be accounted guilty: they go and lie down; the wolf\nfalls asleep, and when the honey comes out of the fox, he pours it\nupon the wolf, who, when he awakes, confesses his fault. In the first\nstory of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the cock and the hen bring\nears of corn to the old man and poppies to the old woman; the old\ncouple make a cake of them and put it out to dry.[207] Up come the fox\nand the wolf and take the cake, but finding that it is not yet dry,\nthe fox proposes going to sleep whilst it is drying. While the wolf\nsleeps, the fox eats the honey that is in the cake, and puts dung in\nits place. The wolf awakens, and after him the fox too pretends to\nwaken, and accuses the wolf of having touched the cake; the wolf\nprotests his innocence, and the fox proposes, as a judgment of God,\nthat they shall go to sleep in the sunshine; the wax will come out of\nhim who has eaten the honey.[208] The wolf really goes to sleep, and\nthe fox goes meanwhile to a neighbouring beehive, eats the honey, and\nthrows the honeycombs upon the wolf, who, wakening from his slumbers,\nconfesses his fault, and promises in reparation to give his share of\nthe prey to the fox as soon as he procures any. In the continuation of\nthe story, the fox sends the wolf to fish with his tail (the same as\nthe bone of the dog) in the lake, and, after having made his tail\nfreeze, feigns to be himself ill, and makes the wolf carry him,\nmurmuring on the way the proverb, \"He who is beaten carries him who is\nnot beaten.\" In a variety of the same story, the fox eats the wolf's\nbutter and flour; in another, the fox pretends to be called during the\nnight to act as the rabbit's midwife, and eats the wolf's butter,\naccusing him afterwards of having eaten it himself; in order to\ndiscover the guilty one, they resolve upon trying the judgment by\nfire, before which the two animals are to go to sleep, and the one\nfrom whose skin the butter shall come out, is to be accounted guilty;\nwhilst the wolf is asleep and snoring, the fox upsets the rest of the\nbutter over him. In the seventh story of the fourth book of\n_Afanassieff_, the fox promises to an old man to bring his wife to\nlife again; he requests him to warm a bath, to bring flour and honey,\nand then to stand at the door without ever turning round to look at\nthe bath; the old man does so, and the fox washes the old woman and\nthen eats her, leaving nothing but the bones; he then makes a cake of\nthe flour and honey, and eats that too, after which he cries out to\nthe old man to throw the door wide open, and escapes. In the first\nstory of the first book, the old man whose wife is dead goes to look\nfor mourners; he finds the bear, who offers to do the weeping, but the\nold man thinks that he has not a sufficiently good voice; going on, he\nmeets the fox, who also offers to perform the same service, and gives\na good proof of his skill in singing (this particular would appear to\nbe more applicable to the crying jackal than to the fox). The old man\ndeclares himself perfectly satisfied, and places the cunning beast at\nthe foot of the corpse to sing a lament, whilst he himself goes to\nmake the grave; during the old man's absence, the fox eats everything\nhe finds in the house, and the old woman too. In the ninth story of\nthe fourth book the fable ends otherwise; the fox does his duty as a\nweeper, and the old man rewards him by the gift of some chickens; the\nfox, however, demanding more, the old man puts into a sack two dogs\nand a chicken, and gives it to the fox, who goes out and opens the\nsack. The dogs run out and pursue him; he takes refuge in his den, but\nneglects to draw in his tail, which betrays him. \"Cauda de vulpe\ntestatur,\" said also the Latin proverb. In a variety of the first\nstory of the first book, it is as a reward for having released the\npeasant from the bear that the fox receives a sack containing two hens\nand a dog. The dog pursues the fox, who takes to his hole, and then\nasks his feet what they have done; they answer that they ran away; he\nthen asks his eyes and ears, which answer that they saw and heard;\nfinally he asks his tail (here identified with the phallos), which,\nconfused, answers that it put itself between his legs to make him\nfall. Then the fox, wishing to chastise his tail, puts it out of the\nhole; the dog, by means of it, drags out the whole fox, and tears him\nto pieces. In the fourth story of the third book, the fox delivers the\npeasant from, not the bear, but the wolf; the peasant then cheats him\nin the same way, by putting dogs into the sack; the fox escapes, and\nto punish his tail for impeding his flight, leaves it in the dog's\nmouth, and runs off; afterwards the fox is drowned by falling into a\nbarrel which is being filled with water (the deed of the phallos; cfr.\nthe chapter on the Fishes), and the peasant takes his skin. In another\nRussian story, recorded by _Afanassieff_ in the observations to the\nfirst book of his stories, the fox, having delivered the peasant from\nthe bear, asks for his nose in way of recompense, but the peasant\nterrifies him and puts him to flight. In a Slavonic story referred to\nin the same observations, the bird makes its nest, of which the fox\ncovets the eggs; the bird informs the dog, who pursues the fox; the\nlatter, betrayed by his tail, holds his usual monologue with his feet,\neyes, ears, and tail. In the twenty-second story of the third book,\nthe fox falls with the bear, the wolf, and the hare, into a ditch\nwhere there is no water. The four animals are oppressed by hunger, and\nthe fox proposes that each should raise his voice in succession and\nshout his utmost; he who shouts feeblest will be eaten by the others.\nThe hare's turn comes first, then that of the wolf; bear and fox alone\nremain. The fox advises the bear to put his paws upon his sides;\nattempting to sing thus, he dies, and the fox eats him. Being again\nhungry, and seeing a bird feeding its young, he threatens to kill the\nyoung birds unless the parent brings him some food; the bird brings\nhim a hen from the village. The fox afterwards renews his threats,\ndesiring the bird to bring him something to drink; the bird\nimmediately brings him water from the village. Again the fox threatens\nto kill the young ones if the old bird does not deliver him out of the\nditch; the bird throws in billets of wood, and thus succeeds in\nhelping him out. Then the fox desires the bird to make him laugh; the\nbird invites him to run after it; it then goes towards the village,\nwhere it cries out, \"Woman, woman, bring me a piece of tallow\" (babka,\nbabka, priniessi mni\u00e9 sala kuss\u00f3k); the dogs hear the cry, come out,\nand rend the fox. In the twenty-fourth story of the third book, the\nfox again delivers the peasant from the wolf, whom he had shut up in a\nsack to save him from the persecution of the hunters. The wolf is no\nsooner out of danger than he wishes to eat the peasant, saying that\n\"old hospitality is forgotten.\"[209] The peasant beseeches him to\nawait the judgment of the first passer-by; the first whom they meet is\nan old mare who has been expelled from the stables on account of her\nage, after having long served her masters; she finds that the wolf's\nsentence is just. The peasant begs the wolf to wait for a second\npasser-by; this is an old black dog who has been expelled from the\nhouse after long services, because he can no longer bark; he also\napproves the wolf's decision. The peasant again begs them to wait for\na third and decisive judgment; they meet the fox, who resorts to a\nwell-known stratagem; he affects to doubt that so large an animal as\nthe wolf could get into so small a sack. The wolf, mortified at so\nunjust a suspicion, wishes to prove that he has told the truth,\nre-enters into the sack, and is beaten by the peasant till he dies.\nBut the peasant himself then proves ungrateful to the fox, saying,\ntoo, that old hospitality is to be forgotten (properly the hospitality\nof bread and salt, _hlieb-sol_). In the eighth story of the fourth\nbook, the fox brings upon his back to her father and mother a girl\nwho, having lost herself in the forest, was weeping upon a tree. The\nold man and woman, however, are not grateful to the fox; for on the\nlatter asking for a hen in reward, they put him into a sack with a\ndog; the rest of the story is already known to the reader. In the\ntwenty-third story of the fourth book, the fox marries the cat and\nputs the bear and the wolf to flight. We have already mentioned the\nfox of the Russian story who sends the wolf to catch fish in the river\nwith his tail, by which means the tail is frozen off. In a popular\nNorwegian story, instead of the wolf, it is the bear who is thus\ncheated by the fox. In a Servian story, we hear of a fox who steals\nthree cheeses off a waggon, and afterwards meets the wolf, who asks\nwhere he had found them. The fox answers, in the water (the sky of\nnight). The wolf wishing to fish for cheeses, the fox conducts him to\na fountain where the moon is reflected in the water, and points to it\nas a cheese; he must lap up the water in order to get at it. The wolf\nlaps and laps till the water comes out of his mouth, nose, and ears\n(probably because he was drowned in the fountain. The wolf, the black\nmonster of night, takes the place of the crow in connection with the\ncheese (the moon) and the fox; the Servian story itself tells us what\nthe cheese represents[210]). In a Russian story, published in the year\n1860, by the Podsniesznik, and quoted in the observations to the first\nbook of the stories of _Afanassieff_, the fox is killed by a peasant\nwhose fish he had stolen; the peasant takes his skin and goes off. Up\ncomes the wolf, and seeing his god-father without a skin, weeps over\nhim according to the prescribed ceremony, and then eats him. We have\nalready seen the fox as a mourner and as a midwife. In the twentieth\nstory of the third book of _Afanassieff_, the fox wishes to work as a\nblacksmith. In other Russian stories we have the fox-confessor and the\nfox-physician; finally, the fox as a god-mother is a very popular\nsubject of Russian stories. In a Russian story, published in the\nfourth number of the Russian _Historical and Juridical Archives of\nKalassoff_, the fox appears as a go-between for the marriage of two\nyoung men with two princesses. But, above all, the fox is famous for\nhaving brought about the wedding of the poor Buhtan Buhtanovic and of\nhis _alter ego_, Koszma Skorobagatoi (Cosimo the swiftly-enriched)\nwith the daughter of the Tzar. Buhtan had only five kapeika (twopence\nin all). The fox has them changed, and asks the Tzar to lend him some\nbushels to measure the money with. These bushels are each time found\ntoo small, and larger ones are demanded, using which, the cunning fox\nalways takes care to leave some small coin at the bottom. The Tzar\nmarvels at the riches of Buhtan, and the fox then asks for Buhtan the\nTzar's daughter to wife. The Tzar wishes first to see the bridegroom.\nHow dress him? The fox then makes Buhtan fall into the mud near the\nking's palace whilst they are passing over a little bridge. He then\ngoes to the Tzar, relates the misfortune, and begs him to lend him a\ndress for Buhtan. Buhtan puts it on, and never ceases regarding his\nchanged appearance. The Tzar being astonished at this, the fox hastens\nto say that Buhtan was never so badly dressed before, and takes the\nfirst opportunity of warning him in private against conduct so\nsuspicious. Then, withdrawn from himself, he does nothing but stare at\nthe golden table, which again astonishes the Tzar; this is accounted\nfor by the fox, who explains that in Buhtan's palace similar tables\nare to be found in the bath-room; meanwhile the fox hints to Buhtan to\nlook more about him. The wedding ceremony is performed and the bride\nled away. The fox runs on before; but instead of leading them into\nBuhtan's miserable hut, he takes them to an enchanted palace, after\nhaving, by a trick, chased out of it the serpent, the crow, and the\ncock that inhabited it.[211]--Poor Kuszinka has only one cock and five\nhens remaining. He takes the fox by surprise whilst he is attempting\nto eat his hens, but moved by the fox's prayers, releases him. Then\nthe grateful fox promises to transform him into Cosimo the\nswiftly-enriched. The fox goes into the Tzar's park and meets the\nwolf, who asks him how he is become so fat; he answers that he has\nbeen banqueting at the Tzar's palace. The wolf expresses a desire to\ngo there too, and the fox advises him to invite forty times forty more\nwolves (that is 1600 wolves). The wolf follows his advice, and brings\nthem all to the Tzar's palace, upon which the fox tells the Tzar that\nCosimo the swiftly-enriched sends them to him as a gift. The Tzar\nmarvels at the great riches of Cosimo; the fox uses the same stratagem\ntwice again with the bears and the martens. After this, he asks the\nTzar to lend him a silver bushel, pretending that all Cosimo's golden\nbushels are full of money. The Tzar gives it, and when the fox sends\nit back, he leaves a few small coins at the bottom, returning it with\nthe request that the Tzar would give his daughter to Cosimo in\nmarriage. The Tzar answers that he must first see the pretender to her\nhand. The fox then makes Cosimo fall into the water, and arrays him in\nrobes lent by the Tzar, who receives him with every honour. After\nsome time, the Tzar signifies his desire of visiting Cosimo's\ndwelling. The fox goes on before, and finds on the way flocks of\nsheep, and herds of hogs, cows, horses, and camels. He asks of all the\nshepherds to whom they belong, and is uniformly answered, \"To the\nserpent-uhlan.\" The fox orders them to say that they belong to Cosimo\nthe swiftly-enriched, or else they will see King Fire and Queen\nLoszna,[212] who will burn everything to ashes. He comes to the palace\nof white stone, where the king serpent-uhlan lives. He terrifies him\nin the same way, and compels him to take refuge in the trunk of an\noak-tree, where he is burnt to death. Cosimo, the swiftly-enriched,\nbecomes Tzar of all the possessions of the uhlan-serpent and enjoys\nthem with his bride.[213] (I need not dwell upon the mythological\nimportance of this story; the serpent consumed by fire is found in the\nmost primitive myths; here the canis-vulpes, the red bitch, the fox\nseems to play part of the _r\u00f4le_ of the Vedic messenger-bitch.)\n\nIn the first story of _Afanassieff_, the fox chases the hare, instead\nof the serpent, out of its home. The fox has a house of ice and the\nhare one of wood. At the arrival of spring, the fox's house melts;\nthen the fox, under the pretext of warming itself, enters the hare's\nhouse and sends its occupant away. The hare weeps, and the dogs come\nto chase the fox away, but it cries out from its seat by the stove,\nthat when it leaps out, whoever is caught will be torn into a thousand\npieces; hearing which, the dogs run away in terror. The bear comes,\nand then the bull, but the fox terrifies them too. At last the cock\ncomes up with a scythe, and loudly summons it to come out or be cut to\npieces. The terrified fox jumps out and the cock cuts it to pieces\nwith the scythe. In another story of Little Russia, mentioned by\n_Afanassieff_ in the observations to the first book of his stories,\nthe fox, on the contrary, is the victim which the hairy goat wishes to\nexpel from its home. Several animals, wolf, lion, and bear, present\nthemselves to help it, but the cock alone succeeds in expelling the\nintruder. Here the cock appears as the friend of the fox and the enemy\nof the goat. In the twenty-third story of the third book of\n_Afanassieff_, the fox defends the sheep against the wolf, who accuses\nit of having dressed itself in his skin, and brings about the ruin of\nthe wolf by its craftiness. In the third story of the fourth book, the\ncat and the lamb release the cock from the fox; these contradictions\nare explained by the double mythical significance which we have\nattributed above to the fox, and by its double appearance as aurora in\nthe evening and in the morning. In the evening, it generally cheats\nthe hero; in the morning it cheats the monster. In the second story of\nthe fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the fox requests the cock to come\ndown from a tree to confess itself to him. The cock does so, and is\nabout to be eaten by the fox, but it flatters him so much that he lets\nit escape again. (The solar cock, supposed to be in the fox's power at\nnight, escapes from it and comes forth again in the morning.) The\nthird story of the fourth book gives us the interesting text of the\nwords sung by the fox to deceive the cock:\n\n      \"Little cock, little cock,\n       With the golden crest,\n       With the buttered head,\n       With the forehead of curdled milk!\n       Show yourself at the window;\n       I will give you some gruel\n       In a red spoon.\"[214]\n\nThe cock, when caught by the fox, invokes the cat's assistance,\ncrying, \"Me the fox has carried away; he carried away me, the cock,\ninto the gloomy forest, into distant lands, into foreign lands, into\nthe three times ninth (twenty-seventh) earth, into the thirtieth\nkingdom; cat Catonaievic, deliver me!\"\n\nThe knavish actions of the fox, however, are far more celebrated in\nthe West than in the East. A proverb says that, to write all the\nperfidious knaveries of the fox, all the cloth manufactured at Ghent,\nturned into parchment, would not be sufficient. This proverb justifies\nme in saying but little of it, as I am unable to say as much as I\nshould wish. Greeks and Latins are unanimous in celebrating the\nsagacity and perfidy of the fox. The cynic Macchiavelli, in the\neighteenth chapter of the _Principe_, asserts that a good prince must\nimitate two animals, the fox and the lion, (must, that is to say, have\ndeceit and strength), but especially the fox; and this answers to the\nsentence attributed by Plutarch (in the _Memorable Sayings of the\nGreeks_) to Lysander, \"Where the lion's skin does not suffice, put on\nthat of the fox.\" Aristotle, in the ninth book of the _History of\nAnimals_, also considers the fox as the serpent's friend, probably\nbecause of the analogy existing between them in respect of\nperfidiousness, according to another Greek saying, viz., \"He who hopes\nto triumph, must arm himself with the strength of the lion and the\nprudence of the serpent.\" A proverbial Latin verse says--\n\n      \"Vulpes amat fraudem, lupus agnam, f\u00e6mina laudem.\"\n\nThere is scarcely an animal which is not deceived by the fox in Greek\nand Latin fable; the fox alone does not succeed in deceiving the fox.\nIn \u00c6sop, the fox who has lost his tail in a trap endeavours to\npersuade the other foxes of the uselessness of that appendage; but the\nlatter answer that he would not have given them such advice were he\nnot aware that a tail is a useful member. The fox deceives the ass,\ngiving it up as prey to the lion (as in the _Pancatantram_); it\ndeceives the hare by offering it as a prey to the dog, who, pursuing\nthe hare, loses both hare and fox;[215] it deceives the goat, by\ncozening it into the well that it may escape out of it, and then\nleaving it there to its fate; it cheats in several ways now the cock,\nnow the wolf; and it imposes upon even the powerful king of beasts,\nwhom, however, he sometimes cannot deceive. A graceful apologue of\nThomas Morus shows us the counterpart of the Hellenic fable of the fox\nand the sick lion, that is to say, the sick fox visited by the lion:--\n\n      \"Dum jacet angusta vulpes \u00e6grota caverna\n         Ante fores blando constitit ore leo.\n       Etquid, amica, vale. Cito, me lambente, valebis,\n         Nescis in lingua vis mihi quanta mea.\n       Lingua tibi medica est, vulpes ait, at nocet illud\n         Vicinos, quod habet, tam bona lingua, malos.\"\n\nBut when we come down to the Middle Ages, the fable of the fox\ndevelops into such manifoldness, that the study of all the phases in\nwhich it unfolds itself ought to be the subject of a special\nwork.[216] Suffice it to notice here that, to popularise in Flanders,\nand subsequently in France and Germany, the idea of the fox as the\ntype of every species of malice and imposture, it is the priest who,\nfor the most part, is the human impersonation of the masculine\nReinart. The _Procession du Renart_ is famous; it was a farce\nconceived in 1313 by Philippe le Bel, on account of his quarrel with\nPope Boniface VIII., and acted by the scholars of Paris. The principal\npersonage was a man disguised in the skin of a fox, and wearing over\nall a priest's surplice, whose chief industry it was to give chase to\nchickens. This form of satire, however, directed against the Church,\nis certainly much older than those times, and goes back to the epoch\nof the first differences between the Church and the Empire in the\neleventh century, at which time two medi\u00e6val Latin poems appeared,\n_Reinardus Vulpes_ and _Ysengrimus_; with the schism of England and\nthe Reformation of the sixteenth century, however, _Reinardus Vulpes_\ndecisively became a Romish fox. The finesse and perfection of the\nsatirical poem which S. Naylor, its English translator, calls \"the\nunholy bible of the world,\" also increased the fox's popularity, and\nmade it yet more proverbial. The principal subjects of the poem\nexisted previously, not only in oral, but also in literary tradition;\nthey were grouped together and put in order, and a more human, more\nmalicious nature was given to the fox, a nature more hypocritical even\nthan before, and more priestly, whence it now more than ever--\n\n      \"Urbibus et castris regnat et ecclesiis.\"\n\nMacchiavelli, St Ignazio di Loyola, and St Vincenzo de' Paoli took upon\nthemselves the charge of propagating its type over the whole world.\n\nThe wolf is better, when he is a wolf, for then we know at least what he\nwants; we know that he is our enemy, and are accordingly on our guard;\nbut he, too, sometimes disguises himself, by imposture or magic, as a\nsheep, a shepherd, a monk, or a penitent, like Ysengrin; and from this\npoint of view resembles not a little his perfidious god-mother the fox;\nit is well known that amongst the exploits of Reinart there is that of\nhis extra-matrimonial union with the she-wolf.\n\nIn the _Rigvedas_ we already find several interesting mythical data\nconcerning the wolf; he is in it entirely demoniacal, as the exhausted\nVrikas, to which, in a hymn, the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u give back its strength,[217]\nseems, as it appears to me, not to be the wolf, but the messenger crow\nwhich, during the night, must carry the solar hero.\n\nAs in the Zendic _Vendidad_,[218] the souls of good men, when on the\nway to heaven, are afraid of meeting the wolf, so in the _Rigvedas_,\nthe devotee says that once the reddish wolf (which seems to be\nconfounded here with the jackal or the fox) saw him coming on the way,\nand fled in terror;[219] he invokes the (luminous) night to send the\nwolf, the robber far away,[220] and the god P\u00fbshan (the sun) to remove\nthe evil wolf, the malignant spirit, from the path of the devotees,\nthe wolf that besieges the roads, thieving, fraudulent,\ndouble-dealing.[221] The poet, after having called the enemy Vrikas,\nprays, with imprecations, that he may lacerate his own body;[222] and\nthe wild beast, full of witchcraft,[223] which Indras kills, is\nprobably a wolf. But, besides this, I think I can find in the\n_Rigvedas_ the _lupus piscator_ of Russian and Western tradition;\n(according to \u00c6lianos there were wolves friendly to fishermen near the\nPalus Moeotis.) In the fifty-sixth hymn of the eighth book, Matsyas\n(the fish) invokes the \u00c2dityas (that is, the luminous gods) to free\nhim and his from the jaws of the wolf. So in another strophe of the\nsame hymn, we must in reason suppose that it is a fish that speaks\nwhen she who has a terrible son (_i.e._, the mother of the sun) is\ninvoked as protectress from him who in the shallow waters endeavours\nto kill him.[224] We also find a fish lying in shallow water\nexplicitly mentioned in another hymn;[225] which proves to us the\nimage of the fish without water, which was widely developed in later\nHindoo tradition, to have been in the Vedic age already a familiar\none. We find the dog as the enemy of the wolf in the Hindoo words\n_vrik\u00e2ris vrik\u00e2r\u00e2tis_, and _vrikadan\u00e7as_. (In the thirteenth story of\nthe fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the wolf wishes to eat the dog; the\nlatter, who feels himself too weak to resist, begs the wolf to bring\nhim something to eat, in order that he may become larger, and be more\ntender for the wolf's teeth; but when he is in good condition, he\nacquires strength and makes the wolf run. The enmity of the dog and\nthe wolf was also made popular in the \u00c6sopian fables.)\n\nIn the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[226] we already meet with the proverbial\nexpression of the sheep who do not increase when guarded by the wolf\nor jackal (rakshayam\u00e2n\u00e2 na vardhante mesh\u00e2 gom\u00e2yun\u00e2).\n\nIn the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, the second of the three sons of Kunt\u00ee, the\nstrong, terrible, and voracious Bh\u00eemas, is called Wolf's-belly\n(Vrikodaras, the solar hero enclosed in the nocturnal or winter\ndarkness). Here the wolf has a heroic and sympathetic form, as in the\n_Tuti-Name_[227] he, although famished, shows compassion upon a maiden\nwho travels to fulfil a promise; as in the same _Tuti-Name_[228] he\nhelps the lion against the mice, and in the story of Ardschi Bordschi,\nthe boy, son of a wolf, understands the language of wolves, and\nteaches it to the merchants with whom he lives; like the Russian\nshe-wolf that gives her milk to Ivan Karolievic, in order that he may\ntake it to the witch, his wife, who induced him to fetch it in the\nhope that he would thereby meet with his death;[229] and like the\nshe-wolf of the fifteenth Esthonian story, who comes up on hearing the\ncry of a child, and gives its milk to nourish it. The story tells us\nthat the shape of a wolf was assumed by the mother of the child\nherself, and that when she was alone, she placed her wolf-disguise\nupon a rock, and appeared as a naked woman to give milk to her child.\nThe husband, informed of this, orders that the rock be heated, so that\nwhen the wolf's skin is again placed upon it, it may be burnt, and he\nmay thus be able to recognise and take back to himself his wife. The\nshe-wolf that gives her milk to the twin-brothers, Romulus and Remus,\nin Latin epic tradition, was no less a woman than the nurse-wolf of\nthe Esthonian story.[230] The German hero Wolfdieterich, the wolves\nwho hunt for the hero in Russian stories, sacred to Mars and to Thor\nas their hunting dogs, have the same benignant nature. (The evening\naurora disguises herself in the night with a wolf's skin, nourishes as\na she-wolf the new-born solar hero, and in the morning puts down her\nwolf's skin upon the fiery rock of the East, and finds her husband\nagain.) What Solinus tells us of the Neuri, viz., that they\ntransformed themselves into wolves at stated periods; and what used to\nbe narrated of the Arcadians, to the effect that when they crossed a\ncertain marsh, they became wolves for eight years,--suggests us a new\nidea of the zoological transformations of the solar hero.[231] In La\nFontaine,[232] the shadow of the wolf makes the sheep flee in the\nevening. As a hero transformed, the wolf has a benignant aspect in\nlegends. According to Baronius, in the year 617, a number of wolves\npresented themselves at a monastery, and tore in pieces several\nfriars who entertained heretical opinions. The wolves sent by God tore\nthe sacrilegious thieves of the army of Francesco Maria, Duke of\nUrbino, who had come to sack the treasure of the holy house of Loreto.\nA wolf guarded and defended from the wild beasts the head of St Edmund\nthe Martyr, King of England. St Oddo, Abbot of Cluny, assailed in a\npilgrimage by foxes, was delivered and escorted by a wolf; thus a wolf\nshowed the way to the beatified Adam, in the same way as, in\n_Herodotos_, the wolves served as guides to the priests of Ceres. A\nwolf, having devoured two mares which drew a cart, was forced by St\nEustorgius to draw the cart in their stead, and obeyed his orders. St\nNorbert compelled a wolf, first to let a sheep go after having\nclutched it, and then to guard the sheep all day without touching\nthem. We read of the youth of the ancient Syracusan hero Hielon that,\nbeing at school, a wolf carried off his tablets in order to make him\npursue it; no sooner was Hielon out, than the wolf re-entered the\nschool, and massacred the master and the other scholars.\n\nAnd even after his death the wolf is useful. The ancients believed\nthat a wolf's hide, when put on by one who had been bitten by a mad\ndog, was a charm against hydrophobia. According to Pliny, wolf's teeth\nrubbed on the gums of children during teething relieves the pain\n(which is quite credible, but any other sharp tooth would serve the\nsame purpose, by making the teeth cut sooner). In Sicily it is\nbelieved that a wolf's head increases the courage of whoever puts it\non. In the province of Girgenti shoes are made of wolf's skin for\nchildren whom their parents wish to grow up strong, brave, and\npugnacious. The animals themselves that are ridden by persons who wear\nthese shoes are cured of their pain. The animal _allupatu_ (that is,\nwhich has once been bitten by a wolf) becomes invulnerable, and never\nfeels any other kind of pain. It is also believed in Sicily that when\na wolf's skin is exposed in the open air, it causes drums to break\nwhen they are beaten. This superstition reminds us of the fable of the\nfox that kills itself by breaking the drum or biting the string of a\nbow; the mythical drum (that is, the cloud) is destroyed when the\nwolf's skin is taken off. In \u00c6sop's fable, the wolf's skin is\nrecommended by the fox as a cure for the sick lion.\n\nBut the wolf of tradition usually has a perverse or diabolical\nsignification; and as the demon is represented now as a master of\nevery species of perfidy and wickedness, and now as a fool, so is the\nwolf. In the Hellenic myth, Lycaon, King of Arcadia, became a wolf\nbecause he had fed upon human flesh. According to Servius, the wolves\namong the people, called for this reason Hirpini (the Sabine word\n_hirpus_ meaning a wolf), carried off the entrails of the victim\nsacrificed to Pluto, and therefore brought down a pestilence upon the\nland. Wolves tore the hero Mil\u00f4n to pieces in the forest. Wolves are\nan omen of death; the loup garou of popular French tradition is a\ndiabolical form.[233] In the _Edda_, the two wolves Sk\u00f6ll and Hati\nwish to take, one the sun and the other the moon; the wolf devours the\nsun, father of the world, and gives birth to a daughter. He is then\nkilled by Vidarr. Hati precedes the luminous betrothed of the sky; the\nwolf Fenris, son of the demoniacal Lokis, chained by the Ases, bites\noff the hand that the hero Tyr, as an earnest of the good faith of the\nAses, had put into his mouth,[234] when chained to the western gate.\nNanna, of the _Pentamerone_, after having travelled over the world, is\ndisguised in the shape of a wolf, and changes in character and in\ncolour, becoming malicious; the three sons of the Finns go to inhabit\nthe Valley of the Wolf, near the Wolf's Lake, and find there three\nwomen spinning, who can transform themselves into swans. On Christmas\nEve, the King Helgi meets a witch who rides upon a wolf, having eagles\nfor bridles.[235] Wolves eat each other; the wolf Sinfi\u00f6lti becomes a\neunuch; the wolf who flees before the hero is an omen of victory, as\nwell as the wolf who howls under the branches of an ash-tree. (The\nhowling of the wolf, the braying of the ass, the hissing of the\nserpent, announce the death of the demoniacal monster; this howling\nmust necessarily take place in the morning, or the spring, when the\nhero has recovered his strength, as the _Edda_ says that \"a hero must\nnever fight towards sunset).\" If Gunnar (the solar hero) loses his\nlife, the wolf becomes the master of the treasure, and of the heritage\nof Nifl; the heroes roast the wolf. All these legendary particulars\nrelating to the wolf in the _Edda_ concur in showing us the wolf as a\ngloomy and diabolical monster. The night and the winter is the time of\nthe wolf spoken of in the _Voluspa_; the gods who enter, according to\nthe German tradition, into wolves' skins, represent the sun as hiding\nhimself in the night, or the snowy season of winter (whence the\ndemoniacal white wolf of a Russian story,[236] in the midst of seven\nblack wolves). Inasmuch as the solar hero becomes a wolf, he has a\ndivine nature; inasmuch, on the contrary, as the wolf is the proper\nform of the devil, his nature is entirely malignant. The condemned\nman, the proscribed criminal, the bandit, the _utlagatus_ or outlaw,\nwere said in the Middle Ages to wear a _caput lupinum_ (in England,\n_wulfesheofod_; in France, _teste loeue_). The wolf Ysengrin,\ndescended partly from the \u00c6sopian wolf, and partly from Scandinavian\nmyths, which were propagated in Germany, Flanders, and France,\npossesses much of the diabolical craftiness of the fox; he usually\nadopts against sheep the same stratagems which the fox makes use of to\nentrap chickens. The French proverb makes the fox preach to the fowls;\nthe Italian proverb makes the wolf sing psalms when he wishes to\nensnare the sheep. As we have seen the jackal and the fox confounded\nin the East, so Reinart and Ysengrin are sometimes identified by their\ncunning in Western tradition. A recent French writer, who had observed\nthe habits of the wolf, says that he is \"effrayant de sagacit\u00e9 et de\ncalcul.\"[237] In the second story of the second book of\n_Afanassieff_, the same wizard-wolf who knew how to imitate the goat's\nvoice to deceive the kids, goes to the house of an old man and an old\nwoman, who have five sheep, a horse, and a calf. The wolf comes and\nbegins to sing. The old woman admires the song, and gives him one\nsheep, then the others, then the horse, next the calf, and finally\nherself. The old man, left alone, at last succeeds in hunting the wolf\naway. In the preceding story, where the animals accuse each other, the\ndemoniacal wolf, when his turn comes, accuses God. We have already\nspoken of the wolf who, by the order of St Eustorgius, draws the cart\ninstead of the mares which he had eaten. In the twenty-fifth story of\nthe third book of _Afanassieff_, the wolf comes up to the sleeping\nworkman, and smells him; the workman awakes, takes the wolf by the\ntail,[238] and kills him. Another time the same workman, when he goes\nwith his father to the chase, after having enriched himself with money\nwhich he had taken from three brigands who had hidden it in a deserted\nmill, meets again with two wolves who eat the horses, but, entangling\nthemselves in the reins, they are compelled to draw the car home again\nthemselves; here, therefore, we have the miracle of St Eustorgius\nreduced to its natural mythical proportions. Here, evidently, the wolf\nbegins to show himself as a stupid animal; the demon teaches his art\nto the little solar hero in the evening, and is betrayed by the hero\nhimself in the morning; the fox cheats the solar cock in the evening,\nand is deceived by it in the morning; the wolf succeeds by his\nwickedness in the evening, and is ruined in the morning. We have\nalready mentioned the Norwegian story of the little Schmierbock, who,\nput into a sack by the witch, twice makes a hole in the sack and\nescapes, and the third time makes the witch eat her own daughter.\nSchmierbock is the ram; the witch or night puts him into the sack. In\nthe Piedmontese story,[239] and in the Russian one, instead of\nSchmierbock, we have Piccolino (the very little one), and the Small\nLittle Finger (malcik-s palcik, that is, the little finger, which is\nthe wise one, according to popular superstition). The Russian story is\nas follows: An old woman, while baking a cake (the moon), cuts off her\nlittle finger and throws it into the fire. From the little finger in\nthe fire, a dwarf, but very strong son, is born, who afterwards does\nmany wonderful things. One day he was eating the tripe of an ox in the\nforest; the wolf passes by, and eats dwarf and tripe together. After\nthis, the wolf approaches a flock of sheep, but the dwarf cries out\nfrom within the wolf, \"Shepherd, shepherd, thou sleepest and the wolf\ncarries off a sheep.\" The shepherd then chases the wolf away, who\nendeavours to get rid of his troublesome guest; the dwarf requests the\nwolf to carry him home to his parents; no sooner have they arrived\nthere than the dwarf comes out behind and catches hold of the wolf's\ntail, shouting, \"Kill the wolf, kill the grey one.\" The old people\ncome out and kill it.[240] The mythical wolf dies now after only one\nnight, now after only one winter of life. To the mythical wolf,\nhowever, bastard sons were born, who, changing only their skin,\nsucceeded in living for a long period among mortals in the midst of\ncivil society, preserving, nevertheless, their wolf-like habits. The\nFrench proverb says, \"Le loup alla \u00e0 Rome; il y laissa de son poil et\nrien de ses coutumes.\" The pagan she-wolf gave milk to the Roman\nheroes; the Catholic wolf, thunderstruck by Dante,[241] on the\ncontrary, feeds upon them--\n\n      \"Ed ha natura s\u00ec malvagia e ria,\n         Che mai non empie la bramosa voglia,\n         E dopo il pasto ha pi\u00f9 fame che pria.\n       Molti son gli animali a cui s'ammoglia.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[194] Cfr. _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen_,\nBerlin, D\u00fcmmler, 1855.\n\n[195] In a German tradition referred to by Schmidt, _Forschungen_, s.\n105, we have the deity who presents himself as a fox to the hunter\nvoluntarily to be sacrificed; the hunter flays him, and the flies and\nants eat his flesh. In a Russian story of which I shall give an\nabridgment, the wolf eats the fox when he sees it without its hairy\ncovering.\n\n[196] i. 5566, _et seq._\n\n[197] i. 16, iv. 2; cfr. also iv. 10, and the chapter on the Hare.--In\nthe story, iii. 14, of the _Pancatantram_, the jackal cheats the lion\nwho has occupied his cave, by making him roar; and thus assuring\nhimself that the lion is in the cave, he is able to escape.\n\n[198] iii. 29.\n\n[199] Cfr. _Pancatantram_, i. 10; _Tuti-Name_, ii. 146.\n\n[200] i. 2, ii. 3.--In the nineteenth Mongol story, the young man who\npasses himself off as a hero is ordered to bring to the queen the skin\nof a certain fox which is indicated to him; on the way the youth loses\nhis bow; returning to look for it, he finds the fox dead close to the\nbow, which it had tried to bite, and which had struck and killed it.\n\n[201] iv. 4.\n\n[202] i. 134, 135.\n\n[203] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 125.--In the stories of the same night (the\ntwenty-second) of the _Tuti-Name_, we have the lynx (lupus cervarius)\nwho wishes to take the house of the monkey who occupies the lion's\nhouse, and the jackal who runs after the camel's testicles, as in the\n_Pancatantram_ he runs after those of the bull. In the story, ii. 7,\nthe fox lets his bone fall into the water in order to catch a fish (a\nvariety of the well-known fable of the dog and of the wolf or devil as\nfisherman).\n\n[204] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 142, 143.\n\n[205] i. 168, _et seq._\n\n[206] _Querolus_, i. 2.\n\n[207] In the eighteenth story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, an\nextraordinary cake escapes from the house of an old man and woman, and\nwanders about; it finds the hare, the wolf, and the bear, who all wish\nto eat it; it sings its story to them all, and is allowed to go; it\nsings it to the fox, too, but the latter praises the song, and eats\nthe cake, after having made it get upon his back.\n\n[208] In _Afanassieff_, i. 14, the hero, Theodore, finds some wolves\nfighting among themselves for a bone, some bees fighting for the\nhoney, and some shrimps fighting for caviare; he makes a just\ndivision, and the grateful wolves, bees, and shrimps help him in need.\n\n[209] Cfr. _Lou loup penjat_ in the _Contes de l'Armagnac_, collected\nby Blad\u00e9, Paris, 1867, p. 9.\n\n[210] Cfr. the English expression applied to the moon, \"made of green\ncheese;\" this is the connection between green and yellow previously\nmentioned.\n\n[211] _Afanassieff_, iv. 10.\n\n[212] It is here, perhaps, to be remarked that in the Piedmontese\ndialect lightning is called _loszna_.\n\n[213] _Afanassieff_, iv. 11. In the fourth story of the second book of\nthe _Pentamerone_, instead of a fox, it is the cat that enriches Pippo\nGagliufo and runs before him. In the same way as in the Russian stories\nthe man shows himself ungrateful towards the fox, so in the\n_Pentamerone_ the cat ends by cursing the ungrateful Pippo Gagliufo whom\nshe had done good to. In the following story the fox offers herself as\ncompanion to the young bride who is looking for her lost husband.\n\n[214]\n\n      \"Pietush\u00f3k, pietush\u00f3k,\n       Zalat\u00f3i grebesh\u00f3k,\n       M\u00e1sliannaja galovka,\n       Smiatanij lob\u00f3k!\n       Vighliani v oshko;\n       Dam tebie kashki,\n       Na krasnoi loszkie.\"\n\nIn an unpublished Tuscan story which I heard related at Antignano near\nLeghorn, a chicken wishes to go with its father (the cock) into the\nMaremma to search for food. Its father advises it not to do so for\nfear of the fox, but the chicken insists upon going; on the way it\nmeets the fox, who is about to eat it, when the chicken beseeches him\nto let it go into the Maremma, where it will fatten, lay eggs, bring\nup young chickens, and be able to provide the fox with a much more\nsubstantial meal than it now could. The fox consents. The chicken\nbrings up a hundred young ones; when they are grown up, they set out\nto return home; every fowl carries in its mouth an ear of millet,\nexcept the youngest. On the way they meet the fox waiting for them; on\nseeing all these animals each with a straw in its beak, the astonished\nfox asks the mother-hen what it is they carry. \"All fox's tails,\" she\nanswers, upon which the fox takes to its heels.--We find the fox's\ntail in connection with ears of corn in the legend of Samson; the\nincendiary fox is also found in Ovid's _Fasti_, iv. 705; (from the\nmalice with which the story-teller (a woman) relates the fable, it is\nprobable that the fox's tail has here also a phallic meaning).--In\n_Sextus Empiricus_ we read that a fox's tail hung on the arm of a weak\nhusband is of great use to him.\n\n[215] Thus, in the myth of Kephalos, his dog cannot, by a decree of\nfate, overtake the fox; but inasmuch as, on the other hand, no one\nalso, by decree of fate, can escape from the dog of Kephalos, dog and\nfox are both, by the command of Zeus, changed into stone (the two\nauroras, or dying sun and dying moon).\n\n[216] This work has, on the other hand, been already almost\naccomplished, as regards the Franco-Germanic part, in the erudite and\ninteresting introduction (pp. 5-163) which Ch. Potvin has prefixed to\nhis translation into verse of the _Roman du Renard_, Paris, Bohn\u00e9;\nBruxelles, Lacroix, 1861. I am told that Professor Schiefner read a\ndiscourse two years since at St Petersburg upon the story of the fox,\nbut I do not know whether it has been published.\n\n[217] Vrik\u00e2ya cig gasam\u00e2n\u00e2ya \u00e7aktam; _Rigv._ vii. 68, 8.--The grateful\nwolf and crow are found united to assist Ivan Tzarevic in the\ntwenty-fourth story of the second book of _Afanassieff_.\n\n[218] xix. 108, 109.\n\n[219] Aruno m\u00e2 sakrid vrikah path\u00e2 yantam dadar\u00e7a hi ug gih\u00eete\nnic\u00e2yya; _Rigv._ i. 105, 18.\n\n[220] Y\u00e2vay\u00e2 vrikyam vrikam yavaya stenam \u00fbrmya; _Rigv._ x. 127, 6.--A\nwolf seen in a dream, according to Cardano, announces a robber.\n\n[221] Yo nah p\u00fbshann agho vriko duh\u00e7eva \u00e2dide\u00e7ati apa sma tvam patho\ngahi--Paripanthinam mash\u00eev\u00e2nam hura\u00e7citam--Dvay\u00e2vinah; _Rigv._ i. 42,\n2-4.\n\n[222] Svayam ripus tanvam r\u00eerish\u00eeshta; _Rigv._ vi. 51, 6, 7.\n\n[223] M\u00e2yinam mrigam; _Rigv._ i. 80, 7.\n\n[224] Te na \u00e2sno vrik\u00e2n\u00e2m \u00e2dity\u00e2so mumocata; _Rigv._ viii. 56,\n14.--Parshi d\u00eene gabh\u00eera \u00e2n ugraputre gigh\u00e2nsatah; _Rigv._ viii. 56, 11.\n\n[225] Matsyam na d\u00eena udani kshiyantam; _Rigv._ x. 68, 8.\n\n[226] iii. 45.--In the twenty-second night of the _Tuti-Name_, the\nwolf enters, on the contrary, into the house of the jackal; here wolf\nand jackal are already distinguished in it from one another,--that is,\nas red wolf and black wolf.\n\n[227] i. 253.\n\n[228] i. 271.\n\n[229] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, vi. 51, v. 27, and v. 28.\n\n[230] It is also said that the nurse of the Latin twins was a\nstrumpet, because _lup\u00e6_ or _lupan\u00e6 foemin\u00e6_ were names given to such\nwomen, whence also the name of _lupanaria_ given to the houses to\nwhich they resorted: \"Abscondunt spurcas h\u00e6c monumenta lupas.\" Olaus\nMagnus wrote, that wolves, attracted by smell, attack pregnant women,\nwhence the custom that no pregnant woman should go out unless\naccompanied by an armed man. The ancients believed that the phallos of\nthe wolf roasted and eaten weakened the Venus.\n\n[231] In the _Legendes et Croyances Superstitieuses de la Creuse_,\ncollected by Bonnafoux, Gu\u00e9ret, 1867, p. 27, we read concerning the loup\ngarou, that the wolf thanks whoever wounds him. It is said that they who\nare disguised in the skin of the loup garou are condemned souls: \"Chaque\nnuit, ils sont forc\u00e9s d'aller chercher la maudite peau \u00e0 un endroit\nconvenu et ils courent ainsi jusqu'\u00e0 ce qu'ils rencontrent une \u00e2me\ncharitable et courageuse qui les d\u00e9livre en les blessant.\"\n\n[232]\n\n      \"... devant qu'il f\u00fbt nuit\n       Il arriva nouvel encombre;\n       Un loup parut, tout le troupeau s'enfuit\n       Ce n'\u00e9tait pas un loup, ce n'en \u00e9tait que l'ombre.\"\n\nThe sheep were right, however, to flee. In the _Edda_, the fourth\nswallow says, \"When I see the wolf's ears, I think that the wolf is\nnot far off.\" The twilight is the shadow or ear of the wolf.\n\n[233] Lous loups-garous soun gens coumo nous autes; m\u00e8s an heyt un\ncountrat dab lou diable, e cado s\u00e9 soun four\u00e7atz de se cambia en\nbestios per ana au sabbat e courre touto la neyt. Y a per aco un\nmouy\u00e9n de lous goari. Lous can tira sang pendent qu' an perdut la\nforme de l'home, e asta leu la reprengon per toutjour; Blad\u00e9, _Contes\net Proverbes Populaires recueillis en Armagnac_, Paris, 1867, p. 51.\n\n[234] We ought perhaps to add here the tradition cited by C\u00e6sarius\nHeisterbacensis of a wolf who, biting the arm of a girl, drags her to\na place where there is another wolf; the more she cries the more\nfiercely the wolf bites her. The other wolf has a bone in his throat,\nwhich the girl extracts; here the girl takes the place of the crane or\nstork of the fable; the bone may be now the moon, now the sun.\n\n[235] In another passage in the _Edda_, the eagle sits upon the wolf.\nAccording to the Latin legend of the foundation of Lavinium, the Trojans\nsaw a singular prodigy. A fire arises in the woods; the wolf brings dry\ntwigs in his mouth to make it burn better, and the eagle helps him by\nfanning the flames with his wings. The fox, on the other hand, dips its\nbrush in the river to put out the fire with it, but does not succeed.\n\n[236] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, iii. 19.\n\n[237] Les loups, qui ont tr\u00e8s peu d'amis en France, et qui sont\noblig\u00e9s d'apporter dans toutes leurs d\u00e9marches une excessive prudence,\nchassent presque toujours \u00e0 la muette. J'ai \u00e9t\u00e9 plusieurs fois en\nposition d'admirer la profondeur de leurs combinaisons strat\u00e9giques;\nc'est effrayant de sagacit\u00e9 et de calcul; Toussenel, _L'Esprit des\nB\u00eates_, ch. i.--And Aldrovandi, _De Quadrup. Dig. Viv._ ii. \"Lupi\nomnem vim ingenii naturalem in ovibus insidiando exercent; noctu enim\novili appropinquantes, pedes lambunt, ne strepitum in gradiendo edant,\net foliis obstrepentibus pedes quasi reos mordent.\"\n\n[238] In Piedmont it is also said in jest, that a man once met a wolf\nand thrust his hand down its throat, so far down that it reached its\ntail on the other side; he then pulled the tail inside the wolf's body\nand out through its throat, so that the wolf, turned inside out,\nexpired.\n\n[239] In an unpublished, though very popular Piedmontese story,\nPiccolino is upon a tree eating figs; the wolf passes by and asks him\nfor some, threatening him thus: \"Piculin, dame \u00fcn fig, dass no, i t\nmangiu.\" Piccolino throws him down two, which are crushed upon the\nwolf's nose. Then the wolf threatens to eat him if he does not bring\nhim a fig down; Piccolino comes down, and the wolf puts him in a sack\nand carries him towards his house, where the mother-wolf is waiting\nfor him. But on the way the wolf is pressed by a corporeal necessity,\nand is obliged to go on the roadside; meanwhile, Piccolino makes a\nhole in the sack, comes out and puts a stone in his place. The wolf\nreturns, shoulders the sack, but thinks that Piccolino has become much\nheavier. He goes home and tells the she-wolf to be glad, and prepare\nthe cauldron full of hot water; he then empties the sack into the\ncauldron; the stone makes the boiling water spurt out upon the wolf's\nhead, and he is scalded to death.\n\n[240] Cfr. the well-known English fairy-tales of _Tom Thumb_ and\n_Hop-o'-my-Thumb_.\n\n[241] _Inferno_, c. i.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nTHE LION, THE TIGER, THE LEOPARD, THE PANTHER, AND THE CHAMELEON.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Lion and tiger symbols of royal majesty.--Tvashtar as a lion.--The\n    hair of Tvashtar in the fire.--Winds that roar like lions.--The\n    lion-seducer.--The lion and the honey; the lion and\n    riches.--Nobility of the lion.--The lion's part.--The monster\n    lioness.--The old and sick lion; the lion with a thorn in its\n    foot.--Monster and demoniacal lions.--The lion is afraid of the\n    cock.--Sterility of the lion.--The story of Atalanta.--The sun in\n    the sign Leo.--The virgin and the lion.--\u00c7ivas, Dionysos, and the\n    tiger.--A hair from the tiger's tail; the Mantikora.--The\n    chameleon; the god chameleon.\n\nThe tiger and the lion have in India the same dignity, and are both\nsupreme symbols of royal strength and majesty.[242] The tiger of men\nand the lion of men are two expressions equivalent to prince, as the\nprince is supposed to be the best man. It is strength that gives\nvictory and superiority in natural relations; therefore the tiger and\nthe lion, called kings of beasts, represent the king in the civic\nsocial relations among men. The narasinhas of India was called, in the\nMiddle Ages, the king _par excellence_; thus in Greece the king was\nalso called le\u00f4n.\n\nThe myth of the lion and the tiger is essentially an Asiatic one;\nnotwithstanding this, a great part of it was developed in Greece, where\nlion and tiger were at one time not unknown, and must have, as in India,\ninspired something like that religious terror caused by oriental kings.\n\nWe have already mentioned the Vedic monster lion of the West, in which\nwe recognise the expiring sun. The strong Indras, killer of the\nmonster, Vritras, is also represented as a lion. In the same way as\nthe Jewish Samson is found in connection with the lion, and this lion\nwith honey, and as the strength of the lion and that of Samson is said\nto be centred in the hair (the sun, when he loses his rays or mane,\nloses all his strength), so in the parallel myth of Indras we find\nanalogous circumstances. Tvashtar, the Hindoo celestial blacksmith,\nwho makes weapons now for the gods and now for the demons (the reddish\nsky of morning and of evening is likened to a burning forge; the solar\nhero or the sun in this forge, is a blacksmith), is also represented\nin a Vedic hymn[243] as a lion, turned towards which, towards the\nwest, heaven and earth rejoice, although (on account of the din made\nby him when coming into the world) they are, before all, terrified.\nThe form of a lion is one of the favourite shapes created by the\nmythical and legendary blacksmith.\n\nIn the _M\u00e2rkandeya-P._,[244] this same Tvashtar (which the _Rigvedas_\nrepresents as a lion), wishing to avenge himself upon the god Indras,\nwho had (perhaps at morn) killed one of his sons, creates another,\nson, Vritras (the coverer), by tearing a lock of hair off his head and\nthrowing it into the fire (the sun burns every evening in the western\nforge, his rays or mane, and the gloomy monster of night is born).\nIndras makes a truce with Vritras (in Russian stories, heroes and\nmonsters nearly always challenge each other to say before fighting\nwhether they will have peace or war), and subsequently violates the\ntreaty; for this perfidy he loses his strength, which passes into\nM\u00e2rutas, the son of the wind (the Hanumant of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_. In a\nVedic hymn, the voice of the M\u00e2rutas is compared to the roar of\nlions),[245] and into the three brothers P\u00e2ndavas, sons of Kunti (the\npassage of the legend from the Vedas to the two principal Hindoo epic\npoems is thus indicated). Thus, in the same _M\u00e2rkandeya-P._, Indras,\nhaving violated Ahaly\u00e2, the wife of G\u00e2utamas, loses his beauty (in\nother Puranic legends he becomes a eunuch or has a thousand wombs.\nIndras is powerful as the sun; he is powerful, too, in the cloud, by\nmeans of the thunderbolt; but when he hides himself in the serene and\nstarry sky, he is powerless), which passes to the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, who\nafterwards renew themselves in the two P\u00e2ndav\u00e2u sons of M\u00e2dr\u00ee, as the\nsons of the demons were personified in the sons of Dhritar\u00e2shtras.\n\nTvashtar, the creator, now of divine, now of monstrous forms, Tvashtar\nthe lion, must necessarily create leonine forms. In a Tuscan story,\nthe blacksmith makes a lion by means of which Argentofo penetrates by\nnight into the room of a young princess, with whom he unites himself.\nIn the third story of the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, the three\nprince brothers, when the fairy's curse is over, return home with\ntheir brides, drawn by six lions. This lion-seducer reminds us of\nIndras, who was also a lion and a seducer of women. A hymn tells us\nthat Indras fights like a terrible lion;[246] in another hymn, the\nsame lion is considered, as in the legend of Samson, in connection\nwith honey.[247] In the twenty-second night of the _Tuti-Name_, the\nlion presents himself in connection with riches; flattered by a man\nwho calls him a king, he lets him collect the riches scattered on the\nground by a caravan which the lion had destroyed.[248] His royal\nnature is also shown in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[249] in which King Da\u00e7arathas\nsays that his son R\u00e2mas, the lion of men, after his exile, will\ndisdain to occupy the kingdom previously enjoyed by Bharatas, in the\nsame way as the lion disdains to feed upon flesh which has been licked\nby other animals. It is perhaps for this reason that, in the fable,\nthe lion's part means all the prey. The proud one becomes the violent\none, the tyrant, and hence the monster. In the _\u00c2itareya Br._,[250]\nthe earth, full of gifts made by the right hand--that is, by the\neastern part--presented by the \u00c2dity\u00e2s (or luminous gods) to the\nA\u00f1girasas (the seven solar rays, the seven wise men, and hence the\npriests), attacks, in the evening, the nations with its mouth wide\nopen, having become a lioness (sinh\u00eebh\u00fbtv\u00e2). In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[251]\nthe car that carries the monster Indragit is impetuously drawn by four\nlions. In the _Tuti-Name_,[252] we have the fable of the lion, instead\nof the wolf, that accuses the lamb, and the lion who is afraid of the\nass, of the bull (as in the introduction to the _Pancatantram_), and\nof the lynx. The Western lion-sun is now monstrous, now aged, now ill,\nnow has a thorn in his foot,[253] is now blind, and now foolish. The\nmonstrous lion who guards the monster's dwelling, the infernal abode,\nis found in a great number of popular stories. In Hellenic tradition\nthe monstrous lion occurs more than once; such is the lion that\nravages the country of the King of Megara, who promises his daughter\nto wife to the hero that will kill it; such is the lioness who, with\nher bloody jaws (the purple in the dog's mouth and the meat in the\ndog's mouth of the myths are of equivalent import) makes Thysbe's veil\nbloody, so that when Pyramos sees it he believes Thysbe to be dead,\nand kills himself; when Thysbe sees this, she too kills herself in\ndespair (an ancient form of the death of Romeo and Juliet); such is\nthe Nem\u00e6an lion strangled by H\u00earakl\u00eas; such the lion of Mount Olympos\nwhich the young Polydamos kills without weapons; such were the leonine\nmonsters with human faces which, according to Solinus, inhabited the\nCaspian; such was the Chim\u00e6ra, part lion, part goat, and part dragon,\nand several other mythical figures of the passage of the evening sun\ninto the gloom of night.\n\nAnd it is under the conception of the lion as monstrous that the\nancients were unanimous in believing that he fears above all animals the\ncock, and especially its fiery comb. The solar cock of morning entirely\ndestroys the monsters. In a fable of Achilles Statius, the lion\ncomplains that Prometheus had allowed a cock to frighten him, but soon\nafter consoles himself, upon learning that the elephant is tormented by\nthe little mosquito that buzzes in its ears. Lucretius, too, in the\nfourth book _De Rerum Natur\u00e2_ represents the cock as throwing seeds:--\n\n      \"Nimirum quia sunt Gallorum in corpore qu\u00e6dam\n       Semina, qu\u00e6 cum sint oculis immissa Leonum\n       Pupillas interfodiunt acremque dolorem[254]\n       Pr\u00e6bent, ut nequeant contra durare feroces.\"\n\nSometimes the hero or god passes into the form of a lion to vanquish the\nmonsters, like Dionysos, Apollon, H\u00earakl\u00eas, in Greece, and Indras and\nVishnus in India. In the legend of St Marcellus, a lion having appeared\nto the saint in a vision as killing a serpent, this appearance was\nconsidered as a presage of good fortune to the enterprise of the Emperor\nLeo in Africa. Sometimes, on the other hand, hero and heroine become\nlion and lioness by the vengeance of deities or monsters. Atalanta\ndefies the pretenders to her hand to outstrip her in running, and kills\nthose who lose. Hippomenes, by the favour of the goddess of love, having\nreceived three apples from the garden of the Hesperides, provokes\nAtalanta to the race; on the way, he throws the apples down; Atalanta\ncannot resist the impulse to gather them up, and Hippomenes overtakes\nher, and unites himself with her in the wood sacred to the mother of the\ngods; the offended goddess transforms the young couple into a lion and a\nlioness. In the _Gesta Romanorum_, a girl, daughter of the Emperor\nVespasian, kills the claimant of her hand in a garden, in the form of a\nferocious lion. Empedokles, however, considered the transformation into\na lion as the best of all human metamorphoses. When the sun enters into\nthe sign of the lion, he arrives at his greatest height of power; and\nthe golden crown which the Florentines placed upon their lion in the\npublic square, on the day of St John, was a symbol of the approach of\nthe season which they call by one word alone, _sollione_. This lion is\nenraged, and makes, as it is said, plants and animals rage. The pagan\nlegend says of Prometheus--\n\n                         \"Insani leonis\n      Vim stomacho apposuisse nostro.\"[255]\n\nBut the mythical lion, the sun, does not inspire the man with rage\nalone, but strength also.[256]\n\nThe tiger, the panther, and the leopard possess several of the\nmythical characteristics of the lion as a hidden sun, with which they\nare, moreover, sometimes confounded in their character of omniform\nanimals. The leopard was sacred to the god Pan, whose nature we\nalready know, and the panther to Protheus and Dionysos, because it is\nsaid to have a liking for wine (we have seen the Vedic lion Indras in\nconnection with honey, and Indras himself in connection with the\nsomas), and because the nurses of Dionysos were transformed into\npanthers. Dionysos appears now surrounded by panthers, by means of\nwhich he terrifies pirates and puts them to flight, and now drawn by\ntigers. Dionysos is at the same time a phallical and an ambrosial god,\nand hence the god of wine; thus in India, \u00c7ivas, the phallical god,\n_par excellence_, and who is omniform like Tvashtar and Yamas, his\nalmost equivalent forms, has the tiger for his ensign, and is covered\nwith a tiger's skin. It is a singular fact that in Hindoo tradition a\nmurderous strength is attributed to the tiger's tail. A Hindoo proverb\nsays that a hair of the tiger's tail may be the cause of losing one's\nlife,[257] which naturally suggests to our minds the tiger\nMantikora,[258] which has in its tail hairs which are darts thrown by\nit to defend itself, and are spoken of by Ktesias, in _Pausanias_.\n\nFinally, having considered the tiger, the panther, and the leopard,\nvariegated and omniform animals, and compared them with the lion,\nwhose combat with the serpent we have also mentioned, it is natural to\nadd a few more words concerning the chameleon, of whose enmity to the\nserpent and medicinal virtues Greek and Latin authors have written at\nsuch length. The _krikal\u00e2\u00e7as_ or _krikal\u00e2sas_, or chameleon, is\nalready spoken of in a Vedic _Br\u00e2hmanam_. In the fifty-fifth canto of\nthe last book of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, we read that King Nrigas was\ncondemned to remain invisible to all creatures in the form of a\nchameleon during many hundreds and thousands of years, until the god\nVishnus, humanised in the form of Vasudevas, will come to release him\nfrom this curse, incurred for having delayed to judge a controversy\npending between two Br\u00e2hmans concerning the ownership of a cow and a\ncalf. In the stories of grateful animals, as is well-known, the hero\noften earns their gratitude by intervening to divide their prey into\njust portions, while they are disputing over it themselves. From the\nlast book of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, we learn also that the form of the\nchameleon is that assumed by Kuveras, the god of riches, when the gods\nflee terrified from the sight of the monster R\u00e2vanas. As Yamas and\n\u00c7ivas are almost equivalent forms, so between Yamas and Kuveras there\nis the same relation as between Pluto and Plutus. To the tiger \u00c7ivas\ncorresponds the chameleon Kuveras; and the chameleon god of wealth,\nenemy of the serpent, is closely connected in mythology with the lion\nIndras, with the lion that kills the monster serpent, and with the\nlion that covets the treasure.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[242] H\u00earakl\u00eas, Hektor, Achilles, among the Greek heroes;\nWolfdieterich, and several other heroes of Germanic tradition, have\nthese animals for their ensigns; the lion is the steed of the hero\nHildebrand. Cfr. _Die Deutsche Heldensage_ von Wilhelm Grimm, Berlin,\nD\u00fcmmler, 1867.--When Agarista and Philip dreamed of a lion, it was\nconsidered an augury, the one of the birth of Pericles, and the other\nof that of Alexander the Great.\n\n[243] Ubhe tvashtur bibhyatur g\u00e2yam\u00e2n\u00e2t prat\u00eec\u00ee sinham prati\ngoshayete; _Rigv._ i. 95, 5.\n\n[244] v.\n\n[245] Te sv\u00e2nino rudriy\u00e2 varshanirnigah sinh\u00e2 na heshakratavah\nsud\u00e2navah; _Rigv._ iii. 26, 5.--In the Bohemian story of grandfather\n_Vsievedas_, the young hero is sent by the prince who wishes to ruin\nhim to take the three golden hairs of this grandfather (the sun).\n\n[246] Sinho na bh\u00eema \u00e2yudh\u00e2ni bibhrat; _Rigv._ iv. 16, 14. Cfr. i.\n174, 3.\n\n[247] Sinham nasanta madhvo ay\u00e2sam harim aru ham divo asya patim;\n_Rigv._ ix. 89, 3.\n\n[248] In the Greek apologue, Ptolemy, king of Egypt, wishes to send\nsome money to Alexander in homage to him; the mule, the horse, the\nass, and the camel offer themselves of their own accord to carry the\nsacks. On the way, they meet the lion, who wishes to join the party,\nsaying that he too carries money; but not being accustomed to such\nwork, he modestly begs the other four to divide his load among\nthemselves. They consent; soon afterwards, passing through a country\nrich in herds, the lion feels inclined to stay, and demands his\nportion of the money, but as his money resembles that of the others,\nnot to mistake, he takes by force both his own and theirs.\n\n[249] ii. 62.\n\n[250] vi. 5, 35.\n\n[251] v. 43.\n\n[252] i. 229.\n\n[253] The anecdote of Androkles and the lion grateful for having a\nthorn extracted from his foot, is also related in almost the same\nwords of Mentor the Syracusan, Helpis of Samos, the Abbot Gerasimos,\nSt Jerome and (as to the blinded lion whose sight is given back to\nhim) of Macharios, the confessor. The thorn in the lion's foot is a\nzoological form of the hero who is vulnerable in his feet. In the\nsixth of the Sicilian stories published by Signora Gonzenbach, the boy\nGiuseppe takes a thorn out of a lion's foot; the grateful lion gives\nhim one of his hairs; by means of this hair, the young man can, in\ncase of necessity, become a terrible lion, and as such, he bites off\nthe head of the king of the dragons.\n\n[254] Thus, the ancients attributed to the lion a particular antipathy\nto strong smells, such as garlic, and the pudenda of a woman. But this\nsuperstition must be classed with that which ascribes sterility to the\nlioness. The women of antiquity, when they met a lioness, considered\nit as an omen of sterility. In the \u00c6sopian fable, the foxes boast of\ntheir fruitfulness before the lioness, whom they laugh at because she\ngives birth to only one cub. \"Yes,\" she answers, \"but it is a lion;\"\nunder the sign of the lion, the earth also becomes arid, and\nconsequently unfruitful.\n\n[255] Horace, _Carm._ i. 16.\n\n[256] Sculpebant Ethnici auro vel argento leonis imaginem, et ferentes\nhujusmodi simulacra generosiores et audaciores evadere dicebantur;\nidcirco non est mirum si Aristoteles (in lib. de Secr. Secr.)\nscripserit annulum ex auro vel argento, in quo coelata sit icon puell\u00e6\nequitantis leonem die et hora solis vagantis in domicilio leonis\ngestantes, ab omnibus honorari; Aldrovandi, _De Quadrup. Dig. Viv._\ni.--In the signs of the Zodiac, Virgo comes after upon Leo; Christians\nalso celebrate the assumption of the Virgin into heaven towards the\nmiddle of August, when the sun passes from the sign of the lion into\nthat of the virgin.\n\n[257] Cfr. B\u00f6htlingk, _Indische Spr\u00fcche_, 2te Auflage, i. 1.\n\n[258] Ktesias explains this word as \"devourer of men,\" but by means of\nSanskrit it can only be explained by substituting to the initial _m_\none of the words that signify man, such as _nara_, _gana_, _manava_,\n_m\u00e2nusha_, &c. _Antikora_ would seem to be derived from the Sanskrit\n_antakara_ = destroyer, who puts an end to, killer.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nTHE SPIDER.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Tuscan superstition relating to the spider; the red sky of\n    evening.--The night, the moon, and the aurora as\n    weavers.--Arachn\u00ea.--\u00c2urnavabhas.--Dhat\u00e2 and Vidhat\u00e2.--Golden\n    cloths.--The spider and his prey.--The golden veil.--The lake of\n    fire and the witch burnt.--The eagle and the spider.--The sack\n    made of a spider's web.\n\nThere is in Tuscany a very interesting superstition relating to the\nspider: it is believed that if a spider be seen in the evening it must\nnot be burnt, as it is destined to bring good fortune; but when seen in\nthe morning, it must be burnt without being touched. The evening and\nmorning aurora are compared to the spider and the spider's web; the\nevening aurora must prepare the morning aurora during the night. We have\nquoted on a previous occasion the Piedmontese proverb, \"Rosso di sera,\nbuon tempo si spera\" (red at night, we hope for fine weather). If the\nsun dies in the west without clouds, if the luminous spider shows itself\nin the western sky, it augurs for the morrow a fine morning and a fine\nday. In the _Rigvedas_ we have on this subject several interesting data;\nthe aurora weaved during the night (and is therefore called\nvayant\u00ee;[259] sometimes she is helped by R\u00e2k\u00e2, the full moon[260]) the\nrobe for her husband. But, in another hymn, she is entreated to shine\nsoon, and not to stretch out or weave her work too long, in order that\nthe sun with his rays may not fall upon it and burn it like a\nthief.[261] In the legend of Odysseus, Penelop\u00ea undoes in the night the\nwork of the day; this is another aspect of the same myth: Penelop\u00ea, as\naurora, undoes her web at even, to weave it again at morn. The myth of\nArachn\u00ea (the name of the spider, and of the celebrated Lydian virgin\nwhom Athen\u00ea, the aurora, according to Professor Max M\u00fcller, taught to\nspin, and whose father was Idmon, a colourer in purple), whom Athen\u00ea,\njealous of the skill she had acquired in weaving in purple colours,\nstrikes on the forehead and transforms into a spider, is a variety of\nthe same myth of the weaving aurora. When the spider becomes dark, and\nwhen its web is gloomy, then the spider, or son of the spider, or\n\u00c2urnavabhas, assumes a monstrous form. \u00c2urnavabhas (\u00fbrnav\u00e2bhis,\n\u00fbrnan\u00e2bhis, \u00fbrnanabhas, as spider, are already spoken of in the Vedic\nwritings) is the name of the gloomy monster Vritras, killed by the god\nIndras, the terrible monster which Indras, immediately after his birth,\nis obliged to kill[262] at the instigation of his mother. In the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_[263] we find two women that spin and weave, Dhat\u00e2 and\nVidhat\u00e2; they weave upon the loom of the year with black and white\nthreads, _i.e._, they spin the days and the nights. We, therefore, have\na beneficent spider and a malignant one.\n\nIn the fourth story of the fifth book of the _Pentamerone_, the young\nParmetella marries a black slave, who gives her as servants swans,\n\"Vestute de tela d'oro, che, subeto 'ncignannola da capo a pede, la\nmesero 'n forma de ragno, che pareva propio na Regina.\" (The black man\nbecomes a handsome youth during the night, perhaps as the moon; she\nwishes to see his features, and he disappears; this is a variety of the\npopular story of the wife's indiscretion.) In the fifth story of the\nsecond book of _Afanassieff_, the spider sets its web to catch flies,\nmosquitoes, and wasps; a wasp, being caught in the web, begs to be\nreleased in consideration of the many children that she will leave\nbehind her (the same stratagem that is used by the hen against the fox\nin the Tuscan story previously mentioned.) The credulous spider lets her\ngo; she then warns wasps, flies, and mosquitoes to keep hidden. The\nspider then asks help from the grasshopper, the moth, and the bug\n(nocturnal animals), who announce that the spider is dead, having given\nup the ghost upon the gibbet, which gibbet was afterwards destroyed (the\nevening aurora has disappeared into the night). The flies, mosquitoes,\nand wasps again come out, and fell into the spider's web (into the\nmorning aurora). In the eighteenth story of the sixth book of\n_Afanassieff_, the beautiful girl who flees from the house of the witch\nthat persecutes her, stretches out a veil, which, by the help of a\nbeautiful young maiden (the moon), she has embroidered with gold;\nimmediately a great sea of fire springs up, into which the old witch\nfalls and is burned; and here we come back to the popular Italian\nsuperstition that the spider must be burned in the morning.\n\nThe spider is an animal of the earth, but it weaves its web in the air;\nand as such--as intermediary between the animals of the earth and those\nof the air--supplies us with a bridge by which we may pass naturally\nfrom the first to the second part of the present work.[264] I hope that\nthis bridge will prove as sufficient as the sack in which the young\nEsthonian hero carries the treasure away from hell, a sack composed of\nthe threads of a spider, so strong that it is impossible to tear them. I\nwish I had, in the first book, some of the skill of the spider, and that\nI could weave with a few threads from the labyrinth of \u00c2ryan legendary\ntradition concerning animals a web which, if it be not as luminous as\nthat of Arachn\u00ea, may be more durable than that of Penelop\u00ea.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[259] _Rigv._ ii. 38, 4.--In the fifty-fourth story of the fourth book\nof _Afanassieff_, the king who has no children makes the maiden seven\nyears old manufacture a fisherman's net in the space of only one night.\n\n[260] In the German legend we have the spinner in the moon. \"Die\nAltm\u00e4rkische Sage bei Temme 49, 'die Spinnerin im Monde,' wo ein\nM\u00e4dchen von seiner Mutter verw\u00fcnscht wird, im Monde zu sitzen und zu\nspinnen, scheint entstellt, da jener Fluch sie nicht wegen Spinnens,\nsondern Tanzens im Mondschein trifft;\" Simrock, _Deutsche Mythologie_,\n2te Aufl. p. 23.--Cfr. also the first chapter of this work, and that\non the bear, where we read of a girl dancing with the bear in the\nnight.--Perhaps there is also some correspondence between the Vedic\nword _r\u00e2k\u00e2_ and _a-rachn\u00ea_.\n\n[261] Vy uch\u00e2 duhitar divo m\u00e2 ciram tanutha apah net tv\u00e2 stenam yath\u00e2\nripum tap\u00e2ti s\u00fbro arcish\u00e2; _Rigv._ v. 79, 9.\n\n[262] Vritram av\u00e2bhinad d\u00e2num \u00e2urnav\u00e2bham; _Rigv._ ii. 11,\n18.--Gagn\u00e2no nu \u00e7atakratur vi prichad iti m\u00e2taram ka ugr\u00e2h ke ha\n\u00e7rinvire \u00e2d \u00eem \u00e7avasy abrav\u00eed \u00e2urnav\u00e2bham ah\u00ee\u00e7uvam te putra santu\nnishturah; _Rigv._ viii. 66, 1, 2.\n\n[263] i. 802, 825.\n\n[264] I observe, moreover, how in the Russian fables of Kriloff the\nsame part is attributed to the spider as in the West to the wren (the\nregulus) and to the beetle. The eagle carries, without knowing it, a\nspider in its tail upon a tree; the spider then makes its web over it.\nBird and spider therefore exchange places.\n\n\n\n\nSecond Part.\n\nTHE ANIMALS OF THE AIR.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nBIRDS.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The sky-atmosphere and the sky-tree.--The sun, the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, Indras,\n    the Marutas, and Agnis as birds.--Indras cuts off the wings of the\n    mountains.--Indras and Somas as two birds hovering round the same\n    tree of honey.--The wisdom of birds.--The birds requested to\n    sacrifice themselves to fulfil the duties of hospitality,\n    refuse.--The dvigas bird and br\u00e2hman.--Penitent birds.--Consolatory\n    birds.--Presages of birds in India.--Verethraghna as a bird.--The\n    bird's feather.--The red bird.--Grateful and prophetic birds.--The\n    hero that understands the language of birds.--The bird and the two\n    cypresses.--The hero becomes a bird by acquiring Solomon's\n    ring.--The blue bird.--The bird caught by putting salt upon its\n    tail.--The excrement of birds is propitious.--The demoniacal\n    bird.--The bird that feeds the heroes.--Birds and poets; singers and\n    prophets.--Auguries and auspices.--The auguries were laughed at in\n    Greece.--Flight to right and to left.\n\nThe sky, especially by night, is conceived now as a road on which one\ncan walk, and where sometimes the traveller may be lost, or make\nothers lose their way; now as the air itself, in which one flies or is\ncarried in flight, with the risk sometimes of falling; now as a tree,\nin which one speaks or builds nests, with the risk of the words being\nsometimes sinister, or the nests falling; and now as a sea in which\none navigates in peril of shipwreck.\n\nThe sky-atmosphere and the sky-tree are the world of the mythical\nflying birds and insects. The god, the demon, the hero, and the\nmonster, when traversing this field, either take the forms of winged\nanimals, or make use of them to ascend to the celestial paths, or else\nare conducted by them to their ruin.\n\nThe sun and the moon, the sunbeams, the thunderbolts, flashes of\nlightning, auroras, clouds that move and thunder, and the very shadows\nthat move, often take in myths the forms of flying animals.\n\nIn the _Rigvedas_, the sun is called a bird (vih);[265] the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u\ncome with the wheels of the car like a bird with feathers;[266] Indras\nis the well-winged red one;[267] the Marutas perch like birds upon the\nculm of buttered grass;[268] Agnis accomplishes the wish of the\nbird;[269] the well-winged ones of Agnis (_i.e._, the thunderbolts)\nappear as destroyers when the black bull has bellowed (that is, when\nthe black cloud has thundered);[270] Savitar must not destroy the\nwoods of the birds;[271] from the house of the aurora the birds come\nforth;[272] the goddesses and the brides of the heroes are requested\nto come to the assistance of men with unclipt wings.[273] Finally, an\ninteresting Vedic hymn shows us the sun and the moon, Indras and\nSomas, as two well-winged birds united in friendship, that continually\nfly round the same tree (_i.e._, the sky); of these, one eats the\nsweet pippalas, the other shines without eating. Both, well-winged,\nsing as they safely guard the treasure of ambrosia. The honey of this\ntree is called pippalas: of this tree all the birds eat the honey, and\non it they build their nests.[274]\n\nThe wisdom of birds is much celebrated in popular Aryan tradition. On\nthis subject the _M\u00e2rkandeya-P._[275] narrates a long and instructive\nlegend.\n\nThe wise G\u00e2iminis wishes some episodes of the great legend of the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, which seem obscure, to be explained to him. He has\nrecourse to the learned M\u00e2rkandeyas; but the latter says he does not\nknow how to enlighten him, and advises him to interrogate the birds, the\nbest of the birds, sons of Dronas, who know the essence of things, who\nmeditate upon the sacred treatises, the birds Pi\u00f1g\u00e2kshas, Vibodhas,\nSupattras, and Sumukhas, who will disperse his doubts. They live in a\ncave in the middle of the Vindhy\u00e2s; let him go to them and ask them.\nG\u00e2iminis wonders how simple birds can possess so much wisdom.\nM\u00e2rkandeyas then relates to him their genealogy. A nymph, who had\nseduced by her song the penitent Durv\u00e2sas, was condemned to be born\nagain in the family of the bird Garudas, and to spend sixteen years in\nthe form of a bird, until, after giving birth to four sons, she should\nbe wounded by an arrow and regain once more her primitive form in\nheaven. As a bird she is named T\u00e2rksh\u00ee, and is married to the bird\nDronas, who is wise and instructed in the Ved\u00e2s and Ved\u00e2\u00f1g\u00e2s. T\u00e2rksh\u00ee is\npresent at the battle between the K\u00e2urav\u00e2s and the P\u00e2ndav\u00e2s; a dart\nstrikes her in the belly, from which four eggs that shine like the moon\nfall to the ground. After the battle, the ascetic \u00c7am\u00eekas approaches the\nplace where the four eggs lie, and hears the young birds chirping\ncic\u00edkuc\u00ed. The wise man marvels at seeing that they have escaped such\ncarnage, concludes they must be Br\u00e2hmans, and thinks this a circumstance\nof most favourable augury and a presage of great fortune\n(mah\u00e2bh\u00e2gyapradar\u00e7in\u00ee). He carries the birds to his house, and places\nthem where they run no risk of being harmed by cats, mice, hawks, or\nweasels. The birds are taken care of and nourished by the wise man, and\ngrow up strong and learned, listening to the lessons that the wise man\ngives in school, and, being grateful to him as their deliverer,\nexpressing their gratitude by means of words which, by exercise, they\narticulate clearly. Interrogated as to their previous existence, they\nremember that there was once a sage named Vipul\u00e2\u00e7van, father of two\nchildren, Sukrishas and Tumburus; these four were sons of Tumburus.\nWhilst they lived in the woods with their father, Indras, the king of\nthe gods, comes to them in the form of a gigantic old bird, and demands\nhuman flesh from the hospitable sage. The wise man wonders that a bird,\nso old, that is, at an age in which every desire should be extinguished,\nshould be so cruel as to wish for human flesh. Nevertheless he requests\n(like Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras in the legend of \u00c7unahcepas previously mentioned) his\nown sons to sacrifice themselves in fulfilment of this duty. They do not\nat first refuse this act of hospitality, but when they hear that they\nare to be eaten by the bird, they decisively refuse, pleading, among\nother arguments, the physiological, or rather, materialistic one, that\nif they are virtuous, their virtue too will perish with their bodies,\nwhilst, on the other hand, in order to preserve their virtue long, they\nthink themselves bound to prolong their existence as much as possible\n(we have already seen the cat adopting a similar argument to justify his\nfatness). Their father, indignant at this refusal after giving their\npromise, curses them, condemning them to be born again as animals, and\nthen magnanimously offers himself to the famished bird. Upon which\nIndras reveals himself in his proper divine form, and then disappears\nafter blessing the sage. The sons beseech their father to release them\nfrom the malediction; he takes pity upon them, but is unable to revoke\nhis words; it is only in his power to temper the severity of the\npunishment. They are condemned to retain the animal form; but in that\nform they are to be recompensed with the gift of insight into the\nmysteries of being. It is for this reason that, when \u00c7am\u00eekas finds them,\nhe salutes them by the name of Br\u00e2hmans. For the rest, the equivoque is\neasily comprehensible, when we reflect that the word _dvigas_, or twice\nborn, means bird (that is, born first as an egg, and afterwards as an\nanimal), as well as Br\u00e2hman (who, by taking the sacred cord, the\npr\u00e6texta, and the sacrament of the holy oil, is born again). Etymology\nhere assists our comprehension of the legend. In the same way as the\nBr\u00e2hman is the wisest of men, so are the dvig\u00e2s or birds the wisest of\nanimals. The birds, cursed by the hermit their father, go therefore to\nMount Vindhyas, which is watered by many blessed streams, where they\nlive as austere penitents. G\u00e2iminis goes to consult them; when he\napproaches their abode, he hears them speaking distinctly to each other.\nHe then comes up and sees them perched on the top of a rock. G\u00e2iminis\naddresses them with amiable words; the birds answer him that, since so\ngreat a sage is come to visit them, their wish is accomplished and their\ncurse come to an end. Then follow the questions of G\u00e2iminis relating to\nGan\u00e2rdanas, Dr\u00e2upad\u00ee, Baladevas, and the five sons of Dr\u00e2upad\u00ee. The\nbirds, before answering, sing a kind of hymn to Vishnus, and expound his\nprincipal incarnations. In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[276] the ascetic Br\u00e2hmans\ngo in the forms of birds to console the rishis M\u00e2ndavyas, impaled by\norder of the king, for having given hospitality to the robbers of the\nroyal booty.\n\nBirds know everything, and hence presages are taken especially from\nthem, whence the name _auspicium_ or _augurium_, applied specifically\nto a presage. In the last book of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[277] the monsters\nare terrified by such omens as the following:--\"Thousands of vultures\nand ducks with mouths that throw flames, which form a circle like that\nof the god of death upon the battalions of the monsters; the doves,\nthe red-feet, the s\u00e2rik\u00e2s (turdus salic\u00e6) were dispersed.\"\n\nIn the _Avesta_, Verethraghna often appears as a bird, and as\nunderstanding the language of birds. A bird's feather, in the\n_Avesta_, assists Verethraghna, as in Firdusi, a feather of the bird\nSimurg, burnt by Zal, calls up to his assistance the bird Simurg in\nperson.[278] According to a legend of the _Khorda-Avesta_, the\nsplendour of the old Yima, who had become proud and false-tongued\n(thus, in India, the celestial Yamas and the happy \u00c7ivas become\ninfernal destroying deities), fled away in the form of a bird.\nAccording to the popular superstition of White Russia, the little bird\ndiedka (the little one), is the guardian of treasures and has eyes of\nfire and a fiery beard (this is doubtless a representation of the\ndemoniacal sun of evening, of Kuveras or of Plutos.[279]) In the\n_Contes Merveilleux_ of Porchat, the red bird appears as a messenger.\n\nIn the legend of Sal, in Firdusi, there is a riddle about two\ncypresses, one withered and the other verdant, upon first the one and\nthen the other of which a bird regularly builds his nest. The hero\nSal, who solves the riddle, says that the two cypresses are the two\nopposite seasons of the year or the two sides of the sky, and that\nthe bird is the sun.[280]\n\nIn the eighteenth Esthonian story, two birds, speaking to each other,\nsignify where the famous enchanted ring of Solomon is to be found,\nwhich the young hero is looking for. When the hero finds the ring, he\nis able to transform himself at will into a bird; but the daughter of\nhell, in the shape of an eagle, carries it off from him. In the fourth\nEsthonian story, the girl of seven years of age becomes, by beneficent\nmagic, a bird, when she is obliged to travel far. In the thirty-fifth\nof the stories of Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, the wife of the\nbird-catcher terrifies the devil in the form of an enormous and\nmonstrous bird. In the fifth story of the fourth book of the\n_Pentamerone_, a fairy in the form of a bird arrests the arm of the\nking of Alta-Marina whilst he is about to kill his own wife Portiella.\nThe fairy was grateful to the young woman, because, when she was\nasleep in a wood, Portiella had awakened her to deliver her from a\nsatyr who was attempting to violate her.[281] The king shuts Portiella\nup in a tower without light; the bird makes a hole in it and brings\nfood to her, stealing the fowls from the kitchen during the cook's\nabsence. Portiella gives birth to a son, who is also nourished by the\nbird. The _oiseau bleu_, _couleur du temps_, of the story of Madame\nd'Aulnoy, who flies at night from the cypress to the window of the\nbeautiful imprisoned Florine, is a beautiful variety of this same\nstory. Several Russian stories end with the following refrain of an\nazure bird (sinicka, little azure one): \"little azure one flies and\nsays, Azure, but beautiful.\"[282] Inasmuch as the sun of morning, or\nspring, comes out of the dark-blue bird of night, or of winter, we can\nunderstand the popular Italian and German superstition, that when the\nexcrement of a bird falls upon a man it is an omen of good luck. The\nexcrement of the mythical bird of night, or of winter, is the sun.\nConsidered in connection with morning or spring, the dark-coloured\nbird of night, or winter, is propitious; considered by itself, or in\nrelation to the evening sun or the dying summer, it is a funereal and\ndiabolical animal. Such is the bird K\u00e2mek of the _Avesta_, which\nstretches its wings over all mankind, which carries off and hides the\nsun, creates darkness, keeps back the waters and devours all\ncreatures, until after seven years and seven nights, the hero\nKere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa strikes it and makes it fall.\n\nMoreover, the bird that brings food is a subject which is very popular\nin almost all the traditions of the Indo-European nations. Every one\nhas heard of the bird which nourished Semiramis, abandoned by her\nmother in a desert and stony place, with curdled milk and cheese (the\nmoonlight), stolen from the neighbouring flocks of sheep, according to\nthe narrative of Diodorus Siculus; and the same Persian bird\nnourishes, according to the legend, several other children, future\nheroes of Iran, who had been similarly exposed; in the legend of\nRomulus and Remus, the woodpecker assumes the same place and office as\nthe nurse she-wolf. In the watery night and the watery winter, the\nsolar child-hero, abandoned to himself, is nourished by birds. The\nnightingale or singer of the night sends forth his melodious notes\nfrom the nocturnal tree, predicting thus the renewal of daylight; in\nthe tree-cloud, the thunder rumbles, the oracle speaks, and the bird\nprophesies. Theokritos calls poets the birds of the Muses (mous\u00f4n\nornithas). The kokilas is the bird of the Hindoo poets and teaches\nthem melody; to this bird corresponds the Hindoo Kyknos of the\n_Tuti-Name_, of which it is said that it has innumerable holes in its\nbeak, from each of which a melodious sound comes forth.\n\nThe Hindoo _kavis_, the Latin _vates_, and the Hellenic _mantis_\nrepresent at once both the singer and the sage; thus the singers of\nthe woods are at the same time omniscient prophets. They began with\nprophecies about the weather, as the thunder announces the storm, and\nfinished by prophesying everything. The peasantry of Tuscany endeavour\nto this day to guess what weather it will be on the morrow from the\nsongs of the birds.[283] The augures, the auguremens, the aucelli, and\nthe aruspices were preserved even in the Middle Ages, according to\nthe testimony of Du Cange.[284] As to the auguries and auspices of the\nancient Greeks and Romans, I refer the reader to the numerous erudite\nworks which treat of them in a particular manner. I must observe,\nhowever, that whilst among the Latins augury was deemed such a solemn\nthing that Publius Claudius and Lucius Junius were judged worthy of\ndeath for having set out on a voyage against the will of the auguries,\nand that whilst _ave_, that is to say, good augury, was still the\nsolemn formula of Roman salutation, the Greeks had already turned\nauguries and auspices into derision. The reader remembers, no doubt,\nhow in the _Iliad_ the hero Hektor declares that he cares not whether\nthe birds go to the right, towards the aurora and the sun, or to the\nleft, towards the sunset. In Eusebius[285] we read that a bird was\npresented to Alexander, the Macedonian, when on the point of setting\nout for the Red Sea, in order that he might read the auguries by it\naccording to custom; Alexander, in answer, killed the bird with an\narrow; the bystanders being offended by this breach of the rules, the\nMacedonian hero added, \"What folly is this? In what way could this\nbird, which could not foresee its death by this arrow, predict the\nfortunes of our journey?\" Auguries and auspices were also taken in\nIndia. According to the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[286] birds seen at a wedding to\ngo to the left, are a sinister omen;[287] birds that fly, crying, to\nthe left of R\u00e2mas, announce to him a serious disaster, viz., the\ncarrying off of S\u00eet\u00e2.[288]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[265] _Rigv._ i. 72, 9.\n\n[266] Vir na parn\u00e2ih; _Ib._ i. 183, 1.\n\n[267] Arunah suparnah; _Ib._ x. 55, 6.\n\n[268] Vayo na s\u00eedann adhi barhishi priye; _Ib._ i. 85, 7.\n\n[269] Manmas\u00e2dhano veh; _Ib._ i. 96, 6.\n\n[270] \u00c2 te suparn\u00e2 aminantan ev\u00e2ih krishno non\u00e2va vrishabho yad\u00eedam;\n_Ib._ i. 79, 2.\n\n[271] Van\u00e2ni vibhyo nakir asya t\u00e2ni vrat\u00e2 devasya savitar minanti;\n_Ib._ ii. 38, 7.\n\n[272] Ut te vaya\u00e7cid vasater apaptan; _Ib._ i. 124, 12.--In the\ntwenty-third story of the second book of _Afanassieff_, when the\nbeautiful girl Helen, another form of the aurora, is at the king's\nball, she throws bones with one hand, when birds spring up, and water\nwith the other, when gardens and fountains spring up.\n\n[273] Abhi no dev\u00eer avas\u00e2 mahah \u00e7arman\u00e2 nripatn\u00eeh achinnapatr\u00e2h\nsacant\u00e2m; _Rigv._ i. 22, 11.--If the goddesses are here the same as\nthe nymphs, they may be the same as the clouds, and I should refer to\nthis passage, the legend of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ (v. 56), according to\nwhich the lofty mountains were once winged (the clouds) and wandered\nabout the earth at pleasure; Indras, with his thunderbolt, cut their\nwings, and they fell down.\n\n[274] Dv\u00e2 suparn\u00e2 sayug\u00e2 sakh\u00e2y\u00e2 sam\u00e2nam vriksham pari shasvag\u00e2te\ntayor anyah pippalam sv\u00e2dv atty ana\u00e7nann anyo abhi c\u00e2ka\u00e7\u00eet\u00ee--Yatr\u00e2\nsuparn\u00e2 amritasya bh\u00e2gam animesham vidath\u00e2bhisvaranti; _Rigv._ i. 164,\n20.--Perhaps we should compare to this legend the two birds Amru and\nCamru of the _Khorda-Avesta_, of which one makes the seeds of the\nthree mythical trees fall, and the other scatters them about.\n\n[275] Calcutta, 1851.\n\n[276] i. 4305.\n\n[277] Sixth canto.\n\n[278] Professor Spiegel says in a note, _Khorda-Avesta_, p. 147: \"Die\nBeschw\u00f6rung vormittelst einer Feder ist gewiss eine alteranische\nVorstellung.\"--In a story, hitherto unpublished, of the Monferrato,\ncommunicated to me by Signor Ferraro, a woman, who had gone to eat\nparsley in the garden of a sorceress, was obliged to give her daughter\nup to her as a penalty for the offence. The girl was afterwards\nsubjected to three difficult trials; to sunder in one day a mountain of\nwheat and millet into the grains composing it, to eat in one day a\nmountain of apples, and to wash, dry, and iron in one hour all the linen\nof a year. In the first trial, by means of two bird's feathers, she\ncalls up a thousand birds, who separate the grain from the millet.--In\nthe fourth story of the fifth book of the _Pentamerone_, the birds strip\nthemselves of their feathers to fill a mattress which the witch has\nordered the young Permetella to make. In a Tuscan story, for the\npossession of a peacock's feather, the young brother is killed.\n\n[279] In _Afanassieff_, v. 38, a similar little bird ravages during\nthe night the field of a lord; the youngest of the three brothers, who\nis believed to be foolish, catches it and sells it to the king, who\nshuts it in a room under lock and key. The king's son releases the\nlittle bird, which in gratitude gives him a horse that wins battles,\nand a golden apple, by means of which he is able to wed a\nprincess.--In the story v. 22, the young man who has been instructed\nby the devil transforms himself into a bird and tells his father to\nsell him, but not to give up the cage. The devil buys the bird, but\ndoes not obtain the cage; he puts the bird into a handkerchief to take\nit to his daughter, but when he comes home the bird has\ndisappeared.--In the story v. 42, the king of birds releases Ivan from\nthe witch who wishes to eat him, and takes him to his betrothed. The\nwitch tears a few feathers off the king of birds, but does not succeed\nin stopping him.--In the story v. 46, the devil teaches the language\nof birds to the young hero.--In the story vi. 69, the wise maiden goes\nto take into the kingdom of darkness the bird that speaks, the tree\nthat sings, and the water of life, with which she brings to life her\ntwo brothers, born before her, whom a witch had thrown into a fountain\n(the aurora delivers the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u).--In the fifth Sicilian story of\nSignora Gonzenbach, brother and sister go into the witch's castle to\ntake the water that dances and the bird that speaks. The bird tells\nthe water, in the king's presence, the story of the two young\npeople.--In the fifth story of the second book of the _Pentamerone_,\nthe fox teaches the young Grannonia what birds say.--In the seventh\nstory of the fifth book of the _Pentamerone_, it is the youngest of\nthe five brothers that acquires the faculty of understanding the\nlanguage of birds.--In Pietro de Crescenzi (x. 1), we find a \"rex\nDaucus (Dacus?) qui divino intellectu novit naturam accipitrum et\nfalconum et eos domesticare ad pr\u00e6dam instruere, et ab \u00e6gritudinibus\nliberare.\"--In the legend of St Francis of Assisi, the great saint was\nable to make himself understood to birds, and to make the swallows be\nsilent; the same saint made a wolf mild and tame; the miracle of\nOrpheus is repeated in numerous other legends.--In the sixteenth\nMongol story of Siddhik\u00fcr, a wise dwarf, who understands the language\nof birds, hears two birds, father and son, speak to each other on the\nsummit of a tree about the king's son, who had been assassinated by\nthe son of the minister.--In the _Edda_, Atli has a long dialogue with\na bird whose language he understands.--Finally, the whole of the\ncomedy of Aristophanes entitled _The Birds_ (Ornithes) shows the\nwisdom and divining power of birds, and, as animals of presage, their\nintimate relation with the thunderbolts of Zeus.--According to the\nGerman belief, the fat of a serpent teaches how to understand the\nlanguage of birds. Cfr. Simrock, the work previously quoted, p. 457.\n\n[280]\n\n      \"Die zwei Cypressen sind die Himmelsseiten,\n       Die beiden, die uns Gl\u00fcck und Leid bereiten;\n       Der Vogel, der drin nistet, ist die Sonne,\n       Sie giebt beim Schneiden Schmerz, beim Kommen Wonne.\"\n                       --Schack, _Heldensagen von Firdusi_, p. 122.\n\n[281] A variety of the myth of Priapos, mentioned in the chapter on\nthe Ass.\n\n[282] Sinicka letat i gavar\u00edt: Sin da charosh.--The dark-blue bird is a\nsymbol of the azure sky of night or winter, whilst, on the other hand,\nthe wooden bird, at which the maidens of Westphalia throw sticks on St\nJohn's Day, seems to be a phallical symbol; she who hits the bird is\nqueen. The bird is a well-known phallical symbol; and a phallical origin\nmust be ascribed to the popular superstition that a bird may be rendered\nhelpless by putting salt upon its tail. The salacitas of an animal, when\ngiven way to, takes every energy from it; the \u00fbrdhvaretas alone is\nstrong. It was perhaps for a similar reason that in the Middle Ages,\nwhen a city was destroyed to its foundations, it was the custom to throw\nsalt upon it, in order that it might never rise again. Salt thrown away\nis like seed sown in the desert, where it is fruitless.\n\n[283] It is a mountaineer of the province of Siena that speaks: \"I\nperceived by the song of the birds that the weather was about to\nchange; their voice told me, it was so merry;\" Giuliani, _Moralit\u00e0 e\nPoesia del Vivente Linguaggio della Toscana_, p. 149.\n\n[284] Cfr. among others, the words _albanellus_ (haubereau) _avis\nauguralis species_, and _aucellus_.\n\n[285] _De Proeparat. Evang._ lib. ix.\n\n[286] i. 76.\n\n[287] Amongst the Romans, on the contrary, the flight to the left was\nan excellent omen; thus Plautus in the _Epidicus_: \"Tacete, habete\nanimum bonum, liquido exeo foras auspicio, ave sinistra.\" (But this\nchange from right to left may depend upon the various positions taken\nby the observer in placing himself.) In the medi\u00e6val legend of\nAlexander, a bird with a human face (a harpy) meets Alexander and\nadvises him to turn to the right, when he will see marvellous\nthings.--Cfr. Zacher, _Pseudo-Callisthenes_, Halle, 1867, p. 142.\n\n[288] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iii. 64.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE HAWK, THE EAGLE, THE VULTURE, THE PHOENIX, THE HARPY, THE STRIX,\nTHE BAT, THE GRIFFON, AND THE SIREN.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The bird of prey the most heroic of birds.--Indras as a hawk.--The\n    hawk and the ambrosia; the ambrosia as sperm.--The bird of prey and\n    the serpent.--Agnis, the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, and the Marutas as hawks.--The\n    place of sacrifice has the form of an eagle.--The two sons of\n    Vinat\u00e2.--Garudas, the bird of Vishnus; he fights against the\n    monsters.--Genealogy of the vultures.--G\u00e2t\u00e2yus and Sampatis.--The\n    king or the young hero who offers himself up to be devoured by the\n    hawk or the eagle.--The grateful hawk or eagle.--\u00c7yena and \u00c7aena;\n    Simurg; the feather of the bird of prey.--The birds as clouds.--The\n    eagles as winds; Aquila and Aquilo.--The hawks as luminous birds;\n    the eagles as demoniacal ones.--Accipiter.--The hawk as an emblem of\n    nobility.--The hawk as the ensign of Attila.--The hawk in Hellenic\n    antiquity.--The kite among the stars; it discharges its body upon\n    the image of the god.--The beetle, the eagle, and Zeus.--The eagle\n    as the thunderbolt or sceptre of Zeus.--The eagle presages supreme\n    power and fertility; the eagle and the laurel.--The eagle carries\n    off the robes of Aphrodit\u00ea.--The eagle takes away the slippers of\n    Rhodop\u00ea.--The eagle kills \u00c6schilos.--Nisos and Scylla.--The vulture\n    in ancient classical authors.--The vultures in hell.--The learned\n    vulture.--Voracity of the vulture.--Imaginary birds.--The sun as a\n    phoenix.--The demoniacal harpies or Furi\u00e6, canes Jovis.--Strix and\n    striges; they suck blood.--Proca and Crane.--Bats and vampires.--The\n    Stymphalian birds.--The birds of Seleucia.--The Gryphes and the\n    Arimaspi.--The griffons sacred to Nemesis; the hypogriff, gryphos,\n    logogriph, griffonage.--The Siren now as a bird, now as a\n    fish.--Circe; a lunar myth.\n\nThe most heroic of birds is the bird of prey; the strength of its\nbeak, wings, and claws, its size and swiftness, caused it to be\nregarded as a swift celestial messenger, carrier, and warrior.\n\nThe hawk, the eagle, and the vulture, three powerful birds of prey,\ngenerally play the same part in myths and legends; the creators of\nmyths having from the first observed their general resemblance,\nwithout paying any regard to their specific differences.\n\nThe bird of prey, in mythology, is the sun, which now shines in its\nsplendour, and now shows itself in the cloud or darkness by sending\nforth flashes of lightning, thunderbolts, and sunbeams. The flash, the\nthunderbolt, and the sunbeam are now the beak, now the claw of the\nbird of prey, and now, the part being sometimes taken for the whole,\neven the entire bird.\n\nIn the _Rigvedas_, the god Indras often appears in the form of a hawk\nor \u00e7yenas. Indras is like a hawk that flies swiftly over the other\nhawks, and, being well-winged, carries to men the food tasted by the\ngods.[289] He is enclosed in a hundred iron fortresses; nevertheless,\nwith swiftness, he succeeds in coming out of them;[290] while flying\naway, he carries in his claw the beautiful, virgin, luminous ambrosia,\nby means of which life is prolonged and the dead brought to life\nagain[291] (the rain, which is also confounded with the ambrosial\nhumour of the moon. In the first strophe of the same hymn, Indus is\nalso called ambrosia).[292] The hawk with iron claws kills the hostile\ndemons,[293] has great power of breathing, and draws from afar the\nchariot with a hundred wheels.[294] However, while the hawk carries\nthe ambrosia through the air, he trembles for fear of the archer\nKri\u00e7\u00e2nus,[295] who, in fact, shot off one of his claws (of which the\nhedgehog was born, according to the _\u00c2itareya Br._,[296] and according\nto the Vedic hymn,[297] one of his feathers which, falling on the\nearth, afterwards became a tree). After the victory gained over Ahis,\nthe serpent-demon, Indras flees like a terrified hawk.[298] This is\nthe first trace of the legendary and proverbial enmity between the\nbird of prey and the serpent. In the third book of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,\nR\u00e2vanas says that he will carry off S\u00eet\u00e2 as the well-winged one\n(carries off) the serpent (suparnah pannagamiva).\n\nNor is Indras alone a hawk in the _Rigvedas_, but Agnis too. M\u00e2tari\u00e7v\u00e2n\nand the hawk agitate, the one the heavenly fire, the other the ambrosia\nof the mountain.[299] The chariot of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u is also sometimes drawn\nby hawks, as swift as heavenly vultures.[300] They are themselves\ncompared to two vultures that hover round the tree where the treasure\nis[301] (we have seen in the preceding chapter that the tree is the\nsky). The Marutas are also called Gridhr\u00e2s or vultures (falcons\naccording to Max M\u00fcller.[302]) In the _Rigvedas_, again, when the sun\ngoes to the sea, he looks with a vulture's eye.[303] On account of this\nform of a bird of prey, often assumed by the solar god in the Vedic\nmyths, we read in the _\u00c2itareya Br._, that the place destined for the\nsacrifice had the same shape. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ we find, in the\nsacrifice of a horse, that the place of sacrifice has the form of the\nbird Garudas, the powerful mythical eagle of the Hindoos. In the 149th\nhymn of the tenth book of the _Rigvedas_, the ancient well-winged son of\nthe sun Savitar is already named Garutman. The mythical bird is the\nequivalent of the winged solar horse, or hippogriff; indeed, the 118th\nhymn of the first book of the _Rigvedas_, soon after celebrating the\nhawks that draw the chariot of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, calls them beautiful flying\nhorses (a\u00e7v\u00e2 vapushah patamg\u00e2h). We have observed that of the two twins,\nor the two brothers, one prevails over the other. Thus of the two\nmythical vultures, of the two sons of Vinat\u00e2, in the legend of the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[304] their mother having broken the egg before the\nproper time, one, Arunas, is born imperfect, and curses his mother,\ncondemning her to be the slave of her rival Kadr\u00fb for five thousand\nyears, until her other son, the luminous, perfect, and powerful solar\nbird Garudas, comes to release her. Arunas becomes the charioteer of the\nsun; Garudas is, instead, the steed of the god Vishnus, the solar horse,\nthe sun itself, victorious in all its splendour. No sooner are the two\nbirds born, than the horse Ucc\u00e2ih\u00e7ravas also appears, which again\nsignifies that solar bird and solar horse are identical. Like the hawk\nIndras, or the hawk of Indras, Garudas, the bird of Vishnus, or Vishnus\nhimself, is thirsty, drinks many rivers,[305] carries off from the\nserpents the ambrosia, protected (as in the _Rigvedas_) by a circle of\niron. Like Vishnus, Garudas, from being very tall, makes himself very\nlittle, penetrates among the serpents, covers them with dust and blinds\nthem; it is, indeed, on account of this feat that Vishnus adopts him for\nhis celestial steed.[306] The god Vishnus goes on the back of the\nwell-winged one to fight against the monsters;[307] indignant with them,\nhe throws them to the ground with the flapping of his wings; the\nmonsters aim their darts at him as another form of the hero, and he\nfights on his own account and for the hero.[308] When the bird Garudas\nappears, the fetters of the monsters, which compress like serpents the\ntwo brothers R\u00e2mas and Lakshmanas, are loosed, and the two young heroes\nrise more handsome and stronger than before.[309] The Nish\u00e2d\u00e2s come from\ntheir damp abodes, enter into the gaping jaws of Garudas in thousands,\nenveloped by the wind and the dust.[310] (The sun of morning and that of\nspring devour the black monsters of night and of winter.)\n\nHitherto we have seen the hawk, the eagle (as Garudas), and the\nvulture exchanged for each other; even the Hindoo mythical genealogy\nconfirms this exchange. According to the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[311] of T\u00e2mr\u00e2\n(properly the reddish one; she also gave birth to Kr\u00e2unci, the mother\nof the herons) was born \u00c7yen\u00ee (that is, the female hawk); of \u00c7yen\u00ee was\nborn Vinat\u00e2. Vinat\u00e2 (properly the bent one) laid the egg whence Arunas\nand Garudas came forth (the two Dioskuroi also came, as is well known,\nout of the egg of L\u00e9da, united with the swan); Garudas was in his turn\nfather of two immense vultures, G\u00e2t\u00e2yus and Sampatis. In this\ngenealogy the ascending movement of the sun appears to be described to\nus, like the myth of the sun Vishnus, who, from a dwarf, becomes a\ngiant. The vulture G\u00e2t\u00e2yus knows everything that has happened in the\npast, and everything that will come to pass in the future, inasmuch\nas, like the Vedic sun, he is vi\u00e7vavedas, all-seeing, omniscient, and\nhas traversed the whole earth. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ we read of the last\nfierce battle of the aged vulture G\u00e2t\u00e2yus with the terrible monster\nR\u00e2vanas, who carries off the beautiful S\u00eet\u00e2 during the absence of her\nhusband R\u00e2mas. G\u00e2t\u00e2yus, although old in years, rises into the air to\nprevent the carrying off of S\u00eet\u00e2 by R\u00e2vanas in a chariot drawn by\nasses; the vulture breaks with his strong claws the bow and arrow of\nR\u00e2vanas, strikes and kills the asses, splits the chariot in two,\nthrows the charioteer down, forces R\u00e2vanas to leap to the ground, and\nwounds him in a thousand ways; but at last the king of the monsters\nsucceeds with his sword in cutting off the wings, feet, and sides of\nthe faithful bird, who expires in pain and grief, whilst the demon\ncarries the ravished woman into La\u00f1k\u00e2.\n\nThus far, therefore, we always find in the bird of prey a friend of the\nhero and the god. Such is also, in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[312] the immense\nvulture that comes to place itself, and to vomit blood upon the standard\nof the monster Kharas, to predict his misfortunes to him; and such is\nthe elder brother of G\u00e2t\u00e2yus, the vulture Sampatis, who, coming out of a\ncavern, informs the great monkey Hanumant where S\u00eet\u00e2 may be found.\nSampatis, after having seen Hanumant, recovers his own wings, which had\nbeen burnt by the sun's rays, once when he had wished to defend his\nyounger brother from them whilst they were flying together too high up\nin the regions of the sun[313] (a variety of the Hellenic legend of\nDedalus and Icarus, of that of Hanumant who wished to fly after the sun\nin order to catch it, and of that of the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u).\n\nWhen, in the very popular Hindoo legend of the Buddhist king who\nsacrifices himself instead of the dove that had looked for hospitality\nfrom him, the hawk appears as the persecutor of the dove, this\napparent persecution is only a trial that Indras, the hawk, and Agnis,\nthe dove, wish to make of the king's virtue. No sooner does the hawk\nsee that the king offers himself up to be devoured by the hawk, who\ncomplains that the king has taken his prey, the dove, from him, than\nboth hawk and dove reassume their divine form, and cover the holy king\nwith benedictions.[314] Indras and Agnis, united together, are also\nthemselves a form of the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, like the two faithful doves that\nsacrifice themselves in the third book of _Pancatantram_.\n\nThe wise \u00e7aena of the _Avesta_ has a character nearly resembling the\nVedic bird \u00e7yenas. According to the _Bundehesh_, two \u00e7aenas stay at the\ngates of hell, which correspond to the two crepuscular hawks or vultures\nof the Ved\u00e2s. The bird with wings that strike, into which the hero\nThraetaona is transformed in the _Khorda Avesta_, whilst it reminds us\nof the Hindoo warrior vulture, can serve as a link to join together the\nZendic \u00e7aena and the Persian Simurg. The bird Simurg has its marvellous\nnest upon Mount Alburs, upon a peak that touches the sky, and which no\nman has ever yet seen. The child Sal is exposed upon this mountain; he\nis hungry and cold, and cries out; the bird Simurg passes by, hears his\ncry, takes pity upon him, and carries the child to its solitary peak. A\nmysterious voice blesses the glorious bird, who nourishes the boy,\ninstructs, protects, and strengthens him, and, when he lets him go,\ngives him one of his own feathers, saying that when he is in danger he\nmust throw this feather into the fire, and he will come at once to\nassist him,[315] and take him back into the kingdom. He only asks him\nnever to forget his faithful and loving preserver. He then carries the\nyoung hero to his father's palace. The king praises the divine bird in\nthe following words:--\"O king of birds! Heaven has given thee strength\nand wisdom; thou art the assister of the needy, propitious to the good\nand the consoler of the afflicted; may evil be dispersed before thee,\nand may thy greatness last for ever.\" In the fifth adventure of\nIsfendiar, in _Firdusi_, the gigantic bird Simurg appears, on the\ncontrary, as demoniacal as he that dims the sunbeams with his wings (in\nthe _Birds_ of Aristophanes, when a great number of birds appear, the\nspectators cry out, \"O Apollo, the clouds!\") Isfendiar fights with him,\nand cuts him to pieces.\n\nIn Scandinavian and German mythology, while the hawk is generally a\nluminous shape, preferred by the heroes, and by Freya, the eagle is a\ngloomy form preferred by demons, or at least by the hero or god (like\nOdin)[316] hidden in the gloomy night or in the windy cloud. The\n_Edda_ tells us that the winds are produced by the shaking of the\nwings of a giant, who sits in the form of an eagle at the extremity of\nthe sky; the aquila and the wind called aquilo by the Latins, as they\ncorrespond etymologically, seem also to be mythically identical. I\nhave observed on a previous occasion that in the _Edda_ the witch\nrides upon a wolf, using eagles as reins. In the _Nibelungen_,\nKrimhilt sees in a dream his beloved hawk strangled by two eagles.\n\nOn the other hand, the swallows sing to Sigurd in the _Edda_,\npredicting to him his meeting with the beautiful warrior maiden who,\ncoming forth from the battles, rides upon an eagle. But this warlike\ngirl was, however, destined to cause the death of Sigurd.\n\nIn the chapter on the elephant, we saw how the bird Garudas\ntransported into the air an elephant, a tortoise, a bough of a tree,\nand hermits. In the Greek variety of the same myth, we have the eagle\ninstead of Garudas. In the _Edda_, three Ases (Odin, Loki, and H\u00f6nir)\nare cooking an ox under a tree; but from the summit of the tree, an\neagle interrupts the cooking of the meat, because it wishes to have a\nshare. The Ases consent; the eagle carries off nearly every thing,\nupon which Loki, indignant, wounds the eagle with a stake; but whilst\none end of the stake remains attached to the eagle, the other is\nfastened to Loki's hand, and the eagle carries him up into the air.\nLoki feels his arms break, and implores the eagle to have compassion\nupon him; the gigantic bird lets him go, on condition of obtaining,\ninstead of him, Iduna and her apples.[317] In the twenty-third story\nof the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the eagle, after having been\nbenefited by a peasant, eats up his sheep. The name of eagles was\ngiven during the Middle Ages to certain demons which were said to\nappear in the form of an eagle, especially on account of their\nrapacious expression, and aquiline nose.[318]\n\nThe hawk, on the other hand, I repeat, usually appears as divine, in\nopposition to all that is diabolical. In the twenty-second story of\nthe fifth and the forty-sixth of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the\nhero transforms himself into a hawk, in order to strangle the cock\ninto which the devil has metamorphosed himself (a Russian proverb,\nhowever, says of the devil that he is more pleasing than the luminous\nhawk).[319] When they wished, in popular Russian phraseology, to\nexpress something that it is impossible to overtake, it was said,\n\"Like the hurricane in the field, and the luminous hawk in the sky.\"\nWe know that the Latin _accipiter_ and the Greek _\u00f4k\u00fcpteros_ mean the\nswift-winged. In the seventh story of the first book of _Afanassieff_,\nthe hawk appears in opposition to the black crow. When the young girl,\ndisguised as a man, succeeds in deceiving the Tzar three times, she\nsays to him, \"Ah! thou crow, crow; thou hast not known, O crow, how to\ncatch the hawk in a cage.\"\n\nThe hawk was one of the distinctive badges of the medi\u00e6val cavalier;\neven ladies kept them. Krimhilt brings up a wild hawk; Brunhilt, when\nshe throws herself upon the funeral pyre, that she may not survive\nSigurd, has two dogs and two hawks immolated along with her. On the\nsepulchres of medi\u00e6val cavaliers and ladies, a hawk was not\nunfrequently found, as an emblem of their nobility. According to a law\nof the year 818, the sword and hawk belonging to the losing cavalier\nwere to be respected by his conqueror, and left unappropriated; the\nhawk to hunt, and the sword to fight with. In _Du Cange_, we read that\nin 1642 Monsieur De Sassay claimed as his feudal right, \"ut nimirum\naccipitrem suum ponere possit super altare majus ecclesi\u00e6 Ebraicensis\n(of Evreux), dum sacra in eo peragit ocreatus, calcaribusque\ninstructus presbyter parochus d'Ezy, pulsantibus tympanis, organorum\nloco.\" According to the law of the Burgundians, he who attempted to\nsteal another man's hawk was, before all, obliged to conciliate the\nhawk itself by giving it to eat (sex uncias carnis acceptor ipse super\ntestones comedat); or if the hawk refused to eat, the robber had to\npay an indemnity to the proprietor, besides a fine (sex solidos illi\ncujus acceptor est, cogatur exsolvere; mulct\u00e6 autem nomine solidos\nduos). According to information supplied me by my learned friend Count\nGeza Kuun, the hawk (turul) was the military ensign of Attila.\nAccording to a tradition preserved in the chronicle of Keza and of\nBuda, Emesu, mother of Attila, saw in a dream a hawk which predicted a\nhappy future to her, after which dream she became pregnant.\n\nNor was the hawk less honoured in Hellenic antiquity; according to\nHomer, it was the rapid messenger of Apollo; the spy of Apollo, sacred\nto Zeus, according to \u00c6lianos; having after death the faculty of\nvaticination, according to Porphyrios (who even recommends the heart\nof a hawk, a stag, or a mole to any one about to practise divination).\nIn the _Iliad_, Apollo coming down from Mount Ida, is compared to the\nswift hawk, the killer of doves, the swiftest of all birds. Many are\nthe superstitious beliefs concerning the hawk collected by \u00c6lianos;\nsuch as, for instance, that it does not eat the hearts of animals;\nthat it weeps over a dead man; that it buries unburied bodies, or at\nleast puts earth upon their eyes, in which it thinks it sees the sun\nagain, upon which, as its most beloved star, it always fixes its gaze;\nthat it loves gold; that it lives for seven hundred years; not to\nmention the extraordinary medical virtues which are always attributed\nto every sacred animal, and which are particularly considered as\nessential to the sacred hawk. Several of the qualities of the sacred\nhawk passed also into other falcons of inferior quality, the kite\n(milvius),[320] for instance, of which it is said that it was placed\namong the stars for having carried to Zeus the entrails of the monster\nbull-serpent, and, according to the third book of Ovid's _Fasti_, for\nhaving brought back to Zeus the lost ring (an ancient form of the\nmedi\u00e6val ring of Solomon, _i.e._, the solar disc):--\n\n      \"Jupiter alitibus rapere imperat, attulit illi,\n       Milvius, et meritis venit in astra suis.\"\n\nWith regard to the kite, we find an apologue,[321] according to which\nthe kite, at the point of death, asks its mother to beg grace from the\nneighbouring statue of the god, and especially forgiveness, for the\nsacrilege which it had frequently committed, discharging its body upon\nthe image of the god (the sun upon the sky).\n\nA richer variety of this story is found in another apologue, which\nillustrates a Greek proverb (\"\u00e6ton kantaros maieusomai\"); but instead\nof the hawk, we have the beetle, and instead of the statue, the god\nhimself, Zeus, with eagle's eggs in his lap. The beetle (the\nhostess-moon), wishing to punish the eagle, which had violated the\nlaws of hospitality with regard to the hare (also the moon), attempts\nto destroy its eggs; the eagle goes and places them in the lap of\nZeus; the beetle, who knows that Zeus hates everything that is\nunclean, lets some dung fall upon him; Zeus forgets the eggs, shakes\nhimself, and breaks them. Here the eagle is identified with Zeus, as\nin the Vedic hymns the hawk with Indras. In the first of Pindar's\nPythic odes, the poet speaks of the eagle as sleeping on the sceptre\nof Zeus (as a thunderbolt, which is the real sceptre of Zeus). The\neagle of Zeus is also represented as holding the thunderbolt in its\nclaws, which is in accordance with the sentence, \"Fulmina sub Jove\nsunt.\" When Zeus is equipping himself to fight against the Titans, the\neagle brings his dart to him, for which reason Zeus adopted the eagle\nas his ensign of war. In _Dion Cassius_, the eagles let the golden\nthunderbolts drop out of their talons into the camp of the Pompeians,\nand fly towards the camp of C\u00e6sar to announce his victory. We find\nvery numerous examples in the ancient classics of eagles that presage\nnow victory, now supreme power to the heroes, that now nourish, now\nsave them, and now sacrifice themselves for them.[322] The eagle of\nZeus, the royal eagle, does not feed upon flesh, but upon herbs,\nproperly upon the moisture of these herbs, by means of which we can\ncomprehend the rape of Ganymede, the cup-bearer of Zeus, carried off\nby the eagle in the same way as the hawk of Indras carries off the\nsomas in the _Rigvedas_. The Hellenic eagle is generally, like Zeus, a\nbringer of light, fertility, and happiness. Pliny narrates of an\neagle, that immediately after the wedding of Augustus it let fall, as\nan omen of fecundity in the family of Augustus, into the lap of Livia\nDrusilla a white hen, having a branch of laurel in its beak; this\nbranch was planted, and grew into a dense laurel-grove; the hen had so\nmany descendants, that afterwards the villa where this happened was\ncalled the Villa of the Hens. Suetonius adds that in the last year of\nthe life of Nero all the hens died, and all the laurel plants were\ndried up. We also find the eagle in connection with the laurel in the\nmyth of Amphiaraos, whose spear, carried off by the eagle and plunged\ninto the ground, grew into a laurel plant.\n\nIn the first chapter of the first book, when speaking of the myth of\nthe aurora, we mentioned the young hero who disrobes the beautiful\nprincess on the bank of the river and carries her apparel away. In the\nHellenic myth we find a zoological variety of this myth. Aphrodit\u00ea\n(here the evening aurora) bathes in the Acheloos (the river of night);\nHerm\u00eas (the extreme western light, and perhaps even the moon) becomes\nenamoured of her, and makes the eagle (the bird of night) carry off\nher garments, to obtain which, Aphrodit\u00ea satisfies the desire of\nHerm\u00eas. In _Strabo_ we find a variation of the same story which\nreminds us of the fairy-tale of Cinderella. Whilst Rhodop\u00ea is bathing,\nthe eagle snatches one of her slippers out of her maid's hands and\ncarries it off to the king of Memphis, who, seeing the slipper, falls\nin love with the foot that wore it, gives orders to search everywhere\nfor the girl to whom the slipper belongs, and, when Rhodop\u00ea is found,\nmarries her. \u00c6lianos says that this king was Psammetichos. But the\nHellenic eagle is divine as long as the god Zeus, whom it represents,\nis propitious; when Zeus becomes the tyrant of heaven, and condemns\nPrometheus to be bound upon a rock, the eagle goes to gnaw at his\nheart. And because the poet \u00c6schilos glorified Prometheus, making him\ncurse the tyranny of Zeus, hence, doubtless, arose the legend that\n\u00c6schilos was, when old and bald, killed by a tortoise, which the\neagle, mistaking the head of \u00c6schilos for a white rock, had let fall\nfrom the sky in order to break it and feed upon it. The eagle which,\naccording to Theophrastos, announced death to the cutters of black\nhellebore, was also a funereal and demoniacal bird. In the eighth book\nof Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, King Nisos, the golden-haired (the sun of\nevening), is transformed into a marine eagle (the night or winter),\nwhen his daughter Scylla (the night, or winter), in order to give him\nup to his enemies, destroys his strength by cutting his hair (an\nevident variation of the solar legend of Delilah and Samson).\n\nThe vulture, too, is a sacred bird in the legends of ancient classical\nauthors; Herodotos says that it is very dear to H\u00earakl\u00eas (the killer of\nthe eagle that gnaws at the heart of Prometheus, who had made for the\nhero the cup in which he had been enabled to cross the sea); it\nannounces sovereign dominion to Romulus, C\u00e6sar, and Augustus. Pliny\nwrites that burnt vulture's feathers make serpents flee; the same\nfeathers, according to Pliny, have the property of facilitating\nparturition, inasmuch as, as St Jerome writes (adversus Jovinianum ii.),\n\"Si medicorum volumina legeris, videbis tot curationes esse in vulture,\nquot sunt membra.\"[323] Two vultures (a form of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u) eat every\nday, in hell, the liver that continually grows again (the _immortale\njecur_ of Virgil) of the giant Tityo, the offender of Latona (the moon),\ndear to Jupiter. (The monster of night is killed every day and rises\nagain every night). The two youths \u00c6gipios and Nephr\u00f4n are another form\nof the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, who, hating each other on account of the love which each\nhas for the other's mother, are changed by Zeus into two vultures, after\nthat \u00c6gipios, by a stratagem of Nephr\u00f4n, united himself with his own\nmother. Iphiklos consults the birds to have children, from the vulture\ndownwards, who alone knew how to assign the reason why Iphiklos had no\nchildren and indicate the means of obtaining them. Philakos had tried to\nkill Iphiklos; not having succeeded, he fastened his sword on a wild\npear-tree; around the sword a covering of bark grew, which hid it from\nthe sight of men. The vulture shows the place where this tree grows, and\nadvises Iphiklos to take the bark off, to clean the rust off the sword,\nand after ten days to drink the rust in a toast; Iphiklos thus obtains\noffspring.\n\nThe vulture, therefore, generally preserves in Gr\u00e6co-Latin tradition\nthe heroic and divine character which it has in Indian tradition,\nalthough its voracity became proverbial in ancient popular\nphraseology. Lucian calls a great eater the greatest of all the\nvultures. Moreover, the special faculty of distinguishing the smell of\na dead body, even before death, is attributed to him; whence Seneca,\nin an epistle against the man who covets the inheritance of a living\nperson, says \"Vultur es, cadaver expecta,\" and Plautus in the\n_Truculentus_ says of certain parasitical servants: \"Jam quasi\nvulturii triduo prius pr\u00e6divinabant, quo die esituri sient.\"\n\nBesides these royal birds of prey that become mythical, there are\nseveral mythical birds of prey that never existed, still to be\nnoticed, such as the phoenix, the harpy, the griffon, the strix, the\nSeleucide birds, the Stymphalian birds, and the sirens. Popular\nimagination believed in their terrestrial existence for a long time,\nbut it can be said of them all as of the Arabian Phoenix:--\n\n      \"All affirm that it exists;\n       Where it is no one can tell.\"[324]\n\nIn point of fact, no man has ever seen them; a few deities or heroes\nalone approached them; their seat is in the sky, where, according to\ntheir several natures and the different places occupied by the sun or\nthe moon in the sky, they attract, ravish, seduce, enchant, or destroy.\n\nThe phoenix is, beyond all doubt, the eastern and western sun; hence\nPetrarch was able to say with reason,\n\n      \"N\u00e8 'n ciel n\u00e8 'n terra \u00e8 pi\u00f9 d'una Fenice,\"\n\nas there is not more than one sun; and we, like the ancient Greeks,\nsay of a rare man or object, that he or it is a phoenix. Tacitus, who\nnarrates, in the fourteenth book, the fable of the phoenix, calls it\n_animal sacrum soli_; Lactantius says that it alone knows the secrets\nof the sun--\n\n      \"Et sola arcanis conscia Phoebe tuis,\"\n\nand represents it as rendering funereal honours to its father in the\ntemple of the sun; Claudian calls it _solis avem_ and describes its\nwhole life in a beautiful little poem.\n\nIt is born in the East, in the wood of the sun, and until it has\nassumed its whole splendid shape it feeds upon dew and perfumes,\nwhence Lactantius--\n\n      \"Ambrosios libat coelesti nectare rores\n         Stellifero teneri qui cecidere polo.\n       Hos legit, his mediis alitur in odoribus ales,\n         Donec maturam proferat effigiem.\"\n\nIt then feeds upon all that it sees. When it is about to die it thinks\nonly of its new birth--\n\n      \"Componit bustumque sibi, partumque futurum\" (_Claudian_);\n\ninasmuch as it is said to deposit a little worm, the colour of milk,\nin its nest, which becomes a funeral pyre,\n\n      \"Fertur vermis lacteus esse color\" (_Lactantius_).\n\nBefore dying, it invokes the sun:\n\n      \"Hic sedet, et solem blando clangore salutat\n       Debilior, miscetque preces, et supplice cantu\n       Pr\u00e6statura novas vires incendia poscit;\n       Quem procul abductis vidit cum Phoebus habenis,\n       Stat subito, dictisque pium solatur alumnum\" (_Claudian_).\n\nThe sun extinguishes the conflagration, which consumes the phoenix,\nand out of which it has to arise once more. At last the phoenix is\nborn again with the dawn--\n\n      \"Atque ubi sol pepulit fulgentis lumina port\u00e6,\n         Et primi emicuit luminis aura levis,\n       Incipit illa sacri modulamina fundere cantus,\n         Et mira lucem voce ciere novam\" (_Lactantius_).\n\nIn my opinion, no more proofs are required to demonstrate the identity\nof the phoenix with the sun of morning and of evening, and, by\nextension, with that of autumn and of spring. That which was fabled\nconcerning it in antiquity, and by reflection, in the Middle Ages,\nagrees perfectly with the twofold luminous phenomenon of the sun that\ndies and is born again every day and every year out of its ashes, and of\nthe hero or heroine who traverses the flames of the burning pyre intact.\n\nThe nature of the phoenix is the same as that of the burning bird\n(szar-ptitza) of Russian fairy tales, which swallows the dwarf who\ngoes to steal its eggs (the evening aurora swallows the sun).[325]\n\nThe solar bird of evening is a bird of prey; it draws to itself with\nits damp claw; it draws into the darkness of night; it has night\nbehind it; its appearance is charming and its countenance alluring,\nbut the rest of its body is as horrid as its nature.\n\nVirgil and Dante ascribe women's faces to the Harpies--\n\n      \"Ali hanno late e colli e visi umani\n       Pi\u00e8 con artigli e pennuto il gran ventre.\"\n\nRutilius[326] says that their claws are glutinous--\n\n      \"Qu\u00e6 pede glutineo, quod tetigere trahunt.\"\n\nOthers give them vultures' bodies, bears' ears, arms and feet of men,\nand the white breasts of women. Servius, speaking of the name they bear\nof _canes Jovis_, notes that this epithet was given them because they\nare the Furies in person, \"Unde etiam epulas apud Virgilium abripiunt,\nquod Furiarum est.\" Ministers of the vengeance of Zeus, they contaminate\nthe harvests of the king-seer Phineus, inspired by Apollo, whom some\nconsider to be a form of Prometheus, the revealer of the secret of Zeus\nto mankind, and others, the blinder of his own sons.\n\nThe bird of prey, the evening solar bird, becomes a strix, or witch,\nduring the night. We have already noticed the popular belief that the\ncat, at seven years of age, becomes a witch. An ancient superstition\ngiven by Aldrovandi also recognises witches in cats, and adds that, in\nthis form, they suck the blood of children. The same is done by the\nwitches of popular stories,[327] and by the striges. During the night\nthey suck the blood of children; that is to say, the night takes away\nthe colour, the red, the blood of the sun. Ovid, in the sixth book of\nthe _Fasti_, represents the maleficent striges as follows:\n\n      \"Nocte volant, puerosque petunt nutricis egentes,\n         Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis.\n       Carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera rostris,\n         Et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent.\"\n\nFestus derives the word strix _\u00e0 stringendo_, from the received opinion\nthat they strangle children. The striges, in the book of the _Fasti_,\npreviously quoted, attack the child Proca, who is only five days old--\n\n      \"Pectoraque exhorbent avidis infantia linguis.\"\n\nThe nurse invokes the help of Crane, the friend of Janus, who has the\nfaculty of hunting good and evil away from the doorsteps of houses.\nCrane hunts the witches away with a magical rod, and cures the child\nthus--\n\n      \"Protinus arbutea postes ter in ordine tangit\n         Fronde ter arbutea limina fronde notat.\n       Spargit aquis aditus, et aqu\u00e6 medicamen habebant,\n         Extaque de porca cruda bimestre tenet.\"\n\nThe usual conjurings are added, and the incident ends thus--\n\n      \"Post illud, nec aves cunas violasse feruntur,\n         Et rediit puero qui fuit ante color.\"\n\nQuintus Serenus, when the _strix atra_ presses the child, recommends\nas an amulet, garlic, of which we have seen that the strong odour puts\nthe monstrous lion to flight.\n\nThe same maleficent and demoniacal nature is shared in by the bats and\nthe vampires, which I recognise in the \"two winged ones entreated not\nto suck\" of a Vedic hymn.[328]\n\nOf analogous nature were the Stymphalian birds, which obscure the\nsun's rays with their wings, use their feathers as darts, devour men\nand lions, and are formidable on account of their claws--\n\n      \"Unguibus Arcadi\u00e6 volucres Stymphala colentes\" (_Lucretius_);\n\nwhich H\u00earakl\u00eas, and afterwards the Argonauts, by the advice of the\nwise Phineos, put to flight with the noise of a musical instrument,\nand by striking their shields and spears against each other. The bird\nof Seleucia which Galenus describes as \"of an insatiable appetite,\nmalignant, astute, a devourer of locusts,\" also has the same\ndiabolical nature. If our identification of the locust with the moon\nbe accepted, to kill the locust, its shadow alone sufficed. But\ninasmuch as the locusts are considered destroyers of corn, the birds\nof Seleucia, which come to devour them, are held to be beneficent, and\nthe ministers of Zeus.\n\nThe gryphes are represented as of double nature, now propitious, now\nmalignant. Solinus calls them, \"Alites ferocissim\u00e6 et ultra rabiem\ns\u00e6vientes.\" Ktesias declares that India possesses gold in mountains\ninhabited by griffins, quadrupeds, as large as wolves, which have the\nlegs and claws of a lion, red feathers on their breasts and in their\nother parts, eyes of fire and golden nests. For the sake of the gold,\nthe Arimaspi, one-eyed men, fight with the griffins. As the latter\nhave long ears, they easily hear the robbers of the gold; and if they\ncapture them, they invariably kill them. In Hellenic antiquity, the\ngriffins were sacred to Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance, and were\nrepresented in sepulchres in the act of pressing down a bull's head;\nbut they were far more celebrated as sacred to the golden sun, Apollo,\nwhose chariot they drew (the hippogriff, which, in medi\u00e6val\nchevaleresque poems, carries the hero, is their exact equivalent).\nAnd as Apollo is the prophetical and divining deity, whose oracle,\nwhen consulted, delivers itself in enigmas, the word _griffin_, too,\nmeant enigma, logogriph being an enigmatical speech, and griffonnage\nan entangled, confused, and embarrassing handwriting.\n\nFinally, the siren, or mermaid, who had a woman's face, and ended now\nas a bird, now as a fish; and who, according to Greek grammarians, had\nthe form of a sparrow in its upper parts and of a woman in the lower,\nseems to be a lunar rather than a solar animal. The sirens allure\nnavigators in particular, and fly after the ship of the cunning\nOdysseus, who stuffs his ears; for which reason they throw themselves\nin despair into the sea. The sirens are fairies like Circe; hence\nHorace[329] names them together--\n\n      \"Sirenum voces et Circes pocula nosti.\"\n\nPliny, who believed that they existed in India, attributed to them the\nfaculty of lulling men to sleep by their songs, in order to tear them\nto pieces afterwards; they calmed the winds of the sea by their\nvoices, they knew and could reveal every secret (like the fairy or\nMadonna moon). Some say that the sirens were born of the blood of\nAcheloos, defeated by H\u00earakl\u00eas; others, of Acheloos and one of the\nMuses; others, again, narrate that they were once girls, and that\nAphrodit\u00ea transformed them into sirens because they wished to remain\nvirgins. In the sixteenth Esthonian story, the beautiful maiden of\nthe waters, daughter of the mother of the waters, falls in love with a\nyoung hero with whom she stays six days of the week; the seventh day,\nThursday, she leaves him, to go and plunge into the water, forbidding\nthe youth to come and see her: the young man is unable to repress his\ncuriosity, surprises the maiden when bathing, and discovers that she\nis a woman in her upper and a fish in her lower parts--\n\n      \"Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne;\"\n\nthe maiden of the waters is conscious of being looked at, and\ndisappears sorrowfully from the young man's sight.[330]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[289] Pra \u00e7yenah \u00e7yenebhya \u00e2\u00e7up\u00e2tv\u00e2--Acakray\u00e2 yat svadhay\u00e2 suparno\nhavyam bharan manave devagushtam; _Rigv._ iv. 26, 4.--The somah\n\u00e7yen\u00e2bhritah is also mentioned in the _Rigv._ i. 80, 2, iv. 27, ix.\n77, and other passages.\n\n[290] \u00c7atam m\u00e2 pura \u00e2yas\u00eer arakshann adha \u00e7yeno gavas\u00e2 nir ad\u00eeyam;\n_Rigv._ iv. 27, 1.\n\n[291] Yam te \u00e7yena\u00e7 c\u00e2rum avrikam pad\u00e2bharad arunam m\u00e2nam andhasah--en\u00e2\nvayo vi t\u00e2ry \u00e2yur givasa en\u00e2 gag\u00e2ra bandhut\u00e2; _Rigv._ x. 144, 5.\n\n[292] In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_ (i. 2383), the ambrosia takes the shape of\nsperm. A king, far from his wife Girik\u00e2, thinks of her; the sperm\ncomes from him and falls upon a leaf. A hawk carries the leaf away;\nanother hawk sees it and disputes with it for the possession of the\nleaf; they fight with one another and the leaf falls into the waters\nof the Yamun\u00e2, where the nymph Adrik\u00e2 (equivalent to Girik\u00e2), changed\nby a curse into a fish, sees the leaf, feeds upon the sperm, becomes\nfruitful, and is delivered; cfr. the chapter on the Fishes.\n\n[293] \u00c7yeno 'yop\u00e2shtir hanti dasy\u00fbn; _Rigv._ x. 99, 8.--In the Russian\nstories the hawk and the dog are sometimes the most powerful helpers\nof the hero.\n\n[294] Ghrishuh \u00e7yen\u00e2ya kritvana \u00e2suh; _Rigv._ x. 144, 3.--Yam suparnah\npar\u00e2vatah \u00e7yenasya putra \u00e2bharat \u00e7atacakram; _Rigv._ x. 144, 1.\n\n[295] Sa p\u00fbrvyah pavate yam divas pari \u00e7yeno math\u00e2yad ishitas tiro\nragah sa madhva \u00e2 yuvate yevig\u00e2na it kri\u00e7\u00e2nor astur manas\u00e2ha\nbibhyush\u00e2; _Rigv._ ix. 77, 2.\n\n[296] iii. 3, 26.\n\n[297] Antah patat patatry asya parnam; _Rigv._ iv. 27, 4.--Cfr. for\nthis mythical episode the texts given by Prof. Kuhn and the relative\ndiscussions, _Die Herabkunft d. F. u. d. S._, pp. 138 _seq._ and 180\n_seq._\n\n[298] \u00c7yeno na bh\u00eetah; _Rigv._ i. 32, 14.\n\n[299] Anyam divo m\u00e2tari\u00e7v\u00e2 gabh\u00e2r\u00e2mathn\u00e2d anyam pari \u00e7yeno adreh;\n_Rigv._ i. 93, 6.\n\n[300] \u00c2 v\u00e2m \u00e7yen\u00e2so a\u00e7vin\u00e2 vahantu--ye apturo divy\u00e2so na gridhr\u00e2h;\n_Rigv._ i. 118, 4.\n\n[301] Gridhreva vriksham nidhimantam acha; _Rigv._ ii. 39, 1.\n\n[302] _Rigv._ i. 88, 4.--In fact, in the hymn i. 165, 2, the Marutas\nare explicitly compared to hawks that fly through the air (\u00e7yen\u00e2n iva\ndhragato antarikshe).\n\n[303] Drapsah samudram abhi yag gig\u00e2ti pa\u00e7yan gridhrasya cakshas\u00e2;\n_Rigv._ x. 123, 8.\n\n[304] i. 1078, _seq._\n\n[305] _Mbh._ i. 1495.\n\n[306] _Ib._ i. 1496, _seq._\n\n[307] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vii. 6.\n\n[308] _Ib._ vii. 7.\n\n[309] _Ib._ vi. 26.\n\n[310] _Mbh._ i. 1337, _seq._\n\n[311] iii. 20.\n\n[312] iii. 29.\n\n[313] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iv. 58, 59.\n\n[314] For the numerous Eastern varieties of this legend, cfr. the\nEinleitung to the _Pancatantram_, of Prof. Benfey, p. 388, _seq._--In\nthe fifth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_ (cfr. the sixth of\nthe same book), Little John is carried back from the bottom of the\nearth into Russia upon the wings of an eagle. When the eagle is hungry\nit turns its head, and Johnny gives it food; when the provisions come\nto an end, Johnny feeds it with his own flesh.--In the twenty-seventh\nstory of the second book, the two young people are carried from the\nworld of darkness into that of light on the wings of the bird\nKolpalitza; when the provisions come to an end, it is the girl that\ngives flesh, cut off her thigh, to the bird. But the youth, who has\nwith him the water of life, heals the amorous maiden; cfr. also\n_Afanassieff_, v. 23, and v. 28, where, instead of the eagle, we find\nthe hawk.--The same sacrifice of himself is made in a Piedmontese\nstory, recorded by me in first number of the _Rivista Orientale_, by a\nyoung prince, who wishes to cross the sea in order to see the princess\nthat he loves; the same is done by the young hero of the following\nunpublished Tuscan story, which I heard from a certain Martino Nardini\nof Prato:--\"A three-headed dragon steals during the night the golden\napples in the garden of the king of Portugal; the three sons of the\nking watch during the night: the first two fall asleep, but the third\ndiscovers the thief and wounds him. The day after, the three brothers\nfollow the track caused by the robber's blood: they come to a\nbeautiful palace, in which there is a cistern, into which the third\nbrother is lowered down, taking a trumpet with him to sound when he\nwishes to be taken up. Following a dark path he comes to a fine\nmeadow, where there are three splendid palaces, one of bronze, one of\nsilver, and one of gold; following the trace of blood, he goes to the\npalace of bronze; a beautiful maiden opens the gate to him, and\nwonders why he has come down to the world underground; the young\ncouple are pleased with each other, and promise to marry one another;\nthe maiden has a crown of brilliants, of which she gives him half as a\npledge. The dragon comes back home, and says:--\n\n      \"Ucci, ucci\n       O che puzzo di Cristianucci,\n       O ce n' \u00e8, o ce n' \u00e8 stati,\n       O ce n' \u00e8 di rimpiattati.\"\n\nThe maiden, who has concealed the young hero, caresses the dragon and\nmakes him fall asleep. When he is asleep, she brings the young man out\nof his concealment, gives him a sword and tells him to cut the three\nheads off at one blow. Helped by a second maiden, the young hero\nprepares to accomplish a second undertaking in the silver palace of the\nfive-headed dragon. He must cut the five heads off at a blow, for if one\nremains, it is as if he had cut none off. After having killed the\ndragon, he promises to marry the second maiden too. Finally, he knocks\nat the gate of the golden palace, which is opened by a third maiden; she\ntoo asks, \"What ever induced you to come to lose your life in the lower\nworld? The seven-headed dragon lives here.\" He promises to marry her;\nthe dragon does not wish to go to rest this night; but the maiden\npersuades him to do so, upon which the youth cuts off the seven heads in\ntwo strokes. The three girls, who were three princesses carried off by\nthe dragons, are released, and take all the riches that they can find in\norder to carry them into the upper world. They come to the cistern, the\nhero sounds the trumpet, and the two brothers draw up all the riches,\nthe three maidens, shutting up the entrance with a stone, and leaving\ntheir young brother alone in the subterranean world. The two elder\nbrothers force the three princesses to declare that they had delivered\nthem; they then go to the King of Portugal and boast of this feat,\nsaying, that the third brother is lost. The three princesses are sad, at\nwhich the King of Portugal wonders. The elder brothers wish to marry the\nmaiden who was in the bronze palace; but she declares that she will only\nmarry him who brings to her the other half of the crown of brilliants.\nThey send to all the goldsmiths and jewellers to find one who can make\nit. Meanwhile, the third brother, abandoned underground, cries out for\naid; an eagle approaches the tomb, and promises to carry him into the\nworld above, if he will allay its hunger. The young hero, by the eagle's\nadvice, puts lizards and serpents into a sack, and calls the eagle after\nhaving made a plentiful provision of food. He fastens the sack round his\nneck in order to give an animal to the eagle each time that it asks for\nfood. When they are a few arms' length distant from the upper world, the\nsack is empty; the youth cuts his flesh off with a knife and gives it to\nthe eagle, which carries him into the world, when the young man asks him\nhow he can return home. The bird directs him to follow the high road. A\ncharcoal-seller passes by; the young man proposes himself as his\nassistant, on condition that he give him some food. The charcoal-seller\ntakes him with himself for some time, and then recommends him to an old\nman, his friend, who is a silversmith. Meanwhile, the king's servants\nhave been six months wandering towards the sunset, searching for a\nsilversmith capable of making the other half of the crown, but in vain;\nthey then wander for six months towards the sunrise till they come to\nthe dwelling of the poor silversmith where the third brother serves as\nan assistant. The old man says he is not able to make the half crown;\nbut the young man asks to see the other half, recognises it, and\npromises to give it back entire in eight days. At the expiration of this\ntime, the king sends for the crown and the manufacturer, but the youth\nsends his master instead of himself. The princess, however, insists upon\nseeing the young assistant too; he is sent for and brought to the\npalace; the king does not recognise him, and asks what reward he wants;\nhe answers that he wishes for what the crown cost to the princess. The\nlatter recognises him, after which his father does so too. The young\nhero weds the princess to whom he had promised himself; and the two\nbrothers are covered with inflammable gums, and used as lamps to light\nup the wedding.\n\n[315] In a hitherto unpublished story of the Monferrato, communicated to\nme by Signor Ferraro, a king with three sons is blind; he would be cured\nif he could bathe his eyes in oil with a feather of the griffon-bird,\nwhich lives upon a high mountain. The third brother succeeds in catching\none, having been kind to an old woman; he brings the griffon-bird to his\nfather, who recovers his sight and his youth.--Cfr. the third story of\nthe fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, in which a hawk that is a princess\ntransformed, also gives to the brother of his wife one of his feathers,\nwhich he is to throw to the ground in case of necessity; indeed, when\nyoung Tittone requires it, a battalion of hawks appear in order to free\nthe imprisoned maiden loved by Tittone.--In the fifth story of the fifth\nbook of the _Pentamerone_, the hawk serves as a guide to a young king to\nfind a beautiful princess whom a witch has put to sleep, and who is\nbelieved to be dead. This princess becomes the mother of two sons, who\nare called Sun and Moon.--In the sixth Sicilian story of Signora\nGonzenbach, a young man releases an eagle that was entangled in the\nbranches of a tree; the grateful eagle gives him one of its feathers;\nletting it fall to the ground, the youth can become an eagle at\npleasure.\n\n[316] In the ninth Esthonian story it is the eagle that takes the\nmessage to the thunder-god to enable him to recover his weapon, which\nthe devil had carried off.--In the first Esthonian story, the eagle\nalso appears as the propitious messenger of the young prince.\n\n[317] In the story of Santo Stefano, _La Principessa che non ride_,\nthe eaglets have the same faculty of drawing after themselves\neverything that they touch; and, as forms of the winds (or the\nclouds), in which character they sometimes appear, we can understand\nthis property of theirs; the wind, too, draws after itself everything\nthat comes in its way, and especially the violent north wind\n(aquilo).--In Russian stories we have, instead, now the funereal\nstorks, now the marvellous goose taking the place of the eagle that\ndrags things behind it.\n\n[318] In the tenth Sicilian story of Signora Gonzenbach, it is in the\nshape of a silver eagle that the king of the assassins penetrates into\nthe room where the young wife of the king sleeps, upon whom he wishes\nto avenge himself.--Stephanus Stephanius, the interpreter of _Saxo\nGrammaticus_, writes, that among the English, the Danes, and other\nNorthern nations, it was the custom when an enemy was defeated, to\nthrust a sword, as a greater mark of ignominy, into his back, in such\na manner as to separate the backbone on both sides by a longitudinal\nwound; thence stripes of flesh having been cut off, they were fastened\nto the sides, so as to represent eagle's wings. (In Russian popular\nstories, when heroes and monsters fight, we find frequent reference to\na similar custom.)\n\n[319] Panrav\u00edlas satan\u00e1 lucshe yasnavo sakal\u00e1, _Afanassieff_, vi.\n16.--The proverb, however, may have another sense, viz., better the\ndevil in person than a beautiful but diabolical shape. The devil\nsometimes assumed the form of a hawk, as we learn from the legend of\nEndo, an English man-at-arms, who became enamoured of one into which\nthe devil had transformed himself, in Guillelmus Neubrigensis, _Hist.\nAngl._ i. 19.\n\n[320] In Plato's _Ph\u00e6don_, rapacious men are transformed into wolves\nand kites.\n\n[321] Cfr. Aldrovandi, _Ornith._ v.--And, moreover, in the same\nAldrovandi:--\"Narrant qui res Africanas literis mandarunt Aquilam\nmarem aliquando cum Lupa coire ... producique ac edi Draconem, qui\nrostro et alis avis speciem referat, cauda serpentem, pede Lupum, cute\nesse versicolorem, nec supercilia posse attollere.\"\n\n[322] I recommend, to whoever wishes to find all these circumstances\nunited, the perusal of the first volume of the _Ornithologia_ of\nAldrovandi, who dedicated in it to birds of prey a long and detailed\nstudy.--Cfr. also Bachofen. _Die Sage von Tanaquil_, Heidelberg, 1870.\n\n[323] Comparative popular medicine might be the subject of a special\nwork which could not fail to be instructive and interesting.\n\n[324]\n\n      \"Come l'Araba Fenice;\n       Che ci sia, ciascun lo dice;\n       Dove sia, nessun lo sa.\"\n\n[325] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 27.\n\n[326] _Itin._ i.\n\n[327] In the first chapter of the first book we saw how the witch\nsucked the breasts of the beautiful maiden.--In _Du Cange_, s. v.\n_Amma_, we read as follows: \"Isidorus, lib. xii. cap. vii. bubo strix\nnocturna: 'H\u00e6c avis, inquit ille, vulgo Amma dicitur ab amando\nparvulos, unde et lac pr\u00e6bere dicitur nascentibus.' Anilem hanc\nfabulam non habet Papias MS. Ecclesi\u00e6 Bituricensis. Sic enim ille:\nAmma avis nocturna ab amando dicta, h\u00e6c et strix dicitur a stridore.\"\n\n[328] M\u00e2 m\u00e2m ime patatrin\u00ee vi dugdh\u00e2m; _Rigv._ i. 158, 4.--In Sicily,\nthe bat called _taddarita_ is considered as a form of the demon; to\ntake and kill it, one sings to it--\n\n      \"Taddarita, 'ncanna, 'ncanna,\n       Lu dimonio ti 'ncanna\n       E ti 'ncanna pri li peni\n       Taddarita, veni, veni.\"\n\nWhen it is caught, it is conjured, because, when it shrieks, it\nblasphemes. Hence it is killed at the flame of a candle or at the\nfire, or else is crucified.\n\n[329] According to a Sicilian story, as yet unpublished, communicated\nto me by Dr Ferraro, a siren once carried off a girl, and bore her out\nto sea with her; and, though she occasionally allowed her to come to\nthe shore, she secured her against running away by means of a chain\nwhich was fastened to her own tail. The brother released his sister by\nthrowing bread and meat to the siren to satiate her hunger, employing\nseven blacksmiths the while to cut the chain.\n\n[330] Cfr. the _Pentamerone_, iv. 7; and the legend of Lohengrin, in\nthe chapter on the Swan.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE WREN, THE BEETLE, AND THE FIREFLY.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    _Rex and regulus_.--Iyattik\u00e2 \u00e7akuntik\u00e2.--The wren's\n    testament.--Vasiliskos; kunigli.--The wren and the eagle.--The wren\n    and the beetle.--The death of C\u00e6sar predicted by a wren.--_Equus\n    lun\u00e6._--Indragopas.--The red-mantled beetle.--The little cow of God\n    in Russia.--The chicken of St Michael in Piedmont.--The\n    cow-lady.--The Luc\u00eda and St Lucia.--The little pig of St Anthony;\n    the butterfly as a phallical symbol.--The cockchafer.--St\n    Nicholas.--Other popular names of the coccinella\n    septempunctata.--The ladycow tells children how many years they have\n    to live.--The firefly and the refulgent glowworm.--The firefly\n    flogged; it gives light to the wheat; the shepherd's candle.\n\nFrom the largest of birds we now pass to the smallest, from the _rex_\nto the _regulus_ (in Italian, _capo d'oro_, golden head), and to the\nred, golden, and green beetles (yellow and green are confounded with\none another, as we showed on a previous occasion, in the equivocal\nwords, _haris_ and _harit_), which are equivalent to it, and which are\nsubstituted for it in mythology. I recognise the wren in the very\nlittle bird (iyattik\u00e2 \u00e7akuntik\u00e2) of the _Rigvedas_, which devours the\npoison of the sun.[331] In a popular German song, the wren bewails the\nevils of winter, which, for the rest, it represents (in its character\nof the moon, it absorbs the solar vapours). A popular song of Scotch\nchildren celebrates the wren's testament--\n\n      \"The wren, she lies in care's nest,\n       Wi' meikle dole and pyne.\"\n\nThe wren (Greek, _basiliskos_; old German, _kunigli_), like the\nbeetle, appears as the rival of the eagle. It flies higher than the\nlatter. In a story of the Monferrato,[332] the wren and the eagle\nchallenge each other to a trial of their powers of flight. All the\nbirds are present. While the proud eagle rises in the air, despising\nthe wren, and flies so high that it is soon wearied, the wren has\nplaced itself under one of the eagle's wings, and when it sees the\nlatter exhausted, comes out, and, singing victory, rises higher still.\nPliny says that the eagle is the enemy of the wren: \"Quoniam rex\nappellatur avium.\" Aristotle, too, relates that the eagle and the wren\nfight against each other. The fable of the challenge between the eagle\nand the wren was already known in antiquity; the challenge was said to\nhave been given when the birds wished to procure for themselves a\nking. The eagle, which had flown higher than all the other birds, was\nabout to be proclaimed king, when the wren, hidden under one of the\neagle's wings, flew upon the latter's head, and proclaimed itself\nvictorious. The wren and the beetle seem generally to represent the\nmoon, known to be the protectress of weddings; for this reason,\naccording to Aratos, weddings were not to take place whilst the wren\nwas hidden in the earth. We know how the full moon (a phallical\nsymbol) was considered the most propitious season for weddings).\nAccording to Suetonius, the death of C\u00e6sar was predicted to happen on\nthe Ides of March by a wren, which was torn in pieces by several other\nbirds in the Pompeian temple, as it was carrying a laurel branch away\n(as the eagle does; out of the wintry darkness, ruled over by the moon\nin particular, spring comes forth; the dark eagle represents sometimes\nthe darkness, as the wren the moon, which wanders in the darkness).\n\nWe saw the beetle that flies upon the eagle in the preceding chapter.\nPliny says of the Persian Magi that they charmed away hail, locusts,\nand every similar evil from the country, when \"aquil\u00e6 scalperentur aut\nscarabei,\" with an emerald. According to Telesius, the Calabrians, in\nthe Cosentino, call the gold-green beetle by the name of the horse of\nthe moon (equus lun\u00e6). This is the sacred beetle, which is so often\nrepresented in ancient cameos and obelisks, and in the Isiac peplums\nof the mummies. But there is another beetle which is yet more familiar\nto Indo-European tradition--viz., the little and nearly round one,\nwith a red mantle and black spots (ladybird or cow-lady). It was\nalready known in India, where the name of _indragopas_ (protected by\nIndras) is given to a red beetle. In a Hindoo verse we read that the\nmantled red beetle falls down because it has flown too high[333] (in\nthis myth the rising and setting both of the moon and of the sun are\nrepresented; cfr. the legends of Icaros, Hanumant, and Sampatis). In\nGermany the red beetle is advised to flee because its house is on\nfire.[334] In Russia the same red beetle with black spots is called\nthe little cow of God (we have already seen the cow-moon), and\nchildren say to it--\n\n      \"Little cow of God,\n       Fly to the sky,\n       God will give you bread.\"[335]\n\nIn Piedmont the same beetle is called the chicken of St Michael, and\nchildren say to it--\n\n      \"Chicken of St Michael,\n       Put on your wings and fly to heaven.\"[336]\n\nIn Tuscany it is called luc\u00eda,[337] and children cry out to it--\n\n      \"Luc\u00eda, luc\u00eda\n       Metti l'ali e vola via.\"\n\n(Put out your wings and fly away.) The red beetle with black spots is\nalso called St Nicholas (Santu Nicola), or even little dove\n(palumedda). When one of their teeth falls, children expect a gift\nfrom the beetle; they hide the tooth in a hole, and then invoke the\nlittle animal;[338] returning to the place, they usually find a coin\nthere, deposited by their father or mother. The red beetle, the\nladycow of the English (coccinella septempunctata), has several names\nin Germany, which have been collected by Mannhardt in his German\nMythology; among others, we find those of little bird of God, little\nhorse of God, little cock of Mary, little cock of gold, little animal\nof heaven, little bird of the sun, little cock of the sun, little calf\nof the sun, little sun, little cow of women (it is therefore also\ninvoked for milk and butter), and little cock of women. German\nmaidens, in fact, in Upland, send it to their lovers as a messenger of\nlove, with the following verses:--\n\n      \"Jungfrau Marias,\n       Schl\u00fcsselmagd,\n       Flieg nach Osten,\n       Flieg nach Westen,\n       Flieg dahin wo mein Liebster wohnt.\"[339]\n\nThe ladycow shows the Swedish maidens their bridal gloves; Swiss\nchildren interrogate it (in the same way as the cuckoo is\ninterrogated) to know how many years they will live.[340]\n\nThe worship which is given to the red beetle is analogous to that\nreserved for the firefly (cicindela); the firefly, however, like the\nGerman Feuerk\u00e4fer, which German children, in spring, strike in a hole\nand carry home[341] the luminous glowworm that hides in hedges, like\nthe wren, called also in Italian _forasiepe_, pierce-hedge, round\nwhich glowworm the stupid monkeys of the _Pancatantram_ sit in winter\nto warm themselves), is not treated so well. In Tuscany the poor\nfirefly, which appears in late spring (in Germany it appears somewhat\nlater, whence its name of Johannisw\u00fcrmchen), is menaced with a\nflogging, and children sing to it after catching it:--\n\n      \"Lucciola, lucciola, vien da me,\n       Ti dar\u00f2 un pan del re,[342]\n       Con dell' ova affritellate,\n       Carne secca e bastonate.\"\n\n(Firefly, firefly, come to me; I will give you a king's loaf of bread,\nwith fried eggs, bacon, and a flogging.) It is said in Tuscany that\nthe firefly gives light to the wheat when the corn begins to grow in\nthe ear; when it has grown, the firefly disappears.[343] Children are\naccustomed to catch the firefly and put it under a glass, hoping in\nthe morning they will find a coin instead of the firefly. In Sicily,\nthe firefly is called the little candle of the shepherd (_cannilicchia\ndi picuraru_; the shepherd, or celestial pastor, the sun; the moon\ngives light to the sun and shows him the way to traverse from autumn\nto spring, from evening to day), and is sought for and carried home to\nsecure good luck. And inasmuch as the firefly shines by night, it is\nmore probable that it represented the moon than the sun in popular\nmythical beliefs. The firefly disappears as soon as the ears are ripe,\n_i.e._, with the summer; we have already seen that the winter, or cold\nseason of the year (like the night or cold season of the day) is under\nthe especial influence of the moon. The red beetle must flee when\nsummer comes, in order not to be burnt; the firefly, the glowworm, or\nworm of fire, is flogged, and the summer sun triumphs.\n\nI suppose that the same mythical nature belongs to the butterfly\n(perhaps the black little butterfly with red spots), which is called in\nSicily the little bird of good news (occidduzzu bona nova), or little\npig of St Anthony (purcidduzzu di S. Antoni), and which is believed to\nbring good luck when it enters a house. It is entreated to come into the\nhouse, which is then immediately shut, so that the good luck may not go\nout. When the insect is in the house, they sing to it:--\n\n      \"In your mouth, milk and honey;\n       In my house, health and wealth.\"[344]\n\nThe butterfly was in antiquity both a phallical symbol (and therefore\nEros held it in his hand) and a funereal one, with promises of\nresurrection and transformation; the souls of the departed were\nrepresented in the forms of butterflies carried towards Elysium by a\ndolphin. The butterfly was also often represented upon the seven\nstrings of the lyre, and upon a burning torch. It dies to be born\nagain. The phases of the moon seem to correspond in the sky to the\nzoological transformations of the butterfly.\n\nOther beetles--the green beetle and the cockchafer--have also\nextraordinary virtues in fairy tales. In the fifth story of the third\nbook of the _Pentamerone_, the cockchafer (scarafone; in Toscana, it\nis called also indovirello) can play on the guitar, saves the hero,\nNardiello, and makes the princess laugh that had never laughed before.\nIn the fifty-eighth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the\ngreen beetle cleans the hero who had fallen into the marsh, and makes\nthe princess laugh who had never laughed before (the beetle, which\nappears in spring, like the phallical cuckoo, releases the sun from\nthe marsh of winter).\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[331] Gagh\u00e2sa te visham; _Rigv._ i. 191, 11.\n\n[332] Communicated to me by Dr Ferraro.--A similar story is still told\nin Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Ireland, with the variation of the\nstork as the eagle's rival in flying: when the stork falls down tired\nout, the wren, which was hidden under one of its wings, comes forth to\nmeasure itself with the eagle, and not being tired, is victorious.--In\na popular story of Hesse, the wren puts all the animals, guided by the\nbear, to flight by means of a stratagem.\n\n[333] Atyunnatim pr\u00e2pya narah pr\u00e2v\u00e2rah k\u00eetako yatha sa\nvina\u00e7yatyasamdeham; B\u00f6htlingk, _Indische Spr\u00fcche_, 2te Aufl. Spr. 181.\n\n[334] The same superstition exists in some parts of England, where the\nchildren address it thus:--\n\n      \"Cow-lady, cow-lady, fly away home;\n       Your house is all burnt, and your children are gone.\"\n\nThe English names for this beetle are ladybird, ladycow, ladybug, and\nladyfly (cfr. Webster's English Dictionary). The country-people also\ncall it golden knop or knob (Cfr. Trench _On the Study of Words_).\n\n[335]\n\n      \"Boszia Kar\u00f3vka\n       Palet\u00ed na niebo.\n       Bog dat tibi\u00e9 hleba.\"\n\n[336]\n\n      \"La gali\u00f1a d' San Michel\n       B\u00fcta j ale e vola al ciel.\"\n\n[337] Sacred, no doubt, to St Lucia. In the Tyrol, according to the\n_Festliche Jahr_ of Baron Reinsberg, St Lucia gives presents to girls,\nand St Nicholas to boys. The feast of St Lucia is celebrated on the\n15th of September; that evening no one need stay up late, for whoever\nworks that night finds all the work undone in the morning. The night\nof St Lucia is greatly feared (the saint loses her sight; the summer,\nthe warm sunny season, comes to an end; the Madonna moon disappears,\nand then becomes queen of the sky, the guardian of light, as St\nLucia), and conjurings are made against nightmare, devils, and\nwitches. A cross is put into the bed that no witch may enter into it.\nThat night, those who are under the influence of fate see, after\neleven o'clock, upon the roofs of houses a light moving slowly and\nassuming different aspects; prognostications of good or evil are taken\nfrom this light, which is called _Luzieschein_.\n\n[338]\n\n      \"Santu Nicola, Santu Nicola\n       Facitimi asciari ossa e chiova.\"\n       (St Nicholas, St Nicholas,\n       Make me find bone and coin.)\n\n[339] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_.\n\n[340] Cfr. Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_.\n\n[341] Kuhn und Schwartz, _N. d. S. M. u. G._, p. 377.\n\n[342] In another Tuscan variety, the song begins--\n\n      \"Lucciola, Lucciola, bassa, bassa,\n       Ti dar\u00f2 una materassa,\" &c.\n\n(Firefly, firefly, down so low, I will give you a mattrass.)\n\n[343] Pliny, too, wrote in the eighteenth book of his _Natural\nHistory_: \"Lucentes vespere cicindelas signum esse maturitatis panici\net milii.\" G. Telesius of the Cosentino wrote an elegant Latin poem\nupon the firefly or cicindela, in the seventeenth century.\n\n[344]\n\n      \"'Ntr' \u00e0 to vucca latti e meli,\n       'Ntr' \u00e0 m\u00e8 casa saluti e beni.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nTHE BEE, THE WASP, THE FLY, THE GNAT, THE MOSQUITO, THE HORSEFLY, AND\nTHE CICADA.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The bees and the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u.--Madhumakshas.--Indras, Krishnas, and\n    Vishnus as M\u00e2dhavas.--The bees and Madhuhan.--Beowulf.--The god of\n    thunder and the bees.--Vishnus as a bee.--The _ocymum nigrum_.--The\n    bees as nurses.--Melissai.--Sel\u00ean\u00ea as Melissa.--Souls as bees.--The\n    bees born in the bull's dead body.--The bee according to Finnish\n    mythology.--The bees descended from paradise as part of the mind of\n    God.--Bee's-wax causes light.--The Bienenstock.--The madhumati\n    ka\u00e7\u00e2.--The bees as winds.--Apis and avis.--The mother of the\n    bees.--The young hero as a bee.--The fairy moon as a gnat.--The\n    fly's palace.--The flies bartered for good cattle.--Intelligence of\n    the bee.--The wasp as a judge.--The fly, the gnat, and the\n    mosquito.--The louse and the flea.--The ant and the fly.--The ant\n    and the cicada.--The cicad\u00e6 and the muses.--Tithon as a cicada.--The\n    sparrow and the cicada.--The cicada and the cuckoo.\n\nI find the bee in the Vedic mythology, where the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u \"carry to the\nbees the sweet honey,\"[345] where the horses of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, compared to\n\"ambrosial swans, innocent, with golden wings, which waken with the\ndawn, swim in the water, and enjoy themselves, cheerful,\" are invoked to\ncome, \"like the fly of honey,\" _i.e._, the bee, \"to the juices.\"[346]\nThe gods Indras, Krishnas, and Vishnus, on account of their name\nM\u00e2dhavas (that is, born of madhus, belonging to or in connection with\nit), were also compared in India to bees; the bee, as making and\ncarrying honey (madhukaras), is especially the moon; as sucking it, it\nis especially the sun. The name of bhramaras or wanderer given in India\nto the bee, is as applicable to the sun as to the moon. In the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_[347] it is said that the bees kill the destroyer of honey\n(madhuhan). In the chapter on the bear, we saw how the bear was killed\nby the bees (cfr. the name Beowulf, explained as the wolf of bees), and\nhow in India it personified Vishnus. Now it is not uninteresting to\nlearn how Madhuhan, originally the destroyer of the madhu, became a name\nof Krishnas or Vishnus in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_ and in the _Bh\u00e2gavata P._;\nof madhu (honey) was made a demon, killed by the god (sun and moon, sun\nand cloud, are rivals; the solar bear destroys the beehive of the moon\nand the clouds).[348] Vishnus (as Haris, the sun and the moon) is\nsometimes represented as a bee upon a lotus-leaf, and Krishnas with an\nazure bee on his forehead. When the Hindoos take honey out of a hive\nwith a rod, they always hold in one hand the plant toolsy (ocymum\nnigrum), sacred to Krishnas (properly the black one), because one of the\ngirls beloved of Krishnas was transformed into it.[349]\n\nIn the legend of Ibr\u00e2h\u00eem Ibn Edhem, in the _Tuti-Name_[350] we read of\na bee that carries crumbs of bread away from the king's table to take\nthem to a blind sparrow. Mel\u00edai and M\u00e9lissai, or bees, were the names\nof the nymphs who nursed Zeus; the priestesses of the nurse-goddess\nD\u00eam\u00eat\u00ear were also called M\u00e9lissai.\n\nAccording to Porphyrios[351] the moon (Sel\u00ean\u00ea) was also called a bee\n(Melissa). Sel\u00ean\u00ea was represented drawn by two white horses or two\ncows; the horn of these cows seems to correspond to the sting of the\nbee. The souls of the dead were supposed to come down from the moon\nupon the earth in the forms of bees. Porphyrios adds that, as the moon\nis the culminating point of the constellation of the bull (as a bull\nherself), it is believed that bees are born in the bull's carcase.\nHence the name of _bougeneis_ given by the ancients to bees. Dionysos\n(the moon), after having been torn to pieces in the form of a bull,\nwas born again, according to those who were initiated in the Dionysian\nmysteries, in the form of a bee; hence the name of Bougen\u00eas also given\nto Dionysos, according to Plutarch. Three hundred golden bees were\nrepresented, in conjunction with a bull's head, in the tomb of\nChilderic, the king of the Franks. Sometimes, instead of the lunar\nbull we find the solar lion; and the lion in connection with bees\noccurred in the mysteries of Mithras (and in the legend of Samson).\n\nAccording to the Finnish mythology of Tomasson, quoted by Menzel,[352]\nthe bee is implored to fly far away over the moon, over the sun, near\nto the axis of the constellation of the waggon, into the dwelling of\nthe Creator god, and carry upon its wings and in its mouth health and\nhoney to the good, and wounds of fire and iron to the wicked.\n\nAccording to a popular belief (which is in accordance with the legend\nof the Cerkessians), the bees alone of all animals descended from\nparadise.[353] Virgil, too, in the fourth book of the _Georgics_,\ncelebrates the divine nature of the bee, which is a part of the mind\nof God, never dies, and alone among animals ascends alive into heaven\n(in popular Hellenic, Latin, and German tradition, the bee personifies\nthe soul, and this being considered immortal, the bee, too, is\nsupposed to escape death):--\n\n      \"Esse apibus partem divin\u00e6 mentis et haustus\n       \u00c6thereos dixere: Deumque namque ire per omnes\n       Terrasque, tractusque maris coelumque profundum.\n       Hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne ferarum,\n       Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas;\n       Scilicet huc reddi deinde ac resoluta referri\n       Omnia; nec morti esse locum; sed viva volare\n       Sideris in numerum atque alto succedere coelo.\"\n\nThe wax of bees, because it produces light, and is, moreover, used in\nchurches,[354] must also have had its part in increasing the divine\nprestige of bees, and the belief in their immortality, as being those\nthat feed the fire. According to a writing of 1482, cited by Du Cange,\nthe sacred disease or _ignis sacer_ (pestilential erysipelas) was\ncured by wax dissolved in water.\n\nIn Germany the death of their master is announced to the bees in the\nlittle stick round which the honey is made in the hive. The hive or the\nBienenstock, participates in the divine nature of the bees, and calls my\nattention to the madhumat\u00ee ka\u00e7\u00e2 or madhoh ka\u00e7\u00e2 of the _Rigvedas_, and of\nthe _Atharvavedas_, attributed to the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, and destined to soften\nthe sacrificial butter, which is of a nature similar to the _caduceus_\nof Mercury, and to the magical rod, born of all the various elements and\nof none in particular, daughter of the wind, and sometimes perhaps\nitself the wind; the _anima_, the soul (the bee), is a breath, a breeze,\na wind (anemos, anilas), which changes its place, but never dies; it\ncollects and scatters honey and perfumes, and passes away, changeful as\nthe American flybird that sucks honey, the continual beating of whose\nwings resembles the buzzing of a bee; the _apis_ and _avis_ are\nassimilated. In Du Cange,[355] I find an oration to the mother of the\nbees, to call back the dispersed ones of her family, conceived\nthus:--\"Adjuro te, Mater aviorum per Deum regem coelorum et per ilium\nRedemptorem Filium Dei te adjuro, ut non te altum levare, nec longe\nvolare, sed quam plus cito potest ad arborem venire; ibi te allocas cum\nomni tua genera, vel cum socia tua, ibi habeo bono vaso parato, ut vos\nibi, in Dei nomine, laboretis,\" &c.\n\nIn the twenty-second story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, a bee\ntransforms itself into a young hero, in order to prove to the old man\nthat he is able to fetch back his son, who has remained three years\nunder the instruction of the devil (the moon enables the old sun to find\nthe young one; it helps the sun to cheat the devil of night). In the\nsame story it is in the form of a gnat that the guardian-fairy perches\nherself upon the young hero, whom his father has to recognise amongst\ntwelve heroes that bear the greatest resemblance to one another. In the\nforty-eighth story of the fifth book, the gnat distinguishes, among the\ntwelve maidens that resemble each other extremely, the one whom the\nyoung hero loves, that is, the daughter of the priest, whom the devil\nhad taken possession of, because her father had once said to her, \"The\ndevil take you.\" This indicatory gnat occurs in numerous fairy tales,\nand discharges the office of the fairy moon; this is the guide and\nmessenger of the hero. We have already seen the moon as a hostess. In\nthe thirty-first story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, we have the\nfly that entertains in its palace (according to the sixteenth story of\nthe third book, a horse's head) the louse, the flea, the mosquito, the\nlittle mouse, the lizard, the fox, the hare, and the wolf, until the\nbear comes up and crushes with one paw the whole palace of the fly, and\nall the mythical nocturnal animals that it contains. We have also seen\nthe hero who barters his bull for a vegetable which brings him fortune,\nand we have seen above the bee that is born of the dead bull. In the\nseventh story of the third book of _Afanassieff_, the third brother,\nsupposed to be foolish, collects, on the contrary, flies and mosquitoes\nin two sacks, which he suspends upon a lofty oak-tree, where he barters\nthem for good cattle (the moon is the pea of good fortune, the giver of\nabundance). We know that the moon was represented as the judge of the\ndeparted in the kingdom of the dead, and as an omniscient fairy. The\nindustrious bees have a singular reputation for superior\nintelligence.[356] In the thirteenth fable of the third book of\n_Ph\u00e6drus_, proof of the same wisdom is given by the wasp, who sits in\nthe tribunal as a conscientious judge between the drones and the working\nbees in regard to the honey which the bees had collected and stored up\non a lofty oak-tree, and to which the drones had pretensions.\n\nThe fly, the gnat, and the mosquito, though small, annoy, and\nsometimes cause the death of, the most terrible animals; the beetle\ngets upon the eagle to escape the hare; the hare allures the elephant\nand the lion into the water;[357] the moon allures the sun into the\nnight and the winter; the moon overcomes the sun, devoid of rays; the\nsun is deprived of its rays, the hero loses his strength with his\nhair; the fly alights upon the bald head of the old man, and annoys\nhim in every way; the old man, wishing to strike the fly, only slaps\nhimself. In _Ph\u00e6drus_, again, we find the fly quarrelling with the\nrustic ant; the fly boasts of partaking of the offerings given to the\ngods, of dwelling amidst the altars, of flying through every temple,\nof sitting upon the heads of kings, of the kisses of beautiful women,\nand that without the necessity of submitting to any labour. The ant\nanswers the fly by referring to the certain approach of winter, during\nwhich the ant, who had worked hard, has abundant provisions, and\nlives, whilst the fly dies of cold and starvation. Moreover, the ant\nsays to it in one expressive verse--\n\n      \"\u00c6state me lacessis; cum bruma est, siles.\"\n\nThis same discussion is reported, with more semblance of truth, by\nother fabulists, as having happened between the shrill and inert\ncicada and the silent and laborious ant.\n\nIn the preceding chapter we saw the musical beetle. We are tempted to\nfigure the bee as a musician, from the form of the bee being sometimes\nattributed to the Hellenic Muses and Apollo, and the name \"bee of\nDelphi\" being given to the Pythoness (as a cloud). But according to\nPlato, the Muses transformed into cicad\u00e6 the men who amused themselves\nby singing, and were so absorbed in that occupation they forgot to eat\nand to drink. If this myth be not a satirical invention of Plato's\nagainst poets, the bees as Muses, and those who became cicad\u00e6 on\naccount of the Muses, should enter into the same mythical family.\nAccording to Isidorus, the cicad\u00e6 are born of the saliva of the\ncuckoo; this belief figuratively expresses the passage from spring to\nthe summer season, to the season of the harvest, to the season of\nabundance, in which, according to a Tuscan proverb among thieves, he\nis a fool who cannot make his own fortune.[358] According to\nHes\u00fcchios, the ass was called at Cyprus by the name of a mature cicada\n(tettix pr\u00f4inos); the cicada (as the sun) dies, and the ass (as the\nnight or winter) appears. According to Phil\u00ea,[359] the cicad\u00e6 feed\nupon the eastern dew, perhaps in reminiscence of the Hellenic myth\nwhich makes the sun Tithon the lover of the aurora. The sun feeds upon\nthe ambrosia, and is therefore immortal; but he has not the gift of\neternal youth; his members dry up; after having sung all through the\nlaborious noisy day, through the laborious noisy summer, he expires;\nfor this reason the Hellenic myth represented the aged Tithon as\ntransformed into a cicada.[360] The cicada is born again in spring of\nthe cuckoo's saliva, and in the morning of the dew of the aurora; the\ntwo accounts correspond with one another. The cicada of summer\nappears, and the cuckoo of spring disappears; hence the popular belief\nthat the cicad\u00e6 wage war to the death with the cuckoo, attacking it\nunder its wings; hence it is supposed that the cuckoo devours its own\nnurse; the aurora devours the night, the spring devours the winter.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[345] Madhu priyam bharatho yat saradbhyah; _Rigv._ i. 112, 21.\n\n[346] Hans\u00e2so ye v\u00e2m madhumanto asridho hiranyaparn\u00e2 uhuva\nushar-budhah udapruto mandino mandinispri\u00e7o madhvo na makshah savan\u00e2ni\ngachathah; _Rigv._ iv. 45, 4. Here _makshas_, in conjunction with\n_madhvas_, gives us the sense of _madhumakshas_ and _madhumakshika_,\nwhich means bee, and not fly, as it was interpreted by other\ntranslators, and by the Petropolitan Dictionary, whose learned editors\nwill be all the more induced to make this slight correction in the new\n_Verbesserungen_, as in this hymn, as well as in the hymn i. 112, the\nbees are considered in connection with the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u.\n\n[347] iii. 1333.\n\n[348] The god of thunder (or Indras), in opposition to the bees, is\nalso found in a legend of the Cerkessians quoted by Menzel. The god\ndestroys them; but one of them hides under the shirt of the mother of\nGod, and of this one all the other bees are born.--According to the\npopular superstition of Normandy, in _De Nore_, quoted by Menzel, the\nbees (the same is said of the wasps and the horseflies) are revengeful\nwhen maltreated, and carry happiness into a house when treated well.\nIn Russia it is considered sacrilege to kill a bee.\n\n[349] Cfr. Addison, _Indian Reminiscences_.\n\n[350] ii. 112.\n\n[351] Per\u00ec ton en Od\u00fcsseia t\u00f4n N\u00fcmph\u00f4n antron.\n\n[352] Die Bienen gebeten werden: \"Biene, du Weltv\u00f6glein, flieg in die\nWeite, \u00fcber neun Seen, \u00fcber den Mond, \u00fcber die Sonne, hinter des\nHimmelssterne, neben der Achse des Wagengestirns; flieg in den Keller\ndes Sch\u00f6pfers, in des Allm\u00e4chtigen Vorrathskammer, bring Arznei mit\ndeinen Fl\u00fcgeln, Honig in deinem Schnabel, f\u00fcr b\u00f6se Eisenwunden und\nFeuerwunden;\" _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_. In this\nwork, to which I refer the reader, Menzel treats at length of the\nworship of bees, and of honey.\n\n[353] In the Engadine in Switzerland, too, it is believed that the\nsouls of men emigrate from the world and return into it in the forms\nof bees. The bees are there considered messengers of death; cfr.\nRochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 147, 148.--When some one\ndies, the bee is invoked as follows, almost as if requesting the soul\nof the departed to watch for ever over the living:--\n\n      \"Bienchen, unser Herr ist todt,\n       Verlass mich nicht in meiner Noth.\"\n\nIn Germany, people are unwilling to buy the bees of a dead man, it\nbeing believed that they will die or disappear immediately after\nhim:--\"Stirbt der Hausherr, so muss sein Tod nicht bloss dem Vieh im\nStall und den Bienen im Stocke angesagt werden;\" Simrock, the work\nquoted before, p. 601.--In the East, as is well-known, it was the\ncustom to bury great men in a tomb sprinkled over with honey or\nbeeswax as a symbol of immortality.\n\n[354] Der Adel der Bienen ist vom Paradies entsprossen und wegen der\nS\u00fcnde des Menschen kamen sie von da heraus und Gott schenkte ihnen\nseinen Segen, und deshalb ist die Messe nicht zu singen ohne Wachs;\nLeo, _Malberg. Gloss\u00e6_, 1842.\n\n[355] _Baluz. Capitulor._ tom. ii. p. 663, in oratione ad revocandum\nexamen apum dispersum ex Cod. MS. S. Gall\u00ef.\n\n[356] In _Du Cange_: \"Apis significat formam virginitatis, sive\nsapientiam, in malo, invasorem.\"--_Papias M. S. Bitur_; ex illo\nforsitan officii Ecclesiast. in festo S. Cecili\u00e6: \"Cecilia famula tua,\nDomine, quasi Apis tibi argumentosa deservit,\" &c.\n\n[357] Cfr. the chapters on the Hare, the Lion, and the Elephant. The\nlouse and the flea have the same mythical nature as the mosquito and the\nfly.--In the ninth Esthonian story, the son of the thunder, by means of\na louse, obliges the thunder-god to scratch his head for a moment, and\nthus to let fall the weapon of thunder, which is instantly carried off\nto hell. The lice that fall down from the head of the witch combed by\nthe good maiden, or from that of the Madonna combed by the wicked\nmaiden, have already been mentioned. The Madonna that combs the child\nis, moreover, a subject of traditional Christian painting.--In the fifth\nstory of the first book of the _Pentamerone_, we read of a monstrous\nlouse. The king of Altamonte fattens a louse so much that it grows to\nthe size of a wether. He then has it flayed, orders the skin to be\ndirtied, and promises to give his daughter to wife to whoever guesses\nwhat skin this is. The ogre alone guesses, and carries the maiden off,\nwhom seven heroes afterwards go to deliver towards the aurora \"subito\nche l'Aucielle (the birds) gridaro: Viva lo Sole.\"\n\n[358]\n\n      \"Quando la cicala il c. batte\n       L'ha del m. chi non si fa la parte.\"\n\n[359] _Peri Z\u00f4\u00f4n idiot\u00eatos_, xxiv., with the additions of Joachim\nCamerarius.\n\n[360] Plutarch, in the _Life of Sylla_, cites among the prognostics of\nthe civil war between Marius and Sylla, the incident of a sparrow\nlacerating a cicada, of which it left part in the temple of Bellona,\nand carried part away.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE CUCKOO, THE HERON, THE HEATHCOCK, THE PARTRIDGE, THE NIGHTINGALE,\nTHE SWALLOW, THE SPARROW, AND THE HOOPOE.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The kokilas, the nightingale of the Hindoo poets.--The\n    heron.--Kokas.--Kapingalas.--The partridges.--The Vedas instead of\n    the enchanted ring.--The partridge as a devil.--The heathcock.--The\n    partridge and the peasant.--The pigmies ride on partridges.--Talaus\n    becomes a partridge.--The kapingalas as a cuckoo; Indras as a\n    kapingalas; Indras as a cuckoo.--Rambh\u00e2 becomes a stone.--Zeus as a\n    cuckoo.--The laughing nightingale instead of the cuckoo.--The myth\n    of Tereus.--The whoop, or hoopoe, announces, it divines secrets; the\n    blind whoop and its young ones.--It buries its parents.--The cuckoo\n    and the hawk.--The cuckoo anyapushtas.--The phallical cuckoo.--The\n    cuckoo as a good omen for matrimony.--The cuckoo is deceitful and a\n    derider.--The cuckoo as the messenger of spring, and as the bringer\n    of summer.--The death of the cuckoo.--_Cocu, coucoul, couquiol,\n    cucuault, kokk\u00fcges._--The cuckoo announces rain; the cuckoo as a\n    funereal bird.--The years of the cuckoo.--The cuckoo, the\n    nightingale, and the ass.--The learned nightingales.--The\n    nightingales predict the future.--The monster as a nightingale.--The\n    wind as a whistler.--The nightingale as the messenger of\n    Zeus.--Paidolet\u00f4r.--The phallical nightingale.--The nightingale as\n    the singer of the night.--The nightingale as the messenger of\n    lovers; he now helps them, and now compels them to separate.--The\n    sun dries the nightingale up; a wedding custom.--The swallow; the\n    chicken of the Lord.--The seven swallows of the _Edda_.--The swallow\n    blinds the witch.--The birds of the Madonna; San Francesco and the\n    swallows.--It is a mortal sin to kill them.--The swallows as guests;\n    sacred birds.--The swallow beautiful only in spring.--The swans and\n    the swallows sing.--The swallows as babblers.--It is a bad omen to\n    dream of swallows.--Chelid\u00f4n, the _pudendum muliebre_.--The sparrow\n    as a phallical bird.--The swallow as a diabolical form.\n\nThe kokilas or Indian cuckoo is for the Hindoo poets what the\nnightingale is for ours. The choicest epithets are employed to describe\nits singing, and the one most frequently applied to it in this reference\nis that of ravisher of the heart (hridayagrahin). While I write, I have\nnot under my eyes, nor can I have, Schlegel's edition of the\n_R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_; but if my memory does not deceive me, in the introduction,\nthe poet V\u00e2lm\u00eekis makes the first \u00e7lokas, when he hears the lamentation\nof a kokilas whose beloved companion has been killed. In the edition of\nGorresio, instead of the kokilas, we have the kr\u00e2uncas, which is the\nheron according to Gorresio, and the bustard (Brachvogel) according to\nthe Petropolitan Dictionary. Kokas, a synonym of kokilas, is also\nmentioned in a Vedic hymn.[361] The Hindoo commentator explains it as\ncakrav\u00e2kas, which must be the equivalent of heron, although the\ndictionaries interpret it particularly as the _anas casarca_. In the\nforty-second and forty-third hymns of the _Rigvedas_, a bird occurs\nwhich partakes of the nature of both the cuckoo and the heron, or\nbustard. Here the bird \"proclaims the future, predicts, launches its\nvoice as the boatman his boat:\" it is invoked \"that it be of good\naugury,\" that \"the hawk may not strike it,\" nor \"the vulture,\" nor \"the\narcher armed with darts;\" in order that, \"having called towards the\nfunereal western region, it may speak propitiously with good-omened\nwords,\" that it may \"shout to the eastern side of the houses,\npropitious, with good-omened words.\"[362] In this prophetic bird,\nexplained by the _Brihaddevat\u00e2_ as kapingalas, the Petropolitan\nDictionary recognises the heathcock (Haselhuhn), of which tittiris or\npartridge is also a rendering. A Hindoo brahmanic tradition transforms\ninto partridges the scholars of V\u00e2i\u00e7ampayanas to peck at the Vedas of\nY\u00e2gnavalkyas. The scholars of V\u00e2i\u00e7ampayanas are the compilers of the\n_T\u00e2ittiriya-Veda_, or Veda of the partridges, or else black Veda. The\nVedas sometimes occupies in Eastern tradition the place of the enchanted\nring. In Western tradition, the devil, or black monster, becomes a cock\nin order to peck at the pearl or ring of the young hero who has become\nwise. In St Jerome's and St Augustine's writings, we also read that the\ndevil often assumes the form of a partridge.[363] The Indian tittiris\noccurs again in the Russian tieteriev (the heathcock). In a story of the\nsecond book of _Afanassieff_, the Tzar gives to a peasant a golden\nheathcock for a dish of kiss\u00e9l, made of a grain of oats found in a\ndunghill (a variety of the well-known fable of the chicken and the\npearl). The heathcock finds the grain. In another story of the fifth\nbook of _Afanassieff_, a heathcock sits upon the oak-tree that is to\ncarry the peasant-hero into heaven; it falls down, struck by the bullet\nof a gun that goes off of itself, because a spark, coming out of the\ntree, fell upon the powder of the gun and made the charge explode. The\npartridge and the peasant often occur in connection with each other in\npopular traditions. The shoes that the peasant took for partridges are\nproverbial. Odoricus Forojuliensis speaks in his _Itinerarium_ of a man\nat Trebizonde who conducted four thousand partridges; as he walked on\nthe ground, the partridges flew through the air; when he stopped to\nsleep, the partridges also came down. According to the _Ornithologus_,\nthe pigmies, in the war against the cranes, rode upon partridges. An\nextraordinary degree of intelligence and prophetic virtue is ascribed to\nthese birds. Aldrovandi asserts, in his Ornithology, that tame\npartridges cry out loudly when poison is being prepared in the house.\nThe partridge was also called _d\u00e6dala_ in antiquity, both because of its\nintelligence, and because of the fable in which Talaus, the nephew of\nD\u00e6dalus, the inventor of rhyme, thrown from the citadel of Ath\u00ean\u00ea, by\nthe envoy of D\u00e6dalus, was changed into a partridge by the pitying gods.\n\nBut to return to the point we started from, that is, to the Hindoo\nkapingalas, we must notice that Professor Kuhn,[364] has recognised in\nit the cuckoo rather than the heathcock. A legend of the _Brihaddevat\u00e2_\ninforms us that Indras, desirous of being sung to, and having become\nkapingalas, placed himself at the right hand of the wise man that\ndesired (by the merit of his praises) to rise into heaven; then the wise\nman having, with the eye of a sage, recognised the god in the bird, sang\nfor psalms those two Vedic hymns of which one begins with the word\n_kanikradat_.\"[365] The god Indras is found again in the form of a\ncuckoo (kokilas) in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[366] where Indras sends the nymph\nRambh\u00e2 to seduce the ascetic Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, and in order to increase her\nattractions, he places himself near her in the form of a cuckoo that\nsings sweetly. But Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, with the eye of asceticism, perceives\nthat this is a seduction of Indras, and curses the nymph, condemning her\nto become a stone in the forest for ten thousand years.\n\nIn the first chapter of the first book we already saw the cuckoo in\nconnection with the thundering Zeus, and as the indiscreet observer of\nand agent in celestial loves. In the _Tuti-Name_,[367] instead of the\ncuckoo, we have the nightingale. The nightingale holds the betrayed king\nup to ridicule, laughing at him. The king wishes to know what this laugh\nof the nightingale means, and G\u00fblfish\u00e2n explains the enigma to him, not\nso much because he is able, as is supposed, to understand the language\nof birds, but because from the tower where he was imprisoned he had been\nthe spectator of the amours of the queen with her secret lover.\n\nIn the Greek myth of Tereus we find united several of the birds\nhitherto named, and the swallow besides; the pheasant takes the place\nof the partridge, and the whoop or hoopoe that of the cuckoo. It\u00fcs\neaten by his father Tereus, without the latter's knowledge, becomes a\npheasant; Tereus, who follows Progn\u00ea, becomes a whoop; Progn\u00ea, who\nflees from him, is transformed into a swallow; Philomela, the sister\nof Progn\u00ea, whose tongue had been cut out by Zeus to prevent her from\nspeaking, took the form of a nightingale, whence Martial--\n\n      \"Flet Philomela nefas incesti Tereos, et qu\u00e6\n       Muta puella fuit, garrula fertur avis.\"\n\nWith regard to the hoopoe, several beliefs are current analogous to\nthose known concerning the cuckoo and the swallow. In several parts of\nItaly it is called (on account of its crest and appearance in these\nmonths) the little cock of March or the little cock of May. It announces\nthe spring. By the ancients, its song before the vines ripened was\nlooked upon as a prediction of a plentiful vintage and good wine. It has\nthe virtue of divining secrets; when it cackles, it announces that foxes\nare hidden in the grass; when it groans, it is a prognostication of\nrain; by means of a certain herb, it opens secret places.[368] According\nto Cardanus, if a man anoints his temples with the blood of a whoop he\nsees marvellous things in his dreams. Albertus Magnus tells us that when\nan old whoop becomes blind, its young ones anoint its eyes with the herb\nthat opens shut places, and they recover their sight. This is in perfect\nconformity with a Hindoo story (a variation of the legend of Lear)\nnarrated by \u00c6lianos, according to which a king of India had several\nsons; the youngest was maltreated by his brothers, who ended by\nmaltreating and expelling their father. The youngest brother alone\nremained faithful to his parents, and followed them; but while they were\ntravelling, they died of weariness; the son opened his own head with his\nsword and buried his parents in it; the sun, moved to pity by this\nsight, changed the youth into a beautiful bird with a crest. But this\ncrested bird, instead of the whoop, may also be the lark, concerning\nwhich the Greeks had also a similar legend.\n\nThe cuckoo is the bird of spring; when it appears, the first claps of\nthunder are heard in the sky, announcing the season of heat. According\nto Isidorus it is the kite that brings the lazy cuckoo from distant\nregions. In the time of Pliny, the cuckoo was supposed to be born of\nthe sparrow-hawk, and Albertus Magnus, in the Middle Ages, asserted,\n\"Cuculus quidam componitur ex Columba et Niso sive Sparverio; alius,\nex Columba et Asture, mores etiam habet ex utroque compositos.\" There\nis nothing falser, zoologically speaking; but inasmuch as the\nlightning carries the thunder, the mythical hawk may well carry or\nproduce the mythical cuckoo. Moreover, the habits of the cuckoo are\nvery singular, and have not anything in common with those of the\nfalcon and the dove, or indeed any other animal. It is well-known\nthat, among the Hindoo names of the cuckoo we find anyapushtas and\nanyabhritas, which mean nourished by another (the crow is called\nanyabhrit, or nourisher of others, because it nurses the eggs of the\ncuckoo, which, for the rest, deposits them even in the nests of much\nsmaller animals[369]). From this singular habit of the cuckoo, it was\nnatural to conclude that the male cuckoo united itself in adultery\nwith the strange female bird to which it afterwards confided the eggs,\nwhich would thus be bastard eggs of the female itself that sits on\nthem. We have just seen Indras as a cuckoo and as a seducer of Rambh\u00e2;\nIndras as an adulterer is also very popular in the legend of Ahaly\u00e2,\nin which the cock (the morning sun) appears, instead, as the\nindiscreet betrayer of the secret amours of Indras (the hidden sun).\nIn a popular song of Bretagne, the perfidious mother-in-law insinuates\nto her son the suspicion that his young wife betrays him, saying,\n\"pr\u00e9servez votre nid du coucou.\"[370]\n\nThe cuckoo is the sun or solar ray in the darkness, or still oftener the\nthunderbolt hidden in the cloud. D\u00e2tyuhas is one of the Indian names of\nthe cuckoo, and also of the cloud, out of which alone the cuckoo is said\nto drink. As a hidden sun, the cuckoo is now an absent husband, a\ntravelling husband, a husband in the forests, and now an adulterer in\nsecret amorous intercourse with the wife of another. In any case, it is\noften a phallical symbol, and therefore delights in mysteries.\nMeanwhile, it sits on the sceptre of H\u00ear\u00ea, the protectress of marriages\nand childbirths, whilst Zeus himself, the thunder-striker, the\nthunderer, her adulterous brother, is called kokk\u00fck or cuckoo, because\nhe had hidden himself in H\u00ear\u00ea's lap in the shape of a cuckoo, in order\nnot to be recognised. Hence the song of the cuckoo was considered a good\nomen to whoever intended to marry. In the popular song of the Monferrato\nsung for the Easter eggs, the landlord is cunningly advised that it is\ntime to marry his daughters. In Swedish and Danish songs, the cuckoo\ncarries the wedding-nut to the nuptials. Nor was this because of its\nreputation as an adulterer, but because it has a phallical meaning,\nbecause it loves mysteries, and because it appears only in spring, in\nthe season of loves. For the rest, as an adulterer, it would have been a\nbad omen for marriages; in the _Asinaria_ of Plautus, indeed, a woman\ncalls her husband cuculus, because he sleeps with other women. The\ncuckoo is therefore, properly, the deceitful husband, the adulterer,\nthe hidden lover. The cuckoo is the derider; when children play at hide\nand seek, they are accustomed in Germany and in Italy, as well as in\nEngland, to cry out _cuckoo_ to him who is to seek them in vain, as is\nhoped. The Latin word _cucu_, with which the pruners of vines who came\nlate were held up to derision, the corresponding Piedmontese motto and\ngesture, mentioned in the first chapter of this work, and the Italian\nexpression _cuculiare_ for to ridicule, show the cuckoo as a cunning\nanimal. It is the first, as is said, of the migratory birds to appear,\nand the first to disappear. In Germany it is believed that the grapes\nripen with difficulty if the cuckoo continues to sing after St John's\nDay. It is the welcome messenger of spring[371] in the country, where it\ncalls the peasants to their work. Hesiod says that when the cuckoo\nsings among the oak-trees, it is time to plough.\n\nBut inasmuch as the cuckoo seldom shows itself, inasmuch as it\nrepresents essentially the sun hidden in the clouds, and as we know that\nthe sun hidden in the clouds has several contradictory aspects, as a\nwise hero that penetrates everything, as an intrepid hero that defies\nevery danger, as a betrayed hero, as a deceived husband, a traitor, a\nmonster or a demon, so the cuckoo also has an ungrateful and sinister\naspect. The adulterer who visits in secret the wife of another, becomes\nthe absent husband that is travelling, the husband in the forest, whilst\nhis wife entertains guests at home; or else the husband that sleeps\nwhilst his wife is only too watchful; whence the verse of Plautus--\n\n      \"At etiam cubat cuculus, surge, Amator, i domum,\"\n\nand the French word _cocu_, and those registered by Du Cange,[372]\n_coucoul_, _couquiol_, _cucuault_, to express the husband of an\nadulterous woman. In Aristophanes, inept and inexperienced men are\ncalled kokk\u00fcges. According to Pliny, a cuckoo bound with a hare's skin\ninduces sleep (that is to say, the sun hides itself, the moon appears,\nand the world falls asleep). When the cuckoo approaches a city, and\nespecially if it enters it, it bodes rain (that is, the sun hidden in\nclouds brings rain). In _Plutarch_ (Life of Aratos), the cuckoo asks the\nother birds why they flee from his sight, inasmuch as he is not\nferocious; the birds answer that they fear in him the future\nsparrow-hawk. The cuckoo that placed itself upon the spear of Luitprand,\nking of the Longobards, was considered by them as a sinister omen, as if\nthe cuckoo were a funereal bird. In Italy we say \"the years of the\ncuckoo,\" and in Piedmont \"as old as a cuckoo,\" to indicate great age. A\nmedi\u00e6val eclogue ascribes to the cuckoo the years of the sun, \"Phoebo\ncomes annus in \u00e6vum.\" As no one sees how the cuckoo disappears (the\nbelief that it is killed by the cicad\u00e6 not being generally received), it\nis supposed that it never dies, that it is always the same cuckoo that\nsings year after year in the same wood. And, inasmuch as it is immortal,\nit must have seen everything and must know everything. The subalpine\npeople, the Germans and the Slaves, ask the cuckoo how many years they\nstill have to live. The asker judges how many years of life he may count\nupon from the number of times that the cuckoo sings; in Sanskrit the\nvarsha or pluvial season determines the new year.\n\nWe said at the commencement of this chapter that the kokilas is the\nnightingale of Hindoo poets and its equivalent; and we have just noticed\nthat the cuckoo also represents the phallos. In the chapter on the ass,\nwe saw that the same r\u00f4le is sometimes taken by it. These three animals\nare found in conjunction in the well-known apologue of the cuckoo that\ndisputes for superiority in singing with the nightingale; the ass,\nsupposed to be the best judge in music on account of his long ears,\nbeing called to decide the question, declares for the cuckoo. (In the\nwonderful fable of Kriloff, instead of the cuckoo, the bird preferred by\nthe ass is the cock; the nightingale is said in it to be the lover and\nsinger of the aurora.) Then the nightingale appeals from the unjust\nsentence to man, singing melodiously.[373]\n\nA German song of the sixteenth century[374] places the nightingale in\nopposition to the cuckoo: \"it sings, it leaps, it is always gay when\nthe other little birds are silent.\"\n\nAccording to Pliny, the nightingales of the young C\u00e6sars, sons of\nClaudius, spoke Greek and Latin, and meditated every day to learn\nsomething new. Thus, the _Ornithologus_ speaks of two nightingales\nwhich, in 1546, at Ratisbon, disputed as to which spoke German best;\nin one of these discussions of the nightingale, the war between\nCharles V. and the Protestants was predicted. In the forty-sixth story\nof the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, a nightingale in a cage sings\ndolorously; the old man who possesses it says to his son Basil, that\nhe would give half his substance to know what the nightingale is\npredicting by this woful song. The boy, who understands the language\nof the bird, announces to his parents a prophecy of the nightingale\nthat they will one day serve him. The father is indignant; one day\nwhen the boy is asleep, he carries him to a boat and launches it on\nthe sea. The nightingale immediately leaves the house, and flying\naway, perches upon the boy's shoulder. A shipmaster finds the boy and\nthe nightingale, and takes them; the nightingale predicts tempests and\nthe approach of pirates. At last they arrive in a city where the\nroyal palace is assailed by three crows, which no one who attempts it\nsucceeds in chasing away; the king promises half the kingdom and his\nyoungest daughter to whoever can expel them, threatening death to\nwhoever essays the enterprise in vain. The boy, advised by the\nnightingale, presents himself, and tells the king that the crow, his\nmate, and his young one are there to be judged by him (we have seen a\nsimilar legend in the chapter on the dog); they wish to have it\ndetermined whether the young crow belongs to his father or to his\nmother. The king says, \"To his father;\" then the young crow flies away\nwith his father, while the female crow moves off in another direction.\nThe boy marries the princess, becomes a great lord, obtains half the\nkingdom, travels, and is one night the guest, without their knowledge,\nof his own parents, who bring him water to wash himself. Thus the\nprediction of the nightingale is accomplished. In the popular Russian\nlegend of Ilia Muromietz (Elias of Murom), the monster brigand killed\nby the hero's dart is called Nightingale (Salav\u00e9i). He has placed his\nnest upon twelve oak-trees, and kills as many as come in his way by\nsimply whistling.[375] In the _Edda_ of S\u00f6mund, the dwarf Alwis says\nof the wind, that it is called wind by men, vagabond by the gods, the\nnoisy one by the powerful, the weeper by the giants, the bellowing\ntraveller by the Alfes, and the whistler in the abode of Hel, that is,\nin the infernal regions; the Russian demoniacal monster-nightingale\nwould therefore appear to be the wind in the darkness.\n\nThe nightingale, like the cuckoo, is called by Sappho, in _Suidas_, by\nthe name of messenger of Zeus (now the moon, now the wind, now the\nthunder which announces rain). It also assumes a sinister aspect, under\nthe name of killer of sons (paidolet\u00f4r), given it by Euripides. In a\npopular song of Bretagne,[376] the nightingale laments that the month of\nMay has passed by with its flowers. In another song of Bretagne, the\nnightingale seems to have the same phallical signification which it has\nin the _Tuti-Name_. During the night, a wife is agitated on account of\nthe nightingale (the moon); her husband has it caught with a net, and\nlaughs when he has it.[377] The nightingale, as its name shows in the\nGermanic tongues, is the singer of the night, and a nocturnal bird.\nHence Shakspeare, in _Romeo and Juliet_,[378] names it, in contrast to\nthe lark, the announcer of morning:--\n\n      \"_Jul._ Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day;\n              It was the nightingale, and not the lark,\n              That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;\n              Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree:\n              Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.\n\n      _Rom_. It was the lark, the herald of the morn,\n              No nightingale.\"\n\nAnd it is as a nocturnal animal, and as a bird that sings concealed,\nthat the nightingale (as the moon does) pleases lovers, who make it\ntheir mysterious and secret messenger in popular superstition and\npopular songs in Germany, as in France. In the third story of the\nfifth book of the _Pentamerone_, the girl Betta makes a cake which has\nthe form of a handsome youth with golden hair; by the grace of the\ngoddess of love, the cake-youth speaks and walks, and Betta marries\nhim; but a queen robs her of him. Betta goes to seek him; an old woman\ngives to her three marvellous things, by means of which Betta obtains\nfrom the queen the permission of sleeping during the night with her\nyouth, who has become the queen's husband; one of these three marvels\nis a golden cage containing a bird made of precious stones and gold,\nwhich sings like a nightingale. In popular German songs, lovers seek\nto propitiate the nightingale by means of gold, but it answers that it\nknows not what to do with it; the nightingale (like the cuckoo, which\nis propitious to weddings, although an adulterer) now helps lovers,\nand now compels them to separate. In a popular English song,[379] two\nlovers go together into the shadowy forest, where the nightingale\nsings; the maiden is terrified by the nightingale; but when she has\nmarried her young lover, she no longer fears either the gloomy wood or\nthe nightingale's warbling. However much poetic imagination may have\nadorned similar legends, their phallical origin can always be traced.\nA popular German song says that the sun dries the nightingale up.\nAccording to popular wedding customs, it is a great shame if the young\npair let themselves be surprised in bed by the sun after the first\nnight of their union; hence the practical joke often played upon the\nhusband by his friends, who shut the outer shutters of the windows, in\norder that the rays of the morning sun may not enter the nuptial\nchamber. But our subject presses; let us continue.\n\nThe swallow has the same mythical meaning as the cuckoo; it is the\njoyful herald of spring, emerging from the tenebrific winter. In the\nwinter season, the swallow is of sinister omen; in the spring-time, on\nthe contrary, it is propitious.\n\nIn Piedmont, the swallow is called the chicken of the Lord. In the\n_Edda_, the seven swallows, one after another, advise Sigurd, who is\nstill undecided, to kill the monster that guards the treasures. Sigurd\nfollows the advice of the swallows, finds and obtains the hidden gold,\nand recovers his wife (the sun marries the spring, the flowery and\nverdant earth, when the swallows arrive and begin to sing). In the\nfifth story of the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, the swallow\nblinds the witch who had expelled it from its nest (the wintry season\nobliges the swallows to depart; the hot and luminous season disperses\nthe wintry darkness). In Germany the swallows are called the birds of\nthe Madonna; San Francesco called the swallows his sisters; and in the\nOberinnthal it is believed that they helped the Lord God in building\nthe sky. In Germany, as well as in Italy, the swallows are considered\nto be birds of the best augury; it is a mortal sin to kill them, or to\ndestroy their nests. In Germany and in Hungary, if a man destroys a\nswallow's nest, his cow no longer gives milk, or else gives it mixed\nwith blood. Hence it is advisable always to have a window open,\nbecause if a swallow enters the house it brings every kind of\nhappiness with it; in the same way, it is believed that guests bring\nluck into a house, and this is a beautiful belief, which is honourable\nto mankind, and one of the most signal evidences of man's sociable\nnature. In the _Ornithes_ of Aristophanes, the swallows are intrusted\nwith the building of the city of the birds. Solinus writes that even\nbirds of prey dare not touch the swallow, which is a sacred bird.\nAccording to Arrianos, a swallow which chirped round the head of\nAlexander the Great, whilst he was asleep, wakened him to warn him of\nthe machinations in his family that were being plotted against him. In\nan apologue the swallow warns the hen not to sit upon the eggs of the\nserpent. Swallows were anciently used in time of war as messengers.\nAccording to Pliny, again, the head of a swallow that fed in the\nmorning, was, when cut off at full moon, and tied in linen and hung\nup, an excellent remedy for headache.\n\nBut in an apologue where the swallow boasts to the crow of its beauty,\nthe crow answers that he is always equally beautiful, whilst the swallow\nis only beautiful in spring. In another apologue, which is found in the\nEpistle of St Gregory of Nazianzen to Prince Seleusius, the swallows\nboast to the swans of their twittering for the benefit of the public,\nwhilst the swans sing only for themselves, and that little, and in\nsolitary places. The swans answer that it is better to sing little and\nwell to a chosen few than much and badly to all. The Greeks, in a\nproverb, advise men not to keep swallows under their roofs, by which\nthey meant to put them on their guard against babblers. The swallow here\nevidently begins to assume, as in the mythical tragedy of Tereus, a\nsinister aspect, for which, reason Horace calls it--\n\n      \"Infelix avis et Cecropi\u00e6 domus\n       \u00c6ternum opprobrium.\"\n\nThe swallow, beautiful and propitious in spring, becomes ugly and almost\ndiabolical in the other seasons. Hence the ancients believed that it was\na bad omen to dream of swallows. According to Xenophon, the appearance\nof the swallows preceded the expedition of Cyrus against the Scythians,\nand announced it to be unlucky. The same presage is made by the swallows\nto Darius when he moves against the Scythians, and to Antiochus, who is\nat war with the Parthians. It is also said that Pythagoras would have no\nswallows in his house, because they were insectivorous. In _Suidas_, the\n_pudendum muliebre_ is called _chelid\u00f4n_; and it is perhaps as such that\nthe swallow is represented in opposition to the sparrow, which is a\nwell-known phallical symbol, sacred (like the doves) to Venus, whom it\naccompanied, according to Apuleius,[380] and to Asklepios. The sparrow\ndestroys the swallow's nest, as it is said in a popular German song of\nMichaelstein:--\n\n      \"Als ich auszog, auszog,\n       Hatt' ich Kisten und Kasten voll,\n       Als ich wiederkam, wiederkam,\n       Hatt' der Sperling,\n       Der Dickkopf, der Dickkopf\n       Alles verzehrt.\"\n\nThe swallow, moreover, is a diabolical, dark form which, by the witch's\nenchantment, the beautiful maiden assumes when she finds herself near\nthe fountain (_i.e._, near the ocean of night, or of winter).[381]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[361] _Rigv._ vii. 104, 22.\n\n[362] Kanikradag ganusham prabruv\u00e2na iyarti v\u00e2cam ariteva n\u00e2vam\nsuma\u00f1gala\u00e7 ca \u00e7akune bhav\u00e2si m\u00e2 tv\u00e2 k\u00e2 cid abhibh\u00e2 vi\u00e7vy\u00e2vidat. Ma tv\u00e2\n\u00e7yena ud vadh\u00een ma suparno m\u00e2 tv\u00e2 vidad ishum\u00e2n v\u00eero ast\u00e2; pitry\u00e2manu\npradi\u00e7am kanikradat suma\u00f1galo bhadr\u00e2v\u00e2d\u00ee vadeha. Ava kranda dakshinato\ngrih\u00e2n\u00e2m suma\u00f1galo bhadrav\u00e2d\u00ee \u00e7akunte; _Rigv._ ii. 42.\n\n[363] St Anthony of Padua said of the partridge: \"Avis est dolosa et\nimmunda et hypocritas habentes, ut dicit Petrus, oculos plenos\nadulterii et incessabilis delicti signa.\"--Partridge's foot (perdikos\npous) meant, in the Greek proverb, a deceitful foot.\n\n[364] _Indische Studien_, i. 117, 118.\n\n[365]\n\n      Stutim tu punar ev\u00e9chanam indro bh\u00fbtv\u00e2 kapingalah\n      Risher gigamishor \u00e2\u00e7\u00e2m vav\u00e2\u00e7e prati dakshin\u00e2m\n      Sa tam \u00e2rshena samprekshya cakshush\u00e2 pakshir\u00fbpinam\n      Par\u00e2bhy\u00e2m api tusht\u00e2va s\u00fbkt\u00e2bhy\u00e2m tu kanikradat.\n\n[366] i. 66.\n\n[367] ii. 79.\n\n[368] Cfr. the chapter on the Woodpecker. A whoop, kept by me for some\ntime with its young ones, had been taken with its nest from the trunk\nof a tree which had been cut down, and which it had scooped out in its\nhigher part in order to build its nest in the lowest and deepest part\nof the trunk.\n\n[369] I, for instance, kept for some time a young cuckoo which had\nbeen found in the nest of a little granivorous singing bird, which is\nvery common in Tuscany, and is called scoperina or scopina.\n\n[370] Villemarqu\u00e9, _Barzaz Breiz_, sixi\u00e8me \u00e9d. p. 493.\n\n[371] The old English popular song celebrates it as the bringer of\nsummer--\n\n      \"Sumer is icumen in, lhude sing cuccu.\"\n\nThe old Anglo-Saxon song of St Guthlak makes the cuckoo the announcer\nof the year (geacas gear budon). The ancient song of May in Germany\nwelcomes it with the words--\n\n      \"The cuckoo with its song makes every one gay.\"\n\nThe popular Scotch song caresses it thus--\n\n      \"The cuckoo's a fine bird, he sings as he flies;\n       He brings us good tidings, he tells us no lies.\n       He sucks little bird's eggs to make his voice clear,\n       And when he sings 'cuckoo,' the summer is near.\"\n\nIn Shakspeare (_Love's Labour Lost_, v. 2), the owl represents winter,\nand the cuckoo spring--\"This side is Hiems, winter, this Ver, the\nspring; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the cuckoo.\"\n\nIn a medi\u00e6val Latin eclogue recorded in the third volume of Uhland's\n_Schriften_ (Abhandlung \u00fcber die deutschen Volkslieder), the death of\nthe cuckoo is wept over--\n\n      \"Heu cuculus nobis fuerat cantare suetus,\n         Qu\u00e6 te nunc rapuit hora nefanda tuis?\n       Omne genus hominum Cuculum complangat ubique!\n         Perditus est cuculus, heu perit ecce meus.\n\n       Non pereat Cuculus, veniet sub tempore veris\n         Et nobis veniens carmina l\u00e6ta ciet.\n       Quis scit, si veniat? timeo est submersus in undis,\n         Vorticibus raptus atque necatus aquis.\"\n\nA popular German song shows us the cuckoo first wet, and then dried by\nthe sun--\n\n      \"Der Kuckuck auf dem Zaune sass,\n         Kuckuck, kuckuck!\n         Es regnet sehr und ward nass.\n       Darnach da kam der Sonnenschein,\n         Kuckuck, kuckuck!\n         Der kuckuck der ward h\u00fcbsch und fein.\"\n\n--Cfr. also the \"Entstehung des Kukuks\" in Hahn's _Albanesische\nM\u00e4rchen_, ii. 144, 316.\n\n[372] _s. v. cucullus._\n\n[373] Cfr. the chapter on the Peacock.\n\n[374] Cfr. Uhland's _Schriften_, iii. 25.\n\n[375] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, i. 12.\n\n[376] Villemarqu\u00e9, _Barzaz Breiz_, sixi\u00e8me \u00e9d. p. 392.\n\n[377] \"Quand il le tint, se mit \u00e0 rire de tout son coeur. E il\nl'\u00e9touffa, et le jeta dans le blanc giron de la pauvre dame. Tenez,\ntenez, ma jeune \u00e9pouse, voici votre joli rossignol; c'est pour vous\nque je l'ai attrap\u00e9; je suppose, ma belle, qu'il vous fera plaisir;\"\nVillemarqu\u00e9, _Barzaz Breiz_, p. 154.\n\n[378] iii. 5.\n\n[379] Dixon, _Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of\nEngland_; cfr. also on the traditions relating to the cuckoo and the\nnightingale in Russia, Ralston, _The Songs of the Russian People_.\n\n[380] Currum De\u00e6 prosequentes, gannitu constrepenti lasciviunt\nPasseres; _De Asino Aureo_, vi.\n\n[381] A woman of Antignano, near Leghorn, once told me the story of a\nbeautiful princess who stayed upon a tree till her husband returned,\nwho had gone in quest of robes for her. Whilst she is waiting, up\ncomes a negress to wash clothes, and sees in the water the reflection\nof the beautiful princess. She induces her to come down by offering to\ncomb her hair for her, and puts a pin into her head, so that she\nbecomes a swallow. The negress then takes the maiden's place by her\nhusband. The swallow, however, finds means of letting herself be\ncaught by her husband, who, stroking her head, finds the pin, and\ndraws it out; then the swallow becomes again a beautiful princess. The\nsame story is narrated more at length in Piedmont, in other parts of\nTuscany, in Calabria, and in other places; but instead of the swallow\nwe have the dove, as in the _Tuti-Name_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE OWL, THE CROW, THE MAGPIE, AND THE STORK.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The funereal owl.--The owl and the vulture.--The owl and the\n    crow.--The owls as friends of the swans and enemies of the\n    crows.--The wise owl.--The Eulenspiegel.--The owl as the daughter of\n    N\u00fckteos.--The enemy of N\u00fckteos.--An ill-omened bird.--Prophetic\n    virtue of the owl.--The horned owl.--The owl as a weaver.--The owl\n    and the coins.--The crow and the peacock.--The crow and the\n    nightingale.--The crow and the swan.--_Gracculus ad fides_.--The\n    prophetic crow.--The crow and the cheese.--The crow as the son of\n    Indras; the Athenians swore by the crow and by Zeus.--The crow and\n    S\u00eet\u00e2.--The cunning crow.--The crow, the parrot, and the bird of\n    prey.--The crow as the shadow of a dead man.--Yamas as a crow.--The\n    white crow.--Go to the crows.--The rooks.--The crow as a devil.--It\n    helps an old man to pick grains of corn up.--The crow and the\n    cuckoo.--The crow and the waters.--The crow and the figs.--The crow\n    and the hydromel.--The crow and the water of life and death.--The\n    crow as the bird of light.--The crow on a mountain covered with\n    diamonds.--The crows as brothers and sisters of the heroine and of\n    the hero.--The crow as the messenger of St Oswald.--The crow, the\n    maiden, and the crab.--The _corvus pica_.--The blue magpie.--The two\n    magpies.--Huginn and Muninn.--The magpie as the bringer of the\n    balsam herb.--The magpie sacred to Bacchus.--The magpie and the\n    nightingale.--The daughters of Euippes as magpies.--The rook and the\n    magpie as friends of gold.--The magpie as an infernal bird.--The\n    malice of the magpie.--The white and black magpie.--The magpie and\n    the guests.--The stork.--The stork and the heron.--The stork as the\n    bringer of children.--Funereal presage of the stork.--The stork and\n    the old man.--Paternal and filial affection of the stork.--The\n    presents of the stork.--The stork brother of the woodcock.--The\n    inebriated storks.--The storks in the other world.\n\nThe owl, the crow, the magpie, and the stork are in intimate mythical\nrelation with each other. To give an idea of the monster that wanders in\nthe night, the _Rigvedas_ compares him to a khargal\u00e2[382], which is\nprobably an owl (also called naktacaras); it also directs the devotee to\ncurse death and the god of the dead (to conjure them away), when the owl\nemits her painful cry, and when the kapotas or dark dove touches the\nfire[383] (thus we read in the fragments of Menander, \"if the owl should\ncry, we have reason to be afraid\"); in the _Pancatantram_,[384] the king\nof the crows also compares the hostile owl that arrives towards night to\nthe god of the dead (the god Yamas). In Hungary the owl is called the\nbird of death. In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[385] the mind of the wicked which\nsees clearly, fishes in turbid waters, and is dexterous in foul actions,\nis compared to the owl, who (probably as moon) distinguishes every shape\nin the night. In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, again,[386] the owl kills the crows\nby night whilst they are sleeping. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[387] the owl (as\nthe moon) contends with the vulture (the sun), who had usurped its nest;\nthe two disputants appeal to R\u00e2mas, who asks each how long the nest had\nbelonged to it; the vulture answers, \"Since the earth was peopled with\nmen,\" and the owl, \"Since the earth was covered with trees.\" R\u00e2mas,\nwith justice, decides in favour of the owl, observing that his claim is\nthe more ancient, since there were trees before there were men, and is\nfor punishing the vulture, but desists upon learning that the latter was\nonce King Brahmadattas, condemned to become a vulture by the wise\nG\u00e2utamas, because he had once offered meat and fish to that penitent to\neat. R\u00e2mas touches the vulture, which, the malediction having come to an\nend, immediately resumes its human form. The third book of the\n_Pancatantram_ treats of the war between the owls and the crows. The\nbirds are weary of having a useless king like Garudas, who thinks of no\none but the god Vishnus, and does not trouble himself to protect the\nnests of the little birds his subjects; they meditate electing a king,\nand are about to choose the owl,[388] when the crow (the dark night)\ncomes to give its veto, of which the _Pancatantram_ says, that it is the\nmost cunning amongst birds, as the barber among men, the fox among\nanimals, and the mendicant friars among religious orders. The war\nbetween the owl and the crow (the moon and the dark night) is popular in\nHindoo tradition; k\u00e2k\u00e2ris, or enemy of the crow, is one of the Sanskrit\nnames of the owl, and the k\u00e2kol\u00fbkik\u00e2 or owl-like crow, as has already\nseveral times been observed by the learned men who have studied Hindoo\nliterary chronology, is already mentioned in the Grammar of P\u00e2ninis.\n\nIn the thirtieth story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the crow\neats the eggs of the geese and the swans. The owl, out of hatred to\nthe crow, accuses him to the eagle; the lying crow denies, but is\nnevertheless condemned to be imprisoned.\n\nIn the ninth book of Aristotle's _History of Animals_, I also find\nthat the crow fights with the owl, whose eggs it destroys at midday,\nwhilst the owl, on the other hand, eats the crow's eggs during the\nnight. In Italian, the expression \"the owl amongst the crows,\" is used\nto indicate a serious danger. In John Tzetza, we also find an\napologue, according to which the crow was about to be elected king of\nthe birds, having arrayed itself in the feathers that had fallen from\nthe other birds, when the owl comes up (in Babrios, instead of the\nowl, it is the swallow that does the same), recognises one of its own\nfeathers, and plucks it out, setting thus an example to the other\nbirds, who in a short time despoil the crow entirely. (This is a\nvariety of the well-known fable of the crow in the peacock's feathers,\nand of the same fable, in an opposite sense, contained in the\n_Pancatantram_, where the crow is the wise bird, and the owl the\nsimple one.) There are other instances of cunning ascribed to the owl\nin fables; for instance, it predicted to the birds that an archer\nwould kill them with their own feathers, and advised them not to let\nthe oak-trees grow, because on them the mistletoe grows, and birds are\ncaught by means of it. The German Eulenspiegel, the legendary\nmalicious buffoon, who wears a great hat, is probably of the same\nmythical family. The Greeks considered the owl to be a form of the\ndaughter of N\u00fckteus of Lesbio (according to others, of the king of the\nEthiopians. N\u00fckteus and the black Ethiopian, both being the night,\ncorrespond to each other), who, having become enamoured of her father,\nlay with him without his knowledge; her father wished to kill her,\nbut Ath\u00ean\u00ea took pity upon her, and transformed her into an owl, which,\nremembering its crime, always flees from the light (it is far from the\nday, like the moon). The owl was sacred to Ath\u00ean\u00ea, the goddess of\nwisdom, inasmuch as she sees in darkness; the flight of the bird of\nnight was, therefore, for the Athenians a sign that the goddess who\nprotected their city was propitious; hence the owls of Athens passed\ninto a proverb. The owl, otherwise (according to the superstition of\nthe ancient Greeks, recorded by Pliny among the Latin writers), was\nthe enemy of Dionysos (who loves the mysteries, which the moon and the\naurora disperse); hence the prescription of ancient medicine, that the\neggs of the owl, drunk for three days in wine, make drunkards\nabstemious. Philostratos, in the Life of Apollonius, goes so far as to\nsay that when one eats an owl's egg, one takes a dislike to wine\nbefore having tasted it. But, even in antiquity, the owl was generally\nlooked upon as the ignoble and ill-omened bird that it really is. It\nis said of Demosthenes, that before going into exile, he declared that\nAth\u00ean\u00ea delighted in three fear-inspiring beasts--the owl, the dragon,\nand the Athenian people. In _\u00c6lianos_ and _Apuleius_, the owls are\nspoken of as birds of ill omen. But the male owl was and is still\nespecially considered as a bird of the worst and most funereal\ncharacter in Italy, Russia, Germany, and Hungary.[389] In the fourth\nbook of Virgil's _\u00c6neid_, the song of the male owl is fatal--\n\n      \"Seraque culminibus ferali carmine Bubo\n       Visa queri et longas in fletum ducere voces.\"\n\nThe Romans purified the city with water and sulphur when a male owl or\na wolf happened to enter into the temple of Jupiter, or into the\nCapitol. According to Silius Italicus, the defeat of Cannes was also\nprognosticated by the male owl--\n\n      \"Obseditque frequens castrorum limina Bubo.\"\n\nAnd Ovid, in the tenth book of the _Metamorphoses_--\n\n      \"Ignavus Bubo dirum mortalibus omen;\n       Nam dir\u00e6 mortis nuntius esse solet.\"\n\nAccording to the fifth book of the same _Metamorphoses_, Ascalaphos\nwas transformed by Ceres into a male owl, and condemned to predict\nevil, because he had accused her to Jove of having eaten a pomegranate\nin secret, against the prohibition.\n\nThe prophetic faculty of the owl, according to popular belief, is so\ngreat, that Albertus Magnus could seriously write in his times--\"Si\ncor ejus cum dextro pede super dormientem ponatur, statim tibi dicit\nquidquid fecerit, et quidquid ab eo interrogaveris. Et hoc a fratribus\nnostris expertum est moderno tempore.\" When the witches in _Macbeth_\nmake the horrid mixture in the great caldron, in order to obtain from\nit the virtue of sinister presages, they put into it, amongst other\nmaleficent ingredients--\n\n      \"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,\n       Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,\n       Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,\n       Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing.\"\n\nIn Sicily, the owl that moans, the crow that caws, and the dog that\nhowls by night near the house of a sick man, announce approaching death\nto him; but among owls, the horned owl (the horned moon), jacobu, or\nchiovu, or chi\u00f2, is especially feared. The horned owl sings near the\nhouse of a sick man three days before his death; if there are no sick\npeople in the house, it announces to one at least of its inhabitants\nthat he or she will be struck with squinancy of the tonsil. The peasants\nin Sicily, when in spring they hear the lamentation of the horned owl\nfor the first time, go to their master to give notice of their intention\nof leaving his service; whence the Sicilian proverb--\n\n      \"Quannu canta lu chi\u00f2\n       Cu 'avi patruni, tinta canciar lu p\u00f2.\"\n\nThe Sicilian poet Giovani Meli, in the little poem, _Pianto di\nPalemone_, refers to the sinister presage of the horned owl in the\nfollowing verses--\n\n      \"Ah! miu patri lu predissi,\n       E trimava 'ntra li robbi,\n       Ch'eu nascivi 'ntra l'ecclissi\n       E chianc\u00ecanu li jacobbi.\"\n\nIn the popular Sicilian legend, entitled _La Principessa di Carini_,\nwhen the friar goes to act as a spy, the moon envelops itself in\nclouds, the horned owl flies round, screeching--\n\n      \"Lu jacobbu chiancennu svulazzau.\"\n\nIn several German popular songs, the horned owl and the common owl\ncomplain that they are alone and deserted in the forest. The owl (as\nthe moon) is also represented in German tradition as a nocturnal\nweaver.[390] In the same tradition, the funereal owl is found\nmentioned in connection with the funereal crow.[391]\n\nI have already mentioned, in the chapter on the Wolf, that _vrikas_,\nin the Vedic hymns, may mean both wolf and crow. The crow, like the\nwolf, represents the dark night. The owl with yellow eyes (whence in\nAthens certain coins bearing the effigies of an owl were called owls,\nand in Italy golden coins are vulgarly called owls'-eyes) seems to\nrepresent the crepuscular bird in particular (from which we can\nunderstand why it was especially sacred to Ath\u00ean\u00ea), and much oftener\nstill the night with the yellow eye of the moon. The crow, on the\nother hand, seems to be the representative of the gloomy night or\ncloud. The owl which destroys the crow's nest, and discovers the\ndeceit of the crow when disguised in the feathers of other birds,\nseems to be the same as the moon that disperses the darkness, or the\nsahasr\u00e2kshas (the heavenly peacock), that shuts the thousand eyes of\nthe starry sky, and makes the thousand stars of the heaven grow pale.\nThe owl, as the king of birds (we know also the Indras-moon as\nMrigar\u00e2gas, or king of beasts) seems generally to be the same as the\nmoon, the mistress of the night. Indras is often the peacock-god, the\nazure starry sky of night; but blue and black, as we have said, are\ntwo equivalent colours (the azure god Indras becomes the azure or dark\nKrishnas, and, on the contrary, the crow becomes a peacock), and are\nexpressed by one and the same word; hence the black bird and the blue\none are substituted for one another. According to Festus, the crow\nwas, before the peacock, sacred to Juno. The crow-peacock has already\nbecome proverbial in the _Pancatantram_,[392] where we read that the\nhasty fool takes a crow for a peacock. The voice of the peacock is as\nshrill as that of the crow; in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[393] the water-cock\n(galakukkubhas, the heron, the halcyon, the duck, the swan) laughs at\nthe peacock when striving to answer the cuckoo. Thus, the Greek\nproverb laughs at the crows which are more honoured than the\nnightingales (korakes a\u00eadon\u00f4n a\u00eedesim\u00f4teroi). Martial places them in\ncontrast with the swans--\n\n      \"Inter L\u00e6d\u00e6os ridetur corvus Olores;\"\n\nand the Greek proverb turns into ridicule the rook amongst the Muses\n(koloios en tais mousais), and the Latin one, the \"Gracculus ad\nfides.\" In a variety of the forty-sixth story of the sixth book of\n_Afanassieff_, the crow occupies the place of the prophetic\nnightingale. The fox (the spring aurora) takes the cheese (the moon)\nfrom the crow (the winter night), by making it sing. In the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[394] the monster R\u00e2hus disguises himself as a god,\nthat he may go and drink the ambrosia of the gods; the sun and the\nmoon denounce the imposture; R\u00e2hus is recognised, and Vishnus cuts off\nhis head with his disc; this is an ancient variety of the fable of the\ncrow among the peacocks. This disguise of the crow, however, will\nappear quite natural when we reflect that Indras is a peacock, and\nthat in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_[395] a certain learned crow (p\u00e2nditas) is\ncalled by Hanumant the son of Indras (putrah kila sa \u00e7akrasya; in the\n_Ornithes_ of Aristophanes, I read that at Athens men swore by the\ncrow and by Zeus). I have observed, on a previous occasion, that the\nVedic Indras assumes in the Hindoo poems a sinister, and sometimes\neven a diabolical aspect. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[396] a crow attacks S\u00eet\u00e2\nwith wings, beak, and claws; R\u00e2mas hurls an enchanted dart at it; the\nbird, by divine grace, does not die, but as it flies rapidly, between\ndrop and drop, whilst it rains from the cloud, it sees nothing but\ndarts and shadows of darts in the air. Then it returns to R\u00e2mas to\nbeseech him to deliver it from this enchantment; R\u00e2mas says that the\nenchantment must run its full course, but that he can make it take\neffect in one part of the body alone; let the crow choose the part\nthat R\u00e2mas must aim at. The cunning bird, hoping that R\u00e2mas will miss\nhis aim, says one of its eyes; R\u00e2mas aims at it and strikes it, to the\ngreat wonder of S\u00eet\u00e2, against whom the crow had begun to make war,\nafter that R\u00e2mas had marked her forehead in red (probably after the\nevening aurora; the legendary husband and wife exchange the ring of\nrecognition, now the sun and now the moon, in the evening or the\nautumn, in order to find themselves together again, by its means, in\nthe morning or the spring). I have cited in the preceding chapter,\nfrom the _Pancatantram_, the popular Hindoo belief that the crow is\nthe most cunning of birds, as the fox is the most cunning of animals.\nAristotle says that the crow is the fox's friend; in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,\nthe stratagem adopted by the fox in the Western fable to make the\ncheese fall out of the crow's beak, obliging it to open its beak and\nlet the booty fall, is advised by the rook or crow (s\u00e2rik\u00e2 or _gracula\nreligiosa_). A bird of prey holds a parrot in its claws, and a s\u00e2rik\u00e2\nin its beak; the rook says, \"Parrot, bite the foot of the enemy whilst\nhe is alone and in the air, and whilst his beak presses me; and as his\nbeak is occupied and cannot bite thee, bite thou him, in order that he\nmay let you go;\" the rook thus hoped that, by opening its beak, which\nit did with pain, the bird of prey would let it too go. In Plautus a\ncrafty servant is compared to a crow. The crow also personifies in\nHindoo tradition the shadow of a dead man; to give food to the crows\nis for the Hindoos the same as to give food to the souls of the dead;\nhence part of their meals was always, and is still, according to all\ntravellers in India, left for the crows. Even in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[397]\nR\u00e2mas orders S\u00eet\u00e2 to preserve the rest of the food for the crows. In\nthe flight of the gods before the demons, described in the last book\nof the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, the god Indras hides himself in the form of a\npeacock, and Yamas, the god of the dead, in that of a crow (in\nHellenic mythology, during the war against the giants, it is Apollo\nthat transforms himself into a crow, but probably into a white one,\nas white crows were, according to the Greek belief, dedicated to the\nsun. It is said that the crow was once white, but that Apollo made it\nblack, indignant at that animal for bringing to him the unwelcome news\nof having surprised in adultery his mistress, the Princess Kor\u00f4nis;\nhere the crow occupies the place of the mythical cuckoo. In another\nHellenic myth, the crow loses the favour of Pallas for having brought\nthe intelligence that Erichtonios, born to Pallas by the seed of the\ncelestial blacksmith, which had fallen upon the earth, had been found\nby the three daughters of Kekrops. In reward for the services of the\ncrow, Yamas conceded to it the right of eating the funereal food, for\nwhich reason the shades of the dead, when this food is given to the\ncrow, are enabled to pass into a better world. In the _Clouds_ of\nAristophanes, the Greek proverb, \"Go to the crows\" (ball' es korakas),\nmeans \"die.\" Hence in India as in Persia, in Russia as in Germany, in\nGreece as in Italy, the crow is pre-eminently a funereal bird of\nsinister omen. According to \u00c6lianos, the Venetians of ancient Hadria\nwere accustomed to appease the rooks, in order that they should not\ndevastate the fields, by solemnly sending to meet them two\nambassadors, who presented to them a mixture of oil and flour. If the\nrooks accepted the offering, it was a good sign. In Lambert of\nAschaffenburg, a pilgrim sees in a dream a horrid crow which caws and\nflies round Cologne, and which is hunted away by a splendid horseman;\nthe pilgrim explains that the crow is the devil, and the horseman St\nGeorge. In the Chronicles of the Beatified Anthony, we find described\nfetid and black pools \"in regione Puteolorum in Apulia,\" whence the\nsouls arise in the forms of monstrous birds in the evening hours of\nthe Sabbath, which neither eat nor let themselves be caught, but\nwander till in the morning an enormous crow compels them to submerge\nthemselves in the waters. In Germany, according to Rochholtz, when a\ncrow places itself upon the roof of a house where there is a dead\nbody, it means that the dead man's soul is damned. At Brusasco, in\nPiedmont, children sing to the crow this funereal verse,\ncounterfeiting in the chorus the crow's cry--\n\n      \"Curnai\u00e1ss,\n       Porta 'l sciass (the colander);\n       Me mari l'\u00e8 morta\n       Sut la porta.\n                    Qu\u00e9!\"\n\nIn a popular Swedish song, in the collection translated into German by\nWarrens, I read this verse, where the crow assumes an entirely\nmonstrous form; men spit at it, as they do at the devil--\n\n      \"Es flog ein Rabe \u00fcber das Dach,\n       Hatt' Menschenfleisch in den Krallen,\n       Drei Tropfen Blutes tr\u00e4uften herab,\n       Ich sp\u00fclte, wo sie gefallen.\"\n\nIn the thirty-ninth story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, an old\nman, having let some grain fall to the ground, says that if the sun\nwarmed him, the moon gave him light, and the crow helped him to pick\nthe corn up, he would give each one of his three daughters. Sun, moon,\nand crow listen to him, and marry the three maidens. Some time after,\nthe old man goes to visit his son-in-law the crow, who makes him mount\na never-ending ladder, carrying him in his beak; but when they are\nhigh up, the crow lets the old man drop, and he dies.\n\nInasmuch as Indras, or Zeus, that is, the pluvial god, takes now the\nshape of a cuckoo, now that of a crow, the crow, in the fifteenth\nstory of _Siddhik\u00fcr_, announces the proximity of water to the thirsty\nprince. Tommaso Badino of Piacenza[398] narrates an apologue which\nreminds us of the biblical legend of the Deluge. Phoebos sends the\ncrow to find the lustral water for the sacrifice of Zeus;[399] but the\ncrow, when it arrives at the fountain, sees some figs near it; instead\nof doing its errand, it waits till the (phallical) figs ripen. Hence\nthe crow passed into a proverb as a procrastinator (the legend of St\nAthanasius, moreover, recognises the procrastinator in the crow,\nbecause it says \"cras\" with its voice). Nor can we accept the biblical\nderivation of the belief of the procrastinating crow, when we find it\nexplicitly mentioned and illustrated in Ovid by the story of the figs\nand that of the corn, whose maturity the crow waits for before\ncarrying the water. The meaning of the myth appears to me evident; the\nthundering and rainy clouds yield water towards the end of June, when\nthe first figs and the grain are ripe (in Plutarch's Life of Nicias,\ninstead of these we have the golden dates); the crow represents the\npluvial god; as the cuckoo brings the rains of spring, the crow brings\nthose of summer, and afterwards, when the later figs ripen, those of\nautumn, which announce the winter, dear to the crows.[400]\n\n      \"Imbrium divina vis imminentum.\"[401]\n\nIn a popular Swedish song, hydromel is offered to the messenger crow;\ninstead of this, it solicits small grains for its young. In the\nfifty-second story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the crow is\nsent to seek for the water of life and death, and to make experiments\nwith it upon itself before bringing it.\n\nBut out of darkness comes forth light, the sun; from the black night,\nthe clear day; from the black crow, the white one; hence, in the first\nof the Esthonian stories, we find the crow represented as the bird of\nlight, in the same way as in the Hellenic myth it was sacred to\nApollo. In the sixth of the Sicilian stories of Signora Gonzenbach,\ncrows carry the boy Giuseppe, shut up in a sack made of a horse's skin\ndried in the sun, to a mountain covered with diamonds, and the egg of\na crow thrown on the head of the monster giant kills him. In the ninth\nstory of the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, a king sees the blood\nof a crow, which had been killed, upon some white marble, and wishes\nfor a bride who shall be white like the marble and red like the blood,\nand have hair as black as the crow's feathers. The foolish hero Ivan,\nin _Afanassieff's_ story (vi. 9), calls the crows his little sisters,\nand pours out for them the food contained in the small pipkins which\nhe was carrying to sell. In popular German and Scandinavian songs,\nwhere the crow often appears as the succourer of the beautiful maiden\n(the sun; _die Sonne_ is feminine in German, as is well known), it is\nsaid to be the heroine's brother. The crow is the well-known messenger\nof Saint Oswald, king in Engelland (the land of the Angles). The crow\noften brings good luck to the heroes, even by sacrificing itself; the\ndeath of night and of winter brings round again day and spring; hence\nthe two celebrated verses of Horace--\n\n      \"Oscinem corvum prece suscitabo\n                      Solis ab ortu.\"[402]\n\nSeveral of the mythical characteristics of the crow, indeed, the\nprincipal ones, are also ascribed to the magpie (_corvus pica_). The\nblue magpie seems to be spoken of as a bird of evil omen, even in a\nVedic hymn, in connection with the disease of consumption.[403] In the\nforty-sixth story of _Afanassieff_, the magpies are in relation with the\nmythical water; one magpie is sent for the water of life, and another\nfor the water of speech, to resuscitate the two sons of a prince and\nprincess, whom a witch had touched with the hand of death as they slept.\nThese two magpies seem to correspond to the two crows, Huginn and\nMuninn, which the Scandinavian god Odin sent every day into the world to\nlearn all the news there current, which they afterwards brought back and\nwhispered in one of his ears. In a German legend given by Grimm, the\nmagpie appears as the bringer of the balsam herb (Springwurzel). The\nGreeks and the Latins considered the magpie to be sacred to Bacchus,\nbecause it is in connection with the ambrosial drink; and, as drunkards\nare garrulous, so the magpie is famous for its garrulity. We have seen\nthe rook amongst the Muses; in Theocritus the magpie defies the\nnightingale in singing; in Galenus it is proverbially emulous of the\nSiren; the nine daughters of Euippes were changed into magpies, because\nthey had presumed to emulate the nine Muses in singing, whence Dante,\ninvoking Calliope, wishes to continue his song--\n\n                   \"Con quel suono\n      Di cui le Piche misere sentiro,\n      Lo colpo tal che disper\u00e2r perdono.\"\n\nThe reader knows, no doubt, the fable of Arn\u00ea, as given in Ovid, who,\nin her thirst for gold, betrayed her country to the enemy, and was\nchanged into a rook (monedula), the friend of gold. In the tenth book\nof his History, Livy narrates the fable of a crow that ate the gold in\nthe Capitol. In a popular Danish ballad, gold is offered to the\nmessenger crow, who (like the cuckoo) answers that it knows not what\nto do with it, and desires rather nourishment fit for crows. The\nmagpie, too, became proverbial as a robber of gold and silver, which\nit goes to hide, not so much because it likes shining metals, as\nbecause it hates too great light. The crow and the magpie hide the sun\nand the golden ears of corn in the rainy and wintry season. In German\nmythology, the magpie is an infernal bird, into which witches often\ntransform themselves, or which is ridden by them. Hence it is also\nbelieved in Germany that the magpie must be killed during the twelve\ndays between Christmas and Epiphany (when the days begin to lengthen\nagain). But, inasmuch as every species of malice is learned in hell,\nthe malice of the magpie became even more proverbial than that of the\ncrow. The magpie makes use of this knowledge now to do evil, as a\nmalignant fairy, now to do good to men, as a benignant fairy: the\ncolour of the blue magpie appears now luminous, now tenebrific; the\ncolours of white and black in the magpie (as in the swallow) represent\nits two mythical contradictory characters. In German superstition the\nmagpie tells of the approach of the wolf; hence it is still believed\nthat it is unlucky to kill a magpie. In the Russian popular song, the\nmagpie is the punisher of the lazy little finger which would not go to\nthe well to find water:--\n\n      \"The magpie, the magpie,\n       Had cooked the gruel,\n       It leaped upon the threshold,\n       It invited the guests.\"[404]\n\nIt invites all the guests, except the little finger, which is the\nsmallest of the fingers on account of its laziness;--we have already\nmentioned the lazy little brother who refuses to go to take water, in\nthe first chapter of the first book. In Russia, it is believed that\nwhen a magpie comes to perch upon the threshold of a house, it\nannounces the arrival of guests; this belief reminds me of the magpie\nof Petronius: \"Super limen autem cavea pendebat aurea, in qu\u00e2 pica\nvaria intrantes salutabat.\"[405]\n\nAs the crow and the magpie are thought of, in mythology, in connection\nwith the water, and with the funereal and infernal winter, so the\nstork represents especially the rainy and wintry season. The heron,\nalready mentioned in the chapter on the Cuckoo, presents several of\nthe mythical characteristics of the stork. In the twenty-ninth story\nof the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the stork, tired of living alone,\ngoes to the heron and proposes marriage to her. The heron sends him\naway in contempt. No sooner is the stork gone, than the heron repents,\nand goes in her turn to propose to the stork, who refuses out of\nsulkiness. He then repents of his refusal, and returns to the heron,\nwho, sulky in her turn, rejects him. The story ends by saying that the\nheron and the stork continue to visit one another, but that they are\nnot married yet. This fable, although it has a satirical meaning, also\nimplies the intimate mythical relationship between the heron and the\nstork. The heron and the stork are two birds which equally love the\nwater, and therefore serve to represent the cloudy, rainy, wintry, or\ngloomy sky, which, as we have already said, is often represented as a\nblack sea. From the night, the cloud, or the winter, comes forth the\nyoung sun, the new sun, the little child-hero who had been exposed in\nthe waters; hence the popular German belief of children that the\nstorks carry children from the fountain.[406] However, properly\nspeaking, as long as the stork holds the child-hero in its beak, the\nlatter is not considered born; it is only born at the moment in which,\nopening its beak, it puts the child down in its mother's lap. The\nstork personifies the funereal sky, the sky when the celestial hero,\nthe sun, is dead. Hence it is believed in Germany that when storks fly\nround, or over a group of persons, some one of them is about to die;\nthe clouds and the shadows that collect together presage the\ndisappearance or death of the sun.\n\nIn Russian stories we have a double aspect of the stork (besides the\nfable, probably imported, of the stork and the fox as cousins, who\ninvite each other to supper). In the seventeenth story of the second\nbook of _Afanassieff_, an old man begs the stork to be as his son (the\nreputation of the storks for their paternal and filial affection is of\nancient date[407]). The stork gives to the old man a sack out of which\ncome two young men, who cover the table with a silk tablecloth,\nfurnished with every good thing. A godmother who has three daughters\nchanges the old man's sack whilst he is returning home. The old man,\nlaughed at and beaten by his wife, returns to the stork, who gives him\nanother sack, out of which also come two young men, who flog people\nvigorously. By means of this sack the old man recovers the former one,\nand reduces his wife to obedience. In a variety of the same story, the\nstork makes to the foolish hero three presents--a horse which, when it\nis told to stop, is transformed into a heap of money, and, when it is\ntold to go on, resumes its former shape; a tablecloth which both\nspreads itself and takes itself off; and a horn out of which come the\ntwo young floggers. In the thirty-seventh story of the fourth book of\n_Afanassieff_, the stork is said to be the brother of the woodcock,\nand they cut hay together, but do nothing else. We mentioned, in the\nchapter on the Bear, the storks that eat the harvests of a peasant who\nthreatens to cut off their feet. They upset a barrel of wine in order\nto drink its contents; the indignant peasant takes and binds them to\nhis waggon, but the inebriated storks are so strong, that they carry\npeasant, waggon, and horse up into the air. Here the stork assumes a\ndiabolical aspect, as the representative of the wintry season; the\nchariot of the peasant is that of the sun. In the fifth story of the\nsixth book of _Afanassieff_, the soldier-impostor tells an old woman\nthat he is going back to the other world, where he found her son\nleading storks to the pasturage. Here the storks have the funereal and\ninfernal nature of the crows, which we have observed to be, in \u00c2ryan\nbeliefs, one of the forms assumed by the souls of the dead.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[382] Pra y\u00e2 gig\u00e2ti khargaleva naktam apa druh\u00e2 tanvam g\u00fbham\u00e2n\u00e2;\n_Rigv._ vii. 104, 17.\n\n[383] Yad ul\u00fbko vadati mogham etad yat kapotah padam agn\u00e2u krinoti,\nyasya d\u00fbtah prahita esha etat tasm\u00e2i yam\u00e2ya namo astu mrityave;\n_Rigv._ i. 165, 4.\n\n[384] iii. 73.\n\n[385] iii. 15, 128, and _Hitopade\u00e7as_, iv. 47.\n\n[386] iii. 308, x. 38.\n\n[387] vi. 64.\n\n[388] In the articles against Bernard Saget in the year 1300, recorded\nby Du Cange, I read--\"Aves elegerunt Regem quemdam avem vocatam Duc, et\nest avis pulchrior et major inter omnes aves, et accidit semel quod Pica\nconquesta fuerat de Accipitre dicto Domino Regi, et congregatis avibus,\ndictus Rex nihil dixit nisi quod flavit (flevit?). Vel (veluti) idem de\nrege nostro dicebat ipse Episcopus, qui ipse est pulchrior homo de\nmundo, et tamen nihil scit facere, nisi respicere homines.\"\n\n[389] Among the Tartars, according to Aldrovandi, the feathers of the\nmale owl are worn as an amulet, probably to conjure the owl himself\naway, in the same way as, in the Vedic hymns, Death is invoked in order\nthat it may remain far off. In the _Khorda Avesta_ (p. 147), translated\nby Spiegel, the hero Verethraghna derives his strength from the owl's\nfeathers.--We are acquainted with the funereal moon in the form of\nProserpine; the Hindoos considered Manus in relation with the moon, with\nwhich, moreover, it was also identified. Manus, as the first and the\nfather of men, is also the first of the dead. Manus gives the somas to\nIndras. The dying sun is exchanged in the funereal kingdom for the moon;\nbut of the moon's kingdom the souls come down, and to the moon's kingdom\nthey return. With Manus the word _Menerva_ is joined, a Latin form, as a\ngoddess, of the Greek Ath\u00ean\u00ea. The owl, the symbol of Minerva, may be\nequivalent to Manus as the moon. The intimate connection which exists in\nmyths and legends between the maiden aurora and the maiden moon is\nwell-known; they reciprocally do services to each other. Ath\u00ean\u00ea may very\nwell have represented equally the two wise maidens--the moon, who sees\neverything in the dark night; the aurora, who, coming out of the gloomy\nnight, illumines everything. The head of Zeus, out of which Ath\u00ean\u00ea\ncomes, appears to be a form of the eastern sky.\n\n[390] \"Selbst in sternloser Nacht ist keine Verborgenheit, es lauert\neine gr\u00e4mliche Alte, die Eule; sie sitzt in ihrem finstern K\u00e4mmerlein,\nspinnt mit silbernen Spindelchen und sieht \u00fcbel dazu, was in der\nDunkelheit vorgeht. Der Holzschnitt des alten Flugblattes zeigt die\nEule auf einem St\u00fchlchen am Spinnrocken sitzend.\"\n\n[391]\n\n      \"Wenn durch die d\u00fcnne Luft ein schwarzer Rabe fleucht\n      Und kr\u00e4het sein Geschrei, und wenn des Eulen Fraue\n      Ihr Wiggen-gwige heult: sind Losungen sehr rauhe.\"\n                  --Rochholtz, the work quoted before, i. p. 155.\n\n[392] i. 175.\n\n[393] ii. 5.\n\n[394] i. 1152.\n\n[395] ii. 105, v. 3.\n\n[396] _Ib._\n\n[397] ii. 105; cfr. also _Du Cange_, s. v. _corbitor_.--In the German\nlegend of the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, the emperor, buried under a\nmountain, wakens and asks, \"Are the crows still flying round the\nmountain?\" he is answered that they are still flying. The emperor\nsighs and lies down again, concluding that the hour of his\nresurrection has not yet arrived.\n\n[398] In the _Ornithologia_ of Aldrovandi. The messenger crow is of\nfrequent occurrence in legends.\n\n[399] In Plutarch, two crows guide Alexander the Great, when he goes\nto consult the oracle of Zeus Amm\u00f4n.\n\n[400] Hence the name of Avis S. Martini also given to the crow,\nbecause it often comes about St Martin's day. In Du Cange and in the\n_Roman du Renard_ we also find indicated the auspices to be taken from\nthe crow's flight; for the same custom in Germany, cfr. Simrock, the\nwork quoted before, p. 546.\n\n[401] Horace, _Carm._ iii. 27.--In _Afanassief_, again (iv. 36), the\nrook is asked where it has flown to. It answers, \"Into the meadows to\nwrite letters and sigh after the maiden;\" and the maiden is advised to\nhurry towards the water. The maiden declares that she fears the crab.\nIn this maiden, that is afraid of the crab, I think I can recognise\nthe zodiacal sign of Virgo (attracted by the crab of the summer),--the\nvirgin who approaches the water, the autumn and the autumnal rains;\nthe virgin loved by the crow, who is the friend of the rains.\n\n[402] Horace, _Carm._ iii. 27.\n\n[403] S\u00e2kam yakshma pra pata c\u00e2shena kikid\u00eevin\u00e2; _Rigv._ x. 97, 13.\n\n[404]\n\n      Sar\u00f3vka, sar\u00f3vka,\n      Kasha varlla\n      Na par\u00f3k skak\u00e1la,\n      Gastiei sasziv\u00e1la.\n\n[405] The magpie is proverbial as a babbler; hence, from its Italian\nname _gazza_, the name _gazzetta_ given to newspapers, as divulging\nsecrets.--In the _Dialogus Creaturarum_, dial. 80, it is written of\nthe magpie, called _Agazia_: \"Pica est avis callidissima.... H\u00e6c apud\nquemdam venatorem et humane et latine loquebatur, propter quod venator\nipsam plenaria fulciebat. Pica autem non immemor beneficii, volens\nremunerare eum, volavit ad Agazias, et cum eis familiariter sedebat et\nhumane sermocinabatur. Agazi\u00e6 quoque in hoc plurimum l\u00e6tabantur\ncupientes et ips\u00e6 garrire humaneque loqui.\"\n\n[406] Hence the request made in the popular song to the stork, to\nbring a little sister; cfr. the songs of the stork in Kuhn and\nSchwarz, _N. S. M. u. G._ p. 452. As the bringer of children, the\nstork is represented as the serpent's enemy; cfr. _Tzetza_, i. 945.\n\n[407] Cfr. _Phile_, vi. 2; and Aristophanes in the _Ornithes_--\n\n      \"De\u00ee tous neotous t' pat\u00e9ra palin trephein.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nTHE WOODPECKER AND THE MARTIN.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The _picus_ in the work of Professor Kuhn.--_Picus_, _corvus\n    pica_, and _picumnus_; the Vedic word _vrikas_.--The she-wolf and\n    the woodpecker as the nurses of the Latin twin heroes.--_Picus_ as\n    the phallos; _picus_, _picumnus_, _pilumnus_, _pilum_, _pistor_;\n    _piciu_, _pinco_, _pincio_, _pinson_, _pincone_.--The sacred herb\n    of Indras which cleaves the mountains.--Jupiter as a _picus_; the\n    _picus_ presages rain; the herb of the woodpecker has the virtue\n    of opening every shut place.--The woodpecker and the\n    honey.--Beowulf and the woodpecker.--The woodpecker and the\n    gold.--The green woodpecker.--The woodpecker as the devil.--The\n    woodpecker in opposition to the fox.--The vengeance of the\n    woodpecker.--The halcyon.--The martin or bird of St\n    Martin.--_Martin piciu_.--The _y\u00fcnx_ in love with Zeus; it\n    attracts lovers.--_Alk\u00fconeioi h\u00eamerai_; the halcyon.--Robin\n    Redbreast and its \"charitable bill.\"--The bird of St Gertrude; the\n    _incendiaria avis_; _Jean rouge-gorge_.--Sea-birds with white and\n    black plumage and a little spot of blood on their heads.\n\nThe woodpecker has already had the honour of being studied with great\nlearning by Professor Adalbert Kuhn, in his excellent work upon the\ncelestial fire and water, to which I refer the cultivated reader for\nthe principal myths relating to the subject; that is to say, for the\ncomparison of the Vedic hawk and the Vedic fire-bhuranyus with the\nHellenic Phoroneus, the Latin _picus Feronius_, the _incendiaria\navis_, the _picus_ that carries thunder, and that which carries food\nto the twins Romulus and Remus,[408] and which itself enjoys wine,\nwith King Picus, progenitor of a race, and with the corresponding\nGerman traditions. I shall only observe here the mythological\nrelationship between _picus_ and the _corvus pica_ (_picumnus_ was\napplied both to the woodpecker and the magpie), in order to return to\nthe equivocal Vedic word _vrikas_, which means wolf and crow, whence\nalso arose and fostered itself the confusion between the she-wolf that\nnurses the Latin twin heroes, and the woodpecker which, in the same\nlegend, offers itself as their nourisher. The woodpecker, the magpie,\nand the wolf, personify equally the god in the darkness, the devil,\nthe cloud, the sky of night, the rainy season, the wintry season; from\nthe night, and from the winter, the new sun, fed by the she-wolf, or\nby the funereal bird, arises; the penetrating beak of the woodpecker\nin the cloud is the thunderbolt; in the night, and in the wintry\nseason, it is now the moon that disperses the darkness, now the\nsunbeam that comes out of the darkness. The thunderbolt, the moon, and\nthe sun's ray, moreover, sometimes assume in myths the form of the\nphallos; the woodpecker as a phallos and the King Picus, progenitor of\na race, seem to me to be the same. The Latin legend puts _picus_ in\nconnection with _picumnus_, _pilumnus_, the _pilum_, and the _pistor_,\nin the same way as a Norwegian story puts in relation with flour the\ncuckoo, which we already know to be a phallical symbol, properly the\npresser down. In the Piedmontese dialect, the common name of the\nphallos is _piciu_; in Italian, _pinco_ and _pincio_ have the same\nmeaning; _pincione_ is the chaffinch (in French _pinson_); and\n_pincone_ means a fool, for the same reason that the ass, as a\nphallical symbol, personified folly. We already know Indras as a\ncuckoo, as a peacock, and as a hawk. To find Indras again in the\nwoodpecker, the _T\u00e2ittiriya-Brahmanam_ offers us a notable analogy. In\nit Indras kills the wild boar, hidden in the seven mountains (the\nshadows of the night, or the clouds), cleaving them by the touch of\nthe stem of a sacred luminous and golden herb (sa darbhaping\u00fblam\nuddhritya sapta gir\u00een bhittv\u00e2[409]), which may be the moon in the\nnight, or else the thunderbolt in the cloud; the thunderbolt is also\nnot seldom represented in \u00c2ryan traditions as a magic rod. It is with\na golden rod that, in the seventh book of the _\u00c6neid_, the enchantress\nCirce transforms the wise King Picus, son of Saturn (as\nJupiter-Indras; Suidas also speaks of a P\u00eakos Zeus, buried in Crete)\ninto a bird, into the _picus_, sacred to the god of warriors\n(Mars-Indras), whence his name of _picus martius_, the woodpecker,\nwhich is supposed to presage rain (like Zeus and Indras)--\n\n      \"Picus equ\u00fbm domitor, quem capta cupidine conjux,\n       Aurea percussum virga, versumque venenis,\n       Fecit avem Circe, sparsitque coloribus alas.\"\n\nPliny relates that the woodpecker has the virtue of opening every shut\nplace, touching it with a certain herb, which increases and decreases\nwith the moon;[410] this herb may be the moon itself, which opens the\nhiding-places of the night, or the thunderbolt which opens the\nhiding-places of the cloud. It is well known that in the Vedic hymns,\nIndras, who is generally the pluvial and thundering god, is frequently\nassociated with the soma (ambrosia and moon), and even identified with\nit. Pliny adds, moreover, that whoever takes honey out of the hive\nwith the beak of a woodpecker is not liable to be stung by the bees;\nthis honey may be the rain in the cloud as well as the lunar ambrosia\nor the dew of the morning aurora; hence the woodpecker's beak may be\nthe thunderbolt as well as the moonbeam, or the sunbeam. Beowulf (the\nwolf of the bees) is spoken of in connection with the woodpecker as\nwell as with the bear: the _Bienenfresser_ of German legends, or the\n_pica merops_, explains the Latin superstition and the Beowulf. Like\nthe crow, the woodpecker, too, stays in darkness, but brings water,\nseeks for honey, and finds the light. In the _Aulularia_, Plautus\nmakes woodpeckers live upon golden mountains (picos, qui aureos monies\nincolunt). Inasmuch as the woodpeckers announced the approach of\nwinter, or were seen on the left, according to the well-known verse of\nHorace[411]--\n\n      \"Teque nec l\u00e6vus vetet ire picus,\n\nthey were considered birds of evil omen. In the _Ornithologus_, it is\nsaid that the green woodpecker (the moon, by the previously mentioned\nequivocalness of _haris_) presages winter (the moon, as we have said,\nrules over the winter). For this reason, St Ephiphanios could compare\nthe woodpecker with the devil. According to Pliny, the woodpecker that\nperched upon the head of the pr\u00e6tor Lucius Tubero, whilst he was\nadministering justice, announced approaching ruin to the empire if it\nwere allowed to go free, and approaching death to the pr\u00e6tor if\nkilled; Lucius Tubero, moved by love of his country, seized the\nwoodpecker, killed it, and died soon afterwards. Hence Pliny could say\nwith reason that woodpeckers were \"in auspiciis magni.\"\n\nIn the twentieth story of the third book of _Afanassieff_, the\nwoodpecker, which usually appears as a very knowing bird, lets itself\nbe deceived by the fox, who eats its young ones, under the pretext of\nteaching them an art. In the twenty-fifth story of the fourth book, on\nthe other hand, the woodpecker assumes a heroic and formidable aspect.\nIt makes friends with an old dog, which has been expelled from its\nkennel, and offers its services as purveyor. A woman, is carrying some\ndinner to her husband, who is working in the fields. The woodpecker\nflies before her and feigns to let itself be taken; the woman, to run\nafter it, puts the dinner down, and the dog feeds upon it (in a\nvariety of the same story, the woodpecker also offers to the dog a\nmeans of getting something to drink). Afterwards the dog meets the\nfox; then, in order to please the woodpecker (who, perhaps, remembered\nthe treachery of the fox who ate its little ones), it runs upon the\nfox and maltreats it. A peasant passes by and thrashes the poor dog,\nwho dies. Then the woodpecker becomes furious in its desire of\nvengeance, and begins to peck now at the peasant, and now at his\nhorses; the peasant tries to flog the woodpecker, instead of which he\nflogs the horses to death. Nor does the woodpecker's vengeance stop\nhere; it goes to the peasant's wife and pecks at her; she endeavours\nto beat it, but instead of doing so, she beats her own sons (these are\ntwo varieties of the story of the mother who beats her son, thinking\nto beat the ass, which, as a phallical symbol, we have already said\ncorresponds to the woodpecker. The myth of Seilenos, which we saw in\nconnection with the ass, has also been quoted by Professor Kuhn in\nrelation with the woodpecker. In the third book of the _Pancatantram_,\nwe have a bird that throws gold from behind, a characteristic of the\nmythical ass in fairy tales). Here the woodpecker has the same office\nwhich in another Russian story, already recorded, is attributed to the\nwintry, funereal, and ill-omened stork, the sun hidden in the\ndarkness, or the cloud.\n\nThe halcyon, which announces tempests, and the bird of St Martin, the\nfisher martin, are of the same wintry and phallical nature as the\nwoodpecker. In Piedmont, a fool is insultingly called by the name of\nMartin-Piciu (the podex and the phallos, and also the phallos martin,\nwhich reminds us of the _picus pistor_, and the _picus martius_), and\nthe above-quoted Italian expression _pincone_ is equivalent to it. The\nsun that hides itself in darkness or clouds loses its power. The\nphallical symbol is evident. Here remark the Hellenic fable of the\nbird Y\u00fcnx tetraknamon, of the four rays, of the long tongue, always\nchangeful (the Trench call it _paille en cul_). Pan is said to have\nbeen the father of a girl called Y\u00fcnx, who, having attempted to seduce\nZeus, was changed by the vengeance of H\u00ear\u00ea into a bird of the same\nname. In Pindar, Jason made use of this bird, the gift of Aphrodit\u00ea,\nto gain the favour of Medea. In Theocritos, this bird is invoked by\ngirls in love to attract their lovers into the house; women made use\nof this bird in their mischief-working love-mysteries.\n\nAccording to the fifth book of Aristotle's _History of Animals_, the\nhalcyon sits on its eggs in the serene days of winter, called\ntherefore alk\u00fconeiai h\u00eamerai; and the author cites a sentence of\nSimonides concerning this bird: \"When Zeus, in the wintry season,\ncreates twice seven warm days, mortals say, 'This tepid weather is\nnourishing the variously-painted halcyons.'\" Ovid relates that Alcyon\nwas transformed into the bird of this name while weeping for her\nhusband, who had been drowned in the sea, whence Ariosto wrote--\n\n      \"E s'ud\u00eer le Alcione alla marina\n       Dell' antico infortunio lamentarse.\"\n\nThis bird, the kingfisher, several kinds of woodpeckers, the wren, the\ncrow, and the redbreast, the Scotch Robin Redbreast, also called in\nEnglish ruddock and Robin-ruddock, which, \"with charitable bill,\"\naccording to the expression of Shakspeare in _Cymbeline_,[412] throws\nfunereal flowers upon unburied bodies,[413] are all birds sacred to\nSt Martin, the holy gravedigger, the bringer of winter, who,\naccording to the Celtic and German traditions, divides his own cloak\nwith poor men, and covers them. German legends are full of incidents\nrelating to this funereal and wintry bird, with which now the funereal\nNorwegian bird of St Gertrude, now the cuckoo, now the _incendiaria\navis_, are assimilated. Hence the same redbreast which in German\ntradition is sacred to St Martin is called _Jean rouge-gorge_ in the\npopular songs of Brittany, published by Villemarqu\u00e9, and is sacred to\nSt John; but this John may be the St John of winter, whose festival is\ncelebrated on the 27th of December, that is, two days after the\nNativity of Christ, or in the days in which the sun, the Saviour, is\nborn again, and the light increases. Birds of the same funereal nature\nas that of St Martin appear in the Breton song _Bran_ (or the prisoner\nof war):--\"At Kerloan, upon the battlefield, there is an oak-tree\nwhich spreads its branches over the shore; there is an oak-tree at the\nplace where the Saxons took to flight before the face of Evan the\nGreat. On this oak, when the moon shines at night, birds come to meet\none another, sea-birds with white and black plumage, and a little spot\nof blood on their heads; with them there comes an old grey crow, and\nwith it a young crow. Both are very weary, and their wings are wet;\nthey come from beyond the seas, they come from afar; and the birds\nsing such a beautiful song that the great sea is hushed and listens;\nthis song they sing with one voice, except the old crow and the young\none; now the crow has said--'Sing, little birds; sing, sing, little\nbirds of the land; you do not die far away from Bretagne.'\" The same\nfunereal birds which have pity for the dead, like the stork, also take\ncare of new-born infants, and bring the light forth. The cloudy\nnocturnal or wintry monster discovers his treasures; the funereal bird\nburies the dead, and brings them to life again; its beak pierces\nthrough the mountain, finds the water and the fire, and tears the veil\nof death; its luminous head disperses the gloomy shadows.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[408]\n\n      \"Lacte quis infantes nescit crevisse ferino?\n       Et picum expositis s\u00e6pe tulisse cibos?\"\n                                  --Ovid, _Fasti_, iii.\n\n[409] Compare _ping\u00fblas_ with _pingalas_ and _pingaras_.--In the hymn,\nx. 28, 9, of the _Rigvedas_, we also have the mountain cleft from afar\nby a clod of earth: Adrim logena vy abhedam \u00e2r\u00e2t. This analogy is so\nmuch the more remarkable, as in the same hymn, 4th strophe, the wild\nboar is also spoken of.\n\n[410] The same virtue of opening the mountain by means of an herb I\nfind attributed to the little martin, in connection with Venus, in\nSimrock, the work quoted before, p. 415: \"Schon in einem Gedichte\nMeister Altschwerts, ed. Holland, s. 70, wird der Zugang zu dem Berge\ndurch ein Kraut gefunden, das der Springwurzel oder blauen\nSchl\u00fcsselblume unserer Ortssagen gleicht. Kaum hat es der Dichter\ngebrochen, so kommt ein Martinsv\u00f6gelchen geflogen, das guter\nVorbedeutung zu sein pflegt; diesem folgt er und begegnet einem\nZwerge, der ihn in den Berg zu Frau Venus f\u00fchrt.\"\n\n[411] _Carm._ iii. 27.\n\n[412]\n\n                           \"Thou shalt not lack\n      The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor\n      The azured hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor\n      The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,\n      Out-sweetened not thy breath; the ruddock would,\n      With charitable bill (O bill, sore-shaming\n      Those rich-left heirs, that let their fathers lie\n      Without a monument!), bring thee all this.\"\n                                            --iv. 2.\n\n[413] Cfr. what is said on the whoop, the stork, and the\nlark.--Concerning the bird _gaulus_, I find in Du Cange as follows:\n\"Gaulus Merops avis apibus infensa, unde et Apiastra vocitatur. Papias:\n'Meropes, Genus avium, idem et Gauli, qui parentes suos recondere, et\nalere dicuntur, sunt autem virides et vocantur Apiastr\u00e6.'\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nTHE LARK AND THE QUAIL.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The lark the first of animals.--It existed before the earth.--It\n    buries its father in its own head.--The lark sings the praises of\n    God.--Prag\u00e2patis creates the stomas first.--The crested\n    sun.--Christos and crista; the crested lark and St\n    Christophoros.--Alauda the lauder.--The lark upon the father's\n    tomb.--The mother-lark.--The lark announces morning and\n    summer.--Bharadv\u00e2gas, the bringer of food, the bringer of good\n    things and of sound.--Bharadv\u00e2gas as a mythical singer or poet,\n    nourished by a lark; the son of Brihaspatis.--The old Bharadv\u00e2gas\n    ascends into heaven in union with the sun.--The quail.--Vartik\u00e2,\n    vartakas, wachtel, perepiolka.--The quail and the wolf in the\n    _Rigvedas_.--The wise girl upon a hare, with a quail tied to her\n    hand.--Jove as a quail.--The quail sacred to Hercules.--The moon\n    and the quail.--The quail becomes a stone.--The quail believed to\n    eat poisonous hellebore.--The quail as a sacred bird.--The game of\n    the quail.--The quail and the cock.--The quail as a prophetic\n    bird.--The quail puts a price upon corn.\n\nTo the crested lark, in the _Ornithes_ of Aristophanes, the name of\nking is given, and the same virtue of funereal charity is attributed\nto it which we have already seen in the redbreast of winter, in the\nstork, and in the crested whoop. According to Aristophanes the lark\nwas not only the first of animals, but it existed before the earth and\nbefore the gods Zeus and Kronos and the Titans. Hence, when the\nlark's father died, there was no earth to bury him in; then the lark\nburied its father in its own head (or in its pyramidal crest).\nGoropius explains the belief that the lark existed before the earth,\nby observing that the lark sings seven times a day the praises of God\nin the high air, and that prayer was the first thing which existed in\nthe world. In Hindoo cosmogony, when Prag\u00e2patis, the creator, wishes\nto multiply himself, he begins by creating the stomas or hymn.[414]\nThe father of the lark is therefore the god himself. The crested lark\nis the same as the crested sun, the sun with his rays. In the legend\nof St Christopher, I see an equivoque between the word _Christos_ and\nthe word _crista_, and, either way, I see the sun personified. St\nChristopher, in the legend, carries Christ, and is associated with the\nlark. Goropius, when a child, on seeing a picture representing St\nChristopher, marvelled that the lark did not flee from the tree-staff\nof St Christopher, whilst the sparrows, instead, fled before him as\nsoon as he approached; he was answered that the lark is not afraid of\nSt Christopher, because it sees on the saint's shoulders its own\ncreator, God. Christ, the father of the lark, dies, and the lark\nburies him in its crista. In the same way an equivoque in speech made\nof the lark (alauda) the lauder (laudatrix) of God; thus it seems to\nme that the equivoque between _crista_ and _Christos_ passed into the\nlegend of St Christopher. In the nineteenth Mongol story, the poor\nyoung man makes his fortune when he hears a lark upon his father's\ntomb, which has come and placed itself upon the loom. The lark is a\nform of the young man himself, the young sun who from poor becomes\nrich; the loom upon which the lark perches is the sky. The Greek name\nof the crested lark (kor\u00fcdalos) corresponds to the Latin _galerita_.\nThe lark with the crest or with the tuft explains the custom of the\nGauls, recorded by Suetonius in the Life of Julius C\u00e6sar, of\nrepresenting a crested lark upon their helmets. The \u00c6sopian fables of\nthe mother-lark with its young ones, and of the lark with the\nbirdcatcher, show us this bird full of cunning and wisdom. As the\nlarks sing the praises of God only when the sky is serene, and as they\nannounce the morning[415] and the summer, they represent the crested\nsun which illumines all, which is all-luminous, all-seeing, (the Vedic\n_vi\u00e7vavedas_), the golden sun. In the thirteenth Esthonian story, the\nmaiden that sleeps will waken when she hears again the summer song of\nthe larks. (Here the maiden is the earth, which wakens in the spring.)\n\nThe Hindoo name of the lark is no less interesting than the Latin\n_alauda_. Bharadv\u00e2gas, or the lark, may mean the bringer of food or of\ngoods (as the sun), as well as the bringer of sound (the singer of\nhymns) and the sacrificer. In this triple interpretation which can be\ngiven to the word _bharadv\u00e2gas_, nearly all the myth of the lark seems\nto be contained. Bharadv\u00e2gas, afterwards, also becomes the name of a\ncelebrated poet, and of one of the seven mythical sages, who, according\nto the legend, was nourished by a lark, and who is said to be the son of\nBrihaspatis, the god of sacrifice, Fire, identified with Divod\u00e2sas, one\nof the favourites of the god Indras, who destroys for him the strong\ncelestial cities of \u00c7ambaras. The _T\u00e2ittiriya-br\u00e2hmanam_ also shows us\nthe wise Bharadv\u00e2gas in connection with Indras. Bharadv\u00e2gas has become\nold whilst travelling three degrees of the life of a studious penitent;\nIndras approaches the aged sage, and asks him, how, if he still had many\nyears to live, he would employ his lifetime? The sage answers that he\nwould continue to live in penitence and in study. In the three first\ndegrees of his life, Bharadv\u00e2gas has studied the three Ved\u00e2s (the\n_Atharva-veda_ having come afterwards, or not being as yet recognised as\na sacred book). In the fourth period, Bharadv\u00e2gas learns universal\nscience (\u00e7arvavidy\u00e2), becomes immortal, and ascends into heaven in union\nwith the sun (\u00e2dityasya s\u00e2yugyam).\n\nThe quail is also in intimate relation with the summer sun, but\nespecially with the moon.\n\nVartik\u00e2 and vartakas are its Indian names, which may mean both she who\nis turned towards, the animated one, the ready, the swift, the\nwatchful (cfr. the German _Wachtel_), and the pilgrim (cfr. the\nRussian _perepiolka_). In the _Rigvedas_, the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u deliver the\nquail from torments; they release the quail from the rage of the wolf;\nthey liberate it from the jaws of the wolf that is devouring it.[416]\nIn the forty-first story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the wise\ngirl comes upon a hare with a quail tied to her hand, and presents\nherself before the Tzar, whose riddle she must solve in order to marry\nhim. This quail is the symbol of the Tzar himself, or the sun; the\nwise girl is the aurora (or the spring), who arrives near the sun upon\nthe hare, that is, upon the moon, traversing the shadows of night (or\nwinter). The Greeks and Latins, observing, perhaps, that the moon\ntakes sleep away from the quail, believed that the quail was sacred\nto Latona, and relate that Jove became a quail to lie with Latona, of\nwhich union Diana and Apollo (moon and sun) were born.[417] Others\nalso affirm that the quail was sacred to Hercules, who, by the scent\nof a quail, recovered his life, which had been taken from him by\nT\u00fcphon. It is believed that when the moon rises, the quail cries out\nand is excited to agitation against it, and that the quail's head\nincreases or diminishes according to the moon's influence. As the\nquail seems to represent the sun, and loves heat, it fears the cold\nmoon. From these mythical relations of the quail was doubtless derived\nthe fear which the ancients had for the quail, which they believed to\neat poisonous hellebore during the night, and to be therefore\npoisonous and subject to epilepsy. Plutarch, in the _Apophtegmata_,\nrelates that Augustus punished with death a president of Egypt who had\neaten a quail which had carried off the prize in the fight; for it was\nlong the custom to make quails fight with one another, in the same way\nas at Athens the game of the quail was a favourite diversion, in which\nseveral quails were placed in a circle, and he who hit one carried off\nall the others. According to Artemidoros, quails announced to their\nfeeders the evils by which they would be visited from the side of the\nsea. The quail which agitates itself against the moon (thus \u00c6lianos\nwrites that the cock excites himself and exults when the moon\nrises[418]) presages the bad season, the pluvial or wintry season, and\nmakes use of its own presage to migrate to warmer regions. The quail\nwatches, travels, and cries out during the night; from the number of\ntimes that it cries out in succession in the fields, the peasants of\nTuscany infer the price of corn; as the quail generally renews its cry\nthree, four or more times, when it cries three times they say that\ncorn will be cheap, and that, when it cries out four or more times, it\nwill be dear; and so they say that the quail puts a price upon\ncorn.[419] The quail arrives with the sun in our fields in spring, and\ngoes away with the sun in September. In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[420] when\nthe hero Bh\u00eemas is squeezed by an enormous serpent, a quail appears\nnear the sun, dark (praty\u00e2dityamabh\u00e2svar\u00e2), with only one wing, one\neye, and one foot, horrible to the sight, vomiting blood (raktam\nvamant\u00ee). This quail may represent either the red sky of evening, in\nthe west, or the red heavens at the conclusion of summer.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[414] _T\u00e2ittiriya Yagurv._ vii. 1, 4.\n\n[415] Hence Gregory of Tours relates, in _Du Cange_: \"In Ecclesia\nArverna, dum matutin\u00e6 celebrarentur Vigili\u00e6, in quadam civitate avis\nCorydalus, quam Alaudam vocamus, ingressa est.\"\n\n[416] Vartik\u00e2m grasit\u00e2m amuncatam; _Rigv._ i. 112, 8.--Amuncatam\nvartik\u00e2m anhasah; i. 118, 8.--\u00c2sno vrikasya vartik\u00e2m abh\u00eeke yuvam nar\u00e2\nn\u00e2saty\u00e2mumuktam; i. 116, 14.--Vrikasya cid vartik\u00e2m antar \u00e2sy\u00e2d yuvam\n\u00e7a\u00e7\u00eebhir grasit\u00e2m amuncatam; x. 39, 13.\n\n[417] The same fable is also related in a different way: Jove cohabits\nwith Latona, and subsequently forces her sister, Asterien, who is, in\npity, changed by the gods into a quail. Jove becomes an eagle to catch\nher; the gods change the quail into a stone--(cfr. the stories of\nIndras as a cuckoo and Rambh\u00e2, of Indras as a cock and Ahaly\u00e2. It is a\npopular superstition that quails, like the crane, when they travel,\nlet little stones fall in order to recognise on their return the\nplaces by which they passed the first time)--which lies for a long\ntime under water, till by the prayer of Latona it is taken out.\n\n[418] \u00c6lianos says that the cock is in the moon's favour, either\nbecause it assisted Latona in parturition, or because it is generally\nbelieved (as a symbol of fecundation) to be the facilitator of\nchildbirth. As a watchful animal it was natural to consider it\nespecially dear to the moon, the nocturnal watcher.--The cock, as an\nannouncer of news, was sacred to Mercury; as the curer of many\ndiseases, to \u00c6sculapius; as a warrior, to Mars, Hercules, and Pallas,\nwho, according to Pausanias, wore a hen upon her helmet; as an\nincreaser of the family, to the Lares, &c. Even Roman Catholic priests\nwill deign to receive with especial favour, ad majorem Dei gloriam,\nthe homage of cocks, capons, and chickens.\n\n[419] This year, my quails cried out six times; and the corn in Italy\nis very dear, the spring having been a very rainy one.\n\n[420] iii. 12,437.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nTHE COCK AND THE HEN.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Alektr\u00fcon, a satellite of Mars, the lover of Venus, becomes a\n    cock.--Indras, the lover of Ahaly\u00e2 as a cock; Ahaly\u00e2 turned to\n    stone.--Indras as a eunuch or as a ram.--Prag\u00e2patis loves his\n    daughter the aurora, and becomes a goat.--Ahaly\u00e2 in the ashes, like\n    Cinderella.--The thunder and the eggs; the iron nail and the laurel\n    in the nest.--To be made of stucco, to be turned to stone by the\n    thunder which astonishes.--It is a sacrilege to kill cocks and\n    hens.--The cock Parodars in the _Avesta_.--The cock chases the\n    demons away.--The cock wakens the aurora and arouses\n    mankind.--Christus and the cock as _cristiger_, _cristatus_,\n    _cristeus_.--The cock sacred to St James, to St Christopher and\n    Donar.--St James as a cock.--The hen crows like a cock.--Men turned\n    to stone, and the cock who calls them to life again.--The cock as a\n    devil.--The enchanted hut stands upon a hen's little feet.--Cocks\n    killed as a form of witches.--The _lapillus alectorius_; the same\n    enclosed in a ring.--To dream of brood-hens with chickens.--The egg\n    is more cunning than the hen.--The golden cock on the rock; marvels\n    come out of the rock.--The egg which becomes a girl.--The cock on\n    the top of high buildings, to indicate the winds, and also the\n    hours.--The black cock and the red one.--The black hen.--The cock\n    sacrificed.--The cock, son of Mars.--Cockfights.--Auguries taken\n    from cocks and hens; these auguries held up to derision.--The hen's\n    egg; \"Gallus in sterquilinio suo plurimum potest.\"--The pearl is an\n    egg; the hen's egg in the sky is the sun.--The white hen.--Easter\n    eggs.--The golden egg.--The cosmic egg.--It is an excellent augury\n    to begin with the egg; \"Ab ovo ad malum.\"--To begin _ab ovo_.\n\nAlektr\u00fcon (the Greek name of the cock) was the companion and satellite\nof Mars. When Mars wished to spend the night with Venus during the\nabsence of Vulcan, he placed Alektr\u00fcon to watch at the door.\nAlektr\u00fcon, however, fell asleep; and Mars, surprised by the returning\nhusband, and full of indignation, transformed Alektr\u00fcon into a cock,\nin order that it might learn to be watchful; whence Ausonius--\n\n                  \"Ter clara instantis Eoi\n      Signa canit serus, deprenso Marte, satelles.\"\n\nAccording to a P\u00e2uranic legend, Indras, the Indian Mars, enamoured of\nAhaly\u00e2, the wife of G\u00e2utamas, and accompanied by Candras (the moon),\nassumed the form of a krikav\u00e2kas (cock or peacock), and went to sing at\nmidnight near the dwelling of Ahaly\u00e2, whilst her husband was absent.\nThen, divesting himself of the form of a cock (or peacock), he left\nCandras at the door to watch, and united himself with Ahaly\u00e2 (the hen).\nMeanwhile G\u00e2utamas returns; Candras not having warned the lovers of his\napproach, the saint turns Ahaly\u00e2 to stone, and scatters over the body of\nIndras a thousand wombs; which, being submerged in the waters, the\npitying gods subsequently changed into a thousand eyes (sahasr\u00e2kshas is\none of the Hindoo names of Indras and of the peacock). According to a\nvariety of this legend,--which is analogous to the fable of the Zeus as\na quail, the seducer of the sister of Latona, or of Latona herself,\nchanged into a stone and submerged in the waters,--Indras becomes a\neunuch, and obtains, as we have already seen, in compensation, two ram's\ntesticles. In the _\u00c2itareya Br._, the god Brahman Prag\u00e2patis becomes a\ngoat or a roebuck (ri\u00e7yas), in order to lie with his own daughter\nAurora. In the thirty-second and thirty-third hymn of the eighth book of\nthe _Rigvedas_, the god Indras and the god Brahman change places.\nIndras is at first beautiful (\u00e7iprin); he afterwards becomes a woman\n(str\u00ee hi brahm\u00e2 babh\u00fbvitha). In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[421] G\u00e2utamas condemns\nIndras to become powerless, and Ahaly\u00e2 to remain hidden in the forest,\nlying in the ashes (bhasma\u00e7\u00e2yin\u00ee), until Ramas comes to deliver her. The\nashy sky, the stony sky, the watery sky, are identical; Ahaly\u00e2 (the\nevening aurora) in the ashes is the germ of the story of Cinderella, and\nof the daughter of the King of Dacia, persecuted by her lover, her\nfather himself.\n\nA popular Italian belief, which has been mentioned by Pliny and\nColumella, says that when it thunders while the hen is sitting on her\neggs, they are spoiled. To remedy this evil, Pliny advises to put\nunder the fodder of the eggs an iron nail, or else some earth taken up\nby a ploughshare. Columella says that many put little branches of\nlaurel and roots of garlic, with iron nails. These are all symbols of\nthe sulphureous thunderbolts (because of their strong smell), and of\nthe thunderbolt conceived of as an iron weapon; the remedy recommended\nis according to the principle of _similia similibus_, for the same\nreason as the devil is prayed to in order to keep him away. In Sicily,\nwhen a hen is setting on her eggs, they put at the bottom of the nest\na nail, which has the property of attracting and absorbing every kind\nof noise that may be noxious to the chickens. Now it seems interesting\nto me to find an analogous belief in Vedic antiquity. A strophe, where\nthe word _and\u00e2_ may be rendered eggs as well as testicles, which\ntherefore leads us to think of oviparous birds and chickens no less\nthan men, invokes Indras, the thunder-god, as follows:--\"Do not harm\nus, Indras; do not destroy us; do not take from us our beloved\nenjoyments; do not break, O great one, O strong one, our eggs (or\ntesticles); do not ruin the fruits of our bowels.\"[422] Indras can not\nonly become a eunuch himself, but he can make others become eunuchs;\nthunder makes us astonished, and as we also say, by an analogous\nexpression, in Italy, makes us of stucco or turn to stone.\n\nThe cock and the oviparous hen, as birds which are as egg-yielding\nsymbols of abundance, and which personify the sun, were and are sacred\nin India and in Persia, where it is considered a sacrilege to kill\nthem. Cicero, in his _Oratio pro Murena_, writes that among the\nancients he who ultroneously killed a cock did not sin less than he\nwho suffocated his own father. In Du Cange we read that Geoffrey I.,\nDuke of Brittany, whilst he was on a journey to Rome, was slain with a\nstone by a woman, one of whose hens had been killed by the Duke's\nsparrowhawk. The same superstition about hens is still observed in\nItaly by a great number of housewives.\n\nIn the _Avesta_ the crow of the cock accompanies the flight of the\ndemons, wakens the aurora, and arouses mankind.[423] Even the\nChristian poet Prudentius, who still sees a solar symbol in the\n_Christus_, compares him to the cock, also called _cristiger_,\n_cristatus_, _cristeus_,[424] prays to Christ to chase away sleep, to\nbreak the fetters of night, to undo the old sin, and to bring the new\nlight, after having said of the cock--\n\n      \"Ferunt vagantes d\u00e6mones,\n       L\u00e6tos tenebris noctium\n       Gallo canente exterritos\n       Sparsim timere et cedere.\n       ... omnes credimus\n       Illo quietis tempore\n       Quo gallus exsultans canit\n       Christum redisse ex inferis.\"\n\nWe have seen in the preceding chapter, the crested lark in connection\nwith St Christopher. In Germany, on the 25th of July, sacred to St\nJames[425] (the saint who empties the bottle, as they say in Piedmont),\nto St Christopher, and the ancient god of thunder, Donar, cocks were\nmade to dance, and then sacrificed. Donar carries Oerwandil on his\nshoulders across rivers, as the giant Christopher carries Christ.\n\nThere is a superstition which is widely diffused in Italy, Germany, and\nRussia, according to which a hen that begins to crow like a cock is of\nthe worst omen; and it is the universal persuasion that it ought to be\nkilled immediately, in order not to die before it. As the same belief\nexists in Persia, the discussion of Sadder with regard to it is\ninteresting, to prove that the hen which crows like a cock must not be\nkilled, because, if it become a cock, that means that it will be able to\nkill the demon, (therefore at Persian tombs they were accustomed to set\na cock free). Having regard to the superstitious Eastern and European\nbeliefs, the worthy Professor Spiegel will now find, I hope, the\nfollowing passage, which appeared rather obscure to him, a little\nclearer:--\"Qui religione sinceri sunt ludificationes expertes, quando\npercipiunt ex gallina vociferationem galli non debent illam gallinam\ninterficere ominis causa, quia eam interficiendi jus nullum habent....\nNam in Persia si gallina fit gallus, ipsa infaustum diabolum franget. Si\nautem alium gallum adhibueris in auxilium, ut cum gallina consortium\nhabeat, non erit incommodum ut tunc ille diabolus sit interfectus.\"\nAccording to a Sicilian proverb, the hen that crows like a cock must\nneither be sold nor given away, but eaten by its mistress.[426]\n\nIn the forty-fifth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the cocks\ncrow, and the devil's smoke disappears. In the fortieth story of the\nsame book, the cock crows, and the devil disappears from the kingdom in\nwhich he made every man and every thing turn to stone. The son of a\npeasant, staying to pray all through the night with lighted candles,\nalone escapes from the devil's evil works; after three nights of similar\npenitence, all the men who were turned to stone come to life again, and\nthe young and pious peasant espouses the king's beautiful daughter.\n\nIn the thirtieth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, when the\ncock begins to crow, the old man becomes of a sudden at once rigid and\nsilent. Here, perhaps, there is an allusion to the old sun of evening,\nand to the cock's crowing in the evening. The cock of night,\ntherefore, assumes sometimes a diabolical form. In the twenty-second\nstory of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the devil becomes a cock in\norder to eat the corn into which the young man who was first turned\ninto a gold ring, has been at length transformed. But this cock of\nnight, being demoniacal, although his crest (the sun) is always red,\nis of a black colour. The cock is red in the morning and in the\nevening; in the night it is black, with its red crest turned now to\nthe east, now to the west; it is upon the little feet of a hen,[427]\nthat the little movable enchanted Russian hut stands, which the young\nheroes and young heroines on a journey meet with in the forest, and\ncause to turn in the direction they came from.\n\nIn the ninth story of the second book of the _Pentamerone_, a queen\ngives orders to kill the cocks in the town, so that the crowing may\ncease, because as long as the cocks crow, she will, by a witch's\nenchantment, be unable to recognise and embrace her son. The witch\nherself evidently assumes here the form of the diabolical cock that\ncrows in the night.[428]\n\nIn the first story of the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_, the old\nMinec' Aniello feeds a cock well, but being afterwards in want of\nmoney, sells it to two magicians, who, when walking back, say to each\nother that the cock is precious for the stone that it contains, which,\nenclosed in a ring, will enable one to obtain all that he wishes (the\n_lapillus alectorius_, which is said to be as large as a bean, to be\nlike crystal, to be good for pregnant women, and for inspiring\ncourage; it is alleged that the hero Milon owed all his strength to\nit). Minec' Aniello hears this, steals the cock, kills it, takes the\nstone, and by its means becomes young again, in a beautiful palace of\ngold and silver. When the magicians defraud him of this stone,\nenclosed in a ring, the young man becomes old again, and goes to seek\nhis lost ring in the kingdom of the deep hole (de Pertuso cupo)\ninhabited by the rat; the rats gnaw the finger of the magician who has\nthe ring; Minec' Aniello recovers his ring, and changes the two\nmagicians into asses; he rides upon one ass, and then throws it down\nthe mountains; the other ass is loaded with lard, and sent in\ngratitude to the rats. Here the cock appears as a nocturnal animal;\nthe stone which, when enclosed in a ring, performs miracles, is the\nsun which comes out when invoked by the cock of night. According to\nthe Sicilian belief, when one dreams of brood-hens with chickens in\nuninhabited and deserted houses, it is a sign that there are treasures\nhidden in these houses, and one must go to dig them up.\n\nIn the first of the Esthonian stories, the cock that crows is a spy\nover the old woman.[429] In the third Esthonian story, a woman gives\nher husband three eggs of a black hen to eat in order to obtain three\ndwarf heroes. In the twenty-second Esthonian story, the shepherds that\nwatch over the son of the persecuted king, seeing the knowingness of\nthe boy, recognise the truth of the proverb that \"the egg is more\ncunning than the hen.\" In the ninth Esthonian story, a young man,\nafter having made a compact with the devil, cheats him, giving him the\nblood of a cock instead of his own. In the fourth Esthonian story,\nwhen three strokes are given with a golden rod upon a rock, a large\ngolden cock comes out and perches upon the top of it; it beats its\nwings and crows; at each crowing a marvel comes out of the stone, a\ntablecloth that spreads itself and a porringer that fills itself. In\nthe twenty-fourth Esthonian story, an old fairy gives to the queen a\nlittle basket with a bird's egg inside; the queen must hatch it for\nthree months, like a pearl, in her bosom; first a little living doll\nwill be born, which, when warmed in a basket covered with wool, will\nbecome a real girl; at the same time that the doll becomes a real\ngirl, the queen will give birth to a beautiful male child. Linda, the\nwife of Kalew, in Finnish mythology, is also born of the egg of a\nwoodcock or a heathcock.\n\nIn Hungry (where a dyed tin cock is placed upon the top of high\nbuildings to indicate the direction of the wind--this is the English\nand Italian weathercock; we have all heard of the cock of the tower of\nSt Mark at Venice which makes the hours strike), it is believed that,\nto appease the devil, one must sacrifice a black cock to him. The red\ncock, on the contrary, signifies fire.[430]\n\nIn the Monferrato it is believed that a black hen split open alive in\nthe middle, and placed where one feels the pain of the _mal di punta_,\nwill take away the disease and the pain, on condition that when this\nstrange plaster is taken off, the feathers be burned in the house.\n\nThe cock or fowl which, in the festive customs of Essex and of Norfolk\n(of which traces are preserved in the striking of the porringer by a man\nblindfolded at the feast of Mid-Lent in several parts of France and in\nPiedmont), a man blind-folded wins, if he succeeds in striking it upon\nthe shoulders of another man (or else sometimes shut up in a porringer\nat the height of twelve or fourteen feet from the ground, at which\nprojectiles are thrown[431]) is a personification of the funereal cock\nout of which, when struck, the daily fire is made to come. The sacrifice\nof a cock was a custom in India, Greece, and Germany.\n\nIn the same way as the ancients used to make quails fight against each\nother, so they made cocks; hence the cock was called son of Mars\n(Are\u00f4s neottos). We already know that the cock's crest terrifies the\nmaned lion; the crest and the mane are equivalent; and we have also\nseen what heroic virtue was attributed to the _lapillus alectorius_.\nPlutarch writes that the Laced\u00e6monians sacrificed the cock to Mars to\nobtain victory in the battles which they fought in the open air.\nPallas wore the cock upon her helmet, Idomeneus upon his shield.\nPlutarch says, moreover, that the inhabitants of Caria used to carry a\ncock on the end of their lances, and refers the origin of this custom\nto Artaxerxes; but it appears to be much more ancient, for the Carians\nwore crested helmets as far back as the time of Herodotus, for which\nreason the Persians gave the Carians the name of cocks. Cockfights,\nwhich became so popular in England, are also common in India. Philon,\nthe Hebrew, relates of Miltiades, that before the battle of Marathon\nhe inflamed the ardour of his soldiers by exhibiting cockfights; the\nsame, according to \u00c6lianos, was done by Themistocles. John Goropius\n(who gives the extravagant etymologies of _danen_ and _alanen_ from\n_de hahnen_ and _all hahnen_) relates that the Danes were accustomed\nto carry two cocks to war, one to tell the hours and the other to\nexcite the soldiers to battle. Du Cange informs us that duels between\ncocks were also the custom in France in the seventeenth century, and\ngives some fragments of medi\u00e6val writings in which these are\nprohibited as a superstitious custom and one which was objectionable.\n\nIt is well known that the ancient Romans, before engaging in battle,\ntook auguries from cocks and fowls, although this custom sometimes\ngave occasion to derision. Of Publius Claudius, for instance, it is\nsaid that, being about to engage in a naval battle in the first Punic\nwar, he consulted the auguries in order not to offend against the\ncustoms of his country; but that when the augurs announced that the\nfowls would not eat, he ordered them to be taken and thrown into the\nsea, saying, \"If they will not eat, then let them drink.\"\n\nPart of the worship which was offered to the cock and to the hen was\nalso rendered to the egg: the Latin proverb, \"Gallus in sterquilinio\nsuo plurimum potest,\" shows the great value of the egg. The pearl\nwhich the fowl searches for in the dunghill is nought else but its own\negg; and the egg of the hen in the sky is the sun itself. During the\nnight the celestial hen is black, but it becomes white in the morning;\nand being white, on account of the snow, it is the hen of winter. The\nwhite hen is propitious on account of the golden chickens hatched by\nit. In the Monferrato it is believed that the eggs of a white hen laid\non Ascension Day, in a new nest, are a good remedy for pains in the\nstomach, head, and ears, and that, when taken into a cornfield, they\nprevent the blight, or black evil, from entering amongst the crops, or\nwhen taken into a vineyard, they save it from hail. The eggs which are\neaten at Easter and concerning which, accompanied sometimes by songs\nand proverbs, so many popular customs, mythologically in accordance,\nare current in the various countries of Europe, celebrate the\nresurrection of the celestial egg, a symbol of abundance,[432] the sun\nof spring. The hen of the fable and the fairy tales, which lays golden\neggs, is the mythical hen (the earth or the sky) which gives birth\nevery day to the sun. The golden egg is the beginning of life in\nOrphic and Hindoo cosmogony; by the golden egg the world begins to\nmove, and movement is the principle of good. The golden egg brings\nforth the luminous, laborious, and beneficent day. Hence it is an\nexcellent augury to begin with the egg, which represents the principle\nof good, whence the equivocal Latin proverb, \"Ab ovo ad malum,\" which\nsignified \"from good to evil,\" but which properly meant, \"from the egg\nto the apple,\" the Latins being accustomed to begin their dinners with\nhard-boiled eggs and to end them with apples (a custom which is still\npreserved among numerous Italian families).[433]\n\nBut to begin _ab ovo_ also means to begin at the beginning. Horace\nsays that he does not begin from the twin eggs the description of the\nTrojan war--\n\n      \"Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur _ab ovo_,\"\n\nalluding to the egg of L\u00eada, to which the Greek proverb, \"Come out of\nthe egg\" (ex \u00f4ou ex\u00ealthen), also alludes, said of a very handsome man,\nand referring to fair Helen and her two luminous brothers the\nDioskuroi. But here the white cock has became a white swan, of which\nwe shall speak in the following chapter.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[421] i. 49.\n\n[422] M\u00e2 no vadh\u00eer indra m\u00e2 par\u00e2 d\u00e2 m\u00e2 nah priy\u00e2 bhogan\u00e2ni pra mosh\u00eeh\n\u00e2nd\u00e2 m\u00e2 no maghavan chakra nir bhen m\u00e2 nah p\u00e2tr\u00e2 bhet sahag\u00e2nush\u00e2ni;\n_Rigv._ i. 104, 8.\n\n[423] Der Vogel der den Namen Parodars f\u00fchrt, o heiliger Zarathustra,\nden die \u00fcbelredenden Menschen mit den Namen Kahrkat\u00e2\u00e7 belegen, dieser\nVogel erhebt seine Stimme bei jeder g\u00f6ttlichen Morgenr\u00f6the: Stehet auf,\nihr Menschen, preiset die beste Reinheit, vertreibet die D\u00e2eva;\n_Vendidad_, xviii. 34-38, Spiegel's version.--The cock Parodars chases\naway with his cry especially the demon B\u00fbshyan\u00e7ta, who oppresses men\nwith sleep, and he returns again in a fragment of the _Khorda-Avesta_\n(xxxix.): \"'Da, vor dem Kommen der Morgenr\u00f6the, spricht dieser Vogel\nParodars, der Vogel der mit Messern verwundet, Worte gegen das Feuers\naus. Bei seinem Sprechen l\u00e4uft Bushyan\u00e7ta mit langen H\u00e4nden herzu von\nder n\u00f6rdlichen Gegend, von den n\u00f6rdlichen Gegenden, also sprechen, also\nsagend: \"Schlafet o Menschen, schlafet, s\u00fcndlich Lebende, schlafet, die\nihr ein s\u00fcndiges Leben f\u00fchrt.\" As in the song of Prudentius, the idea of\nsleep and that of sin are associated together; the song of Prudentius\nsuggests the idea that it was written by some one who was initiated in\nthe solar mysteries of the worship of Mithras.\n\n[424] Cfr. Du Cange, _s. v._--And the same Du Cange, in the article\n_gallina_, quotes an old medi\u00e6val glossary in which _gallina_ is said\nto mean Christ, wisdom, and soul.--The cock of the Gospel announces,\nreveals, betrays Christ three times, in the three watches of the\nnight, to which sometimes correspond the three sons of the legends.\n\n[425] According to a legend of St James, an old father and mother go\nwith their young son on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella in\nSpain. On the way, in an inn at San Domingo de la Calzada, the\ninnkeeper's daughter offers her favours to the young man, who rejects\nthem; the girl avenges herself upon him by putting a silver plate in\nhis sack, for which he is arrested and impaled as a thief. The old\nparents continue their journey to Santiago; St James has pity upon\nthem, and works a miracle which is only known to be his afterwards.\nThe old couple return to their country, passing by San Domingo; here\nthey find their son alive, whom they had seen impaled, for which they\nthere and then offer solemn thanks to St James. All are astonished.\nThe prefect of the place is at dinner when the news is brought to him;\nhe refuses to believe it, and says that the young man is no more alive\nthan the roasted fowl which is being set upon the table; no sooner has\nhe uttered the words, than the cock begins to crow, resumes its\nfeathers, jumps out of the plate and flies away. The innkeeper's\ndaughter is condemned; and in honour of the miracle, the cock is\nrevered as a sacred animal, and at San Domingo the houses are\nornamented with cock's feathers. A similar wonder is said, by Sigonio,\nto have taken place in the eleventh century in the Bolognese; but\ninstead of St James, Christ and St Peter appear to perform\nmiracles.--Cfr. also the relationship of St Elias (and of the Russian\nhero Ilya) feasted on the 21st of July, when the sun enters the sign\nof the lion, with Helios, the hellenic sun.\n\n[426]\n\n      La gallina cantatura\n      Nun si vinni, n\u00e8 si duna,\n      Si la mancia la patruna.\n\n[427] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, i. 3, ii. 30; sometimes, instead of the\nhen's feet we have the dog's paws; cfr. v. 28.\n\n[428] Concerning this subject I can add an unpublished story which\nSignor S. M. Greco sends me from Cosenza in Calabria:--A poor girl is\nalone in the fields; she plucks a rampion, sees a stair, goes down,\nand comes to the palace of the fairies, who at sight of her are\nsmitten with love. She asks to be allowed to go back to her mother,\nand obtains permission; she tells her mother that she hears a noise\nevery night, without seeing anything, and is advised to light a candle\nand she will see. Next evening the girl does so, and sees a youth of\ngreat beauty with a looking-glass on his breast. The third evening she\ndoes the same, but a drop of wax falls upon the looking-glass and\nwakens the youth, who cries out lamentably, \"Thou shalt go hence.\" The\ngirl wishes to go away; the fairies give her a full clew of thread,\nwith the advice that she must go to the top of the highest mountain\nand leave the clew to itself; where it goes, thither must she follow.\nShe obeys, and arrives at a town which is in mourning on account of\nthe absence of the prince; the queen sees the girl from the window and\nmakes her come in. After some time she gives birth to a handsome son,\nand a shoemaker, who works by night, begins to sing--\n\n      \"Sleep, sleep, my son;\n       If your mother knew some day\n       That you are my son,\n       In a golden cradle she would put you to sleep,\n       And in golden swaddling-clothes.\n       Sleep, sleep, my son.\"\n\nThe queen then learns from the girl, that he who sings thus is the\nprince, who is destined to stay far from the palace until the sun\nrises without him perceiving it. Orders are then given to kill all the\nfowls in the town, and to cover all the windows with a black veil\nscattered over with diamonds, in order that the prince may believe it\nis still night and may not perceive the rising of the sun. The prince\nis deceived, and marries the maiden who is the fairies' favourite, and\nthey lived happy and contented,\n\n      Whilst I, if you will believe me,\n      Found myself with a thorn in my foot.\n\n[429] Die schlaue Alte brachte bald heraus, was der Dorfhahn hinter\nihrem R\u00fccken der jungsten Tochter ins Ohr gekr\u00e4ht hatte; Kreutzwald u.\nL\u00f6we, _Ehstnische M\u00e4rchen_.\n\n[430] In the annals of the city of Debreczen, in the year 1564, we read\nas follows: \"\u00c6terna et exitialis memoria de incendio trium ordinum in\nanno pr\u00e6senti: feria secunda proxima ante fest. nat. Mari\u00e6 glorios\u00e6\nexorta est flamma et incendium periculosum in platea Burgondia; eadem\nsimiliter ebdomade exortum est incendium altera vice, de platea Csapo de\ndomo inquilinari Stephani literati, multas domos ... in cinerem redegit,\net quod majus inter c\u00e6tera est, nobilissimi quoque templi divi Andre\u00e6 et\nturris tectur\u00e6 combust\u00e6 sunt, ex qua turri et ejus pinnaculo, gallus\netiam \u00e6reus, a multis annis insomniter dies ac noctes jejuno stomacho\nstans et in omnes partes advigilans, flammam ignis sufferre non valens,\ninvitus devolare, descendere et illam suam solitam stationem deserere\ncoactus est, qui gallus tant\u00e6 cladis commiserescens ac nimio dolore\nobmutescens de pinnaculo desiliendio, collo confracto in terram\ncoincidens et su\u00e6 vit\u00e6 propri\u00e6 quoque non parcens, fidele suum servitium\ninvitus derelinquendo, misere expiravit et vitam suam finivit sic.\"\n\n[431] Reinsberg von D\u00fcringsfeld observes (_Das festliche Jahr_), that\nsometimes, for jest, in North Walsham, instead of the cock an owl is\nput,--another funereal symbol with which we are already acquainted.\n\n[432] Not only the egg of the hen is a symbol of abundance, but even\nthe bones of fowls served in popular tradition to represent\nmatrimonial faith and coition. In Russia, when two (probably husband\nand wife) eat a fowl together, they divide the bone of the neck, the\nEnglish merrythought, between them; then each of them takes and keeps\na part, promising to remember this rupture. When either of the two\nsubsequently presents something to the other, the one who receives\nmust immediately say, \"I remember;\" if not, the giver says to him,\n\"Take and remember.\" The forgetful one loses the game. A similar game,\ncalled the verde or green, is played in Tuscany during Lent between\nlovers with a little twig of the box-tree.\n\n[433] The sun is an egg at the beginning of day; he becomes, or finds,\nan apple-tree in the evening, in the western garden of the Hesperides.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nTHE DOVE, THE DUCK, THE GOOSE, AND THE SWAN.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    White, red, and dark-coloured doves, ducks, geese, and swans.--The\n    funereal dove; it is united with the owl; kapotas.--The doves flee\n    from unhappy persons.--The dove and the hawk.--Two doves sacrifice\n    themselves, one for the other; a form of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u.--The dove and\n    the ant.--Transformation of the hero and heroine into doves.--The\n    two prophetic doves upon the cross-trees of the mast.--Among\n    funereal games, that of shooting arrows at a dove which hangs from\n    the mast of a ship.--The doves of Dodona.--The dove and the\n    water.--St Radegonda as a dove preserves sailors from shipwreck.--A\n    dove guides the Argonauts.--The soul of Semiramis becomes a\n    dove.--It is sacrilege to eat a dove.--Hero and heroine become\n    doves, in order to escape.--The dove as the bringer of joy, of\n    light, of good; it is a symbol of the winter that ends, and of the\n    spring which is beginning.--The daughters of Anius become white\n    doves.--Two doves separate the barley for the girl.--The fireworks,\n    the stove, and the car of Indras, perform the same miracles, _i.e._,\n    they make beautiful the girl with the ugly skin.--Zezolla benefited\n    by the dove of the fairies.--The doves on the rosebush.--The nymph\n    Peristera helps Aphrodit\u00ea to pluck flowers.--The phallical\n    dove.--The word _hansas_; the gu\u00e7-lebedi of Russian tales.--Agnis as\n    a hansas.--The Marutas as hans\u00e2s.--The horses of the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u as\n    hans\u00e2s.--The duck makes its nest upon the thief's head.--Bribus on\n    the thieves' head; Bribus as Indras, and as a bird.--Brahman upon\n    the hans\u00e2s.--The sun as a golden duck.--The betrothed wife as a\n    duck.--The arrows of R\u00e2mas as hans\u00e2s.--Kabandhas drawn by\n    hans\u00e2s.--The hans\u00e2s as love messengers.--The geese-swans and the\n    young hero in Russian tales.--The serpent-witch and the princess as\n    a white duck.--The golden and silver eggs of the duck.--The golden\n    egg of the duck causes the death of the horse.--The geese of the\n    Capitol.--The goose which, after having been cooked, rises again\n    alive.--Geese as discoverers of deceits.--The Valkiries as\n    swans.--Berta the Reine p\u00e9dauque.--The wild goose on the bush.--The\n    goose eaten on St Michael's Day.--The hero and the swan.--The\n    kingdom of the San Graal.--The legend of Lohengrin; a variety of the\n    myth of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u; Lohengrin and Elsa's brother, the sun and the\n    moon.--The legend of the Dioskuroi; Zeus as a swan; the Dioskuroi\n    deliver Helen, as Lohengrin delivers Elsa.\n\nInasmuch as there is the white dove and the dove-coloured one,[434]\nthe white duck and goose, the duck and the dark-coloured or\nfire-coloured goose, the white swan and the flamingo, the red swan and\nthe black, these birds, dove, goose, duck, and swan, from the\ndiversity of colour which they assume upon the earth, also assumed\nmythical aspects which are sometimes contradictory when translated to\nthe sky to represent celestial phenomena. While the white ones served\nfor the more poetical images of mythology, the red and the dark ones\noffered aspects now benignant, now malignant, alluring the hero now to\nhis ruin, and now, instead, to good fortune. The red hues, for\nexample, of the western sky appear as flames into which the witch\nwishes to precipitate the young hero; the roseate tints of the eastern\nheavens, on the contrary, are generally the pyre or furnace in which\nthe hero burns the ill-favoured witch who endeavours to ruin him; from\nthe dawn of morning, from the white sky, from the snow of winter, from\nthe white earth or white swan, the golden egg (the sun) comes forth;\nnow the beautiful maiden, now the young hero emerges from it--the\naurora and the sun, or else the spring and the sun. The evening sun\nand aurora in the night, the sun and the verdant earth, which divests\nitself of its varicoloured attire in autumn, veil, cover, and lose\nthemselves; their most vivid hues become obscure in the gloom of\nnight, or are covered by the snow of winter; the hero becomes a\ndark-coloured dove, or a gloomy swan which crosses the waters. I have\nnoted more than once how the night of the year corresponds to those of\nthe day; the sun which hides itself in the night of evening, and the\nsun which veils itself in the night of winter, are often represented\nby the same mythical images.\n\nLet us now see under what mythical aspects the dove, the duck, and the\nswan appear in the East, in order to compare them with Western\ntraditions.\n\nThe _Rigvedas_ presents us with the funereal dove, the grey or\ndark-coloured dove, the messenger of the nocturnal or wintry darkness.\nSeeing it is joined in the Vedic hymn with the owl, it was supposed\nthat it represented some other bird than the dove, and interpreters\nwere fain to recognise in the Vedic kapotas the _turdus macrourus_\nrather than the dove; but this interpretation seems to me\ninadmissible, since the Vedic kapotas appears as a domestic bird, and\none which approaches the dwellings of men, habits which thrushes have\nnot, and which doves have. In the 165th hymn of the tenth book of the\n_Rigvedas_, the kapotas is exorcised as a messenger of the funereal\nNirritis, of death, and of Yamas the god of the dead, in order that it\nmay do no evil: \"Be propitious to us,\" cries the poet, \"be propitious\nto us, rapid (or messenger) kapotas; inoffensive may the bird be unto\nus, O gods, in the houses. When the owl emits that painful cry, when\nthe kapotas touches the fire, honour be to Mrityus, to Yamas, whose\nmessenger it is.\"[435] As birds of evil omen also must the doves be\nrecognised, which flee from the unhappy in the _Pancatantram_.[436] In\nthe dove pursued by the hawk (the hawk has also in Sanskrit the name\nof kapot\u00e2ris, or enemy of doves) of the Buddhist legend concerning the\nking who sacrifices himself to keep his word, which has been recorded\nin the chapter on the hawk, the hawk is the form taken by Indras, and\nthe dove the form of Agnis, the fire. The same legend is found again\nin the _Tuti-Name_, with this variation that the vulture takes the\nplace of the falcon, and Moses that of the Buddhist king. In order to\nfulfil the duties of hospitality, he cuts off as much of his own flesh\nas the dove weighs, to give it to the vulture, who takes in jest the\nsame part of the hero which the hatred of races and religious\nfanaticism make the Jew of Venice, immortalised by the genius of\nShakspeare, demand with seriousness. In other Hindoo varieties of the\nsame legend of the hero who sacrifices himself, we find two doves (in\nthe _Pancatantram_) which sacrifice themselves one for the other; two\ndoves that love one another (in the _Tuti-Name_,[437] they are two\nturtle-doves). Here we have a form of the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, of the two\nbrothers of whom one sacrifices himself for the other; the well-known\nfable of La Fontaine, _Les Deux Pigeons_, is a reminiscence of this\nEastern legend. In the same way, a variety of the legend of the two\nbrothers is contained in the fable of \u00c6sop, and of La Fontaine, of the\ndove that throws a blade of grass into the water to the ant that is\nabout to drown, and thus saves it, for which reason the grateful ant\nsoon after bites the foot of the hunter who has caught the dove, so\nthat he is compelled to let it go. In the chapter which treats of the\nswallow, we saw the beautiful maiden upon the tree at the fountain\nchanged into a swallow by the witch's enchantment; numerous other\nlegends, instead of the transformation into a swallow, give us that\ninto a dove.[438] The stories of the maiden Filadoro and of the Island\nof the Ogres, in the _Pentamerone_;[439] a Piedmontese story\ncommunicated by me in 1866 to my friend Professor Alexander\nWesselofski, who published it in his essay upon the poet Pucci; the\nthirteenth Sicilian story of Signora Gonzenbach (of which the twelfth\nstory is a variation); the forty-ninth story of the sixth book of\n_Afanassieff_ (a variety of which occurs at the end of the fifth of\nthe stories of Santo Stefano di Calcinaia), and a great number of\nanalogous European stories, reproduce this subject of the maiden\ntransformed into a dove by the witch's enchantment: as the swallow is\nwhite and black, so does the dove into which the beautiful maiden is\ntransformed appear now white and now black. No less numerous are the\nstories in which, instead of the young princess, we read of young\nprinces transformed into doves; I publish here two unpublished Tuscan\nstories which refer to this subject, and which (particularly the\nsecond) are of great interest.[440]\n\nHitherto the dove has appeared as a mournful and diabolical form\nassumed by the hero or heroine, on compulsion of external magic. Of\nfunereal character, too, are the two doves which place themselves upon\nthe cross-trees of the ship in which Gennariello is carrying a hawk, a\nhorse, and a white and red bride with black hair to his brother\nMilluccio (a variation of the legend of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, and of that of\nthe youth who sacrifices himself for his brother). The two doves\nspeak to each other; one says that Gennariello is taking to his\nbrother Milluccio a hawk which immediately after its arrival will tear\nout his eyes, and that he who should warn Milluccio of it, or not take\nthe hawk to him, would turn to marble; then that Gennariello is taking\nto his brother Milluccio a horse which, as soon as it is ridden, will\nbreak his neck, and that he who should warn Milluccio of this, or not\ntake the horse to him, would turn, to marble; and finally, it says\nthat Gennariello is taking to his brother a wife on whose account a\ndragon will devour the bride and bridegroom during the first night of\ntheir union, and that he who should warn Milluccio of this, or not\ntake the bride to him, would turn to marble. The cunning Gennariello\ntakes hawk, horse, and bride to Milluccio; but before he takes the\nhawk in his hand, Gennariello cuts off its head; before he rides the\nhorse, Gennariello cuts its legs off; and before the dragon comes up\nto devour the bride and bridegroom, Gennariello shears off its head.\nMilluccio, who has not seen the dragon, sees his brother with a knife\nin his hand, and thinks that he has come to kill him; he has him bound\nand condemned to death. In order not to escape this fate, Gennariello\nreveals everything and turns to marble. Milluccio learns that by\nanointing the marble with the blood of his two little sons, his\nbrother can be recalled to life; he slaughters his children; the\nmother, in despair, goes to the window to kill herself by throwing\nherself down, but she sees her father coming towards her, and\nshouting, \"Drinto na nugola.\" He resuscitates her children, saying\nthat it was to avenge himself, he had caused such bitter pain to all;\non Gennariello, because he had carried off his daughter; on Milluccio,\nwho was the cause of her being carried off; on his daughter, because\nshe had eloped from her home. The two doves that perched upon the\ncrosstrees of the mast were therefore messengers of death to the hero\nand to the heroine, as sometimes, on the other hand, they are their\nown funereal form. The reader will doubtless remember how, in the\nfuneral of Patroclus in the _Iliad_, amongst the funereal games, there\nis that of shooting arrows at a dove hung upon the mast of a ship.\n(He will also remember the two prophetic doves which gave responses\nupon two oak-trees or beeches at Dodona, and which cried, \"Zeus was,\nZeus is, Zeus will be, O Zeus, the greatest of the gods!\") The dove\nhere appears in connection with funereal waters; the fable is well\nknown of the dove that meets with its death by beating its head\nagainst a wall upon which water is painted.[441] In the legend of\nQueen Radegonda, the holy queen, in the form of a dove, delivers\nsailors from shipwreck. According to Apollonios, a dove was the guide\nof the Argonauts. It is said that Semiramis was transformed into one\nafter her death. The dove also appears as a funereal symbol in\nChristian monuments; hence, and from its use as the symbol of the St\nEsprit, the superstition cherished by a great portion of the people in\nItaly, Germany, Holland, and Russia, to the effect that it is a sin to\neat a dove. It is well-known what reverence was shown to it in\nantiquity, particularly in Syria and in Palestine.\n\nSometimes the form of a dove is voluntarily assumed by the two young\nlovers, to flee from the persecution of the monster; as, for instance,\nin the sixth of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano_. Sometimes the\nfunereal dove (like the funereal crow) is the bringer of joy and good\nthings to men and gods. The popular custom of the artificial dove,\ncommonly called the dove of the Pazzi (from the name of the noble\nFlorentine family which possessed the privilege), which, at Florence,\non Holy Saturday, that is to say, Easter Eve, starts from the altar of\nthe Cathedral, and flies at midday to light the fireworks upon the\nlittle square between Santa Maria del Fiore and the Baptistery of St\nJohn, to announce that Christ has risen to a crowd of peasants, who\nhave flocked in from the country to augur from the dove's flight\nwhether they will have a good harvest in the following year,--is a\nsymbol of the end of winter, and of the commencement of spring. In the\n_Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, the daughters of Anius, by the grace of\nBacchus, change into corn, wine, and oil, whatever they touch,\naccording to the words of the same Anius--\n\n                        \"Tactu natarum cuncta mearum\n      In segetem, laticemque meri, baccamque Minerv\u00e6\n      Transformabantur.\"\n\nAgamemnon wishes to have them with him to provision the army; the\ndaughters of Anius refuse; Agamemnon then purposes compelling them by\nmain force; but Bacchus takes pity upon them, and transforms them into\nwhite doves. In the thirtieth story of the sixth book of\n_Afanassieff_, two doves (a form of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u) come to separate the\nbarley for Masha or Little Mary, the black (cornushka) or ugly or\ndirty little girl, the persecuted Cinderella, and then making her\nmount upon the stove, transform her into an exceedingly beautiful\nmaiden, renewing thus the miracle of Indras (and of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u), who\nrestores to beauty the maiden of the ugly skin. The fireworks of the\npopular Tuscan custom, the stove, and the car of Indras perform the\nsame miracle. In the sixth story of the first book of the\n_Pentamerone_, the maiden Zezolla, called at home \"a cat, a\ncinder-girl,\" because she was always watching the fire, ill-treated at\nhome by her step-mother, is benefited by the dove of the fairies of\nthe island of Sardinia, which sends her a plant that yields golden\ndates, a golden spade, a little golden bucket, and a silk tablecloth.\nThe girl must cultivate the plant, and simply remember, when she\nwishes for some favour, to say--\n\n      \"Dattolo mio 'naurato,\n       Co la zappatella d'oro t'haggio zappato,\n       Co lo secchietello d'oro t'haggio adacquato,\n       Co la tovaglia de seta t'haggio asciuttato;\n       Spoglia a te, e vieste a me.\"\n\nThe date-tree yields some of its riches to adorn the maiden. Thus,\nwhen the young king proclaims a festival, she goes disguised in regal\nattire, and dances with an effect that outdazzles like a sun. When she\nis followed by the prince the first time, she throws gold behind her;\nthe second time, pearls; the third, her slipper; and by means of it\nshe is recognised and espoused. In the twenty-second Esthonian story,\nwhen the young prince-lover arrives, two doves perch upon the\nrose-bush, in which the beautiful daughter of the gardener is enclosed\nby enchantment; the beautiful maiden comes out of the rose-bush, and,\nshowing the half of her ring, weds the prince who has preserved the\nother half. In the Hellenic myth, Aphrodit\u00ea and Love play at seeing\nwho will pluck most flowers; winged Love is winning, but the nymph\nPeristera helps Aphrodit\u00ea; Love indignant, changes her into the\nperistera or dove, which Aphrodit\u00ea, to console her, takes under her\nprotection. The doves now draw the chariot of Venus, and now (like the\nsparrows) accompany it. In the _Odyssey_ the doves bring the ambrosia\nto Zeus,[442] and it is in the form of a dove that Zeus (well known\nto be an _alter ego_ of Indras) visits the virgin Phthia. Catullus,\nspeaking of C\u00e6sar's _salacitas_, makes mention of the _columbulum\nalbulum_, or little dove of Venus.[443] In this passage the dove\nbecomes a phallical symbol; and we are reminded of the well-known\nmythical episode of the animal, bird, or fish which laughs, by the\nequivocal Italian proverb, \"The dove that laughs wants the bean\" (said\nof a woman when she smiles upon her lover[444]). It is narrated of\nAphrodit\u00ea, that she cured Aspasia of a tumour by the help of a dove;\nhere the dove does to Aspasia the same service as the rudder of\nIndras's chariot to Apal\u00e2 in the Vedic legend.\n\nBut in mythical tradition the place of the doves is sometimes taken by\nducks, which are exchanged for swans.\n\nThe Hindoo word _hansas_ means now swan, now duck (anas, anser), now\ngoose, now ph\u00e6nicopterus. No wonder then that the myths exchanged,\none for another, animals which were confounded together under one and\nthe same appellation. Russian stories call the birds goose-swans\n(gu\u00e7lebedi) which now carry off, and now save the young hero.\n\nIn the Vedic hymns, the hansas (duck-swan or goose-swan) is\nrepresented more than once. Agnis, the fire, when entreated to arouse\nhimself in houses with the aurora, is compared to a swan in the waters\n(or to the light in the darkness, to white upon black, or the sun in\nthe azure sky[445]). The god Agnis is himself called hansas, the\ncompanion (as a thunderbolt) of the movable (waves or clouds), going\nin company with the celestial waters.[446] The song of the companions\nof Brihaspatis, singing hymns to the cows or auror\u00e6 of the morn,\nresembles the song of the hans\u00e2s.[447] The Marutas, with the splendid\nbodies (the winds that lighten, howl, and thunder) are compared to\nhans\u00e2s with black backs[448] (which reminds us of the swallows with\nblack backs and with white ones, of black crows and white crows, black\nswans and white ones). The horses of the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u are compared to\nhans\u00e2s, ambrosial, innocent, with golden wings, which waken with the\naurora (being sunbeams), which swim in the waters, joyful and\nmerry.[449] In the Russian stories of _Afanassieff_,[450] a duck comes\nto make its nest upon the head of the thief who has fallen into the\nwaters out of the sky. The duck lays a golden egg (the sun) in its\nnest at morn, and a silver egg (the moon) at even. In the _Rigvedas_,\nI read that upon the head of the thieves (Panayas), similar to the\nvast forest of the Ganges, at its higher part, Bribuh went to place\nhimself, scattering thousands of gifts.[451] I think I can recognise\nin Bribus a bird and a personification of Indras. Bribus is, in\n\u00c7\u00e2\u00f1kh\u00e2yanas, represented as a takshan, which is explained as a\nconstructor, an artificer, a carpenter; hence Bribus is supposed to be\nthe carpenter of the Panayas. But this seems improbable, besides being\nin contradiction to the Vedic strophe. The proper primitive sense of\nthe word _takshan_ is the cutter, he who breaks in pieces; in Bribus,\ntherefore, I recognise not the carpenter of the Panayas, but their\ndestroyer. As we also find, in another Vedic hymn,[452] Bribus in\nconnection with two other birds, viz., the bharadvagas (the lark) and\nthe stokas (the cuckoo), I am induced to suppose that Bribus too is a\nbird. Finally, as I find Bribus in connection with Indras, I see in\nthis bird that perches upon the head of the Panayas, a form of the god\nIndras himself. The duck, in Russian stories, deposits its egg upon\nthe robber's head; thus Indras takes their treasures off the head of\nthe Panayas. We already know of the pearls which fall from the head of\nthe good fairy, combed by the virtuous maiden; we also know that the\nmythical waters are in relation with the treasures. We must record\nhere the legend of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ concerning the origin of the\nGanges, which, before pouring its waters upon the earth, let them\nwander for a long time upon the hairy head of the god \u00c7ivas, who is a\nmore elevated form of Kuveras, the god of riches.[453] We know also\nthat the pearl and the egg are the same in the myths.\n\nThe god Brahman is represented in Hindoo mythology riding upon a white\nhansas.\n\nIn the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, the sky is compared to a lake of which the\nresplendent sun is the golden duck.[454] R\u00e2mas (a form of the sun\nVishnus), whose speech has the accent of the hansas drunk with\nlove,[455] hurls with his divine bow an arrow which penetrates through\nseven palm-trees, the mountain, and the earth, out of which it\nafterwards comes, and returns to R\u00e2mas in the form of a hansas.[456]\nKabandhas, who, when traversing the fire, is released by his monstrous\nform, is drawn by hans\u00e2s whilst ascending into heaven.[457] Finally,\nthe hans\u00e2s are well known which served as love-messengers between the\nprince Nalas and the Princess Damayant\u00ee in the celebrated episode of\nthe _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_.\n\nIn the fourth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, little Johnny\n(Ivasco) is upon an oak-tree, which the witch is gnawing, to possess\nherself of him; three flights of geese-swans pass one after the other;\nJohnny begs for their assistance; the first flight refuse; as also\nthe second; those of the third take Johnny upon their wings and carry\nhim home.[458] In the nineteenth story of the sixth book, the\ngeese-swans assume, on the contrary, a malignant aspect, carrying the\nlittle brother on their wings away from his negligent sister. The\nstory says that these animals have had for a long time the evil\nreputation of carrying little children off. The geese-swans carry the\nboy into a fairy's house, where he plays with golden apples. The\nsister follows upon his track; she inquires at a stove, an apple-tree,\nand a brook of milk, where the goose-swans have carried the boy to,\nbut learns nothing; at last the malicious little iosz (the sea-urchin)\nreveals to her the secret. The sister takes her brother and carries\nhim home, having been followed by the geese-swans and having had to\nhide herself during her flight by the brook, by the apple-tree and\nthen by the stove.\n\nBut if geese, ducks, and swans sometimes do evil, or are sometimes\ndiabolical forms assumed by the witch's deceit, they generally produce\ngood and conduct to good. In a variation of the forty-sixth story of\nthe sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the geese predict the future to Ivan\nthe merchant's son, who, having been to school under the devil, learns\nthere, amongst other things, the language of birds. In the sixtieth\nstory of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the swan, a beautiful\nmaiden, helps the unhappy Danilo, whom the prince has ordered to sew a\npelisse which must have golden lions for buttons and birds from beyond\nthe seas for button-holes; the same swan performs other miracles for\nthe youth whom she loves. In the forty-sixth story of the fourth book\nof _Afanassieff_, the old serpent-witch makes the princess become a\nwhite duck during the prince's absence. The duck lays three eggs, out\nof which she has three sons, two handsome, and one ill-favoured, but\ncunning. The witch kills, during their sleep, the two handsome sons\nand turns them to ducks; the third escapes by means of his cunning;\nthe white duck, anxious about her sons, flies to the prince's palace\nand begins to sing--\n\n      \"Kri\u00e0, kri\u00e0, my little sons!\n       Kri\u00e0, kri\u00e0, little pigeons!\n       The old witch has extinguished you;\n       The old witch, the malignant serpent,\n       The deceitful malignant serpent!\n       Your own father has carried you off,\n       Your own father, my husband!\n       She drowned us in the rapid stream,\n       She transformed us into little white ducks,\n       And she herself lives in regal pomp!\"\n\nThe prince has the duck caught by the wings, and says, \"White\nbirch-tree, put thyself behind; beautiful maiden, before.\" At this\nmagical formula, the tree rises behind him and he finds his beautiful\nprincess before him. He then compels the witch to bring the little\nchildren to life again.\n\nThe death of the duck sometimes makes the fortune of the hero or the\nheroine, on account of the egg which it produces (the sun in the\nmorning and the moon in the evening). In the fifty-third story of the\nfifth book of _Afanassieff_, the young hero, by the advice of an\nunknown young man, goes to seek under the roots of a birch-tree a duck\nwhich lays one day (in the morning) a golden egg, and next day (in the\nevening) a silver one; upon its breast, the following words are\nwritten in golden letters:--\"He who eats its head will become king; he\nwho eats the heart will spit gold.\" He carries it to his mother when\nhis father is absent and his mother has an intrigue with another\ngentleman. The gentleman reads the golden letters and advises the\nwoman to have the duck cooked; but the two sons are before him; and\nwhilst their mother is at mass, one eats the head and the other the\nheart of the duck, and meet with the adventures which are related in\nthe chapter on the Horse.[459] The golden egg of the duck causes the\ndeath of the witch and the monster in numerous Slavonic stories. In\nthe thirty-third story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, a\nmarvellous goose, of the same nature as those that in the Capitol\nwarned the Romans of the ambuscade of the Gauls, discovers the\ntraitors. The wife of a rich merchant asks her husband to procure for\nher the marvel of marvels. Her husband buys, in the twenty-seventh\nworld and in the thirtieth kingdom (which is the kingdom of the other\nnight-world), from an old man,[460] a goose which, after having been\ncooked and eaten, all except the bones, rises again alive. The goose\nperforms the same miracle in the merchant's house; on the morrow, when\nthe husband is absent, his wife invites a lover of hers into the house\nand wishes to cook the goose to welcome him. She says to it, \"Come\nhere;\" the goose obeys; she commands it to get into the frying-pan,\nbut it refuses. The woman puts it in by force, but remains fastened to\nthe frying-pan;[461] the lover tries to release her, but sticks fast\nalso; the servants come to the rescue, and stick one to the other and\nall to the frying-pan, until the husband appears, hears his wife's\nconfession, thrashes the lover and releases the woman from the goose.\n\nIn the _Pentamerone_, too, geese appear as discoverers of deceits.\nMarziella, when she combs her hair, scatters pearls and flower-buds\nabout her; when she walks, lilies and violets grow up under her\nfeet;[462] her brother Ciommo is to conduct her to the king as his\nwife; but the old aunt changes the bride, putting her own ugly\ndaughter in the place of her beautiful niece. The indignant king sends\nCiommo to pasture the geese; he neglects them, but Marziella, who had\nbeen carried off by a siren, comes from the bottom of the sea to feed\nthem, \"de pasta riale,\" and to give them \"rose-water\" to drink. The\ngeese grow fat, and begin to sing near the king's palace--\n\n                          \"Pire, pire, pire;\n      Assai bello \u00e8 lo sole co la luna;\n      Assai chi\u00f9 bella \u00e8 chi coverna a nuie.\"\n\nThe king sends a servant after the geese, and thus discovers\neverything; he wishes to marry the beautiful maiden, but the siren\nkeeps her tied with a golden chain; the king, with a noiseless file,\nfiles with his own hands the chain which keeps the maiden's foot fast,\nand thereafter marries her.[463] It is a gooseherd who, in the\ntwentieth Esthonian story, releases the beautiful girl from the\nmonster husband, the killer of his wives (a form of Barbebleu).\n\nIn the Russian story, the fairy maidens (in German traditions, the\nVirgin Mary too) sometimes take, in order to cross the waters, the\nform of geese-swans; thus in the _Eddas_, three Valkyries spin on the\nshores of the lake, with their swan forms close behind them. \"The\nmaidens,\" sings the poem of V\u00f6lund, \"flew from the south across\nM\u00f6rkved, in order that the young Allhvit might be able to accomplish\nhis destiny. The daughters of the South sat down upon the shore to\nspin the precious cloth. One of them, the most beautiful maiden of the\nworld, was clasped to the white bosom of Egil; Svanhvit, the second,\nwore swan's feathers; the third embraced the white neck of\nV\u00f6lund.\"[464] To the Bertha of popular German tradition, only the foot\nof the white goose or of the swan of the Valkyries has remained; hence\nher name of Foot-of-goose and of _Reine p\u00e9dauque_, in the same way as\nthe swan's foot alone has remained to the goddess Freya.\n\nWhen the form of a duck, a goose, or a swan is destroyed, the young hero\nor the young heroine alone remain. In a German tradition, quoted by\nSimrock in his _German Mythology_, we find an enchanted hunter who\nstrikes a wild goose on the flight, and which falls into a bush; he\ncomes up to take it, and instead of it (in the same way as we saw above,\nthe rosebush on which the doves perch) a naked woman rises before him.\nThe custom of eating a goose in England on St Michael's Day, is referred\nby tradition to the times of Queen Elizabeth, who, on St Michael's Day,\nreceived the news of the defeat of the Invincible Armada, when she had\njust eaten a goose. But inasmuch as, according to Baron von\nReinsberg-D\u00fcringsfield, the custom of eating a goose on St Michael's Day\ndates from the times of Edward IV., we must admit that Queen Elizabeth\nconformed to a popular custom which already existed in England.[465] St\nMichael's goose announces the winter like the halcyon. It is eaten as an\naugury of the termination of the rainy and wintry season, inasmuch as\nwhen the aquatic bird, the halcyon, the goose, the duck, or the swan,\nfinds no more water, when the sea of night, or the snow of winter dries\nup, when the aquatic bird is wounded, or is eaten, or dies, the golden\negg is found, the sun comes out, the aurora returns, the winter appears\nagain, the young hero and the beautiful maiden come forth. When the hero\nor heroine becomes an aquatic bird,[466] when he becomes a swan, is\ndrawn by a swan, or rides upon it, it means that he is traversing the\nsea of death, and that he is returning to the kingdom of the San Graal.\nWhen he comes on the swan to meet the beautiful maiden, no one must ask\nhim whence he came. The swan awaits him and will draw him once more\nunder its magic power, and into its gloomy kingdom, as soon as this\nkingdom is remembered by the living. The imagination of the Celtic and\nGermanic nations has, in a cycle of numerous and fascinating legends,\ninvested with solemn mystery this myth, to which the inspired and\nclassical music of Richard Wagner has, in Lohengrin, imparted a new\nattractive magic. Lohengrin, the _recens natus_, the hero born of\nhimself, arrives in a boat drawn by a swan, into which a sorceress has\ntransformed Elsa's young brother: he comes to deliver the Princess Elsa,\nand is about to marry her, but he does not forget that as long as he\nremains with her, so much the longer will the torment of her brother\nendure, so much the longer will he suffer in the shape of a swan; woe to\nhim if any one asks who he is, whence he came, or what that swan is, for\nhe would then be obliged to remember that the swan waits for him to\ndeliver it. Lohengrin must either renounce his love for Elsa, or betray\nhis cavalier's faith to the swan, of whose mysterious nature he is\ncognisant; he bids a funereal farewell to Elsa, reunites her with her\nyoung brother, and mournfully disappears on the gloomy waters, over\nwhose moonlit depths he had come. This is the legend of the two\nbrothers, raised to its utmost poetic and ideal power by Northern\ngenius. The sun and the moon appear in turns before the dawn and the\nspring. They are separated, and one delivers the other in the legends\ninspired by the good genie of man, as in others inspired by his evil\ngenie, one persecutes and deceives the other. We have, even in the Vedic\nhymns, the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the divine twins, identified now with the twilights,\nnow with the sun and the moon, drawn by swans; Lohengrin is the sun;\nElsa's brother is the moon. When the evening aurora, when the autumnal\nearth, loses the sun, it finds the moon; when the morning aurora or the\nvernal earth loses the moon, the sun takes its place; the lovers change\nplaces. One swan causes the birth of the other, carries the other, dies\nfor the other, like one dove for the other, and as the Dioskuroi lay\ndown their lives for each other. And, in truth, the legend of the\nDioskuroi is, in some points, in marvellous accordance with the Northern\nlegends of the rider of the swan. Zeus becomes a swan and unites himself\nwith Leda, wife of Tyndareos, and generates by her the sun and the moon,\nPol\u00fcdeukes and Helen; according to Homer Helen alone is Zeus's daughter,\nand Pol\u00fcdeukes and Kastor are sons of Tyndareos; according to Herodotos,\nHelen, on the contrary, is the daughter of Tyndareos, and this is in\naccordance with Euripides, who tells us that the Dioskuroi are sons of\nZeus. In the _Heroides_ of Ovid, where the primitive tradition has\nalready been altered, Leda, after having united herself to the swan\nZeus, gives birth to two eggs; Helen comes out of one, Kastor and\nPol\u00fcdeukes out of the other. Evidently _tot capita tot sententi\u00e6_; but\nthese contradictions, far from excluding the myth of the sun, the moon,\nand the aurora (or of the spring) confirm it. It is always difficult to\ndetermine the paternity of a child who is born in an irregular manner,\nand the birth of Helen and her two brothers was certainly extraordinary.\nWhat is important here is that we have the swan which generates sons in\nLeda; these sons, who are partly of the nature of the bird, and partly\nof that of the woman, must assume a double form, and now become swans\nlike their father, now shine in their mother's beauty; when, moreover,\nwe think that only one of the brothers was, with Helen, born of the\nswan, it becomes natural to think of the other brother who may love\nHelen without being guilty of incest.[467] Before becoming famous by the\nvaried fortunes of Troy, Helen, as a girl, had her adventures; Theseus\nseduced her and carried her off. The Dioskuroi come to deliver her in\nthe same way as Lohengrin comes upon the swan to deliver Elsa, whilst\nher seducer is about to effect her ruin. Finally, the adventures of the\ntwo Dioskuroi, of whom one sacrifices himself for the other, correspond\nto the legend of the Schwanritter, the brother, or brother-in-law, who,\non account of the swan offers up his own life. Thus India, Greece, and\nGermany united, in various forms, the figure of the swan with the story\nof the two brothers, or of the two companions; India created the myth,\nGreece coloured it, Germany has imbued it with passionate energy and\npathos.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[434] The Indian word _kapotas_, which means a dove, also indicates\nthe grey colour of antimony, the colour of the commonest species of\ndoves, and of those which are fed on St Mark's Place at Venice.\n\n[435] \u00c7ivah kapota ishito no astu an\u00e2g\u00e2 dev\u00e2h \u00e7akuno griheshu; str.\n2.--For the fourth strophe, cfr. the chapter which treats of the Owl.\n\n[436] ii. 9.\n\n[437] ii. 239.--Cfr. the chapter on the Eagle.\n\n[438] It appears to me that the same confusion arose between _coluber_\nand _columba_ as between _chel\u00fcdros_, a kind of serpent, and\n_chelid\u00f4n_, a swallow. The beautiful maiden upon a tree occurs even in\nthe _Tuti-Name_, i. 178, _seq._\n\n[439] ii. 7, and v. 9\n\n[440] They were related to me at Antignano near Leghorn by the peasant\nwoman Uliva Selvi:--\n\nA gentleman had twelve sons and one daughter, who had, by enchantment,\nbeen metamorphosed into an eagle, and was kept in a cage. The father\ntakes the twelve sons to mass every day; every day he meets an old\nbeggar-woman and gives alms to her; one day, however, he has no money\nwith him, and therefore gives her nothing; the old woman curses him,\nwishing that he may never see his sons again. No sooner said than\ndone; the twelve sons become twelve doves and fly away. The despairing\nfather and mother begin to weep; in their despair they forget to feed\nthe eagle. Opposite the gentleman's house the king lived, who becomes\nenamoured of the eagle as though of a beautiful maiden; he has her\nstolen and replaced by another eagle. Not far thence there lived a\nwasherwoman who had such a beautiful daughter that she never let her\ngo out except at night. They wash at the fountain surrounded by\npoplar-trees; at midnight, as they wash, they hear a noise among the\npoplar-trees, and the maiden is afraid. One night they listen and hear\nthe doves speaking and telling one another the incidents of the day,\nwhere they had been and what they had been doing. They then fly into a\nbeautiful garden; the girl follows them; they enter into a beautiful\npalace, and the washerwoman relates what she has seen to the\ngentleman, who rejoices, and promises a great reward to the\nwasherwoman if she will show him where his sons go to sleep. Both\nfather and mother go to see; the pigeons speak, and say, \"Were our\nmother to see us ...\"; they then fly away. The gentleman then consults\nan astrologer, who advises him to allure the old witch into his house\nby the promise of alms, to shut her up in a room, and to compel her by\nmain force to indicate the means of turning the pigeons into youths\nonce more, or else to kill her. The old woman gives a powder which,\nwhen scattered on the highest mountain, will make the pigeons return\nhome. The father goes to the mountain, scatters the powder and returns\nhome, where he finds his sons, who are inquiring after the eagle. They\ngo to see it and do not recognise it; they complain to their mother of\nthis. Meanwhile, the young king is always near his eagle as if making\nlove to it; and his mother is displeased at it. The twelve brothers\nmeet a fairy who, for some alms, tells who has their eagle, and that\nit will soon return home a beautiful maiden. And the eagle becomes a\nbeautiful girl and is married by the king.\n\nThere was once a king who had a handsome son, enamoured of a beautiful\nprincess. He is carried off with two servants by the magicians and\ntransformed into a pigeon; the servants undergo the same\nmetamorphosis; one becomes green, one red, and the other greyish\nviolet (pavonazzo). They take him into a beautiful palace where he\nmust stay for seven years. Each has a large basin,--one is of gold,\nanother of silver, and the third of bronze. When they plunge into\nthem, they become three handsome youths. The princess, meanwhile, is\ndying to know where her lover is gone; she goes to have her hair\ncombed on a terrace; the three pigeons carry away her looking-glass,\nthen the ribbon of her hair, and then her comb. A great festival\noccurs in this town, to which the girls of the land go by night; on\nthe way, one of them, near the break of day, turns aside for a few\nminutes; she sees a golden gate, finds a little gold key on the earth,\nopens the door and enters into a fine garden. At the end of the path\nthere is a beautiful palace, into which she goes; she finds the three\nbasins of gold, silver, and bronze, and sees the pigeons become young\nmen. Meanwhile the king's daughter falls ill of grief, and is to all\nappearance dying; the king resolves to have her cured at any cost. The\ngirl who had been in the place relates to the king's daughter all that\nshe has seen; the latter is cured and goes with the girl to the\npalace; they find it, enter, and see a table laid for three persons;\nthe two girls hide themselves. The prince and the princess meet with\none another; but the prince, upon seeing her, is full of despair,\nsaying that her impatience has prolonged the enchantment for seven\nyears more, whilst it had at the time only three more days to run. He\nbecomes a pigeon again; she must stay for seven years upon a tower\nexposed to all the inclemency of the seasons. Seven years pass by; the\nprincess has become so ugly that she looks like a beast, with long\nhair all over her burned skin. The enchantment comes to an end for him\nafter seven years; he goes to look for her; she says, \"How much have I\nsuffered for you!\" The prince does not recognise her, and leaves her;\nshe is left naked in a dense forest, and goes to seek her father.\nNight comes on, and the princess and her servant-maid do not know\nwhere to take refuge; they climb up a tree, whence they perceive a\nlight. They walk towards it and find a beautiful little palace; a\nbeautiful lady, a fairy, shows herself, and asks, \"Is this you,\nCaroline?\" This was the princess's name. But the fairy can give no\nnews of the prince, and sends her on to another fairy, her sister,\nwith the same result; she then goes to a third fairy, walking a double\ndistance each time. The three fairies were three queens who had been\nbetrayed by the same young prince. The third fairy gives to the\nprincess a magical rod; she must go to the prince and do to him what\nhe did to her--spit in his face, to wit. She is brought in a boat\nbefore the young king's palace, and there, following the fairy's\ninstructions, she raises, by means of the rod, a beautiful palace, a\npalace more beautiful than that of the king, with a beautiful\nfountain. The young king wishes to go and see it; he sees a beautiful\nprincess and kisses his hand to her, but she shuts the window in his\nface. He then invites her to dinner, but she refuses. He sends her a\nmagnificent diamond, which she gives to her majordomo, saying that she\nhas many more beautiful. He then sends her a splendid dress, which can\nbe taken in the palm of the hand; she tears it into pieces and gives\nit to the cook to be used for kitchen purposes. The young king becomes\npassionately enamoured of her, and sends to her his best watch, which\nshe gives also to her majordomo. He falls ill of a dreadful fever and\nwishes to marry her; he sends his mother. The princess laughs at the\nprince and refuses to come, saying, \"Why does he not come himself?\"\nHis mother begs again that she will come. \"Let him come,\" she answers;\nand at last she consents to come if they will make from her palace to\nthat of the king a covered way so well and thickly made that not a ray\nof light can enter, and which she may be able to pass through with her\nequipage. Half way, the covering opens, and the sunbeams enter, upon\nwhich she disappears. (Cfr. the Indian myth of Urva\u00e7\u00ee). The king being\nabout to die, his mother returns to the princess, who demands that\nthey bring him to her as if dead, in a bier. The king confesses that\nhe has betrayed four maidens, and that it is on account of the fourth\nthat he is coming to such a miserable end. The princess laughs at him\nand spits twice in his face; the third time he rises again, they are\nreconciled and married. (The spitting of the princess, which makes the\ndead prince rise again, is the dew of the ambrosia, or of spring,\nwhich brings the sun to life again.)--Cfr. the stories ii. 5, iv. 8,\nof the _Pentamerone_, and v. 22 of _Afanassieff_.\n\n[441] It is said of the widowed turtle-dove that it will never drink\nagain in any fountain of limpid water for fear of reviving the image\nof its lost companion by seeing its own in the water. The Christians\npretend that the voice of the turtle-dove represents the cry, the\nsighing, and afterwards, for the resurrection of Christ, the joy of\nMary Magdalen. \u00c6lianos says that the turtle-dove is sacred not only to\nthe goddess of love, and to the goddess of harvests, but also to the\nfunereal Parc\u00e6.\n\n[442] In the legend of St Remy it is a dove that carries to the saint\nthe flagon of water with which he must baptize King Clodoveus.\n\n[443]\n\n      \"Et ille nunc superbus et superfluens\n       Perambulabit omnium cubilia,\n       Ut albulus columbus, aut Adoneus?\n       Cin\u00e6de Romule, h\u00e6c videbis et feres?\"\n\nThe chastity and the proverbial conjugal fidelity attributed to doves is\nhere denied. Catullus had evidently closely observed the habits of these\nanimals, which are sometimes, on the contrary, of a shameless\ninfidelity. I have seen a white dove, who, in the presence of his wife,\nintent upon hatching her eggs, violated the nuptial bed of a gray dove,\nat a moment when the jealous husband was eating; the wife accepted the\ncaresses of the husband and of the lover in the same passive attitude.\n\n[444] We may also record here another Italian proverb, \"To take two\ndoves with one bean.\" In Italian anatomy a part of the phallos is\ncalled a bean (fava). The birds, and especially the thrushes and the\ndoves, according to the popular belief, not only have the faculty of\nmaking other birds, but even plants fruitful. The words of Pliny,\n_Hist. Nat._ xvi. 44, have already been quoted by Prof. Kuhn: \"Omnino\nautem satum nullo modo nascitur, nec nisi per alvum avium redditum,\nmaxime palumbis ac turdis.\"\n\n[445] \u00c7vasity apsu hanso na s\u00eedan kratv\u00e2 cetishtho vi\u00e7\u00e2m usharbhut;\n_Rigv._ i. 65, 9.\n\n[446] B\u00eebhats\u00fbn\u00e2m sayugam hansam \u00e2hur ap\u00e2m divy\u00e2n\u00e2m sakhye carantam;\nx. 124, 9.\n\n[447] Hans\u00e2ir iva sakhibhir v\u00e2vadadbhir a\u00e7manmay\u00e2ni nahan\u00e2 vyasyan\nbrihaspatir abhi kanikradad g\u00e2; x. 67, 3.\n\n[448] Sasva\u00e7 cid dhi tanvah \u00e7umbham\u00e2n\u00e2 \u00e2 hans\u00e2so n\u00eelaprishth\u00e2 apaptan;\nvii. 59, 7.\n\n[449] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Bee.\n\n[450] vi. 2.\n\n[451] Adhi bribuh pan\u00een\u00e2m varshishthe m\u00fbrdhann asth\u00e2t uruh kaksho na\ng\u00e2\u00f1gyah; _Rigv._ vi. 45, 31.--Bribum sahasrad\u00e2tamam s\u00fbrim\nsahasras\u00e2tamam; vi. 45, 33.--Cfr. also the 32d strophe.\n\n[452] _Rigv._ vi. 46.\n\n[453] The goose is found in connection with robbers in the\ntwenty-third story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_. Two servants\nstole a precious pearl from the king; being about to be found out,\nthey give the pearl, by the advice of an old woman, to the grey goose\nin a piece of bread; the goose is then accused of having stolen the\npearl. It is killed, the pearl is found, and the two robbers escape.\n\n[454] v. 55.--In the forty-ninth story of the fifth book of\n_Afanassieff_, a riddle occurs where the betrothed wife is represented\nas a duck. A father sends his son to find the wife who is predestined\nfor him, with the following enigmatical order: \"Go to Moscow; there\nthere is a lake; in the lake there is a net; if the duck has fallen\ninto the net, take the duck; if not, withdraw the net.\" The son\nreturns home with the duck--that is to say, with his betrothed wife.\n\n[455] ii. 46.\n\n[456] iv. 11.\n\n[457] iii. 75.\n\n[458] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, vi. 17, and a variety of the vi. 19.\n\n[459] Cfr. an interesting variety of this story in the _Griechische\nund Albanische M\u00e4rchen_ of Hahn.\n\n[460] Thus, in a Norwegian story, the dirty cinder-girl carries silver\nducks away from the magicians.--In the eighth Esthonian story, the third\nbrother is sent to hell for the ducks and geese with golden feathers.\n\n[461] In a Scandinavian and Italian variety of this story, instead of\nthe goose we have the eagle and eaglets; the goose returns, in the first\nstory of the fifth book of the _Pentamerone_, to do the same duty as in\nthe Russian story, but with some more vulgar and less decent incidents.\n\n[462] The image of the legs which, when they move, make flowers grow\nup, is very ancient; students of Hindoo literature will remember the\npushpiny\u00e2u carato ganghe of the _\u00c2itareya Br._, in the story of\n\u00c7unah\u00e7epas.\n\n[463] The ninth of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_ is an\ninteresting variety of this; the beautiful maiden who feeds the geese\nis disguised in an old woman's skin; the geese, who see her naked, cry\nout: \"Coc\u00f2, la bella padrona ch 'i' ho,\" until the prince, by means of\na noiseless file, makes the cook enter the room and carry the old\nwoman's skin away while she sleeps, and then weds her.--The following\nunpublished story, communicated to me by Signor Greco from Cosenza in\nCalabria, is a variation of that of the _Pentamerone_:--\n\nSeven princes have a very beautiful sister. An emperor decides upon\nmarrying her, but upon the condition that if he does not find her to\nhis taste, he will decapitate her seven brothers. They set out\naltogether, and the mother-in-law with her daughter follow them. On\nthe way, the sun is hot, and the elder brother cries out, \"Solabella,\ndefend me from the heat, for you must please the king.\" The\nstep-mother advises her to take off her necklaces and to put them on\nher half-sister. The second brother next complains of the heat, and\nthe step-mother advises her to take off her gold apparel and to put it\non her half-sister. By such means the step-mother at last succeeds in\nmaking her naked; they come to the sea, and the step-mother pushes her\nin; she is taken by a siren, who holds her by her foot with a golden\nchain. The princes arrive with the ugly sister; the king weds the ugly\nwife and cuts off the heads of the seven brothers. When the maiden is\nwandering about in the sea, she asks the king's ducks for news of her\nbrothers; the ducks answer that they have been executed. She weeps;\nthe tears become pearls and the ducks feed upon them. This marvel\ncomes to the ears of the king, who follows the ducks and asks the girl\nwhy she shuns the society of men; to which she answers: \"Alas! how can\nI, who am fastened by a golden chain?\" and then relates everything.\nHaving recognised his bride, the king gives her this advice: she must\nask how, after the siren's death, she would be able to free herself;\nand then he departs. Next day, Solabella tells the king that the siren\nwill not die, because she lives in a little bird, enclosed in a silver\ncage which is shut up in a marble case, and seven iron ones, of which\nshe has the keys, and that if the siren died, a horseman, a white\nhorse, and a long sword would be necessary to cut the chain. The king\nbrings her a certain water, which he advises her to give the siren to\ndrink; she will then fall asleep, and the girl will be able to take\nthe keys and kill the little bird. When it is killed, the white horse\nplunges into the sea, and the sword cuts the chain. Then the king\ntakes his beautiful bride to his palace, and the old step-mother is\nburned in a shirt of pitch; the seven brothers are rubbed with an\nointment which brings them to life again, each exclaiming, \"Oh! what a\nbeautiful dream I have had!\"\n\n[464] The old ogress of the ninth story of the fifth book of the\n_Pentamerone_, who keeps three beautiful maidens shut up in three\ncitron-trees, and who feeds the asses which kick the swans upon the\nbanks of the river, is a variety of the same myth.\n\n[465] Instead of geese, swans were also solemnly eaten; a popular\nmedi\u00e6val German song in Latin offers the lamentation of the roasted\nswan; cfr. Uhland's _Schriften_, iii. 71, 158.--In the _Pancatantram_,\nwe have the swan sacrificed by the owl. In order to allure the swan,\nthe funereal owl, who wishes to kill it, invites it into a grove of\nlotus-flowers, only, however, to decoy it subsequently into a dark\ncavern, where the swan is killed by some travelling merchants, who\nbelieve it to be an owl.\n\n[466] In the _Eddas_, when the hero Sigurd expires, the geese bewail\nhis death.\n\n[467] Cfr. also, with regard to this subject, the twenty-fourth\nEsthonian story of the princess born in the egg, of whom her brother,\nborn in a more normal manner of the queen, becomes enamoured.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nTHE PARROT.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Haris and harit; harayas and har\u00ee; green and yellow called by a\n    common name.--The moon as a green tree and as a green parrot; the\n    parrot and the tree assimilated.--The wise moon and the wise\n    parrot; the phallical moon and the phallical parrot, in numerous\n    love stories.--The god of love mounted on the parrot--The parrot\n    and the wolf pasture together.\n\nThe myth of the parrot originated in the East, and developed itself\nalmost exclusively among the Oriental nations.\n\nI mentioned in the chapter on the Ass, that the words _haris_ and\n_harit_ signify green no less than fair-haired, and hence gave rise to\nthe epic myth of the monsters with parrot's faces, or drawn by parrots.\nThe solar horses are called harayas; har\u00ee are the two horses of Indras;\nHaris is a name of Indras himself, but especially of the god Vishnus;\nbut there are more fair-haired figures in the sky then these; the golden\nthunderbolt which shoots through the cloud, and the golden moon, the\ntraveller of the night, are such. Moreover, because green and yellow are\ncalled by this common name, all these fair ones, and the moon in\nparticular, assumed the form, now of a green tree, now of a green\nparrot. A very interesting Vedic strophe offers us an evident proof of\nthis. The solar horses (or the sun himself, Haris) say that they have\nimparted the colour haris to the parrots, to the pheasants (or\npeacocks.[468] Benfey and the Petropolitan Dictionary, however, explain\n_ropan\u00e2k\u00e2_ by drossel or thrush), and to the trees, which are therefore\ncalled h\u00e2rayas. As the trees are green, so are the parrots generally\ngreen (sometimes also yellow and red, whence the appellation haris is\nalways applicable to them).[469] The moon, on account of its colour, is\nnow a tree (a green one), now an apple-tree with golden branches and\napples, now a parrot (golden or green, and luminous). The moon in the\nnight is the wise fairy who knows all, and can teach all. In the\nintroduction to the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, the name \u00c7ukas or parrot is given to\nthe son of Krishnas, _i.e._, of the black one, who reads (as moon) the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_ to the monsters. In the chapter on the Ass, we saw the\nass and the monster of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ with parrots' faces. But inasmuch\nas the ass is a phallical symbol, the parrot is also ridden by the\nHindoo god K\u00e2mas, or the god of love (hence also called \u00c7ukav\u00e2has). The\nmoon (masculine in India) has already been mentioned, in the first\nchapter of the first book, as a symbol of the phallos; in the same way\nas the thunderbolt pierces the cloud, the moon pierces the gloom of the\nnight, penetrates and reveals the secrets of the night. Therefore, the\nparrot being identified with the night in the _\u00c7ukasaptat\u00ee_, and in\nother books of Hindoo stories, we see the parrot often appearing in\nlove-stories, and revealing amorous secrets.\n\nSome of the stories concerning the parrot passed into the West; no\ndoubt, by means of literary transmission, that is to say, of the\nmedi\u00e6val Arabic and Latin versions of the Hindoo stories.[470]\n\nSome of the Hindoo beliefs concerning the parrot had already passed into\nancient Greece, and \u00c6lianos shows himself to be very well acquainted\nwith the sacred worship which the Br\u00e2hmans of India professed for it.\nOppianos, moreover, tells us of a superstition which confirms what we\nhave said concerning the essentially lunar character of the mythical\nparrot; he says that the parrot and the wolf pasture together, because\nthe wolves love this green bird; this is the same as saying that the\ngloomy night loves the moon. One of the Hindoo epithets applied to the\nmoon, moreover, is ragan\u00eekaras, or he who makes the night.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[468] The parrot is sung of by Statius in connection with the same\nbirds in the second book of the _Sylv\u00e6_--\n\n      \"Lux volucrum plag\u00e6, regnator Eo\u00e6\n       Quam non gemmata volucri Junonia cauda\n       Vinceret, aspectu gelidi non phasidis ales.\"\n\n[469] A pathetic elegy in Sanskrit distiches, of a Buddhist character,\nof which I do not now remember the source, presents us the \u00e7ukas, or\nparrot, who wishes to die when the tree a\u00e7okas, which has always been\nhis refuge, is dried up.\n\n[470] Such as, for instance, the following unpublished story,\ncommunicated to me by Dr Ferraro, which is related in the Monferrato,\nand of which I have also heard, in my childhood, a variation at\nTurin:--A king, going to the wars, and fearing that another king, who\nis his rival, will profit by his absence to seduce his wife, places by\nher side one of his friends transformed into a parrot; this friend\nwarns her to remain faithful every time that the rival king sends to\ntempt the queen by means of a cunning old woman. The queen pays\nattention to the parrot's advice, and remains faithful till the\nhusband's return. This is, in a few words, the contents of the seventy\nHindoo tales of the parrot, of which the _Tuti-Name_ is a Persian\nversion.--In the story which I heard at Turin, the wife is, on the\ncontrary, unfaithful and covers the parrot's cage that it may not see;\nshe then fries some fishes in the guest's honour; the parrot thinks\nthat it is raining. The fish and the rain remind us of the myth of the\nphallical and pluvial cuckoo.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nTHE PEACOCK.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The starry sky and the rayed sun.--The peacock becomes a crow; the\n    crow becomes a peacock.--Peacock and swan; the dove and the\n    peacock.--The kokilas and the peacock.--Indras now a peacock, now\n    a cuckoo.--The peacock's feather.--Indras's horses have peacock's\n    feathers and peacock's tails.--Skandas rides upon the\n    peacock.--Argus becomes a peacock.--The peacock as the _avis\n    Junonia_; Jove is the bird of Juno.\n\nWe end our mythical journey in the kingdom of winged animals with the\nbird of all the colours.\n\nThe serene and starry sky and the shining sun are peacocks. The calm,\nazure heavens, bespangled with a thousand stars, a thousand brilliant\neyes, and the sun rich with the colours of the rainbow, offer the\nappearance of a peacock in all the splendour of its eye-besprinkled\nfeathers. When the sky or the thousand-rayed sun (sahasr\u00e2n\u00e7us) is\nhidden in the clouds, or veiled by the autumnal waters, it again\nresembles the peacock, which, in the dark part of the year, like a\ngreat number of vividly-coloured birds, sheds its beautiful plumage,\nand becomes dark and unadorned; the crow which had put the peacock's\nfeathers on then returns to caw amongst the funereal crows. In winter\nthe peacock-crow has nothing remaining to it except its disagreeable\nand shrill cry, not dissimilar to that of the crows. It is commonly\nsaid of the peacock that it has an angel's feathers, a devil's voice,\nand a thief's walk. The crow-peacock is proverbial.[471]\n\nThe peacock hides itself when it becomes ugly; so does the sky, and so\ndoes the sun when the autumnal clouds cover it; but in the summer\nclouds the thunder rumbles, and thunder made upon the primeval races\nof men the impression of an irresistible, much-loved, and wished-for\nmusic, resembling the song of the melodious kokilas (the cuckoo), or\nof the watercock (the heron, the halcyon, the duck, or the swan).[472]\nIn the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, as we observed in the chapter on the Cuckoo, the\npeacock and the kokilas appear as rivals in singing; although the\nwatercock laughs at the peacock for its pretentiousness, this rivalry\nis no slender proof upon which to admit the mythical identity of two\nrival birds.[473] The Hindoo myth, in fact, shows us the god Indras\n(now sky, now sun) as a peacock and as a cuckoo (like Zeus). When the\nsky is blue, serene, and starry, or when the sun shines with its\nthousand rays, and in the colours of the rainbow, the sahasr\u00e2kshas, or\nthousand-eyed Indras, is found as a peacock; when the sky or the sun\nin the cloud thunders and lightens, Indras becomes a kokilas that\nsings. In the twentieth of the stories of Santo Stefano di Calcinaia,\ntwo brothers steal a peacock's feather from their younger brother, and\nkill him (that is, they kill the peacock, in the same way as in the\nRussian story the red little boots are stolen from the little brother,\nand he is killed). Where the little brother of the peacock's feather\nis killed and buried, a sapling grows up; a stick is made out of the\nsapling, and out of the stick a pipe, which, when played upon, sings\nthe dirge of the little brother who was killed for a peacock's\nfeather. When the luminous sky or the sun is hidden in the clouds,\nwhen the luminous feathers of the peacock are torn off,[474] when the\npeacock is buried, the tree which is its tomb (the cloud) speaks, at\nthe return of spring, like the cornel-tree of Polidorus in _Virgil_,\nand the trunk of Pier delle Vigne in Dante's _Inferno_; the tree\nbecomes a cane, a magic flute, a melodious kokilas. Indras-kokilas\nremembers Indras-peacock, Indras whose horses, even in the Vedic\nhymns, have \"peacocks' feathers,\"[475] and \"tail (or phallos) of\npeacocks.\"[476] We have already seen that the body of Indras was,\nafter intercourse (as sun) with Ahaly\u00e2 in adultery, covered with a\nthousand wombs (waves or clouds; cfr. the equivoque _sahasradh\u00e2ras_,\ngiven to the solar disc, properly because it has a thousand darts that\nwound), which were already a thousand eyes (stars or sunbeams), whence\nhis names of Sahasradri\u00e7, Sahasranayanas, Sahasranetras, and\nSahasr\u00e2kshas, which are equivalent. The long refulgent tail of the\npeacock took a phallical form. According to the Petropolitan\nDictionary, may\u00fbre\u00e7varas (or \u00c7ivas-peacock), is the proper name of a\nli\u00f1gam or phallos, the well-known emblem of \u00c7ivas, which also calls\nour attention to May\u00fbrarathas, May\u00fbraketus, Cikhiv\u00e2hanas, and\n\u00c7ikidhvagas, names of Skandas, the god of war, who is also a phallical\ngod, like Mars, the lover of Venus, and like the Hindoo K\u00e2madevas, or\ngod of love, who rides upon the parrot, and which therefore brings us\nback to the lunar phallical symbol.[477] The sky with the sun, as well\nas with the moon, is superseded by the sterile sky with the stars of\nthe night or the clouds of autumn; the phallos falls; the impotent sky\nremains--Indras the eunuch, Indras with a thousand wombs, Indras\nplunged into the waves of the spotted clouds, Indras a ram, the\npluvial or autumnal Indras, Indras lost in the sea of winter, Indras\nthe fish, Indras without rays, without lightning, and without\nthunder, Indras cursed, he who had been beautiful and resplendent like\na crested peacock (\u00e7ikhin), Indras as the peacock enemy of the serpent\n(ahidvish, ahiripus), into which form he returns by the pity of the\ngods. According to the _Tuti-Name_, when a woman dreams of a peacock,\nit presages the birth of a handsome son.\n\nThe Greeks were also acquainted with the myth of the peacock, and\namplified it. In the first book of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, Argus, with\nthe hundred eyes, who sees everything (Panopt\u00eas and son of Zeus), by\nthe order of the goddess Juno, the splendid and proud wife of Jove, to\nwhom the peacock is sacred (and therefore called _avis Junonia, ales\nJunonia_; the peacock of Juno is Jove himself, as we have already seen\nthat Jove's cuckoo is himself; Argos the son of Zeus is Zeus himself),\nwhilst two eyes rest (perhaps the sun and the moon), watches with the\nothers (the stars) Io (the daughter of Argus himself, priestess of\nJuno, identified with Isis the moon, loved by Jove). Mercury, by means\nof music, puts Argus to sleep, and kills him as he slumbers. The eyes\nof the dead Argus pass into the tail of the peacock (that is, the dead\npeacock rises again). The peacock, which annually loses and renews its\nvarious colours and splendours, and is fruitful in progeny, served,\nlike the phoenix, as a symbol of immortality, and a personification of\nthe fact that the sky is obscured and becomes serene again, that the\nsun dies and is born again, that the moon rises, is obscured, goes\ndown, is concealed, and rises once more. It is said of Pythagoras that\nhe believed himself to have once been a peacock, that the peacock's\nsoul passed into Euphorbos, that of Euphorbos into Homer, and that of\nHomer into him. It was also alleged that out of him the soul of the\nancient peacock passed into the poet Ennius, whence Persius--\n\n                  \"Postquam destituit esse\n      M\u00e6onides quintus pavone ex Pythagor\u00e6o.\"\n\nIf the peacock be Zeus, if Zeus be Dy\u00e2us, if Dy\u00e2us be the luminous and\nsplendid sky, the divine light, which of my readers would disclaim the\nPythagorean belief? The dream of being the sons of the divine light, and\ndestined to return to the heavenly fatherland, certainly is much more\nconsoling than the dreary conclusion of modern science, which reduces\nus, in our origin and final lapse, into unconscious vegetables upon the\nsurface of the earth. The only drawback is, that this same heretical\nmythology, which often, even in its grossest forms, such as the animal\nones, opens up to our incredulous reason a ray of hope in the\nimmortality of the soul, that this mythology which resuscitates and\ntransfigures into new living forms all its dead, does not permit us to\nbelieve in an eternity of joy in heaven; heaven, like earth, is in\nperpetual revolution, and the gods of Olympus are no more secure on\ntheir divine throne than our royal automata that sit upon their earthly\nones. The metempsychosis does not end when the soul goes to heaven; on\nthe contrary, it is in heaven that it is fated to undergo the strangest\nand most diverse transformations; from the heroic form we have seen it\npass into that of a quadruped and a biped. Nor is its curse yet come to\nan end; the deity or the hero must humble himself yet more, and assume\nin the zoological scale the most imperfect of organisms; the animal god\nwill lose his speech in the form of a stupid fish; he will creep like a\nserpent or hop grotesquely like a filthy toad.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[471] Cfr. the chapter on the Crow.\n\n[472] \"Wie wir den Hugschapler sogar auf den Pfauen schw\u00f6ren sehen,\nlegten sie die Angelsachsen auf den Schwan ab (R. A. 900), den wir wohl\nnach den obigen Gesange Ng\u00f6rdhs, S. 343 als den ihm geheiligten Vogel\n(ales gratissima nautis, Myth. 1074) zu fassen haben, &c.\" Simrock, the\nwork quoted before, p. 347.--A Hindoo proverb considers the dove in\nconnection with the peacock; it says, \"Better a pigeon to-day than a\npeacock to-morrow\" (Varamadya kapoto na \u00e7vo may\u00fbrah). According to the\n_Ornithologia_ of Aldrovandi, the peacocks are the doves' friends,\nbecause they keep serpents and all venomous animals at a distance.\n\n[473] The Russian fable of Kriloff presents to us the ass as a judge\nbetween the nightingale (the kokilas of Western poets) and the cock in\na trial of singing; in Sanskrit _\u00e7ikhin_, or crested, means cock and\npeacock; besides may\u00fbras, peacock, we have may\u00fbracatakas, the domestic\ncock. May\u00fbras is also the name of a Hindoo poet.--In the chapter on\nthe Cuckoo we saw the cuckoo and the nightingale as rivals in singing;\nthe kokilas and the peacock are the equivalents of the nightingale and\nthe cuckoo; we have also identified the cuckoo with the swallow, and\nseen the swallows as rivals of the swans in singing; cfr. the chapter\non the Crow.\n\n[474] Hence Aldrovandi writes with reason, that the smoke of the burnt\nfeathers of a peacock (that is, of the celestial peacock), when taken\ninto the eyes, cures them of their redness.\n\n[475] \u00c2 mandr\u00e2ir indra haribhir y\u00e2hi may\u00fbraromabhih; _Rigv._ iii. 45,\n1.\n\n[476] \u00c2 tv\u00e2 rathe hiranyaye har\u00ee may\u00fbra\u00e7epy\u00e2; viii. 1, 25.--Klearchos\nrelates in Ath\u00eanaios, that a peacock in Leucas loved a maiden so much,\nthat when she died it also immediately expired.\n\n[477] According to the _Pancatantram_ (i. 175), in the very house of\n\u00c7ivas (the phallical god), the animals make war against each other;\nthe serpent (the night) wishes to eat the mouse (which seems here to\nbe the grey twilight); the peacock (here, perhaps, the moon), wishes\nto eat the serpent (cfr. the preceding notes; according to \u00c6lianos, a\ncertain man who wished to steal from the King of Egypt a peacock,\nsupposed to be sacred, found an asp in its stead); the lion (the sun)\nwishes to eat the peacock. (The Hindoo name of may\u00fbr\u00e2ris, or enemy of\nthe peacock, given to the chameleon, is remarkable; the animal which\nchanges its colour is the rival of the bird which is of every colour;\ngods and demons are equally vi\u00e7var\u00fbp\u00e2s and k\u00e2mar\u00fbpas.)\n\n\n\n\nThird Part.\n\nTHE ANIMALS OF THE WATER.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nFISHES, AND PARTICULARLY THE PIKE, THE SACRED FISH OR FISH OF ST PETER,\nTHE CARP, THE MELWEL, THE HERRING, THE EEL, THE LITTLE GOLDFISH, THE\nSEA-URCHIN, THE LITTLE PERCH, THE BREAM, THE DOLPHIN, AND THE WHALE.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Why Indras, the fearless hero, flees after having defeated the\n    serpent; the fish causes the death of the fearless\n    hero.--\u00c7akr\u00e2vat\u00e2ras and the fisher.--The stone and the\n    fish.--Adrik\u00e2, Girik\u00e2, the mother of fishes.--The matsy\u00e2s as a\n    nation.--\u00c7aradvat.--Pradyumnas.--Guhas.--The fishes laugh.--The\n    fish guards the white haoma.--The water of the fish drunk by the\n    cook.--The devil steals the fishes.--The dwarf Andvarri and the\n    pike as the guardian of gold and of a ring.--The goldfish and the\n    pike.--The dwarf Vishnus as a little goldfish.--The legend of the\n    Deluge.--Vishnus as a horned fish draws the ship of Manus; the\n    sea-urchin or hedgehog of the Ganges, the little destroyer.--The\n    dolphin with the horned bull draws the chariot or vessel of the\n    A\u00e7vin\u00e2u.--The little turbulent perch.--The thorns of the\n    sea-urchin compared to a hundred oars.--The whale as a bridge or\n    island; the whale devours a fleet.--The pike.--The bream.--The\n    phallical fishes; the phallos and the simpleton.--Why fishes are\n    eaten in Lent, that is, spring; and on Friday, the day of Freya or\n    Venus.--The _poisson d'avril_.--The herring.--The eel.--The bream\n    cleans the workman.--The phallical and demoniacal eel; _anguilla_\n    and _anguis_.--The eel and the cane; _ikshus_ and\n    _Iskshv\u00e2kus_.--Diabolical fishes.--The red mullet.--The bream and\n    the ring.--Cimedia.--The whale vomits out the vessels; the whale\n    as an island.--The little perch finds the ring and draws the\n    casket by the help of the dolphins.--The war of the little perch\n    with the other fishes.--The eel pout.--The perch.--The\n    sturgeon.--The little perch is the fox of fishes.--The words\n    _matsyas_, _matto_, _mad_, _matt_, _mattas_, _madidus_.--The\n    drunken pike.--The three fishes.--\u00c7akuntal\u00e2, the pearl and the\n    fish.--The genera _cyprinus_ and _perca_; _lucius_, _lucioperca\n    sandra_; the lunar horn.--The dolphin.--The carp.--The fish _Zeus\n    Chalkeus_, the fish _faber_, the fish of St Peter; the fish of St\n    Christopher; the equivoque of _crista_ and _christus_ again in\n    conjunction with the legend of St Christopher.\n\nThe god Indras, in the _Rigvedas_, after having killed the monster,\nflees in terror across the ninety-nine navigable rivers; the pluvial\ngod, after having lightened, thunder-stricken and thundered, is\nterrified by his own work; the Vedic poet asks him what he has seen,\nbut the god passes on and answers not; killing the monster, he has\nunchained the waters; the pluvial god has wounded himself while\nwounding his enemy; the monster's shadow or his own shadow pursues\nhim; the waters increase and threaten to drown him. The god Indras\nfears the very waters he has caused to flow. The god Indras was\ncondemned to remain hidden in the waters (of night and winter) during\nthe period of his malediction, for defiling in adultery the nuptial\nbed of Ahaly\u00e2. The god shut up in the waters, the wet god, is his most\ninfamous and accursed form.[478] The celestial metamorphosis into a\nfish is perhaps the vilest transmutations of animal, and therefore the\nmost feared; the fish lives especially in order to reproduce itself;\nto represent, therefore, the decadence of the god after a phallical\ncrime of his, he is condemned to lie down in the waters. We know that\nthe fisher, in the _\u00c7akuntal\u00e2_, lives at \u00c7akr\u00e2vat\u00e2ras (that is, the\nfall of Indras). We have seen the sister of Latona, and Rambh\u00e2 and\nAhaly\u00e2, after having transgressed, the one with Jupiter and the others\nwith Indras, become stones in the waters. The fish, rendered powerless\nand stupid, becomes inert and motionless like a stone (sun and moon\npass into sky or cloud). We already find the image of the stone with\nthe honey brought, in the _Rigvedas_,[479] into close affinity to that\nof the fish which lies in shallow water, or of the fish made powerless\nand deprived of its vital qualities.\n\nThe legend of the nymph Adrik\u00e2 (from the word _adris_, which means a\nstone, a rock, a mountain, or a cloud) presents the same analogy between\nthe stone-cloud, that is, the stone in the waters, and the fish. By a\ndivine malediction, Adrik\u00e2 is transformed into a fish, and lives in the\nYamun\u00e2. Being in these waters, she picks up a leaf upon which had fallen\nthe sperm of King Uparicaras, enamoured of Girik\u00e2 (or of Adrik\u00e2 herself,\nthe two words _adrik\u00e2_ and _girik\u00e2_ being equivalent); this leaf had\nbeen let fall into the waves of the Yamun\u00e2 by the bird \u00e7yenas, that is,\nby the hawk. Having fed upon this sperm, the nymph fish is caught by\nfishermen, and taken to King Uparicaras; the fish is opened, and the\nnymph resumes her heavenly form; of her a son and a daughter are born,\nMatsyas the male fish, and Matsy\u00e2 the female one.[480] The male\nafterwards becomes king of the matsy\u00e2s or fishes, which some authorities\nhave, in vain, as I think, endeavoured to identify with a historical\nnation; for it is not enough to find them named as a people in the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, to prove their real historical existence, when we know\nthat the whole basis of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_ is mythological. Moreover,\nwhen we find the Matsy\u00e2s in the Vedic hymns, it is one more argument\nfrom which to infer the mythical nature of the peoples named in the\n_Rigvedas_ in connection with the waters. In another legend of the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, the semen of the penitent \u00c7aradvat (properly the\nautumnal or the pluvial one), provoked by the sight of a beautiful\nnymph, falls upon the wood of an arrow; the wood of the arrow splits in\ntwo, and two sons are born of it, who are given to the king; a variety\nof this legend will be found further on in the Western traditions\nconnected with the story of the fish.[481]\n\nTo the ninety-nine or hundred cities of \u00c7ambaras (the clouds)\ndestroyed by Indras, correspond the ninety-nine rivers which Indras\ncrosses. In the _Vishnu P._,[482] a fish receives the hero Pradyumnas\n(an appellation of the god of love), thrown into the sea by \u00c7ambaras,\nand enables him to recover and wed M\u00e2y\u00e2dev\u00ee.\n\nKing Guhas (the hidden one? the dark one?) the king of the black\nNish\u00e2d\u00e2s, the king of \u00c7ri\u00f1gaveras (in which we have already recognised\nthe moon), who, during the night, receives R\u00e2mas on the banks of the\nGanges, hospitably entertains him, offering him beverages, meat, and\nfishes.[483]\n\nIn the _\u00c7ukasaptat\u00ee_, and in the _Tuti-Name_, the fishes laugh at the\nprudery of an adulterous servant-girl; we have already shown, in the\nfirst chapter of the first book, the phallical signification of the\nfish that laughs.\n\nIn the _Khorda Avesta_, we find a fish with acute eyesight\n(Karo-ma\u00e7yo, the posterior Khar-m\u00e2h\u00ee), which guards the white haoma,\nthat is, the ambrosia (with which sperm was also identified).\n\nIn the _Pseudo-Callisthenes_, Alexander, having arrived at the\nluminous fountain which scatters perfumes, asks his cook for something\nto eat; the cook prepares to wash the fish in the refulgent water; the\nfish returns to life, and disappears from his sight; but the cook\ndrinks some of the water of the fish, and gives some to Alexander's\ndaughter Une, who becomes, by the curse of Alexander himself, a nere\u00efd\nor marine nymph, whilst he fastens a stone to the cook's neck, and\norders him to be thrown to the bottom of the sea. It is unnecessary\nfor me to demonstrate the analogy between this legend and the myth of\nIndras, or to insist upon the phallical meaning of the myth.\n\nWe already know that phallical images and demoniacal ones sometimes\ncorrespond; hence, in the ninth Esthonian story, the devil steals the\nfishes from the fishermen; hence, in the _Eddas_, the brigand Loki now\nassumes the form of a salmon, and now catches the pike, into which\nthe dwarf Andvarri has transformed himself. The pike is the guardian\nof gold and of a ring which is taken from him; the fish enters into\nthe stone, and predicts that gold will be the cause of the death of\nthe two brothers. The ambrosial rain which comes out of the cloud, and\nthe ambrosial dew, are the water in which the fish is washed, and the\nambrosial dew is the water or seed of the fish; the fair-haired and\nsilvery moon in the ocean of night is the little gold fish, and the\nlittle silver fish which announces the rainy season, the autumn, the\ndeluge. Out of the cloudy, nocturnal, or wintry ocean, comes forth the\nsun, the pearl lost in the sea, which the gold or silver fish brings\nout.\n\nThe little goldfish of our aquariums, the _cyprinus chrysoparius_, the\n_cyprinus auratus_, the _cyprinus sophore_ (the Hindoo _\u00e7apharas_, in\nthe feminine _\u00e7aphar\u00ee_), and the luminous pike, like the moon, can\nexpand and contract. We are already acquainted with the sea-monster\nwhich, in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ (like the siren fish), allures from the sea\nthe shadow of Hanumant, and can make itself now small, now large; we\nhave seen the dwarf Andvarri of the _Eddas_, who hides himself in the\nform of a pike; we are familiar with the god Vishnus or Haris, who,\nfrom being a dwarf, becomes a giant (Haris means fair-haired or\ngolden, and refers now to the sun, now to the moon); Vishnus, in his\nincarnation as a fish, first takes the form of the little golden fish,\nthe \u00e7aphar\u00ee; and, in this form, the god Vishnus is especially\nidentified with the moon, the ruler of the rainy season. As the moon\n(which we have already seen as a little learned puppet) grows by\nquarters, and from being exceedingly small, becomes large, so, in the\nHindoo legend of the Deluge, narrated in the Vedic commentaries, in\nthe _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, and in the P\u00e2uranic legends, the god Vishnus or\nHaris begins by being an exceedingly small fish, a \u00e7aphar\u00ee, which\nbeseeches the penitent Manus to be taken out of the great river, the\nGanges, where it is afraid of being devoured by the aquatic monsters.\nManus receives the little fish in the vase of water in which he\nperforms his ablutions (a Hindoo proverb says that the \u00e7aphar\u00ee is\nagitated from petulance in water an inch deep, whilst the rohitas, a\nkind of carp, does not become proud even in bottomless depths[484]);\nin one night (evidently in its character as the moon) the fish grows\nso much that it can no longer remain in the vase; Manus carries it\ninto a pool, afterwards into the Ganges; finally, the fish increases\nso much in size that Manus, recognising Vishnus in it, is obliged to\ngive it entire liberty in the sea. Then the grateful fish announces\nthat in seven days the waters will inundate the world, and all the\nwicked will perish; he orders him (as the biblical God does Noah) to\nbuild a ship: \"Thou shalt enter into it,\" says Vishnus to him, \"with\nseven sages, a couple of every kind of animal, and the seeds of every\nplant. Thou shalt wait in it the end of the night of Brahman; and when\nthe vessel is agitated by the waves, thou shalt attach it by a long\nserpent to the horn of an enormous fish, which will come near thee,\nand will guide thee over the waves of the abyss.\" On the appointed\nday, the waters of the sea came up over the surface of the earth; the\nfish made its appearance to draw the ship in order to save Manus. The\nship stopped upon the horn, that is, upon the peak of a mountain. Now\nthis little goldfish, in which Vishnus is incarnate, when it becomes\nhorned to draw the ship of Manus, assimilates itself to another\ninteresting sea animal, the sea-urchin or hedgehog of the Ganges,\n(\u00e7in\u00e7um\u00e2ras, which is also one of the names of the dwarf Vishnus (we\nhave already seen Vishnus as a wild-boar), and which means properly\nthe little destroyer. The eighteenth strophe of the precious 116th\nhymn of the first book of the _Rigvedas_, shows us the \u00e7in\u00e7um\u00e2ras or\nsea-urchin, which, together with another horned animal, the bull (we\nhave already seen the moon as a horned bull) draws the chariot of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, full of riches;[485] we know that the chariot of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u\nis often a vessel. \u00c7in\u00e7um\u00e2ras also means in Sanskrit the dolphin;[486]\nand the dolphins and the fish called jorsh (the little perch), with\nits little horns, thorns, and thin shape, sharpened at one end like a\npole ending in a point, called in Russian stories the turbulent one\n(kropacishko), are in relation with each other, as they draw the\ncasket away; the jorsh takes the place of the \"little destroyer,\" of\nthe \u00e7in\u00e7um\u00e2ras, of the sea-urchin, concerning which there is a very\ninteresting Sicilian verse, which compares the stings of the\nsea-urchin to a hundred oars, with which it must row, carrying its\nlittle invokers; after having caught it, Sicilian children scatter a\nlittle salt over it, and sing--\n\n      \"V\u00f3cami, v\u00f3cami, centu rimi,\n       V\u00f3cami, v\u00f3cami, centu rimi.\"\n\n(Row for me, row for me, hundred oars). Then it moves, and the\nchildren are delighted. In the Russian little poem, _Kaniok Garbunok_,\nof Jershoff, already mentioned by us in the chapter on the Horse, Ivan\nmust seek, for the sultan, a ring shut up in a casket which has fallen\ninto the sea (the evening or the autumnal sun). Ivan upon his\ncrook-backed horse arrives in the middle of the sea, where there is a\nwhale which cannot move because it has swallowed a fleet, that is to\nsay, the solar vessel. The part played here by the whale is the same\nas that of the sea-monster who swallows Hanumant in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,\nto vomit him out again, as in the case of the biblical Jonah (the\nnight devours the sun, or carries it into its body). Hanumant enters\ninto the fish by its mouth, and comes out at its tail; however, in the\nnarrative given of it in the fifty-sixth canto of the fifth book by\nHanumant himself, he says that the sea-monster having shut its mouth,\nhe came out of it by the right ear. When the night is with the moon,\ninstead of swallowing the hero, the bull-moon or fish-moon carries him\nor serves as a bridge for him. In Russian fairy tales the brown pike\n(which, on account of its colour, is called the chaste widow)[487] is\nnow a form assumed by the devil in order to eat the young hero, who\nhas become a little perch,[488] and now an enormous fish with great\nteeth, which slaughters the little fishes.[489] Now, instead, it\nserves as a bridge for Ivan Tzarevic, who is seeking for the egg of\nthe duck which is inside the hare under the oak-tree in the midst of\nthe sea;[490] now it is caught in the fountain (as the moon, soma, in\nthe well) by the foolish and lazy Emilius, and because Emilius saves\nits life, it makes him rich by performing several miracles for him,\nsuch as that of the barrels full of water, of the trees of the forest,\nof the waggons or the stoves which move off by themselves, and finally\nthat of the cask thrown into the sea, into which Emilius is shut with\nthe beautiful daughter of the Tzar, and which comes to shore and\nbreaks open.[491] Now the phallical pike with the golden fins[492] is\ncaught, washed, quartered, and roasted; the dirty water is thrown away\nand drunk by the cow (in _Afanassieff_) or by the mare (in\n_Erlenwein_); a portion of the fish is eaten by the black slave,\nwhilst she is carrying it to table, the rest by the queen; hence three\nyoung heroes, considered as brothers, are born at the same time to the\ncow (or mare), to the black maiden, and to the queen. Now the pike (as\nin the satirical fable of Kriloff) draws the car in company with the\ncrab and the heron; and here, it would appear, these two animals are\nrather stupid than intelligent, inasmuch as, whilst the pike draws the\ncar into the water, the crab draws it back on the earth and the heron\nessays to mount with it into the air. Here we have the usual\ncorrespondence between the phallical figure and that of the simpleton.\nThus, in the Piedmontese dialect, the phallos and the stupid man is\ncalled _merlu_ (blackbird). From the word _merlo_ (Lat. _merula_) was\nderived the name of the fish called _merluccio_ or _merluzzo_ (_gadus\nmerlucius_, the melwel or haddock), called _asellus_ by the Latins and\n_onos_ by the Greeks. The ass is a well-known phallical symbol, and\nBacchus being also a phallical god, we read in Pliny, \"Asellorum duo\ngenera, Callari\u00e6 minores, et Bacchi, qui non nisi in alto (in the\ndeep) capiuntur.\" The Italian name _baccal\u00e0_, given to the cod-fish,\nseems to me to be derived from the union of the two names Bacchus and\nCallaria. In the Piedmontese dialect, a stupid man is also called by\nthe name of _baccal\u00e0_. There is also a fish called _merula_, of which\nthe ancients describe the extraordinary salacity, by indulging which\nit literally consumes itself away and perishes.[493] In Italy we find\nthe following phallical proverbs: \"The blackbird has passed the Po,\"\nand \"The blackbird has passed the river;\" to denote a woman or a man\nexhausted, to impotence. The ancients wrote of the fish called\n_chr\u00fcsofr\u00fcs_ by the Greeks, and _aurata_ by the Latins, that it would\nlet itself be taken in children's and women's hands, and (according to\nAthenaios) it was sacred to Aphrodit\u00ea. Aphrodit\u00ea, Venus, goddess of\nlove, especially, represented in myths the aurora and the spring\n(hence in Lent and on Friday, the day of Freya, _dies Veneris_, we eat\nfishes); therefore the _gemini pisces_, the two fishes joined in one,\nwere sacred to her, and the joke of the _poisson d'Avril_, as I have\nalready mentioned in the first chapter of the first book, is a jest of\nphallical origin, which should be abandoned.[494] Aphrodit\u00ea and Eros,\npursued by Typhon, transformed themselves into fishes and plunged into\nthe Euphrates. The Hellenic Eros was also represented riding (instead\nof the phallical butterfly) on a dolphin; according to other accounts,\nhe rides upon a swan with dolphins before him. In an epigram of the\n_Anthologia Gr\u00e6ca_, the dolphin, moreover, carries a weary\nnightingale. In several parts of Alsace, on the evening of St Andrew's\nDay, girls eat herrings to dream during the night of the husband who\nis to quench their thirst.[495] The fish _julis_ of Pliny, or Julia,\nis called _donzella_ (damsel) in Italian, and _menchia di re_ (king's\nphallos) at Naples and in Venetia, and other fishes also take their\nname from the organs of generation.[496] The phallos is called _u\npesce_ at Naples, and, in Italian, _nuovo pesce_ (a new fish)\nsignifies a stupid man. An essentially phallical character, moreover,\nis possessed by the eel, which, according to Agatharchides, quoted by\nHippolitus Salvianus, the Boeotians crowned as a victim and sacrificed\nsolemnly to the gods, which, according to Herodotos, the Egyptians\nvenerated as a divine fish, and which Athenaios pompously calls the\nHelen of dinners. The eel became proverbial; the Italian proverbial\nexpressions, \"To take the eel,\" \"To hold the eel by its tail,\" \"When\nthe eel has taken the hook it must go where it is drawn,\" are all\nequivocal. The Germans also have a proverb concerning the eel, which\nreminds us of the story of the cook who steals the fish from\nAlexander, and, together with Alexander's daughter, drinks its\nwater.[497] The phallos discovers secrets, and therefore, in a German\nlegend,[498] the faculty of seeing everything which is under the water\nis ascribed to a woman who had eaten an eel (a variety of the story of\nthe fish that laughs, which, in the ninth story of the third book of\n_Afanassieff_, enriches whoever possesses it, and the fish _silurus_\n(the bream), so called from the Greek words _sill\u00f4_ and _oura_,\nbecause it shakes its tail, which, in the fifty-eighth story of the\nsixth book of _Afanassieff_, cleans the workman who had fallen into\nthe mud, and makes the princess laugh who had never laughed before).\nIn the eighteenth story of Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, a fisherman\ncatches an eel with two tails and two heads, which is so large that he\nhas to be assisted in carrying it. The eel speaks, and commands that\nits two tails be planted in the garden, that its intestines be given\nto the bitch, and its two heads to the fisherman's wife. Two swords\nare born of the tails in the garden (in the Hindoo legend we saw two\nsons born of the wood of \u00c7aradvat's arrow), two dogs are born of the\nintestines to the bitch, and two beautiful young men of the heads to\nthe wife (the two A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, drawn, as we have seen in the Vedic hymn,\nby the sea-urchin). In the chapter on the Dove, we saw the two young\nlovers, when pursued, take the form of doves. In the fourteenth\nSicilian story of Signora Gonzenbach, the young man and the maiden\npursued by the witch transform themselves first into church and\nsacristan, then into garden and gardener, then into rose and\nrosebush, and finally into fountain and eel. In the first volume of\nthe _Cabinet des F\u00e9es_, the fairy Aiguillette is taken in the form of\nan eel. In the fourth of the stories of Santo Stefano di Calcinaia,\nthe beautiful maiden is asked by the servant-maid of the priest (that\nis, by the servant-maid of the black man, by the black woman or the\nnight), who went to wash clothes at the fountain, to come down from\nthe tree. The maiden descends, is thrown into the fountain and\ndevoured by an enormous eel. The fishermen catch the eel and take it\nto the prince; the witch has it killed and thrown into a cane-brake.\nThe eel is then transformed into a large and beautiful cane, which is\nalso carried to the prince, who, cutting it gently with a penknife,\nmakes his beautiful girl come out (this legend is a variety of that of\nthe wooden girl).[499] This form of a diabolical eel has a close\nrelationship with the monster-serpent; the _anguilla_ reminds one of\nthe _anguis_; hence, in the ninth story of the first book of the\n_Pentamerone_, instead of the eel as a foecundator, as in the\neighteenth Tuscan story, we find the fish called _draco marinus_ (in\nItalian, _trascina_), of which it is curious to read, what\nVolaterranus writes, that--\"Si manu dextra adripias eum contumacem\nrenitentemque experieris, si l\u00e6va subsequentem,\"--as if he meant to\nimply that the left hand is the hand of the devil. Thus Oppianos\ndescribes the wedding of the muraina eel (the _murana_) with the\nserpent (the viper according to \u00c6lianos and Pliny). Other fishes have\nassumed an essentially diabolical character, such as the fish called\n_al\u00f4p\u00eax_ (Lat. _vulpes_, _vulpecula_), of which \u00c6lianos relates that\nit swallows the hook and then vomits it out with its own intestines;\nthe _rana piscatrix_, also called the marine devil; the _tr\u00fcg\u00f4n_ (Lat.\n_pastinaca_, It. _bruco_), which, according to Oppianos, kills men\nwith its dart (fame reports that Ulysses was killed with the bone of a\n_tr\u00fcg\u00f4n_) and dries up trees (although it is strange that to cure\none's self from such a fatal wound, as it was supposed by the ancients\nto be venomous, Dioscoris only recommends a decoction of sage). The\nsea-scorpion (whose wounds, according to the ancients, were cured by\nmeans of the _trigla_, the red mullet--Lat. _mullus_--sacred according\nto Athenaios and Apollodorus to Artemis, or to Diana Trivia, the moon;\nPlutarch writes that it was sacred to Diana as a hunting fish, because\nit kills the marine hare, noxious to man; but we have seen that the\nmythical hare is the moon itself), the bream, or _silurus_, _glanis_,\nor _piscis barbatus_, which, in Hungary, according to Mannhardt\n(Manardus, quoted in the sixteenth century by Ippolito Salviano), had\nthe reputation of attacking men, so much so, that it is said that one\nof these fishes, which are, in fact, very voracious, was once found\nwith a man's hand, covered with rings, in its intestines. But these\nrings in the fish's body (like the gem called cimedia,[500] which,\naccording to the popular belief, is found in the brain of a great\nnumber of fishes) recall us to the interrupted poem of Jershoff, to\nthe little perch, the dolphins, the whale, and the ring fallen into\nthe water and found again by the fish, which is perhaps the most\ninteresting subject of legends in the mythical cycle of the fishes,\nand, if I may say so, their epic exploit.\n\nIvan, therefore, has come with his hump-backed little horse into the\nmidst of the sea near the whale which has swallowed a fleet;[501] upon\nthe whale a forest has grown; women go to seek for mushrooms in its\nmoustaches. Ivan communicates his wish, and the whale calls all the\nfishes together, but no one can give information except one little fish,\nthe little jorsh, or little perch, which, however, is at the time\nengaged in chasing one of its adversaries. The whale sends ambassadors\nto the jorsh, which unwillingly desists for an instant from the fight,\nin order to search for the casket; it finds it, but is not strong enough\nto lift it up. The numerous army of the herrings come and try, but in\nvain; at last two dolphins come and raise the casket. Ivan receives the\nwished-for ring; the whale's malediction comes to an end; it vomits the\nfleet forth again, and is once more able to move about, whilst the\nlittle perch returns to pursue its enemies. This war of the little perch\nwith its adversaries has had in popular Russian tradition its\nHerodotuses and its Homers, who have celebrated its praises both in\nprose and verse. Afanassieff gives in the third book of his stories,\nfrom a manuscript of the last century, the description of the judgment\nof the little perch (jorsh) before the tribunal of the fishes. The bream\n(le\u00e7c) accuses the little jorsh, the wicked warrior (as the sea-urchin\nis the little destroyer; the confounding of the sea-urchin with the\nlittle perch is all the easier in Russian legends, inasmuch as the\nformer is called josz, and the latter jorsh), who has wounded all the\nother fishes with its rough bristles, and compelled them to forsake the\nLake of Rastoff. The jorsh defends itself by saying that it is strong in\nvirtue of its inherent vigour; that it is not a brigand, but a good\nsubject, who is known everywhere, highly prized and cooked by great\nlords, who eat it with satisfaction. The bream appeals to the testimony\nof other fishes, who give witness against the little perch, who\nthereupon complains that the other fishes, in their overweening\nimportance, wish, by means of the tribunals, to ruin him and his\ncompanions, taking advantage of their smallness. The judges call the\nperch, the eel-pout, and the herring to give witness. The perch sends\nthe eel-pout, and the eel-pout excuses itself for not appearing,\npleading that its belly is fat, and it cannot move; that its eyes are\nsmall, and its vision imperfect; that its lips are thick, and it does\nnot know how to speak before persons of distinction. The herring gives\nwitness in favour of the bream, and against the little perch. Among the\nwitnesses against the jorsh, the sturgeon also appears; it maligns the\njorsh, alleging that when he attempts to eat it he must spit more out\nthan he can swallow, and complains that when it was one day going by the\nVolga to Lake Rastoff, the little perch called him his brother and\ndeceived him, saying, in order to induce him to retire from the lake,\nthat he had once also been a fish of such size that his tail resembled\nthe sail of a ship, and that he had become so small after having entered\nLake Rastoff. The sturgeon goes on to say that he was afraid, but\nremained in the river, where his sons and companions died of hunger, and\nhe himself was reduced to the last extremities. He adduces, moreover,\nanother grave accusation against the jorsh, who had made him go in\nfront, in order that he might fall into the fishermen's hands, cunningly\nhinting that the elder brothers should go before the younger ones. The\nsturgeon confesses that he gave way to this graceful flattery, and\nentered into a weir made to catch fish, which he found to be similar to\nthe gates of great lords' houses--large when one goes in, and small when\none goes out; he fell into the net, in which the jorsh saw him, and\ncried out, deriding him, \"Suffer for the love of Christ.\" The deposition\nof the sturgeon makes a great impression upon the minds of the judges,\nwho give orders to inflict the knout upon the little jorsh, to impale it\nin the great heat, as a punishment for its cheating; the sentence is\nsealed by the crayfish with one of his claws. But the jorsh, who has\nheard the sentence, declares it to be unjust, spits in the eyes of the\njudges, jumps into the briar brake, and disappears from the sight of the\nfishes, who remain lost in shame and mortification.\n\nIn the thirty-second story of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, we\nfind two varieties of this zoological legend.\n\nThe turbulent jorsh enters into Lake Rastoff, and possesses himself of\nit. Called to judgment by the bream, it answers that from the day of\nSt Peter to that of St Elias, the whole lake was on fire; and cites in\nproof of this assertion that the roach's eyes are still red from its\neffects, that the perch's fins are also still red, that the pike\nbecame dark coloured, and that the eel-pout is black in consequence.\nThese fishes, called to give witness, either do not appear, or else\ndeny the truth of these assertions. The jorsh is arrested and bound,\nbut it begins to rain, and the place of judgment becomes muddy; the\njorsh escapes, and, from one rivulet to another, arrives at the river\nKama, where the pike and the sturgeon find him, and take him back to\nbe executed.\n\nThe jorsh, arrested and brought to judgment, demands permission to\ntake a walk for only one hour in Lake Rastoff; but after the\nexpiration of the appointed time, it neglects to come out of the lake,\nand annoys the other fishes in every way, stinging and provoking them.\nThe fishes have recourse for justice to the sturgeon, who sends the\npike to look for the jorsh; the little perch is found amongst the\nstones; it excuses itself by saying that it is Saturday, and that\nthere is a festival in his father's house, and advises him to take a\nconstitutional in the meanwhile, and enjoy himself; on the morrow,\nalthough it be Sunday, he promises to present himself before the\njudges (the analogy between the actions of the jorsh and those of\nReineke Fuchs is very remarkable). Meanwhile, the jorsh makes his\ncompanion drunk. The Sanskrit name of the fish, _matsyas_, from the\nroot _mad_, we know to mean drunk and joyous, properly damp (Lat.,\n_madidus_); in Italian, _briaco_ and _folle_ are sometimes equivalent;\nin the Piedmontese dialect, _bagn\u00e0_ (wet) and _imbecil_ (idiot) are\nexpressions of the same meaning. Drunkenness is of two forms: there is\na drunkenness which makes impotent and stupid; it is a question of\nquantity and of quality of beverages, as well as constitution. Thus,\nthere are two kinds of madness; that which makes a man infuriated, to\ncope with whom the strait-waistcoat is necessary, and that which ends\nby exhausting all a man's strength in prostration and debility.\nIndras, when drunk, becomes a hero; the pike when drunk is a fool\n(cfr. the Italian _matto_, English _mad_, which means insane, crazy,\nwith the German _matt_, which means cast down, exhausted[502]). When\nthe jorsh has made the pike drunk, it shuts it in a rick of straw,\nwhere the inebriated fish is to die. Then the bream comes to take the\nlittle perch from among the stones, and to bring him before the judge.\nThe jorsh demands a judgment of God. He tells his judges to put him in\na net; if he stays in the net, he is wrong; if he comes out, he is\nright; the jorsh jerks about in the net so much that he gets out. The\njudge acquits him, and gives him entire liberty in the lake; then the\njorsh begins his numerous revenges upon the little fishes, proving his\nastuteness in continual efforts to ruin them.\n\nAs the drunkard and the fool now intensify their strength and now lose\nit, so they now double and now lose their intelligence. Hence, among\nmythical fishes we find very wise ones and very stupid ones. The story\nis very popular of the three fishes of different intelligence, of\nwhich the lazy and improvident one allows himself to be caught by the\nfishermen, whilst his two companions escape; it is found in the first\nbook of the _Pancatantram_. In the fifth book of the _Pancatantram_, a\nvariety occurs: we read of a fish which has the intelligence of a\nhundred (\u00c7atabuddhis), of one which has the intelligence of a thousand\n(Sahasrabuddhis), and of the frog which has the intelligence of one\n(Ekabuddhis); but that of the two fishes is not intelligence, but\npresumption; the one intelligence of the frog is better than the\nhundred and the thousand of the fishes. The frog escapes, but the two\nfishes fall into the hands of the fishermen.\n\nThe little sea-urchin (and the dwarf Vishnus and the dolphin are\nequivalent to it, the word _\u00e7in\u00e7um\u00e2ras_ being equivocal in Sanskrit) in\nthe _Rigvedas_ draws the chariot of riches; in the _Eddas_, a dwarf in\nthe form of a pike (in Greek _l\u00fckios_, in Latin _lucius_) watches over\ngold, and guards the ring; in Russian legends, the little jorsh\n(formidable, like the josz, by its sharp quills), united with the\ndolphins, draws out of the sea the casket containing the sultan's ring.\nThe horn of the moon, which appears in the sea of night, belongs now to\nthe bull which carries the fugitive hero, now to the fish \u00e7aphar\u00ee,\nwhich, having become large, takes in tow the ship of Manus, and saves it\nfrom the waters, that it may not be wrecked. Now it is the solar hero or\nheroine that takes the form of a fish to save himself or herself; now\nthe fish helps the solar hero or heroine in their escape; now the little\ngolden or luminous fish plunges into the sea, or into the river, to seek\nthe pearl or ring for the hero or heroine who had let it fall, the ring\nwithout which King Dushyantas cannot recognise his bride \u00c7akuntal\u00e2; now\nit vomits out from its mouth or its tail that which it has\nswallowed--the hero, the pearl, the ring (the solar disc).\n\nIn the sixth act of _\u00c7akuntal\u00e2_, the fisherman finds in the stomach of a\nfish (the _cyprinus dentatus_), the pearl enchased in the ring which\nKing Dushyantas had given to \u00c7akuntal\u00e2, in order to be able to recognise\nher when they should come together again. The genera _cyprinus_ and\n_perca_, as the thorny or wounding ones in the order of fishes, have\nsupplied the greatest number of heroes to mythology; the sea-urchin is\nidentified to them on account of its darts; the names _hecht_,\n_brochet_, _pike_, given to the _lucius_ in Germany, France, and\nEngland, express its faculty of stinging, or cleaving with its flat and\ncutting mouth (the fish _lucioperca sandra_ is an intermediate form\nbetween the perch and the pike). The lunar horn, the thunderbolt, the\nsunbeam, have the same prerogative as these fishes; the dolphin, on\naccount of the two scythe-shaped fins which it has on its anterior\nextremity, or of its fat and curved dorsal fin, as well as on account of\nits black and silvery colour, might well serve to represent the two\nlunar horns and the moon's phases. Thus the pike and the bream, dark or\nbluish on their backs, are white underneath. The dolphin also has a flat\nmouth and sharp teeth, like the pike.[503] The lunar horn announces\nrain; thus the scythe-shaped fin of the dolphin, appearing on the waves\nof the sea, announces a tempest to navigators, warns them, and saves\nthem from shipwreck; hence, as a \u00e7in\u00e7umaras, it may, like the\nsea-urchin, have saved or drawn the chariot, that is, the vessel of the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, laden with riches. The dolphin which watches over Amphitrit\u00ea,\nby order of Poseidon, in the Hellenic myth, is the same as the dolphin,\nthe spy of the sea, or the moon, the spy of the nocturnal and wintry\nsky. Inasmuch as the sky of night or winter was compared to the kingdom\nof the dead, both the dolphin and the moon, according to the Hellenic\nbelief, carried the souls of the dead.\n\nThe _cyprinus_, _par excellence_, the carp (Lat. _carpus_), is\ncelebrated, in connection with gold, in an elegant little Latin poem\nof Hieronimus Fracastorus. Carpus was the name of a ferryman of the\nLake of Garda, who, seeing Saturn fleeing, took him for a robber who\nwas carrying gold away, and endeavoured to despoil him of this gold;\nthen Saturn cursed him and his companions in the following manner:--\n\n      \"Gens inimica Deum dabitur quod poscitis aurum:\n       Hoc imo sub fonte aurum pascetis avari.\n       Dixerat: ast illis veniam poscentibus et vox\n       Deficit, et jam se cernunt mutescere et ora\n       In rictum late patulum producta dehiscunt,\n       In pinnas abiere manus; vestisque rigescit\n       In squamas, caudamque pedes sinuantur in imam;\n       Qui fuerat subita obductus formidine mansit\n       Pallidus ore color, quamquam livoris iniqui\n       Indicium suffusa nigris sunt corpora guttis;\n       Carpus aquas, primus numen qui l\u00e6sit, in amplas\n       Se primus dedit et fundo se condidit imo.\"\n\nFrom the comparisons which we have made hitherto, it is impossible not\nto admit that the enterprise of the fish who seeks the gold or the\npearl, who finds it, or who contains it in himself, is a very ancient\n\u00c2ryan tradition. In the Vedic hymns we see now Indras, now the\nA\u00e7vin\u00e2u, saving the heroes from shipwreck, and bringing riches to\nmankind; we have also seen the \u00e7in\u00e7um\u00e2ras (sea-urchin, dolphin, or\nVishnus) draw the chariot of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, who are bringing riches. The\nGreeks called a fish of a strange shape by the name now of Zeus, now\nof chalke\u00fcs (the name given to H\u00eaphaistos, or Mulciber, or Vulcanus,\nthe worker in metals), or blacksmith, whence the name of _Zeus faber_,\nby which it was known to the Latins. This fish is of a really\nmonstrous shape. Its back is brownish, with yellow stripes; the rest\nof its body is of a silvery-grey colour; on its sides it has two spots\nof the deepest black. Its dorsal fin opens like a fan, with rays\ngoing out on all sides, and furnished with strong quills, which make\nthis prominence resemble a crest. We remember that the cock and the\nlark were compared to Christ and to Christophoros, on account of their\ncrest; the same happened in the case of the Zeus faber.[504] The\nItalian legend says that those two black spots (which make the fish's\nbody resemble a forge, whence its name of blacksmith) were caused by\nthe marks left upon it one day by St Christopher, while carrying\nChrist upon his shoulders across the river. The fish which wears the\ncrest and Christopher are here identified with each other. But this is\nnot all; at Rome, at Genoa, and at Naples, this same fish is called\nthe fish of St Peter, because it is said to be the same fish which was\ncaught by St Peter in the Gospels, in the mouth of which (as a\nblacksmith or chalke\u00fcs, it must have known well how to coin money), by\na miracle of Christ's, St Peter found the coin which was to serve for\nthe tribute. Is it probable that the legend of the fish with gold in\nits mouth, so common in \u00c2ryan legends, was current in Judea? I do not\nthink so; inasmuch as _petrus_ and the _petra_, upon which Christ\nmakes a bad Gr\u00e6co-Latin pun, in connection with the fish, is another\nmythical incident which calls me back to the \u00c2ryan world, and tears me\naway from the Semitic world, and from childish faith in the Judaic\nauthenticity of the evangelical story, though without prejudice to my\nbelief in the holiness of the doctrine.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[478] Indras, as a warlike god, does not know fear, or rather, he\nkills fear (the hymn says, \"Aher y\u00e2t\u00e2ram kam apa\u00e7ya indra hridi yat te\ngaghnuso bh\u00eer agacchat\"; _Rigv._ i. 32, 14), and lets himself be\nterrified by a trifle, which may be either a nightly shadow (the dark\nman of fairy tales), or the terror caused to him by some fish (the\nmoon) which leaps upon him in the waters which he himself has set\nfree.--In the twenty-second of the Tuscan stories published by me, the\nyoung hero who passed through all the dangers of hell without being\nafraid, dies at the sight of his own shadow. (We have also referred to\nthis when treating of the dog and the lion who meet with their death,\nallured by their own shadow.)--In the forty-sixth story of the fifth\nbook of _Afanassieff_, the merchant's son, who did not know fear, who\nfeared neither darkness nor brigands nor death, is terrified and dies\nwhen he falls into the water, because the little perch entered into\nhis bosom whilst he was sleeping in his fishing-boat.--It is also easy\nto pass from the idea of Indras, who inebriates himself in the _soma_\nto that of the fish, when we consider that the Hindoo word _matsyas_,\nthe fish, properly means the inebriated, from the root _mad_, to\ninebriate and to make cheerful.\n\n[479] A\u00e7n\u00e2pinaddham madhu pary apa\u00e7yam matsyam na d\u00eena udani\nkshiyantam; _Rigv._ x. 68, 8.\n\n[480] _Mbh._ 2371-2392.\n\n[481] _Mbh._ i. 5078-5086.--In another variety of the same myth, the\nsemen of the wise Bharadv\u00e2gas comes out at the sight of a nymph; the\nsage receives it in a cup, out of which comes Dronas, the armourer and\narcher _par excellence_; i. 5103-5106.\n\n[482] v. 27.\n\n[483] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ ii. 92.\n\n[484] Cfr. B\u00f6htlingk, _Indische Spr\u00fcche_, i. 59.\n\n[485] Revad uv\u00e2ha sacano ratho v\u00e2m vrishabha\u00e7 \u00e7a \u00e7in\u00e7um\u00e2ra\u00e7 ca yukt\u00e2.\n\n[486] Our readers will not be astonished at seeing the dolphin, the\nwhale, and the sea-urchin classed here with fishes. We are not\ntreating of natural history according to the classifications of\nscience, but of the gross classifications made by impressionable\npopular imaginations. Thus, amongst the animals of the water we shall\nfind the serpent described, although it be amphibious, because popular\nbelief makes the dragon watch over the waters.\n\n[487] The pike becomes in spring of an azure or bluish or\ngreenish-blue colour; hence the name of _golubbi_--_per\u00f2_ (that is, of\nthe azure or bluish fins; in German, the bluish colour is called\n_echt-grau_--that is, grey of pike; in the nineteenth of the Russian\nstories of _Erlenwein_, golden fins are ascribed to the pike), which\nis also given to it in Russia. _Golub_, or brown, violet and azure, is\na name given in Russia to the dove; so in Italy we say, that the dove\nis _pavonazzo_ (properly the colour of the peacock, which is generally\nblue and green). But in Sanskrit, amongst the names of the peacock\nthere is that of _haris_, a word which represents both the moon and\nthe sun. By the same analogy, the bluish or greenish pike may\nrepresent the moon. But another analogy, caused by a similar\nconception, is found again in the word _\u00e7y\u00e2mas_, which means black,\nazure, and also silvery; whence it serves to represent the\n_convolvolus argenteus_ (we must remember that the Latin name of the\npike is _lucius_; the Greek, _l\u00fckios_--that is, the luminous one). The\npike takes the colour of the water in which it lives, and the waters\nare dark, black, azure, greenish, silvery; as being azure, or\ngreenish, or silvery, the pike represents the moon; as being dark, the\ntenebrific night, the cloud, the wintry season.--In the thirty-second\nstory of the fourth book of _Afanassieff_, the little perch relates\nthat the pike was once luminous (that is, in spring), and that it\nbecame black after the conflagration which took place in the Lake of\nRastoff from the day of St Peter (June 29) to the day of St Elias\n(July 20), or in the beginning of summer. As we learn in the\n_Pseudo-Callisthenes_, near the black stone, which makes black whoever\ntouches it, there are fishes which are cooked in cold water, and not\nat the fire, I recollect here also that the _Hecht-k\u00f6nig_, or king of\npikes, is described as yellow and black-spotted.\n\n[488] _Afanassieff_, v. 22.\n\n[489] _Afanassieff_, i. 2.--Cfr. the eleventh of the _Novelline di Santo\nStefano di Calcinaia_; a monstrous fish devours the princess; the fish\nis said to be a shark (pesce cane); and v. 8 of the _Pentamerone_.\n\n[490] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, ii. 24.\n\n[491] Cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 55, vi. 32.--It is the same fish which,\nsaved by the girl who is persecuted by her step-mother, comes to her\nassistance, separates the wheat from the barley for her (like the\nMadonna, the purifying moon-fairy, the nightly cleanser of the sky),\nand gives splendid robes to her, in vi. 29.--In the story v. 54,\ninstead of the pike as a foecundator we find the bream, which is also\ncalled \"of the golden fins\" (szlatopioravo), of which the colours are\nthe same as those of the pike.\n\n[492] In the nineteenth Russian story of _Erlenwein_, and in a variety\nof the same in the last book of Afanassieff's stories.--In an\nunpublished story of the Monferrato, communicated to me by Dr Ferraro,\na fisherman catches a large fish which says to him, \"Let me go, and\nyou will always be fortunate.\" The wife of the fisherman opposes this,\nroasts and eats the fish, from whose bones are born to the fisherman\nthree sons, three horses, and three dogs. Evidently the story has been\ncorrupted.\n\n[493] Cfr. Salvianus, _Aquatilium Animalium Histori\u00e6_, Rom\u00e6, 1554.\n\n[494] At Berlin, children sing on the first of April--\n\n      \"April! April! April!\n       Man kann den Narren schicken wohin man will.\"\n\n[495] Another custom concerning herrings is described by Baron von\nReinsberg, relating to Ash-Wednesday, when people return from church\nin Limburg: \"Begiebt man sich zuerst nach Hause, um nach gewohnter\nWeise den H\u00e4ring abzubeissen. Sobald man n\u00e4mlich aus der Kirche kommt,\nwird ein H\u00e4ring, nun muss jeder mit geschlossenen Beinen, die Arme\nfest an den Leib gedr\u00fcckt, in die H\u00f6he springen und dabei suchen, ein\nSt\u00fcck abzubeissen.\" And Karl Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 561,\nwrites: \"In der Mark muss man zu Neujahr Hirse oder H\u00e4ringe essen, im\nWittenbergischen Heringssalat, so hat man das ganze Jahr \u00fcber Geld.\"\n\n[496] Cfr. Salvianus, _ut supra_. The habit certain fishes have of\nejecting froth from the mouth may have suggested a phallical image.\n\n[497] Bei Hans Sachs, N\u00fcrnberger, Ausgabe von 1560, ii. 14, 96, Eine\nFrau und Magd essen den f\u00fcr den Herrn bestimmten Aal; eine Elster\nschwatzt es aus; ran sich zu r\u00e4chen, rupfen die Weiber ihr den Kopf\nkahl. Daher man sprichw\u00f6rtlich von einem kahlen M\u00f6nche sagt: der hat\ngewiss vom Aale ausgeschwatzt; Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche\nUnsterblichkeits-Lehre_.\n\n[498] In the same: \"So erz\u00e4hlt Gilbert bei Leibnitz Script. rer.\nBrunsw. i. 987. Ein Frauenzimmer, welches Aal gegessen, habe pl\u00f6tzlich\nAlles sehen k\u00f6nnen was unter Wasser war.\"\n\n[499] It is well known that the word _ikshv\u00e2kus_ has been referred to\nthe word _ikshus_, the sugar-cane. In the fortieth canto of the first\nbook of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, one of the two wives of Sagaras gives birth\nto a son who continues his race; the other wife gives birth to an\nikshv\u00e2kus (gourd or cane) containing 60,000 sons.\n\n[500] Cfr, Du Cange, _s. v._, and Salvianus, the work quoted before.\n\n[501] In the thirteenth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_ (of\nwhich the Bohemian story of _Grandfather Vsievedas_ is a well-known\nvariety), the whale complains that all the footmen and horsemen pass\nover it and consume it to the bones. It begs the hero Basilius to ask\nthe serpent how long it has still to undergo this fate; the serpent\nanswers, when it has vomited forth the ten vessels of the rich\nMark.--In the eighth story of the fourth book of the _Pentamerone_,\nthe whale teaches Cianna the way to find the mother of time, requiring\nher, in recompense, to be informed of the way in which the whale may\nbe able to swim freely to and fro in the sea without encountering\nrocks and sandbanks. Cianna brings back for answer, that it must make\nfriends with the sea-mouse (_lo sorece marino_, perhaps the same as\nthe sea-urchin), which will serve as its guide.--In the eighth story\nof the fifth book of the _Pentamerone_, the little girl is received in\nthe sea by a large enchanted fish, in whose belly she finds beautiful\ncompanions, gardens, and a beautiful palace furnished with everything.\nThe fish carries the girl to the shore.\n\n[502] If I am not mistaken, the German words _Narr_, fool, and _nass_,\nwet, are in connection with each other by the same analogy which gives\nus the Sanskrit _mattas_, drunk, and the Latin _madidus_, damp, from\nthe root _mad_.\n\n[503] A superstitious belief quoted by Pliny concerning the cramp-fish\nmerits being recorded here: \"Mirum quod de Torpedine invenio, si capta\ncum Luna in Libra fuerit, triduoque asservetur sub dio, faciles partus\nfacere postea quoties inferatur.\"\n\n[504] _s. v. citula_, Du Cange writes concerning the fish faber or\nZeus: \"Idem forte piscis, quem Galli doream vocant ab aureo laterum\ncolore, nostri et Hispani Galli Baionenses jau, id est gallum, a dorsi\npinnis surrectis veluti gallorum gallinaceorum cristis.\" The fish Zeus\nlives in solitude; hence it appears to me to be the same sacred fish,\ncalled anthias, of which Aristotle, in the ninth book of the _History\nof Animals_, says that it lives where no other animal is found.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE CRAB.\n\n\nSUMMARY\n\n    The riddle, how it is a fish, and not a fish.--The crab appears\n    and the sun goes back; the crab-moon draws the solar hero\n    back.--The crane and the crab.--The crab kills the serpent and\n    releases the solar hero.--The crab draws the\n    chariot.--Palinurus.--The crabs prick and waken the hero.--The\n    race between the crab and the fox.--The prince becomes a crab to\n    release his beloved from the waters.--The nightingale, the stag,\n    and the crab as awakeners.--The crab as an antidote for the venom\n    of the toad, and as a remedy for the stone.\n\nIn the eighth Esthonian story, a husband beats his wife because she is\nunable to solve the riddle which he proposes, to provide him a fish to\neat, which is not a fish, and which has eyes, but not in its head. The\nthird brother, the cunning one, recommends his mother to cook the\ncrab, which lives in the water like a fish, and which has eyes, but\nnot in its head.\n\nWhen the sun seems to enter, in the month of June, into the tropic\nwhich bears the sign of the crab (Lat. _cancer_; Gr. _karkinos_;\nSanskrit, _karkatas_, _karkas_, _karkatakas_; the Hindoo constellation\nof the crab is called _karkin_, or furnished with the crab, in the\nsame way as the leaping moon, furnished with the hare, is called\n_\u00e7a\u00e7in_), it is said to come back again; on the first day of summer\nthe days begin to shorten, as on the first of winter they begin to\nlengthen; the sun in the month of June was therefore compared to a\ncrab, which retraces its steps, or was represented as drawn by a crab,\nwhich, in this case, is particularly the moon. We all know the myth of\nH\u00earakl\u00eas, who, when combatting the hydra of Lerne, was caught and\ndrawn back by the crab, which H\u00eara, therefore, transformed into the\ncelestial constellation of the crab. In the _Pseudo-Callisthenes_,\nAlexander returns in terror from his journey to the fountain of\nimmortality, when he sees that the crabs draw his ships back into the\nsea. In the same work, we find a crab caught which contains seven\nprecious pearls; Alexander has it shut up in a vase, which is enclosed\nin a large cage, fastened by an iron chain; a fish draws the cage a\nmile out to sea; Alexander, half dead with terror, thanks the gods for\nthe warning, and so saving his life, persuading himself that it is not\nfit to attempt impossible undertakings. In the seventh story of the\nfirst book of the _Pancatantram_, the old crane, on the other hand,\nterrifies the crab and the fishes by threatening them with a\nvisitation of the gods in the chariot of Rohin\u00ee, the red wife of the\nLunus, that is, in the constellation of the Wain or the Bulls (the\nfourth lunation of the moon), in consequence of which the rain will\ncease to fall, the pond will be dried up, and the crabs and fishes\nwill die; the fishes allow themselves to be deceived by the crane, who\neats them on the way; but the crab, on the contrary, when it has got\nhalf way, perceives the deceit of the crane, kills it, and returns\nback again. Professor Benfey has found a variation of this story in\nthe Buddhist sacred and historical books of Ceylon. In the \u00c6sopian\nfables, the crab kills the serpent. In the twentieth story of the\nfirst book of the _Pancatantram_, the crab causes, at the same time,\nthe death of the serpent and the crane, by means of the ichneumon;\nthe crab, which walks a little backwards and a little forwards, when\ntransported into the sky, causes now the death of the solar hero and\nnow that of the monster, now delivers the solar hero from the monster\nand now drags it into the waters. In the fifteenth and last story of\nthe fifth book of the _Pancatantram_, the young hero Brahmadattas\ntakes, for his companion in his journey, the crab, who, whilst he\nsleeps in the shade of a tree, kills the serpent which comes to kill\nhim. This mythical crab, this red animal which kills the serpent, is\nsometimes the sun, but, perhaps, oftener it may be compared to the\nhorned moon, which increases and diminishes, and releases the solar\nhero, asleep in the shadow of the night and of the winter, from the\nblack serpent who endeavours to turn his sleep into death;\nBrahmadattas, when he wakens, recognises the crab as his deliverer.\nThus we have already seen the moon considered more than once, in\nseveral forms, as the saviour of the solar hero and heroine. When the\nsun falls in the evening, in the west, it must necessarily go back\nlike the crab, to reappear in the morning on the same eastern side\nfrom whence it came; when the sun goes back and the days grow shorter,\nafter the summer solstice, the crab, in the Zodiacal cycle, retraces\nits steps. When the sun goes back, the moon either rules the darkness\nof the frigid night, or in autumn brings on the autumnal rains; the\nhorns of the moon, and those of the crab, serve now to draw the hero\ninto the waters (in the evening, and after solstice of June), now to\ndraw him out of the waters (towards dawn and towards spring). The sun\nis now represented as having transformed himself into the moon, and\nnow as having been deceived or saved by the moon. The sun which\nretraces its steps is a crab; the moon which draws back, or draws out,\nis also a crab, and, in this respect, seems to hold the same place as\nthe sea-urchin with the hundred oars, or of the dolphin with the\nscythe-shaped fin, which draws the chariot of the solar hero, or the\nsolar hero himself. In the fable of Kriloff, the crab draws the\nchariot with the pike and the heron (the latter taking the place here\nof the crane, which we have seen above in connection with the crab,\nand which is also called in Sanskrit by the same name as the crab,\nthat is, karkatas). It is well known that the sea-crab, _Palinurus\nvulgaris_, took its name from the pilot Palinurus, who fell into the\nsea. In the fourteenth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, the\ncrabs prick and waken the young hero Theodore (gift of God, an\nequivalent of Brahmadattas, given by the god Brahman), put to sleep by\nthe witch; they are grateful to the hero, because he divided the\ncaviare into equal parts among the crabs who were disputing for it.\n\nWe have seen the challenge to a race with the hare and the locust, the\nhare and locust both seem to lose the race. Afterwards we saw the\nchallenge to a trial of flight of the beetle and the wren with the\neagle, in which the animal that symbolises the moon, on the other\nhand, wins the race. Thus, in the same way, as to spring succeeds June\nor the month of the crab, we find represented in the fifth story of\nthe fourth book of _Afanassieff_ a race between the fox (which, as it\nsymbolises the twilights of the day, represents also the equinoxes in\nthe year) and the crab (it is well known that the crab, _Palinurus\nvulgaris_, was called by the Latins by the name of _locusta_). The\ncrab fastens itself to the fox's tail; the latter arrives at the\nwinning-post without knowing of the crab's presence; the fox then\nturns round to see whether his opponent is far off, upon which the\ncrab, letting go the fox's brush and dropping quietly on the ground,\nlooks up and placidly remarks that it has been waiting for some time.\n\nIn the first of the Esthonian stories, the young prince, in order to\nrelease from the waters his beloved, who had become a water-rose, by\nthe eagle's advice takes off his clothes, covers himself with mud, and\nholding his nose between his fingers, snivels out, \"From a man, a\ncrab;\" then he instantly becomes a crab, and goes to draw the\nwater-rose out of the water, to bring it to shore near a stone, at\nwhich, when arrived, he says, \"From the water-rose, the maiden; from\nthe crab, the man.\" (This myth appears to represent the amours of the\nsun as a female, with the moon as a male.) I observe that among the\nSanskrit meanings of the word _karkatas_, which means a crab, there is\nthat of a heap of water-roses, or a heap of lotuses.\n\nWe have already seen the nightingale and the stag as images\nrepresenting the moon; here we also find a crab as a lunar figure. The\nmoon is the watcher of night; either it sleeps with its eyes open like\nthe hare, or it is watchful like the stag, or, as a nightingale, it\njustifies the Greek proverb of the watchers who sleep less than the\nnightingales (oud' hoson A\u00eadones \u00fcpn\u00f4ousin), or, as crab, it wakens up\nwith its claws those who are asleep and menaced by any danger.[505] In\nPliny we find the nightingale, the stag, and the crab in concord; he\ninforms us that crab's eyes, with the nightingale's flesh, tied up in\na stag's skin, are useful to keep a man awake. The moon, in fact, not\nonly herself watches, but makes men watch, or prolong their vigils; we\nknow, moreover, of the excitement with which her presence agitates the\nquail, which cannot sleep when the moon shines in the sky. Pliny also\nrecommends the river-crab, cut in pieces and drunk, as a remedy\nagainst any poison, but especially against the venom projected by the\ntoad. In the _Heisterbac. Hist. Miracul._, we read of a man named\nTheodoric, and surnamed Cancer, that the devil persecuted him in the\nform of a toad; he kills the diabolical toad more than once, but it\nalways rises again; then Cancer, recognising the devil in this form,\nforms a heroic resolution, uncovers one of his thighs, and lets\nhimself be bitten; the thigh inflames, but he is cured at last, and\nfrom that day forward he is and continues a holy man. German\nsuperstition, therefore, combines with Gr\u00e6co-Latin to consider the\ncrab as an enemy of the monster; but as in Gr\u00e6co-Latin beliefs,\nbesides the crab which awakens, there is also, as we have seen, the\ncrab which seeks to ruin the solar hero, so in Germanic mythical\ntradition, the death of the solar and diurnal hero Baldur takes place,\nwhen the sun enters the Zodiacal sign of Cancer.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[505] We know that lynx's eyes, or lynx-like eyes, mean very\nsharp-sighted ones; ancient physicians recommended against the stone\nor the disease of the gravel, now the lyncurium, the stone which was\nsupposed to be made of the urine of the lynxes, given by India to\nBacchus, according to Ovid's expression, and now crab's eyes. The moon\ndestroys with its light the stone-sky, the sky of night; hence crab's\neyes are recommended against the disease of the stone. When the moon\nis not in the sky of night, the stone is there.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE TORTOISE.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    Equivoque between the words _kacchapas_ and _ka\u00e7yapas_ (by the\n    intermediate form, _ka\u00e7apas_).--Explanation of the myth of the\n    production of the ambrosia, by means of the mandaras.--Mantharas\n    as a tortoise.--K\u00fbrmas.--Kacchapas the lord of the shores.--The\n    tortoise and the elephant.--Ka\u00e7yapas as Prag\u00e2patis.--Somas and\n    Savitar.--Ka\u00e7yapas and the thirteen daughters of Dakshas;\n    Dakshag\u00e2.--The funereal tortoise and the frog.--The tortoise and\n    the lyre; the Schild-kr\u00f6te; the shields of the Kureti; kacch\u00e2s,\n    kacchap\u00ee; k\u00fbrmas as a poet and as a wind.--The tortoise and the\n    warriors.--The shields fallen from the sky.--The demoniacal\n    tortoise.--The tortoise as an island.--The hare and the\n    tortoise.--The tortoise defeats the eagle.\n\nOf the three principal Hindoo names of the tortoise, _k\u00fbrmas_,\n_kacchapas_, and _ka\u00e7yapas_, the third alone, in connection with the\nsecond, seems to have any importance in the history of myths. The\nexpression _k\u00fbrmas_ is the word usually employed to designate the real\ntortoise, whilst the expression _ka\u00e7yapas_ gave rise to mythical\nequivoques, which deserve to be observed.\n\nWe know of the famous incarnation of Vishnus as a tortoise, treated of\nin the _K\u00fbrma P._ The problem was to stir up the ocean of milk to make\nambrosia; the sea had no bottom, inasmuch as the earth had as yet no\nexistence; to stir up the waters of the ocean, something of colossal\nsize was needed; the gods had recourse to the mandaras, which was made\nto serve for the purpose, as the king of the rods, _ka\u00e7apas_; the gods\nand the demons shook the rod, and the ambrosia came forth; no sooner\nwas the ambrosia produced, than the world of animated beings began to\nbe created. The character of this cosmogony is preternaturally\nphallical; the white froth of the sea (born of the genital organs of\nOuranos, castrated by his son Kronos), whence Aphrodit\u00ea rises, and the\ncosmic ambrosia, being nothing else than the genital sperm. At a later\nperiod a mountain was seen in the mandaras, and the words _ka\u00e7apas_\nand _kacchapas_ (subsequently changed into _ka\u00e7yapas_) being confused,\nthe king of the rods or phallos, _par excellence_, was converted into\na tortoise. The mandaras (from the root _mand-mad_, to inebriate, to\nmake joyful), however, might mean the agitator, that which makes\njoyful; but as from _mad_ is derived the word _matsyas_, the fish now\ndrunken, now stupid, so the word _mandaras_ also has, for its proper\nmeanings, slow and large, and is closely connected with mandas, which,\nbesides slow, lazy, soft, also means drunken; with mandakas, foolish;\nand with mandanas, merry; and, as such, we can understand how there\nwas in the celestial Paradise, in the mandanas or making joyful, the\ntree mandaras, the inebriating. Finally, it is connected with\nmanthanas, the agitator, and identified with mantharas, which also\nmeans the agitator, the slow, and the lazy. But there is also another\nanalogy which offers us the means of understanding how the equivoque\nof ka\u00e7apas, confused with kacchapas, and which afterwards became\nka\u00e7yapas or tortoise, became popular, just through the word _k\u00fbrmas_,\nwhich, as we have said, means a tortoise. When the mandaras or\nmantharas was conceived of as a producer of ambrosia, they soon\nidentified the mantharas itself (the slow, the late, the curved) with\nthe tortoise; in fact, _mantharas_ is the name given to a tortoise in\nthe _Hitopade\u00e7as_, and the name _mantharakas_ is applied to another in\n_Somadevas_ and in the _Pancatantram_. Considered simply as the slow\nand the curved, the thought of the tortoise, which answers this\ndescription, naturally arose in connection with the name; the\nprimitive myth became complicated, and the mandaras and the ka\u00e7apas,\nwhich were originally one and same, were at length distinguished from\neach other, the ka\u00e7apas, at first a ka\u00e7yapas or kacchapas or tortoise,\nand, _vice versa_, the mandaras or mantharas also; the words in course\nof time lost their primitive meaning, the mandaras (as the slow one)\nbecame a mountain (which does not move), and the ka\u00e7apas a tortoise,\nsupporting the mountain, at once vast, ponderous, and inert. As it\noften happens in mythology that two distinct personalities spring out\nof two names at first applied to the same mythical object or being,\nand both being names which indicate something heavy, it was surmised\nthat the one heavy thing carried the other, and that the heavy\ntortoise, into which the god Vishnus transformed himself, sustained\nthe weight of the heavy mountain placed upon it by his _alter ego_\nIndras. The ideas of weighty and curved being united in both the\nmandaras and the ka\u00e7apas, the tortoise, as k\u00fbrmas, serves well for\nthis office of a carrier, an assertion I venture to make, inasmuch as\nin _k\u00fbr-mas_ I think I can recognise the same root which appears in\nthe Sanskrit _gur-u-s_, fem. _gur-v-\u00ee_, superlat. _gar-ishth-a-s_\n(Lat. _gra-v-is_, from _garvis_), and in the Latin _curvus_.[506]\n\nAs for the name of kacchapas, to which the equivocal Hindoo epithet\nof ka\u00e7yapas, applied to the tortoise, should be referred, it properly\nmeans the lord, the guardian of the shores, he who occupies the\nshores, and is a perfectly apt designation for the tortoise, and an\nexpression _\u00e0 propos_ to what is related of it in the legend quoted by\nus in the chapter on the elephant. Both animals (sun and moon)\nfrequent the banks of the same lake, and have conceived a mortal\ndislike one for the other, continuing in their brutal forms the\nquarrel which existed between them when they were not only two men but\ntwo brothers. As the elephant and the tortoise both frequent the\nshores of the same lake, they mutually annoy each other, renewing and\nmaintaining in mythical zoology the strife which subsists between the\ntwo mythical brothers, who fight with each other for the kingdom of\nheaven, either in the form of twilights, or of equinoxes, or of sun\nand moon, or of twilight and sun, or of twilight and moon, in any of\nthe various interpretations which can, all with same basis of truth,\nbe given to the myth of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, according to their appearance\namong celestial phenomena, which, although distinct, have nevertheless\na great resemblance. In this particular mythical struggle between the\ntortoise and the elephant, terminated by the bird garudas, who carries\nthem both up into the air in order to devour them, the tortoise and\nthe elephant seem, however, especially to personify the two twilights\nof the day and the two twilights of the year--that is, the equinoxes,\nor the sun and the moon in the crepuscular hour, the sun and the moon\nin the equinoctial day, upon the banks of the great heavenly lake.\n\nBut, in the legend contained in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_[507] of the\ntortoise and the elephant carried into the air by the Vishnuitic\nbird, there is still another interesting circumstance or variation,\nwhich corroborates the cosmic interpretation of the myth of the\ntortoise now proposed by me. The divine Ka\u00e7yapas is mentioned in it;\nhe desires to have a son, and therefore has himself served by the gods\n(since it is the gods who make the mandaras, the producer of ambrosia,\nturn round) in the sacrifice adapted to produce children. The\nphallical Indras carries on his shoulders a mountain of wood, which\nevidently corresponds to the mandaras or ka\u00e7a-pas, and, on the way,\noffends the dwarf hermits born of the hairs of the body of Brahman,\nthat is, the hairs themselves; to this Ka\u00e7yapas, the name of\nPrag\u00e2patis or lord of generation is given. We here again meet with the\nmonstrous phallos which produces the ambrosia (or the Somas to which\ncorresponds Savitar, the generator and the lord of the creatures[508])\nand generates living beings in the world. Ka\u00e7yapas being considered as\nthe generator, he was therefore placed in relation with the movements\nof the moon and the sun, who are also generators (as Somas and\nSavitar); and it is in this respect that Ka\u00e7yapas also appears as the\nfoecundator of the thirteen daughters of Dakshas, who correspond to\nthe thirteen months of the lunar year (Dakshag\u00e2 is the name of a lunar\nasterism and of the wife of a phallical \u00c7ivas, and dakshag\u00e2patis one\nof the Hindoo names given to the moon; Dakshas is also identified with\nPrag\u00e2patis; whence Ka\u00e7yapas must have united himself, probably as the\nphallical moon, with his own daughters, or with his thirteen\nlunations). Of the thirteen wives made fruitful by Ka\u00e7yapas,\neverything that lives was born,--gods, demons, men, and beasts,--so\nthat in the cosmogony of the mandaras, of the Ka\u00e7apas, and hence of\nthe tortoise, the mandaras, when shaken, produced the phallical\nambrosia, of which all animated things were spontaneously generated.\n\nBut the tortoise, taken in connection with the moon, sometimes also\nhad a funereal signification. The souls of the dead go into the world\nof the moon, into the sky of night, and the souls of the living\ndescend from the world of the moon, that is, from the night; \u00c7ivas,\nthe god of Paradise, becomes the destroying god; Plutus and Pluto are\nidentified. Thus, in a note of Professor Haugh to the _\u00c2itareya Br._,\nI think I can recognise the tortoise, as representing in particular\nthe dying moon, the burnt-up moon, which has the fire of spring for\nits tomb, round whose corpse the moon also moves in the here\nequivalent form of a frog (being _haris_, which means both yellow and\ngreen), and who is herself afterwards turned out. We know how Haris or\nVishnus now represents the sun and now the moon (the sun and the moon,\nas Indras and Somas, were called together rakshohan\u00e2u or\nmonster-killers), is identified now with the tortoise, now with the\nbird garudas, the enemy of the tortoise. Here is, however, the note of\nProfessor Haugh: \"At each Atir\u00e2tra of the Gav\u00e2m ayanam the so-called\nChayana ceremony takes place. This consists in the construction of the\nUttar\u00e2 Vedi (the northern altar) in the shape of an eagle. About 1440\nbricks are required for this structure, each being consecrated with a\nseparate Yagusmantra. This altar represents the universe. A tortoise\nis buried alive in it, and a living frog carried round it and\nafterwards turned out.\" According to Pliny, the blood of a tortoise is\nan antidote to the venom of a toad (in the same way as the hare and a\nstag's horn is also recommended as of similar efficacy on the old\nprinciple of _similia_ _similibus_; the hare is the moon, the stag's\nhorn the moon's horn; the blood of the killed tortoise would appear to\nrepresent the moon itself as in a manner chasing the gloom of night\naway). The tortoise is also found in connection with frogs in a fable\nof Abstemius; the tortoise envies the frogs, who can move rapidly, but\nceases to complain when it sees them become the prey of the eel.\n\nOne of the ten stars of the constellation of the tortoise, situated in\nthe northern heavens--that is, in the cloudy and gloomy autumnal sky,\nand therefore especially ruled by the moon--was called the lyre by the\nGreeks, and it was fabled that the tortoise of which Herm\u00eas had made\nthe lyre, had been transfigured into it. I may remark here that the\nGerman name for the tortoise is Schild-kr\u00f6te (toad with shields), that\nthe Koribantes[509] produced their noisy music, and accompanied their\nPyrrhic dances with kettledrums and the sound of arms, and that the\nKureti, in order to conceal from Kronos the birth of Zeus, struck\ntheir shields with their lances. It is interesting to observe, that in\nSanskrit also, kacch\u00e2s is the name given to the little shields of the\ntortoise or kacchapas; that kacchap\u00ee is the term applied to the noise\nof the thundering Sarasvat\u00ee, or the thunder; that several Vedic poets\nare called Ka\u00e7yapas; that K\u00fbrmas (another designation of the tortoise)\nis also the name of the Vedic poet, the son of Gritsamadas, and also\nan epithet applied to the _flatus ventris_, which is compared to a\nclap of thunder (Cfr. the roots _kar_, _kur_, _gar_, _gur_). In the\nchapter on the ass, we saw this _flatus_ compared to the noise of a\ntrumpet or a kettle-drum; here we have the thunderbolts that strike\nupon the shields, the spots of the celestial tortoise, of the rainy\nmoon, upon the clouds, attracted by or formed from the moon's spots,\nthat is, which produce the thunder. According to the Hellenic myth,\nthe tortoise obtained from Zeus himself--that is, from the pluvial\ngod, from the god of the clouds, the god in connection with the\nshield-clouds which concealed his birth, and we may add, from the god\ntortoise,--the power of concealing itself under shields, and of\ncarrying its house along with it. The Romans were accustomed to bathe\nnew-born babes in the concavity of a tortoise, as if in a shield. It\nwas predicted that Clodius Albinus would one day attain to sovereign\npower, because, when he was born, an enormous tortoise was brought to\nhis father by some fishermen. The tortoise protects Zeus, the new-born\nwarrior-god; the tortoise, on account of its shields, makes the\nnew-born child a warrior, and predicts dominion to him; my\nwell-informed readers will remember how a shield, fallen from the sky,\npresaged to the Romans the glories they should achieve as a warlike\npeople, according to Ovid's verses--\n\n           \"... Totum jam sol emerserat orbem:\n        Et gravis \u00e6therio venit ab axe fragor.\n      Ter tonuit sine nube Deus, tria fulgura misit.\n        Credite dicenti: mira sed acta loquor.\n      A media coelum regione dehiscere coepit:\n        Submisere oculos cum duce turba suo.\n      Ecce levi scutum versatum leniter aura\n        Decidit: a populo clamor ad astra venit.\"\n\nUnder this aspect the tortoise becomes the dark moon, in opposition to\nthe luminous one, the slow moon, in opposition to the jumping one. Being\nslow or tardigrade, in the myths the tortoise is the moon, but the\nwinter one; and sometimes it becomes also now the cloud, now the earth,\nnow even the darkness (as such it appears demoniacal in a German legend,\nwhere two devils who have assumed the forms of monstrous tortoises,\nprevent the foundations of the cathedral church of Merseburg from being\nlaid; the tortoises are exorcised, and their bodies slain, in memory of\nwhich circumstance it is said that the cups of these tortoises are\npreserved, hung up in the church; in the fourteenth fargard of the\n_Vendidad_, too, the tortoises are, as demoniacal, to be killed). We\nhave seen in the first chapter of the first book, the hare-moon passed\nover and crushed by the cow's waggon, suggesting to us the cloud (as the\nmoon, now a bridge, now an island of the sky, as sea), which passes over\nthe moon, but he perhaps, again, of the eclipse of the moon by the means\nof the earth, which is also called a cow in Sanskrit. In Sanskrit, the\nearth, which comes out of waters--an island[510] (as the moon and the\ncloud)--is also called by the name of k\u00fbrmas, _i.e._, a tortoise\n(properly the curved, the humped, the eminent, the prominent; mantharas\nis a name given to the tortoise, and Manthar\u00e2 is the name of the\nhumpbacked woman who causes the ruin of R\u00e2mas in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_). Hence\nwe also have in the West, besides the fables of the leaping hare (the\nmoon) and the cow, of the leaping locust (the moon) and the ant, the\napologue of the hare and the tortoise who run together; the hare,\nrelying on its swiftness, falls asleep and loses, while the tortoise by\nsteady perseverance wins the race.\n\nWe have already seen the tortoise in the Hindoo legends as the rival\nof the eagle or the Vishnuitic bird Garudas. The two are now\nidentified and now fight against each other (we must remember that it\nwas by the advice of Ka\u00e7yapas that the bird Garudas ravished the\nambrosia from the serpents). In Greece, the proverb of the tortoise\nwhich vanquishes the eagle, was already diffused; now it is the eagle\nwhich carries the tortoise into the air, or rather makes it fly, now\nit is, on the other hand, the tortoise which defies the eagle to\narrive first. It is interesting to compare with this the Siamese\napologue published by A. Bastian in the _Orient und Occident_, of\nevidently Hindoo origin. The bird Khruth, no doubt a limited and\nparticular form of Garudas, wishes to eat a tortoise (here perhaps the\nmoon) which lies upon the shore of a lake. The tortoise consents to be\neaten, under the condition that the Khruth accepts a challenge to a\ntrial of speed, and arrives soonest on the other side of the lake, the\nbird to go through the air, and the tortoise through the water. The\nbird Khruth accepts the wager; then the tortoise calls together\nmillions and millions of tortoises, and places them all in such a way\nthat they surround the lake, each distant a few steps from the water.\nThen it gives the signal to the bird to commence the race. The Khruth\nrises into the air, and flees to the opposite bank; wherever he essays\nto alight, he finds the tortoise has been there before him. (This myth\nrepresents, perhaps, the relation of the sun to the lunations).\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[506] Cfr. the Sanskrit roots, _kar_, _kur_, _gur_, _g\u00fbr_.\n\n[507] i. 1353-1456.\n\n[508] Savit\u00e2 v\u00e2i prasav\u00e2n\u00e2mi\u00e7o.--_\u00c2it. Br._ The story of Cunah\u00e7epas;\nhe appears evidently as a form of Prag\u00e2patis.\n\n[509] The Koribantes remind us of the Salii of the Latins, to whom\nNuma gives the arms and the words, to be sung leaping. According to\nOvid's distich--\n\n      \"Jam dederat Salii (a saltu nomina ducunt)\n        Armaque et ad certos verba canenda modos.\"\n                                          --_Fasti_, iii. 389.\n\n[510] It is interesting in this connection to find in the translation of\nLane a passage from the _Ag\u00e1\u00efb-el-Makhlook\u00e1t_ (_Marvels of Creation_), a\nwork of the thirteenth century: \"The tortoise is a sea and land animal.\nAs to the sea tortoise it is very enormous, so that the people of the\nship imagine it to be an island. One of the merchants relates as follows\nregarding it: 'We found in the sea an island elevated above the water,\nhaving upon it green plants, and we went forth to it, and dug [holes for\nfire] to cook; whereupon the island moved, and the sailors said, \"Come\nye to your place, for it is a tortoise, and the heat of the fire hath\nhurt it, lest it carry you away.\" By reason of the enormity of its\nbody,' said he [_i.e._, the narrator above mentioned], 'it was as though\nit were an island, and earth collected upon its back in the length of\ntime, so that it became like land, and produced plants.'\" Evidently here\nthe tortoise occupies the same place as, in popular tradition, the lunar\nwhale recorded by us in the chapter on the Fishes. Cfr. Lane, _The\nThousand and One Nights_, London, 1841, vol. iii. chap. xx. n. 1 and 8,\np. 80 _seq._--Grein, _Bibliothek der angels\u00e4chsischen Poesie_,\nG\u00f6ttingen, 1857, 1, 235, the Celtic legend of St Brandan and the\n_Pseudo-Callisthenes_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nTHE FROG, THE LACERTA VIRIDIS, AND THE TOAD.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The m\u00e2nduk\u00e2s or frogs as clouds in the _Rigvedas_.--Bhekas.--The\n    frog announces the summer; the _canta-rana_ announces Christ.--The\n    serpent, the hero, and the frog.--The frog and the ox.--Dionysos\n    and the frogs.--Indras and the frogs.--The dumb frogs.--Proserpina\n    and the frog.--Rana cum gryllo.--The frog finds the sultan's\n    ring.--The frog and the rook.--The frog as the serpent's\n    daughter.--The demoniacal frog.--The yellow and the green\n    frog.--The beautiful maiden as a frog.--The demoniacal toad.--The\n    sacred toad.--The beautiful maiden as a toad.--The toad in\n    Tuscany, in Sicily, and in Germany.--The handsome youth as a\n    toad.--Women who gave birth to toads.--The venomous and the\n    alexipharmic toad.--Kr\u00f6te and Schildkr\u00f6te.--The toad swallows the\n    dew.--The stone of the frog.--The horned lizard.--Eidechse,\n    hagedisse.--Apollo as sauroktanos.--The lizard on St Agnes's\n    Day.--The little lizards must not be killed in Sicily, being\n    intercessors before the Lord.--The amphisbh\u00e6na.--The _lacerta\n    viridis_.--The _couleuvre_ as a good fairy.\n\nI am sorry to be unable to concur entirely in the opinion of the\nillustrious Professor Max M\u00fcller, when, in translating a hymn of the\n_Rigvedas_, in his _History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature_, he remarks,\n\"The 103d hymn, in the seventh Mandalam, which is called a panegyric of\nthe frogs, is clearly a satire on the priests.\" It is possible that at a\nlater period, in deriding a br\u00e2hmanic school similar to that of the\nm\u00e2nd\u00fbk\u00e2s, a satirical sense would have been ascribed to this hymn, but\nit does not seem to me that the intention of the author of the Vedic\nhymn was such. Professor Max M\u00fcller has shown well in his History how\nthe Vedic hymns have suffered in the hands of the Br\u00e2hmans, by means of\ntheir arbitrary interpretations; the interesting story of the\nhypothetical god Kas is a very convincing proof of it; it is, therefore,\npossible, and even probable, that attempts were made to use this Vedic\nhymn as an arrow for satire; but if I am not mistaken, no trace of a\nsatirical meaning can be found in the hymn itself. Above all, I must\nobserve that the Anukramanik\u00e2 of the _Rigvedas_ properly calls the hymn\nonly parganyastutis, or hymn in honour of Parganyas, the hymn of the\ntempest; secondly, it scarcely seems possible that a satirical hymn,\nintended to caricature the priests, should be inserted in the seventh\nbook, which is attributed to Vasishtas, the most religious of all the\nlegendary Br\u00e2hmans, and he who, for the glory of Br\u00e2hmanism and the\nrights of the sacerdotal caste, maintained such a protracted and\ndisastrous war against Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, the champion of the warrior race;\nhence, if a satirical hymn against priests had been found in the third\nbook of the _Rigvedas_, ascribed to the wise Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, I should not\nhave thought it so strange, whilst it would be misplaced in the hymns\nsaid to be written by Vasishtas. To me it seems rather that, when\nspeaking of frogs, the hymn does not allude to the frogs of the earth,\nbut to the clouds, the cloud-frogs, attracted by the pluvial moon,\nwhilst the tempest is at its height. We know that in the _Rigvedas_, the\nwives of the gods weave hymns in honour of the lightning and thundering\ngod Indras, who has killed the monster serpent which kept back the\nwaters of the heavenly cloud; we have also, in the first chapter of the\nfirst book, heard the cows lowing and exulting joyfully before their\ndeliverer Indras, who lets his seed drop in the midst of them as soon as\nthey are released from the cave where they were imprisoned. In the\nseventh book, the hymns 101 and 102 are sung in honour of Indras as\nParganyas; the hymn 103 is also sung in his honour, but by the clouds of\nthe sky themselves, by the celestial frogs, inasmuch as the frog which\ncroaks, when transported into the sky, is nought else then the\nthundering cloud; in fact, in Sanskrit the word _bhekas_, which means\nfrog, has also the meaning of cloud. We have seen that the cuckoo who\nsings in spring, and admonishes the tillers of the soil to begin their\nwork, personifies the thunder in the sky: the frog has the same office;\nit, like the thunder, announces the approaching tempest. And because,\nwhen the first claps of thunder are heard, it is the summer which\nannounces its coming, so the frog that croaks and the frog that sings\nserved specially to announce the summer. I remember that, a few years\nago, there still existed at Turin, among children, the custom of\nsounding in the Holy Week (in order to greet the approaching festival of\nthe resurrection of Christ, who died amongst flashes of lightning and\npeals of thunder) a wooden instrument, which emitted a sharp squeak\nresembling the croaking of a frog, and which was therefore called\n_canta-rana_ (the frog sings). It was also the custom on Easter Eve to\nstrike all the doors violently with sticks, as if to reproduce under\nanother form the sound of the _canta-rana_. According to Pliny, the\nfrogs die in winter, and are born again in spring; when the frogs ask\nfor a king, and obtain, in the Greek fable[511] a serpent, and in the\nRussian fable of Kriloff a heron, the serpent and the heron symbolise\nthe autumnal and wintry seasons. Indras, Zeus, and Christ are born and\nborn again amid the noise of musical instruments, shields, arms, winds\nand thunder, among the lowing of cows, the bleating of goats, the\nbraying of asses, and the croaking of frogs, called by Aristophanes\n_phil\u00f4don genos_. In the 103d hymn of the seventh book of the\n_Rigvedas_, one mand\u00fbkas (frog or cloud) lows like a cow (gom\u00e2yus);\nanother like a goat (agam\u00e2yus); one is pri\u00e7nis, or variegated; another\nharitas, or fair-haired, golden, red (the cloud born by the lightning\nand the violence of the wind), and, as a frog, green or grey; the\nmand\u00fbkas or frog being transported into the sky, or identified, as a\ngom\u00e2yus, with the cow, it is no wonder that, in the fable, the frog has\nthe presumption of thinking it can inflate itself to the size of an ox;\nbut when the little cloud has become a large one, it ends by bursting,\nand so does the frog in his attempt to distend himself and become as\nlarge as the ox. (In the eighteenth Esthonian story, we find a monster\nwho has a body like that of an ox, and feet like those of a frog.) When\nIndras and Zeus have accomplished their work in the celestial cloud,\nwhen the cloud has passed away and dispersed, when the frogs are drunk\nwith water, they cease their croaking; thus, in the _Frogs_ of\nAristophanes, when Dion\u00fcsos (n\u00fcseios Dios) has passed the Stygian marsh,\nthey stop croaking; whilst Zeus, on the other hand, floods the earth\nwith water, they (Dios pheugontes ombron) retire into the depths of the\nwaters to dance in chorus (as the ap-sar\u00e2s). On the other hand, before\nthe pluvial god satisfies their desires, before it rains, they croak\nincessantly; the thunder always makes itself heard before the rain, and\nat the outbreak of the tempest; hence, in the _Rigvedas_ itself, Indus\n(the moon), as a bringer of rain (or the rain itself), is implored to\nrun and plead with Indras, the pluvial god, to satisfy the desire of the\nfrog.[512] Here, therefore, it is especially Indus who satisfies the\nfrogs' desire for rain. Indus, as the moon, brings or announces the\nsomas, or the rain; the frog, croaking, announces or brings the rain;\nand at this point the frog, which we have seen identified at first with\nthe cloud, is also identified with the pluvial moon. Another\ncharacteristic of the frog made this identification all the more\nnatural, and that was, its green colour (harit). By the word _harit_\n(which, as we, several times, have remarked, means yellow and green in\nSanskrit) not only the moon, but the green parrot was designated, and\nalso the frog. The identification having been effected, the Greeks could\nthen relate fables concerning the frog of the Island of Seriphos\n(batrachos ek Seriphou), which was dumb; so in the Lives of St Regulus\nand St Benno, we read that when these two saints, as they preached the\nChristian faith, were annoyed by the croaking of the frogs, they ordered\nthe frogs to be silent, and they became dumb for ever. In truth, the\nfrogs are silent (and even die, according to Pliny) in winter, which is\nunder the especial dominion of the silent moon; the frog and the moon\nare exchanged one for the other. In _Ovid_, the metamorphosis of the\nfrog is made to enter into the lunar myth, that is, into the myth of\nProserpina; it was the form of the frog which certain peasants of Lycia\nassumed who dirtied the water of which Ceres and Proserpina wished to\ndrink; their croaking (coax) is the punishment to which the goddesses\ncondemned them, because in those waters they had emitted a vile sound\nfrom their mouths.[513] Another proof of the identity of the frog with\nthe moon is the Latin proverb, \"Rana cum gryllo,\" which afterwards\nserved to represent two opposite things, but which, in fact, are the\nsame, on account of their shrill voice, their way of hopping, and their\ncommon mythical connection with the leaping moon. We are reminded of the\nmoon and the cloud in the war waged between the frogs and the mice, who\nare mutually destroying each other until the falcon comes with\nimpartiality to annihilate both. We are, moreover, reminded of the\nlittle goldfish, the fair-haired moon, and the pike, in the frog which,\nin the _Tuti-Name_, finds the sultan's ring, which had fallen into the\nriver, for the young hero, in gratitude to him for having saved it from\nthe serpent who was about to devour it; it is said that both the frog\nand the serpent were two fairies who, freed from their curse, united\nthemselves to protect the young hero (the new sun). In the twenty-third\nMongol story, the golden frog (the moon) is dancing; the rook (the\nnight) carries it off to eat it; the frog recommends it to wash it in\nwater; the rook is taken in, and the frog, like the jorsh of Russian\nstories, succeeds in escaping; this frog is said to be the daughter of\nthe prince of the dragons, who watches over the pearl. As the daughter\nof a serpent, the golden frog (the moon), when it is darkened, itself\nappears as a diabolical serpent or pythoness, and is more like a toad\nthan a frog; then it becomes, according to Sadder, a meritorious service\nto kill the frogs: \"Ranas si interfecerit aliquis quicunque fortis eorum\nadversarius, ejus quidem merita propterea erunt mille et ducenta. Aquam\neximat eamque removeat et locum siccum faciat et tum eas necabit a\ncapite ad calcem. Hinc Diaboli damnum percipientes maximum flebunt et\nploratum edent copiosissimum.\"\n\nIn the second Calmuc story of Siddhik\u00fcr, two dragons who keep back the\nriver which irrigates the earth and makes it fruitful, and who eat a\nman every year, assume the form of frogs (one yellow and the other\ngreen), and speak to one another of the way in which they can be\nkilled. The king's son understands their language, and kills them,\nhelped by a poor friend of his, with whom he enriches himself, but\nonly to encounter (like the two mythical brothers) the most dangerous\nadventures afterwards.\n\nBut the diabolical form of a frog is sometimes assumed by the\nbeautiful maiden (or else by the handsome youth) as the effect of a\nmalediction or an enchantment. Thus it is in the interesting\ntwenty-third story of the second book of _Afanassieff_. There is a\nTzar who has three sons; each son must shoot an arrow; where the arrow\nfalls, each brother will find his predestined wife. The two eldest\nbrothers marry in this way two beautiful women; the arrow of the\nyoungest brother Ivan, however, is taken up by a frog, whom he is\nobliged to marry. The Tzar wishes to see which of the three brides\nmakes the handsomest present to her husband. All three give their\nhusbands a shirt, but that of the frog is the most beautiful; for\nwhilst Ivan sleeps (that is, in the night), she casts her skin,\nbecomes the beautiful Helen (generally the aurora, but here, it would\nseem, the same transformed into the good fairy moon), and orders her\nattendants to prepare the finest shirt possible; she then again\nbecomes a frog. The Tzar (a truly patriarchal Tzar) then wishes to see\nwhich of his three daughters-in-law bakes bread best; the first two\nbrides know not what to do, and send secretly to see what the frog\ndoes; the frog, who sees all, understands the trick, and bakes the\nbread badly on purpose; afterwards, when she is alone and Ivan asleep,\nshe again becomes the beautiful Helen, and orders her attendants to\nbake a loaf such as those which her father ate only on feast-days. The\nloaf of the frog is pronounced the best. Lastly, the Tzar wishes to\nsee which of his daughters-in-law dances best. Ivan is sorrowful,\nthinking that his bride is a frog; but Helen consoles him, sending him\nto the ball, where she will join him; Ivan rejoices to think that his\nwife has the gift of speech, and goes to the ball; the frog takes her\nrobes off, becomes the beautiful Helen once more, dresses herself\nsplendidly, comes to the ball, and all exclaim as they pass by her (as\nto the Homeric Helen), \"How beautiful!\" They first sit down to table\nto eat; Helen takes bones in one hand, and water in the other; her\nsisters-in-law do the same. Then the ball begins. Helen throws water\nfrom one hand, and groves and fountains spring up; and bones (we\nremember a similar virtue in the bones of the cow) from the other,\nfrom which birds flutter upward (the same is narrated in a story I\nheard in Piedmont when a child). Meanwhile, Ivan runs home to burn the\nfrog's skin. Helen returns home, can no longer become a frog, and is\nsorrowful; she goes with Ivan to bed, and awakening at morn, says to\nhim, \"Ivan Tzarevic, thou hast not been patient enough; I would have\nbeen thine; now, as God wills it, Farewell! Seek me in the\ntwenty-seventh earth, in the thirtieth kingdom\" (_i.e._, in my\nopinion, in hell, in the night into which the moon and the aurora\ndescend, and whence the moon comes out again and renews itself after\ntwenty-seven days; the Russian story is evidently a variety of the\nfable of Cupid and Psyche).[514] She then disappears. Ivan goes to\nseek his bride at the dwelling of the frog's mother, who is a witch;\nhe takes from her the spindle which spins gold, throws part of it\nbefore him, and the rest behind. Helen appears once more, and the pair\nflee away upon the carpet which flies by itself. Here the helped\naurora and the helping moon are assimilated.\n\nBut in popular stories the hero and heroine assume by witchcraft,\ninstead of the form of a dark frog, that of a toad, and sometimes that\nof a horned lizard,[515] whence the verse of Mehun--\n\n      \"Boteraulx et couleuvres, visions de deables.\"\n\nInasmuch as the toad is a form proper to the demon, it is feared and\nhunted; inasmuch as, on the contrary, it is considered as a diabolical\nform imposed by force upon a divine or princely being, it is respected\nand venerated as a sacred animal. In Tuscany it is considered by the\npeasants a sacrilege to kill a toad. A low Tuscan song heard by me at\nSanto Stefano di Calcinaia records the transformation of the beautiful\nmaiden into a toad; the mother toad speaks to her daughter to console\nher, inspiring her with the hope of being soon married to the king's\nson--\n\n      \"Botta, gragna,[516]\n       Il figlio del re che poco ti ama\n       Se non t'ama, t'amer\u00e0,\n       Quando per isposa lui t'avr\u00e0.\"\n\n(Wretched toad! the king's son, who little loves thee, if he love thee\nnot, will love thee when he has thee for his wife.) The prince weds\nthe toad, which is immediately transformed into a beautiful maiden.\nWith regard to the superstitions concerning the toad current in\nSicily, it is interesting to note what my friend Giuseppe Pitr\u00e8 writes\nto me--\"The toad brings fortune; he who is not fortunate must provide\nhimself with a toad and feed it in his house[517] upon bread and wine,\na consecrated nourishment, inasmuch as it is alleged toads are either\n'lords' or 'women from without,' or 'uncomprehended genii,' or\n'powerful fairies,' who have fallen under some malediction. Hence they\nare not killed, nor even molested, lest when offended they should come\nat night to spit water upon the offender's eyes which never heal, not\neven if he recommend himself to the regard of Santa Lucia.\" Hence the\npoet Meli, in his _Fata Galanti_, writes that he prevented a peasant\nfrom killing a toad--\n\n      \"Jeu ch'avia 'ntisu da li miei maggiuri\n       Che li buffi 'un si divinu ammazzari,\n       Fici in modu chi l'ira e lu rancuri\n       A ddu viddanu cci fici passari.\"\n\nAs a recompense for having saved its life, the toad soon afterwards\nappears to him in the shape of a very beautiful woman, and promises to\nassist him all the days of his life--\n\n                \"Oh picciotti furtunatu!\n      Eu ti prutiggir\u00f2 d'ora nn' avanti,\n      Jeu su' dda buffa, chi tu, gratu e umanu\n      Sarvasti antura da l'impiu viddanu.\"\n\nIn Piedmont, I have heard a popular story[518] related in which the\ntoad is, on the other hand, the diabolical form assumed by a handsome\nyouth; in Aldrovandi, several things are narrated of women who gave\nbirth to toads.[519]\n\nFrom the double and contradictory aspect in which the toad was\nregarded, popular medicine, although believing that the humour which\nthe toad, when provoked, ejects from behind, is fatal, and that the\ntoad not only poisoned men, but even all the plants over which it\npassed, still recommends the wearing of dried toads under the armpits\nas amulets against plague and poison. The same alexipharmic virtue was\nalso ascribed to the stone called and believed to be toad's-stone (or\nbufonite), which was said to change colour when its wearer was\npoisoned. The bufonite was supposed to be taken out of a toad's head,\nbut science has demonstrated that the bufonite, sold by quacks is made\nof the tooth of a fossil fish.[520] Out of the toad, the dark animal\nof the night, the gloom or winter, the solar pearl comes; thus popular\nGerman stories regard the _Schild-kr\u00f6te_ (or toad with the shield) as\nsacred, on account of the pearl supposed to be contained in its head.\nIn Hungary it is said that the toad swallows the dew in the dry\nseason; it is believed, moreover, that the frog, like the serpent,\nvomits forth, in spring, a precious stone called the stone of the\nserpent or the stone of the frog. According to what Count Geza Kuun\nwrites to me, in the testament of a citizen of Kaisa three golden\nrings are mentioned, one of which contained a \"frog's stone.\"\n\nI have observed above that the toad's place is sometimes taken in\npopular tales by the horned lizard; the lizard also represents the\ndemoniacal shape, the shape of a witch. On this subject there was an\ninteresting discussion by Karl Simrock upon the word _Eidechse_ (the\nlizard in German), derived from the ancient form _Hagedisse_ which is\nthe same as _Hexe_ or witch. It is as a witch that the lizard is killed,\nin the Greek myth, by Apollines, whence its name of _sauroktanos_.[521]\nBut, inasmuch as the lizards appear in spring and announce the fine\nseason, they are considered (according to Porphyrios) sacred to the sun,\nand therefore of good augury. A Bolognese proverb says, \"Sant' Agnes, la\nluserta cor pr' al paes,\" to indicate that the season is beginning to\nimprove, inasmuch as with the appearance of the lizards on the Day of St\nAgnes, which is in the beginning of March, spring begins to make itself\nfelt. In Sicily it is believed that the little lizards called San\nGiuvanni must not be killed, because they are in the presence of the\nLord in heaven, and light the little lamp to the Lord (as we have\nalready seen the firefly give light to the grain). And when they are\nkilled, in order that they may not curse one, one must say to the tail\nwhich is shaking, that it was not the real killer, but the dog of St\nMatthew who committed the crime,\n\n      \"Nun fu' ieu, nun fu' ieu:\n       Fu lu cani di San Matteu.\"\n\nThey are believed to be powerful intercessors before the Lord, for\nwhich reason Sicilian children warm them in their bosoms, and feed\nthem on crumbs of bread soaked in water.\n\nBut an especially sacred character is ascribed to the _lacerta\nviridis_ (It. _ramarro_; Sicilian, _vanuzzu_, a diminutive of\nGiovanni) and to the _amphisbhoena_, of which the ancients believed\nthat it had two heads (like the Hindoo ah\u00eeranis), its tail being taken\nfor one. The _amphisbhoena_ is still held sacred and revered in\nIndia.[522] The green lizard of popular superstition is partly solar\nand partly lunar; the firefly and the quail, as summer animals, are\nsacred to the sun; as watchers by night, to the moon. Thus the green\nlizard, as a summer animal which hunts away the serpent of winter,\nappears particularly in relation with the sun; but inasmuch as there\nis also the serpent of night, the green lizard or green _ramarro_\ntakes the place of the crab-moon, that is, it wakens the young solar\nhero who sleeps in the night, and wakens the sleeping man lest the\nserpent should bite him. The moon of winter wakens the sun of spring,\nthe moon of night wakens the sun of day; the moon-lizard, like the\nmoon crab, hunts the serpent or black monster away. In Piedmont,\nTuscany, and Sicily, the green lizard is believed to be the friend of\nmankind; indeed, it is called _guarda omu_ in Sicily, where it is\nbelieved to cure from incantations, perhaps on account of the yellow\ncross which the people think they can see upon its head. At Santo\nStefano of Calcinaia it is said that the green lizard hisses in the\nears of Christians like a Christian when the serpent approaches a man;\nthey even relate several cases of shepherds or peasants who, being\nasleep, were saved by the green lizard passing over them (Aldrovandi\nspeaks of a similar superstition). It is, moreover, believed that the\ngreen lizard, if caught and put in a vase full of oil, will produce\nthe oil of a _ramarro_, which is said to be good against wounds and\npoisons. In the _Contes Merveilleux de Porchat_, a fairy protects the\npoor Laric and brings fortune to him in the shape of a grateful\n_couleuvre_, which he, in winter, found frozen and warmed in his\nbosom. The _couleuvre_ makes radiant coins fall to Laric from the\nbeaks of certain partridges, enables him to find whatever he is in\nneed of, and puts a golden chain round the neck of his wife. Thus the\nmyths of the golden (or green) fish, the golden (or green) frog and\nthe golden (or green) lizard, correspond to each other in the\nbeautiful myth of the good moon-fairy, who protects the solar hero or\nheroine in the nights both of the day and the year.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[511] Cfr. the first story of the fourth book of the _Pancatantram_,\nwhere the king of the frogs invokes the help of a black serpent to\navenge himself upon certain frogs who are his enemies, and, instead of\nthis, draws down death upon all the frogs and upon his own son.\n\n[512] V\u00e2r in mand\u00fbka ichat\u00eendrayendo pari srava; _Rigv._ ix. 112.\n\n[513] A similar tradition was current concerning the tarantula\n(stellio). Ceres, being thirsty, wished to drink; the boy Stelles\nprevented her, and the goddess transformed him into a _stellio_.\nAccording to Ulpianus, from the _stellio_ was derived the _crimen\nstellionatus_.\n\n[514] Cfr. also _Afanassieff_, vi. 55; Masha (Mary), the wife of Ivan,\nat first appears as a goose, afterwards as a frog, a lizard, and a\nspindle.\n\n[515] In the eighth story of the first book of the _Pentamerone_ it is\na lacerta cornuta (horned lizard, the moon) which watches over the\ndestiny of the girl Renzolle (the aurora).\n\n[516] It was thus that I heard it recited, but it should, as it\nappears to me, be corrected both in rhyme and sense, and _gragna_\nchanged into _grama_, unless _gragna_ is a verb and stands for\n_grandina_ (hail); in Italy, there is a superstitious belief that the\ntoads are generated of the first large drops of rain which fall into\nthe dust at the beginning of a tempest.\n\n[517] A similar superstition is current in Germany, as I find in\nRochholtz, the work quoted before, i. 147: \"Auch die Hauskr\u00f6te, Unke,\nMuhme genannt, wohnt im Hauskeller und h\u00e4lt durch ihren Einfluss die\nhier verwahrten Lebensmittel in einem gedeihlichen Zustand. Dadurch\nkommt Wohlstand ins Haus, und das Thier heisst daher Schatzkr\u00f6te. In\nVerwechslung mit dem braunschwarzen Kellermolch wird sie auch Gm\u00f6hl\ngenannt und soll eben so oft ihre Farbe ver\u00e4ndern, als der Familie\neine Ver\u00e4nderung bevorsteht.\"--The various popular superstitions\nconcerning the salamander are well known,--viz., that it resists the\npower of fire, that it lives in fire, that it becomes like fire: \"immo\nad ignem usque elementarem orbi lunari finitimum ascendere\" (according\nto Aldrovandi), and that, devoid of hairs itself, it causes the hairs\nof others to fall out by means of its saliva, whence Martial, cursing\nthe baldness of a woman's head--\n\n      \"Hoc salamandra caput, aut s\u00e6va novacula nudet.\"\n\nPliny therefore recommends against the poisonous venom which is\nascribed to the salamander, the seeds of the hairy and stinging\nnettle, with broth of a tortoise (which it resembles by its yellow\nspots). The salamander of popular superstition seems to me to\nrepresent the moon which lights itself, which lives by its own fire,\nwhich has no rays or hairs of its own, and which makes the rays or\nhairs of the sun fall.\n\n[518] It was narrated to me by a peasant woman who heard it at Cavour\nin Piedmont:--\n\nA man who is paralytic has three daughters, Catherine, Clorinda, and\nMargaret; he sets out on a journey to consult a great doctor, and asks\nhis daughters what they wish him to bring them when he returns; Margaret\nwill be content if he bring her a flower. He arrives at his destination,\na castle; everything is prepared to receive him, but the doctor is not\nto be found; he sets out to return home, but on the way he recollects\nthe flower, which he had forgotten; he goes back to the garden of the\ncastle and is about to pluck a daisy (margherita), when a toad warns him\nthat he will die in three days if he does not give it one of his\ndaughters to wife. The father informs his daughters of this, upon which\nthe two eldest refuse; but the youngest, in order to save her father's\nlife, consents. Her father is cured, and the wedding takes place; during\nthe night the toad becomes a beautiful youth, but warns his bride never\nto tell any one, for if she does, he will always remain a toad, and he\ngives her a ring by means of which she will obtain whatever she wishes\nfor. The sisters have an inkling of some mystery, and make her confess;\nthe toad falls ill and disappears; she calls him with the ring, but in\nvain; seeing this, she throws the ring, as useless, into a pond, upon\nwhich the beautiful youth steps out, and never becomes a toad again;\ntheir happiness together thereafter is unbroken.\n\nIn an unpublished Tuscan story, related to me by Uliva Selvi at\nAntignano near Leghorn, instead of the toad we have a magician of\nfrightful aspect. The father of the three daughters is a sailor; he\npromises to fetch a shawl to the first, a hat to the second, and a\nrose to the third. When the voyage is over, he is about to return,\nbut, having forgotten the rose, the ship refuses to move; he is\ncompelled to go back to look for the rose in a garden; a magician\nhands the rose with a little box to the father to give it to one of\nhis daughters, whom the magician is to marry. At midnight, the father,\nhaving returned home, relates to his third daughter all that happened.\nThe little box is opened; it carries off the third daughter to the\nmagician, who happens to be king of Pietraverde, and is now a handsome\nyoung man. He shows her, in the palace, three rooms, of which one is\nred, one white, and another black. They live together happily.\nMeanwhile, the eldest sister is to be married; the magician conducts\nhis wife into the red room; she wishes to go to the wedding, and the\nmagician consents, but warns her not to say either who he is, or aught\nshe knows of him, if she does not wish to lose him, as to recover him\nagain she would have to wait till she should wear out as many shoes as\nthere are in the world. He gives her a dress which, as she goes, is\nheard rustling a long way off; and he tells her, if her pin should\ndrop, to let the bride pick it up and keep it; warning her, moreover,\nnot to drink or to eat of anything they may offer her. All this she\nobserves to the letter. The second sister is about to be married; the\nmagician leads his wife into the white room and repeats the same\ninstructions, only, instead of the pin, she is to let her ring of\nbrilliants drop. The father dies; the magician then takes his wife\ninto the black room, the chamber of melancholy. She wishes to go to\nthe funeral, and is permitted, after the usual warnings; the magician,\nmoreover, gives her a ring; if it become black, she will lose him; she\nforgets the warning and loses him. She wanders about for seven years,\nand no one can give her any news of the king of Pietraverde; she then\ndisguises herself as a man, and arrives at a city where the king's\nhostler takes her into his service; no sooner does she touch the\ncarriages than they become clean. The queen passes by and wonders at\nthe personal appearance of the youth; she engages him to work in her\nkitchen, then to serve at table, and finally to be her _valet de\nchambre_. The queen falls in love with him, and wishes to have him at\nany cost; in vain; she then accuses him of designing to take her life.\nThe king, although unwillingly, has him put in prison; soon he has\npity upon him and lets him free. The fictitious youth continues to\nwander about; he arrives at the city, and asks for news of the king of\nPietraverde; they tell her that he has long been dead, and point her\nto a room where his bier is supported by columns of wax, or candles;\nhe will not awake until the candles are consumed. She goes up and\nweeps; the king takes three hairs from his beard and recommends her to\npreserve them carefully. She continues her wanderings, still dressed\nas a man, and is engaged by other hostlers of a king as assistant. The\nnews of her bravery reach the king, who takes her into his kitchen.\nThe queen sees him and falls in love with him; in vain; she accuses\nhim to the king, who puts her in prison; she is condemned to death,\nand the guillotine is prepared. While going to execution, she\nremembers the three hairs, and burns one; an army of warriors appear,\nsent by the king of Pietraverde; they terrify all the king's people,\nwhom they compel to postpone the execution till next day. The next day\nshe does the same with the same result. The third day she brings out\nthe third hair; the cavalry appear again, commanded this time by the\nking of Pietraverde in person, dressed so that he shone like a\nbrilliant, that he appeared like a sun; he releases the youth from the\nexecution; the king of Pietraverde has the young girl dressed as a\nprincess; she is tried in a court of justice; her innocence is\nestablished; the queen's head is cut off.\n\n[519] \"Suessanus tradit, quod bufonem quempiam obviam fieri\nfelicissimum augurium fuisse antiquitas existimavit.--Anno 1553, in\nvilla quadam Thuringia ad Unstrum, a muliere bufo caudatus natus est,\nquemadmodum in libro de prodigiis et ostentis habetur. Nec mirum, quia\nCoelius Aurelianus et Platearius scribunt mulieres aliquando cum foeto\nhumano bufones et alia animalia hujus generis eniti. Sed hujus\nmonstros\u00e6 conceptionis causam non assignant. Tradit quidem Platearius\nilla pr\u00e6sidia, qu\u00e6 ad provocandos menses commendantur, ducere; etiam\nbufonem fratrem Salernitanorum quemadmodum aliqui lacertum fratrem\nLongobardorum nominant. Quoniam mulieres Salernitan\u00e6 potissimum in\nprincipio conceptionis succum apii et porrorum potant, ut hoc animal\ninterimant, antequam foetus viviscat. Insuper mulier qu\u00e6dam ex\nGesnero, recens nupta cum omnium opinione pr\u00e6gnans diceretur, quatuor\nanimalia bufonibus similia peperit et optime valuit.\"--Aldrovandi also\nreads: \"apud Heisterbacensem in historia miraculorum,\" that some monks\nfound a living toad inside a hen in place of intestines. In the same\nauthor, a priest finds an immense toad at the bottom of a jar of wine;\nwhilst he is wondering how such a large toad should have been able to\nenter by such a small orifice, the toad disappears.\n\n[520] Cfr. Targioni Tozzetti, _Lezioni di Materia Medica_, Florence,\n1821.\n\n[521] Some extraordinary lizards of which Aldrovandi speaks are of a\nhalf sacred and half monstrous nature: \"Pr\u00e6ter illud memorabile, quod\nMizaldus recitat accidisse anno Domini 1551, mense Julii in Hungaria\nprope pagum Zichsum juxta Theisum fluvium nimirum in multorum hominum\nalvo lacertas naturalibus similes ortas fuisse. Interdum contingit, ut\nanimadvertit Schenchius, lacertam viridem in c\u00e6ti magnitudinem\nexcrescere, qualis aliquando Luteti\u00e6 visa est. S\u00e6pe etiam lacert\u00e6\nduobus et tribus caudis refert\u00e6 nascuntur, quas vulgus ludentibus\nfavorabiles esse nugatur.\"\n\n[522] In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, i. 981-1003, it is said that the serpents\namphisbh\u00e6n\u00e6 (dundubh\u00e2s, dundavas, n\u00e2gabhritas, the same, I think, as\nthe mannuni of Malabar,) being good, must not be killed; an\namphisbh\u00e6na relates that it had once been the wise Sahasrap\u00e2d\n(properly of the hundred feet; the amphisbh\u00e6na appears to be a lizard\nwithout feet, and with a tail the same size as its head, for which\nreason the belief arose that it had two heads; it seems to be another\npersonification of the circular year, like the serpent), and that it\nbecame a serpent by a curse, because it had once frightened a Br\u00e2hman\nwith a fictitious serpent made of grass; at the sight of the wise\nKurus, the amphisbh\u00e6na is released from its malediction.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE SERPENT AND THE AQUATIC MONSTER.\n\n\nSUMMARY.\n\n    The feet and the tail; the serpent is the favourite form of the\n    demon; the devil is betrayed by his tail.--The serpent and the\n    waters; the dragon as the keeper back of the waters, and as the\n    guardian of the treasures; the devil evoked from the waters.--The\n    otter.--The chief enterprise of Indras is the killing of the\n    serpent.--The names of the Vedic serpent; _arbuda_ and\n    _reptilis_.--Description of the Vedic serpent.--The wives of the\n    demons and the wives of the gods; Indras wounds the wife of the\n    demon in the _yonis_, and the demon himself in the eggs; the\n    serpent's death consists in the broken egg; broken eggs, skins,\n    vases, boxes, and testicles.--The god as a serpent; the\n    python.--Gods and demons, birds and serpents dispute the possession\n    of the ambrosia.--The phallical Anantas of cosmogony; the two\n    _phalloi_.--N\u00e2galat\u00e2; the game of the serpents, n\u00e2gas, n\u00e2gapadas,\n    n\u00e2gapa\u00e7as.--The caduceus.--Ka\u00e7yapas Prag\u00e2patis, father of the birds\n    and of the serpents.--Kumbhakarnas.--The hero dies as soon as he\n    touches the serpent.--The funereal rope of Yamas is a serpent; the\n    collar of H\u00eaphaistos.--The serpents carry S\u00eet\u00e2 on their heads.--The\n    city of Bhogavat\u00ee.--The hero becomes an aquatic monster in\n    consequence of a curse.--The serpent released from the fire.--The\n    wisdom of the serpent passes into the hero.--The three-headed\n    serpent.--The serpent sacred in India and in Germany.--The stone of\n    the serpent.--The serpent and the tree.--The tree and the\n    phallos.--The cypress.--The tree, the maiden, and the serpent at the\n    fountain.--The tree of the cross.--The serpent is wholly diabolical\n    in Persian tradition.--The serpent is a mythical animal, both\n    physically and morally amphibious.--The hero, the frog, and the\n    serpent.--The grateful serpent.--Dialogue between two little\n    serpents in a variety of the legend of Lear.--The serpent\n    burnt.--Serpents and worms.--The serpent as the beautiful maiden's\n    husband.--The heads of the serpent.--The serpent of the Black\n    Sea.--The serpent-fairy gives eyes back to the blind woman.--The\n    avenging serpent.--When the serpent is asleep.--The serpent in the\n    garden of the Hesperides.--The serpent-wizard.--The serpent's\n    kiss.--The serpent that whistles.--The wings of the serpent wet; the\n    Vedic myth once more.\n\nThe mythical animal with which I conclude the study of traditional\nzoology is perhaps the most popular of the whole series. The omniform\ndemon makes the god or hero who falls under his power assume the most\ndiverse zoological forms, the power of transforming into which he\nholds in possession, of which he holds the secret; but he almost\nalways reserves for himself as his most favourite and privileged form\nthat of the serpent. The devil, says the popular proverb, is known by\nhis tail; and to show that women know more than the devil, it adds\nthat they also know where the devil secretes his tail, or where he\nkeeps his poison, for his poison and power to harm are in his tail. A\ndevil without a tail would not be a real devil; it is his tail which\nbetrays him; and this tail is the serpent's tail.[523] In the\nforty-fifth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the\ndevil-serpent comes every night to visit the young widow in the form\nof her deceased husband, eats with her and sleeps with her till\nmorning; she grows thinner every night, like a candle before the fire;\nbut her mother counsels her to let a spoon drop when she is sitting at\ntable, that, in lifting it, she may scrutinise the guest's feet;\ninstead of his feet, she only sees his tail. Then the widow goes to\nthe church to be purified.[524] In the _Eddas_, too, the serpent\nLokis, who has taken the form of a horse, betrays himself by his feet.\n\nThe serpent-devil appears in special connection with the infernal\nwaters (darkness of night and of winter, and cloudy sky), which\nconceal treasures, the pearl, the solar hero or heroine with the\nwaters of youth and life. The serpent-devil draws to himself every\nbeautiful thing, now to swallow them, now to preserve and guard them\nlike a miser. The dragon became the symbol of the keeper back of the\nwaters, of the guardian of the treasures, who devours or attracts to\nhimself everything that shines. In Du Cange, the name of _dracus_ is\ngiven to \"species d\u00e6monum qui circa Rhodanum fluvium in Provincia\nvisuntur forma hominis, et in cavernis mansionem habent.\" In ancient\nLatin manuscript comments given by the same Du Cange, the devil is\ncalled by the name of _hydros_ or aquatic serpent. Hincmarus Remensis\nbelieves that the devil is evoked from the waters,[525] and according\nto St Augustine, it was from the waters and from the illusions created\nin the water by demons that Numa derived his inspirations.[526] Hence\nthe custom, so frequent in German and Slavonic countries,[527] of\nblessing the water to chase the monsters away from it; hence, also,\nthe custom which I have observed in several parts of Russia, where the\nchildren, before they bathe in the rivers, and as soon as they put\ntheir feet in the water, make profound inclinations and the sign of\nthe cross; hence, according to Du Cange, the god of the waters,\nNeptunus, in the Middle Ages, becomes under the name of _Aquatiquus_,\na personification of the devil;[528] hence, also, the otter (en\u00fcdris)\nassumes a diabolical character in the _Edda_, where the Ases take its\nskin off and fill it with the gold taken from the dwarf-pike Andvarri,\nand in the sixth story of the first book of _Afanassieff_, where it\ndestroys the beasts of the menagerie of a Tzar, and finally drags the\nthird son of the Tzar Ivan under an enormous white stone (the snowy\nwinter) in the lower world, where there are palaces of gold and silver\nand three beautiful girls, sisters of the monster otter, who sleeps in\nthe sea, and snores so that he pushes the waves to a distance of seven\nversts, until Ivan, after having drunk the water of strength, cuts the\nmonster's head off at a blow, after which it falls into the sea.\n\nBut to proceed in the order which we have hitherto generally followed,\nlet us examine before all the tradition of the aquatic monster, the\ndragon or serpent, in Hindoo mythology.\n\nThe most important of the heroic undertakings accomplished by the\nVedic god Indras is, as already remarked, that of killing the monster;\nand the enterprise of Indras against the monster is the theme of all\nthe great popular Indo-Persian, Gr\u00e6co-Latin, Turko-Slavonic,\nFranco-Germanic, and Franco-Celtic epic poems, as also of the greatest\nnumber of the popular stories which are the real epic material of the\nnew epopees. Indras, Vishnus, Ahura-Mazda, Feridun, Apollo, H\u00earakl\u00eas,\nKadmos, Jason, Odin, Sigurd, and several other gods and heroes, are\ncelebrated for the undertaking of killing the serpent. Now, in the\nVedic hymns the black monster (krishnas), the growing monster\n(r\u00e2uhin),[529] the full-grown monster (piprus), the monster coverer\n(vritras), the monster that dries up (\u00e7ushnas), the monster that keeps\nback (namucis), generally appears with the name and shape of a\nserpent, or if it has not always the form of a serpent, it is\nassimilated to it, and certainly inclines to become so from its office\nof a constrictor, its black colour, and other characteristics which it\npossesses in common with the serpent (Ahis).[530]\n\nThe monster killed by Indras, the monster with the horrid voice which\nIndras strikes upon the head with a thunderbolt, is, like the serpent,\ndeprived of feet, deprived both of hands and shoulders.[531] But the\nserpent is also often explicitly named in the _Rigvedas_ as a monster\nwhich keeps back the waters, and which is killed by Indras. The\nserpent, the first-born of the serpents, was lying in the\nmountain;[532] he was lying under his mother,[533] he was keeping the\nwaters, his wives, shut up, as a miser his treasure, or a robber the\nstolen cows;[534] a miser or rich robber[535] resembling a magician,\nhe staid enclosed in a cavern, and kept the waters in it;[536] he lay\ndown and perhaps slept;[537] he lay near the seven torrents;[538]\nIndras arouses him;[539] in another hymn, however, the serpent, making\na loud noise, provokes Indras, and comes against him.[540] When Indras\nkills the serpent with the thunderbolt, or else crushes it under his\nfoot, or burns it, he opens the torrent of the waters and causes it to\nflow out towards the sea; he makes the sun be born, and finds the\ncows;[541] he destroys the machinations of the sorcerer, generates the\nsun, the day, and the dawn, removes every enemy to a distance,[542]\nmakes the serpent's trunk fall to the earth, like a tree cut down by\naxes, or torn up by the roots,[543] and (as in Russian stories the\nhero, after having cut the monster's head off, throws his trunk into\nthe sea) over the killed monster, now fallen, the waters which make\njoyful pass;[544] the gods, who have given Indras three hundred oxen\nto eat (according to another hymn, only one hundred), and three lakes\nof ambrosia to drink, that he might be able to vanquish Ahis, are\njoyful at the victory gained by Indras over the serpent, with their\nwives and with the birds; not only this, but the women, the wives of\nthe gods, compose on this occasion a hymn to Indras.[545]\n\nWe have already seen several times in the course of this work how, by\nkilling his monstrous form, the hero or heroine enclosed in this is set\nat liberty; the waters, or rainy clouds, which are the monster wives of\nthe demons, as long as the monster keeps them in the darkness, become\nthe radiant wives of the gods when they are released; the same may be\nsaid of the aurora, kept in ward by the gloomy or watery monster of\nnight, or of the spring detained in the dreary realm of winter; as long\nas they are in the power of the black demon, they are black and\nmonstrous, and live with him in the infernal kingdom; when delivered\nfrom this kingdom, however, they become beautiful maidens, or princesses\nof dazzling splendour. When the monster fights with the god or solar\nhero of the thunderbolt, he arms his women too, and makes use of them as\npowerful helpers;[546] hence Indras also aims at them and lacerates the\nblack-wombed witches,[547] being afterwards himself condemned to become\nSahasrayonis. In popular \u00c2ryan tradition, however, it is often the\ndaughter, wife, or sister of the monster that reveals to the hero the\nway of killing the monster. In Russian stories, one of the ways oftenest\nrecommended to ensure the death of the monster, is to take the egg\ncontained in the duck which is under the tree in the midst of the sea,\nand crush it upon the monster's forehead, who immediately dies; with the\nmonster's death the two young lovers,--the daughter, wife, or sister of\nthe monster, and the young hero,--marry each other. We have just seen\nthat when Indras has killed the monster serpent, the waters pour out,\nand the sun appears. In another Vedic hymn we also find the interesting\naccompaniment of the egg, which reminds us, on the one hand, of the\nsubject of Russian popular stories, and on the other of the belief\ndescribed by us in the chapter on the Hen, to the effect that the\nthunderbolt breaks its eggs: Indras, with his strength, breaks the eggs\nof the monster that dries up the waters, and wins the luminous\nwaters;[548] crushing the eggs, or wounding the testicles of the gloomy\nmonster, he makes the sun come out of them, and thereupon the monster\ndies.[549] The symbolical representation of the solar year in the form\nof a serpent biting his tail is equivalent to the myth of the\nmonster-serpent who dies when his eggs are broken, that is, when the\nlight comes out of its tenebrous envelope.\n\nInasmuch, moreover, as from the monster serpent, the cloud and the\ndarkness, come forth flashes of lightning, thunder-bolts, sunbeams,\ntongues of fire, even serpents sometimes assume a divine nature in the\nVedic hymns. The Vedic god of fire, Agnis, the born of the waters\n(nap\u00e2tam ap\u00e2m), called Ahir-budhnyas, has already been compared to the\nGreek _p\u00fcth\u00f4n ophis_, the python. Agnis is also compared to a serpent\nwith a golden mane,[550] which reminds us of the horned monster that\ndries up, spoken of in another hymn as killed by Indras.[551] Indras\nhimself is called he who has the strength of the serpent.[552] The\nMarutas have the serpent's anger;[553] and as the Marutas are\nresplendent with golden attire and ornaments, so the monsters appear\nadorned with gold and pearls.[554] In the _\u00c2itareya Br._,[555] the\nserpent Arbudas has even become a rishis, a wise poet, as the python\nbecomes the oracle of wisdom in Greece; and the serpents oppose a Vedas\nof their own (the Sarpavedas) to the Ved\u00e2s of the gods. In the same\n_\u00c2itareya Br._,[556] we have the description of a struggle between the\ngods and a venomous serpent, whose greedy eye gazes at the somas, of\nwhich he desires to be possessed. The gods bandage his eyes; the serpent\nsings a verse in praise of the somas; the gods, as an antidote, sing\nseveral verses, and counteract the effect of the serpent's verse. And\nthe witch (\u00e2sur\u00ee) of the long tongue (D\u00eerghagihv\u00ee) is no doubt a\nserpent, who in the _\u00c2itareya Br._,[557] again, licks the morning\nlibation of the gods, and makes it inebriating. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ it is\nrecorded that the long-tongued witch (D\u00eerghagihv\u00e2), the devourer, is\nkilled by Indras. The struggle between the gods and the serpents for the\npossession of the ambrosia is the subject of a long episode of the first\nbook of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_.[558] The serpent loves dampness, water,\nambrosia, and rain. When Bh\u00eemas, the son of the wind, is thrown into the\nwaters of the Ganges, he falls into the kingdom of the serpents, who\ngive him the water of strength to drink.[559] In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, the\nmother of the serpents, who have been burned by the sun, invokes the\nrain to bring them to life again; Indras, to please her, veils the sky\nwith clouds.[560] In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, instead of the serpents, the\nmonkeys are resuscitated by means of the rain. The rains of spring also\nwaken the earth, which is in the _\u00c2itareya Br._[561] called by the name\nof Sarparagn\u00ee, and was at first, like the serpents, bald, that is,\ndevoid of vegetation; invoking the heavenly cow, it became covered with\ntrees. In the Hindoo cosmogony, which we described in the chapter on the\nTortoise, a very interesting account is given of the way the great stick\nor phallos, the generator of the world, is made to turn round. The\nserpent Anantas (the infinite) or Vasukis,[562] who makes the mountain\nrevolve, is twined round it; the mountain and the serpent are\nsynonymous;[563] they are two phalloi, which rub each other, and produce\nthe seed (n\u00e2galat\u00e2 or climbing serpent, serpent-creeper, is one of the\nHindoo names of the phallos; in Piedmont it is said of a man in the\nvenereal act, that he \"climbs upon the woman;\" and in Sanskrit n\u00e2gas,\nn\u00e2gapadas, n\u00e2gapa\u00e7as, n\u00e2gap\u00e2\u00e7akas, denotes union in the manner of\nserpents, who apply their bodies to each other in their entire\nlength,[564] in the same way as fire is produced by the friction of two\npieces of wood--the aran\u00ee. Anantas, or V\u00e2sukis, and Mandaras, or\nKa\u00e7apas, and hence Ka\u00e7yapas, are identified with one another;) and this\nis all the more probable as Ka\u00e7yapas is also called by the name of\nVasukas, and as Ka\u00e7yapas himself, in another cosmogonic legend of the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, appears as having made fruitful two wives, Kadr\u00fb,\nproperly the dark one, and Vinat\u00e2,[565] properly the concave, the curved\nor swollen one (two appellatives by which the _yonis_ appears to be\nequally represented), from one of which is produced the egg from which\nserpents are hatched, and especially the n\u00e2g\u00e2s serpents, with human\nfaces, like the devils, and from the other, that which generates Arunas\nand Garudas (a form of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u). Whilst, in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, the\nserpent Vasukis rubs itself against the Mandaras and makes it turn\nround, it keeps blowing wind, smoke, and flames out of its mouth, which\nform clouds, with the water of which the creator gods are afterwards\nrefreshed. Although this last particular shows the serpents intent upon\nthe welfare of the gods, they hold in Hindoo tradition the same place as\nAnhromainyu, or Ahrimanes, in Persian; whilst one phallos gives birth to\nluminous phenomena and good beings, the other produces gloomy phenomena\nand wicked beings.\n\nAmong the productions of the phallical and serpentine genie of darkness\nare the clouds. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[566] the monster Kumbhakarnas sleeps\nfor sixth months; no number of drums, trumpets, nor any noise is able to\nawaken him; he is struck with hammers, but feels nothing; elephants pass\nover him, but he does not move: at last the tinkling of the golden\nornaments of beautiful women suffice to rouse him. He rises; his arms\nresemble two great serpents, and his mouth the mouth of hell. He yawns,\nand that yawn alone sends forth a wind which resembles a rushing wind\nthat shall usher in the end of the world. The aspect of Kumbhakarnas\nwhen he rises is like that of an immense cloud swelled out with rain\ntowards the end of summer; he is horned like a mountain, and bellows\nlike a thunder-cloud. No sooner is he born, than, inasmuch as by the\ncurse of Brahman he can waken but one day in the year (that is in the\nautumn), he asks for food, and devours buffaloes, wild boars, men and\nwomen; he once swallowed even the ten nymphs, or Apsarasas (the clouds\nthat blow over the waters), of the god Indras; he finds that the world\nis not provided with animals enough to satiate his hunger. When\nKumbhakarnas moves to battle against the monkeys of R\u00e2mas, he draws his\nenemies to himself to devour them, he draws and receives the shock of\nwhole mountains, but is not shaken. R\u00e2mas cuts one of his arms off, and\nthe arm cut off (or the serpent, or the cloud cut off, like the stick of\nfairy tales which beats of itself) continues to massacre the monkeys.\nR\u00e2mas cuts Kumbhakarnas's other arm off, which supports with its hand\nthe whole trunk of a robust shorea; but arm and trunk continue to\nslaughter the enemies on their own account.[567] At last R\u00e2mas shoots\nhim in the mouth and heart; the monster falls, and crushes as he falls\ntwo thousand monkeys under his immense body. Here, therefore, we again\nsee the monster and the serpent in relation with the clouds and waters.\nTo touch the serpent, that is, the rainy season or the night, is for the\nsolar hero or heroine the same as to die. In the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_[568] the\ngirl Pramadvar\u00e2 falls dead to the ground, having inadvertently pressed a\nserpent with her foot on the way; Rurus brings her to life again by\nrenouncing half of his own life. In this legend the year or the day\npersonifies life; summer sacrifices itself to winter, winter to summer,\nday to night, night to day, the sun to the moon, and the moon to the\nsun. In the beautiful legend of Savitr\u00ee, the wife sacrifices herself and\noffers herself to Yamas, the god of the dead, in order to be faithful to\nher husband. In the same _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[569] the King Par\u00eekshit falls\ninto the power of Takshakas, the king of the serpents, a form of Yamas\nthe god of the dead (also called Anantas), because he had thrown a dead\nserpent on the shoulders of a Br\u00e2hman. In the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[570] it is\nsaid that a man who has, when asleep, fallen into the hands of the god\nof the dead, Yamas, is bitten by a venomous serpent. The very rope with\nwhich Yamas the god of the dead binds men is a serpent. To the\nrope-serpent of Yamas we must refer the fatal collar with seven serpents\nand seven pearls (a symbol of the year, half luminous, half gloomy)\nwhich Hephaistos gave to Harmonia and Kadmos on the occasion of their\nwedding. Kadmos and Harmonia become serpents, and are taken into heaven\nby the gods. The daughters of Kadmos all come to an unhappy end. The\ncollar is afterwards possessed by Er\u00fcphil\u00ea, for which reason evils\nbefalls Amphiaraos, and subsequently also Alkme\u00f4n. When S\u00eet\u00e2,[571] in\norder to escape from the unjust suspicions of her husband and the\nperverse evil-speakings of the vulgar, wishes to disappear from the\nsight of men and to descend under ground, the serpents (pannag\u00e2s, who go\nnot with feet) carry her upon their heads (as in Christian tradition the\nVirgin crushes the head of the serpent-seducer), and from the depths of\nthe earth a voice is heard saying: \"Difficult to be acquired is the\nsight of this woman, who resides in the three worlds; staying down here,\nshe is honoured by the serpents (p\u00fbgyate n\u00e2g\u00e2ih), and, in the world of\nthe mortals, by mankind; nectar of the higher blessed ones, she is the\nsatiator of the immortals.\" The kingdom of the n\u00e2g\u00e2s, or the city of\nBhogavat\u00ee (an equivocal word, which means both furnished with serpents\nand furnished with riches), is full of treasures, like the hell of\nWestern tradition. This infernal world went definitively under ground\nwhen the gods, having fallen, took humbler forms upon the earth and upon\nthe waters of the earth; the lower world became the kingdom of the\nserpents and of the devils of the Vedic cloudy and gloomy heavens\n(devils and serpents, which Jewish tradition therefore represents with\ngreat justice as fallen angels). The riches of heaven, concealed by the\ncloudy or gloomy monster of night or winter, passed into the earth; the\nobservation of heavenly phenomena helped this conception. The true\nmythical treasures are the sun and the moon in their splendour; when\nthey go down they seem to hide themselves underground; the solar hero\ngoes underground, he goes to hell, after having lost all his treasures\nand all his riches; he undertakes in poverty his infernal journey; when\nthe sun rises from the mountain, it seems to come out from underground;\nthe solar hero returns from his journey through hell, he returns\nresplendent and wealthy; the infernal demon gives back to him part of\nthe treasures which he possesses, having carried them off from him, or\nelse the young hero recovers them by his valour. But this hell was once\nthe watery, wintry, nocturnal heaven itself, from which now the sun, now\nthe moon emerges; the hero or the god was obscured or eclipsed, and\nassumed a gloomy form in the sky itself, and, as we have already\nsaid,[572] he who destroys, lacerates, or kills this form, does a\nservice to the poor and cursed wandering Jew who wears it. We are\nreminded of the aquatic monster, in the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_,[573] by the\ngandharvas[574] Tumburus, who assumed, under a curse, the form of the\nmonster Vir\u00e2dhas who carries S\u00eet\u00e2 off from R\u00e2mas, with the sole design\nthat R\u00e2mas may kill him and deliver him from the malediction, so that he\nmay be able to reascend in happiness to heaven. In a similar manner,\nHanumant delivers from her curse the ogress of the lake, the seizer\n(gr\u00e2h\u00ee) and devourer, who was once a nymph.[575] The body of the old\nrishis \u00c7arabha\u00f1gas also gives us the idea of a serpent's body.\n\u00c7arabha\u00f1gas desires to deliver himself from it, as a serpent casts off\nits old skin. He then enters the fire; the fire burns him; \u00c7arabha\u00f1gas,\narising from the conflagration, comes forth young, splendid, and as\nbrilliant as fire.[576] In the celebrated episode of Nalas in the\n_Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_,[577] the serpent Karkotakas, surrounded by the flames,\nasks Nalas, on the other hand, to deliver him from the flames; the\nserpent makes himself small in order that Nalas may be able to carry him\naway; Nalas does so, and the serpent bites him; he then loses his\nshape, which passes into that of the serpent. In this new diabolical\nform Nalas becomes invulnerable and invisible. The diverse action taken\nby fire in legends can be comprehended by reference to the solar hero,\nnow in the morning, now in the evening, now in spring, now in autumn: in\nthe morning and in the spring the serpent of night enters the flames and\nbecomes a handsome youth again; in the evening and in the autumn the\nserpent comes out of the flames of the evening aurora, or of the summer,\nand becomes the moon, after having made the sun disappear, or rendered\nit invisible or invulnerable. In the forty-seventh story of the sixth\nbook _Afanassieff_, a hunter (the hunting solar hero) is about to heat\nthe stove; a serpent is lying in it, and promises, if he will draw it\nout of the fire, to render him happy, and teach him the language of all\nanimals. He tells the hunter to put the end of his stick into the fire,\nby which means it will be enabled to make its escape; the hunter\ncomplies, but is warned that he will die himself should he reveal that\nsecret to any one.\n\nThe serpent, therefore, is not only monstrous and maleficent in Hindoo\ntradition, but also at once the learned one, and he who imparts\nlearning; it sacrifices itself to let the hero carry away the water of\nlife, the water of strength, the health-giving herb or the treasure;\nit not only often spares, but it favours the predestined hero; it\ndestroys individuals, but preserves the species; it devours nations,\nbut preserves the regenerative kings; it poisons plants, and throws\nmen into deep sleep, but it gives new strength in its occult domain to\nthe sun, who gives new life to the world every morning and every\nspring. In the Vedic heavens the serpent is a magician expert in every\nkind of magic; in the kingdom of the serpents the young lost hero\nrecovers his splendour, wisdom, and victorious power. Hence the\nworship in India of the serpent, who is revered as a symbol of every\nspecies of learning. We have, on a previous occasion, found the horned\nor crested serpent who personifies, in the _Rigvedas_, fire or the god\nAgnis, and by this we must understand the crest or mane of the sun,\nwhich comes out of the darkness; thus the god Haris or Vishnus lies\nupon a crested serpent or a many-headed serpent. Three-headed serpents\nor dragons, such as are famous in fairy tales, occur in the\n_Harivan\u00e7as_,[578] and correspond to the Vedic monster Tri\u00e7iras, that\nis, three-headed. The crest of the serpent is the god Vishnus himself,\nas a solar deity who comes out of the serpent's body. Hence the\nhooded-serpent, called Nalla P\u00e2mba in the Malabar,[579] is especially\nrevered in India. \"The sudden appearance of one of these serpents,\"\nwrote Lazzaro Papi from India, \"is considered to presage some future\ngood or evil. It is the divinity himself in this form, or at least his\nmessenger, and the bringer of rewards or chastisement. Although it is\nexceedingly venomous, it is neither killed, molested, nor crushed in\nthe house which it enters, but respected, and even caressed and adored\nby the more superstitious. They give it milk to drink, and the\naccommodation to which it is accustomed; they construct little huts\nfor it, and prepare receptacles and nests for it under large trees.\nThis reminds me of the ancient inhabitants of Prussia, who nourished\nseveral serpents with milk in honour of Patriumpho or Patrimpos, their\ndeity. The family in which one of these serpents takes up its abode\nesteems itself fortunate and secure from poverty and other\nmisfortunes; and if some one, as it not seldom happens, is bitten by\nthem and dies, the victim of his own credulity, it is, they say, a\npunishment of God that has overtaken him for some crime.\" It is nearly\nthe same belief as that which we found in the preceding chapter\nconcerning the toad and the amphisbh\u00e6na. In Hungary, as Count Geza\nKunn informs me, some fairies are said to be born with a serpent's\nskin, and to resume their form after this serpent's skin has been\nshed. It is said that a precious stone can be found under a serpent's\ntongue. When the serpents warm themselves in the sun of spring, they\nblow out the stone (or the sun itself), and subsequently conceal it\nunder the tongue of a still larger serpent, the king of the serpents.\n\nThe serpent is supposed to protect and preserve the lost riches, and to\nguard the soul of the dead hero; hence serpents, like crows amongst\nbirds, are revered in India as embodied souls of the dead. In\nGermany,[580] the white serpent (that is, the snowy winter), according\nto the popular legend, gives to whoever eats of it (or who is licked by\nit in the ears) the gift of understanding the language of birds, and of\nuniversal knowledge (it is in the night of Christmas, that is, in the\nmidst of the snow, that those who are predestined to see marvels can\ncomprehend, in the stables, the language of the cattle, and, in the\nwoods, the language of the birds; according to the legend, Charles le\nGros, in the night of Christmas, saw heaven and hell open, and was able\nto recognise his forefathers). Thus in Greece, Melampos, Cassandra, and\nTiresias became seers by their contact with the serpent, symbolised at\na later period in the python and the pythoness, as the depositaries of\nall the oracles of wisdom. In Scandinavian mythology, Odin also assumes\nthe form of a serpent (ormr), and the name of Ofnir, in the same way as\nZeus becomes a serpent in Greek mythology when he wishes to create\nZagreus, the bull-headed, another Zeus or another Dion\u00fcsos. In Rochholtz\nand Simrock, we find indications of the same worship as that given to\nthe serpent in India, where it is regarded as a good domestic genie.\nMilk is given to certain domestic little snakes to drink; they are put\nto watch over little children in their cradles, with whom they divide\ntheir food; they bring good luck to the children near which they stay;\nit is therefore considered a fatal sacrilege to kill them. It is fabled,\nmoreover, that a serpent is sometimes born with a child entwined round\nits neck, and that it and the child are thenceforth inseparable (an\nimage of the year and of the day, half luminous and half tenebrous,\ninseparable the one from the other). It guards the cattle in the\nstables, and procures for good and beautiful maidens husbands worthy of\nthem. According to a popular legend, two serpents are found in every\nhouse (a male and a female), which only appear when they announce the\ndeath of the master and mistress of the house; when these die, the\nsnakes also cease to live. To kill one of these serpents is to kill the\nhead of the family. Under this aspect, as a protector of children, as a\ngiver of husbands to girls, and identified with the head or progenitor\nof the family, the serpent is again a phallical form. From the gloomy\nserpent of night, the tenebrous serpent of winter, even the nocturnal\nand wintry heavens illumined by the moon, and from the white moon,\nemerges the diurnal sun, the sun of spring, the day and the warm and\nluminous season. The ogre, dragon, or serpent keeps back the waters in\nthe cloud and the waters in the rivers, occupies the fountains, lies at\nthe roots of the tree which yields honey, of the ambrosial tree, of the\ntree in the midst of the lake of milk; the tree and the phallos are\nagain identified. The Phrygian Attis, loved by Cybele, is deprived of\nhis phallos, and expires; Cybele transforms him into a pine tree (which\nis cone-bearing and evergreen, which resists, like the moon, even the\nrigours of winter), in which the funereal and regeneratory phallos is\npersonified; the cypress (cone-bearing and evergreen), which the three\nbrothers of the fairy tales must watch during the night, and which only\nthe youngest brother succeeds in delivering from the dragon or serpent\nwhich carries it away, is also represented in Persian tradition as in\nthe middle of a lake of ambrosia. The serpent steals this tree, as in\nthe Hindoo myth it steals the ambrosia from the gods; it knows well that\nin it consists the regeneratory strength of the hero, whom the serpent\nhas bitten; sometimes it steals the tree from him, and sometimes guards\nover it. Out of the golden apple, or out of the orange of the tree\nguarded by the dragon, in popular tales, the beautiful maiden comes; the\ndragon keeps her back a second time on the way, making her mount upon a\ntree, or throwing her into the fountain, near which the beautiful maiden\nbecomes a dark fish or a dark bird (a swallow or a dove), in order to\ncome out again from the fish or the bird in the form of a beautiful\ngirl. The love of the young princess for the young hero, in Russian\nstories, comes out of the duck's egg taken under the tree, and the death\nof the serpent-dragon is caused by it. Here the gloomy monster of the\nnight and winter, the monster serpent, appears, in guardianship of the\nmoon, the protectress of marriages, as an ambrosial and evergreen tree,\nand, like the cypress, a funereal tree, which is at the same time\nsymbolical of immortality. From the moon of winter and of night, the\nsolar hero of spring and the day, the maiden spring and the maiden\naurora come forth. The serpent, like the toad, the frog, the fish, and\nthe bird, now desires the moon of winter and of night for itself, and\nnow presents it to the young hero, whom it protects. The moon appears\nwhen the diurnal sun goes down in the west; hence the garden of the\nHesperides, as the word denotes, was supposed to be situated in the\nwest; the moon rules the northern heavenly region, the cold season of\nthe year; for this reason Apollodorus placed this same garden of the\nHesperides in the north, amongst the Hyperboreans, where the tree of\noblivion also grew according to \u00c6lianos. In India, the ambrosial tree,\nthe tree of immortality, the tree of Brahman's paradise, like the moon\nand \u00c7ivas (the god of paradise and of hell, the phallical and destroying\ngod), was also placed in the north, on Mount Merus, the phallical and\nprimeval mountain, near the sea of oblivion, guarded by a dragon; but\nbecause the dragon or serpent represents evil oftener than good, because\n\u00c7ivas, the moon, and the cypress, have a double aspect, phallical and\nfunereal, paradisiacal and infernal, because Ka\u00e7yapas, the great\nprimitive phallos, created opposite things in the form of a bird and in\nthat of a serpent, two trees are also represented upon Mount Merus, one\nof good and one of evil, one of life and one of death, which reminds us\nof the Jewish and Mahometan traditions. The legends concerning the tree\nof the golden apples or figs, which yields honey or ambrosia, guarded by\ndragons, in which the life, the fortune, the glory, the strength, and\nthe riches of the hero have their beginning, are numerous among every\npeople of \u00c2ryan origin; in India and in Persia, in Russia and in\nPoland, in Sweden and in Germany, in Greece and in Italy, popular\nmyths, poems, songs, and fairy tales amplify with a great variety of\nincidents, partly unconscious of their primitive signification, this\nstrange subject of phallical cosmogony.[581]\n\nThe Persian cosmogony is of a less material character than the\nHindoo, but its principle is the same. Ahuramazda and Anhromainyu, who\noccupy the first place as the creators of the world, are also two\nmales in opposition to one another. From Ahuramazda descends Thr\u00e6taona\nor Feridun, the killer of the serpent (azhi) Dah\u00e2ka, or Dahak, or\nZohak, the three-headed dragon which Anhromainyu created to destroy\nthe beautiful in the world, as the strongest of monsters.[582] In\nHindoo tradition we find the bird Garudas on the side of the gods, and\nthe N\u00e2gas or serpent on that of the demons; so, in Persian tradition,\nthe bird Simurg is on the side of the gods, and the serpent or\nsea-monster on that of the demons. It is in the midst of the waters\nthat the hero Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa finds the great serpent \u00c7ruvara, who devours\nmen and horses, and who ejects a venom as large as a man's thumb.\nTaking him probably for an island,[583] he has food cooked upon it;\nthe serpent feels the heat, and begins to move; it then throws\nKere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa, the courageous Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa, over backwards. There seems to be\nsome analogy between this myth of the Ya\u00e7na of the _Avesta_ and the\nstory of the fearless hero of the Russian story, who, being asleep in\na boat, falls into the river when terrified by the little fish which\nhad jumped upon him. (The serpent appears also as the enemy of fire in\nthe _Khorda-Avesta_.)[584] The serpent causes the diseases which\nThr\u00e6taona is requested to cure; it poisons whatever it sees and\ntouches; and, according to the _Khorda-Avesta_,[585] the wicked are\ncondemned to feed upon poison after death. In the _Shah-Name_ the sun\ndisappears, devoured by a sea-monster or crocodile. In the third\nadventure of Isfendiar, the hero is almost inebriated by the venomous\nsmoke and the pestilential breath of the dragon which he has\nvictoriously combated; and, after having won, he falls to the ground\nas if dead; thus Indras, after having defeated the monstrous serpent,\nflees in terror over the rivers, like a madman attacked by\nhydrophobia, terrified by the shadow, the smoke, or the water of the\ndead serpent, because this shadow, which is perhaps his own, and not\nhis enemy's, menaces to submerge him in those poisoned waves, and to\ntransform him into a sea-monster, assimilating him thus to his enemy;\ninasmuch as the god sends to make man like himself, so also does the\ndemon. In Persia, therefore, the serpent is generally considered as a\ndemoniacal and monstrous animal, the personification of evil. If it is\nprayed to, it is to conjure it away, to induce it to go far distant,\nas the Arabs and the Tatars particularly do to expel the devil. The\nPersian genius has not the mobility, the plasticity, and elasticity\nof the Hindoo; its mythical images are more severe and less multiform;\nhence the serpent remained in Persian tradition the demoniacal animal\n_par excellence_. In the _Tuti-Name_, on the contrary, which is of\nHindoo origin, the serpent has a double aspect. The serpent wishes to\neat the frog. (In the fifteenth story of the third book of the\n_Pancatantram_, the frogs ride upon the serpent, and leap upon it in\ndelight, like Ph\u00e6drus's frogs upon King Log, which was sent to them in\nderision by Jove; the serpent and the rod are assimilated.) The hero\nsaves the frog, upon which the serpent reproves him, because he thus\ntakes its food from it; the hero then cuts off some of his own flesh\nto give it to the serpent;[586] the serpent protects the hero ever\nafterwards, and cures with an ointment the king's daughter, who had\nbeen bitten by another serpent; the king gives his daughter, on her\nrecovery, to the hero who had satisfied the serpent's hunger. In the\ntenth story of the third book of the _Pancatantram_, two little\nserpents, who talk to each other, both work their own ruin and make\nthe fortune of the hero and of the heroine. A king's son has a serpent\nin his body without knowing it, and becomes ill; he abandons in\ndespair his father's palace, and goes begging; he is given, in\ncontempt, the second daughter of another king to wife, who had never\nsaid amiable things to her father, like her eldest sister (a variation\nof the legend of Cordelia and Lear); whilst one day the young prince\nhas fallen asleep with his head upon an ant-hill, the little serpent\nwhich is in his body puts out its head to breathe a little fresh air,\nand sees another serpent coming out of the ant-hill;[587] the two\nlittle serpents begin to dispute and call each other names; one\naccuses the other of tormenting the young prince by inhabiting his\nbody, and the accused responds by charging it with hiding two jars\nfull of gold under the ant-hill.[588] Continuing their quarrel, one\nsays how easy it would be to kill the other; a little mustard would\nsuffice to settle the first, and a little hot oil the second (the\nserpent is killed by being burned; the rich uhlan-serpent of the\nRussian story is burned in the trunk of an oak-tree, in which it had\ntaken refuge out of fear for the fire and the lightning); the hidden\nwife listens to everything, delivers her husband from the little\nserpent in his body, and kills the other serpent to take out the\ntreasure which it keeps hidden.[589] In the fourteenth of the stories\nof Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, the third of the young daughters, in\norder to save her father from certain death, consents to marry the\nserpent, who carries her upon his tail to his palace, where he becomes\na handsome man called Sor Fiorante, of the red and white stockings.\nBut she must reveal the secret to no one. The maiden (as in the fable\nof Cupid and Psyche) does not resist the temptation of speaking of it\nto her sisters, on which her husband disappears; she finds him again\nafter having filled seven flasks with her tears; breaking first a\nwalnut, then a hazel-nut, and finally an almond, of which each\ncontains a magnificent robe, she recovers her husband, and is\nrecognised by him.[590] In a variety of the same story in my little\ncollection, a good serpent fairy advises the blind princess, and gives\nher the hazel-nut, the almond, and the walnut; each of the three gifts\ncontains a marvel; by means of the first marvel the young princess\nregains one eye from the false wife; by means of the second marvel,\nthe other eye, which the serpent puts in its place;[591] and by means\nof the third, which is a golden hen with forty-four golden chickens\n(perhaps forty-four stands for forty times four, or a hundred and\nsixty, which might represent the luminous and warm days of the year,\nfrom the first of April to the end of August), she finds her lost\nhusband again. In an unpublished Sicilian story communicated to me by\nDr Ferraro, a serpent presses the neck of King Moharta to avenge a\nbeautiful girl whom the king had forsaken, after having violated her;\nin order to release himself from the serpent, the king is compelled to\nmarry the beautiful girl whom he had betrayed. In the sixteenth of the\nTuscan stories published by me, the three sons of the king go to get\nthe water which jumps and dances, and which is guarded by a dragon who\ndevours as many as approach it; the dragon sleeps from twelve to two\no'clock, and sleeps with its eyes open, which signifies, if we\ninterpret twelve o'clock as twelve o'clock of the day, that the dragon\nis asleep when the sun watches, and if, on the contrary, as twelve\no'clock at night, that it sleeps when the moon, compared to the hare\nwhich sleeps with its eyes open, shines in the sky.[592] In an ancient\nNeapolitan vase explained by Gerhard and Panofka, we find a tree and\na fountain, a serpent (the same as that which gnaws at the roots of\nthe tree Yggdrasill in the _Eddas_), three Hesperides, and H\u00earakl\u00eas.\nOne Hesperis is giving the wounded serpent some beverage in a cup, the\nsecond is plucking an apple, the third is about to pluck one, and\nH\u00earakl\u00eas has also an apple in his hand. The myth and the story of the\nogre and the three oranges correspond perfectly to one another.[593]\nThe maiden was at first identified with the serpent, as the daughter\nof the dragon, and as a female serpent; she lays aside her disguise on\nthe approach of the young hero, and recovers all her splendour. In an\nunpublished story of the Monferrato, communicated to me by Dr Ferraro,\na beautiful girl, when plucking up a cabbage (a lunar image), sees\nunder its roots a large room, goes down into it, and finds a serpent\nthere, who promises to make her fortune if she will kiss him and sleep\nwith him; the girl consents. After three months, the serpent begins to\nassume the legs of a man, then a man's body, and finally the face of a\nhandsome youth, the son of a king, and marries his young deliverer. In\npopular tradition, we also have the contrary form of the same myth,\nthat is, the beautiful maiden who becomes a serpent again. In a German\nlegend,[594] the young hero hopes to deliver the beautiful maiden by\nthree kisses:[595] the first time he kisses her as a beautiful girl;\nthe second time as a monster, half woman half serpent; the third time\nhe refuses to kiss her, because she has become entirely a serpent.\n\nWhen the day or the summer dies, the mythical serpent shows himself\n(in absolute contradiction to what we are taught by Natural History,\none would almost say that when the serpent ceases to creep along the\nground and to devour the animals of the earth, it goes to creep and to\ndevour the animals of the sky); then the north winds begin to\nwhistle,--and the serpent, particularly the mythical serpent, is a\nfamous whistler. Isidorus[596] even identifies the basilisk and the\nserpent, called a _regulus_ with the whistle itself: \"Sibilus idem est\nqui et Regulus: sibilo enim occidit antequam mordeat vel exurat.\" In\nthe twenty-fifth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the gipsy\nand the serpent challenge one another to see who will whistle loudest.\nWhen the serpent whistles or hisses (that is, in autumn) all the trees\nlose their leaves. The gipsy defeats the serpent by a cheat; he makes\nit believe that it will be unable to resist the effects of his whistle\nif it does not cover its head, and then beats it without pity, so that\nthe serpent is convinced of the gipsy's superiority, and says that it\nreveres him as its elder brother.[597] I cited in the first chapter of\nthe first book the Russian story of Alexin the son of the priest, or\nthe divine Alexin, who fights against Tugarin, the son of the serpent,\nor the demon-serpent, and begs the Virgin to bathe the monster's wings\nwith the rain of the black cloud: the monster's wings being heavy with\nwater, force it to fall to the ground. Here we return again to the\nsimple yet grandiose Vedic myth, the most remote of all, from which we\nstarted; we return to lyrical poetry, inspired, spontaneous,\ningenuous, full of agreeable or fearful surprises, of na\u00efve\nenthusiasms, of creative impulses, the unconscious originator of a new\ncivilisation and a new faith, as yet undefiled with phallical\ncosmogonies, as yet unruptured and unimpoverished by the sterile\ndreams of eunuch-like metaphysics.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[523] St Augustine, _Hom._ 36, says of the devil: \"Leo et draco est;\nLeo propter impetum, Draco propter insidias;\" in Albania, the devil is\ncalled _dreikj_, and in Romania, _dracu_.\n\n[524] A proverb of the _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ says, that \"only a female serpent\ncan distinguish the feet of a male serpent\" (v. 38): Ahireva hyaheh\np\u00e2d\u00e2u vig\u00e2niy\u00e2nna sam\u00e7ayah). The feet of the serpent, like those of\nthe devil, which is the tail (or the phallos of the male) can be\nperceived by a female alone; women know where the devil has his tail.\n\n[525] Tom. i., \"Sunt qui in aqu\u00e6 inspectione umbras d\u00e6monum evocant,\net imagiones vel ludificationes ibi videre et ab iis aliqua audire se\nperhibent.\"\n\n[526] In the seventh book _De Civitate Dei_, the saint writes: \"Ipse\nNumas ad quem nullus Dei propheta, nullus Sanctus Angelus mittebatur,\nHydromantiam facere compulsus est, ut in aqua videret imagines deorum\nvel potius ludificationes d\u00e6monum, a quibus audiret, quid in sacris\nconstituere atque observare deberet quod genus divinationis idem Varro\na Persis dicit allatum.\"\n\n[527] It also exists in Roumania, where the new solar year is\ncelebrated by the benediction of the waters, as if to exorcise the\ndemons that inhabit them.\n\n[528] _Codex Reg._, 5600 ann. circ. 800, fol. 101, in Du Cange: \"Sunt\naliqui rustici homines, qui credunt aliquas mulieres, quod vulgum\ndicitur strias, esse debeant, et ad infantes vel pecora nocere\npossint, vel dusiolus, vel Aquatiquus, vel geniscus esse debeat.\"\nNeptunus, vel aliquis genius, quia quis pr\u00e6est designari videtur.\n\n[529] The monsters which mount into heaven by magical deceits, killed\nby Indras, are said to creep like serpents: M\u00e2y\u00e2bhir utsisripsata\nindra dy\u00e2m; _Rigv._ viii. 14, 14.\n\n[530] The name of _Arbudas_, given to the monster which Indras, the\nram (meshas), crushes (for _ni-kram_ seems to me to have this meaning)\nunder his foot while it is lying, is nothing else than a serpent;\nmoreover, he, whose people is the _sarp\u00e2s_ or serpents, is the king of\nthe serpents. To _arbud-as_ I would refer the Latin words _rep-ere_,\n_rept-are_, _reptil-is_.\n\n[531] Ap\u00e2d ahasto apritanyad indram \u00e2sya vagram adhi s\u00e2n\u00e2u gaghana;\n_Rigv._ i. 32, 7.--Yo vyansam gahrish\u00e2nena manyun\u00e2 yah \u00e7ambaram yo\nahan piprum avratam; i. 101, 2.--Ap\u00e2dam atram mahat\u00e2 vadhena ni\nduryona \u00e2vrina\u00f1 mridhrav\u00e2cam; v. 32, 8.\n\n[532] Ahann ahim parvate \u00e7i\u00e7riy\u00e2nam; i. 32, 2.--Ahann enam prathamag\u00e2m\nah\u00een\u00e2m; i. 32, 3.\n\n[533] N\u00eec\u00e2vay\u00e2 abhavad vritraputrendro asy\u00e2 ava vadhar gabh\u00e2ra--uttar\u00e2\ns\u00fbr adharah putra \u00e2s\u00eed d\u00e2nuh \u00e7aye sahavats\u00e2 na dhenuh; i. 32, 9.\nProperly speaking, the verse speaks here of Vritras, and not of Ahis;\nbut the coverer and the constrictor being equivalent, it seems to me\nthat there are not here two beings distinguished, in the same hymn, by\ntwo analogous appellations.\n\n[534] D\u00e2sapatn\u00eer ahigop\u00e2 atishthan niruddh\u00e2 \u00e2pah panineva g\u00e2vah; i.\n32, 11.--The reader will remember the discussion concerning the\nproverb of shutting the stable after the oxen are stolen, in the first\nchapter of the first book.\n\n[535] Av\u00e2daho diva \u00e2 dasyum ucc\u00e2; i. 33, 7.\n\n[536] Guh\u00e2hitam guhyam g\u00fblham apsu ap\u00eevritam m\u00e2yinam kshiyantam uto\napo dy\u00e2m tastabhv\u00e2nsam ahann ahim \u00e7ura v\u00eeryena; ii. 11, 5.\n\n[537] \u00c2\u00e7ay\u00e2nam ahim vagrena maghavan vi vri\u00e7cah; iv. 17, 7.\n\n[538] Sapta prati pravata \u00e2\u00e7ay\u00e2nam ahim vagrena vi r\u00een\u00e2 aparvan; iv.\n19, 3.\n\n[539] Sasantam vagren\u00e2bodhayo 'him; i. 103, 7.\n\n[540] Navantam ahim sam pinag rig\u00eeshin; vi. 17, 10.\n\n[541] Sa m\u00e2hina indro arno ap\u00e2m pr\u00e2irayad ahih\u00e2ch\u00e2 samudram aganayat\ns\u00fbryam vidad g\u00e2h; ii. 19, 3.--Srigah sindh\u00fbnr ahin\u00e2 gagras\u00e2n\u00e2n;\n_Rigv._ iv. 17, 1.--Ahann ahim anv apas tatarda pra vakshan\u00e2 abhinat\nparvat\u00e2n\u00e2m; i. 32, 2.\n\n[542] Yad indr\u00e2han prathamag\u00e2m ah\u00een\u00e2m \u00e2n m\u00e2yin\u00e2m amin\u00e2h prota m\u00e2y\u00e2h--\u00e2t\ns\u00fbryam ganayan dy\u00e2m ush\u00e2sam t\u00e2d\u00eetn\u00e2 \u00e7atrum na kil\u00e2 vivitse; i. 32, 4.\n\n[543] Ahan vritram vritrataram vyansam indro vagrena mahat\u00e2 vadhena\nskandhans\u00eeva kuli\u00e7en\u00e2 vivrikn\u00e2hih \u00e7ayata upaprik prithivy\u00e2h; i. 32,\n5.--Ud vriha rakshah saham\u00fblam indra vri\u00e7ca madhyam praty agram\n\u00e7rin\u00eehi; iii. 30, 17.\n\n[544] \u00c7ay\u00e2nam mano ruh\u00e2n\u00e2 ati yanty \u00e2pah; i. 32, 8.\n\n[545] Anu tv\u00e2 patn\u00eer hrishitam vaya\u00e7 ca vi\u00e7ve dev\u00e2so amadann anu tv\u00e2;\ni. 103, 7.--Asm\u00e2 id u gn\u00e2\u00e7 cid devapatn\u00eer indr\u00e2y\u00e2rkam ahihatya \u00fbvuh;\ni. 61, 8.\n\n[546] Striyo hi d\u00e2sa \u00e2yudh\u00e2ni cakre; _Rigv._ v. 30, 9.\n\n[547] Sa vritrahendrah krishnayon\u00eeh puramdaro d\u00e2s\u00eer \u00e2irayad vi; ii.\n20, 7.--Vritras the killer of Piprus, Indras _puram-daras_, properly,\nwho wounds the full one, who cleaves the full or the swollen one, and\nhence who wounds, the city, and Indras the lacerator of the witches\nwith the black wombs are equivalent; cfr. what was said concerning the\nthunderbolt as a phallos, in the first chapter of the first book,\nwhere the cuckoo is spoken of, and in the chapter on the Cuckoo in the\nsecond book.--In the hymn, i. 32, 9, Indras also wounds underneath the\nmother of the monster: Indro asy\u00e2 ava vadhar gabh\u00e2ra.\n\n[548] Uto nu cid ya ogas\u00e2 \u00e7ushnasy\u00e2nd\u00e2ni bhedati geshat svarvat\u00eer\napah; _Rigv._ viii. 40, 10.--In the hymn i. 54, 10, it is said that\nthe cloud-mountain is found amongst the intestines of the coverer; one\nmight say that the serpent binds the cloud in the form of bowels. The\nreader will recollect what we observed concerning the intestines, the\nheart, and the liver, of the sacrificed victim in the first chapter of\nthe first book.\n\n[549] In the twentieth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_ we\nfind a singular variety, which is of some importance in the history of\nmythology and language. A princess asks the serpent, her husband, by\nwhat his death can be caused. The serpent answers that his death can\nbe brought about by the hero Nikita Kaszemiaka, who, in fact, comes up\nand kills the serpent by submerging him in the sea. Nikita is called,\nit is said, Kaszemiaka, because his occupation was that of tearing\nskins. The torn skins (cfr. here also the _Jupiter Aegiocus_) take\nhere the place of the duck's egg broken upon the serpent, and of the\neggs of the monster broken by Indras. In Italian, _coccio_, means a\npiece of a broken vase, and also, in botany, the skin of a seed;\n_incocciarsi_ signifies to be angry. In Piedmont, it is said of one\nwho annoys people, that he breaks the boxes, and, more vulgarly, that\nhe breaks the testicles.\n\n[550] Hiranyake\u00e7o 'hih; _Rigv._ i. 79, 1.\n\n[551] Vi \u00e7ri\u00f1ginam abhinac chushnam indrah; i. 33, 12.\n\n[552] Ahi\u00e7ushmasattv\u00e2; v. 33, 5.\n\n[553] Ahimanyavah; i. 64, 9.\n\n[554] Cakr\u00e2n\u00e2sah par\u00eenaham prithivy\u00e2 hiranyena manin\u00e2 \u00e7umbham\u00e2n\u00e2h; i.\n33, 8.\n\n[555] vi. 1, 1.\n\n[556] The passage cited before.\n\n[557] i. 3, 22.--In Russian stories, we frequently find the incident\nof a serpent, or witch, who endeavours to file, or pierce through,\nwith her tongue the iron doors which enclose the forge in which the\npursued hero has taken refuge; he, from within, helped by divine\nblacksmiths, draws the witch's tongue in with red-hot pincers and\ncauses her death; he then opens the gates of the forge, which\nrepresents now the red sky of evening, now the red sky of morning.\n\n[558] i. 792, _et seq._--Cfr. also the second Esthonian tale, where\nthe young hero, in the kingdom of the serpents, drinks milk in the cup\nof the king of the serpents himself.\n\n[559] _Mbh._ i. 5008, _et seq._\n\n[560] i. 1283-1295.\n\n[561] v. 4, 23.\n\n[562] Cfr. _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_, i. 46, and _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_, i. 1053, 1150.--In\nthe _R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam_ (vi. 26), the arrows of the monsters are said to bind\nlike serpents; the bird Garudas appears and the serpents untie\nthemselves, the fetters are loosed; R\u00e2mas and Lakshmanas, supposed to\nbe dead, rise again stronger than before.\n\n[563] As we have seen that _mandaras_ is equivalent to _mantharas_, a\nname of the tortoise which, according to the cosmogonic legend,\nsustains the weight of the mountain, or enormous stick which produces\nthe mountain, so Anantas, in another Hindoo legend (cfr. _Mbh._ i.\n1587-1588) sustains the weight of the world.--The rod of pearls which\nwhen placed in fat enables the young prince to obtain whatever he\nwishes for, seems to have the same originally phallical meaning as the\nmandaras; it is the king of the serpents who presents it to the young\nprince. The fat may, in the mythical sky, be the milk of the morning\ndawn, or the rain of the cloud, or the snee, or the dew; as soon as\nthe thunderbolt touches the fat of the clouds, or of the snee, or as\nsoon as the sunbeam touches the milk of the dawn, the sun, riches, and\nfortune come forth.\n\n[564] The _coitus_ is also called a game of serpents in the\n_Tuti-Name_. Preller and Kuhn have already proved the phallical\nsignification of the caduceus (_tripet\u00ealon_) of Herm\u00eas, represented\nnow with two wings, now with two serpents. The phallical serpent is\nthe cause of the fall of the first man.\n\n[565] _Vinat\u00e2_ is also the name of a disease of women; and, as far as\nwe can judge from the passage of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam_ (iii. 14,480),\nwhich refers to it, it is the malignant genius who destroys the foetus\nin the womb of the pregnant mother. He is defined as _\u00e7akunigr\u00e2h\u00ee_,\nproperly the seizer of the bird. Ka\u00e7yapas, the universal phallos, the\nPrag\u00e2patis, certainly unites himself to Vinat\u00e2 in the form of a\nphallos-bird, as to Kadr\u00fb in that of a phallos-serpent.\n\n[566] vi. 37-38, 46.\n\n[567] Cfr. for this subject the first and second chapters of the first\nbook.\n\n[568] i. 949, 974.\n\n[569] i. 1671, 1980, _et seq._\n\n[570] iv. 16.\n\n[571] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vii. 104, 105.\n\n[572] Cfr. concerning this subject in particular, the first chapter of\nthe first book, the chapter on the Wolf and that on the Frog.\n\n[573] iii. 8.\n\n[574] Cfr. the discussion concerning the gandharv\u00e2s in the chapter on\nthe Ass.\n\n[575] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ vi. 82.--This nymph becomes gr\u00e2h\u00ee, because she had once\nstruck a holy Br\u00e2hman with her chariot. The same reason is assigned for\nthe malediction which falls upon King Nahushas, who became an enormous\nserpent; this serpent squeezed the hero Bh\u00eemas in its mortal coils; his\nbrother, Yudhishthiras, runs up, and answers in a highly satisfactory\nmanner to the abstruse philosophical questions addressed to him by the\nserpent, which then releases Bh\u00eemas, casts off its skin, and ascends in\nthe form of Nahushas to heaven; _Mbh._ iii. 12, 356, _et seq._\n\n[576] _R\u00e2m\u00e2y._ iii. 8.\n\n[577] iii. 2609, _et seq._\n\n[578] Tri\u00e7\u00eersh\u00e2 iva n\u00e2gapot\u00e2s; 12, 744.\n\n[579] Cfr. Papi, _Lettere sulle Indie Orientali_, Lucca, 1829; it is\nthe _cobra de capello_ of the Portuguese.\n\n[580] Cfr. Simrock _Deutsche Mythologie_, pp. 478, 513, 514, and\nRochholtz _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 146.\n\n[581] Cfr. again the legend of Adam and Eve, of the tree and the\nserpent, and the original sin. In the medi\u00e6val comedy _La Sibila del\nOriente_, Adam when dying says to his son, \"Mira en cima de mi\nsepulcro, que un arbol nace.\" In Russian stories the young hero will\nbe fortunate, now because he watched at his father's tomb, now because\nhe defended the paternal cypress from the demon who wished to carry it\noff. In the legend of the wood of the cross, according to a sermon of\nHermann von Fristlar (cfr. Mussafia, _Sulla Leggenda del legno della\nCroce_), the tree upon the wood of which, made into a cross, Christ\ndied, is said to have been a cypress. The same medi\u00e6val legend\ndescribes the terrestrial paradise whence Adam was expelled, and where\nSeth repairs to obtain for Adam the oil of pity. The tree rises up to\nheaven, and its root goes down to hell, where Seth sees the soul of\nhis brother Abel. On the summit there is a child, the Son of God, the\npromised oil. The angel gives to Seth three grains which he is to put\ninto Adam's mouth; three sprouts spring up which remain an\narm's-length in height till the time of Moses, who converts them into\nmiraculous rods, and replants them before his death; David finds them\nagain, and performs miracles with them. The three sprouts become one\nplant which grows proudly into a tree. Solomon wishes to build the\ntemple with this wood; the workmen cannot make use of it; he then has\nit carried into the temple; a sybil tries to sit upon it, and her\nclothes take fire; she cries out, \"Jesus, God and my Lord,\" and\nprophesies that the Son of God will be hanged upon that wood. She is\ncondemned to death, and the wood thrown into a fish-pond, which\nacquires thaumaturgic virtue; the wood comes out and they wish to make\na bridge of it; the Queen of the East, Saba, refuses to pass over it,\nhaving a presentiment that Jesus will die upon that wood. Abia has the\nwood buried, and a fish-pond appears over it.--Now, this is what an\nauthor, unsuspected of heresy, writes concerning the symbol of the\nserpent (Martigny, _Dictionnaire des Antiquit\u00e9s Chr\u00e9tiennes_): \"Les\nophites, suivant en cela les nicolaites et les premiers gnostiques,\nrendirent au serpent lui-m\u00eame un culte direct d'adoration, et les\nmanich\u00e9ens le mirent aussi \u00e0 la place de J\u00e9sus Christ (S. Augustin.\n_De Hoeres._ cap. xvii. et xlvi.) Et nous devons regarder comme\nextr\u00eamement probable que les talismans et les amulettes avec la figure\ndu serpent qui sont arriv\u00e9s jusqu' \u00e0 nous, proviennent des h\u00e9r\u00e9tiques\nde la race de Basilide, et non pas des pa\u00efens, comme on le suppose\ncommun\u00e9ment.\" To the continuers of the admirable studies of Strauss\nand Renan will be reserved the office of seeking the sense hidden in\nthis myth, made poetical by the evangelical morals. When we shall be\nable to bring into Semitic studies the same liberty of scientific\ncriticism which is conceded to \u00c2ryan studies, we shall have a Semitic\nmythology; for the present, faith, a natural sense of repugnance to\nabandon the beloved superstitions of our credulous childhood, and more\nthan all, a less honourable sentiment of terror for the opinion of the\nworld, have restrained men of study from examining Jewish history and\ntradition with entire impartiality and severity of judgment. We do not\nwish to appear Voltairians, and we prefer to shut our eyes not to see,\nand our ears not to hear what history, studied critically and\npositively, presents to us less agreeable to our pride as men, and to\nour vanity as Christians.\n\n[582] Cfr. _Ya\u00e7na_, ix. 25-27; cfr. also Prof. Spiegel's introduction\nto the _Khorda Avesta_, pp. 59, 60.\n\n[583] Cfr. the chapter concerning the Fishes and that on the Tortoise.\n\n[584] Cfr. Prof. Spiegel's introduction to the _Khorda-Avesta_, p. 60.\n\n[585] xxxviii. 36.\n\n[586] A variety of the Hindoo legend of the hawk (Indras), of the dove\n(Agnis), and of King \u00c7ivis, who, to save the dove from the hawk, his\nguest, gives some of his own flesh to the hawk to eat. Here the\nserpent is identified with the hawk or eagle; in the Mongol story,\nhowever, the dragon is grateful to the man who delivered him from the\nbird Garudas; the king of the dragons keeps guard over the white\npearls, arrives upon a white horse, dressed in white (probably the\nsnow of winter, or the moon); the king of the dragons rewards the hero\nby giving him a red bitch, some fat, and a string of pearls.--In the\nsixth story of the _Pancatantram_, we have the serpent and the crow,\none at the foot of a tree, the other on the summit; the serpent eats\nthe crow's eggs, and the crow avenges itself by stealing a golden\nnecklace from the queen and throwing it into the snake's hole; the men\ngo to seek the necklace, find the serpent and kill it.\n\n[587] We have seen in the chapter on the Ant how the ants make\nserpents come out of their holes; in Bavaria, according to Baron\nReinsberg von D\u00fcringsfeld, the work quoted before, p. 259, an asp\n(_natter_) taken in August must be shut well up in a vase in order\nthat it may die of heat and of hunger; then it is placed upon an ants'\nnest, that the ants may eat all its flesh; of what remains, a sort of\npaternoster is made, which is supposed to be very useful against all\nkinds of eruptions upon the head.\n\n[588] Cfr. the interminable riches of the uhlan-serpent in the story\nvi. 11, of _Afanassieff_.\n\n[589] Here we have a serpent which expels and ruins another. In a\nsimilar manner, before the times of San Carlo Borromeo, a bronze\nserpent, which had been carried from Constantinople by the Archbishop\nArnolfo in the year 1001, was revered in the basilica of St Ambrose at\nMilan; some said that it was the serpent of \u00c6sculapius, others that of\nMoses, others that it was an image of Christ; for us it is enough to\nremark here that it was a mythical serpent, before which Milanese\nmothers brought their children when they suffered from worms, in order\nto relieve them, as we learn from the depositions of the visit of San\nCarlo to this basilica: \"Est qu\u00e6dam superstitio de ibi mulierum pro\ninfantibus morbo verminum laborantibus.\" San Carlo put down this\nsuperstition.\n\n[590] These marvels are always three, as the apples are three, the\nbeautiful girls three, the enchanted palaces in the kingdom of the\nserpents which they inhabit three (cfr. _Afanassieff_, i. 5). The\nheads of the dragon are in this story and generally three, but\nsometimes also five, six (cfr. _Afanassieff_, v. 28), seven (cfr.\n_Pentamerone_, i. 7, and _Afanassieff_, ii. 27; the serpent of the\nseven heads emits foul exhalations), nine (iii. 2, v. 24), or twelve\n(cfr. _Afanassieff_, ii. 30).--In the twenty-first story of the second\nbook of _Afanassieff_, first the serpent with three heads appears,\nthen that with six, then that with nine heads which throw out water\nand threaten to inundate the kingdom. Ivan Tzarevic exterminates them.\nIn the twenty-second story of the same book the serpent of the Black\nSea, with wings of fire, flies into the Tzar's garden and carries off\nthe three daughters; the first is obtained and shut up by the\nfive-headed serpent, the second by the seven-headed one, and the third\nby the serpent with twelve heads; the young hero Frolka Sidien kills\nthe three serpents and liberates the three daughters.\n\n[591] Cfr. also, for the legend of the blind woman, the first chapter\nof the first book.\n\n[592] When the mythical serpent refers to the year, the hours\ncorrespond to the months, and the months during which the mythical\nserpent sleeps seem to be those of summer, in contradiction to what is\nobserved in nature.\n\n[593] In the fifth story of the second book of the _Pentamerone_, a\nserpent has itself adopted, as their son, by a man and woman who have\nno children, and then asks for the king's daughter to wife; the king,\nwho thinks to turn the serpent into ridicule, answers that he will\nconsent when the serpent has made all the fruit-trees of the royal\ngarden become golden, the soil of the same garden turn into precious\nstones, and his whole palace into a pile of gold. The serpent sows\nkernels of fruits and egg-shells in the garden; from the first, the\nrequired trees spring up; from the second, the pavement of precious\nstones; he then anoints the palace with a certain herb, and it turns\nto gold. The serpent comes to take his wife in a golden chariot, drawn\nby four golden elephants, lays aside his serpent's disguise, and\nbecomes a handsome youth.\n\n[594] Cfr. Mone, _Anzeig._ iii. 88.\n\n[595] Cfr. on this subject the stories recorded in the first and\nsecond chapters of the first book.\n\n[596] _Origines_, xiv. 4.\n\n[597] Cfr. the same, _Afanassieff_, vi. 10, where the cunning workman,\nin reward for having vanquished the little devil in whistling, and for\nhaving made it believe that he could throw a stick upon the clouds,\nobtains the money which can remain in a hat which never fills.\n\n\n\n\nCONCLUSION.\n\n      \"E come quei che con lena affannata\n         Uscito fuor del pelago a la riva\n         Si volge all 'onda perigliosa e guata,\n       Cosi l'animo mio che ancor fuggiva\n         Si volse indietro a rimirar ...\"\n\nand the shadows of the mythological monsters rise again before me, and\noccupy my fearful thoughts. During these months of my solitary sojourn\non Olympus, have I only been the victim of a horrible nightmare, or have\nI apprehended aright the reality of the changeful figures of the sky in\ntheir animal forms? The ancient mythology, which used to be taught to us\nat school, was filled with the incests of Jove, of Mars, and of Venus;\nbut they were classical myths, and the adulterers were called gods; and\nour good fathers, in the vain search for symbolical meanings, tortured\ntheir ingenious brains to extract from each scandal of Olympus a moral\nlesson for the instruction of youth. Hence it was permitted to art to\nrepresent Jove as a bull, an eagle, a swan, a seducer in an animal form,\nwithout offending decency or violating the sanctity of the schools; and\nthe young scholars were encouraged to write their rhetorical exercises\nin Italian or Latin verse upon the favourite themes of classical\nmythology, inasmuch as with symbols and moral allegories the vile matter\ncould all be made divine. Platonic or metaphysical love not requiring\nthe vehicles of sense to communicate itself, the animal forms of the god\nwere for our old masters nothing else than symbols and allegories,\nconceived and intended to veil an elevated educational wisdom. But we\nhave rocked ourselves long enough in the cradle of this infantile\nfantasy, and must now discard from this and kindred themes all such idle\ndreams. It is at last necessary to summon up the courage to front the\nproblems of history with the same frankness and ardour with which\nnaturalists approach the mysteries of Nature, and pierce the veil; nor\nis this attempt so hazardous, since, in order to demonstrate entirely\nour historical theses, we have certain and positive data provided for us\nin speech and in legend by comparative oral and written tradition. We do\nnot invent; we simply accumulate, and then put in order the facts\nrelating to the common history of popular thought and sentiment in our\nprivileged race. The difficulty consists only in classifying the facts;\nthe facts themselves are many and evident. It is very possible to be\ndeceived in their arrangement, and hence also in their minute\ninterpretation; and I am, for my part, not without apprehension that I\nmay have here and there made an unlucky venture in interpreting some\nparticular myths; but if this may, in some degree, reflect discredit on\nmy intelligence, which is perhaps imperfectly armed, and without\nsufficient penetration, this can in nowise prejudice the fundamental\ntruths which permit comparative mythology to constitute and install\nitself as a positive science, that may henceforth, like every science,\ninstruct and edify with profit. The principal error into which the\nstudents of the new science are apt to fall, and into which I may myself\nhave sometimes been betrayed in the course of this work, is that of\nconfining their observations to one special favourite mythical point or\nmoment, and referring almost every myth to it, and not taking sufficient\naccount of their mobility and their separate history, that is, of the\nvarious periods of their manifestation. One sees in the myth only the\nsun, another only the moon in its several revolutions, and their amours\nwith the verdant and resplendent earth; one sees the darkness of night\nin opposition to the light of day, another the same light in opposition\nto the gloomy cloud; one the loves of the sun with the moon, another\nthose of the sun with the aurora. These diverse, special, and too\nexclusive points of view, from which the myths have hitherto been\ngenerally studied by learned men, have afforded ill-disposed adversaries\nan opportunity of ridiculing the science of Comparative Mythology as a\nscience which is little serious, and which changes its nature according\nto the student who occupies himself with it. But this opposition is\ndisarmed by its own weapons. For what does the concord of all learned\nmen and scholars in this department prove? It proves, in my opinion, but\none thing, and that is, the reproduction and confirmation of the same\nnatural myths under multiplex forms, the representation by analogous\nmyths of analogous phenomena, and that the variations met with in fairy\ntales are also found in myths. The sun chases away the darkness in the\nday, the moon the darkness in the night; both are called haris, or\nfairhaired, golden, luminous. Indras is haris; as haris, he is now in\nrelation with the sun that thunders in the cloud (Jupiter Tonans), now\nwith the ambrosial moon which attracts rain (Jupiter Pluvius); Zeus\ngives up the field to his son Dion\u00fcsos, and, be it as the sun, be it as\nthe moon, he is always Zeus the refulgent one, Diespiter or the father\nof light; in the first case, he pierces through the cloud, and in the\nsecond through the darkness. Even when the moon or the sun is hidden,\nwhen Zeus or Dion\u00fcsos lives in his august mystery, they prepare new\nluminous phenomena. Thus Vishnus is haris, and as haris he is identified\nnow with the sun, now with the moon; or, to speak with more precision,\nthe sun haris and the moon haris are confounded in one sole mythical\npersonage, in one god, who represents them both in various moments, that\nis to say, in Vishnus. It is desirable that the entirety of the myths\nshould be studied with full comprehension of the whole field which the\nmyth may have enriched, and of the whole period in which the myth may\nhave been developed; but this does not prevent, in special studies, a\nlearned man from addressing himself (as Professors Kuhn, M\u00fcller, and\nBr\u00e9al have done) to one special point to prove one special mythological\nthesis. To this point he applies his lever; he might, perhaps, use it\nsomewhere else; but this causes no prejudice to the essential truth, by\nbringing his demonstrations to the highest degree of clearness in one\npoint alone. The excess of demonstration can easily be corrected, and\nmeanwhile from these special studies, in which investigation becomes\nevery day more profound, the myths come out in brighter colours. It\nwould be an exaggeration to ascribe to all the myths one unvaried manner\nof formation, as also to think absolutely that all myths began by a\nsimple confusion of words. Equivocalness, no doubt, played a principal\npart in the formation of myths; but this same equivocalness would not\nalways have been possible without the pre-existence, so to speak, of\npictorial analogies. The child who even now, gazing on the sky, takes a\nwhite cloud for a mountain of snow, certainly does not yet know that\n_parvatas_ meant both cloud and mountain in the Vedic language; he\ncontinues, however, to elaborate his elementary myth by means of simple\nanalogies of images. The equivoque of words usually succeeded to the\nanalogy of external figures as they appeared to primitive man. He had\nnot yet named the cloud as a mountain, and yet he already saw it. When\nthe confusion of images took place, that of words became almost\ninevitable, and only served to determine it, to give it in the external\nsound a more consistent form, to manifest it more artistically, and to\nconstitute it into a sort of trunk upon which, with the help of new\nparticular observations, of new images, and of new equivoques, an entire\ntree of mythical genealogies was to sprout out.\n\nIt has fallen to me to study the least elevated department of\nmythology. In the primitive man, who created the myths, the same\ntwofold tendency shows itself which we observe in ourselves--the\ninstinct by which we are allied to the brutes, and the instinct which\nlifts us to the comprehension and sentiment of the divine or the\nideal. The ideal was the portion of few; material instinct that of\nmany: the ideal was the promise of human progress; material instinct\nrepresented that inert resisting matter which still acts in opposition\nto progress. Hence images full of elevated poesy by the side of\nothers, vulgar and gross, which remind us of the relation of man to\nthat petulant and lascivious brute from which it is supposed that he\ndescends. The god who becomes a brute cannot preserve always intact\nhis divinity; the animal form is that of his _avat\u00e2ras_ or of his\ndecadence, of his fall; it is usually the form assumed by the god or\nthe hero in consequence of a curse or a crime. The Hindoo and the\nPythagorean beliefs considered the disguise of the animal as the\npurgatory of a guilty man. And the god-beast, the hero-beast, the\nman-beast cannot restrain themselves from brutish acts. The proud and\nferocious King Vi\u00e7v\u00e2mitras, the Indian Nebuchadnezzar, when he\nwanders through the forest in the form of a monster, takes the nature\nof the forest-rakshasas, the devourer; the beautiful celestial nymphs\nbecome sea-monsters, devour the heroes who approach their fountain.\nOnly when the animal form is killed, when the matter is shaken off,\ndoes the god or hero assume his divine goodness, beauty, and\nexcellence. Here mythology is not in contradiction to physiology; the\ncharacter of the mythical personages is the result of their corporeal\nforms, of their organism, until the natural destiny changes, and a new\nphysical transformation taking place in the species, even its moral\ncharacteristics are modified; light is good, darkness is evil, or good\nonly inasmuch as it is supposed to enclose light in its body. From the\ndark wood rubbed and shaken, from the dark stone struck and dilated,\ncomes forth the spark which causes conflagrations; from the body when\nexercised and made agile comes forth the splendour of look, of speech,\nof affection, of thought; the god breaks forth. Substance is dark, but\nwhen it is agitated it produces light; as long as it is inert, it is\nevil, and it is still evil as long as it attracts to itself, as if to\na centre of gravity, everything that lives. In as far as the monster\nswallows beautiful things, it is evil; in as far as it lets them\nradiate and go forth, it is good. Disperse the cloud, disperse the\ndarkness, dilate and expand the matter which tends to grow narrow and\nto become inert, to absorb life, and the divine light will come out of\nit, the splendid intelligent life will appear; the fallen hero, the\nhero turned to stone, who has become inert substance, will ascend\nagain, agile and refulgent, into the divine heavens.\n\nCertainly, I am far from believing that this was the intention of the\nmyth. Morals have often been an appendix of fables, but they never enter\ninto the primitive fable itself. The elementary myth is a spontaneous\nproduction of imagination, and not of reflection. When the myth exists,\nart and religion may make use of it as an allegory for their \u00e6sthetic\nand moral ends; but the myth itself is devoid of moral conscience; the\nmyth shows, as I have said, only more or less elevated instincts. And if\nI have sought to compare several physiological laws with the myths, it\nis not because I attribute to the myth a wisdom greater than that which\nit contains in reality, but only to indicate that, much better than\nmetaphysics, the science of nature, with the criteria of positive\nphilosophy, can help us to study the original production of myths and\ntheir successive development in tradition. I have had to prove in\nmythology its most humble aspect, that is to say, the god enclosed in\nthe animal; and inasmuch as amongst the various mythical animals which I\nhave endeavoured to describe, several preserve the propitious character\nand resplendent form of the god, they are generally considered as the\nform which the deity assumes either to feed secretly upon the forbidden\nfruit or to fulfil a term of punishment for some former fault of his; in\nany case, these forms never serve to give us a superlative idea of the\ndivine excellence and perfection. Instead of ascribing to the god all\nthe attributes of beauty, goodness, and strength at once, instead of\nassociating in one all the gods, or all the sympathic forces and figures\nof Nature, a new divine form was created for each attribute. And because\nthe primitive man was not so much inclined to make abstractions as\ncomparisons (to represent strength, for instance, he had recourse to the\nimage of the bull, the lion, or the tiger; to represent goodness, he\nfigured it in the lamb, the dog, or the dove; to represent beauty, he\nchose the gazelle, the stag, the peacock, and so on), in the primitive\nspeech of mankind no conjunctions existed by means of which to unite the\ntwo terms of a comparison: hence a strong king became the lion, a\nfaithful friend the dog, an agile girl the gazelle, and so on. We\nsometimes hear our women, in their moments of tenderness for a distant\nperson, or in their impatience to go where their heart calls them, or in\ntheir curiosity to know what is going on at such a moment in such a\nplace, say, \"I wish I could become a bird to go there.\" In reality they\nenvy only the bird's wings, in order to fly, to arrive there sooner, and\nfor this desire alone they would renounce all the precious privileges\nwhich distinguish them as women. The same sacrifice of their own\nluminous forms to obtain some determinate end happens in the mythical\nsky. The god humbles himself in order to make use of some quality which\nhe needs to manifest especially. Thus Indras, to put the generosity of\nKing \u00c7ivis to the proof, finds it necessary to follow, in the shape of a\nhawk, the god Agnis, who had become a dove, and taken refuge with the\nking. Primitive man does not ascribe to the god any other form than\nthose which he sees round him, and which he knows: the god cannot have\nwings of his own, divine wings; he must become a bird in order to be\nwinged. Thus, to draw a chariot, or to carry a hero through the air, he\nmust become a hippogriff, that is, horse and bird; and when he falls\ninto the sea, he must enter a fish's body to escape drowning.\n\nThe god can therefore exercise his divine power only on the condition\nof entering into the forms of those animals which are supposed to have\nthe privilege of the qualities which the god is in need of in a\nspecial mythical occurrence. But in this animal form in which the god\ndisplays in a transcendent manner some particular quality, he dims at\nthe same time a great part of his divine splendour. Having, therefore,\nsurprised the deity in this strange and unlucky moment, the reader\nwill not, I hope, impute to me the poor figure which the deity has had\nto make in many pages of this work; nor will he think evil of me if I\nhave deprived him, perchance, of some illusion in compensation for\nsome imperfect, but perhaps not useless revelation.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\n(_This Index is compiled at the instance of the Publisher, and is not\nby the Author._)\n\n\n  Absalom and his hair, i. 334.\n\n  Achilleus, horses of, i. 351.\n\n  Acheloos, horn of, i. 266.\n\n  A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, the, i. 18, 19;\n    friendship for Tritas, 25;\n    awakening of, 27;\n    and the aurora, 30;\n    eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, 32, 36;\n    and Kabandhas, 63;\n    the sons of, 78;\n    as the two ears of Vishnus, 81, 285-287, 300-302, 304, 306-308,\n          310, 315, 319, 321, 327, 370;\n    ass of, 371.\n\n  Adam and Eve, legend of, ii. 411.\n\n  Aditis and the cow, in Vedic literature, i. 5, 6, 23, 70, 74.\n\n  Adonis, ii. 14-16.\n\n  Adrik\u00e2, the nymph-fish, ii. 331;\n    son and daughter of, 332.\n\n  \u00c6schylos, fabled death of, ii. 197.\n\n  \u00c6sculapius, i. 353.\n\n  Afrasiab, i. 114, 116, 117.\n\n  Agas and synonyms, i. 402.\n\n  Agnis, as the fire-god, i. 10;\n    adjutant to Indras, 13, 299, 301.\n\n  Agnus Dei, sacrifice of the, i. 423.\n\n  Ahaly\u00e2, legend of, i. 414.\n\n  Ahura Mazda, i. 97, 109.\n\n  Ai\u00eatas, bulls of, i. 267.\n\n  Ai-Kan, story of, i. 146.\n\n  Alexander the Great, i. 119;\n    and augury, ii. 178;\n    and the fish, 333;\n    and the crab, 355.\n\n  Allwis, the dwarf, i. 207, 225, 260, 261.\n\n  Amalthea, i. 430.\n\n  Amazons, the, i. 211, 212.\n\n  Ambrosia, i. 5;\n    giver of, 18;\n    the milk which forms, 52, 54;\n    contest for, 53;\n    the demons and, 53;\n    Gandharvas, guardians of, 53, 81;\n    of the cow, 275, 276;\n    the origin of, ii. 361;\n    the phallical reference of, 361, 365.\n\n  Ampelos, i. 267.\n\n  Amphisbh\u00e6na, the, ii. 386.\n\n  Anantas, the serpent, ii. 398, 399.\n\n  Angadas, i. 337.\n\n  Animals, gradation of, for sacrifice, i. 44;\n    substitutes for, in sacrifice, 44;\n    battles of tame and savage, 186;\n    inviolability of the mysteries of, 246;\n    mythical identification of, ii. 123;\n    colours of, in mythology, 295, 296.\n\n  Ansumant, i. 332.\n\n  Antony, St, the Vedic, i. 47;\n    and the hog, ii. 6.\n\n  Antelopes and the Marutas, ii. 83, 84;\n    king disguised as an, 86.\n\n  Ants, the, and the serpent, ii. 44;\n    and the shepherd's son, 45;\n    and the grain, 47;\n    and the horses, 50;\n    Indian, 50, 51;\n    that dig up gold, 51;\n    the monster, 51.\n\n  Ap\u00e2l\u00e2, Indras, and the somas, ii. 3;\n    and her ugly skin, 5.\n\n  Aphrodit\u00ea, i. 394;\n    and Hermes, ii. 197.\n\n  Apollo, and Laomedon, i. 279;\n    Smintheus, ii. 68;\n    and the crow, 254.\n\n  Apple-tree, the legend of, i. 251;\n    the mythical, 405;\n    and the goat, 405.\n\n  Aquila and Aquilo, ii. 191, 192.\n\n  Arabs, the, saying of, ii. 11.\n\n  Arachn\u00ea, ii. 163.\n\n  Arcadia, i. 387, 390.\n\n  Ardshi-Bordshi Khan, the history of, i. 120;\n    stories from, 134, 139.\n\n  Ardv\u00ee \u00c7\u00fbra An\u00e2hita, the Persian, i. 99, 100.\n\n  Argos panoptes, i. 418.\n\n  Argus, ii. 327.\n\n  Argunas, i. 79, 104.\n\n  Ariadne, i. 212.\n\n  Arkas, ii. 118.\n\n  Arn\u00ea, ii. 259.\n\n  Artemis and Aktaion, ii. 86;\n    the huntress, 87;\n    and hind, 88.\n\n  Arunas, i. 292.\n\n  Ases, the three, and the eagle, ii. 191.\n\n  Ashis Vaguhi, i. 108, 109.\n\n  Ass, the, among the Greeks and Romans, i. 259, 260;\n    in the East, 360;\n    in the West, 360;\n    mistakes about, 361;\n    Christianity powerless to redeem, 361, 362;\n    hymn in honour of, 361, 362;\n    treatment of, by the Church, 363;\n    downtrodden condition of, 363;\n    in the Rigvedas, 364;\n    names of, 364, 365;\n    of Apuleius, 366;\n    which carries mysteries, 367;\n    and flight into Egypt, 367;\n    of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, 371;\n    of Indras, 371;\n    phallic nature of, 372, 373;\n    chastisement of, for phallic offences, 372, 373;\n    fall of, in the Rigvedas, 372, 374;\n    the demoniacal, 374, 376;\n    slowness, 374;\n    the golden, 375, 376;\n    the Hindoo, 377;\n    and the jackal, 377, 378;\n    -lion, 378, 379;\n    -musician, 378, 379;\n    three-legged, braying, 379;\n    and lion, 380;\n    braying of, and the merchants, 380;\n    and Vesta, 384;\n    and the Trojans, 386;\n    ears of, 386;\n    skin of, 388;\n    that throws gold from its tail, 388;\n    and the waters of Styx, 390;\n    horned, of India, 390, 391;\n    horn of the Scythian, 390, 391;\n    and Silenos, 391, 392, 394;\n    and Bacchus, 392;\n    and the talisman, 393;\n    skin of, 394;\n    proverbs about, 394;\n    the combed, 395;\n    shadow and nose, 395;\n    golden, of Apuleius, 395;\n    uncontainedness, 396;\n    that brays, 397, 398;\n    in hell, 398;\n    knowledge of, 398.\n\n  Assassins, story of the king of the, ii. 35.\n\n  Atavism in mythology, i. 199.\n\n  Atli, i. 226.\n\n  Attis, the Phrygian, ii. 409.\n\n  Audhumla, the cow, i. 224.\n\n  Aulad, the warrior, i. 112, 113.\n\n  Aurora, the cow, process of re-creating, i. 20;\n    cow of abundance, 26;\n    relations to Indras, 27;\n    the milk of, 27;\n    and her cows, 25, 29;\n    the girl, the swift one without feet, 30, 31;\n    the evening, perfidy of, 32;\n    as a sorceress, 33;\n    persecutions of, 34;\n    the saviour, 35;\n    once blind, now seeing and sight-giving, 36;\n    and the night, 36-38;\n    the sisters, 38;\n    the younger, 38, 39;\n    nuptials of, and its conditions, 39;\n    fruit of the nuptials of, 39, 40;\n    and Rak\u00e2, 50;\n    characteristic form of, 50;\n    as a cow, 51;\n    mother of the sun, 51;\n    rich in pearls, 56;\n    and the moon, 56, 65;\n    the Persian, 100-102, 121-125, 146;\n    awakener of, 163, 170;\n    amours of, 324;\n    the two, and the fox, ii. 124.\n\n  Avesta, the, i. 109, 110.\n\n\n  Bacchus and the asses, i. 392.\n\n  B\u00e2lin and Sugr\u00eevas, i. 312, 313; ii. 100, 101.\n\n  Barrel, the mythical, i. 197.\n\n  Basili\u00e7a, story of, i. 298, 299.\n\n  Batrachomyomachia, the, ii. 71.\n\n  Battos the shepherd, i. 279.\n\n  Bear, at blind-man's-buff with the maiden, ii. 69;\n    and Vicv\u00e2mitras, 109;\n    king of the bears, 109;\n    in the forest of honey, 109;\n    eater of honey, 110;\n    and peasant, 110-112;\n    duped by the peasant, 112;\n    and the fox, 113;\n    king and the twins, 114, 115;\n    the demoniacal, and the two children, 115, 116;\n    disguises of, 117;\n    woman in the den of, 117, 118;\n    half bear half man, 118;\n    as musician, 118, 119.\n\n  Beaver, the, ii. 79, 80.\n\n  Bees and the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u, ii. 215;\n    Vedic gods as, 216;\n    as moon, 217;\n    from the bull's carcase, 217;\n    in Finnish mythology, 218;\n    spiritual and immortal, 218-220;\n    wax of, 219;\n    and young hero, 220;\n    as musician, 223.\n\n  Beetle, the, and eagle, ii. 209;\n    the sacred, 209;\n    red, 209, 210;\n    names of the red, 210, 211;\n    and first teeth of children, 211;\n    worship of the red, 211, 212;\n    green, 214.\n\n  Bellerophontes, i. 305, 338.\n\n  Berta, i. 85;\n    the Russian Queen, 218;\n    Queen, legend of, 251-257;\n    large-footed, 253.\n\n  Betta and the cake-youth, ii. 238, 239.\n\n  Bharatas, King, ii. 85.\n\n  Bharadv\u00e2gas, ii. 275, 276.\n\n  Bh\u00eemas the terrible, i. 77-79, 104.\n\n  Bhogavat\u00ee, city of, ii. 403.\n\n  Bhrigus and Cyavanas, ii. 10.\n\n  Binding, vanquishing by, i. 106, 107.\n\n  Birds, language of, i. 151, 152;\n    the mythical impersonations of, ii. 168, 169;\n    the wise, story of, 169-172;\n    virtue of feathers of, 172;\n    the language of, 174;\n    story of, and the queen, 175;\n    excrement of, 176;\n    the blue, 176;\n    Semiramis and, 176;\n    as diviners, 177;\n    auguries from, 178;\n    the, of Bretagne, 271, 272.\n\n  Bitch, the mythical, ii. 19-25;\n    as spy, 35.\n\n  Blind lame one, the, i. 31, 32.\n\n  Blue Beard, the Esthonian, i. 168.\n\n  Boar, the, of Erymanthus, ii. 9;\n    of Meleagros, 9;\n    the monster wild, in the Rigvedas, 9, 10;\n    Indo-European tradition of, 13;\n    tusks of, 15.\n\n  Brahmadattas and the crab, ii. 356.\n\n  Brahman\u00e2s, the, i. 414.\n\n  Br\u00e9al, M., i. 263.\n\n  Bribus, ii. 308.\n\n  Bridge, the mythical, i. 228.\n\n  Brian, the Celtic hero, i. 239, 240.\n\n  Brother, the third, i. 79, 83;\n    the Turanian, and his dream, 139-142;\n    the riddle-solving eldest Turanian, 142;\n    the third, in quest of the lost cow, 155, 156;\n    journey to hell, 157;\n    as counsellor, 156, 159;\n    royal, as peasant, 162;\n    awakener of the princess of the seven years' slumber, 162, 163;\n    who mounts to heaven, 176;\n    and the tree-purchaser, 176;\n    endeavour of, to milk the bull, 177;\n    who snaps his fingers, 184;\n    ascent into and descent from heaven of, 189, 190;\n    who steals from the other two, 194;\n    and the flying-ship, 205;\n    in bronze, silver, and gold, 291.\n\n  Brothers, the three, i. 77, 80, 82, 104;\n    the Persian, 105;\n    the two, 107, 108, 120;\n    the three, 109, 111, 125, 128;\n    the four, and the pearls, 127;\n    the six, Calmuc story of, 128, 129;\n    the two, Calmuc story of, 130;\n    the two Calmuc, rich and poor, 131, 132;\n    the two (lion and bull), and the fox, 134;\n    the three, 148, 153, 156, 161;\n    the three dwarf, story of, 161, 162;\n    the two rich and poor, and magic stone, 177;\n    the three, of the purse, whistle, and mantle, 288, 289;\n    the two, who go one to the right and the other to the left, 317,\n          319, 327.\n\n  Br\u00fcnhilt, i. 212.\n\n  Brutus, the first, i. 199.\n\n  Bufonite, ii. 384.\n\n  Buhtan and the fox, ii. 134, 135.\n\n  Bull, the sun a, i. 4;\n    the, fecundator of the cow, 5;\n    the great bellowing, 7-10;\n    the horns of, 9;\n    a symbol of royalty, 44;\n    of the Persians, 95;\n    the excrement of, 80, 95;\n    disembodied soul of, 97;\n    ambrosial, 99;\n    capacity of, for drinking, 175;\n    in the council of animals, 185;\n    which comes out of the sea, 222, 223;\n    which carries the maiden, 223;\n    about to be sacrificed, 270;\n    without entrails, 270, 271.\n\n  Buri, i. 224.\n\n  Butterfly, the mythical, ii. 213, 214.\n\n  Butter-ears, the cat, ii. 53, 54.\n\n  Bucephalus, i. 338.\n\n\n  Cabala, i. 73.\n\n  Cacus, i. 280, 281.\n\n  Caduceus of Mercury, ii. 219, 220.\n\n  \u00c7akuntal\u00e2, i. 219.\n\n  Calf, the, as marriage-priest, i. 257.\n\n  \u00c7ambaras, cities of, i. 13.\n\n  \u00c7antanus, myth of, i. 67, 68.\n\n  Canicula, the, ii. 33.\n\n  \u00c7aoka, i. 98.\n\n  \u00c7aradvat, ii. 332.\n\n  \u00c7armishth\u00e2, the witch, i. 83, 84.\n\n  Carp, the, ii. 351, 352.\n\n  Carpus, ii. 352.\n\n  Cat, the white, ii. 42;\n    penitent, 54;\n    fox, and fattened mouse, 56;\n    and sparrow, 56;\n    dog, and ring, 56, 57;\n    and dog and supposititious child, 57;\n    and moon, 58;\n    and Diana, 58;\n    and St Martha, 58;\n    and Freya, 59;\n    and St Gertrude, 59;\n    the chattering, 59;\n    and fox, 59;\n    and cock, 59;\n    and lamb, 60;\n    the grateful, 60;\n    the white, Blanchette, 61;\n    and the house, 62.\n\n  Cats, the enchanted, ii. 62;\n    the black, 62, 63;\n    ill-omened apparitions of, 63;\n    and witches, 63, 64;\n    the two, 64.\n\n  \u00c7avar\u00ee, i. 64, 66, 69.\n\n  Cerberi, the, i. 49.\n\n  Cerire, i. 117.\n\n  Chameleon, the, ii. 161.\n\n  Charlemagne, tradition of, i. 161;\n    and Orlando, 256.\n\n  Children, king of, story of, i. 135, 136.\n\n  Chim\u00e6ra, the, ii. 158.\n\n  Chinese, the, and Little Tom, i. 336.\n\n  Christ and Prometheus, ii. 40.\n\n  Christopher, St, and Christ, ii. 57;\n    and lark, 274;\n    and the cocks, 284.\n\n  Chrysaor, i. 305.\n\n  Cianna and the grateful ant, ii. 46.\n\n  Cicada, the, ii. 223, 224.\n\n  Cienzo and Meo, story of, i. 329, 330.\n\n  Cinderella, origin of the legend of, i. 31, 101, 126, 161;\n    the Russian, 196, 197; ii. 5, 197, 281, 304.\n\n  Circe and the ass's head, i. 366;\n    and the companions of Odysseus, ii. 6.\n\n  \u00c7ivas, the _deus phallicus_, i. 44, 59; ii. 160.\n\n  Claudius, Publius, and the auguries, ii. 291.\n\n  Clodoveus and St Martin, i. 356.\n\n  Clouds, the, i. 6-9;\n    mythical conceptions of, 11, 12;\n    sky with, as a forest, 14;\n    as mountains, 61;\n    battles in, 62;\n    as barrels, 63.\n\n  Cock, the mythical functions of, ii. 278;\n    and Mars, 280;\n    Indras, the paramour of Ahaly\u00e2, as a, 280;\n    and hen in India and Persia, and sacredness of the, 282, 284;\n    crowing of, 282, 285, 286;\n    Christus invoked as a, 283;\n    in the Gospels, 283;\n    the miraculous, 284;\n    of night, 285;\n    and Minec' Aniello, 287;\n    Esthonian legends of, 288;\n    hitting the, 289;\n    as a symbol, 290;\n    -fights, 290;\n    the Danes and, 290;\n    auguries from, 291.\n\n  Coition, mythical, i. 348.\n\n  Cornucopia, Scandinavian, i. 225.\n\n  Cosmogony, the Persian, ii. 412.\n\n  Cosimo and the fox, ii. 135, 136.\n\n  Cow and the Bull, the, origin and meaning of the myth, i. 3, 4;\n    respect paid to, in the family, 46.\n\n  Cow, the infinite, celestial, i. 5, 6;\n    son of the, 5;\n    -child, the spotted, 6, 14;\n    as monster, 15;\n    -moon, 19;\n    -aurora, 19, 20;\n    of abundance, 26, 95;\n    hide of, as symbol of fecundity, 46, 47;\n    sour milk of, as favourable to generation, 47;\n    milk-yielding, of night, 48;\n    invocation of the spotted, 50;\n    the sacred, of the Persians, 97;\n    purification by the excrement, 99;\n    pearl excrement of, 129;\n    the black, 167;\n    and the weather, 174;\n    Vedic, double aspect, 175;\n    filled with straw and sparrows, 187;\n    of abundance, Scandinavian, 224;\n    red, 228;\n    German proverbs relating to, 229;\n    and dwarf Allwis, 260;\n    testicles of, and the jackal, 233;\n    the, that spins, 250;\n    the Sabine, 268;\n    the sacrificed, 269;\n    the ashes of, 276.\n\n  Cow-cloud, the, i. 14, 15, 74.\n\n  Cow-moon, the, i. 274, 275.\n\n  Cows, the, of night, i. 17;\n    the two, 27;\n    that do not cover themselves with dust, 28, 31;\n    seen in dreams, 47, 48;\n    coming forth of, 50.\n\n  Cowherd, the hero disguised as, i. 168, 169.\n\n  Cox, Mr, i. 262, 263.\n\n  Crab, the, in the riddle, ii. 354;\n    celestial, in June, 354;\n    in the myth of Herakles, 355;\n    and Alexander, 355;\n    and the deceiving crane, 355;\n    and the serpent, 356;\n    sun and moon as, 356;\n    and fox, 357;\n    \"from a man, a,\" 358;\n    as a charm, 359;\n    Cancer, the, 359.\n\n  Crescentia, the Persian, i. 121.\n\n  Cross, the, ii. 411;\n    of paradise, 411.\n\n  Crow, the, in borrowed feathers, ii. 246;\n    mythical significance, 250, 251;\n    and cheese, 251;\n    disguised, 251, 252;\n    the enchanted, and R\u00e2mas, 252;\n    cunning of, 253;\n    R\u00e2mas and Apollo as, 253;\n    and Pallas and Yamas, 254;\n    of evil omen, 254;\n    the giant, 255;\n    and the dead, 255;\n    and the old man, 255;\n    the procrastinating, and Phoebus, 256;\n    as messenger, 257;\n    the egg, 257;\n    brood, 257.\n\n  Cuckoo, the, and Zeus, i. 248;\n    its mythical congeners, ii. 226;\n    Indras as a, 228, 229, 231;\n    birth of the, 231;\n    a phallical symbol, 232;\n    and H\u00eara and Zeus, 232;\n    and marriage, 232;\n    as mocker, 233;\n    harbinger of spring, 233;\n    sinister aspect of, 234;\n    as cuckold, 234;\n    as a bird of omen, 234, 235;\n    immortal and omniscient, 235;\n    and nightingale, 235.\n\n  \u00c7unah\u00e7epas, i. 35;\n    story of, 69-72, 74.\n\n  Cupid and Psyche, i. 368, 369; ii. 378.\n\n  Cypresses, riddle of the two, ii. 174.\n\n  Cyrus, legend of, i. 110, 118\n\n  Cyzicene, the, i. 275.\n\n\n  D\u00e6dalus and Icarus, ii. 186.\n\n  Dadhyanc, the head of, i. 303, 304.\n\n  Dadhikr\u00e2, the solar horse, i. 337.\n\n  Dakshas, ii. 364.\n\n  Danaid\u00e6, the, i. 265.\n\n  Daphn\u00ea, i. 170, 273.\n\n  Darius Hystaspes, myth of, i. 346.\n\n  Daughter, the third, and the toad, i. 381;\n    and the magician, 382, 383.\n\n  Dawns, the two, i. 27.\n\n  Dejanira, i. 212.\n\n  Delilah, counter-types of, i. 212.\n\n  Deluge, the Vedic, ii. 335.\n\n  Demons, mountain of, i. 96.\n\n  Demosthenes on Ath\u00ean\u00ea, ii. 247.\n\n  Devay\u00e2n\u00ee, the nymph, i. 83, 84.\n\n  Devil, the, as a bull, i. 184;\n    and the waters, ii. 390, 391.\n\n  Dh\u00e2umyas, three disciples of, i. 79.\n\n  Diana (Hindoo), ii. 43.\n\n  Dead, the, good luck brought by, i. 198.\n\n  Dionysos, ii. 217;\n    and the panther, 160.\n\n  Dioskuroi, i. 304, 305;\n    the legend of, 318.\n\n  D\u00eerghatamas, i. 84, 85.\n\n  Dog, the, and cat, ii. 56, 57.\n\n  Dolphin, the, ii. 351.\n\n  Dominic, St, and the dog, ii. 40.\n\n  Domitian and the astrologer, ii. 39.\n\n  Dove, in the Rigvedas, ii. 297;\n    Agnis as, 297;\n    Moses and the flesh of, 297;\n    self-sacrificing, 297;\n    and the ant, 298;\n    stories of the maiden (and prince) transformed into, 298;\n    story of the twelve sons changed into, 298, 299;\n    of the prince and servants changed into, 299-301;\n    the two, and Gennariello, 300-302;\n    the funereal, 303;\n    as announcer of the resurrection, 304;\n    the daughters of Anius changed into, 304;\n    the two, and Little Mary, 304;\n    and Zezolla, 305;\n    doves and the rosebush-maiden, 305;\n    Peristera changed into, 305;\n    and Venus, 305;\n    the laughing, 306;\n    and Aspasia, 306;\n    infidelity of, 306.\n\n  Drinking, trial of, i. 206.\n\n  Drusilla, Livia, and the white hen, ii. 196.\n\n  Duck, swan, or goose, the, Agnis as, ii. 307;\n    the Marutas, and the horses of the A\u00e7vin\u00e2u as, 307;\n    and golden egg, 308;\n    the sun as, 309;\n    in the lake, 309;\n    the white, and her three sons, 311;\n    death of, 311;\n    that lays a golden and a silver egg, 311, 312.\n\n  Drunkenness, and madness, ii. 348, 349.\n\n  Dundus, i. 75, 76.\n\n  Dundubhis, the cloud-monster, i. 75.\n\n\n  Eagle, the, and Zeus, ii. 195-197;\n    and the classic heroes, 196;\n    the Hellenic, 196;\n    and Aphrodit\u00ea, 197.\n\n  Earrings, theft and recovery of the, of Karnas, i. 80, 81.\n\n  Eel, the, as phallical, sacrificial, and divine, ii. 341;\n    proverbs about, 341;\n    eating, 342;\n    with two heads and two tails, 342;\n    transformation into a fountain and an, 343;\n    the maiden changed into an, 343;\n    and monster-serpent, 343;\n    diabolical, 344;\n    the epic exploit, 344.\n\n  Eggs, hatching of, and thunder, ii. 281;\n    worship of, 291;\n    the golden, 292;\n    beginning with, 292, 293.\n\n  Elephant and the hare, ii. 77;\n    mythical qualities of, 91;\n    general mythical significance, 92;\n    Airavanas, 92;\n    the white, overcome by the monkey, 93;\n    in the lake, 93;\n    that supports the world, 92, 93, 95;\n    and the tortoise, 93-95;\n    the Vedic, 94.\n\n  Emilius, the lazy, and the grateful pike, i. 195-198.\n\n  Empusa, i. 367.\n\n  Endymion, i. 429.\n\n  Epics, the, killing of the serpent the theme of all, ii. 392.\n\n  Eros as a fish, ii. 340.\n\n  Esmeralda and Quasimodo, loves of, i. 421.\n\n  Eulenspiegel, ii. 246.\n\n  Eur\u00f4p\u00ea, i. 264, 265, 272.\n\n  Exchanges, tales of unfortunate, i. 176.\n\n\n  Farquhar II., death of, ii. 14.\n\n  Fecundity, symbols of, i. 49.\n\n  Feridun, episode of old age of, i. 111.\n\n  Finger, the knowing little, i. 166;\n    Small Little, story of, ii. 151, 152.\n\n  Finns, the, the epopee of, i. 150.\n\n  Firefly, the, ii. 212, 213.\n\n  Firud, i. 117.\n\n  Fish, the laughing, i. 249;\n    symbolic meaning of, 249;\n    the April, 250;\n    and the man's seed, 250;\n    celestial metamorphosis into, ii. 331;\n    become a stone, 331;\n    laughing, 333;\n    Alexander and the, 333;\n    the little gold, 334;\n    Vishnus as a, 334, 335;\n    and Aphrodit\u00ea, 340;\n    phallical, 341;\n    wise and stupid, 349;\n    and the ring, 350;\n    the heroic, 350, 351;\n    and pearl, 352;\n    sacred, 353.\n\n  Fly, the, and bear, ii. 221;\n    and ant, 222.\n\n  Flies, ii. 221.\n\n  Fleece, the golden, i. 146, 429.\n\n  Flute, the magic, i. 161, 195.\n\n  Fool, the fortunate, i. 195;\n    the would-be, fortune-making, i. 240.\n\n  Fox, the, and the bear, ii. 113;\n    mythical significance, 122;\n    and jackal, 123;\n    double aspect of legendary, 123, 124;\n    the wolf and honey, 128, 129;\n    and the old man whose wife is dead, 129, 130;\n    as weeper, 130;\n    and tail, 131;\n    and four hungry animals, 131;\n    the hungry, and bird, 131;\n    and wolf, 132, 133;\n    and lost girl, 133;\n    and the cheese, 133;\n    as go-between, 134;\n    and Buhtan, 134, 135;\n    and Cosimo, 135;\n    and hare, 136, 137;\n    and cock, 137, 138;\n    knaveries and cunning, 139;\n    and other animals, 139, 140;\n    the sick, and lion, 140;\n    human antitype, 140;\n    Lycaon, 147.\n\n  Formicola, Captain, and the shepherd's son, ii. 45.\n\n  Freya, i. 212;\n    the foot of, 253.\n\n  Frog, the, and mouse, ii. 71, 72.\n\n  Frogs, the, in the sky, ii. 373;\n    imitating the sounds of, 373;\n    and the serpent or heron, 374;\n    in the 103d hymn of the Rigvedas, 374;\n    and Indras and Zeus, 374;\n    and the moon, 375-377;\n    the dumb, 375;\n    and Proserpina, 375;\n    and serpent, 376;\n    and rook, 376;\n    the diabolical, 376, 377;\n    two dragons in the form of, 377;\n    the maiden changed into, 377-379.\n\n\n  Gahs, the, i. 98.\n\n  Galanthis, ii. 53.\n\n  Galathea, i. 421, 422.\n\n  Gandham\u00e2danas mountains, i. 52, 55.\n\n  Gandharvas, the, i. 52, 53, 149, 160, 311;\n    appetites of, 365, 367, 369, 370, 379.\n\n  Gane\u00e7as, ii. 68.\n\n  Gang\u00e2, the nymph, i. 68.\n\n  Ganges, the, ii. 308.\n\n  Ganymede, rape of, ii. 196.\n\n  Garatkarus, the wise, i. 68, 69.\n\n  Gardabhas, i. 365, 369.\n\n  Gargantua, at birth, i. 259.\n\n  Garudas, the bird, and elephant, ii. 94, 95;\n    and the monsters, 184;\n    and the birds, 245, 363.\n\n  G\u00e2t\u00e2yus, the omniscient vulture, ii. 185.\n\n  Gazelle, the misleading, ii. 84.\n\n  Gefion, voyage of, i. 222.\n\n  Gemshid, legend of, i. 95.\n\n  Genevi\u00e8ve, the Persian, i. 121, 219.\n\n  Gennariello and Milluccio, ii. 300-302.\n\n  Geusurva, the, i. 98, 99.\n\n  Gerion, the oxen of, i. 273, 277.\n\n  Ghosh\u00e2, the leprous, ii. 3, 5.\n\n  Giant-monster, the, and dwarf, i. 148, 149.\n\n  Giovannino, the fearless, i. 202, 388.\n\n  Girl, the, persecuted, i. 121;\n    affianced to three, 123;\n    in the chest, Calmuc story of, 131;\n    seven years old, Esthonian story of, 153;\n    wise, of the wood, 154;\n    the poor, and the lady of the waters (Esth.), 154;\n    the beautiful, and the witch, 218.\n\n  Giuseppe, the boy, and the ant's leg, ii. 45, 46.\n\n  Gnat, the, ii. 221.\n\n  Goat, the, triple aspect of, i. 401;\n    the cloud as, 402;\n    the he-, 402, 403;\n    A\u00e7vin\u00e2u as, 403;\n    and apple-tree, 405;\n    and walnut-tree, 405;\n    kids of, and wolf, 406, 407;\n    revenge of the goat, 406, 407;\n    mythical meaning, 407;\n    he-, and merchant's daughter, 410;\n    the sacrificed he-, 415, 416;\n    as all-seeing, 418;\n    with seven eyes, 419;\n    with twelve eyes, 419;\n    constellation of the, 421;\n    as rain-bringing, 421;\n    milk of the, 421, 424;\n    blood of the he-, 422;\n    stones, 422;\n    sacrifice of he-, 423;\n    cunning of the she-, 424;\n    the witch and the boy goatherds, 425;\n    and the peasants of Sicily, 426;\n    and the goatherd of Val di Formazza, 426;\n    and the god Thor, 426;\n    in the Scandinavian mythology, 427;\n    the horned, 427, 428;\n    lust of, 427, 428;\n    in Greek mythology, 428.\n\n  Gods, the cheating of, i. 44, 45.\n\n  Gold, hand of, ii. 32.\n\n  Goose, the, and pearl, ii. 309;\n    the miraculous, 312;\n    foot of, 315;\n    the disenchanted, 315;\n    eating of, on St Michael's Day, 316.\n\n  Gorgons, the, ii. 9.\n\n  Godiva, the Mongol, i. 138.\n\n  Grasshopper, the, the wedding of, with the ant, ii. 48, 49;\n    as diviner, 48;\n    song of the wedding, 49.\n\n  Griffins, the, ii. 204, 205.\n\n  Gudrun, i. 226.\n\n  Guhas, i. 58.\n\n  Guhas, King, ii. 333.\n\n\n  Halcyon, the, phallical nature of, ii. 269;\n    the Greek, 270.\n\n  Hansas, the, ii. 306, 307, 309.\n\n  Hanumant in quest of the herb of health, i. 52, 57-59, 61, 64, 78, 89;\n    the monkey, ii. 101, 106.\n\n  Haoma, the ambrosial god, i. 97, 104.\n\n  Harayas and Haritas, i. 376.\n\n  Hare, the mythical, ii. 76;\n    habitat and king, 76;\n    and the elephant, 77;\n    and hungry lion, 77;\n    and the lion, 78;\n    and dying eagle, 78;\n    and cave of the wild beasts, 79;\n    and lamb, 79;\n    transfigured by Indras, 79;\n    and parturition, 80;\n    that sleeps with eyes open, 80;\n    and bear, 81;\n    and a wedding procession, 81;\n    and the girl that rides on it, 82.\n\n  Hari\u00e7candras, i. 69-72.\n\n  Haris and hari, meanings of, i. 376; ii. 99, 320.\n\n  Harpies, the, ii. 201, 202.\n\n  Hawk, mythical meaning of, ii. 192, 193;\n    as a badge of knighthood, 193;\n    sacredness of, 193;\n    and Attila, 194;\n    and the Greek gods, 194;\n    superstitious beliefs about, 194.\n\n  Heads, exchange of, i. 303, 304.\n\n  Health, herb of, i. 52-54;\n    Gandharvas, guardians of, 53.\n\n  Heaven, cup of, i. 8;\n    battle in, 10, 11.\n\n  Hedgehog and wolf, ii. 11, 12.\n\n  Helen, the Argive, i. 170, 212; ii. 318.\n\n  Hen, the crowing, ii. 284, 285;\n    dreaming of the brood of the, 288.\n\n  Herakles and Augeias, i. 143;\n    and Cacus, 232, 235, 266, 267;\n    and the golden cup, 273;\n    and the oxen of Gerion, 277;\n    competes with the he-goat, 428;\n    and the boar, ii. 9.\n\n  Hermes and Admetos, i. 279;\n    and S\u00e2rameyas, ii. 22.\n\n  Hermits, the dwarf, ii. 364.\n\n  Hero, the solar, riddle of, as a wonderful cowherd, i. 29;\n    maiden helper, 209;\n    concealed, 237;\n    in the night, 326;\n    saved by a tree, 334, 335.\n\n  Heroes, the, hunger and thirst of, i. 8;\n    chief arena of, 15;\n    weapons of, 62;\n    mountain of, 97;\n    biblical, 118;\n    disguise of, ii. 2;\n    noises at the birth of, 373.\n\n  Heroines, perverted, i. 211, 212.\n\n  Hesperides, garden of the, i. 274; ii. 410, 418.\n\n  Hippolytos, the legend of, i. 345.\n\n  Hippomenes and Atalanta, ii. 159.\n\n  Hog, as guise of the hero, ii. 2;\n    the skin of, 5;\n    bristles of, 5;\n    dedicated to St Anthony, 6;\n    lust of, 6;\n    as Vishnus, 7, 8;\n    and wolf, 11.\n\n  Holda, the dark, i. 251, 252.\n\n  Hoopoe, the, ii. 230.\n\n  Horse, the, of the sun, i. 290, 291;\n    black, 291, 292, 295;\n    the three, 291, 296;\n    tail and mane, 295;\n    and the cat, 317;\n    the myth of, 330, 331;\n    fat of, 332;\n    the strength of Indras, 336;\n    the symbolic meaning of head of, 339;\n    the hero's, 340;\n    binding of, 341;\n    the neighing of, 346, 347;\n    tears of, 349, 350;\n    mythical, 349;\n    the foam of, 352;\n    the hoofs of, 353, 354;\n    and the gods, 355.\n\n  Husband, the wicked, i. 124.\n\n  Husbands, exchange of, i. 317.\n\n\n  Idol, the wooden, \u00c6sop's fable of, i. 177.\n\n  Ichneumon, the, ii. 51-53.\n\n  Iliad, the, most solemn moment of, i. 16.\n\n  Ilvalas and V\u00e2t\u00e2pis, legend of, i. 414.\n\n  Indras, the r\u00f4le of, i. 7, 15;\n    appetite and food, 8;\n    horns of the bull, 9;\n    as the fire-god Agnis, 10;\n    his fields of battle, 12, 15;\n    great exploits of, 12;\n    threefold victory, 13, 14;\n    weapons of, 14;\n    companion of Somas, 18, 19;\n    the triple, 20;\n    moments of, 20, 23;\n    special function, 27;\n    relations to the aurora, 27;\n    and the blind lame one, 32;\n    destroyer of the witch Aurora, 33;\n    lover of the aurora, 35;\n    personified in R\u00e2mas, 59-61;\n    slays Vi\u00e7var\u00fbpas, 76;\n    fall of, 76;\n    protector of Utankas, 80, 81;\n    transformation, 89;\n    quarrel of, with the Marutas, 106;\n    horses of, 351;\n    as a ram, 403;\n    with the thousand eyes, 418;\n    the rudder of, ii. 7;\n    as a wild boar, 8;\n    and the dwarf hermits, 95;\n    and Vishnus, 99, 100;\n    and the monkeys, 101;\n    and Vritras, 154, 155;\n    deprived of strength and beauty, 155;\n    as a hawk, 181;\n    and Ahaly\u00e2, 280, 281, 330;\n    impotent, 326;\n    unchaining the waters, 330;\n    drunk, 349;\n    and the monster, 393, 394;\n    killing the monster, 394, 395.\n\n  Indus, i. 18.\n\n  Io, i. 264, 265, 271, 272.\n\n  Iphiklos, ii. 198, 199.\n\n  Isfendiar, seven adventures of, i. 118.\n\n  Iskander, legend of, i. 119.\n\n  Ivan, three essays of, i. 301, 302;\n    (and Mary), with horse, dog, and apple-tree, ii. 28;\n    resuscitated, 29;\n    the three, sons respectively of the bitch, the cook, and the queen, 29;\n    and the ring, 345;\n    and his frog-bride, story of, 377-379.\n\n  Ivan Tzarevic and the serpent, i. 177;\n    and Helen and the bear, 178;\n    and Princess Mary, 179-182;\n    and the demoniacal cow, 181;\n    and the magic apples, 182;\n    and the witch in the balance, 183;\n    and the hero Nikanore, 184;\n    and the theft of the black bull, 186;\n    son of the black girl, 188;\n    and his brothers, killing the serpents, 191;\n    and the rescue of the three sisters, 194;\n    of the dog, 194;\n    the drinker, 194;\n    and the dead body of his mother, 198, 199;\n    courage of, 201;\n    variations of, 202-204;\n    horse of, 340.\n\n  Ivan Durak and the humpbacked horse, i. 293, 294;\n    and the fire-breathing grey horse, 296;\n    who, mounted, three times kisses the princess through twelve\n          glasses, 297.\n\n  Ivanushka and little Helen, i. 409.\n\n\n  Jack and the beanstalk, i. 244.\n\n  Jackal and the ass, i. 378;\n    the perfidious, ii. 125;\n    friend of the hero, 125;\n    in borrowed feathers, 126;\n    the, inquisitive and vile, 126;\n    and the parrots, 127.\n\n  Joan lou Pec, i. 397.\n\n  John, little, and his red shoes, i. 195, 196.\n\n  Johnny and the goose-swans, ii. 309, 310.\n\n  Jonah (the Hindoo), ii. 337.\n\n  Jorsh, the, ii. 336-345;\n    trial by the fishes of, 346-349;\n    and Reinecke Fuchs, 348.\n\n  Julius C\u00e6sar, horse of, i. 338, 350.\n\n  Jupiter Ammon, i. 429.\n\n\n  Kabandhas, the monster, i. 62-64.\n\n  Ka\u00e7apas, the, ii. 362.\n\n  Ka\u00e7yapas, the fecundator, ii. 364.\n\n  Kadmos, i. 265, 272.\n\n  Kai Khosru, the hero, i. 117, 118.\n\n  Kan Pudai, Altaic story of, i. 144, 145.\n\n  Kapilas, ravisher of the sacrificial horse, i. 331.\n\n  Kapis, ii. 98, 99.\n\n  Katoma and the hero's horse, i. 340, 341.\n\n  K\u00e2u\u00e7aly\u00e2, i. 332.\n\n  Kawus, King, i. 112, 113, 115, 116.\n\n  Kentaurs, the, i. 367-369.\n\n  Ker Iupta and the third brother, i. 290.\n\n  Kere\u00e7\u00e2\u00e7pa, the Persian hero, i. 106, 108;\n    myth of, 313, 314, 335.\n\n  King's son, the, and the peasant girl, i. 163-166.\n\n  Kishmar, cypress of, i. 96.\n\n  Krimhilt, i. 212.\n\n  Krishnas, celebration of birth of, i. 51;\n    father of, 75.\n\n  Kruth, the bird, and tortoise, ii. 369, 370.\n\n  Kuhn, A., i. 263.\n\n  Kumbhakarnas, the monster, ii. 400, 401.\n\n\n  Lakshmanas, i. 55;\n    and R\u00e2mas, 62, 63, 66, 77; ii. 85.\n\n  Lame, the, and the blind, i. 217.\n\n  Lapillus Alectorius, ii. 287.\n\n  Lanka, three brothers of, i. 77.\n\n  Lark, the, in cosmogony, ii. 273, 274;\n    and St Christopher, 274;\n    the crested, 275;\n    Bharadv\u00e2gas, 275.\n\n  Leaf, the magic, i. 155, 156.\n\n  Lear, King, in embryo, i. 85; ii. 230.\n\n  L\u00eada, ii. 185.\n\n  Lion, the, and the bull, i. 278;\n    (and tiger) symbol of strength and majesty, ii. 153;\n    Indras as a, 154;\n    virtue of hair of, 155;\n    lion's share, 156;\n    -sun, the western, 157;\n    sign of, 159;\n    Androcles and, 157;\n    the Nem\u00e6an, 158;\n    afraid of the cock, 159.\n\n  Lizard, the, as witch, ii. 385;\n    as omen, 385;\n    the little, 385;\n    the green, 386, 387;\n    and poor Laric, 387.\n\n  Locust, the nocturnal, ii. 47.\n\n  Lohengrin and Elsa, the legend of, ii. 317-319.\n\n  Loki, i. 226, 227;\n    and the pike, ii. 333, 334.\n\n  Louse, the, stories of, ii. 222.\n\n  Luc\u00eca, St, the Vedic, i. 36, 254;\n    feast of, ii. 210.\n\n  Lucius, of Apuleius, i. 366.\n\n  Lunus, i. 58;\n    the god, 139, 324.\n\n  Lynx, the, ii. 54.\n\n\n  Madonna the old, and the maiden who combs her head, i. 180.\n\n  Magician, the, of the seven heads, ii. 36.\n\n  Magpie, the, in mythology, ii. 258, 259;\n    as a robber, 259;\n    knowledge and malice of, 259;\n    bird of omen, 260.\n\n  Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2ratam, the, most solemn moments of, i. 16.\n\n  Mahrusa, i. 125.\n\n  Maiden, the enchanted, and her hair, i. 146;\n    Esthonian story of the prince and persecuted, 151-153;\n    and the golden slipper, 208;\n    that by a puppet weaves a shirt for a prince, 208;\n    the, and the apple-tree, 251;\n    the fairies' favourite, and the enchanted prince, ii. 286, 287.\n\n  Man and woman, the old, with the nine cows, i. 132, 133;\n    the old, who essays heaven in vain with his wife, 190;\n    and the cabbage, beanstalk, &c., 190, 191;\n    the old, and the beanstalk, 243.\n\n  Man-bull, Calmuc tale of, i. 129.\n\n  Mandaras, the, ii. 361, 362.\n\n  Manus, ii. 248;\n    and Vishnus as a fish, 335.\n\n  Mans\u00fbr, i. 315.\n\n  Marcellus, St, the legend of, ii. 159.\n\n  Mare's head and the two girls, i. 298.\n\n  M\u00e2rg\u00e2ras, ii. 42, 43.\n\n  Mar\u00ee\u00e7as, the stag, i. 64; ii. 85.\n\n  Mars and the wild boar, ii. 14.\n\n  Martin, St, and birds of, ii. 270.\n\n  Marutas, or winds, i. 5-7, 10, 12;\n    kindred of, 17, 59; ii. 7;\n    horses of, 83, 84;\n    as monkeys, 99.\n\n  Marziella and the geese, ii. 313.\n\n  Mary and the cow's ear, and the step-mother with three daughters, i.\n          179-182;\n    little, and the slipper, 196, 197.\n\n  Matsy\u00e2s, the, ii. 332.\n\n  M\u00e2y\u00e2vin, the monster, i. 313.\n\n  Max M\u00fcller, i. 262, 263;\n    and the panegyric of the frogs, ii. 371, 372.\n\n  Medea, of the Vedas, i. 33, 35.\n\n  Medea, i. 212.\n\n  Medusa, i. 305.\n\n  Menas, ii. 87.\n\n  Merchant, synonymous with miser, i. 184;\n    son of the, who transforms himself into a horse, 342;\n    the, and his three daughters, 410.\n\n  Mercury, i. 335;\n    legend of, ii. 23.\n\n  Merdi G\u00e2nb\u00e2z, the faithful, i. 120.\n\n  Merhuma, the story of, i. 120, 121, 315.\n\n  Merula, the fish, ii. 340.\n\n  Metempsychosis, ii. 328.\n\n  Mice and the dead, ii. 67;\n    apparitions of, 67;\n    men transformed into, 67;\n    presages from, 67, 68;\n    and lion and elephant, 68;\n    war of, with the frogs, 72.\n\n  Michael, St, i. 183.\n\n  Midas, myth of (the Mongolian), i. 381;\n    (the Phrygian), 382, 383;\n    as musical critic, 385;\n    ears of, 386;\n    as a miser, 389;\n    the progenitor and judge, 390.\n\n  Milky-sea, the, i. 52;\n    -way, the, 228.\n\n  Millstone, the devil under the, i. 114.\n\n  Mil\u00f4n of Kroton, ii. 113, 147.\n\n  Minotaurus, the Calmuc, i. 129, 265.\n\n  Minucehr, the hero, i. 112.\n\n  Mithra, the solar god, i. 95, 102, 103;\n    bow of, 107.\n\n  Mitras, the sun, a witch at a riddle, i. 30, 31, 52.\n\n  Mole, the, ii. 73, 74.\n\n  Monkey, original home of myth of, ii. 97;\n    equivalents, 97, 98;\n    and Vishnus, 99;\n    mythical significations, 99;\n    king of, 100, 101;\n    Hanumant, 101-106;\n    mistaken for a man, 103;\n    tail of, 107;\n    divination from, 107;\n    and Jove, 108;\n    as stupid, 108;\n    musician, 119.\n\n  Monster, the celestial, i. 10, 12;\n    subdued by Indras, 12-14;\n    that keeps back the waters, ii. 393;\n    killing of, 394, 395;\n    and the egg of the duck, 395;\n    the eggs of, 396;\n    the aquatic, 404.\n\n  Moon, the mythical nature and office of, i. 18;\n    as a pearl, 54;\n    as a good fairy, 56, 57;\n    as a bull, 58;\n    Indian, ii. 87.\n\n  Mother of gold and her three dwarf sons, i. 153;\n    story of the, who recovers her hands and son by throwing her arms\n          into a fountain, ii. 31;\n    and the hands of gold, 31.\n\n  Mouse, transformed by the penitent into a beautiful maiden, ii. 65, 66;\n    and the mountain, 66;\n    and maiden, 69;\n    the grateful, 70;\n    and sparrow, 70, 71;\n    the, Psicharpax, 71.\n\n  Muses, the, and the bee, ii. 223.\n\n  M\u00fbsh (m\u00fbshas, &c.), ii. 43.\n\n  Music in the heavens, sorrow-inspired, i. 149.\n\n  Mythology, the Greek, i. 262;\n    mobile nature of the objects of, 319, 320;\n    allegorical treatment of, 421;\n    a Semitic, ii. 412;\n    the science of, 422;\n    principal error in the scientific study of, 422, 423;\n    concord of the learned in, 423;\n    way to study, 424;\n    animal, 425;\n    product of imagination, 427.\n\n  Myths, the central interest and most splendid moments of, i. 15, 16;\n    development of objects in the, into personalities with\n          relationships, 320, 321;\n    the negative as a factor in the formation of, 322;\n    the uncertain subjective in, 323;\n    entrance of variety into, 324;\n    interpretation of, 323-326.\n\n\n  Nakulas, i. 311; ii. 43, 51, 52.\n\n  Nalas, ii. 404.\n\n  Neptune, i. 430.\n\n  Netherworld, the, ii. 403.\n\n  Nibelungen, the, most solemn moments of, i. 16, 257.\n\n  Night and the aurora, i. 36, 37.\n\n  Nightingale, as prognosticator, ii. 236;\n    whistling of, 237;\n    propitious to lovers, 239.\n\n  Nisos and Scylla, ii. 197.\n\n  Noah, the Vedic, ii. 335.\n\n  Nose, the bleeding, Calmuc story of, i. 131.\n\n  N\u00fckteus, ii. 246, 247.\n\n  Numbers, sacred, i. 6, 76, 77; ii. 416.\n\n\n  Odin, i. 224, 226, 227.\n\n  Odysseus, i. 266.\n\n  Oidin-oidon, i. 398, 399.\n\n  Okeanos, the bull-headed, i. 267.\n\n  Onokentaurs, i. 367-369.\n\n  Orpheus, i. 149, 160.\n\n  Otter, the monster, ii. 391.\n\n  Owl, the, as the bird of death, ii. 244;\n    as an evil genius, 244;\n    and vulture, 244, 245;\n    and the crows, 245, 246;\n    cunning, 246;\n    and Ath\u00ean\u00ea, 247;\n    eggs of, 247;\n    the male, 247, 248;\n    prophetic faculty of, 249;\n    horned, 249, 250.\n\n  Ox, the speaking, i. 247;\n    and Zeus, 248;\n    as priest, 258.\n\n\n  Pallas and the war of the frogs and mice, ii. 72;\n    and the crow, 254.\n\n  Pan and Midas, i. 385;\n    and the ass, 387, 391;\n    god of shepherds, 387;\n    at Marathon, 389, 428, 429.\n\n  Panayas, the, ii. 19, 20.\n\n  P\u00e2ndavas, the five brothers, i. 77-79.\n\n  Pandora, i. 34.\n\n  Pandus, ii. 84.\n\n  Paravrig, the blind-lame, i. 32.\n\n  Par\u00eekshit, King, ii. 84.\n\n  Parrot, the, myth of, ii. 320;\n    and the colour haris, 321;\n    as \u00e7ukas, 321;\n    lunar character of, 322;\n    as counsellor, 322.\n\n  Partridge, the devil as, ii. 227;\n    Talaus changed into, 228;\n    and peasant, 228.\n\n  Pasipha\u00eb, myth of, i. 237, 266.\n\n  Peacock, the mythical equivalents of, ii. 323;\n    the hiding of, 324;\n    as rival of the cuckoo, 324;\n    and dove, 324;\n    Indras as, 325, 326;\n    feather of, and the younger brother, 325;\n    tail of, 326, 327;\n    as a symbol of immortality, 327.\n\n  Pearl, the ambrosial, i. 54.\n\n  Peasant, riddle-solving, i. 142.\n\n  P\u00eagasos, and Hippocrene, i. 176, 291, 305, 338.\n\n  Penelope, i. 428;\n    and he-goat, ii. 163.\n\n  Pepin, the times of, i. 252;\n    King, 255, 256.\n\n  Peirithoos and Trikerberos, ii. 39.\n\n  Perrault, story of, i. 367.\n\n  Perrette, the Calmuc, i. 134, 135.\n\n  Peter, St, and the dog, ii. 27.\n\n  Phaeth\u00f4n, i. 277;\n    the bull, 277, 343, 344.\n\n  Phalaris, the bull, i. 239.\n\n  Phineus, ii. 74.\n\n  Phrixos and Helle, the Russian, i. 409, 429.\n\n  Phoenix, the, mythical significance of, ii. 200, 201;\n    death of, 200.\n\n  Pi\u00e7\u00e2c\u00e2s, the ass, i. 375, 376.\n\n  Piccolino, ii. 151.\n\n  Picus, King, ii. 265, 266.\n\n  Pike, the luminous, ii. 334;\n    the brown, 337, 338;\n    and Emilius, 338;\n    the phallical, 339;\n    and crab and heron, 339;\n    drunk, 349.\n\n  Pimpi, the stupid, and the hog, ii. 10.\n\n  Pipetta and the sackful of souls, i. 388.\n\n  Pipkin, the miraculous, i. 126;\n    the stories of, 243-245.\n\n  Piran and Pilsem, i. 314.\n\n  Poem, an epic, i. 141.\n\n  Polyph\u00eamos, i. 266.\n\n  Porcupine, the, ashes and quills of, ii. 12, 13.\n\n  Pork, virtues of, ii. 10, 11.\n\n  Porringer, the enchanted, i. 126.\n\n  Portugal, third son of the King of, and the dragons, ii. 187-189.\n\n  Poseid\u00f4n, i. 266.\n\n  Prag\u00e2patis, i. 47.\n\n  Pretiosa, disguised as a bear, ii. 117.\n\n  Priapos, i. 394, 396;\n    and Silenos, 384.\n\n  Pri\u00e7nayas, the, i. 6, 16, 17.\n\n  Prince, the, and princess of the bird's egg, i. 170;\n    who three times wins the race, 291;\n    and enchanted mantle, 411.\n\n  Princess, three-breasted, i. 86, 122;\n    in the chest, Celtic story of, 241;\n    and the pups, 412.\n\n  Proserpina, the Teutonic, i. 252, 260.\n\n  Proverb, the, of shutting the stable after the cow is stolen, i. 231;\n    of shutting Peppergate, 231;\n    recovering the cow's tail, 232;\n    of the cow's tail wagging but never falling, 234;\n    of the egg-hatching cow, 238;\n    of the cow and the hare, of the cow and the moon, 241, 242;\n    of hunting by blowing a horn, 242;\n    of the blind cow finding the pea, 243;\n    of the laughing cow, 245;\n    of the spinning cow, 250, 251;\n    of the cow-maid that spins, 250.\n\n  Proverbs, German, relating to the cow, i. 229;\n    mythical, 230, 231.\n\n  Puppets, the three, i. 207.\n\n  Purse, the enchanted, i. 126.\n\n  Pur\u00fbravas, myth of, i. 67.\n\n  P\u00fbrus, i. 84.\n\n  P\u00fbshan, i. 409.\n\n  Pyramos and Thysbe, ii. 157.\n\n  Pythagoras once a peacock, ii. 327;\n    the belief of, 328.\n\n\n  Quail, the, in Rigvedas, ii. 276;\n    as symbol of the Tzar, 276;\n    and Hercules and Latona, 277;\n    and moon, 277;\n    the game of, 277;\n    as a bird of omen, 277, 278.\n\n  Queen, the blinded, and her servant, i. 218, 219.\n\n  Queen-mother, the, and her wicked sister, i. 412.\n\n\n  Rahus, ii. 252.\n\n  R\u00e2k\u00e2, i. 50, 56.\n\n  Ram, the rain-cloud as a, i. 402;\n    Indras, 403;\n    Indras and testicles of, 414;\n    devourer of, 415.\n\n  R\u00e2mas, the sun, i. 55, 57-59;\n    _alter ego_ of Indras, 59-62;\n    and Lakshmanas, 63, 77, 311, 312, 315;\n    ii. 24, 85;\n    and Kabandhas, i. 64-66, 81, 86;\n    and Bharatas, 374.\n\n  R\u00e2m\u00e2yanam, the, most solemn moments of, i. 16.\n\n  R\u00e2vanas, the monster, i. 76, 77;\n    asses of, 375.\n\n  Rebhas, i. 299.\n\n  Reinardus Vulpes, ii. 141.\n\n  Renart, Procession du, ii. 140, 141.\n\n  Resurrection, offerings symbolic, of, i. 48, 49;\n    faith in, 339.\n\n  Rhodop\u00ea and her slipper, ii. 197.\n\n  Ribhavas, the brothers, work and workmanship of, i. 20, 21, 46;\n    names and relationships, 21, 22;\n    identification with Indras as Agohyas, 22;\n    the third of, 20-26;\n    in Hindoo tradition, 25;\n    protectors of the cow, 27;\n    and the evening aurora, 33;\n    the three, in search of the earrings, 79, 81, 125.\n\n  Riddles, propounding, i. 82, 102, 112;\n    solving of, 143;\n    identification by solving, 206, 207.\n\n  Rigr\u00e2\u00e7vas, the red horse, i. 415, 417.\n\n  Rigvedas, the, i. 4, 40;\n    28th hymn of 10th book, ii. 77, 78;\n    the 103d hymn of, 371-373.\n\n  Rikshas, ii. 98.\n\n  Ring of recognition, i. 55;\n    of Dushyantas, ii. 350.\n\n  Rocco, San, and dog, ii. 27.\n\n  Rohitas, i. 69-72.\n\n  Romeo and Juliet, i. 125.\n\n  Romulus, i. 118; and Remus, ii. 177.\n\n  Round table, the, poems of, i. 257.\n\n  Rudras, i. 5, 47, 89; ii. 7.\n\n  Rustem, the myth of, i. 112-116;\n    and the ass, 379;\n    horse of, and the lion, 380.\n\n\n  Sack, the, the hero in, i. 237, 239, 240;\n    the dwarf in, 238;\n    and the hero cut in pieces, 295.\n\n  Sailors, the, saved in the buffalo's hide, i. 239.\n\n  Saints, i. 355, 356.\n\n  Sal, the hero, i. 112.\n\n  Salamander, the, ii. 380.\n\n  Sampo, the Finnish cup of abundance, i. 150.\n\n  Samson, i. 236;\n    the Hindoo, ii. 104-107;\n    and the lion, 154-156.\n\n  Samvaranas, i. 86, 87.\n\n  Saram\u00e2, i. 57, 58, 97;\n    and the Panayas, ii. 19-22;\n    and the cows in the rock, 19;\n    impersonation of the moon, 21;\n    sons of, 22;\n    and Sarameyas, 24.\n\n  Sarameyas, ii. 22-24.\n\n  Savitar, i. 54, 65.\n\n  Sarany\u00fb, i. 347.\n\n  Schmierbock, the cunning, i. 413, 416;\n    ii. 151.\n\n  Schwanritter, the, ii. 319.\n\n  Scylla, ii. 34.\n\n  Sea-urchin, the, ii. 336, 350.\n\n  Sefid, the demon, i. 113.\n\n  Sel\u00ean\u00ea, ii. 217.\n\n  Serpent, as the privileged demoniac form, ii. 389;\n    tail of, as betraying the devil, 389;\n    the devil, and the young widow, 389;\n    -devil, and the waters, 390;\n    the killing of, the theme of all epics, 392;\n    in the Rigvedas, 393-396;\n    that bites its tail, 396;\n    Agnis as, 397;\n    Indras, the Marutas, 397;\n    the wisdom of, 397;\n    and the Somas, 397, 398;\n    the phallical, 399;\n    Anantas, 399;\n    Vasukis, 400;\n    and the cloud-monster, 400, 401;\n    the funereal, 401, 402;\n    -rope, of Yamas, 402;\n    collar of, 402;\n    and S\u00eet\u00e2, 402;\n    and riches, 403;\n    and the lower world, 403;\n    Karkotakas, and Nalas, 405;\n    and hunter, 405;\n    as a wise magician, 405;\n    the crested, 406;\n    three-headed, 406;\n    skin and tongue of, 407;\n    and lost riches and the dead, 407;\n    the white, 407;\n    worship of, 408;\n    and children, 408;\n    and the heads of the family, 408;\n    and the tree, 409;\n    and moon, 410;\n    tree guarded by a, 410;\n    symbol of, 411;\n    the, in the Persian mythology, 412, 417;\n    the \u00c7ruvara, 412, 413;\n    the breath of, 413;\n    and frog, 414;\n    the two talking, 415, 416;\n    the three headed, 416;\n    fairy, and three gifts, 417;\n    and king who has betrayed the maiden, 417;\n    the sleeping, with eyes open, 417;\n    and the king's daughter, 418;\n    as whistler, 419.\n\n  Sheep, the, triple aspect of, i. 401.\n\n  Shepherd's son, ii. 45;\n    and Giuseppe, 45.\n\n  Shepherdess, the, who proves herself a queen, i. 209-211.\n\n  Siddhi-K\u00fbr, stories of, i. 120;\n    Mongol and Calmuc stories of, 128-135.\n\n  S\u00eefrit, i. 213, 214;\n    and Br\u00fcnhilt, 329, 330;\n    horse of, 339.\n\n  Sijavush, i. 116.\n\n  Simurg, the bird, and the child Sal, ii. 188, 189.\n\n  Sirens, the, i. 149, 205, 206.\n\n  Sister, triple, i. 85.\n\n  Sisters, the three, i. 105;\n    Calmuc story of, 130.\n\n  S\u00eet\u00e2, the dawn, i. 26, 55-60, 62, 65, 66;\n    fire sacrifice of, 67, 69;\n    and Saram\u00e2, ii. 21;\n    and the serpents, 403.\n\n  Sky, the glowing, a fire, i. 69;\n    stone of, 96;\n    by night, ii. 167;\n    winged animals of, 168.\n\n  Slipper, the lost, i. 31;\n    enchanted, 126;\n    origin of throwing the, 196.\n\n  Snail, the, ii. 74, 75.\n\n  Sohrab, son of Rustem, i. 114, 115.\n\n  Solabella and her seven brothers, ii. 314.\n\n  Solomon, ring of, and the hero, i. 167;\n    story of the ring of, ii. 175.\n\n  Somas, the, i. 8, 18;\n    as a bull, and a stallion, 19, 104.\n\n  Son, the, who sacrifices his mother, i. 124.\n\n  Sons, three, rape and restoration of the, ii. 57;\n    transformation of, into doves, 57.\n\n  Sperm as ambrosia, ii. 181.\n\n  Spider, the, and its web, ii. 161, 163, 165;\n    and the wasp, 164.\n\n  Squirrel, the, and fox, ii. 73;\n    in the Edda, 73.\n\n  St James's Way, i. 422;\n    Day, 422, 423, 430.\n\n  Stag, the mythical, ii. 83;\n    the golden, 85;\n    the hero, 86;\n    at the fountain, 86;\n    Eikthyrner, 87;\n    and Telephos, 88;\n    as nourisher of heroes, 88;\n    silver images of, in churches, 88;\n    disguise of, 88, 89.\n\n  Stone, mountain of, i. 314;\n    the man turned to, ii. 285.\n\n  Stork, the, and heron, ii. 261;\n    and children, 261;\n    mythical meaning of, 261;\n    and the old man, 262;\n    and the peasant, 262.\n\n  Strix, the, ii. 202, 203.\n\n  Stymphalian, the, birds, ii. 204.\n\n  Styx, the, i. 390.\n\n  Sudabe, i. 116.\n\n  Sudeshn\u00e2, Queen, i. 85.\n\n  Sugr\u00eevas, ii. 109.\n\n  Sun, the, as a god, i. 7;\n    as a bull, 8;\n    relations of, to aurora, 27;\n    as a cowherd, 29;\n    child of night and aurora, 37;\n    the, in relation to the aurora, 27;\n    as a lame hero, 31, 32;\n    persecuted by, and persecutor of, the aurora, 33;\n    as born of aurora, 51;\n    the pearl, 54;\n    and the aurora, 56, 65;\n    and moon, 65;\n    light of the, and Ssaran, intrigue of, 138;\n    firing at, 344;\n    the, in the cloud, 394.\n\n  Sundas and Upasundas, the inseparable, i. 310.\n\n  Sunlight and Moonlight, i. 315, 316.\n\n  Superlatif, i. 259.\n\n  Suram\u00e2, i. 57, 58.\n\n  S\u00fbry\u00e2, i. 65;\n    husband of, 307.\n\n  Sva\u00e7vas, i. 343.\n\n  Svetazor and his brothers, i. 192-194.\n\n  Swallows as birds of omen, ii. 240;\n    the seven, and Sigurd, 240;\n    and the Lord, 240;\n    of good augury, 240;\n    and the crow, 241;\n    and swan, 241;\n    as babblers, 241;\n    dreaming of, 241.\n\n  Swan, the, and the prince, ii, 311;\n    hero as or on, 316.\n\n  Swineherd, the, and the hogs' tails, i. 234.\n\n  Sword, the enchanted, i. 126.\n\n\n  Tail, the, value of recovering, i. 235, 237;\n    the fox's, 236.\n\n  Takshakas, king of serpents, i. 80, 81.\n\n  Tapat\u00ee, legend of the loves of, i. 86, 87.\n\n  T\u00e2tos, the Hungarian horse, i. 288, 296.\n\n  Tehmime and Rustem, i. 114.\n\n  Telephos and the stag, ii. 88.\n\n  Tereus, the myth of, ii. 229.\n\n  Theodore, the hero, i. 296.\n\n  Thief and the pigs, i. 200, 201;\n    the, in the myths, 333.\n\n  Thomas, little, and the priest's horse, i. 234;\n    the ass, 362.\n\n  Thor, and the serpent of Midgard, i. 225;\n    his appetite, 226;\n    and the goat, 426;\n    the vessel of, 426;\n    ii. 6.\n\n  Thraetaona, i. 101, 103-106.\n\n  Three, the number, ii. 416.\n\n  Thrita, i. 103-105.\n\n  Thunder, son of, thunder-god and devil, story of, i. 159, 160.\n\n  Thunderbolt, the, i. 9, 14;\n    symbolic meaning, 250.\n\n  Tiger, tail of, ii. 160.\n\n  Tistar, i. 98.\n\n  Toad, the, as demon and as a diabolic form, ii. 379;\n    the maiden changed into, 379, 380;\n    fortune-bringing, 380;\n    sacredness of, 381;\n    and the third daughter, 381;\n    -births, 383;\n    the dried, as an amulet, 384;\n    the -stone, 384.\n\n  Tom, little, blind of an eye, and his brothers, i. 335, 336.\n\n  Tortoise and the elephant, ii. 93-95;\n    the incarnation of Vishnus as a, 360-362;\n    originally, 361;\n    names of, 361, 362;\n    and mountain, 362;\n    and elephant, 363-364;\n    the funereal, 365;\n    buried, 365;\n    blood of, 365;\n    and frogs, 366;\n    changed into the lyre, 366;\n    the shields of, 366;\n    and Zeus, 366, 367;\n    and new-born children, 367;\n    mythical meaning, 368;\n    German legend of, 368;\n    the island, 368;\n    and the hare, 369;\n    and the eagle, 369;\n    and the bird Kruth, 369, 370.\n\n  Tree, the ambrosial, guarded by a dragon, ii. 410, 411.\n\n  Tri\u00e7ankus, i. 72-74.\n\n  Tri\u00e7iras, i. 76, 77.\n\n  Trigat\u00e2, i. 57.\n\n  Trinity, Indian, dispute for pre-eminence, ii. 8.\n\n  Tritas, i. 8;\n    horse of, 23;\n    character and relationships, 23;\n    why called stupid, 23;\n    in the well, 24, 25;\n    and his brothers, 25.\n\n  Turn-little-Pea and his brothers, story of, i. 191, 192.\n\n  Tuti-Name, the, i. 119.\n\n  Tvashtar, i. 21, 34;\n    the Hindoo Vulcan, ii. 154, 155.\n\n  Twilights, the two, i. 18, 27.\n\n  Tyrant, the, and the bleating lamb, i. 416, 417.\n\n  Tzarevic, Ivan, and his Medea sister Helen, i. 212-214;\n    and his penitent sister, 214-216;\n    and his perfidious mother, 216;\n    and his perfidious wife, 216, 217;\n    and his wife Anna, 217.\n\n\n  Uccaih\u00e7ravas, the horse, i. 288, 289.\n\n  Udd\u00e2lakas, i. 80.\n\n  Ukko, the Finnic thunder-god, i. 147.\n\n  Upamanyus, i. 79.\n\n  Ursula, St, ii. 118.\n\n  Urva\u00e7i, the myth of, i. 39, 67, 84, 170, 273, 365, 369.\n\n  Ush\u00e2, i. 26.\n\n  Utankas, myth of, i. 80, 81, 95, 331, 333.\n\n\n  Vadhrimat\u00ee, ii. 32.\n\n  V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen, dwarf-god, i. 147, 148;\n    harp of, 149.\n\n  Valkyries, the, and their swan forms, ii. 315.\n\n  Valm\u00eekam, ii. 43.\n\n  Vamr\u00ee, ii. 43.\n\n  Vamras, ii. 44.\n\n  Varunas, i. 52, 69-72, 107.\n\n  Vasavas, the, i. 68.\n\n  Vasishtas, cow of, i. 72-74, 87, 88;\n    vain attempt at self-destruction, 88, 99.\n\n  Valas, the grotto of, i. 13;\n    as a cow, 15.\n\n  V\u00e2yus, i. 5-7.\n\n  Vedas, i. 80.\n\n  Vegetables, as symbols of generation, i. 164.\n\n  Veretraghna, the bull, i. 103, 104.\n\n  Vespasian and the horse's dung, i. 389.\n\n  Vesta, i. 384.\n\n  Vi\u00e7vamitras, myth of, i. 72-74, 88.\n\n  Vi\u00e7var\u00fbpas, with the three heads, i. 76.\n\n  Vikram\u00e2dityas, the history of, i. 136, 137.\n\n  Vishnus, i. 20, 24, 26, 54, 57;\n    personified in Ram\u00e2s, 59;\n    three steps of, 301, 302, 334;\n    as a wild boar, ii. 8, 9;\n    and Hiranyakshas, 8;\n    and the monkeys, 99, 100;\n    as haris, 424.\n\n  Vivasvant, i. 34.\n\n  Vouru-Kasha, sea of, i. 96.\n\n  Vulcan, the Vedic, i. 21;\n    the Christian, ii. 40.\n\n  Vulnerability of the hero or monster, i. 82.\n\n  Vulture, the, in the classics, ii. 198;\n    feathers of, 198;\n    and the immortal liver, 198;\n    voracity, 199.\n\n  Vultures, the twin, ii. 184.\n\n\n  Walchelm, the priest, i. 293.\n\n  Walnut-tree, and goat, i. 405.\n\n  Wasp, wisdom of, ii. 221.\n\n  Way, the Milky, i. 421;\n    and she-goat, 422.\n\n  Weasel, the, ii. 52, 53.\n\n  Wedding-ring, the, i. 169.\n\n  Whale, the mythical, ii. 337;\n    and the fleet, 345.\n\n  Wife, the, and the bewitching voice, i. 137.\n\n  Willimar and his vow, i. 356.\n\n  Wind, Persian god of, i. 105.\n\n  Winds, the, as bulls, i. 7, 12.\n\n  Wise men, the seven (Angirasas), i. 17, 28.\n\n  Wolf, the, and goat's kids, i. 406, 407;\n    mythical meaning of, 408;\n    the monster, 408;\n    the, and the devotee, ii. 142;\n    impersonations of, 142;\n    and dog, 143;\n    heroic forms of, 144;\n    the she-wolf, 144;\n    transformation into, 145;\n    sent by God as instrument of vengeance, 146;\n    hide and teeth of, 146, 147;\n    the demoniacal, 147;\n    as omen of death, 147;\n    Sk\u00f6ll and Hati, 147;\n    disguises of, 147-149.\n\n  Woman, made of wood, story of, i. 137;\n    the old, and her older sister, ii. 6.\n\n  Women, knowledge of, i. 246, 247.\n\n  Woodman and painter, the, Calmuc story of, i. 130.\n\n  Woodpecker, the mythical meaning of, ii. 265;\n    and King Picus, 265;\n    beak of, 267;\n    and Beowulf, 267;\n    of evil omen, 267, 268;\n    and dog, 268, 269.\n\n  Wren, the, in mythology, ii. 207;\n    and the eagle, 208;\n    and beetle, 208;\n    and death of C\u00e6sar, 209.\n\n\n  Yamas, i. 23, 71, ii. 25;\n    kingdom of, 48, 49;\n    son of, 78, 95, 107.\n\n  Yay\u00e2tis and the girl in the well, i. 83, 84.\n\n  Yggdrasil and the four stags, ii. 87.\n\n  Ysengrin, the wolf, ii. 141, 149.\n\n  Yudhishthiras, i. 77-79, 82.\n\n  Y\u00fcnx, the bird, ii. 269.\n\n\n  Zafarana, ii. 10.\n\n  Zeus and Hera, i. 247, 248;\n    the beetle, and the eagle's eggs, ii. 195;\n    eagle of, 195, 196;\n    and Latona, 277, 280;\n    and L\u00eada, 318;\n    and Io, 327;\n    Faber, 352, 353.\n\n  Zezolla, the maiden, and the dove, ii. 304, 305.\n\nTHE END.\n\nPRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n\nFixed spelling and punctuation errors throughout\n\nNon-Latin characters have been changed to their nearest Latin\nequivalents (i.e. [h.] to h)\n\nThere are several words with the same letters but diacritical marks in\ndifferent locations, these appear to all be valid, so were left per\nthe text\n\nShakespeare is spelled Shakspeare throughout, this is a spelling of\nhis name used in the 19th century, so was left per the text\n\nGoose-swans and geese-swans appear to be used interchangeably, left to\nmatch the text\n\nThere are several words that are spelled both with and without a hyphen\n(i.e. crosstrees and cross-trees), they have been left to match the text\n\nThe name Wesselofsky is also spelled Wesselofski, it appears the name\nis spelled both ways.\n\nPage 102: Lakshamanas left per the text also spelled Lakshmanas\nelsewhere in the text, both appear correct\n\nPage 209: Extra closing parenthesis (\"... for weddings). According\nto ...\")\n\nPage 212: Extra closing parenthesis (\"... warm themselves), is\nnot ...\")\n\nPage 228: there is an extra quote. (... word _kanikradat_.\"[2] The\ngod ...)\n\nPage 254: Extra opening parenthesis (\"... a crow (in Hellenic ...\")\n\nPage 290: Added the word \"to\" in the following (... same, according\nto \u00c6lianos, was ...)\n\nPage 336: Extra opening parenthesis (\"... the Ganges, (\u00e7in\u00e7um\u00e2ras,\nwhich ...\")\n\nPage 421: Left the poetry to match the text. However, this is from\nDante's Inferno Canto 1.22-26, accepted wording of the 3rd and 4th\nline should be\n\n        \"Si volge a l'acqua perigliosa e guata,\n         Cos\u00ec l'animo mio, ch'ancor fuggiva,\"\n\nFootnote 314: There is an extra quote. (... Prato:--\"A\nthree-headed ...)\n\nFootnote 368: Removed the extra word \"it\" from the following (... and\nwhich it had scooped ...)\n\nFootnote 423: There is an extra quote. (... (xxxix.): \"'Da, vor ...)\n\nFootnote 440: Added the word \"a\" in the following (... there is a\nbeautiful palace ...)\n\nFootnote 478: Inserted closing quote. (... bh\u00eer agacchat\"; _Rigv._\ni. ...)\n\nFootnote 524: Extra closing parenthesis (\"... vig\u00e2niy\u00e2nna sam\u00e7ayah).\nThe feet ...\")\n\nFootnote 525: Inserted closing quote. (... male serpent\" (v. 38):\nAhireva ...)\n\nIn the Index \"Brothers\" has 3 different entries for \"the three\", left\nthem as is to match the text instead of combining\n\nIn the Index many diacriticals are left out of the names, these were\nleft out to match the text\n\nIn the Index, added the volume number to the entry for \"Agnis\".","title":"Zoological Mythology; or, The Legends of Animals, Volume 2 (of 2)","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":146513}